team thread: T-wolves

[boisesuns]

here's the first one. we can do one every few days or so. the t wolves made some big moves in order to keep garnett. will the chemestry happen?

they will be tougher to stop for sure. i question their bench though. who do they have left? for their sake, no one better get injured. their starting 5 is impressive with cassell, spree, wally, kg, and michael(i got dunked on)olawakandi.

some problems i see: sharing the ball. i think flip saunders will be able to keep some of the tension down, but i know for sure cassel and spree will want to ball. kg needs his touches, and wally is more of a clean-up shooter. i can see him almost being left out.

if they can stay healthy, that starting 5 will be very good. their defense won't be too bad either. garnett will be the leader, but will the others let him. again i see no bench being a factor later in the season for them, but things look good on paper.

matchups with the suns:

this will be a tough one for the suns. i think we are quicker, so if we can run, we will do alright. garnett is so long and now with olowakandi, amare might have some troubles inside. but then again, amare seems to enjoy putting up big numbers on olowakandi and the timberwovles. now they are together. finding a way to score will be key for the suns. they basically have 4 go to guys(olowakandi not being one) so it's a situational thing. who can stop who when it comes. the game plan against the t wolves has changed. it's still "controll garnett" but now he has more weapons to go to.

 

[Errntknght]

The Wolves bench won't be that bad as far as the backcourt goes... I don't know why but everyone keeps forgetting the guy who played so well for them in the playoffs - I remember him as being the second option behind KG then, but I do forget his name. He was running the offense and hitting from long range...

 

[jimjames1]

Troy Hudson

 

[Billythekid]

Gary Trent is on that bench and he always gives us trouble. Kendall Gill can play. Troy hudson. they have a better bench then what most peeps thinks.

 

[Chaplin]

Originally posted by Billythekid
Gary Trent is on that bench and he always gives us trouble. Kendall Gill can play. Troy hudson. they have a better bench then what most peeps thinks.

Shyeah.



I still maintain that outside of Hudson, their bench is abyssmal--one of the worst in the league. Of course, the worst bench in the league belongs to the Lakers, so obviously the Wolves should probably be just fine.

 

[Errntknght]

Have the Wolves traded Brandon's contract? Seems to me they haven't, which means they have a move to make yet. They can't dabble in the FA market, I guess, but they should be able to trade for a useful frontcourt man.

 

[Chaplin]

Originally posted by Errntknght
Have the Wolves traded Brandon's contract? Seems to me they haven't, which means they have a move to make yet. They can't dabble in the FA market, I guess, but they should be able to trade for a useful frontcourt man.

Didn't they do that in the Sprewell trade?

 

[Joe Mama]

Brandon was traded to Atlanta in the deal that brought Latrell Sprewell to Minnesota.

I would love to have Gary Trent coming off the Phoenix Suns bench. Troy Hudson is a potent scorer. That said, the Minnesota Timberwolves still need to do some work if they are going to fight for a championship this season.

Joe Mama

 

[Goldfield]

Not everyone will agree that Kandi is an upgrade at center. They had Nesterovic...

Kandi:
PPG:12.3
FG%:.427
RPG:9.1
BPG:2.19
APG:1.3
MPG:38.0

vs

Nesterovic:
PPG:11.2
FG%:.525
RPG:6.5
BPG:1.51
APG:1.5
MPG:30.0


Kandi scored 1.1 more points, shot 10% worse from the field! Grabed 2.6 more rebounds, Blocked 3/4 of a shot more, about same in assists, but he played 8 more min's per game...


IMO, I would lose 2.5 rebounds to have 10% better shooting. The rest is pretty close, but would Nesterovic have even better stats if he got 8 more min's per game like Kandi?


I dont know who is better, but people are forgetting that Min didnt "add" a center to the mix, they swapped centers...

 

[Joe Mama]

It's going to be difficult to compare the two centers when Minnesota has upgraded at point guard and shooting guard as well. It will be kind of like when everybody was trying to compare one Jason Kidd and Stephon Marbury were doing the season after they were traded. The teams had changed in so many other areas that it was difficult to say exactly how much they had really done themselves.

My guess is that Olowokandi's shooting percentage will increase with the Timberwolves, and it would have regardless of the other changes they have made for that team. Elton Brand is a very good power forward. He puts up good strong numbers for the Clippers, but he just does not garner of the attention of a Kevin Garnett. He also does not pass the ball as well as KG. I believe Kandi is going to get a lot more easy baskets with the Timberwolves than he did with the Clippers. For some reason Alvin Gentry was constantly trying to run the offense of last year's LA Clippers drew Michael Olowokandi in the low post. I don't think he should be the primary offensive weapon.

Joe Mama

 

[SirStefan32]

... and you have to remember that the Clippers were going to Kandiman every time down the floor. He is not going to be the first option in Minnesota. For that matter, he might not even be the second or third.

 

[Joe Mama]

Originally posted by SirStefan32
... and you have to remember that the Clippers were going to Kandiman every time down the floor. He is not going to be the first option in Minnesota. For that matter, he might not even be the second or third.

For that reason he might not score as many points, but I do believe he will shoot a higher field-goal percentage. I also do think he is a better player than Nesterovic.

Joe

 

[SirStefan32]

Originally posted by Joe Mama
For that reason he might not score as many points, but I do believe he will shoot a higher field-goal percentage. I also do think he is a better player than Nesterovic.

Joe

Why do you consider Kandi a better player than Rasho?

Kandi has one move- that baseline hook shot. He has no shot outside of 10 feet, and he can't do anything facing the basket.

Rasho has a very nice 15- 18 foot jumper, and a variaty of low post moves. (Remember that Kevin McHale has been working with him for the past three years)

What do you see in Kandiman that I don't?

Stefan

 

[Chaplin]

I think Olowakandi is extremely overrated, but that is based more on what his draft position was and the fact that he is a center.