Dennis Reynolds wrote:Mattya wrote:There's 3 of them. Wiggins and Lavine are in their 3rd year. If they are so good they should have gotten to the playoffs already. They didn't even come close. Why aren't they benched then for better players?
-Durant didn't make the playoffs until his third year when the team finally had Westbrook(second year), Harden(rookie year) and Ibaka.
-Don't know which standards you are following if you think that Wiggins and LaVine should have made the playoffs already. If you are trying to compare them to other big time up and coming players they are right in line with development of wins. Doesn't help that they play in the West either. This year they have played much better than their record would indicate as well. They lost close games against Memphis, Brooklyn, Sacramento, and Denver. They haven't had much production outside of Towns, Wiggins, LaVine and Dieng despite all the offense that is being produced by those players. Not to mention they are still a work in progress defensively.
-The Wolves were benching LaVine the first month into his rookie season, then Rubio got hurt. Traded Corey Brewer away, and Kevin Martin was getting injured. They didn't have any players in those guys rookie seasons that they could give minutes to when they didn't play good. In their second seasons they didn't have anyone on the bench to play over those guys either. Kmart lost all of his game, Prince was washed up, Miller was washed up, Shabazz wasn't good, and Jones wasn't good.
You obviously read this board. Did you not see me praising Lavine the other day? I'm actually praising your team and the way you develop your players. I just wanted to show that the guys bigpimpatl was raving about aren't winning many games and it's been like that for years. Not one season like he said but I guess he'll do anything to prove his point.
There's nothing wrong with Minny not winning many games atm. They will eventually get there because they have very talented players who are allowed to play through their mistakes and play freely on offense.
Also, please don't try to compare Lavine being benched for a month to Magic players being benched for years while we struggle to get to 30 wins.
The Magic have been straight garbage for years and this clueless guy keeps saying our lottery picks aren't ready so I wanted to show him how the guys he keeps raving about aren't winning many games. How come he seems them as ready then? That was the point.
Also, do you think Wiggins would be the player he is today if he was on the Cavs spotting up in the corner for 3 years? I certainly don't and we're actually doing the same thing to our guys even though are team is God awful. That's what I've been trying to say.
I didn't quote you to attack you, so it doesn't matter if you are praising LaVine or not, I'm just pointing out that there a lot of flaws trying to compare how the Wolves had to develop their young talent.
The only reason LaVine got minutes was because of injury. Before the injuries the plan was to take LaVine, who was supposed to be long term project, and develop him slowly. The Wolves didn't have anyone as good as Fornier or Oladipo the past couple years, either because of injury or just lack of talent on the roster. On one hand the first season playing point guard probably helped LaVine's IQ, but it wasn't necessary in his second season. I actually think the perception of LaVine would be a lot better if he didn't have to play so much point guard. He has always been very good in spot up and catch and shoot situations, but people didn't really look past his advanced metrics to see the things he did well.
That also goes for Wiggins. Advanced stats hate him, and while he has developed a lot offensively it has also hurt the perception of him. I think the perception would be a lot better playing on a team with Lebron. Going head to head with Lebron everyday would also have helped his development. He would have also gotten significantly easier offensive role. So while his raw numbers wouldn't look good, I think his advanced stats would be much better and the perception of him as a player would be much better since so many people judge heavily based off of advanced statistics.
