2weekswithpay wrote:Infinity2152 wrote:2weekswithpay wrote:
Lopez isn't an option, but Reid is a questionable fit. The offensive skill set is appealing, but the downside is that he has his issues defensively. The Wolves don't see Reid as a starter at the 5 for a reason. We'd have to pay Reid around 20M AAV and send the Wolves assets in a sign and trade.
The Wolves have an All World defender starting at center they're paying a ton of money. There's absolutely no way Gobert goes to the bench for anybody. That's why he can't be the starter at the 5, lmao, not because the Wolves don't believe in him. Rumored they want to bring him back badly, wonder why? We're already paying 2 worse centers around $20 mill AAV and Reid is certainly a better defender than both.
And again, Reid should be playing PF. He's a good center who would be a great PF. Wolves had KAT and now Julius Randle, no starting spot available.
Everybody criticizing Reid's post defense, put who you want to see at center, how much they cost and why. Easiest thing in the world is to point out problems with no solutions. We already had Gafford, there's a reason centers like him sign for 3 yrs/$40 mill and guys like Vuc get much more. I'd love to see which under $20 mill second contract center is guaranteed to lead to more wins than Reid. Because all I'm concerned about is wins, which is overall impact, not just focusing on one area.
Yes, paint defense is important. Easiest baskets are at the rim. It's not the end-all be-all of basketball. His career PER is 16.9. He played less than 20 minutes a game 4 of his 6 years, behind the best defensive center in basketball. Career average 1.6 blocks, 1.1 steals per 36. Better defender than maybe every player on the team outside of Ball, we need to get rid of the whole team then.
The Wolves gave Gobert a 3 year extension. If they were confident in Reid's ability to defend at the 5, letting Gobert walk in free agency would be an obvious decision. They want to cut spending anyway. Neither Vuc or Collins should be in this team's future plans right now. These two should be off the team in another season, Reid is a 4-5 year investment.
I didn't say anything about his post defense. Hartenstien, Gafford, and Mitchell Robinson are all potential free agents in 2026. Vuc has never gotten out of the second round and has held this team back for 4 seasons. Letting Gafford walk for nothing was one of the worst decisions made in the AK era.
The Bulls give up the 5th most shots at the rim this season and we aren't great at altering shots at the rim. I simply am not optimistic about using assets to pair Coby and Giddey with an undersized center.
Minnesota is playing him 28 minutes a game while having Gobert and Randle. They clearly believe in him as a player. Gobert plays 5 more minutes than he does, Randle plays four more.
Said several times I'd prefer to play him at the PF position. So all this rim protection noise is just that. We keep judging players by defined position, rather than what they are as players. Naz Reid is a 25 yr old 6'9, athletic, good shooting, good ballhandling, good man defense physical player who's actually active. He could fit on almost any team. At $20 mill, that's a great value. At PF he's at least average at rim protection, probably above. What type of player do you want to see at PF, anyway, if not Reid's archtype? We keep trying to find reasons not to want talented guys. Assuming we don't move both Collins and Vuc this summer, he has to play PF anyway. Reid is a great basketball player. You want to play him at center next year, get a rim protecting PF. We could be drafting one. We'll probably have drafted 3-4 players by start of 2026 season.
Can't imagine Giddey, White, Matas, Reid, Vucevic or Collins would have worse rim protection than what we currently have. We're playing three bigs for the first time ever, with a 6'8 PG.
Let's assume Collins or Vucevic go in any Reid pickup, other one falls off in the summer. We have Reid at PF and Jalen Smith at center left. Lot of people here want to see what Smith can do anyway. Reid/Smith combination should lead to good rim protection combined. Smith is cheap, we're at $35 mill or so for our starting PF and center.
