The Minnesota Timberwolves Thread: Timberwolves, Anthony Bennett part ways

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Varejao playing Pek well early when the Wolves are on offense.

Rubio's reverse layup. :smokin
 
Man, Brewer's experience with being on a Championship team seems to have been invaluable. The kid is light years better than what he was as a player when he left Minnesota. He's a GREAT utility player.
 
Not over, but I just don't see Cleveland having the firepower tonight to complete a comeback like this.
 
Great win.

I'm completely marveled at Corey Brewer's turnaround. I suppose I was watching him with disdain in his subsequent years from initially leaving the Wolves because I know he's been good, but he's really epitomizing this unselfish team.

No KMart and came up with this big win. We knew the Wolves should be good, but I don't know if I was expecting such chemistry with the new pieces. I (Kevin)Love this team.
 
:smokin

Wolves are currently top 4 in the NBA in Points Per Game, FT attempts, FT %, Rebounds, Assists, and Steals
 
One complaint I have with Love is when he gets the ball down low. He never goes straight up with it. Always always always a pump fake or stutter step. Maybe it's a play to his athleticism, but even though it works out a lot, it bugs me.
 
One complaint I have with Love is when he gets the ball down low. He never goes straight up with it. Always always always a pump fake or stutter step. Maybe it's a play to his athleticism, but even though it works out a lot, it bugs me.

It causes him to draw fouls.

Anybody see a trade happening yet? I know Shved and Dwill are available. I wonder if Shved will lose all his minutes and Rick goes with Shabazz anytime soon.
 
DWill experiment is over :smh:

WolfAmongWolves blog:

Let’s get down to it because there doesn’t need to be some cute introduction here.

Yes, he was the second pick in the draft but ain’t nobody got time for that

There is a certain point in which divorcing yourself of a player’s draft position becomes the only logical step in understanding what their value is in the NBA. Derrick Williams is one of those players. Yep, he was the second pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. That wasn’t very long ago. The potential he was dripping with leading up to that draft and his rookie season has dried up and isn’t anything people around the league are really counting on. It doesn’t mean he can’t be a really good player in this league; it just means nobody is pretending he can be a franchise-changing guy at any point in his career.

Because he’s a former No. 2 pick in the draft, it makes people expect him to still have star qualities. I don’t want to be harsh here but he just doesn’t have that. Even when he goes up for a dunk, there is a good contingent of Wolves fans wondering if he’s going to finish it. That’s mostly because he missed 12 dunks last season, which is a lot when you’re only attempting 80 of them. Of the previous 10 No. 2 picks in the draft (we’re not counting 2013), only a handful of them are guys you’d really want on your team.

Darko Milicic, Marvin Williams, Michael Beasley, Hasheem Thabeet, and Derrick Williams are guys that were either reaches because of poor scouting or reaches because their draft wasn’t very good. Darko, Williams, Beasley, and Thabeet were results of poor scouting. Williams was a product of being in a crappy draft with very little guarantee of an impact player at the time of the pick. And the jury is still out on Evan Turner but it’s unlikely he turns into a franchise guy. What was their value when they were dealt?

Does Williams have potential? I guess so. We haven’t really seen it, even during the 2012-13 season in which he showed improvement, I’m not sure he ever showed potential to be very good. He likes to shoot from the outside but he’s not a good shooter (29.8% from 3-point range for his career). He’s a solid finisher but not nearly what you’d expect from him. He’s an underrated rebounder and should be able to do that at a nice rate for his career. He isn’t good at passing the ball or making quick decisions in the offense. He was a solid defender against power forwards last season but struggled in help defense.

Let’s look at what LRMAM might bring to the table.

What kind of player does Luc Richard Mbah a Moute bring to the Wolves?

Defense. Defense. Defense. From 2009-10 to 2012-13, Mbah a Moute allowed a below average PER (15.0 is average for all players) to small forwards. In a few stints at the position this season for the Sacramento Kings, the Cameroon Prince (have I mentioned he’s an actual prince in Cameroon?) allowed an 18.5 PER to small forwards but it’s an extremely small sample size to go off. He’s often been very good at defending power forwards as well, giving up below average PERs in most of his seasons in the NBA. Mbah a Moute is a really versatile defensive player that can defend both the 3 and the 4 with success.

Why is this important when the Wolves are trying to figure out how to score with their bench? Because it gives the Wolves a lot of flexibility with the looks they have while not putting someone on the court who struggles to realize what is and isn’t a good shot for him. LRMAM has taken 1,958 shots in his five-plus years career and 1,089 of them have come in the restricted area, where he’s a career 57.1% converter. On the flip side of that, Williams has taken 1,338 shots in his two-plus years and only 562 of them have come in the restricted area where he’s a 57.8% converter.

There are some concerns with the condition of Mbah a Moute’s knees but this deal will only be passed through if the physical is positive enough to not give Flip Saunders and company any concerns. Considering Flip seemed genuinely concerned about not making the same injury mistakes of the past the day he took over, I’d assume they’ll do their due diligence in making sure he’s fit to play here.

As of right now, the 6’7″ tweener forward with great defensive ability and a 7′ wingspan fits what the Wolves have going more than what Williams wasn’t able to do/allowed to try under Adelman. For those of you worried about bench scoring, two things:

1) Williams wasn’t giving the Wolves that, anyway.

2) Chase Budinger should be back in roughly a month and then that rotation looks a lot better.

Financial impact of the deal

The Wolves save a little money with this deal. This is important.

Minnesota will shave roughly half a million dollars off their salary cap, giving them a bit of breathing room in terms of approaching the luxury tax if they were to take another swing at a trade and bring in another rotation player that might increase the payroll. They’re roughly $3.1 million under the luxury tax. It’s even better for next season. The Wolves will head into the offseason getting nearly a $2 million savings having LRMAM over Williams. It also means they don’t have to re-sign Dante Cunningham if the asking price is much more than the $2.1 million he’s making now. They’ll now be just under $66 million for payroll, which may give them the flexibility to add a mid-priced free agent this coming summer while still avoiding the luxury tax.

Avoiding the luxury tax is big for saving the team money but it also is big for keeping roster flexibility. Once you get into the repeater tax if you’ve pushed past the luxury tax apron, mid-market teams like the Wolves can get hammered and begin to lose their shirt.

The Wolves accomplished this by getting a better role player for this team now and not giving up any draft picks in the process. Was it selling low on Derrick Williams and his potential? Possibly. I was resigned to hoping Williams would become a rotation player that could float between both forward positions and find a way to impact the game. Instead, the Wolves have traded him for that player. It’s not a sexy deal but they acquired a playoff rotation type of player who can allow them to throw different looks at some of the best forward scorers in the West.

Draft positioning be damned.
 
Wow. Kind of surprised by that. Always thought Mbah a Moute was a good player, but haven't really heard from him in a few years, it seems. :lol:

Williams has so much potential. Early on...Well, the first game he received considerable minutes, he seemed to have figured out a great style of play. It didn't continue, of course. Bummer. It's whatever though. I have yet to read that article, but hopefully Moute is a great piece/fit to what the Wolves are trying to do.
 
Good win last night. Season has certainly leveled out after a very promising start. A win tonight would be big, but this time the Thunder have Russell so it won't be easy.
 
Mbah a Moute grabbed two offensive boards in his first three trips down the court when the Timberwolves were on offense. He was actually getting a decent chunk of crunch time minutes.

Kevin Martin. :pimp:

I was at the Denver game on Wednesday. Couldn't stand how many times Pekovic would get the ball in his hands on a rebound or a dump to the post and he would lose it easily. Just... Ugh. Still like the guy of course. Great free throw shooter for a big man, good offensive player.

I'm very Pro D-Will/Luc trade, FYI. Mbah a Moute is a good compliment to the offensive game of Love (who has been pretty good on defense this year, actually).
 
A nice little two-game win streak. Good to see them battle back yesterday to get the W. Sixers or not...just another small hurdle they need to keep progressing as a team.
 
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^I can't open it for some reason 
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