shrink wrote:Understood. It’s more than an individual poster’s trade idea, so its own thread makes sense.
Would you add a “maybe” to your poll, so I can vote and feel included?
Or you could just decide and pick one of the options.
In this thread you described Orlando as on "their path to inconsequential playoff defeats. I'm not a fan of that talk. How is what they do any more inconsequential than how the Wolves operate starting each season selling hope to fans and then giving up by December to tank for the best possible draft pick they choose foolishly on? Unless the draft and player movements are more important than games. I just think they have a strange roster construction and weak leadership holding them back.
They lost one of their better hopes in players to a knee injury. Then lost Gordon just after somehow for the remainder of the season which was fishy. Little hard to fault the early playoff exit against Bucks on anything more than that. They more or less started tanking after August 02nd, Wolves maybe started in early December.
I have my questions on Gordon. His streaky 3pt shooting that can flip from zero ability to good isn't my biggest concern for once because of all else he is capable of in helping the Wolves' team. My huge questions however are mental drive and leadership/desire in his head to care about winning anything. I think we have similar concerns over him about this. That rapping about the dunk contests pretty much confirms where his head is at. Nowheresville. He has the size, athletic ability, defense, ball skills, and when he can focus...even shooting ability. He can put english on a ball at the net with the best of them against good defenders. He has a quick enough game mind that can think about switching different poses during midair on in game dunks. Then he can also appear useless and skillless the next day. Some might say that's typical for players that don't amount to much over a career. But I think it's 100% in his head and that's an issue I don't trust much. You need real leadership on your team to carry his mental status through a season. Like maybe Toronto team level leadership. They maybe could use him and more aptly carry his head. I struggle to see how MN has the leadership to keep him revving. Maybe if guys like Okogie/JJ stayed they could? Doubt it though.
Example: Gordon's worst games this season were consistantly against Bucks. In four games he shot 23% FG overall on a high level of shots. 19% from 3. Bucks were his nemesis. Games of 5,7,10,11pts. Four games against Miami, a bettter team and one of the rare times he shot more than against Bucks, he was 46% overall on FG and 32% from 3. A difference in Offensive Rating between the two opponents of 76 to 108.
Is it much surprise then that after Isaac goes down Aug2nd, and Gordon is staring at the probability of facing Bucks for a playoff series that he comes up lame a couple days later from a hamstring and they don't even try to rehab and return. He leaves the bubble "for the season remainder" they said. They had two weeks until the playoffs would begin. Ultimately even a break in the series. But what was the point when they know this guy has a mental block against this opponent. Does anyone think Gordon wanted to return for that series?
Oddly enough, against the eventual finals winner in 2019 (Rd 1 Toronto), Gordon outplayed Isaac in every game. Maybe one game they were close. He averaged 15/7/4 those games at 32 mins, where Isaac averaged 7/6/0 at 28 mins. Their team fairing all the same as this year without them both. Win first game and lose out. Though he was more consistent that series, I think he's woefuly underperforming his ceiling so far for his career. No reason he shouldn't be averaging 20pts/g when over 30 minutes. No reason but himself.
Another interesting thing about Isaac and Gordan pairing: They weren't defended much as a team. Opponents constantly scoring well over 100. To win they had to score 120+ regularly. So maybe any ideas of Gordan improving defense is just based off a couple defensive highlights that aren't the norm.
