YBBR wrote: ↑Fri Jan 19, 2024 5:18 pm
I'll give a report card based upon expectations and how they've delivered above and below what I reasonably expected. C is an average ranking of what I expected.
Gobert A+
Naz A+
Conley A+
Ant A
Towns A-
Nickeil B-
TBJ C+
Jmac C
Jaden C-
Slomo D-
Shake F
Miller I
Minott I
Garza I
Moore I
Nix I
We've barely seen any of the end of bench guys in any important or meaningful minutes this year. Hard to get a pulse on any of them so far.
here's mine (starting with who i think has been the least valuable player on the team and finishing with the most valuable):
Clark/Miller/Nix/Moore/Minott/Garza/McLaughlin: incomplete
unfortunately i have to give McLaughlin an incomplete. Finch always seems so hesitant to put McLaughlin in the rotation because of his lack of size defensively. last year Jaylen Nowell usually got minutes ahead of McLaughlin. this year it was Shake Milton for awhile. and then the very game where Finch finally decided to start playing McLaughlin he gets hurt and misses a month, so we go right back to Shake
a little after McLaughlin came back from the injury he finally started getting playing time. the calf strain that McLaughlin suffered last year appears to still be hindering his slashing ability and the playmaking that comes off of that, but otherwise i think McLaughlin has regained his old self after being a shadow of himself last year following the calf strain. good playmaker/good mover/elite off-ball defender/amazing hands. it would just feel wrong to give him a high grade because he's played so little, but also wrong to give him a low grade because he's played so well as usual
Shake Milton: D
i'm not going to give Shake an F because to me that's reserved for players who don't do much positive AND hurt the team with low iq plays and i don't think that's Shake. i actually think he's been a good on-ball defender and solid as a playmaker/mover/off-ball defender, someone who often makes good plays, smart plays even if he isn't legitimately good in any of those areas
but his lack of shooting, scoring, and playmaking have obviously all been very disappointing and he's been woefully bad in the first two categories. after watching Jaylen Nowell be a rotation player for 2 years or whatever it was, watching Shake feels almost tolerable (Jaylen was quite literally horrible at everything) and i imagine Shake could be a 9th man on a lot of teams. but the timberwolves are very deep and so it was frustrating watching Shake stay in the rotation night after night when there were clearly better options. at the end of the day Shake has contributed very little to the team
Slo-Mo: D-
watching Slo-Mo last year i was always concerned with his motor. i know that if i'd voiced those concerns the general retort would probably be 'no, he's just slow.' my response to that would be to watch Luka Garza. THAT'S a player who's really slow but actually tries hard. it's a night & day difference compared to watching Slo-Mo imo. some of Slo-Mo's slowness on the court is because he's just slow, but i think some of it is that he's often not trying to move faster; he's not putting in all that much effort. there's motor issues there to me
and this year those motor issues have really been exposed. Slo-Mo's shooting has pretty much entirely left him, i imagine because the eye injury he suffered near the end of last year likely made it difficult to practice on shooting in the offseason
then the Conley trade, KAT's return from injury, and Ant/NAW's playmaking improvements have significantly lessened the need for Slo-Mo's playmaking. the change of circumstances coupled with Slo-Mo's disappeared shot have solidly reduced his playing time and role. there's a good chance this had Slo-Mo feeling less motivated after his outsized role with the team last year, someone who already had motor issues to begin with. and now several aspects of his game have solidly declined as a result: his scoring, playmaking, movement, and off-ball D
i think even the old Slo-Mo would've had to be let go after this season considering the timberwolves' cap situation, but now Slo-Mo's made the decision even easier. you can only afford to have so many iffy spacers on a team nowadays and we already have Jaden/Rudy/McLaughlin. with Slo-Mo's disappeared scoring and neutral defense his lack of spacing clearly isn't worth it
Troy Brown Jr: B+
he doesn't get into the A range because he hasn't done anything totally unexpected like turn into a scorer or a playmaker or something. but between his great poa D, great on-ball D, great off-ball D, good spacing, very good movement, and great extra passing he's pretty much the best 3&D player you could ask for, and i honestly think he should've replaced Slo-Mo in the rotation a long time ago with Slo-Mo only clinging onto his spot due to reputation at this point imo
Naz Reid: C
i know pretty much everyone will disagree with me on this one, but i think his status as a fan favorite coupled with the reputation he gained last year as one of the best bench players in the league has perhaps blinded people a bit to just how much Naz has regressed this year. defensively it's not really Naz's fault, but i think he was far better defensively at the 5 than he is now at the 4. elite hedge&recover guy to me. but i think he's a very poor on-ball perimeter defender, which is being exposed more now at the 4, and only a moderately good off-ball defender
as far as his offense, Jon Krawcynski of The Athletic wrote a piece i believe during the preseason about Naz just floating around on the perimeter too much last year in an attempt to space with Rudy clogging the lane
Naz said that this year he wanted to avoid floating around too much and wanted to get back to his old offensive self. but i don't feel like we've really seen that at all this year. offensively Naz is little more than a standstill 3pt shooter with extra passing now to me. he'll slash here & there, but i don't think it's a meaningful part of his game anymore. everyone gets excited when he has a random big scoring night, but those are few and far between and most of his larger point outputs tend to involve a lot of simple catch-and-shoot 3s. his shooting has admittedly improved significantly this year and Naz has gone from a merely solid shooter to a legitimately great one, which has been awesome to see. but the slashing, rolling, movement, and playmaking have all largely vanished even when Naz is out there without Rudy
i imagine that Naz spent most of the summer working on his shooting and defense at the 4 to cater to the needs of the team, which likely worsened the other aspects of his game as he was focusing on those aspects less
this new Naz to me is a Naz that's ironically less impactful on the team, i think he overcorrected. but i don't really find either version of him particularly beneficial to the roster. it's just not a good fit with Rudy. Naz needs to be a center imo and i think he's another piece that needs to be let go of considering the team's looming future of salary cap hell. the only reason i even have Naz as more valuable than Troy Brown Jr is playing time. still, Naz has been a relatively solid contributor on both ends, so he avoids a truly low grade
Jaden McDaniels: C-
i think Jaden is in the wrong role. he's a very good poa defender, a very good screen navigator, but not truly great. meaning that he's good enough to not get completely caught up in screens, but bad enough that he still usually finds himself trailing the play defensively in p&r coming around screens, which allows an endless barrage of open middies for opposing star ball-handlers
Jaden's role prior to last year was to mainly guard wings and to be a roamer and regular rotator in the timberwolves' hedge coverage. Jaden was otherworldly in that role and the stark contrast of getting destroyed by poa player after poa player while barely getting to play any off-ball D in the timberwolves' drop coverage the last couple years has Jaden really down i think. in addition i think the team was really disappointed in him after the punching the wall incident at the end of last year and they likely continue to be disappointed with his severe foul proneness
Jaden has always appeared to be someone who gets down on himself pretty easily and it feels like everything has taken a pretty significant toll on him and his game. his off-ball D is still very good, but has declined significantly. the passing chops he'd previously displayed have evaporated aside from some extra passing. the movement has given way to regular stagnation. the scoring potential that Jaden displayed last year shows itself occasionally in his now patented midrange pull-ups, but single digit scoring nights drenched in offensive malaise have been the norm for Jaden this season
Jaden is still a very good defensive player and elite at guarding wings, but the decline he's experienced on both ends when i was expecting improvement have me feeling pretty disappointed in his performance this year
NAW: A-
NAW last year began to show signs of turning into a good spacer & playmaker and that's exactly what's happened this year. the 38% from 3 figure from last year has proven to be no fluke this year as he's gone 36% on solid volume. the occasional good passing reads of last year have turned into regular drive-and-kicks this year. and he's a very good mover as well, maybe the only player who's movement has stayed consistently good even when persistent stretches of Ant iso-ball puts the rest of the offense to sleep
on the other end NAW is like one of the unknown great defenders in the league. i didn't want to give him the title of elite defender last year due to the tiny sample size, but NAW has also proved that to be no aberration. the poa D is truly elite to me as is the off-ball D to go along with amazing hands. i honestly think NAW should just start over Jaden, he's that good. NAW's poa D is so important when you're running drop like the timberwolves are. the only reason NAW doesn't grade higher is because i think his defense has been slipping the last 15 games or so, particularly his off-ball D, probably due to lack of reps as poa defenders usually aren't as involved as off-ball defenders
Mike Conley: A-
Conley just does everything. there's no question that for the first ~25 games of the season Conley was an A+. solid scorer, very good playmaker, very good spacer (his 45% from 3 this year is bananas), very good mover, very good off-ball defender, amazing chemistry with Rudy in p&r and KAT in pick-and-pop. i think Conley had true star value the first 25 games of the year, which is insane at 36 and so far beyond what i thought we were getting when we traded for him
but since then it's kinda tailed off. it seems that teams have scouted the Conley+Rudy p&r and Conley+KAT p&p because we hardly ever go to those plays anymore, particularly the latter. Conley's scoring & playmaking have really fallen off as a result, he's been more of a liability as an on-ball defender, and his off-ball D has gone from borderline great to actually pretty bad for whatever reason. it might just be fatigue accumulating for a 36-year-old. nonetheless i think Conley continues to be a solid offensive contributor and his overall impact for the season has still been great. hopefully he can recapture that early season magic come playoff time
KAT: A-
the defensive renaissance from KAT this year has been truly shocking and his great offensive performance despite being at the 4 now with Rudy clogging the lane wasn't exactly expected either. i thought for sure that KAT playing next to Rudy wasn't going to work at all on either end and that trading KAT at the deadline this year was a foregone conclusion. i think we pretty much all thought that. and now it feels like we could never trade KAT with how well he's played
KAT's slashing is just so. damn. good. like, when he first started doing it a couple years ago it felt kinda flukey. maybe because he's not particularly quick and not particularly graceful. and i'm still admittedly skeptical in regards to how resilient it can be vs elite defenses. but in the regular season at least it's been very effective and even against 4s with Rudy clogging the paint the effectiveness of KAT's slashing has somehow remained largely intact. KAT's just so big with great finishing, and the 3pt shot with a high release point provides a deadly mix-up
i don't grade KAT higher because:
a) i think the offensive malaise that's plagued KAT's career has still been an issue at times this year. some very underwhelming scoring performances have limited him to 21.6 ppg when i think he could be at like 24
b) KAT's playmaking was almost non-existent the first 20 or so games (probably because he mainly focused on defense in the offseason) before making a comeback since
c) KAT's defense has been waning to my eye the last 15 or so games. the first ~25 games i thought KAT was a legitimately great off-ball defender, but since then more just average aside from his drop coverage, which i think he's been great in all year
nonetheless i think KAT's really exceeded expectations this season on both ends
Ant: B
Ant last year was really showing signs that his over-iso'ing days were over, stringing together multiple 15-20 game stretches where it really wasn't an issue at all. but this year it's returned. it's nowhere near as bad as Ant's first couple years where the issue was horrific, but it's still pretty horrible. in addition Ant's off-ball D remains horrible, his on-ball D & passing reads inconsistent, and his shot selection pretty bad, which caps his efficiency at a very low number
those are the reasons i can't grade Ant higher. i don't think he's improved to a degree that's surprising to me and he remains weak in pretty much every area he was weak in before
but there's been some improvement. his scoring arsenal has become more diverse, adding a mix of turnaround fadeaways to his repertoire, which is huge. his offensive motor has gotten better it seems, so he's putting up big scoring nights with more consistency as he's cutting out many of the 'nights off' he had before. and then the passing reads, on-ball D, and screen navigation all appear to be steadily improving even if still inconsistent. Ant's been very good in all those areas the last 15 or so games, so we'll see if that holds
in any case Ant is an incredibly good 22-year-old and the fact that i'm only giving him a B shows just how high his ceiling is
Rudy Gobert: A
after last year i did give some chance that Rudy would be able to regain his utah form, some credence to the notion that maybe last year Rudy just felt uncomfortable in a new environment and that he would become his old self this year. but i thought it was very unlikely. it just seemed far more probable to me that all the international play in the summers, a possibly iffy motor, and a massive body vulnerable to physical toll meant that Rudy's play last year was the beginning of an early end to his prime; or that Rudy preferred his situation on the perenially-successful jazz so much to his situation on the underperforming timberwolves that he'd never be able to muster the motivation to actually play great in minnesota
but the unlikely (it seemed) scenario of Rudy finding his utah self in minnesota truly has materialized. his drop coverage last year was great and his rim protection very good, but in the drop he'd sag very low, asking too much from the poa defender, and on rim rotations he would often not be very engaged or would miss the rotation altogether
this year he's been elite in the drop and as a rim protector, pulling out more on the drop to space himself better between the roll man and the ball-handler, and being far more engaged on rim rotations, reacting to finishers better, and hardly ever missing rotations. and then he's an elite rebounder to boot
at times, for stretches 5-10 games long even, Rudy goes to even another level as a drop big man and a rim protector. and when Rudy reaches these otherworldly heights it's truly something to behold. we're talking going all the way out to the free throw line to contest p&r ball-handlers when needed, flying out at uncovered 3pt shooters, and suffocating virtually everything that comes to the rim
the only reason i don't go A+ for Rudy is because, while i think expecting Rudy to be otherworldly in the drop and as a rim protector every game would be unreasonable, i do think the stretches of games where he dips below that level, and sometimes even below the elite level, those stretches of games go too long for me at times. it feels like Rudy's motor has the potential to rev a bit higher to where he could more consistently be at the elite/otherworldly levels. his motor can be up & down at times
but it's hard to complain about much with Rudy this year. i think he's been our mvp
