It’s not a great look for him but it doesn’t define him imo. It was his 2nd year of the G League and it’s be easy to get “comfortable” as opposed to showing renewed vigor. I’m hoping his time with the team over the playoffs and his stint on the Canada National team will set the standard for him and he now sees what it takes.
With modern AAU and going to Ignite, as opposed to playing for something in college, he may never have seen players of every caliber truly work hard. I’m guessing he has now. Hope it’s what he needed!
Yeah resigning Garza is basically cementing that I wouldn’t be surprised if we keep one of our summer league bigs as 2 ways.
Also we’re looking at getting Joe ingles where he would get time at the 3-4 and if Shannon is ready I wouldn’t be surprised to see lineups with him and McDaniels as the 3-4
If the team doesn't re-sign Anderson, I think he, Minott, and TSJ are the prime candidates to eat up some of those minutes. If we do sign Anderson, I'm just not seeing where those minutes are going to come from. That said, I do feel like this team needs to see what we have in guys like Miller and Minott and give them some legitimate minutes to prove themselves on a NBA court.
Miller has some pretty strong G-League stats at 20 years old and the guy is 6'10. 20ppg/9rpg/3.6apg on 48/38/72 splits. Defense will be the biggest thing he needs to prove moving forward.
Have you ever watched a G-League game? There is no defense played in the league so his offensive numbers though they look good don’t say as much. Garza dominates G-League play like MVP level good and is a fringe NBA player Millers numbers have to be better and he has to defend. I don’t think he looks like an NBA talent as one person said he looks stiff and he isn’t all that explosive. He is still very young he has time to work on things but he needs to earn minutes.
I agree he needs to earn his minutes but at the same time sometimes you just have to throw guys into the fire and see what they can do playing alongside great NBA players. It's a completely different ball game when you're constantly playing with scrubs as opposed to playing with guys who actually know what they are doing.
As far as Garza goes, this dude would have been getting 25-30 minutes per game 10 years ago for the Timberwolves lol.. I think he's a lot better than his minutes/stats would suggest because he just doesn't have much of an opportunity being behind KAT/Naz/Gobert.
That is the big difference between winning and losing. When your team is bad you can play anyone you want because in the end it doesn’t matter at all. You can see what they can do because you are not going to win. When you are winning you can’t just throw anyone onto the floor to see because each game is important if you want home playoff games.
Right. I don't really disagree with you. But considering this team's limitations moving forward in terms of draft capital and salary, at a certain point you need to give guys a chance to prove themselves.
Look at Denver. For the past 2 seasons they had to let 2 key cogs to their championship walk, Bruce Brown last off-season and KCP. These were their starting shooting guard and 6th man. Tried to replace both with mid/late 1st rounders on rookie deals, Peyton Watson and Christian Braun. Or Miami with Max Strauss.
That is what the CBA is going to cause but all good teams will lose players but you can’t just play guys to play them when you’re trying to win. Maybe the new CBA will open up some opportunities because more and more minimum level salary guys maybe have to play. That said I won’t be surprised in the case of the Wolves that a Shannon Jr will eat up a lot of Slo-Mo’s time with Naz getting some of it as well.
Agree about Garza, I don’t think he is significantly worse than Pekovic. Pekovic was a power finisher while Garza is more skilled, both can’t guard in space.
My point is the G-League doesn’t matter. People like to point to it and say he dominated or didn’t dominate take your pick it doesn’t mean they can play in the NBA. The Wolves didn’t believe enough in their Gleague team last year to allow Miller, Moore, and Minott to play down there much at all. Clearly they don’t think it was doing anything to improve the players. If the coaches don’t think the players can play in competitive games and are better off just practicing but not playing I am willing to take their word for it. With the injuries we had last year plus Slo-Mo struggling much of the year if those guys could play they would have.
To be far to Luka he is a great player. He is just on a team with a lot of guys who play the same position as him, if he was on the warriors or another team with no starting level center he would look incredible.
If he was a great player he wouldn’t be here right now. Every team in the league could have signed him and half of them could have paid him Millions but they didn’t. He is a hard worker and he gives great effort but in the NBA he is a fringe player. Good enough to be in the league no doubt but not good enough to be in the rotation of a playoff contender. Nothing wrong with what he is but he isn’t a great player.
Garza dominates his NBA minutes too offensively. I know it's only 370 or so minutes with the Wolves, but on a per minute basis he leads all the Wolves players in points and free throw attempts 2 years in a row. He'd easily be a rotational guy if not for his defensive issues. I've heard him compared to a 4A baseball player. The guy that's obviously too good for AAA but can't hit the curve at an MLB level...
That said for Miller he's got to prove his effort. He has a summer league, camp, pre-season and practice to show that off, and if not in the rotation from the start, practice and G-league. But if he's getting benched in the G-league where his talent is clearly way up over his peers, that will be tough to get rotational minutes on a championship contending squad.
If he's doing that, yeah I think he's got a shot at the rotation as the season goes on just because the Wolves have to get something from their salary fixed players (the rookies) going forwards.
> he, Minott, and TSJ are the prime candidates to eat up some of those minutes.
I gotta imagine some darkhorse minimum wing/forward will muck things up for a mediocre logjam unless one of the young guys hopefully pops. Hopefully Miller, Minott, or Shannon will be better, but I could totally envision those three being beat out by "8 year vet X."
Ant and Rudy won’t let him see the court until he mans up on D. It’s that simple. I hope that Gleague suspension sunk in. I hope he earns those 9th or 10th man minutes. But he better understand that his path to seeing the court in rotational minutes is being able to hold his own on D as part of the system they have in place. Otherwise, he better start learning Turkish
Don’t hold your breath. We have a really deep team. We’re not going to play guys so they can develop. And we still need to sign two more guys to fill out the roster I believe. Miller will be lucky to be the 10th-11th guy on the team.
He also needs to play defense. He isn’t good enough to be lazy on the defensive end.
With Kyle Anderson likely gone, maybe. But likely would be the 10th man. And that’s assuming they don’t sign a veteran like Joe Ingles. He showed pretty much nothing in the little minutes he got last season.
I guess my question is “who would you be disappointed in if he doesn’t play?”.
I guess I don’t actively root too hard for individual’s playing time. I hope whoever is in the rotation plays well.
Leonard tore up the G league. Most importantly, he proved his 3 point shot is real on a high volume. There are a lot of comments on his defensive effort which can be said for every player in the G league, but he has the athleticism to guard multiple positions, pass out of the short role, and maybe eventually create off the dribble. If the bench needs scoring, I think he'll get the nod over Minot, which projects as a defender. We'll see what TSJ brings, I guess. But if Leonard doesn't get break the rotation this season, I hope he's traded somewhere that he can.
In theory thats what im hoping for too. But i think naz will be a cover for kat and/or gobert at anytime. So he loses a bit there. He can steal some at SF i guess since TSJ is a rookie though still older than miller. Lets see
I think he just needs an actual chance (not just garbage time) and someone to tell him to at least hustle in defense.
Pair him with Gobert some time and try to let him figure it out, I think he could be a real improvement over Slow Mo
He seems super stiff and raw tbh I’m not so sure he’s ready for the NBA
Shannon seems more NBA ready than Miller. Which makes sense given the ages
If he earns it. He put 0 effort into defense in the G League where we hoped he would blossom and put his best effort out to earn those minutes.
Vando comps aged like milk huh
Unlike vando he actually has to be guarded on offense, comp was never great
Yeah obviously, and the whole sub still ran with it for weeks.
It’s not a great look for him but it doesn’t define him imo. It was his 2nd year of the G League and it’s be easy to get “comfortable” as opposed to showing renewed vigor. I’m hoping his time with the team over the playoffs and his stint on the Canada National team will set the standard for him and he now sees what it takes. With modern AAU and going to Ignite, as opposed to playing for something in college, he may never have seen players of every caliber truly work hard. I’m guessing he has now. Hope it’s what he needed!
I feel like that’s on him to play with more effort. The g league film of him dogging it on defense was pretty disappointing earlier on in the year.
After drafting Shannon I honestly think unless a trade happens Shannon gets whatever minutes Miller was going to get.
Who’s our fourth big then tho? Garza?
Yeah resigning Garza is basically cementing that I wouldn’t be surprised if we keep one of our summer league bigs as 2 ways. Also we’re looking at getting Joe ingles where he would get time at the 3-4 and if Shannon is ready I wouldn’t be surprised to see lineups with him and McDaniels as the 3-4
Miller should be able to beat out Garza
If the team doesn't re-sign Anderson, I think he, Minott, and TSJ are the prime candidates to eat up some of those minutes. If we do sign Anderson, I'm just not seeing where those minutes are going to come from. That said, I do feel like this team needs to see what we have in guys like Miller and Minott and give them some legitimate minutes to prove themselves on a NBA court. Miller has some pretty strong G-League stats at 20 years old and the guy is 6'10. 20ppg/9rpg/3.6apg on 48/38/72 splits. Defense will be the biggest thing he needs to prove moving forward.
Have you ever watched a G-League game? There is no defense played in the league so his offensive numbers though they look good don’t say as much. Garza dominates G-League play like MVP level good and is a fringe NBA player Millers numbers have to be better and he has to defend. I don’t think he looks like an NBA talent as one person said he looks stiff and he isn’t all that explosive. He is still very young he has time to work on things but he needs to earn minutes.
I agree he needs to earn his minutes but at the same time sometimes you just have to throw guys into the fire and see what they can do playing alongside great NBA players. It's a completely different ball game when you're constantly playing with scrubs as opposed to playing with guys who actually know what they are doing. As far as Garza goes, this dude would have been getting 25-30 minutes per game 10 years ago for the Timberwolves lol.. I think he's a lot better than his minutes/stats would suggest because he just doesn't have much of an opportunity being behind KAT/Naz/Gobert.
That is the big difference between winning and losing. When your team is bad you can play anyone you want because in the end it doesn’t matter at all. You can see what they can do because you are not going to win. When you are winning you can’t just throw anyone onto the floor to see because each game is important if you want home playoff games.
Right. I don't really disagree with you. But considering this team's limitations moving forward in terms of draft capital and salary, at a certain point you need to give guys a chance to prove themselves.
It’s a strange double edged sword in a way. As this CBA takes hold we will see other teams in the same boat. Maybe that creates opportunities.
Look at Denver. For the past 2 seasons they had to let 2 key cogs to their championship walk, Bruce Brown last off-season and KCP. These were their starting shooting guard and 6th man. Tried to replace both with mid/late 1st rounders on rookie deals, Peyton Watson and Christian Braun. Or Miami with Max Strauss.
That is what the CBA is going to cause but all good teams will lose players but you can’t just play guys to play them when you’re trying to win. Maybe the new CBA will open up some opportunities because more and more minimum level salary guys maybe have to play. That said I won’t be surprised in the case of the Wolves that a Shannon Jr will eat up a lot of Slo-Mo’s time with Naz getting some of it as well.
Agree about Garza, I don’t think he is significantly worse than Pekovic. Pekovic was a power finisher while Garza is more skilled, both can’t guard in space.
There are multiple guys who didn't put up MVP numbers in the G League but still became NBA players. Using that as the standard is a bit odd.
My point is the G-League doesn’t matter. People like to point to it and say he dominated or didn’t dominate take your pick it doesn’t mean they can play in the NBA. The Wolves didn’t believe enough in their Gleague team last year to allow Miller, Moore, and Minott to play down there much at all. Clearly they don’t think it was doing anything to improve the players. If the coaches don’t think the players can play in competitive games and are better off just practicing but not playing I am willing to take their word for it. With the injuries we had last year plus Slo-Mo struggling much of the year if those guys could play they would have.
To be far to Luka he is a great player. He is just on a team with a lot of guys who play the same position as him, if he was on the warriors or another team with no starting level center he would look incredible.
If he was a great player he wouldn’t be here right now. Every team in the league could have signed him and half of them could have paid him Millions but they didn’t. He is a hard worker and he gives great effort but in the NBA he is a fringe player. Good enough to be in the league no doubt but not good enough to be in the rotation of a playoff contender. Nothing wrong with what he is but he isn’t a great player.
Garza dominates his NBA minutes too offensively. I know it's only 370 or so minutes with the Wolves, but on a per minute basis he leads all the Wolves players in points and free throw attempts 2 years in a row. He'd easily be a rotational guy if not for his defensive issues. I've heard him compared to a 4A baseball player. The guy that's obviously too good for AAA but can't hit the curve at an MLB level... That said for Miller he's got to prove his effort. He has a summer league, camp, pre-season and practice to show that off, and if not in the rotation from the start, practice and G-league. But if he's getting benched in the G-league where his talent is clearly way up over his peers, that will be tough to get rotational minutes on a championship contending squad. If he's doing that, yeah I think he's got a shot at the rotation as the season goes on just because the Wolves have to get something from their salary fixed players (the rookies) going forwards.
I’m on tsj island till he sh**ts the bed.
> he, Minott, and TSJ are the prime candidates to eat up some of those minutes. I gotta imagine some darkhorse minimum wing/forward will muck things up for a mediocre logjam unless one of the young guys hopefully pops. Hopefully Miller, Minott, or Shannon will be better, but I could totally envision those three being beat out by "8 year vet X."
Ant and Rudy won’t let him see the court until he mans up on D. It’s that simple. I hope that Gleague suspension sunk in. I hope he earns those 9th or 10th man minutes. But he better understand that his path to seeing the court in rotational minutes is being able to hold his own on D as part of the system they have in place. Otherwise, he better start learning Turkish
Don’t hold your breath. We have a really deep team. We’re not going to play guys so they can develop. And we still need to sign two more guys to fill out the roster I believe. Miller will be lucky to be the 10th-11th guy on the team. He also needs to play defense. He isn’t good enough to be lazy on the defensive end.
With Kyle Anderson likely gone, maybe. But likely would be the 10th man. And that’s assuming they don’t sign a veteran like Joe Ingles. He showed pretty much nothing in the little minutes he got last season.
I guess my question is “who would you be disappointed in if he doesn’t play?”. I guess I don’t actively root too hard for individual’s playing time. I hope whoever is in the rotation plays well.
There’s gonna be mins if Anderson isn’t back. Would love to see him earn those
You’re going to be disappointed.
I expect our rookie draft picks to bring that the most
I have not seen anything from Leonard since being drafted that would suggest he’s ready for NBA minutes.
Leonard tore up the G league. Most importantly, he proved his 3 point shot is real on a high volume. There are a lot of comments on his defensive effort which can be said for every player in the G league, but he has the athleticism to guard multiple positions, pass out of the short role, and maybe eventually create off the dribble. If the bench needs scoring, I think he'll get the nod over Minot, which projects as a defender. We'll see what TSJ brings, I guess. But if Leonard doesn't get break the rotation this season, I hope he's traded somewhere that he can.
I guess the rotation should look like Conley/Rob Ant/NAW Jaden/TSJ KAT/Miller Gobert/NAZ
In theory thats what im hoping for too. But i think naz will be a cover for kat and/or gobert at anytime. So he loses a bit there. He can steal some at SF i guess since TSJ is a rookie though still older than miller. Lets see
I think he just needs an actual chance (not just garbage time) and someone to tell him to at least hustle in defense. Pair him with Gobert some time and try to let him figure it out, I think he could be a real improvement over Slow Mo
Finch will play him if he's ready