Bazz .. What do we do with THE BEAST?

[Calinks]

To build a good team, you need cohesion. You can't go trading away every young bright prospect as soon as they look like they have some value. That's probably one of the reasons the wolves are always stuck in rebuilding, we have traded away so many young players, we never get to establish anything. Only the last few years have we tried to build around a constant core of Rubio, Love, and Pek. Love leaving blew that up but if we kept on that path, if Love stayed and Rubio didn't get hurt this year, Pek was here for a few more games and we still had Shabazz doing what he does, we could be very well be in the playoff race right now.

We need consistency. We need players to grow together and we need them to have a coach and system to steadily get acclimated to. I wouldn't move Bazz, Dieng, Wiggins, Lavine, at all right now. There is no trade where Bazz is brining in some star to turn this around and it makes no sense to trade him for some pick that very likely will not yield a player who will pan out to be as good as he is right now. That's also another player we will have to start over with and spend years developing.

[Worm Guts]

He's 22, why is trading him now selling high? What if he continues to improve? Why can't he be part of the foundation?

[guest81]

To build a good team, you need cohesion. You can't go trading away every young bright prospect as soon as they look like they have some value. That's probably one of the reasons the wolves are always stuck in rebuilding, we have traded away so many young players, we never get to establish anything. Only the last few years have we tried to build around a constant core of Rubio, Love, and Pek. Love leaving blew that up but if we kept on that path, if Love stayed and Rubio didn't get hurt this year, Pek was here for a few more games and we still had Shabazz doing what he does, we could be very well be in the playoff race right now.

We need consistency. We need players to grow together and we need them to have a coach and system to steadily get acclimated to. I wouldn't move Bazz, Dieng, Wiggins, Lavine, at all right now. There is no trade where Bazz is brining in some star to turn this around and it makes no sense to trade him for some pick that very likely will not yield a player who will pan out to be as good as he is right now. That's also another player we will have to start over with and spend years developing.

Whose the last young player the Wolves have traded that went on to do something? Al Jefferson?

[AQuintus]

Whose the last young player the Wolves have traded that went on to do something? Al Jefferson?

Whose the last young player the Wolves have traded that had actually proven to be any good before he was traded? Al Jefferson?


(To your point, Brewer went on to win a championship and was a quality role player for Denver, and Foye has also developed into a quality role player in Denver.)

[AQuintus]

If you think you have 3 of your future starting pieces moving forward, I would hope they would be better then 5-25 and barely competing on a nightly basis

Key words here: "future starting pieces." Not current, future.

It's not surprising that the team is struggling. Shabazz, Dieng, LaVine, and especially Wiggins are projected to be much better in the future than they are now, and our main young piece, Rubio, is out with injury.

Despite that, when the team was mostly healthy (Martin was still out), they played Memphis and Chicago to extremely close games and looked like a 35+ win team.

Once Rubio (who you consistently massively underrate) is back, the team will look much better. Martin, who has a 21 PER, coming back will also help a lot.

[guest81]

He's 22, why is trading him now selling high? What if he continues to improve? Why can't he be part of the foundation?

If I am the Wolves GM, and I'm building around Rubio, I want my team to be set up with Rubio, an athletic big who defends the rim, and as many shooters as possible. In order to really be successful, you need that superstar player that can carry the team and take over at crunch time. Wiggins is that guy for the future hopefully. Other then Rubio and Wiggins, you don't have that big man or a single shooter on the team ( Martin not being a longterm solution). I don't buy Dieng being that defensive big man even if he does manage to put on 30 pounds of muscle like some here think.

The Wolves should be a running team that pushes the pace and spread the floor, it's pretty much what every successful team does now. Right now the Wolves do exactly the opposite of that. As far as defense, you have two good perimeter defenders in Wiggins and Rubio, but you really need a big man defender to have a really good defense.


Hell what about a Shabazz and Pek for Hibbert? The Pacers could get a young player, Wolves can get out of Peks deal, Wolves defense could be really good with a Rubio-Wiggins-Hibbert pairing. Then maybe you sign a guy like Danny Green;

Rubio
Green
Wiggins
Bennett/Thad
Hibbert

Could be really good. You could use the draft and maybe add Towns to that lineup at PF, or draft another shooter.

[AQuintus]

Other then Rubio and Wiggins, you don't have that big man or a single shooter on the team

1) Your arguments would go over much better if they weren't coming immediately after a game in which Shabazz put up 5 3 pointers.

2) A team still needs depth and backups. Ditching those for no good reason would be moronic.

[guest81]

If you think you have 3 of your future starting pieces moving forward, I would hope they would be better then 5-25 and barely competing on a nightly basis

Key words here: "future starting pieces." Not current, future.

It's not surprising that the team is struggling. Shabazz, Dieng, LaVine, and especially Wiggins are projected to be much better in the future than they are now, and our main young piece, Rubio, is out with injury.

Despite that, when the team was mostly healthy (Martin was still out), they played Memphis and Chicago to extremely close games and looked like a 35+ win team.

Once Rubio (who you consistently massively underrate) is back, the team will look much better. Martin, who has a 21 PER, coming back will also help a lot.

No surprise they are struggling, but come on, they shouldn't be THIS bad. Come on, if Rubio stayed healthy all year, do you REALLY think this was a 35 win team, in this conference, and the fact Rubio played all of last year with much better players and only won 40 games? Just based on a 4 game sample size?

[guest81]

Other then Rubio and Wiggins, you don't have that big man or a single shooter on the team

1) Your arguments would go over much better if they weren't coming immediately after a game in which Shabazz put up 5 3 pointers.

2) A team still needs depth and backups. Ditching those for no good reason would be moronic.

You need depth and backups when your knocking on the playoff door, not when your 5-25

[AQuintus]

No surprise they are struggling, but come on, they shouldn't be THIS bad. Come on, if Rubio stayed healthy all year, do you REALLY think this was a 35 win team, in this conference, and the fact Rubio played all of last year with much better players and only won 40 games? Just based on a 4 game sample size?

Yes. Rubio is a much better player, and has a much bigger impact than you think he does.

And as far as better players last year, we lost Love (who is struggling mightily for the Cavs and is still a defensive sieve) and Shved, but gained Young (who played much better early in the year with Rubio), Wiggins, and much more minutes for Dieng and an improved Shabazz.

The team this year, if healthy, wouldn't have been much, if any, worse than last year's team.

[AQuintus]

You need depth and backups when your knocking on the playoff door, not when your 5-25

How do expect to be knocking on the playoff door if you don't have any depth?

Edit: And you forgot to address Shabazz's 48% 3P% (albeit on low volume).

[guest81]

No surprise they are struggling, but come on, they shouldn't be THIS bad. Come on, if Rubio stayed healthy all year, do you REALLY think this was a 35 win team, in this conference, and the fact Rubio played all of last year with much better players and only won 40 games? Just based on a 4 game sample size?

Yes. Rubio is a much better player, and has a much bigger impact than you think he does.

And as far as better players last year, we lost Love (who is struggling mightily for the Cavs and is still a defensive sieve) and Shved, but gained Young (who played much better early in the year with Rubio), Wiggins, and much more minutes for Dieng and an improved Shabazz.

The team this year, if healthy, wouldn't have been much, if any, worse than last year's team.

The team is on pace for 14 wins, so from 35 wins that means you think rubio is worth 21 wins. Right now Durant is leading the league in win shares at 19. Is it really worth more then Durant? Really?

[guest81]

You need depth and backups when your knocking on the playoff door, not when your 5-25

How do expect to be knocking on the playoff door if you don't have any depth?

Edit: And you forgot to address Shabazz's 48% 3P% (albeit on low volume).

The Wolves need high volume 3 point shooters, The Marrow, Korver, Green's of the world

[Merc_Porto]

The team in the first 5 games should have been with 4-1 record.

Against the Bulls (the refs won that game for the Bulls)

The Orlando game with Rubio on the floor was a easy win, they were in the control of that game, before Rubio got injured.

We were building something special right there.

[Klomp]

The team is on pace for 14 wins, so from 35 wins that means you think rubio is worth 21 wins. Right now Durant is leading the league in win shares at 19. Is it really worth more then Durant? Really?

Rubio and Martin and Pekovic and if the other guys didn't miss games, sure.

[AQuintus]

The team is on pace for 14 wins, so from 35 wins that means you think rubio is worth 21 wins. Right now Durant is leading the league in win shares at 19. Is it really worth more then Durant? Really?

Rubio isn't the only one who is out.

[guest81]

The team is on pace for 14 wins, so from 35 wins that means you think rubio is worth 21 wins. Right now Durant is leading the league in win shares at 19. Is it really worth more then Durant? Really?

Rubio and Martin and Pekovic and if the other guys didn't miss games, sure.

Were past the point when saying "IF" they were healthy with Martin and Pek. Those are guys who are proven they are going to miss time with injury

[AQuintus]

The Wolves need high volume 3 point shooters, The Marrow, Korver, Green's of the world

Or, you know, Kevin Martin.

A wing rotation of Wiggins, Shabazz, and Martin provides plenty of shooting. There's no need to ditch Shabazz to get more. I wouldn't be opposed to moving Martin to make room for a younger shooter that plays some D, though.

[Worm Guts]

He's 22, why is trading him now selling high? What if he continues to improve? Why can't he be part of the foundation?

If I am the Wolves GM, and I'm building around Rubio, I want my team to be set up with Rubio, an athletic big who defends the rim, and as many shooters as possible. In order to really be successful, you need that superstar player that can carry the team and take over at crunch time. Wiggins is that guy for the future hopefully. Other then Rubio and Wiggins, you don't have that big man or a single shooter on the team ( Martin not being a longterm solution). I don't buy Dieng being that defensive big man even if he does manage to put on 30 pounds of muscle like some here think.

The Wolves should be a running team that pushes the pace and spread the floor, it's pretty much what every successful team does now. Right now the Wolves do exactly the opposite of that. As far as defense, you have two good perimeter defenders in Wiggins and Rubio, but you really need a big man defender to have a really good defense.


Hell what about a Shabazz and Pek for Hibbert? The Pacers could get a young player, Wolves can get out of Peks deal, Wolves defense could be really good with a Rubio-Wiggins-Hibbert pairing. Then maybe you sign a guy like Danny Green;

Rubio
Green
Wiggins
Bennett/Thad
Hibbert

Could be really good. You could use the draft and maybe add Towns to that lineup at PF, or draft another shooter.

You want to be a running team,then suggest trading Bazz for Hibbert? Nobody on this team gets out on the break like Shabazz.

[guest81]

The team in the first 5 games should have been with 4-1 record.

Against the Bulls (the refs won that game for the Bulls)

The Orlando game with Rubio on the floor was a easy win, they were in the control of that game, before Rubio got injured.

We were building something special right there.

The 76ers won their first 3 games last year. 5 games is such a small sample size to base anything on. Hell, Shved had a great first half of the season his rookie year.