That’s my graphic.

Pay Up

He was undoubtedly the 3rd pick, no matter what your needs are, he was the BPA. It’s really hard to tell just how good he will be, but he has the potential to be a franchise caliber guard. Whenever you get the chance to snag that player you have to go for it. I thought people had a very negative opinion of him without much to back it up. I thought he was a well spoken and very intelligent person, who is focused on improving his game. Plus he’s shown to be a play maker and intense defender. The fact that Mayo had to play on a team that didn’t have much talent meant that he was viewed by a lot of people as selfish, but I don’t think that’s necessarily the case. Either way, Memphis is really going to be a fun team, Conely, Mayo, and Gay, nice young group there.

I really like the Mike Miller acquisition too, he’s one of those great glue guys. He’s not an allstar but he could be a very important piece on a championship contender. His outside shooting is also top notch, so it will help space the floor (now if Al can make passes to Miller on a consistent basis it will help out the offense tremendously).

You are right about defense being a team concept. But there is always an anchor, on the Celtics it was KG, on the Pistons it was Sheed and TPrince, etc. Although Love may develop into at least an average defender, he won’t be great. Players like him, who lack height, lateral quickness, and athletic ability, are increasingly rare in the NBA. Even if he has good BBIQ, I don’t see him be effective guarding the new 4s of the league. Players like Amare, Aldridge, Bosh, these guys are all 2-3inches taller, really get up down the court, and also possess a great face up game. He may be able to body them up in the paint but a lot of these players now can just shoot over the top. Another thing to consider is that Love will really have to work hard on offense to be effective. Half the reason why Jefferson preforms so poorly on defense is because he has to work so hard on offense. It’s give and take. That’s why you’ll often see defensive specialists on teams, like a Bowen or a Battier. They allow your best players to have the energy to score points and make that critical play, instead of having to be dead tired from guarding the opponents best player. This is even more important in the post season, where everyone is tired.

You are also right about not drafting Lopez. If at all possible, avoid drafting white centers in the lottery. It usually ends up bad. But it couldn’t hurt to pick up a project like DeAndre Jordan, or someone like that in the second round/late first round. Jordan has the length and athletic ability to really be something on defense. Even if he never amounts to anything on offense, look how valuable Tyson Chandler is proving to be on the Hornets.

On offense, I’m just thinking that the combination may just crowd the paint too much. Especially since last year the Wolves offense looked to me like, dump the ball into Al. We had something similar in 2005, it was called dump the ball to Zbo. There wasn’t too much ball movement in either case. Right now, on the Wolves the big problem is that there isn’t a player than can facilitate for others very well (like us in 2005). Maybe Randy Foye, but to me he better as an off guard slasher than a point guard. If Al could could pass well, he could fulfill that role but right now he doesn’t have the court vision or skill to do so. Is the new offense going to be centered around having Love be the primary play maker? If he is, it’ll be really interesting to watch. We had a guy named Sabonis that did the same thing.

...that Brewer has put on enough weight to guard some of the 3s that gave him problems last year. With Love and Jefferson at the heart of this team, they need athletic defensive wonders at the 2/3 and 4/5 to clean up any problematic matchups.

But 2 our of the 5 guys in the main lineup CAN’T play a running game. If Love was the main rebounder and outlet passer, ala Bill Walton or Kareem, that would probably work. You got good athletes around Al and Love, but they aren’t dominant athletes who can ram it down your throat with a running game, and to make up for the fact only 3 out of 5 of the players will be running.

Your best scorer will still be Al Jefferson, and that suggests you’ll be dumping the ball into him, or into Love at the high post to see what he can create.

I’m not AS worried about your offense—Foye, Love, Al, Mike Miller, Telfair, all of them can score, even if all are very undersized for their position (except for Mike Miller of course). So, instincts say run, but even though Al and Love are undersized they are not more MOBILE than other bigs to be able to beat them down court.

I agree they’ll take a lot of threes; Jefferson will demand double teams like normal and you hope he can make teams pay by swinging the ball out. You know Love will be able to handle that. I think halfcourt might be safer for your guys though (even if it’s a lot less fun to watch) because you don’t got the defenders or playmakers to win while running. Ya need turnovers, defenders, or a stellar playmaker to lead the break.

What does your coach prefer? You were more halfcourt this recent season, right?

Like I said, I’ll be very interested to see how it works. Maybe everyone can run and gun better than I am expecting. I hope that’s the case. Since your defense is soooooo small, I worry about how many stops you’re going to get so you CAN run. Hard to run after a made basket, after all.

Mortimer

Again I forget to mention something: from what I read on Timberwolves.com (and hear/saw) the Wolves are going to run, you might call it a, “opportunistic” system. If the fast break is there, we’re gonna take it and make sure we finish it. Love will outlet and the other guys will know how to finish it. Jefferson will have some time to recuperate :D.

If it’s not, we’re bringing it up to half court.

I think the first book in McHale’s dictionary is (and has been, but now he seems to be doing it more the right way:) FLEXIBILITY

So, Love isn’t a starter then? He comes off the bench?

That means the 3rd pick in a very strong draft was used on a 6th man?

And do you know Pekovic is starter quality? I honestly don’t know, as I haven’t heard much about him, and I ain’t totally clueless about the Euros… who does he play for?

I totally agree you need a defensive center to go around… who? Jefferson or Love? If you keep both, then one isn’t starting, which seems like bad value for where you were picking or a misuse of talent in Jefferson. That’s why I think one has to be traded some-year soon; each are starter quality bigs for someone in the NBA, but do not go well together.

I want you guys to have that anchor next to either Jefferson or Love, which is why I wonder how in the meantime Jefferson and Love are gonna fit—and since I can’t see how it could POSSIBLY work on defense against quality bigs, that duo has to be broken up in favor of a defensive post player someday soon, or forever be sorta bad.

And you’re definitely right—the draft will be a great way to fix the problem. Just seems like you gave yourself a problem by getting a guy who doesn’t fit, but if he is BPA then I definitely can’t argue. BPA will never get you in trouble like drafting for need will.

I just wondered if most Wolves fans felt like either Love or Jefferson would eventually soon be moved, because it seemed like most felt they were the core and would play together as the Wolves become great again. We haven’t seen Love in the NBA yet of course, but even best case scenario they aren’t a good match as (like we’ve agreed on) they need a defensive player aside them to compensate for their defensive weaknesses and undersized bodies.

Jefferson doesn’t seem to try on defense, but any problems Love has on defense won’t be for a lack of trying. It’s out of his control; he’s 6’8” and not very quick. As a PF, he’s gonna have a hell of a time matching up with Aldridge, West, AMARE, Duncan, KG, etc. It’s a very athletic position these days, and often guys who would play SF before (like Travis Outlaw, Josh Smith, Shawn Marion) play most of their minutes as a PF to take advantage of mismatches. Love will simply not be able to keep up with those guys, and it won’t be his fault—he’ll try as hard as he can, I’m sure.

Since you got Telfair, Foye, McCants, etc, I do not think the trade of Mayo for Love and Miller was a bad trade at all—even if Mayo turns into a star. You got the guy your front office seemed to want, plus a terrific and BIG shooter in Mike Miller. I just seriously question how Love fits on a team where Al Jefferson is the best player, since they have many of the same weaknesses, so basically I do agree it’s a problem to fix later—but it has to be fixed, and that means one will likely be traded.

Since Jefferson will put up bigger numbers, I vote it will be Jefferson who has more value and will get traded (provided Love is good of course). Making Love the 6th man doesn’t seem like a good use of his value, but I could be wrong.

I’m sure things will get fixed over time. The next lottery pick could be the one that puts you guys over the top and back on the playoff train in no time. I like what you guys got going on, but like I said (probably too many times) I’m just curious about how it’ll fit from a T-Wolves fan’s perspective.

Like the post you directed me to showed, Al Jefferson did do well as a center, but you’d HAVE to think with his size and athleticism he’d do even better as a PF. He can definitely get by as a center, though…

Love and Al will someday soon be good enough to get to the playoffs, but it’s too small and weak defensively to win a championship. I know you guys want a title, not just playoffs. That’s the context of my questions and comments, just for clarification.

Why doesn’t the season just start so we can just SEE how it works? It’d make things a lot easier.

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it! Educate me!

Mortimer

...I’ll have a post on it a bit later, but I don’t see the Blazers being an upper level team. I think injuries and too many shooters will eventually do them in. There’s more to it but I think they’ll top out at the same level as the Wolves: right below the top 2 teams in the WC.