Shouldn't Wes be on the bench by now??

[Ice32]

Loving the Wolves guys, couple of close losses but they are fun to watch - Rubio is looking like a strong ROY candidate, his game has come along nicely. Derrick Williams is also nice and K-Love is a freak, I hope you guys can retain him and give him what he deserves money wise. I just hope for the fans that that he wants to stay in Sota.

But WTF is happening with Wes Johnson??? I always check out his numbers as Brewer was shafted out of Sota to make room for Wes, and it looks like it back fired. His numbers are atrocious, Im surprised he is still a starter! I mean he is a supposedly great shooter, but his stats don't reflect that. Is it the sophomore slump, Alderman's offense, or he just doesn't get the touches he needs?

One glaring stat is his FT attempts - 1 from 2 attempts! I had to re-check that. 2 FT attempts in 256 minutes of game time, and he is a starter in the NBA. So does he just spot up and shoot, does he not draw contact, drive to the hoop or pump/head fake??? Whats going on and why hasn't it been addressed? He also has the worst +/- on the Wolves at minus 43. Had Wes been shipped to New York last year instead of Brewer, I think Wes would have flourished in that system. I know a lot of you got sick of Brewer and some were happy to see him leave, but you have to be disappointed with Wes by now.

As much as I want to see Wes succeed, it disappoints me that Minnesota HO put so much faith in him, that after the Brewer trade, his productivity just plummeted. I mean his PER is 3.7, thats awful.

Whats going to fix it, or is he trade bait? No one would want him. Maybe he needs a bench role to get his confidence back up, and work harder in the gym...but I guess that didn't help him last season either.

[jack612]

He should skip the bench and head straight to the D-League

[Ojmayo]

He should skip the bench and head straight to the D-League

Does he have a +1?

[teamwillow]

Wes Johnson lacks confidence, pretty much it. Can't expect him to be perfect as a 2nd year player

[theGreatRC]

First of all, nice to see you posting on this board again Ice, we miss your Brewer input after games .

The thing I notice with Johnson, is that when he get's the ball it immediately leaves his hands no more than 3 seconds later.

If you watch him, when he's coming up off a screen or when the play is designed for him to touch the ball, he usually gives one look at the basket and gives it back to the ball-handler. Very rarely do you see Wes put it on the floor towards the rim, his dribbles usually consist of going left or right, never forward.

I think he lacks confidence in his ability to attack the rim, or his handle is so loose that he fears it may be stripped on his way to the basket.

OR, as popular opinion it is on this board, he just sucks so much that he has no real skill to do any of those things and bails the defense out with a long jumper, something he is 'average' at, at best.

He is actually a very nice passer when he gets the chance to show it, but it's either he isn't being used right, or he just can't adapt to the level of NBA defense and is resorting to throwing up bricks.

[WenningtonGuy]

Who else should Adelman trot out there? The Wolves are too banged up to just bench a guy.

[Klomp]

Everyone yells at Wayne for dribbling before a shot, but use that same reasoning to explain how terrible they think Wes has been. Which is it?

[Ice32]

LOL...I do miss the digs at my Brewer evaluations.

If Wes is this bad at putting the ball on the floor, or attacking the rim or his confidence is shot, wouldn't the FO address it by now? An example, is when Brewer went to Dallas, we all know his jump shot was iffy, off balanced, the mechanics were messed up. But Coach RC put a lot of one on one time in with Brewer, and then he started shooting with confidence, and now he's shooting at a decent percentage. Sure he doesn't shoot much, but the biggest thing is when he spots up to shoot, his flow and rhythm is much better, and you don't cringe when he releases it. He's even hitting that corner three now with confidence and it looks good.

I think Wes needs to work with some past NBA guards that relied on their spot up shooting, someone like Reggie Miller, Steve Kerr etc.

Wes has the speed, length and ability to drive to the rack and draw fouls. Maybe he isn't getting much of a chance with Love and Beasley on the floor, but when injuries happen to other players, that should be the time Wes steps up and plays more aggressively. At least if he attempted to draw fouls, getting to the FT line increases your shooting confidence - any bball player knows that.

[Swish4]

He's our only healthy SF.

[Klomp]

Who else should Adelman trot out there? The Wolves are too banged up to just bench a guy.

Exactly. If Johnson is benched, we'd be watching 48 minutes of Anthony Tolliver and Wayne Ellington at SF.

[Krapinsky]

Maybe we could trade Wes to the D-League for Gerald Green?

[Ice32]

Who else should Adelman trot out there? The Wolves are too banged up to just bench a guy.

Exactly. If Johnson is benched, we'd be watching 48 minutes of Anthony Tolliver and Wayne Ellington at SF.

I dunno, maybe Derrick Williams? Or is he too big for that position?

Wes should just try driving to the rim early...once he hits 2,3 or 4 FTs, the confidence is up, the shots will fall.

Just my two cents, which doesn't really matter, but the guy needs to do something different!

[Klomp]

I dunno, maybe Derrick Williams? Or is he too big for that position?

Right now, Adelman has him focusing almost exclusively at PF.

[Foye]

Wes Johnson lacks confidence, pretty much it. Can't expect him to be perfect as a 2nd year player

He's a 2nd year player that is as old as Webster with 6 year experience. I can't expect him to be perfect but at least he should be able to shoot over 40% and do a couple things offensively.

So does he just spot up and shoot, does he not draw contact, drive to the hoop or pump/head fake???

Yes.

I have never seen a guy implode so much. His first season wasn't good but this season he simply lost all basketball skills.
His biggest problem is that he doesn't have the right mindset. Wes, however seems to have a loser attitude. The scoreline could be 45-117 and Wes would still smile.

In hindsight, everyone of the 10 guys picked below him would've been a better pick. Can't say I didn't see it coming. He was like the only guy I didn't want to pick on draft night.

Honestly, I want to never draft a Syracuse guy again. Jonny Flynn imploded but Wes Johnson is currently on a great way to top Flynn's horrible sophomore season.
I would even exchange Johnson for 2008/09 Rashad McCants right now.

[Foye]

He's our only healthy SF.

I would rather play with Tolliver as SF than Wes right now. SMH.

[Ice32]

Interesting how the best +/- 5 man lineup for the Wolves is:

Tolliver
Love
Williams
Ellington
Rubio.

[walchy]

Lets just look forward to Webster and Lee getting healthy. The team will really start to look a LOT better when they are in the rotation and we can cut back on Wes' minutes.

[TheUroborosWorm]

Klomp i know is ot, but now that u are conected... why no post game interviews in the game thread this time? i really wanted to know what did Adelman and the guys said.

[Klomp]

Klomp i know is ot, but now that u are conected... why no post game interviews in the game thread this time? i really wanted to know what did Adelman and the guys said.

I'm connected? I just post what the team puts on their YouTube channels. They don't post interviews for road games, I guess.

[Saltine]

He has all the physical tools, just check out the LA games last year against Kobe.
His issue is his brain, he just isn't getting anything going beyond passing, makes a couple nice ones each game, but his balls are MIA when it comes to getting to the hoop, and his touch is gone.
Hopefully the light bulb turns on, if not he's gonna be out of the league in a couple years.

I hope they send him to the D-League when Webster and Beas are healthy.