Official 2017 NBA Off Season Thread

[RealSNR]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

League's getting away from the 1-2-3-4-5 distinction.

Why do you think Butler at the 3 lessens his impact? With his increased range, having him as a stretch 3 against longer but slower forwards could help him even more offensively. Defensively, he's quick enough to harass most forwards and with KAT's length/athleticism on the interior, that's all he really needs to do.

The question isn't SF, IMO - that answer is easy. The question is what the hell purpose Teague serves if you have Irving as the primary ball-handler. Teague's a fine player but he's pretty much a pure 1. I don't see him as a guy that can accomplish much off the ball; not elite athleticism or size, isn't great at creating his own shot and while he's a solid shooter, he's not a dead-eye out there.

I seem to remember his defense being solid but unspectacular; not an asset, just not a liability.

Y'all would need to figure out something to do with the backcourt as I think Teague and Irving are awkward fits. But I'd risk it to bring Irving in - he's a really damn good player.

I'm not married to Teague by any means. I'm only worried about the money at this point. I can't help it as a Wolves fan, but I just got through 13 years of zero playoffs, and the best team I had to watch in that time was a Rick Adelman-coached group of Kevin Love, Andrei Kirilenko, and oft-injured Ricky Rubio. We just got through a grueling tanking process and actually came out ahead of the game. And now I worry that we're stocking up too soon. Butler, Irving, and KAT all have only two years left. Wiggins was more likely to accept staying here through an extension, and now if we can't keep one of them, are all of them going to bolt?

It'd pretty much end up being two years of competitive basketball in the Western Conference playoffs and then back to the sewer where we belong.

And I do worry that length would get to Butler or at least prevent what he's capable of doing defensively against guards.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by RealSNR

I'm not married to Teague by any means. I'm only worried about the money at this point. I can't help it as a Wolves fan, but I just got through 13 years of zero playoffs, and the best team I had to watch in that time was a Rick Adelman-coached group of Kevin Love, Andrei Kirilenko, and oft-injured Ricky Rubio. We just got through a grueling tanking process and actually came out ahead of the game. And now I worry that we're stocking up too soon. Butler, Irving, and KAT all have only two years left. Wiggins was more likely to accept staying here through an extension, and now if we can't keep one of them, are all of them going to bolt?

It'd pretty much end up being two years of competitive basketball in the Western Conference playoffs and then back to the sewer where we belong.

And I do worry that length would get to Butler or at least prevent what he's capable of doing defensively against guards.

Alternatively, if Irving ends up taking this team a step forward from Wiggins, doesn't it increase the odds of retaining KAT and Butler tremendously?

Because THOSE are the guys you need to keep. If losing Wiggins increases the chance of keeping the other two by as much as 10%, then it's a good move.

Wiggins is the best player on a 30 win team, IMO. He's not a bad player by any means - in fact I'd say he's probably a pretty decent one. But as you've noted, he's one more season away from sliding more towards 'overpriced bust' than anything. He's gonna get a max deal by virtue of his draft position and if he can't become a more efficient scorer, the team that gives him that deal is going to be worse for it.

I think there's a little divestiture aversion here. If both Wiggins and Irving were FAs and the Wolves could sign either (with neither having any ties to Minn.), I think you'd take Irving without hesitation. He's simply a better player with more upside and he's not that much older.

Now Wiggins could find his outside stroke and prove me wrong....or at least less right (I don't see a scenario where he's clearly better than Irving), but that's a 50/50 proposition at best.

Just seems to me that the best path towards true relevance for the Wolves is via Irving, KAT and Butler.

And as for how it impacts Butler with forwards defending him - like I said, the league's moving away from traditional positions anyway. Butler is going to have to deal with forwards defending him against a lot teams simply because many teams no longer utilize a true #1 and have gravitated towards stretch 3s playing what used to be a 2 (with the former 2s sliding in as combo guards). Not everybody has the personnel to do it, but not everybody has a 3 that can hang with Butler anyway. Besides, with Wiggins not being a truly dynamic scorer, I think most teams that have a 3 that can harass Butler would have him on Butler anyway with their 2 on Wiggins.