PandaKidd wrote:^ Agreed with everything you said.
Again, no one is saying the TITANIC IS SINKING. Im just saying to me, it doesnt make sense, to give up a player you didnt need to, and especially when you had other candidates to cut if you TRULY needed a roster spot
None of the other candidates could have cut without having to pay $$, so forth brought back a fungible resource. Also, I don't know if there's a more obvious candidate if we needed 2 roster spots. Still, I think that when we view the deal, the obvious statements from Coach Bud is that a) Payne wasn't a fit in our system and b) if we're going to piece together a deal over the next 2-3 years, the MIN 1st would carry more value to more teams than Adreian Payne would.
Now, I do agree that the fact that we drafted Payne @ 15 in the "best draft in a generation" only to find he wasn't going to fit here within 6 months is worrisome on a few levels, but I also think Payne's issues were a singular problem. I tried not to pound him too hard while he was here, but I genuinely think the problem is that Payne was literally too stupid that he'd never be able to get Coach Bud's system. I'm sure that many here have had an athlete surprise you by more intelligent than you think they would be - something about spending so much time in a locker room and using your body over your mind to make $$ doesn't scream genius IQ. On the flip side, athletes can also surprise you by being incredibly dumb too since that same locker room can yield enough quotes and situations that the kid can get by as having middling intelligence through rote memorization. I think that's where our failure in scouting Payne came from - maybe we knew he had below average intelligence, we didn't realize he was a genuine moron. In film, a good coach can cover up these deficiencies, especially in lower levels, by ensuring rote memorization of plays and defensive rotations - even Coach Bud's system does this to a degree. But Bud also relies on players doing the "right" thing a lot and understanding not just his role but the roles of all the other players in the system factor into doing the "right" thing. Payne was just never going to be a guy for that and it took being around him everyday in Camp before we understood that and seeing that he really wasn't progressing in learning this even when he was playing with SAS' D-League team. No idea about Flip's system in MIN but if the system highlights his strengths without asking him to think (er... at all) then he could be a good fit there. I do wish good luck to him - If he is as dumb as I fear, he literally has to make his $$ playing basketball or... well...