The PJ Dozier Thread

[KGdaBom]

That is like saying if you don’t love a song the first time you hear it then you will never love it. What if Dilly is the PG of the future, a future all star, and a future hall of famer. But, at the same time needs a year in the G to develop before he is ready to be PG2. PG is the hardest position for a rookie to play. They need to understand our scheme, opposing defensive schemes, have the pace of the game down, ect… My point is that forcing Dilly to be PG2 at this point is too much risk. Start him at PG3 and let him promote when he is ready. This is not a knock on him, but a legit concern about his NBA readiness when he is undersized (weight more than height,) untested, and being asked to play for a contender.

I stand by my statement. If he's not good enough to be our PG2 this very season he will never be any of those good things you talk about in the future. We won't be forcing him to be anything if he's anywhere near the pick we used on him. 8th picks in the draft are never anything 3. There was and is NO OPTION whatsoever for PG2. Not Monte Morris, Naw, Dennis Smith Jr. Connelly didn't miss on getting our PG2. Dilly was the only option.

Your telling me that any time a good team owns or trades for a bad teams pick they always immediately place the pick in the rotation? You are also telling me someone who has a rough rookie year will never amount to anything. Off the top of my Jimmy Butler is exactly the guy who is nothing special who becomes something special.

if it's the 8th overall pick yeah. That's what I'm telling you. Not never of course. There are a couple exceptions, but you're so incredibly over the top on this. Yeah I know you wanted us to sign Morris no matter the cost and declared him the PG2 over Dilly. You wanted us to sign Kyle no matter the cost to use him as trade bait later. We are instantly better having Dilly instead of Monte and most likely better having Shannon instead of Kyle, but you are whining. We have our top 7 rotation players and go IMO 10 deep in the rotation counting Dilly, Shannon and Miller. You hate Garza who is a magnificent offensive force as our 12th man. We've actually never really seen how bad his D will be. Maybe not as bad as some think. He's resourceful. The team we have right now would kick ass on the team we had last year and last year's team could have won it all. I'm rejoicing. I see zero cause for doom and gloom.

[winforlose]

I stand by my statement. If he's not good enough to be our PG2 this very season he will never be any of those good things you talk about in the future. We won't be forcing him to be anything if he's anywhere near the pick we used on him. 8th picks in the draft are never anything 3. There was and is NO OPTION whatsoever for PG2. Not Monte Morris, Naw, Dennis Smith Jr. Connelly didn't miss on getting our PG2. Dilly was the only option.

Your telling me that any time a good team owns or trades for a bad teams pick they always immediately place the pick in the rotation? You are also telling me someone who has a rough rookie year will never amount to anything. Off the top of my Jimmy Butler is exactly the guy who is nothing special who becomes something special.

if it's the 8th overall pick yeah. That's what I'm telling you. Not never of course. There are a couple exceptions, but you're so incredibly over the top on this. Yeah I know you wanted us to sign Morris no matter the cost and declared him the PG2 over Dilly. You wanted us to sign Kyle no matter the cost to use him as trade bait later. We are instantly better having Dilly instead of Monte and most likely better having Shannon instead of Kyle, but you are whining. We have our top 7 rotation players and go IMO 10 deep in the rotation counting Dilly, Shannon and Miller. You hate Garza who is a magnificent offensive force as our 12th man. We've actually never really seen how bad his D will be. Maybe not as bad as some think. He's resourceful. The team we have right now would kick ass on the team we had last year and last year's team could have won it all. I'm rejoicing. I see zero cause for doom and gloom.

Dude, Morris went to the Suns for the exact same price we would have paid him, a vet minimum. I moved on from Morris after he went to the Suns, I looked at the best available talent and suggested JMAC. I don’t love losing Kyle for nothing (as opposed to something,) but have repeatedly stated I am happy he is gone. We saw Garza play and we also saw Finch choose not to use him when he could help it. I think you are expecting to much out of the rookies, and are not considering the reality of how hard it is to run an offense at 19. Either way, your frustration with me is noted.

[KGdaBom]

Your telling me that any time a good team owns or trades for a bad teams pick they always immediately place the pick in the rotation? You are also telling me someone who has a rough rookie year will never amount to anything. Off the top of my Jimmy Butler is exactly the guy who is nothing special who becomes something special.

if it's the 8th overall pick yeah. That's what I'm telling you. Not never of course. There are a couple exceptions, but you're so incredibly over the top on this. Yeah I know you wanted us to sign Morris no matter the cost and declared him the PG2 over Dilly. You wanted us to sign Kyle no matter the cost to use him as trade bait later. We are instantly better having Dilly instead of Monte and most likely better having Shannon instead of Kyle, but you are whining. We have our top 7 rotation players and go IMO 10 deep in the rotation counting Dilly, Shannon and Miller. You hate Garza who is a magnificent offensive force as our 12th man. We've actually never really seen how bad his D will be. Maybe not as bad as some think. He's resourceful. The team we have right now would kick ass on the team we had last year and last year's team could have won it all. I'm rejoicing. I see zero cause for doom and gloom.

Dude, Morris went to the Suns for the exact same price we would have paid him, a vet minimum. I moved on from Morris after he went to the Suns, I looked at the best available talent and suggested JMAC. I don’t love losing Kyle for nothing (as opposed to something,) but have repeatedly stated I am happy he is gone. We saw Garza play and we also saw Finch choose not to use him when he could help it. I think you are expecting to much out of the rookies, and are not considering the reality of how hard it is to run an offense at 19. Either way, your frustration with me is noted.

I'm expecting the rookies to play according to their demonstrated talents. I don't expect Dilly to be a star this year and maybe never, but I do expect him to play easily better than J Mc and Morris. Shannon is a 23 year old man that was a national player of the year candidate prior to the bogus allegations. Everybody says he has DAWG in him. I'm expecting him to fill at least some of KAs minutes respectably.

[Klomp]

I think you are expecting to much out of the rookies, and are not considering the reality of how hard it is to run an offense at 19.

They aren't asking him to come in as a rookie and run the whole show. He is a backup. They are putting him into the lineup right away by giving him a specific role (Finch's words, not mine).

[winforlose]

I think you are expecting to much out of the rookies, and are not considering the reality of how hard it is to run an offense at 19.

They aren't asking him to come in as a rookie and run the whole show. He is a backup. They are putting him into the lineup right away by giving him a specific role (Finch's words, not mine).

Very true. That specific role is PG2 when Conley is off the floor. Unless that is NAW, which never went well for us last year, or Ant who said publicly and repeatedly he doesn’t want to play PG and prefers playing off ball.

[Klomp]

I think you are expecting to much out of the rookies, and are not considering the reality of how hard it is to run an offense at 19.

They aren't asking him to come in as a rookie and run the whole show. He is a backup. They are putting him into the lineup right away by giving him a specific role (Finch's words, not mine).

Very true. That specific role is PG2 when Conley is off the floor. Unless that is NAW, which never went well for us last year, or Ant who said publicly and repeatedly he doesn’t want to play PG and prefers playing off ball.

So let Joe initiate for a few possessions

Read on Twitter

[Worm Guts]

I think you are expecting to much out of the rookies, and are not considering the reality of how hard it is to run an offense at 19.

They aren't asking him to come in as a rookie and run the whole show. He is a backup. They are putting him into the lineup right away by giving him a specific role (Finch's words, not mine).

Very true. That specific role is PG2 when Conley is off the floor. Unless that is NAW, which never went well for us last year, or Ant who said publicly and repeatedly he doesn’t want to play PG and prefers playing off ball.

We won two playoff series with that strategy.

[minimus]

Read on Twitter

[Klomp]

With a reported partial guarantee, I wonder if Dozier could be Jaylen Clark insurance, in a sense. While Clark might be physically healthy, he may need more time to get to an NBA level which is why they would sign someone like Dozier. But if he shows out in Vegas, maybe Clark gets called up to the big club before training camp.

[Biff Cooper]

NAW
Clark
PJ
Jaden
Rudy

Could be fun to watch this lineup defensively.

[minimus]

NAW
Clark
PJ
Jaden
Rudy

Could be fun to watch this lineup defensively.

Not sure about Clark, but if we want to defend AND score as well, then I think we might see something like this.

NAW
Edwards
TSJ
Jaden
Rudy

[gandlogo]

NAW
Clark
PJ
Jaden
Rudy

Could be fun to watch this lineup defensively.

And offensively set basketball back 2,000 years. The only way that lineup sees the court is if Jackie Moon is trying to avoid buying the entire stadium corn dogs.

[frankenwolf]

I am not denying my opinion of TC is in the toilet. He sold the 37 to resolve his series of mistakes regarding Moore (drafting him, picking up his option, not dumping him last trade deadline with cash so we don’t risk being in the luxury tax a year early.) He turned a decent asset into a smaller less useful asset just to create a roster spot for Dozier. He let go of both JMAC and Morris, both of whom could stabilize things if RD is not ready. He bet both our remaining assets on RD which is fine if it works, but a disaster if it fails, and then pulled the safety net out from under him. Put simply should I have a good opinion of moves I believe are bad? Am I wrong that if we waste such a key year he will be on the hot seat and people will be pissed at him? I want us to succeed, but I fear he made a lot of bad bets this week.

You are not wrong (yet) because right now, all we have are opinions and past performances to go on (and our history with this club) that lends itself to negativity. Yes, I'm a positive outlook guy, but I really thought they would keep Monte in case Dilly didn't work out right away. Who knows for sure what is going on behind the scenes, but I understand your viewpoint. I also don't think you're right. The Wolves will be fine this year.

[Colbinii]

NAW
Clark
PJ
Jaden
Rudy

Could be fun to watch this lineup defensively.

Yeah but it could never score

[shrink]

I checked Spotrac to see how much of Dozier’s deal is guaranteed, and was surprised that they listed it as fully guaranteed.

I thought I remembered Woj breaking it as partially guaranteed, and he said nothing about that. Jon Krawczinski was the one that tweeted that it “may” be partially guaranteed, and now I’m not even finding that.

[Nick K]

How many teams in the NBA are going to thrive if their 3rd PG is forced to play significant minutes during the season? None. Spiraling? Maybe not quite but you sure seem to be circling the drain.

Connelly identified our biggest need for a long-term PG knowing we had the smallest of windows for this opportunity and then went out and grabbed the best PG prospect in this Draft. He then added the guy I begged for in TSJ who I expect to contribute immediately.

Connelly is easily a Top 5 GM in the NBA.

Sent from my N152DL using RealGM mobile app

Where you and I see great cause for excitement W4L sees doom and gloom.

Life jackets only become a concern AFTER the boat has sunk.

I couldn't be happier landing Dillingham and watching him grow into our PG of the future.

A guy must really, really be looking for something to complain about with this team, and our GM, if the team's greatest roster concern going into a season is a 3rd PG.

Go Wolves! Go Connelly! Go Dilly!

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Well said. That's really good Slim Tubby. Damn right!

[Nick K]

Where you and I see great cause for excitement W4L sees doom and gloom.

Life jackets only become a concern AFTER the boat has sunk.

I couldn't be happier landing Dillingham and watching him grow into our PG of the future.

A guy must really, really be looking for something to complain about with this team, and our GM, if the team's greatest roster concern going into a season is a 3rd PG.

Go Wolves! Go Connelly! Go Dilly!

Sent from my N152DL using RealGM mobile app

lol. If you’re gonna take a shot at me at least be honest about it. My greatest concern is not that we don’t have a 3rd string PG, it’s that Dillingham isn’t ready to be our 2nd string PG. Can you remember a 19 year old rookie PG that got 20+ minutes per game and had a solid impact on day 1? What are we even saying success for Dillingham looks like. Is PPG, APG, positive +/-? That is of course to say nothing of whether TSJ is ready to step in and play meaningful minutes, or Miller, or Minott. The honest conversation includes planning for our guys missing games. If we are 8 deep with Ingles as number 8 and have 4 question marks at 9-12, doesn’t it then make sense not to waste spots 13-14 with a TC guy who is not an NBA player in Dozier, and a mascot in Garza?

I can't agree with you on this one winforlose. He's played just one summer league game. He just dipped his toe in the water. By the end of summer league you might be singing a completely different tune. Give the guy a chance. Come back after 10 games into the season and we'll see then.

[Nick K]

It's amazing to me how by losing SloMo (who you hated) and Morris (who you loved) we went from, and I quote, "By far the best team in the league" to what sounds like we should be lucky to make the Play-In...

It’s amazing to me how you still ignore what I post even when I spelled it out above. I didn’t say we are lucky to make the play in. I said we have a solid 1-7. Perhaps the best. 1-7 in the league. I didn’t say we are for sure doomed, I said I have concerns. I explained them very clearly, we lack a PG2 and we are too committed to rookies being rotation worthy. I explained the urgency in other posts when I explained we can afford 2 years in the 2nd apron and the tax before the penalties start to make it not worth it and force us to ramp down. I even named guys like Beasley and JMAC who could replace guys like Luka and PJ to make us immediately better and more complete. Yet somehow my position is unreasonable? Somehow to express displeasure in signing guys I think are not NBA players I am chicken little? Saying every team needs a competent backup PG for a deep playoff run makes me unreasonable. Or saying that rookie PGs don’t normally play PG2 for deep playoff runs makes me a pessimist. Please help me out then, name 3 rookies who came in at 19 and played PG2 for a contender, set my mind at ease.

If you want to criticize what I am saying that is fine, but at least have the decency to use what I actually communicate to do it.

If Dilly isn't PG2 we made a horrific mistake. I don't think we did.

That's it exactly. Well said.

[Nick K]

With a reported partial guarantee, I wonder if Dozier could be Jaylen Clark insurance, in a sense. While Clark might be physically healthy, he may need more time to get to an NBA level which is why they would sign someone like Dozier. But if he shows out in Vegas, maybe Clark gets called up to the big club before training camp.

Clarks offensive game is so bad that I see him developing in the G league this year.

Maybe Dozier is better than what we give him credit for here.

[Klomp]

Maybe Dozier is better than what we give him credit for here.

Absolutely.