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Neeva wrote:

Heimdal wrote:^^
Hoop Central
@TheHoopCentral

The Minnesota Timberwolves have made Malik Beasley available in trade talks, via
@VinceGoodwill

The New York Knicks are one of the teams interested.

Knicks don’t have anything I would want except future picks.

Let’s bring back taj Gibson!

D1SGRUNTL3D wrote:Let’s bring back taj Gibson!

Taj is a free agents so we wouldn’t even need to trade for him. My bet is he signs with the Nets for vet min tho.

theGreatRC wrote:

UnFadeable21 wrote:

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Man Ricky Rubio is still elite on both his passing, running the show, and defensive IQ

TOP 3 NBA PASSER NO DOUBT

Interesting to me in that defensive highlight video is Ricky guarding the SG a lot..I'm assuming PHX made it clear he'd be taking the better matchup of the 2 guard spots and Booker takes the weaker guy...leads me to believe DLO & Ricky will be just fine in the back court, DLO and Booker are both 6'5...Ricky is 6'4 and strong...Edwards is apparently 6'6 230 even if Ricky comes off the bench, we have some big dudes at the guard spots

The Suns had Ricky playing off the ball a lot because it's his help D and rotations that are so great. He's not super strong at the point of attack.

theGreatRC wrote:

UnFadeable21 wrote:

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Man Ricky Rubio is still elite on both his passing, running the show, and defensive IQ

TOP 3 NBA PASSER NO DOUBT

Interesting to me in that defensive highlight video is Ricky guarding the SG a lot..I'm assuming PHX made it clear he'd be taking the better matchup of the 2 guard spots and Booker takes the weaker guy...leads me to believe DLO & Ricky will be just fine in the back court, DLO and Booker are both 6'5...Ricky is 6'4 and strong...Edwards is apparently 6'6 230 even if Ricky comes off the bench, we have some big dudes at the guard spots

Ricky is a beast bro. Happy to have him back

KGdaBom wrote:

DaMplsKid wrote:

minimus wrote:Other than Booker in PHO, Rubio helped Donovan Mitchell a lot in UTA. Hope it will happen with Edwards in MIN.

I think this is the biggest reason I love bring Ricky back. He will help Edwards and Culver so much on the court. When guys get easy buckets their attitude and self esteem shows. These two need someone to help them more then anyone of the roster and Rubio is that prefect Lego piece.

Great post. Yet according to some Ricky makes it harder for his teammates to score.

Ugh, dude please don't even bring that up... if I have to post why that's ridiculous one more time...

https://www.theringer.com/2020/11/19/21574756/nba-draft-winners-and-losers
Winner: Minnesota Timberwolves
[...]In the end, though, they got their man, taking Georgia guard Anthony Edwards—the cleanest positional fit among the top prospects for a team led by Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell, and a player who, with the right development plan and leadership around him, could blossom into a devastating scorer and force on the perimeter.

(Rubio) remains a rock-solid NBA point guard who can orchestrate an offense, organize a defense, and help put young players in better positions to succeed. He helped foster Donovan Mitchell’s growth in Utah; the Jazz outscored opponents by 8.2 points per 100 possessions when they shared the floor two seasons ago. He helped Devin Booker and Deandre Ayton take flight last season in Phoenix; the Suns were plus-7.6-per-100 when the trio played together, and got outscored in the minutes that Booker and Ayton played without Rubio. Now, the 30-year-old Spaniard will be asked to do the same for Russell, Towns, and Edwards in his return to the team that drafted him.

It's good to have Ricky back and you can't argue with it for the price we paid. It's going to be fun watching his flashy passes again. Hard to see much of a future for Beasley and Culver with the Wolves now with Russell pushed to SG with Edwards.

Imagine after years of Teague, KAT playing with two players now that can play post entry passes.

Haha KAHN!!!!!

I might be mistaken, but it looks like Rubio is a bit stronger now.

minimus wrote:

Watch on YouTube

I might be mistaken, but it looks like Rubio is a bit stronger now.

Is a more mature, stronger, better player than the one in Minnesota.
He can finish better(not great but ok), he has a signature move of one hand behind the basket layup that works pretty good and a one leg fade away shot near the basket that goes in most of the times.
He is also a much better spot up shooter and can also create a shot for himself(that don't work so good).
Now he knows better how to handle the tempo of the game.
He has been the veteran presence for some years now and is a great teacher for the young guys.
He still has the competitiveness, the heart and the will to make a team a contender.
I think minnesotans are thinking that is coming the old Rubio which was good, but this one is just a better all around player that is entering his prime.

southern wolf wrote:It's good to have Ricky back and you can't argue with it for the price we paid. It's going to be fun watching his flashy passes again. Hard to see much of a future for Beasley and Culver with the Wolves now with Russell pushed to SG with Edwards.

Edwards is going to be playing a lot of 3 and even 4.

TheZachAttack wrote:

southern wolf wrote:It's good to have Ricky back and you can't argue with it for the price we paid. It's going to be fun watching his flashy passes again. Hard to see much of a future for Beasley and Culver with the Wolves now with Russell pushed to SG with Edwards.

Edwards is going to be playing a lot of 3 and even 4.

I don't see 4, but I think his primary position will be the 3.

Dual wrote:

minimus wrote:

Watch on YouTube

I might be mistaken, but it looks like Rubio is a bit stronger now.

Is a more mature, stronger, better player than the one in Minnesota.
He can finish better(not great but ok), he has a signature move of one hand behind the basket layup that works pretty good and a one leg fade away shot near the basket that goes in most of the times.
He is also a much better spot up shooter and can also create a shot for himself(that don't work so good).
Now he knows better how to handle the tempo of the game.
He has been the veteran presence for some years now and is a great teacher for the young guys.
He still has the competitiveness, the heart and the will to make a team a contender.
I think minnesotans are thinking that is coming the old Rubio which was good, but this one is just a better all around player that is entering his prime.

I think it's the beard ... but ya clearly he is more physically developed. We know he can run a team and will be a nice complimentary ball handler for the first and/or second units. This will also remove some responsibility off of Edwards to help keep his attention on shot selection and defense.

Interesting to see that the team liked Rubio so much that they signed Ashton Hagans to a two way deal , so we had a similar player in the G League

packforfreedom wrote:Imagine after years of Teague, KAT playing with two players now that can play post entry passes.

Well he had two already after the trade deadline.

I'm a big fan of bringing Rubio back for years now. Hated when Suns got him from Utah and felt Wolves should have at the time. But I've said this before of course, this is ultimately more of a sideways move since they already had JMac breaking out here. JMac might be as good a passer as Rubio is. Blasphemy right? I can show you all the proof you need of the no look shouldn't be possible accurate passing, the lob passes all of it, plus he's a better net driver, better drive and kick, drive and dish, deadly examples of post entry with Kat already, better crossover, better change of speed, better 3pt shooter, he's just deadly at it all. The one and only real thing Rubio has over him is more height for defense. They are both constant motor players.

I don't want to have to run over the choice to bring Rubio back here. If they keep them both I suppose it's a depth proof point guard roster saving us from injuries. But it really is also going to be a shame that JMac won't get many minutes unless something like that happens, and it's quite possible now that he's not even retained with how many guards are here. I don't know what their plans are.

The problem as said is this ends up a more like a bolstering move or sideways move, not entirely as large of an improvement as we might expect. It's just more energy directed at something that was a strength after all the trading was done last spring instead of being directed where they have real weaknesses. For some of us it might make games more fun to watch. For those that never bought into Ricky Rubio they don't care and the honest truth is this was more a loss of leverage the team earned from giving JMac that gleague two way role shot here that proved to pay off. They maybe aren't going to take advantage of that now and it might be the largest mistake I warned about this summer.

KGdaBom wrote:

TheZachAttack wrote:

southern wolf wrote:It's good to have Ricky back and you can't argue with it for the price we paid. It's going to be fun watching his flashy passes again. Hard to see much of a future for Beasley and Culver with the Wolves now with Russell pushed to SG with Edwards.

Edwards is going to be playing a lot of 3 and even 4.

I don't see 4, but I think his primary position will be the 3.

The Wolves front office has already been quoted and released statements saying that is their intent and vision. Not as a primary position, but I think there is almost 100% chance that 2 years down the line Edwards is getting 10-12 minutes per game at the 4. What makes you think that a 6'6 player who is 240 pounds with a 6'10 wingspan can't play the 4 and wouldn't be a matchup nightmare at the 4? I don't understand how you can't see that and salivate at the idea.

Further, even if you personally don't like going small and preferring speed (especially when you have the type of frame that Edwards has to handle most modern NBA 4's)... how have you watched this front office during their tenure and reached a conclusion that this is not something that they would not want to try until it was proven it didn't work?

There could be almost nothing more closer to their MO than trying to play a player with Edwards frame, especially as he continues to fill out, playing the 4. In addition, there are dozens of players across the NBA with similar or even smaller frames to Edwards getting stretches as a small ball 4.

TheZachAttack wrote:

KGdaBom wrote:

TheZachAttack wrote:
Edwards is going to be playing a lot of 3 and even 4.

I don't see 4, but I think his primary position will be the 3.

The Wolves front office has already been quoted and released statements saying that is their intent and vision. Not as a primary position, but I think there is almost 100% chance that 2 years down the line Edwards is getting 10-12 minutes per game at the 4. What makes you think that a 6'6 player who is 240 pounds with a 6'10 wingspan can't play the 4 and wouldn't be a matchup nightmare at the 4? I don't understand how you can't see that and salivate at the idea.

Further, even if you personally don't like going small and preferring speed (especially when you have the type of frame that Edwards has to handle most modern NBA 4's)... how have you watched this front office during their tenure and reached a conclusion that this is not something that they would not want to try until it was proven it didn't work?

There could be almost nothing more closer to their MO than trying to play a player with Edwards frame, especially as he continues to fill out, playing the 4. In addition, there are dozens of players across the NBA with similar or even smaller frames to Edwards getting stretches as a small ball 4.

First of all you're inflating his size. he's 230. I don't like playing small. I don't consider it an advantage. We just need to find someone of the appropriate size and SKILL to play the PF.

KGdaBom wrote:

TheZachAttack wrote:

KGdaBom wrote:I don't see 4, but I think his primary position will be the 3.

The Wolves front office has already been quoted and released statements saying that is their intent and vision. Not as a primary position, but I think there is almost 100% chance that 2 years down the line Edwards is getting 10-12 minutes per game at the 4. What makes you think that a 6'6 player who is 240 pounds with a 6'10 wingspan can't play the 4 and wouldn't be a matchup nightmare at the 4? I don't understand how you can't see that and salivate at the idea.

Further, even if you personally don't like going small and preferring speed (especially when you have the type of frame that Edwards has to handle most modern NBA 4's)... how have you watched this front office during their tenure and reached a conclusion that this is not something that they would not want to try until it was proven it didn't work?

There could be almost nothing more closer to their MO than trying to play a player with Edwards frame, especially as he continues to fill out, playing the 4. In addition, there are dozens of players across the NBA with similar or even smaller frames to Edwards getting stretches as a small ball 4.

First of all you're inflating his size. he's 230. I don't like playing small. I don't consider it an advantage. We just need to find someone of the appropriate size and SKILL to play the PF.

I'm projecting into the future, please see my comment in the previous post about 2 years in the future. I think it's a virtual lock that a 19 year old continues to fill out. And then like I said, your are projecting your personal opinion on the situation, rather than trying to analyze what the front office will do. The front office doesn't care about your personal opinion and believes that within some reason better skill/ball-handling/speed is worth more than a couple of inches of height. You may not, but that's so completely irrelevant to any discussion about what the front office will or won't do.