2023-24 preseason

[KATKlownFeet]

Read on Twitter

Coming to NBA Trevor Keels was seen as a player with a high floor due to his physicality, defense, and shooting. It means that on paper he has everything what Thibs wants from his guards. And if Thibs team released Keels it does not sound good. On other hand we have seen Thibs letting guys like Tyus Jones and Bjelica go.

There is absolutely no news of Keels being signed by the Wolves. Its been crickets on Twitter or elsewhere. The guy appears to be guessing and for all we know, Keels was in for a workout like Cam Payne and Kennedy Chandler were. He could also have visited, as I'm sure he's clinging onto some hope of staying in the NBA. Unless I see Shams, Woj or a reputable national journalist report a signing or the Wolves make an announcement, I'm assuming Keels is not on the team and maybe never will be.

[shangrila]

Some pre-draft stuff from DeanonDraft regarding Keels:

13. Trevor Keels

Keels is a massive weirdo as an unathletic combo guard. But he is one of the youngest players in the class, not turning 19 until after the draft in August and has some funky gravity to him.

In spite of his lack of burst, he has decent craft at getting to the rim and finishing. He is also a good passer and decision maker and posted an excellent 2.18 A:TO ratio as an 18 year old freshman.

His freshman shooting was underwhelming at 31.2% 3P 67% FT, but he took a high rate of 3PA and looks like a confident shooter. In light of his age, it seems like he should be a capable 3 point shooter in the NBA and he has some potential to be a good shooter if he develops well over time.

Defensively he has questions as he is slow and beatable off the dribble, and does not always have the best awareness. But his instincts and intuition are overall decent, and he is capable of getting in the passing lanes and being disruptive. He definitely has a risk of being a liability defensively in the NBA, but he also has clear outs to figure it out and be competent.

Keels’ main selling point is his ability to create a moderate volume of offense without turning it over. In this regard he is like a Monte Morris who is 2.25″ taller (6’4.75″), 3.25″ longer (6’7.25″) and 49 pounds heavier at a beefy 224 in spite of his youth. That’s some significant size boosts to a decent rotation player.

If we really want to turn up the optimism, it is difficult to find a strong comp considering how unique his distribution of traits are. But he has some parallels to Tyrese Haliburton. Keels is beefier, not as athletic, and has a long way to go to catch up as a shooter, but Haliburton did not get much draft hype either as a freshman who averaged 6.8 points 3.6 assists 0.8 turnovers for Iowa State. But then Haliburton made a sophomore leap, and he was a steal at #12 overall in the draft.

Hali comparisons look absurd but Monte Morris is an interesting one. He's certainly more worthy of a 2 way than the guys we have now.

[NebWolvesFan]

Some pre-draft stuff from DeanonDraft regarding Keels:

13. Trevor Keels

Keels is a massive weirdo as an unathletic combo guard. But he is one of the youngest players in the class, not turning 19 until after the draft in August and has some funky gravity to him.

In spite of his lack of burst, he has decent craft at getting to the rim and finishing. He is also a good passer and decision maker and posted an excellent 2.18 A:TO ratio as an 18 year old freshman.

His freshman shooting was underwhelming at 31.2% 3P 67% FT, but he took a high rate of 3PA and looks like a confident shooter. In light of his age, it seems like he should be a capable 3 point shooter in the NBA and he has some potential to be a good shooter if he develops well over time.

Defensively he has questions as he is slow and beatable off the dribble, and does not always have the best awareness. But his instincts and intuition are overall decent, and he is capable of getting in the passing lanes and being disruptive. He definitely has a risk of being a liability defensively in the NBA, but he also has clear outs to figure it out and be competent.

Keels’ main selling point is his ability to create a moderate volume of offense without turning it over. In this regard he is like a Monte Morris who is 2.25″ taller (6’4.75″), 3.25″ longer (6’7.25″) and 49 pounds heavier at a beefy 224 in spite of his youth. That’s some significant size boosts to a decent rotation player.

If we really want to turn up the optimism, it is difficult to find a strong comp considering how unique his distribution of traits are. But he has some parallels to Tyrese Haliburton. Keels is beefier, not as athletic, and has a long way to go to catch up as a shooter, but Haliburton did not get much draft hype either as a freshman who averaged 6.8 points 3.6 assists 0.8 turnovers for Iowa State. But then Haliburton made a sophomore leap, and he was a steal at #12 overall in the draft.

Hali comparisons look absurd but Monte Morris is an interesting one. He's certainly more worthy of a 2 way than the guys we have now.

Keels might get invited to training camp, but I doubt he gets the 15th spot or even a two-way. He will play in Iowa. My guess is TC waits on camp cuts before making a decision on final two-way. Much like Ryan last year.

[Mamba4Goat]

Some pre-draft stuff from DeanonDraft regarding Keels:

13. Trevor Keels

Keels is a massive weirdo as an unathletic combo guard. But he is one of the youngest players in the class, not turning 19 until after the draft in August and has some funky gravity to him.

In spite of his lack of burst, he has decent craft at getting to the rim and finishing. He is also a good passer and decision maker and posted an excellent 2.18 A:TO ratio as an 18 year old freshman.

His freshman shooting was underwhelming at 31.2% 3P 67% FT, but he took a high rate of 3PA and looks like a confident shooter. In light of his age, it seems like he should be a capable 3 point shooter in the NBA and he has some potential to be a good shooter if he develops well over time.

Defensively he has questions as he is slow and beatable off the dribble, and does not always have the best awareness. But his instincts and intuition are overall decent, and he is capable of getting in the passing lanes and being disruptive. He definitely has a risk of being a liability defensively in the NBA, but he also has clear outs to figure it out and be competent.

Keels’ main selling point is his ability to create a moderate volume of offense without turning it over. In this regard he is like a Monte Morris who is 2.25″ taller (6’4.75″), 3.25″ longer (6’7.25″) and 49 pounds heavier at a beefy 224 in spite of his youth. That’s some significant size boosts to a decent rotation player.

If we really want to turn up the optimism, it is difficult to find a strong comp considering how unique his distribution of traits are. But he has some parallels to Tyrese Haliburton. Keels is beefier, not as athletic, and has a long way to go to catch up as a shooter, but Haliburton did not get much draft hype either as a freshman who averaged 6.8 points 3.6 assists 0.8 turnovers for Iowa State. But then Haliburton made a sophomore leap, and he was a steal at #12 overall in the draft.

Hali comparisons look absurd but Monte Morris is an interesting one. He's certainly more worthy of a 2 way than the guys we have now.

Keels might get invited to training camp, but I doubt he gets the 15th spot or even a two-way. He will play in Iowa. My guess is TC waits on camp cuts before making a decision on final two-way. Much like Ryan last year.

Fwiw they had the two-way spots filled (Paschall+Lawson) with Paschall eventually waived for Luka and Lawson waived, re-signed, and waived again for Ryan.

Also, Deanondraft ain’t it. I wouldn’t look to them for draft stuff.

[wolves_89]

I like having interesting players with some upside as the 17th-19th guys in training camp. Krejci, Nix, and maybe Keels all have potentially useful traits that could see them developing into rotation players. Krejci is 6-8 with a 7-0 wingspan while having the ballhandling/passing ability to be considered a guard. With Nix the playmaking seems real, he just needs to get in better shape and improve his shooting. I could see Keels building himself into a Dort type of player, which could be a path to the rotation. I expect these guys are competing for a two-way deal and I could see a couple of them filling those slots (with Garza getting a regular roster contract).

As far as the Wolves roster, it looks unlikely that the Wolves are going to add a veteran PG. If they were going to sign someone like Payne it probably would have happened by now.

[thinktank]

I'm always excited/happy to see the Wolves season start but this is the least hyped I have been in a while. Definitely a big drop from last season when we seemed poised to be great. I'll take it as a good sign as last year was a letdown.

I’m certainly more hyped knowing KAT is unlikely to miss 50 games again.

[Clav]

For the deeper bench players I'm excited to see them perform in preseason to see how they will fit in. Especially some of the TW contract singings and Minott, Moore Jr, Troy Brown Jr, and NAW. Milton I think will bring nice offense so I'm not too worried about him, but definitely interested in seeing his play too.

[Klomp]

There is absolutely no news of Keels being signed by the Wolves. Its been crickets on Twitter or elsewhere. The guy appears to be guessing and for all we know, Keels was in for a workout like Cam Payne and Kennedy Chandler were. He could also have visited, as I'm sure he's clinging onto some hope of staying in the NBA. Unless I see Shams, Woj or a reputable national journalist report a signing or the Wolves make an announcement, I'm assuming Keels is not on the team and maybe never will be.

You were saying?

Read on Twitter

[thinktank]

There is absolutely no news of Keels being signed by the Wolves. Its been crickets on Twitter or elsewhere. The guy appears to be guessing and for all we know, Keels was in for a workout like Cam Payne and Kennedy Chandler were. He could also have visited, as I'm sure he's clinging onto some hope of staying in the NBA. Unless I see Shams, Woj or a reputable national journalist report a signing or the Wolves make an announcement, I'm assuming Keels is not on the team and maybe never will be.

You were saying?

Read on Twitter

He was saying there was no report of a signing yet and he was correct. He posted that on 9/23. AP posts the first news of it today, 9/25.

Who knows what happens with the guy? He probably goes to Iowa and then maybe somewhere else in the future.

[KATKlownFeet]

There is absolutely no news of Keels being signed by the Wolves. Its been crickets on Twitter or elsewhere. The guy appears to be guessing and for all we know, Keels was in for a workout like Cam Payne and Kennedy Chandler were. He could also have visited, as I'm sure he's clinging onto some hope of staying in the NBA. Unless I see Shams, Woj or a reputable national journalist report a signing or the Wolves make an announcement, I'm assuming Keels is not on the team and maybe never will be.

You were saying?

Read on Twitter

Well it took 5 days. I don't know why it took so long. Maybe the blogger knew something or just made a good guess. I'll take credit for the reverse-jinx! That said, I don't know whether to like this signing or not as I don't know much about Keels, other than he is young which is a good thing.

[KATKlownFeet]

There is absolutely no news of Keels being signed by the Wolves. Its been crickets on Twitter or elsewhere. The guy appears to be guessing and for all we know, Keels was in for a workout like Cam Payne and Kennedy Chandler were. He could also have visited, as I'm sure he's clinging onto some hope of staying in the NBA. Unless I see Shams, Woj or a reputable national journalist report a signing or the Wolves make an announcement, I'm assuming Keels is not on the team and maybe never will be.

You were saying?

Read on Twitter

Well it took 5 days. I don't know why it took so long to announce if he was involved with the team. Maybe the blogger knew something or just made a good guess. I'll take credit for the reverse-jinx! That said, I don't know whether to like this signing or not as I don't know much about Keels, other than he is young which is a good thing.

[TimberKat]

You were saying?

Read on Twitter

Well it took 5 days. I don't know why it took so long to announce if he was involved with the team. Maybe the blogger knew something or just made a good guess. I'll take credit for the reverse-jinx! That said, I don't know whether to like this signing or not as I don't know much about Keels, other than he is young which is a good thing.

Seems like we talk about Keels a lot, but is he really going to have any impact on the team (or any minutes at all)?

[Klomp]

Seems like we talk about Keels a lot, but is he really going to have any impact on the team (or any minutes at all)?

Talk a lot? It's late September, the absolute slowest point of the offseason and it was a small crumb of news.

Of course he probably won't impact the team this year. He's an Exhibit 10, meaning he'll probably spend the bulk of the season in Iowa. But a number of guys in recent years have begun as Exhibit 10s but earned playing time, namely Luka Garza.

[shangrila]

Some pre-draft stuff from DeanonDraft regarding Keels:



Hali comparisons look absurd but Monte Morris is an interesting one. He's certainly more worthy of a 2 way than the guys we have now.

Keels might get invited to training camp, but I doubt he gets the 15th spot or even a two-way. He will play in Iowa. My guess is TC waits on camp cuts before making a decision on final two-way. Much like Ryan last year.

Fwiw they had the two-way spots filled (Paschall+Lawson) with Paschall eventually waived for Luka and Lawson waived, re-signed, and waived again for Ryan.

Also, Deanondraft ain’t it. I wouldn’t look to them for draft stuff.

Care to elaborate?

[minimus]

I feel good about our development program in general. Last year we kind of lacked talent in terms of shooting and playmaking in gleague team. I hope at least one of Nix/Keels/Krejci will play well in training camp and earns two way contract, while two others sign with Iowa Wolves. In this case we will have:

Miller, 19 yo. Comboforward with slashing, passing and rebounding ability. Needs to improve his shooting
WMJ, 22 yo. 3-and-D material. Needs to improve his confidence and shooting
Minott, 20 yo. Comboforward with slashing and rebounding ability. Needs to improve his shooting
Garza, 24 yo. Best bigman in g-league, MVP. Still improving
Clark, 21 yo. Best defender of 2023 draft when healthy. Needs to improve his shooting
+
Krejci, 23 yo. Dynamic ballhandler, needs to improve his shooting
Nix, 21 yo. Big, physical guard, needs to improve his body and shooting
Keels, 20 yo. Big, physical guard, needs to improve his body and shooting
Javonte Cooke, 24 yo. A shooter

I hope this year we avoid injuries, so our roster will be deep. Here is 11 man rotation:

Gobert/Reid
Towns/Anderson
MCD/Brown
Edwards/NAW
Conley/Milton/McLaughlin

It means that in the best case our young players wont have plenty of time nor opportunities. But. They should get a lot of practice as group in g-league.

[Klomp]

Read on Twitter

[NebWolvesFan]

Read on Twitter

It now sounds like Ryan will have to earn the two-way slot. I wonder if this is tied to Luka getting an NBA deal. They definitely want to keep a two-way open for camp cuts. If Luka takes the Gupta special, Ryan gets the two-way. If not, Ryan has to beat out the other exhibit 10 guys and hopefully grab 3rd two-way.

[wolves_89]

I don't think that Ryan signing a two-way deal guarantees that he will keep the spot. I'm expecting that at least one two-way spot (and maybe two if Garza gets moved to a regular contract) will be an open competition for Krejci, Nix, Keels, and Ryan. That should make training camp more interesting and competitive.

[Klomp]

I don't think that Ryan signing a two-way deal guarantees that he will keep the spot. I'm expecting that at least one two-way spot (and maybe two if Garza gets moved to a regular contract) will be an open competition for Krejci, Nix, Keels, and Ryan. That should make training camp more interesting and competitive.

The third spot may continue to be a placeholder in case they find someone they like better, like when AJ Lawson was dropped for Matt Ryan.

[shangrila]

Read on Twitter

I don't think Ryan is an NBA calibre player so I don't see the point of this.

From memory they handed him the 2-way equivalent of a QO early in the offseason so this was inevitable.