How much has our bench improved so far from the end of last season?

[gopher wolf]

I know we may not be completely done adding to our roster and this poll might end up being a bit premature but I think most would agree that Dunn, Aldrich and Rush are going to be the three main additions to this roster. After the all star break, we had a pretty competent starting 5 but our bench was dreadful and the consensus was we didn't need to draft/sign stars/starters, just vastly upgrade the bench. After all, our starters scored 96 points in our 104-109 March loss to GS while our bench only added 8. If we have a better bench, we likely beat GS twice last year.

So if our second lineup looks something like the following, how much of an upgrade is it to our bench from the second half of last year?

PG: Dunn
SG: Rush
SF: Shabazz
PF: Bjellica
C: Aldrich

End of last year's bench

PG: Tyus
SG: Shabazz
SF: Prince
PF: Bjellica
C: Payne/Smith

[TwolvesFanRome]

It is absolutely significantly better!
But according to you Thibs ended the incoming?
According to me no...

[Sugarless]

I have to go with moderately better right now (voted 3), but I expect it to improve as the season goes on, with Dunn getting used to the league and giving us more quality minutes at the PG spot.

[urinesane]

Uh... we don't know the final roster yet.

[Minnesota Power]

I will say this, compared to what I read here and on Canishoopus when we drafted Dunn, compared to what I was reading elsewhere on non-Timberwolves sites, all the non-Timberwolves places were praising us for drafting Dunn and grading us A's or whatever.
If Dunn pans out, then that right there will be a nice upgrade by itself.

Uh... we don't know the final roster yet.

I agree, a bit too early but still fun to talk about with what we got now.

[Foye]

I voted light years better simply because we don't have to throw Payne out there anymore.

[Darkwing Duck21]

Getting a reliable point guard, hopefully, is huge, now we have someone who can orchestrate to the 2nd teams strengths, ie manage bazz properly. Add in some blue collar muscle, another year of development for Bjelica and now rush. I expect the difference to be night and day, not only in the way we play when the core takes a rest, but in how much more versatile this roster suddenly is. We can actually cover and at times dictate matchups.

[Merc_Porto]

Lets hope the hockey lineups are over first.

[TwolvesFanRome]

Who could fill the remaining gap? And in which way?

[Krapinsky]

I think we probably have one FA signing left. Maybe Bass or Robinson. After that it will be safe to say our bench is better than what we had at the end of the season, how much so will largely depend on how good Dunn is.

[gopher wolf]

Who could fill the remaining gap? And in which way?

I don't think we have any more huge gaps in our roster and with the Rush signing now have a pretty complete 10 man rotation but if your talking about filling the 15th roster spot then Coty Clarke from our summer league team is the guy who has been gaining the most steam.

[NewWolvesOrder]

We already have 14 guys under contract.

[TwolvesFanRome]

I was thinking about trade...and players to trade and players to acquire...like buzz-payne-pek for...or something on this way..

[Krapinsky]

We already have 14 guys under contract.

We got two guys that can't play - KG and Pek -- and another guy that will probably be waived in Payne.

[Killboard]

1) I hope Bjellica play better this season. After all he was a euro rookie. He need to adjust to several aspects of the game: language, teamates, referees, opponents. If thibs someway manage to make exploits his strenghs he will have big impact on our bench.
2)Aldrich will give us solid minutes. However he plays, he is several tiers above Smith/Payne as a defender and assist receptacle on the drives.
3)Dunn will be the key piece on this. If he can resamble a starter level against opposing bench players, then the second unit will be playable.
4)Tyus and Bazz will be competing for the 5th spot of the bench. Whoever of them who can play enough defense will force the other to see minutes only in trash time. Bazz would have the adventage, but Thibs track says he can work with undersized PG who can score. IF Tyus is a plus on offense he could move Dunn to the SG position and Rush to the 3.

However I dont know how the lack of a small ball 4 will hurt us. Im not high on Bazz defense to count on him. I would like add someone to that role, even Cotty Clark.

[NewWolvesOrder]

We already have 14 guys under contract.

We got two guys that can't play - KG and Pek -- and another guy that will probably be waived in Payne.

Still he have them under contract. And only Payne is easy to get rid of and who knows maybe Thibs wants to try to work with him.

[Mattya]

Dunn replacing Miller/PG LaVine/Jones. Aldrich replacing Payne/Smith minutes. Replacing Prince with Rush. Hopeful improvements and continuity of Bazz and Bjelica. I would say a lot better, we will have to see though.

[Darkwing Duck21]

You also have to take into consideration how other worldly bad our bench was. It could improve to a whole other stratosphere and still just be pretty good.

[gopher wolf]

4)Tyus and Bazz will be competing for the 5th spot of the bench. Whoever of them who can play enough defense will force the other to see minutes only in trash time. Bazz would have the adventage, but Thibs track says he can work with undersized PG who can score. IF Tyus is a plus on offense he could move Dunn to the SG position and Rush to the 3.

Strongly disagree. I still fully expect Bazz to be the 6th man and he is a lock to be in the rotation.

[Vindicater]

I voted light years better simply because we don't have to throw Payne out there anymore.

So much this.