The 2025 Wolves Off Season

[winforlose]

He plays defense. He could be a long term complement to Dilly.

This might be true. Remember I am the Jose, Jose, Jose video guy. That said, Dilly is about as ready as I am to be the starting PG for the Timberwolves. I am not even sure he can play 25 minutes and not sink our ship. Having Jose would be great if we had a starting PG and traded Dilly. But, as it stands it looks like we plan to start 38 year old Mike (a mistake,) and back him up with Dilly (a problem given Mike’s minute limit,) and use DDV as the 3rd guy to limit Dilly when he sucks. This is the same poor roster construction that eliminated us last year, and likely will again. It all ties back to the Dlo for Conley trade, and losing the salary slot that Dlo provided. TC loves compounding his errors, and seemingly will continue to do so.

+/- loves Mike. He's not as washed up as you think he is. For whatever reason we win the minutes he is on the court. A Mike Dilly split or 28 Dilly 20 Mike this year might be just fine.

My long answer got eaten by a refresh. Mike had a down year but proved that we need a legit PG and not a SG running the offense. Mike’s 2 point percentage was 38%, his PNR game with Rudy dried up, and he was stuck in the corner where his shot did bounce back. He ended at 41% from deep on 4.4 3PA per game. But, that is down 3% and 1 attempt from the prior season. His assists dropped from 5 to 4 as well. Finally, Mike is one year older after another deep playoff run. I suspect he will need time to bounce back and will likely carry nagging injuries over into the season. We need a legit starting PG and to give Dilly the rest of the minutes to see if he is a bust or Phoenix risen from the flames.

[KGdaBom]

This might be true. Remember I am the Jose, Jose, Jose video guy. That said, Dilly is about as ready as I am to be the starting PG for the Timberwolves. I am not even sure he can play 25 minutes and not sink our ship. Having Jose would be great if we had a starting PG and traded Dilly. But, as it stands it looks like we plan to start 38 year old Mike (a mistake,) and back him up with Dilly (a problem given Mike’s minute limit,) and use DDV as the 3rd guy to limit Dilly when he sucks. This is the same poor roster construction that eliminated us last year, and likely will again. It all ties back to the Dlo for Conley trade, and losing the salary slot that Dlo provided. TC loves compounding his errors, and seemingly will continue to do so.

+/- loves Mike. He's not as washed up as you think he is. For whatever reason we win the minutes he is on the court. A Mike Dilly split or 28 Dilly 20 Mike this year might be just fine.

My long answer got eaten by a refresh. Mike had a down year but proved that we need a legit PG and not a SG running the offense. Mike’s 2 point percentage was 38%, his PNR game with Rudy dried up, and he was stuck in the corner where his shot did bounce back. He ended at 41% from deep on 4.4 3PA per game. But, that is down 3% and 1 attempt from the prior season. His assists dropped from 5 to 4 as well. Finally, Mike is one year older after another deep playoff run. I suspect he will need time to bounce back and will likely carry nagging injuries over into the season. We need a legit starting PG and to give Dilly the rest of the minutes to see if he is a bust or Phoenix risen from the flames.

Mike's shooting was down from the prior season, but 44% from 3 was an anomaly. Not possible to replicate. Do you realize that 3 of his best 4 seasons of 3% are the last 3? He went from 28.9 MPG to 24.7 MPG. Per minute his numbers for 3s attempted and assists were basically the same. Hopefully he can get himself in condition for one more season.

[winforlose]

+/- loves Mike. He's not as washed up as you think he is. For whatever reason we win the minutes he is on the court. A Mike Dilly split or 28 Dilly 20 Mike this year might be just fine.

My long answer got eaten by a refresh. Mike had a down year but proved that we need a legit PG and not a SG running the offense. Mike’s 2 point percentage was 38%, his PNR game with Rudy dried up, and he was stuck in the corner where his shot did bounce back. He ended at 41% from deep on 4.4 3PA per game. But, that is down 3% and 1 attempt from the prior season. His assists dropped from 5 to 4 as well. Finally, Mike is one year older after another deep playoff run. I suspect he will need time to bounce back and will likely carry nagging injuries over into the season. We need a legit starting PG and to give Dilly the rest of the minutes to see if he is a bust or Phoenix risen from the flames.

Mike's shooting was down from the prior season, but 44% from 3 was an anomaly. Not possible to replicate. Do you realize that 3 of his best 4 seasons of 3% are the last 3? He went from 28.9 MPG to 24.7 MPG. Per minute his numbers for 3s attempted and assists were basically the same. Hopefully he can get himself in condition for one more season.

I suspect it is because he is off ball more and turned into more of a catch and shoot guy. Ant and others like to throw Mike open, especially in the corner. But Mike’s interior game collapsing removes the PNR threat and that makes Mike more liability than asset.

[TheZachAttack]

IMO this team has three major issues -- they do not have enough ball handlers who can collapse defenses with their dribble and they do not consistently have bigs that can catch the ball in the middle of the floor when their ball handlers are blitzed and make teams pay with that advantage and they do not play fast and attack teams before they et set. Have they improved in these areas?

I do think Dillingham brings more of the ability to collapse defenses compared to NAW and can play fast. Shannon can attack advantages off of Ant's gravity and is a menace in transition. Theoretically, Beringer brings the ability to get out and run and at a minimum is more stable catching the ball in the middle of the floor.

I think what I will say is that I think they will be able to play a lot faster next season with this lineup. We will see how that mitigates their lack of half court penetration, lack of ball handlers who can penetrate set defenses, and bigs who can execute against schemes in the half court.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

I'm not worry about Mike. He will be ready and efficient. He start very slow due to our new system and Randle- ANT being the primary ballhandler. Mike was bad until January but from after ASG to end April, he was 55% at 3. Then his wrist bother him and he slow down at the worst moment.

He really need to work on his floater and PNR as he wasn't goo all year. But he will be fine.

i'm also confident that ROB become a regular player and provide his speed and playmaking. Id he improve 3 and defense, he will be a good PG. And we still have DDV who can play many position in this team.

[Bobbywellington]

He plays defense. He could be a long term complement to Dilly.

This might be true. Remember I am the Jose, Jose, Jose video guy. That said, Dilly is about as ready as I am to be the starting PG for the Timberwolves. I am not even sure he can play 25 minutes and not sink our ship. Having Jose would be great if we had a starting PG and traded Dilly. But, as it stands it looks like we plan to start 38 year old Mike (a mistake,) and back him up with Dilly (a problem given Mike’s minute limit,) and use DDV as the 3rd guy to limit Dilly when he sucks. This is the same poor roster construction that eliminated us last year, and likely will again. It all ties back to the Dlo for Conley trade, and losing the salary slot that Dlo provided. TC loves compounding his errors, and seemingly will continue to do so.

+/- loves Mike. He's not as washed up as you think he is. For whatever reason we win the minutes he is on the court. A Mike Dilly split or 28 Dilly 20 Mike this year might be just fine.

I think we see a good amount of "no PG" Ant and Donte/TSJ/Clark minutes.

I really dont think Dilly will be seeing 20 minutes a game to start the season. He just didn't play enough last season and I think he'll be eased into things and have to earn his minutes more so than him being given 20 minutes a game and praying he plays well

I think we see Mike with 20 minutes, Ant/Donte with ~15 minutes and Rob with whatever is left over UNTIL he can prove to Finch he deserves the minutes

[shrink]

Read on Twitter

I find it interesting that we got a second round pick. Yes, I suppose we helped ATL by letting them use a TPE and save their MLE, but often in these free agent situations when a team can just sign a guy, the seller actually pays something to turn it into a trade so they can get a TPE. If I was Connelly, I’d have created leverage by giving ATL the idea that we might just sign NAW for $14, and worry about lux taxes and the apron at the deadline?

That said, I’m still a little concerned that we’ve seen Connelly get cash instead of an additional second round pick twice already, under new ownership. I hope this isn’t a mandate to help Lore and ARod pay lux taxes, like Taylor/Kahn traded down a pick to get the cash to fire Rambis.

[Guest84]

I've seen Dinwiddie associated with the wolves recently...

[KATKlownFeet]

Why? I dont get the Randle hate. Especially for Myles Turner. Turner is very overrated. He just sucked it up in the ECF and Finals or Indy might be the champs. He cost himself a big contract.

How is that hate? I'd do that in a heartbeat. Turner is a decent player. Indiana would hang up the phone as they don't want two guys who don't play defense.

Turner cant create his own shot, and is a bad rebounder. Randle is extremely underrated around here.

Turner anchored the defense that was one away from a title and had Haliburton not gotten hurt, may have won it. And unlike Rudy, he can shoot the 3. Randle was unplayable vs OKC. They stripped him of the ball at will. Randle can't guard a chair either. I'd like to see Randle get moved and give more minutes to Naz, TSJ and Miller.

[KATKlownFeet]

I've seen Dinwiddie associated with the wolves recently...

Gross!

[moss_is_1]

Randle is…

1. Inconsistent from deep. When he is making them it forces defenses to adjust and creates opportunities for his teammates. When he is not, Randle becomes a lot less threatening offensively and defenses can load up even more on Ant and the paint.

2. Sloppy with the ball. While he can play Point Forward, Randle loves to play back to the basket and get stripped. He is also not great at passing to Rudy or Jaden on the interior. The key word is inconsistent.

3. In the way of Naz. He and Naz don’t play as well together as Rudy and Randle or Rudy and Naz. They don’t defend well together either. Naz being allowed to play less C (if Joan can get consistent 14-15 minutes per game,) will allow Naz to play more SF/PF which will be great for Naz, but will also limit Randle more than last year.

4. Maybe going to be traded. Depending on the money, we retain trade eligibility without waiting 6 months. Randle locked up on a 3/100 might be moveable, and might get us the roster balance we so desperately seek.

Yes, Randle is flawed no doubt about that. But to want to trade him for Myles Turner(so moving a better player in Gobert as well) would be a bad move. I'm not saying Randle is a perfect fit, but he does a lot of things very well that everyone here seems to ignore because he can get sloppy with the ball and isn't the shooter that Kat or even Naz are.

Well yeah it's a lot easier for Randle and Naz to play PF next to an elite defensive center. Randle/Naz were still an effective pairing. Not ideal, but against a lot of teams it works just fine. Randle is still someone who can consistently get his own shot, force doubles, and he's a very good playmaker.

He very well could be traded, that's fine. His contract is very fair for an all-star level PF. He was really good in the post-season, but he had 2-3 really bad games vs OKC. Game 4 he was one of the main reasons we lost because how bad he was so that left a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

I'm not even the biggest Julius fan, I'd be totally fine moving him but not for the sake of moving him. His $33m is very fair for what he provides and teams will be interested just looking at some of these other contracts that people have on their books(puts him lower than AG, Ingram, Anunoby, Lavine, MPJ, Quickley, Jeremi Grant, etc)

Edit: Also just to add I think Julius with a whole training camp to get more acclimated, and the coaching stuff having that time to implement more of what they want to do will go a long ways. Also will help DDV. We heard Finch say that he was trying to get Jaden more involved and then the Kat/Randle trade happened and he just tried to force his top 8 guys together because he knew they'd be needed the most come playoff time.

[Bobbywellington]

How is that hate? I'd do that in a heartbeat. Turner is a decent player. Indiana would hang up the phone as they don't want two guys who don't play defense.

Turner cant create his own shot, and is a bad rebounder. Randle is extremely underrated around here.

Turner anchored the defense that was one away from a title and had Haliburton not gotten hurt, may have won it. And unlike Rudy, he can shoot the 3. Randle was unplayable vs OKC. They stripped him of the ball at will. Randle can't guard a chair either. I'd like to see Randle get moved and give more minutes to Naz, TSJ and Miller.

"Give more minutes to Miller"

Eh

If we did manage to trade Randle for a PG, I'd rather we go with more Jaden at the 4 and give the extra playtime to Donte, TSJ, and Clark. If we're giving Leonard Miller actual minutes, something has probably gone very wrong.

[moss_is_1]

Turner anchored the defense that was one away from a title and had Haliburton not gotten hurt, may have won it. And unlike Rudy, he can shoot the 3. Randle was unplayable vs OKC. They stripped him of the ball at will. Randle can't guard a chair either. I'd like to see Randle get moved and give more minutes to Naz, TSJ and Miller.

Turner averaged 10/4 on 37 - 21 shooting splits in the finals. Them almost beating OKC had barely anything to do with him. 6th best DRTG and 10th best ORTG while he was on the floor on the team.

Against the Knicks in the ECF he averaged 13 - 3 on 56 - 31 shooting. He had the 8th best ORTG and 9th best DRTG on the team(6th and 7th really I see 2 of those ahead are guys who barely played)

Turner is just someone who gets overrated because he's a new era big who can play good defense(not elite) and can step out and hit some 3s.

[Worm Guts]

Turner cant create his own shot, and is a bad rebounder. Randle is extremely underrated around here.

Turner anchored the defense that was one away from a title and had Haliburton not gotten hurt, may have won it. And unlike Rudy, he can shoot the 3. Randle was unplayable vs OKC. They stripped him of the ball at will. Randle can't guard a chair either. I'd like to see Randle get moved and give more minutes to Naz, TSJ and Miller.

"Give more minutes to Miller"

Ew

If we did manage to trade Randle for a PG, I'd rather we go with more Jaden at the 4 and give the extra playtime to Donte, TSJ, and Clark. If we're giving Leonard Miller actual minutes, something has probably gone very wrong.

I do think it would be crazy to trade Randle to give Miller more minutes at this point. I was thinking that going into his 3rd year, he should be given the role as 4th big-someone who fills in if Gobert, Randle, or Reid is hurt. If he's not capable of filling this role at this point, we probably shouldn't have picked up his option. And at least this would give us a better idea if he can handle a bigger role.

[moss_is_1]

PG: Malcom Brogdon - Dante Exum - Spencer Dinwiddie - Westbrook - Jmac - Delon Wright - Tre Mann - Cam Payne - Delano Banton - De'Anthony Melton

SG: Gary Payton -Gary Trent Jr - THJ - Talen Horton-Tucker - Lonnie Walker - Amir Coffey - Garrison Matthews - Gary Harris

SF: Duncan Robinson

PF: Yabusale - Chris Boucher

C: Thomas Bryant - Charles Bassey - Sandro Mamukelashvili

Updating. Imagine we still just sign 1 player and leave a roster spot open. Brogdon or Melton would be my choices. Melton I think is still injured though?

added Chris Boucher, more of a PF than C but could play there a bit with his length and shot-blocking. Not ideal but a pretty solid player.

[KATKlownFeet]

Turner cant create his own shot, and is a bad rebounder. Randle is extremely underrated around here.

Turner anchored the defense that was one away from a title and had Haliburton not gotten hurt, may have won it. And unlike Rudy, he can shoot the 3. Randle was unplayable vs OKC. They stripped him of the ball at will. Randle can't guard a chair either. I'd like to see Randle get moved and give more minutes to Naz, TSJ and Miller.

"Give more minutes to Miller"

Ew

If we did manage to trade Randle for a PG, I'd rather we go with more Jaden at the 4 and give the extra playtime to Donte, TSJ, and Clark. If we're giving Leonard Miller actual minutes, something has probably gone very wrong.

You got to give Miller minutes to develop him. Randle was complete ass early in his career and I just don't like his fit here now. I really can't evaluate Miller when he's glued to a bench and I don't trust Finch to do so unless he's forced to. Miller was second youngest guy on team last year and played well in the G League, but we really don't how good or bad he's going to be. Regular season games are fairly meaningless anyway as long as you make top 6 in conference.

[KATKlownFeet]

PG: Malcom Brogdon - Dante Exum - Spencer Dinwiddie - Westbrook - Jmac - Delon Wright - Tre Mann - Cam Payne - Delano Banton - De'Anthony Melton

SG: Gary Payton -Gary Trent Jr - THJ - Talen Horton-Tucker - Lonnie Walker - Amir Coffey - Garrison Matthews - Gary Harris

SF: Duncan Robinson

PF: Yabusale

C: Thomas Bryant - Charles Bassey - Sandro Mamukelashvili

Updating. Imagine we still just sign 1 player and leave a roster spot open. Brogdon or Melton would be my choices. Melton I think is still injured though?

Melton's a good defender, but he can't run an offense. Brogdon is old and injury plagued. No good choices left for a bridge point guard and might as well take a flyer with Ben Simmons, though Melton could play some 2.

[moss_is_1]

Melton's a good defender, but he can't run an offense. Brogdon is old and injury plagued. No good choices left for a bridge point guard and might as well take a flyer with Ben Simmons, though Melton could play some 2.

Brogdon's injuries are really the only reason he's available and probably for a minimum. I don't think he can be relied on, but just 2 seasons ago he was 6moty and really good. The last 2 if he wasn't on bad teams probably would have played more games, IMO. Both have nice size so they could play both guard spots. Melton being hurt and Brogdon injury prone will allow them and Mike to rest more and let Rob take the majority of the PG minutes.

Simmons pry won't come here, I imagine he just wants to stay in LA or somewhere like that.

[jpatrick]

I highly doubt we are making a major trade, and we’re right up against the second apron. All we have is the tax payer MLE, which is barely more than the vet minimum. We can add a historically good but now old and unreliable player or a young but never shown he’s good/consistent player. We are not going to sign a sure fire starting PG.

I guess I’m on team Brogdon. I’m just not sure how he’ll fit personality wise on the team if he goes games without playing, which may happen if Dilly, hopefully, makes a leap and Conley/Dilly/DDV eat those guard minutes.

Simmons is interesting. But with Gobert as a complete non-shooter and McDaniels/Randle as inconsistent shooters, adding another complete non-shooter would kill our already poor spacing. Ant’s pathways to the basket would be completely gone.

[moss_is_1]

Stein/Fischer reporting Pelicans among the teams interested in Kuminga. Fit doesn't make sense, so of course it will happen, lol.

Apparently the financials work with Herb to GSW, Hawkins/Alvarado to 3rd team, Kuminga S&T to Pels. Dumars/Weaver intent to put their stamp on a reshape of the roster, so not too surprising they would make Herb available. Go for the 'upside' of Kuminga. I know it would be dumb, but I'll probably try to get excited about the 'star potential' of Kuminga in a new situation. They'll sign Payton II to complete the old GSW players plan.

Saw this on the trade board. Thought some of you might like this.