KGdaBom wrote:derek360 wrote:KGdaBom wrote:It seems to me that people have no clue how well Dario Saric has played through two seasons in the league. In 16-17 he was runner up for ROY and I think should have won it. Last year he averaged 15-7-3 rounded up LOL and shot .393 from 3 and 86% FTs. In the playoffs his first ever he averaged over 17 PPG over 7 rebounds 3.5 assists in 33 MPG. Those are amazing #s considering the usage rate of Embiid and Simmons. I hear his defense is a bit below average though. All accounts are he works hard at D, but is a bit athletically challenged.
You could also argue Embiid should've won ROY even though he only played 31 games. I agree Saric is not getting enough credit for his skill set. However, I think those numbers (regular season and post-season) are more of a result of Simmons, Embiid and company giving him those opportunities and him not creating by himself. Per NBA.com advanced stats, 100% of Saric's 3s last year and this year (so far) were/are as a result of a pass made to him (percent of 3 point field goals made assisted) (Please tell me if I interpreted this stat incorrectly). That tells me he had players know where he was at all times and (probably Simmons most of the time) passed him the ball. Since the Wolves are currently in the bottom 3rd in the league in assists (22nd, last year wasn't much better), I don't think the Wolves have players who are smart enough (especially Wiggins...) to get it to Saric enough for him to fire away. Saric has averaged 7 rebounds a game but for his 6 10 height, he should get more than that (Wolves are also currently bottom 10 in rebounding, and have been the past 3 seasons). He is soft on defense and gets pushed around in the paint (even by smaller guys). Imagining Towns and Saric flailing around in the paint trying to affect shots...It doesn't look good...
Brogdon is the worst ROY winner maybe ever LOL. It's hard to give the ROY to a guy who played less than half the games despite him obviously being the best talent. Saric didn't get it because he was a non traditional rookie.
To be honest before the trade I only liked Saric because of his excellent fantasy basketball #s. Top 50. However, now that we will have him I like his skill set very well. He is good to very good at every facet of offense. Shooting, posting up, driving, backing down, ball handling and passing. On Minnesota I am confident he will get much better use as a ball handler and passer than he did in Philthy. You really like that word flailing I see. It's just starting, but I believe KAT is actually coming around on D. If he does that will be one quite good thing that came about from this whole fiasco or maybe it would have happened anyway. I don't know.
It's funny you say that because Saric was on my fantasy basketball team last year. I dropped him when he had a short downswing. Big mistake. I wouldn't say he is good at passing considering he has only averaged two assists per game. Maybe that increases but I doubt it with how most of the Wolves shoot. I hope you're right that Saric will be a better player but his skill set might be unlocked even more with a better coach.
WIth Towns, I can't find a better word than flailing, to be honest. I say that because it seems Towns is just jumping without a clear purpose as to how to affect the shot, let alone block it. He is usually a step too slow. I expected him to make a quantum leap defensively in year 2 but it just didn't happen. Every time Towns has a good game defensively he usually follows it up with a clunker (if not multiple clunkers). I remember when Towns guarded Steph Curry one-on-one and I was so scared Curry would just cook him, but Towns forced him to take a bad fadeaway. It was moments like those that gave me hope. Now watching Towns...Missed rotation, too slow, lost his man, the list goes on...And Coach Thibs was supposed to help?
