5 Timberwolves Takeaways Through Two Summer League Games

5 Timberwolves Takeaways Through Two Summer League Games

[Music] All right, hello and welcome or welcome back to the Worldwide Wolves podcast. We’re here for week three. We’re two games into summer league. We’re going to have a blast talking about those two games of summer league and our takeaways. But I’m coming to you from Pittsburgh, hence the name Worldwide Wolves and Jake, the co-host here. Where are you coming to us from? Coming to you from Melbourne, Australia. Um, cold here, but we’re surviving. Not as cold as it ever gets in in Minnesota, so I’m not complaining too much. Yeah, I don’t know anything about Minnesota anymore. Moved away. It’s But it’s actually literally 100 degrees here in Pittsburgh. It’s wonderful. So, we’re on opposite ends. I was still in a closet. Um, great comments last week, guys. All of them hilarious. Good stuff. We got Rubio and we got Towns Nicks. I like Carl. He’s a lot. I also had to unmirror my camera, which I’ve never done, so I’m like used to it. But uh anyways, Carl, he’s he’s I like to cheer for him when he’s you know, it’s easier when he’s not on my Wolves because you can just kind of check the highlights and not get so frustrated. But anyways, we’re gonna talk about summer league specifically, five takeaways, five main takeaways regarding the five starters. Dillingham, Clark, Terrence Shannon, uh Lennon Miller, and Baron Jay. But before we do, are there any players that have I did not list that you really want to talk about at all, or should we wait till the very end to maybe dive in on some of those guys? I don’t think there is. Um, I will maintain my take that Jesse Edwards isn’t a a terrible basketball player. And when they’re using a two-way on him, I think we can say, you know, we can talk about him in terms of just like they probably should get someone else on that two-way, I think. Um, but yeah, apart from apart from that, I mean, Rocco Sakowski Australia represent looked better in this game. Looked like he could actually be like something in the future. Very tall human being. Um, apart from that, I think it’s the starting five that everyone wants to know about. Yeah, I’m right on there with you. I think it was a first quarter Jesse Edwards got in it just, you know, unimpressed. But hey, I love that this is just hating. No, he’s he’s probably a great guy. Yeah, we shouldn’t. We We like to skew positive, so let’s try positive. There you go. So, we’ll start um with Rob Dillingham, then the point guard, and just kind of give our main takeaways on him. I guess I’ll start with with Rob here. For me, I guess I have a sort of positive and a negative. My positive is that I think his best skill, best ability, and it’s really being showcased is his passing game. And just I think that’s on a borderline like really really good level right now. And yes, it’s summer league, but man, his his court vision has really really impressed me so far. So very very happy to I’m just very very very Anyways, really happy to see that. It’s midnight. my time. By the way, we’re recording this right after the game, so I’m I’m a little tired, but we’re It was a fun game. Anyways, Rob really impressed with his passing game overall. I think his court vision was great, and we can dive more in on that, but just on the other side, I think his handle in these first two games, overall ball handling is erratic. You can see that it’s there. Um, he’s going to develop it. I think it will turn into something solid, but right now he’s just got to I almost want to say he’s got to chill out a little bit, but he’s almost also at his best passing the ball when he’s just flying around. So, finding that balance with his handle where he can just excel at it while he’s moving as quickly as he is while still maintaining the passing and the court vision, then you’ve got a real player on your hands. So, we can talk about the scoring and all that, but just I guess on Rob Dillingham, what do you think of that and what’s your takeaway for him? Yeah, I think I completely agree with both of your points. Um, I was sitting there during that game thinking, is there anyone actually on this roster right now who can like break past that first line of defense and then make plays with a pass as well as Rob can? And I’m not saying there’s there’s guys who are less erratic with that. I mean, I think you are going to get a bit of turnover stuff and and there is some volatility in Rob’s passing still, but I think in terms of getting past the first defender with his speed, playing off a pick and roll and then making plays either to shooters, to rollmen, to cutters, I think he is the best player on the team at doing that already. And that’s a lowish bar because I think Connley struggles a bit more with it now just because he struggles to get into the paint or get, you know, into the middle of the defense. Um, but yeah, I I love his passing. I think it’s, like you said, his best still right now. Um, and I completely I feel like with the dribbling sometimes you can see that his brain and his body is going way faster than a a human being can possibly dribble the basketball. Um because he obviously has a good handle. Like he has a lot of different moves. He’s shifty with it. I don’t want to use and I use that in the more literal term than just the the Rob Dillingham term. But he is he’s got a lot of wiggle, a lot of shake. He knows how to move defenders out of his way with his handle. But sometimes I feel like he’s already doing the next thing before he’s actually gathered the basketball to do the thing that he’s currently doing. So, I think that’s probably better than having like no handle, you know, like it’s better that he he has the handle, but he things need to slow down. Part of me think it’s like it’s like he knows he’s better than the guy that’s defending him constantly. He’s like, I’m going to just do all this and get past him. Whereas, like maybe in an actual NBA game, he would be more controlled cuz like, you know, you’re going against actual play. But he’s trying to show off, you know, he’s trying to show what he’s got here and it’s it’s it’s a little chaotic. But yeah. Yeah, I do think he needs to streamline his handle like because I don’t think he needs four or five moves to get past the defender. And I I do feel like sometimes he gets that step and then we’ll throw another move in there just because I think that’s kind of his natural instinct is to cross a dude up three different times or to spin around a screen and then you know pull the ball back and try and go the other direction where when he when the game does start to slow down for him, I think mentally slow down for him. Um, I think we’ll see less dribble moves with higher efficiency and and you know, a greater ability to use that dribble move to make something happen. But right now, like you said, it does seem a little bit erratic. And that’s yeah, it’s a weird criticism because I think you want you want to see that he can handle the ball and he can handle the ball, but you want to see it streamlined a little bit as well where it doesn’t feel like there is a turnover waiting there behind the next corner. Yeah. Yeah. And like we’ve seen it with him, like we know he can do it. It’s not something where we’re going, okay, is that a skill that he can hopefully develop someday? Like he’s he’s almost too good at it for his own good, if that makes any sense. But I mean, he had like the triple behind the back crossover and then spin and set the scores. Save like, “All right, man. Just chill out.” One thing I think I think with Rob with his ball handling is he is really good with a good screener. I I want to see him with go bear more this season because when he can use his crossover which is really quick to and cross his guy into a screen and he sets up screens really well. I thought that was his best ball handling kind of thing coming out of college was that he can set a defender up to run into a screen really really well. And like going back to me kind of saying that he needs to streamline things. I think when he gets more that he can use that one move, get his defender into the screen and then go from there, that is going to be the best version of Rob. And like we said, when he can when he can get that space to get into the middle, he is a really good playmaker. And he he really is looking to pass the ball in a way that I don’t I think last summer league it felt like he was almost being forced to be the point guard and not be Rob Dillingham. Whereas this season, it feels like it’s more of a natural thing that he’s his role that he wants to do is to move the ball and to make plays for others and to use his talent to get other guys open. Yeah. And it helps that he’s got four guys around him that could be legitimate NBA players pretty much at least starting the game. I mean, not many summer league teams, I don’t remember the Wolves full roster from last year, but like, you know, not many teams have that luxury. So, that’s cool to see for that experience. Let’s touch on his scoring a bit because early in the game I liked the shots he was getting I think uh better than later on. I think I think as the game progressed like you mentioned he was trying to just focus on passing more and that might be an overall emphasis but um I thought scoring the ball early on he looked good and just getting past his defender. He’s he had a couple floaters that I thought were nice but the pullup three is just not fully there yet for me. And you mentioned he’s good coming off the screen as a passer. I think I in the games going forward, how many more are there? Is it one and then like playoffs or something? Maybe two more and then playoffs. Yeah, I think there’s a backtoback in there which is dumb, but I’d love to see him kind of go just T junior mode and just just try to, you know, see what you can do scoring the basketball much much more. I think he did for like a quarter, but yeah, I just really want to see him kind of showcase that side because we mentioned it last week. He was a damn good scoreer in college. So, I don’t know. I just want to see more of that because Wolves need scoring behind Anthony Edwards in the regular season here. So, can he bring some of that? Um, what do you think of his overall scoring these first couple games? Yeah, it’s it’s erratic as well. It’s hit and miss. Like you said, I think he started well. I think he had a I think in he had a he played a good game throughout and both games I think we’ve seen Rob play well without really ever getting going completely as a scorer which I guess is a good thing because you need if you want to stay on the court in the NBA he’s going to have to be able to do things when he’s not you know on a heater offensively with his scoring. So but I I do think that the pullup three is a work in progress. I said that in our last episode. And I said, I think that the pull-up three needs to be there. I think it’s pretty much a non-negotiable if you’re his size. I think you need to have a pull-up three and you need to have a floater. And they he had both of those things in college. They’ve came and went last season. Um and they’ve come and gone as well this in this summer league. He had them in the first quarter today. Yeah, that that first that first bucket where he comes off the screen, the same thing. He sets up the screen really well. One dribble, pull up three. That’s a shot he needs because if he if he is a player who can set up a screen and who can run guys into screens, then he needs to be able to hit a pull up three from that because it’s such a valuable shot in today’s NBA. So, and and he had a few pull-up mid-range jumpers off the same thing where he took two or three dribbles, got to the elbow, raised up, hit a jumper. So, they’re the shots I like him taking. I don’t think I’ve hated really any shots he’s taking, but there’s some of the things where obviously you want more to go in. He shot 40% in this game. I think he shot 30% or something in the first game. So, obviously they’re not the percentages you want. I think you want at least low, you know, 44% kind of on the season. Um, I do think the rim finishing, which I thought was impressive last season in his in his, you know, limited minutes has been really bad in summer league. Um, uses his the wrong hand, you know, doesn’t use his left hand enough. I think he goes for that inside hand kind of layup which get will get blocked a lot in the league. It’s just an easy shot to block for a big dude. Um and has just seemed hesitant I think to go all the way downhill against some of these these big guys at the rim. So I’m a little bit not worried. I mean one of my overall takes is that summer league’s terrible. It’s not it’s not a good place to like we we’re on this quest to see and to analyze and to judge these young players and you know that’s me and you as well that we want to see them. We want to see how good they are. But then like if you if you walked in to your TV and you’d never seen you didn’t know anything about this but you knew about basketball you would say this is a terrible like brand of it’s pickup. you know, these dudes and they’ve never, you know, half the team they’ve never played with before. So, I think there is there’s part of me that always gets stuck on that with every player, both good and bad, that this isn’t a good environment to play well in. And so, and I don’t think that’s an excuse for Rob. I think I would like to see him finish at the rim, but I don’t think you need to be in a good environment to finish at the rim or to make more open threes. But yeah, that’s kind of one thing that I’m stuck on is that it it’s a weird it’s a weird environment. Like it’s a weird pick up like not not there. Yeah. And mainly for turnovers. I think the turnovers I just I almost handwave a lot of the turnovers from every player because it’s just like every team turns the ball over 15 to 35 times in a game. Like it’s there’s no low turnover games. Everybody’s running up and down the court trying to make plays for themselves, trying to do the fancy thing. No one in there is a seasoned player who kind of understands pace and and how to play in a controlled way. So there there’s a lot of that there. It’s I love it because it’s like um one of these three minute stretches where everyone’s sprinting up and down the court, every shot is missed, blocks, and the announcers are like, “The effort here is crazy.” Yeah, man. All right. Uh, let’s actually just one thing quick. His defense. I think that’s a big sticking point for Dilling M. It’s a huge reason that he didn’t get more run last year. Maybe the, you know, top of the food chain reason he didn’t get more playing time last year. My thing with Rob’s defense is he’s just never going to be big enough to be a good defender. But I think if he can just be pesky and give enough effort there and I mean he’s got to be really damn well conditioned throughout the regular season to play the kind of defense he’s going to need to play to stay on the court and still be the facilitator scoreer on offense like that the Wolves are going to need. It’s going to require constant effort on both ends with his size. And I’ I’ve liked his efforts on defense. Um like you mentioned, every team is turning it over constantly, but he’s forced I think a few notable turnovers. Of course, he’s gotten beat a few times as well, and that’s going to happen a lot, but uh it’s nice to have Baron Jay behind him. So, your thoughts on Rob’s defense before we move on here? Yeah, I think I think I pretty much agree with you there. I I just think he at his best, he’s probably going to be like a gambler if if he if he maxes out his defensive potential. I think I’d love to see him really take a page out of like the Dante Dvenenzo book where Dante’s not always like a really solid one-on-one, you know, straight up pick and roll point of attack defender, but he flies around. He makes really great rotations, really great Yeah. really great reads off the ball. Um, great double great double teamer, Dante, you know, when it comes to that. So, I think that’s what I want to see Rob do. Jordan Mclofflin was the same kind of player where he was tiny, but if you can just be if you if you need to be solid in the scheme, that’s a non-negotiable, especially in in Finch’s rotation, but he’s not going to stop guys off the bounce. And and especially he’s not going to get over screens consistently, which I think is his worst trait right now. So, when you’re off the ball, can you cause a bit of havoc? Can you get a hand in on on the at the point of attack and try and poke a ball away? things that could go wrong like gamles. You know, if you gamble a lot in the NBA, you’re going to lose a lot. But I think winning some gamles might be better than just trying to be a solid Yeah. trying to be a solid defender who’s never going to have the size to to do so. Yeah, I’m with you there. I like that. All right, let’s move down the line, but let’s just go right to I think the star of the show, Terren Shannon Jr. here, who Well, I’ll actually throw it to you to start on this one. Just your overall take on Terren Shannon Jr., who I think was 20 in the first game, 24 the second game, and is rebounding, picking up assists, and just I don’t know, he’s he’s kind of the gravitational pull on the offense here for the Wolves. So, your thoughts on TJ Shannon? Yeah, too good for summer league. Probably should graduate after this game. Like, I want I want to see him play every game because I hope they, you know, I hope they hang the summer league banner in Target Center in a few months, but uh he’s too good to be there. He’s too old to be there. He’s too entrenched in what Minnesota are doing, I think, next season to be there any longer. So, and that’s a good obviously a good thing. That’s not a knock on the team or the the guys who made him go, but he’s just feels more athletic, better, uh, more controlled. He’s clearly to the point where he seems to be just like testing out things in his game rather than trying to showcase like you don’t pulling out the step back corner three in the regular season. He shot 14 threes tonight and he had out of 19 shots. So I don’t you know we we know Shannon Jr. already and that he’s a guy who wants to get to the rim. So I think there’s an emphasis there to shoot more threes. His playmaking has been awesome. That’s been my favorite part of his game. I I think his playmaking has just been like really really functionally good. He’s hitting the corners on his drives. He’s hitting lobs. He’s, you know, making pick and roll reads. So, I think yeah, he he’s he’s doing things. He’s adding to his game in an environment where he’s actually playing against players. So, that feels really encouraging to me. The scoring, he’ll score as long as he’s on the court with these guys. I think as long as he’s on the court with NBA guys, he’s going to know how to score, get to the rim, get to the free throw line. The three looks better. I mean, there he was five or 14, which doesn’t feel great percentage-wise, but he’s kind of a few. Yeah, he looks better. He’s he’s shooting more off the dribble. Again, he’s just testing things out and seemingly it’s working. So, um yeah, I I don’t think he should be there anymore, but I hope he is. Yeah, I agree. Um the first game with him I was kind of watching at like mid third quarter early fourth I was like I haven’t really even noticed him that much and you check the score scorecard he’s got 18 and he’s got four it’s like all right like I guess I don’t know he’s hasn’t been flashy but he’s he’s scoring so you’re right he’s just better than all it’s like when you know Anthony Edwards has a great game you’re like sometimes I didn’t even really notice he’s just got 37 points yeah when we complain about Anthony Edwards games now they’re like 24 six and five that’s that’s Terren J summer league basically. So, no complaints. Um, the takeaway is basically what we went into this thinking, um, I hope he can just blow the competition out of the water and he has. He looks way too good for this. And, uh, yeah, hope hope he plays next game probably. You know, I don’t I think he might. I think he might. Yeah, he’s the he’s the most competitive player on the court despite that’s my that’s my favorite thing apart from the passing which is kind of but in terms of like mentality I love that he’s out there trying harder than everyone else despite the fact that he’s clearly the best player on the court. I love it. Yeah. Um you mentioned his uh rebounding in our last episode as that you wanted to see some improvements or just overall better rebounding there from him. Have you have you noticed that? Yeah, I think I mean the number I don’t know what he had in the first game. Um he had seven tonight which I think is fine. A fine number, you know, good number. I don’t expect him to be like one of those smaller dudes who gets a ton of rebounds, you know, Jared Vanderbilt type of player. Yeah, because he’s running in transition already by the time Yeah. But I I I do want to see him have a focus, some sort of focus on rebounding just because when he grabs a rebound, he can start fast breaks and I think the team will play so much faster. If Terren Shannon grabs seven rebounds, TJ Shannon, we should be saying, um, if TJ Shannon grabs seven rebounds in an NBA game, I feel like that’s five fast breaks or five transition opportunity just because when he grabs a rebound, he pushes straight away. and he forces guys to run with him. And I think Rob does the same in his different in his own kind of way. But if TJ’s playing with Ant and Jaden, that’s feels like transition buckets if he can get rebounds. So, I’m not It wasn’t that I don’t think he can rebound is why I want to see. It’s more just that I think that could be a real weapon. Okay. Yeah, makes sense. He’s also just quite strong. You know, he can go up and get it. So, good to see. I like that. Um I guess anything else on TJ Shannon here? I mean, it’s pretty it’s pretty standard what we’re seeing from him. No, I want to see him play lots of minutes this season. And I want to see him keep being a playmaker in summer league because I’m starting to have these feelings of him and Ant playing together with Ant as a more of a point guard and and TJ still enough of a good passer to make that work. Can he ever be um how good of a three-pointer do you project him to be? 30 36% 37? Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I don’t think he’s ever going to be a really good three-point shooter. Um, but I don’t think he needs to be. I think he because he’s so dynamic going downhill. I just think he needs to get guys to close out on him. And it doesn’t really need to be like a, you know, Duncan Robinson run at him and jump at the shot because you you don’t want to him to shoot the ball. It just needs to be can you get a guy to get his foot out and his hand up in your vicinity so you can use that first step to get to the rim. And I think he’s probably not that far away from that right now. And so I don’t think he needs a huge leap to get there, but 36 to 39% maybe I would I would guess. And I think that’s going to be good enough for him. Yeah, completely agree. Someone who does I think need to have their three-point percentage be at least like 39% 38 Jaylen Clark. Um, he’s been playing as many minutes as Rob and TJ Shannon here. He’s cemented pretty much in the Wolves rotation starting the season. And the main takeaway for me is that his defense is I would hate to play against him if I was any of these summer league guys. Oh my god, like he’s so good on defense. It’s really fun to watch. like it’s there’s not a lot of players, you know, maybe especially at his size or whatever that you kind of watch and just you can just notice he’s electric on defense, pressuring the ball. Like even you can see him like praying in the back court when someone’s about to pass the ball to top, he’s ready and he somehow can get there. It’s crazy, man. He’s he’s really fun to watch. And on the offensive end, I mean, I haven’t been like blown away, but we kind of just went over this last week where we’re like, he’s just got to be like a consistent shooter, maybe in the corners and top of the key. So, he has been I mean, I haven’t I do have the numbers for his shooting. It seems like he’s been he missed all of his threes in game one. Oh, I don’t know how many I don’t know how many it was. Maybe four or five. And then tonight, he was two of six. It felt a little better than that. I think his his spacing, his ability to get open at three-point line has been good. And maybe they’re just leaving him open, but uh he’s he’s been open and it’s um the shots might have sample size of him making shots. And that doesn’t mean that he’s going to be I think he shot 43% or something. He’s probably not going to make 43% next season, especially if he’s a consistent rotation player. But he needs to be able to just make Yeah. 38 39 40% on low. It’s probably going to be low volume. Um it’s not going to be difficult volume, you know, like a lot of guys in the league can shoot 39% when they’re just shooting catch and shoot open threes. So that needs to be him. I’m not a huge fan of really like three-point shooting is such a volatile thing. Like the odds that that TJ or Rob or Jaylen Clark go for a four or five game stretch throughout the season where they shoot 28% from three is extremely high. So if it happens in summer% yeah if it happens in summer league I just don’t think it’s that big of a deal unless you know the shot looks broken and I don’t think it does I’m a little bit concern not concerned but I just think Clark has nothing really off the dribble which is not going to be a big deal I guess in the NBA but it does limit his ceiling if you can’t I just think it limits the Nquil Alexander Walker comp by quite a bit. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He’s not whenever guys do close out on him as opposed to to TJ Shannon, he just can’t do anything with it. He has three dribbles in him max. And that that was a little, you know, a little Josh Kogi-ish. He was a bit like that. Jaden McDaniels was like that. I remember at the start of his career where I was like, if Jaden takes three dribbles, something bad’s going to happen. So, it can be developed, but I just think Clark is not going to be that player. Well, yeah. J 611 alien, too. That Yeah. and he’s a maniac defensively. Like that’s what he does. He is a bulldog and it’s like you said it feels like bullying during these summer league games especially when it’s the young dudes that he that he’s checking like Jeremiah fears he the last name checked out because you know when Jaylen Clark turned that heat up in game one he was pissed off like something pissed him or they were down by eight or 10 points and he just said like look guys like I’m just going to get four steals here and like completely wreck an offense by myself. So that’s what he is. I want to see him defending point guards in the NBA. I just think that is a great recipe for success in terms of a rotation guy. I think he will wreck point guards defensively. It allows Jaden to be off the ball. I just think he he is that Nquille type defender in a very different way. I think Nquille is is that like like agile, chase around screens, stay connected to someone’s hip kind of defender where Jaylen is like on the ball, super physical, off the ball, maniacal, just running around everywhere, shooting gaps, getting steals, doubling players, doing those little Jos Alvarado steals in the back court. Like he had a crazy backcourt steal or front court steal with about 40 seconds left in that game, which was already over that he didn’t even need to try for. And that and that’s just kind of um a pit. He loves playing defense. Like he lo he just loves it. Yeah, I think he loves it more than anyone on the roster. So, that is probably why Finch loves him because that’s a coach’s trait. There’s probably a small part of him when he gets a steal that’s kind of like, damn it. Like, because you know, now you got to go play offense. And I bet Finch I bet every time he he gets a steal, 90% of Finch is elated and 10% is like, damn, I’m going to have to carve out some even more minutes in this rotation. Yep. Yep. Yep. And he’s I mean, he just is a he’s an eighth man in an NBA rotation. you know, he’s limited and you kind of like, you know, his ceiling. He’s just going to be really really good on defense and, you know, obviously he’s not the biggest guy either, but you know, we’ll see what happens with him and I’m I’m I’m excited to see how the Wolves, you know, use him on both ends this year and whether that uh just his rotation is consistent or not. So, we’ll see. Yeah, I’m I’m super intrigued to see that what I think is probably going to be like the I think TJ is entrenched. I think he’s just gonna get minutes. He’s gonna have a consistent role. Yeah, I I’m really interested to see the Rob Jaylen Clark kind of dynamic in terms of the rotation because it’s it’s not easy for Finch. Like I don’t I I’m not envious of Finch and and the coaching staff who have to carve out minutes for all these guys. If you’re prioritizing minutes, where do you put TJ Shannon? Like six out of like all the Wolves players. You know, you got the starters. Yeah. Got you. You got Conley like seven. Well, I guess Conley I think if you’re trying to I I guess Conley you don’t have to really prioritize because he’s there’s no point guards on the roster so he’s going to play like Yeah, I think six like I think maybe Yeah, Mike’s just below him. Maybe Dante. So maybe seven. You know, Dante is one of those players. Yeah, he’s going to play 25 minutes a game. Like they love him. I think he had a down year, but I think his down year has also been a little overrated, overstated. Uh, David Chener, he had a terrible beginning to the season. He was sick for like 40 games after that. Yeah. Yeah. He before the toe injury as well, for like at least a month, he was really good and then really good after then terrible in the playoffs. So Dante’s going to get minutes, but I just think that they’re going to pencil in like TJ, you’re getting 15 minutes a night and we’ll figure out the other stuff. Like we’ve got 15, we’ve got 25 minutes there from Nil. You’re going to get 15 of them and we’ll figure out who needs to have less minutes, more minutes, you know, where we get those other minutes for the other guys from there. Yeah. And I think that works. All right. Uh let’s talk about Yan Baron J. We’ll save we’ll save Leonard Miller for last here. Yan Yan Baron Jay who was really impressive in game one like just hard to overstate honestly how impressive seven blocks I think it was changed to six in the who it was in like postgame scoring it was chang they robbed my they robbed my boy of the record who which idiot is going watching this game being like not so quite loser anyways um yeah he was really good game one game two just he was he was fine I just didn’t I guess notice him as much we got a couple lobs from Rob to him, which is something we wanted to see. One of them didn’t connect, but it still worked except for the going in the hoop part of it. But overall, I mean, his defense is there. I think it was like the third second possession of the game. He had a possession where guy drove in, you know, ready to shoot. And there’s there’s Baron Jay. He’s seven feet tall, forcing it to kick out the corner or something. So, he’s too he’s like too good of a defender for summer league. And I don’t think he’s gonna get any rotation minutes in the regular season. It’s a very interesting case cuz we went into this saying what are what’s our expectations for this guy and we both kind of agreed we don’t know and let’s just see it play out and honestly like he’s hit the top end of that spectrum in game one and some very low points but no concern from my end and just a lot of a lot of excitement for where this is going to go in the future cuz uh this guy’s 18 years old and that’s that’s absurd. Yeah. Yeah. I expected to have more problems to point out, you know, before summer league. I expected there to be more times where we said, “Look, he’s really raw because of these things.” Whereas, so far, game one was awesome. Like, he was insane defensively, really efficient in he’s not going to do much offensively, but he did the things that you want him to do really well. And then in game two was more of like a a median kind of game that I guess you expect from a from a big dude of his archetype. Like he was really good on the offensive. Five offensive rebounds in this game. Fights like hell for the ball. Um it’s like how I’m laughing at you. Computer, dude. Um yeah, I thought in the second half of this recent game especially, he was like super hustle play kind of guy. He was everywhere diving for the ball. the the Rudy comparisons kind of end when you see him getting on the ground for a loose ball or flying fly flying from the top for a rebound. So, I was impressed to see that kind of thing. Again, don’t expect much offensively. Had a few lobs, had a few finishes around the rim. Um, and you could tell this uh Denver team were at least somewhat aware of game one because they didn’t test him like like the Pelicans did. And I think he’d have more blocks if they did. So, um, yeah, he he’s it’s like and plus I know plus minus doesn’t matter at all, but like both games I’m pretty sure he’s led the team in plus minus. So, he’s the type of player it feels like in summary who’s just doing winning stuff all the time. And the same thing, I bet Finch is sitting there thinking, I would like for this dude who we don’t plan on playing at all to not be doing all of the things that a coaching staff loves to see. you know, getting rebounds, not demanding the ball, efficient, making the right play, defending his ass off. Like, this is a a dude who’s pretty much hit every marker. I I would guess that the coaching staff want him to hit so far. So, yeah, just like shift it a little. Um, so we started this summer league probably at like a I don’t even want him to play in the regular season, right? Like I just Where are you now? like what how what percentage of you is like, you know what, maybe I do want to see this guy get some minutes because I think I’m still at like zero. He’s 18, but uh it’s it’s every time I hear anyone say it all my own head say, “Let’s get this dude some minutes.” I just think the same thing as I think I said last uh last last week was Julius and Nars need to play the five the backup five because they one of them need to play they need minutes like they can’t split the minutes of the four and play 24 minutes each. It’s just not you just paid a shitload of money for both of them. So, but if you’re asking me if one of those dudes get hurt Yeah. or Yeah. If it’s the same situ like last year Julius and Rudy were hurt for a pretty extended stretch a couple of weeks at least. So do I want him in the Luca Gaza role right away? I think yes. Like I think he’s proven that you know can he play 12 minutes on a night where you have injuries or foul trouble and he’s not completely out of his depth. I think probably he can. So that would be an upgrade in my mind from a dude who’s just like stick him in Iowa and we’ll see you next year. I think he’s he’s going to spend some time on that Timberwolves bench even if it’s not getting in the game, but as a as a break glass kind of guy. When looking at just like a straight depth chart, you’re like, “Oh, he’s he’s the backup center, right?” But you’re right about the you need to play Nas and Julius close to like 30 minutes each. So yeah, like they’re probably they’re probably eating up 60 minutes close to 60 minutes each on on a given night. So that’s 12 minutes more at least than the power for position can supply. So that’s the 12 minutes that you’d probably be giving Baron Jay if you were wanting to just give him, you know, throw him a bone. So, but yeah, if one of them gets injured, like if Rudy’s out for three weeks or a month, like does he do they go small with with Nars and then BJ play some minutes off the bench or is that guy who can come in and give them some size, you know, if it’s bothering them that they don’t have it? So maybe it feels like he’s the best option and that Well, they don’t have many, you know. Yeah, exactly. and and he looks ahead of schedule for a guy who is meant to be two years away. Yeah. It’s just, you know, I’m I’m 23, so when I hear that this kid’s 18, I’m like, what the what the hell are you talking about? He’s like, I still feel like I’m, you know, I’ve got some way to go in my physical prime. But, uh, I’m 12 years older than him, and that’s sickening. Doesn’t make any sense. But, uh, let’s talk about Leonard Miller, who this is my take on Leonard Miller. I think he’s going to be kind of slid into a Josh Minot role where maybe about halfway through the season he’ll start getting some consistent minutes via injury or whatever else and he just won’t be very good and we might never see him again from there. Uh I just I don’t see it with Miller, man. I think we talked about him a bit last week. I know you’re maybe higher on him than me, but uh are they trying to turn him into a three-point shooter? Cuz he’s got the worst form I think I’ve ever seen. and they all clank. They like the rattling of the rim when they hit it. It’s so bad. And I don’t know like he’s he’s a power forward to me that just is not a shooter and I don’t think he’s even that good of a scorer inside and he’s whenever he tries to be a playmaker it seems to get turned over and I don’t know man. Talk me a little bit off the ledge here on Leonard Miller because I don’t see it at all. Look, I’m not I’m not going to talk you off the ledge. Um, I I want I like Leonard Miller, but I know that he was I think this was one of his last chances. Again, I don’t like to put all of my stock in summer league, but when you’ve been around for like a thirdyear guy, you feel like you really should be playing pretty damn well at summer league. Um, and I like the archetype of the the tweener, the guy who used to who, you know, tweeners used to be an insult, but now it’s more of a compliment that you can do a little bit of everything. But at some point, you need to do one of the things pretty well. And well, he needs to shoot or defend to be a rotation player. That’s just the bottom line. And right now, he can’t shoot. Um, especially right now in summer league, he can’t shoot. and he’s and he’s and he’s not a good defender and he’s aloof, you know, he’s not an aware defender. I think you need to be really good at the sport if you’re going to if you’re not going to be an attention to detail kind of guy and he’s not an attention to detail player and I don’t think he’s probably good enough to not be. You know, like Jaylen Clark can get by with probably less talent than Leonard Miller. Like you know, this is a guy who can move with the ball. He’s fast. He’s athletic. He’s what, 6’10? Um, he can dribble. He can pass, you know, better than a lot of 6’10 guys, but Jaylen Clark hits the details. He’s attentive to those details, you know, and he and he’s attentive every second of the game. So, Leonard Miller needs to either be a good defender or be a good shooter. And I was hoping to see growth in either of those areas for summer league and last season in the G- League season as well. And I don’t think there really was. though I think he’s probably yeah on that Josh Min curve. I think they like to give I don’t think the coaching staff would ever say they’re giving a dude minutes because he has a a team option next season and he’s been around for three years. But I do think there’s a little bit of that in there is that the front office would say look we need to see a little if you’re going to give some minutes out to some young guys we would like to see the guy who we need to make a decision on. probably despite what we’ve seen, he probably gets it ahead of Baron Jay here. Yeah. Yeah. Even if it’s Yeah. If it’s 10 minutes in a game where they need 10 minutes and because sometimes a dude plays 10 minutes in one game and they’re awesome. I I feel like Vando was like that where he didn’t play for a long time and then one day Vando needed to play and everyone was like, you know, this dude’s awesome. Like this is like Dennis Rodman. I remember that. Yeah. like next time we need someone to play 10 minutes, we’re going to go with him and and he just kept being good in those minutes. So Josh May not they did the same thing. They said we need eight minutes tonight and we’re going to throw you out there and we’re going to throw you to the wolves and he failed really like I don’t think he didn’t have a good season. So and his Yeah. And he he was the same thing. He either needed to shoot, he need he needed to defend or he needed to be an attention to details guy. And he was neither of those three things. So, I think Miller, I think it’s a good comparison. Even though they’re different players, it’s a pretty good comparison to be like, you need a you need to figure it out this season. We’re going to give you a little taste maybe. And if they don’t, I think they’re just not going to pick up his option and and they’ll move on. Yeah. And, you know, it’s at the like they got Matt Lloyd. He’s saying they’ve got a a starter pretty much at every position in development. It’s that he’s just probably on the way out. They’ve got four really, I think, promising young prospects. And I mean, maybe I’m just going too in on Leonard Miller here, but I’ve just I’ve he was good in his first summer league, I think, back when, you know, Wolves just didn’t have much young talent whatsoever, but he’s just kind of been laughed by everyone in the young talent. Well, yeah, that’s the issue is that Yeah. And he he’s a productive dude. Like, he dominates the G- League, points, rebounds, assists, you know, he’s a guy who generates a box score. And that’s easy to be like, well, he generates a box score, but we don’t think he’s very good at these things. But it is notable that he still scores and plays well in the box score every time you see him play. Not points tonight. He only had six. He had six and seven tonight, but I think he had 20 in the first game and still didn’t feel like he played very well uh in that first game. And he’s a great rebounder, I think. Um but yeah, you you feel like the opportunity to like even if they even if they do give him minutes like that has to it’s going to be emergency minutes because there is guys there now who you feel like you need to give minutes to whereas I think Miller is like we want to give him some minutes to see what he’s like but I wouldn’t be surprised if you know they’re just like look we need to give minutes to Jaylen and to TJ and to Rob. Well, they did it last year. They all three guys were ahead of him. He didn’t Yeah, he hasn’t got off the bench once in his career outside of garbage time. So, I think maybe they give him some minutes this year like you said on the on the min kind of thing, but maybe they don’t. And that’s just them telling us without telling us. Yeah. And that’s I mean it’s I mean it’s I don’t want to go so in on him, but I just I’m just not a press and that’s I guess what summer league is about, you know, impress us. Yeah. Yeah. I guess that’s all I’ve got on those five guys. I guess I I’ll ask you the question once more. Any other players you want to touch on? Roco’s been interesting, but we you know, he’s kind of been exactly what we expected. I think 74. Yeah, he’s big. He’s he’s slow. I don’t think I expected him to be fast, but he is noticeably slow when you watch him. Um he looks like a second round pick at his size. Like he looks Yeah, I I think he’ll be cool in the G- League. Like I think it’s a a nice G- League player to have. He’s 18 years old, so you you take that punt on him and you hope that he develops one of those skills, you know, whether he can start shooting a few more threes. I know he’s got a decent three-point stroke and he did shoot a few over here last season. um or he can you know you just hope something pops over a year or two of development in terms of shooting post game quicker feet defending like and if it doesn’t it was a second round pick a mid-second round pick that doesn’t matter too much anyway and he’s on a two-way so you’re not paying him any money I like Amari Bailey I said that last time I’ll say it again think he’s a really good player um an NBA player I don’t know maybe like maybe a backup point guard somewhere but I thought he’s been good in both games so he’s not really worth talking about because I don’t think he’s going to make the roster player here, but he might be elsewhere. Yeah, I mean, I would give him a two-way over Jesse Edwards, but that might just be pure hatred fueling that. That’s my favorite bit. Uh, they can’t they can’t drop him from a two-way now because we’ll have no uh jokes to get off. That’s good stuff. Um, otherwise, I mean, summer league it was it’s been a fun couple games. Like the production is interesting. I didn’t used to watch summer league like at all. So, I mean, it’s I love hating summer league. Like, I I hate watch it because I love watching these young dudes, but you couldn’t pay me to watch any other basketball I’ve ever seen. It’s like Tuesday night at the Y, you know, like it’s like Drade basketball. Dude, I just got an LA fitness membership here. They’ve got a basketball court. I might be running some fives soon. And uh you might run into Jesse Edwards. I was going to say Jesse Edwards is going to have a run for his money for worst player anyone’s ever seen, but uh it’s pretty good. All right, that’s all I’ve got here. Anything else from you? No, no, no. It’s good talking to you again. Just one episode this week, I think, for us. Um there’s not a whole lot going on outside of summer league, so we’ll be back around this time next week. I think we do have a few more summer league games to go. And yeah, like I I I hopefully we see I would like to see this team like make a run to like win this thing even though it means nothing, you know, like just more games. I want to see Rob play more. I want to see these guys by the end of it, Rob and Jaylen and I maybe not TJ, but feel like they’re ready to go next season. Yeah. My uh bold prediction of the week is the Wolves are going to get the Triple Crown, the Summer League Championship, NBA Cup, and the NBA Finals this year. It’s just what I It’s what I’m seeing in my crystal ball or something. Look, you don’t like to make predictions that are too bold. We like to keep and put a lid on it a little bit. Right. Right. So, you know, maybe just a finals appearance. Um, yeah, next week. Yes, we’ll be back next week with two episodes probably. Uh I kind of want to just I don’t know, dive in on Anthony Edwards maybe next week. That should that’d be fun. So, yeah, maybe more summer league. I mean, for sure more summer league talk. We have a lot to talk about. You know, we’ve got a lot of time to fill over the offseason, so we’ll have a lot of fun topics. Um, yeah. 12:53 a.m. We might do a second one, but I’m too tired. So, I’m going to do a video tonight, a breakdown. I don’t know what I’m going to re-watch the game after I go out and have some lunch. Uh, I might do re-watch the game, the whole thing. Yeah, I rewatch the other one as well. Jesus. Pathetic. I’m a pathetic human being. Don’t talk to me about it. Just leave me alone. Um, child, man. That’s Yeah, I do have a child. Well, he’ll sit on my lap and I’m just teaching him, you know, the art of pick and roll coverage with Yoan Baron Jay. Um, you know, the art of defending with Jaylen Clark. He’ll learn. He’ll probably be 5 foot eight like me, but he’ll learn. Maybe I should get him watching watching Rob a bit more. Yeah, there you go. There you go. Oh, man. Okay. Well, we’re gonna get out of here. I like when it devolves at the end. It’s probably my favorite part, but uh yeah, gets a bit sloppy. Appreciate you guys. So, we’ll see you all next week.

Thanks for watching! In this episode, Jake Paynting and Cooper Carlson dive into the Timberwolves first two summer league games and they go through the five starters, giving their main takeaways for all of them! We would love to hear your thoughts so leave a comment and hit the subscribe button! For more content from Jake, check out the link below!

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