zimpy27 wrote:floppymoose wrote:Wolves fans said DLo actually tried on defense last year, and had some success in their scheme. the coaching staff ran a defensive scheme that played to DLos strengths/weaknesses. And it shows up in the data. It's his only good (not great) RAPM year. In BKN he was average. Every other year he has been horrible.
This is why I don't think he's just trying to be good in a contract year. He was better last season from what I saw.
Sure he probably works more because of the money, like every player. But I would prefer the player last season, so if he drops back to that then great.
I was never a fan of D'Lo, but when he arrived in Minny I tried to keep an open mind and also reviewed some tape on him. I came away with he impression that people had been too negative on him. Sure he doesn't pressure the rim much and his defense isn't good, but the rest of the offensive game is strong. Here's a guy who can be a shooting threat on and off the ball, who's aggressive off the bounce, has some movement shooting, and can sprinkle in some really solid passing ability.
The experience ended up being pretty up and down. Everything I thought about him was true, but his decision making is super erratic. He can be your hero some nights, and other nights he had an almost Westbrookian random mode in terms of throwing the ball away or pulling up at the worst time to pull up. We unfortunately got the dark side of D'Lo in the playoffs last year and most fans turned on him.
After the Gobert trade, I bought some more stock. I pictured him throwing lob passes to Gobert and being a crucial connector between the guards and the bigs. Even thought Ant and KAT were our big offensive talents, I kind of thought D'Lo was going to be the most important part of making it all work. BOYYYyyy did he disappoint on that expectation. While he salvaged his year with some hot shooting (filling the scoring void left by KAT quite nicely), he really failed as a point guard. He couldn't throw a lob pass to save his life, and rarely looked to do so. His chemistry with Gobert really jumped off the page with how bad it was. We ended up relying on KAT to throw entry passes early on, and when he got injured, the offense had to give up on Rudy until Slo Mo got promoted to being our main decision-maker on offense.
I think him being next to Lebron makes better use of his talents. He's a diverse perimeter scorer. Not a diverse playmaker.


























