moss_is_1 wrote:winforlose wrote:I was referring mostly to blow out games or games where you would like to rest banged up guys a bit. The young players who should have gotten minutes last year were Minott and Miller. They both had real potential to appear in the rotation in the 24-25 season and it is nice to give them a taste of NBA quality opponents, especially defensively. Nowell was also someone who could have been featured more in the early seasons, but to be fair he collapsed in his final season with the Wolves. I honestly was not referring to him in the above post.
Side note, I have no idea about the Wolves long term plans for Garza, but if they had any, I would have liked to see him find some minutes as well. Again, I don’t think it is top paragraph worthy because I don’t see him on the team this year. I don’t think Finch or TC find him worthy of a roster spot, but if they knew he would be back, he belongs in that category of give him some taste of the game before he is forced into it at the end of season.
I don't see how we could have given Minot or Miller any minutes. Kat missed some time, and it just allowed for an increased role for Naz and Slomo. We were lucky we didn't have too many injuries last season.
Gonna break it down into 3 general situations.
1. During multiple blow outs Finch played the starters more minutes than necessary. Bringing in the development guys even if you don’t necessarily leave them in for the remainder of the game (sub them in and out if they need a break,) reduces stress on the starters and gives them so minutes against NBA level competition.
2. More rest games for the starters especially against bad completion. Having Ant skip a game against the Wizards or Spurs or equivalent team especially in the lead up to the crazy part of the schedule. With Ant down for a game you get NAW starting and Minott backing him up. Or if you don’t like that example, rest Mike a couple more games, have Monte or JMAC or NAW (depending on the part of the season,) fill in, and back fill some minutes for Minott. You can come up with whatever examples you want and they are probably gonna be viable. I am not saying Minott should be a 20 minute per night guy. But a couple games of 20+ minutes could have gone a long way.
3. Kyle was terrible during parts of the season. Miller getting a slice of minutes instead of Kyle, or even Minott when Kyle was at the 3 would have been preferable. Kyle did eventually sort of get it together, and had some useful contributions late, but we don’t know what Miller or Minott would have been able to bring to the table because Finch stuck with Kyle even when Kyle was clearly toxic.
Finch doesn’t like going away from set rotations, and I don’t see him willingly giving a rotation spot to a rookie when he has vet options he trusts.