RealGM

Fifth in the league in blocked shots, Milicic is finishing a season interrupted by nagging injuries and beset by turnovers that nonetheless he says leaves him encouraged about his future with the team.

"It wasn't great, but it was OK," he said. "I feel much more comfortable playing basketball. I think this is the first season where I really believed somebody, really believed the people here. I think it's the first time I'm really looking forward to next season."

The Wolves signed Milicic last summer to a four-year contract that guarantees him at least $16 million and made him the team's starting center.

But this season just might have proven that he's better than the same guy written off as one of the great draft busts in history -- No. 2 overall in a year when Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade went after him -- but still probably best suited as a backup center in this league.

"He didn't have the season where he regained all of his confidence," Wolves coach Kurt Rambis said. "There's a lot more to his game that he didn't show this year.

"That's going to come over time. After having spent so many years whatever he went through to lose that confidence, it's going to take a while to get it back."

Rambis was asked if he's convinced that potential is still there and if the team still has the patience to wait for it.

His hands fidgeted and he paused for six seconds and answered, "Yes."

Asked if he still sees Milicic as the team's center of the future, he paused and said, "There's a lot of potential on this team, there's an awful lot of potential on this team. But there's a tremendous amount of youth on this team, too. It's going to take a while for some of these players to blossom into the players they can be."

Beas wrote:"His hands fidgeted and he paused for six seconds and answered, "Yes."

That definitely caught my eye, kind of concerning haha

teven_1 wrote:If you guys don't think Darko came a long way this season you forget how bad his first month was. If you don't think he has amazing potential, you forget that string of games where he put up a 20-10-5-5 on Gasol and had Durant calling him one of the best young centers in the L (I still remember those assists he had in the 4th quarter against OKC) he was also the top fantasy center for a week.

teven_1 wrote:If you guys don't think Darko came a long way this season you forget how bad his first month was. If you don't think he has amazing potential, you forget that string of games where he put up a 20-10-5-5 on Gasol and had Durant calling him one of the best young centers in the L (I still remember those assists he had in the 4th quarter against OKC) he was also the top fantasy center for a week.

It wasn't until he injured himself against the Knicks in the 1st qt (having just gone 4-4 and giving Amar'e buckets) that things started to go wrong. Darko was playing amazing for a stretch there and no matter how short, it was a lot of fun. I really do believe that injury set him back mentally and robbed him of the chance to really make a statement that night.

I'm no psychologist, but I watched him carefully all season to see if he was worth a 4 year contract. From what I saw, when Darko was involved in the offense, out of foul trouble and healthy he played great basketball. I remember games against Portland where he really loosened up and his offense started to bloom.

The way I see it, the grind of the season took a toll on him, almost as if he hit the rookie wall (he never had a chance to hit it before). It was clear he lost focus sometimes as well.

Maybe I am just dreaming, but if Darko started playing the kinda ball I've seen flashes of all season it would be a perfect compliment to K-love. It would be one hell of a story if he become a success story here in Minnesota.

Darko says he believes the team wants him now, so I hope he works out over the off-season, stays in shape and comes back even better. If he doesn't, and shows up to camp out of shape and unprepared, I'll officially stop talking about Darko. If he doesn't want it, I can't want it for him.

Devilzsidewalk wrote:

teven_1 wrote:If you guys don't think Darko came a long way this season you forget how bad his first month was. If you don't think he has amazing potential, you forget that string of games where he put up a 20-10-5-5 on Gasol and had Durant calling him one of the best young centers in the L (I still remember those assists he had in the 4th quarter against OKC) he was also the top fantasy center for a week.

thats the problem, way too inconsistent. One day he's giving 16/9 and some blocks, next game he's turning the ball over left and right and racking up fouls.

Rambis was asked if he's convinced that potential is still there and if the team still has the patience to wait for it.

His hands fidgeted and he paused for six seconds and answered, "Yes."

Asked if he still sees Milicic as the team's center of the future, he paused and said, "There's a lot of potential on this team, there's an awful lot of potential on this team. But there's a tremendous amount of youth on this team, too. It's going to take a while for some of these players to blossom into the players they can be."

Peezo wrote:It would take Darko filling his potential to fullest for him to truly be an impact center. Its not like he has the natural athleticism to dominate people, or that he is overly physical.

What worries me is that we are going to continue waiting on him to become something that he isn't ever gonna be. I mean right now Darko is better than some of the other starting centers in the league but only marginally so. If we continue to wait on him, he'll probably keep getting better, but if he isn't going to be an impact player than we need to start working on a replacement.

Even though I'm a Darko believer I don't know if the player he will end up being is even good enough to play on a contender. If we're not building towards contender status, they why are we building at all?