Everything Scottie Barnes

[Kagemusha]

Statistically yes, his year 3 numbers are better than Kawhi and Giannis. But what does your EYE TEST say?

They all have different games, it's hard to tell.
You have identified that core piece, you certainly build around him coz he is what you have right now.
Whether he can be that alpha down the road is still TBD.

[LJ2]

I don’t think they are sure about Scottie being that dude either, but they’ve got nothing else to sell.

Foolishly betting over & over on championship DNA, instead of following the natural win-lose-rebuild cycle has left them with no young asset with high upside potential, other than Scottie. And even getting Scottie was a perfect storm of unlucky + lucky events that forced their hand.

Masai & Bobby truly believed that Pascal/Fred/OG could be promoted, like corporate employees, to the Kawhi/Lowry/Pascal roles of a championship team, using player development. Of course they couldn’t, but the problem is that we still had to pay them like that and the rubber finally hit the road, er, balance sheet.

In the grand scheme of team building were they off by a season maybe before they should have given up on that core? They were a 4th seed in the first year post-Lowry with the ROY. Almost unheard of to not continue to explore that path when the other option is to blow it up and spend years rebuilding. For me I think once Fred left for Houston that was the point I wanted MU to start the rebuild. Not because Fred was some great player but because we needed both Fred and a superstar to contend and now we were down two major pieces. Instead they waited to move Pascal and he decided to control his own future. If they moved him last off season I think they could have landed a young player equivalent to an IQ or RJ, if not better.

[LJ2]

Yes but we didnt have success with vc alone. Even bron needed AD. We need to luck out by draft or save big for a big fa when this core is almost peaked

im hoping this core can evolve into a top ten in 2 or three years then pounce on a big name or a drat pick by lucky chance turns great

That's the hope that a couple of these young prospects takes a big leap and we can build a foundation to start moving up the ladder.

[Primer]

Historically and in purely in hindsight, that criteria would be hit or miss in terms of whether that top 4/ROY/all-star was truly good enough to build around, or whether you still needed to find a better alpha to be a legit contender, e.g. Towns, Simmons, Steve Francis, Blake Griffin, Kyrie, Elton Brand, LJ, Coleman, Richmond, Cummings,...

I would argue Minnesota did build around Towns.

[Jclaw]

Statistically yes, his year 3 numbers are better than Kawhi and Giannis. But what does your EYE TEST say?

I hear what you’re saying but the eye test says I wasn’t watching every game of Giannis and Kawhi in their third seasons. They were probably just as awkward and inconsistent at times. Scottie is probably more on the Giannis track (situation wise) as they were both the focus of their teams in year 3 while Kawhi still had Tim and Tony.

[WJF]

I would argue Minnesota did build around Towns.

They did, bu it didn’t work until Edwards became the #1 guy bumping KAT down a notch.

[A.I]

They did, bu it didn’t work until Edwards became the #1 guy bumping KAT down a notch.

I'd credit Gobert more than Ant for how good the Wolves have been this season. The guy completely changes the defense on whatever team he goes to. He gets heavily downplayed by fans.

Ant is a better #1 option for the team than KAT is though.

[saints91]

It feels like each year we question Scottie and then he proves us wrong. If this is what he is doing in year 3, why are we putting a cap on his abilities?

[G____Deane]

It feels like each year we question Scottie and then he proves us wrong. If this is what he is doing in year 3, why are we putting a cap on his abilities?

I think it's more frustration at the lack of perceived direction from management and overall lack of team of success than Scottie particularly. At least it should be.

[golden]

I'd credit Gobert more than Ant for how good the Wolves have been this season. The guy completely changes the defense on whatever team he goes to. He gets heavily downplayed by fans.

Ant is a better #1 option for the team than KAT is though.

Yep. If a superstar becomes available in trade, Wolves would offer KAT long before they'd make Ant & Gobert available. They are building "with" KAT..... not "around" KAT. They tried a few iterations to build "around" KAT and it didn't work... which was great, because they sucked enough to get the #1 pick (Edwards).

The question is if Scottie is more like a KAT type of "build with" guy, and if we're still looking for the actual guy.

[Kagemusha]

Is everything forgiven around here?
All good?

[LJ2]

Yep. If a superstar becomes available in trade, Wolves would offer KAT long before they'd make Ant & Gobert available. They are building "with" KAT..... not "around" KAT. They tried a few iterations to build "around" KAT and it didn't work... which was great, because they sucked enough to get the #1 pick (Edwards).

The question is if Scottie is more like a KAT type of "build with" guy, and if we're still looking for the actual guy.

Right now Scottie is being built around, not built with.

[Kagemusha]

Yep. If a superstar becomes available in trade, Wolves would offer KAT long before they'd make Ant & Gobert available. They are building "with" KAT..... not "around" KAT. They tried a few iterations to build "around" KAT and it didn't work... which was great, because they sucked enough to get the #1 pick (Edwards).

The question is if Scottie is more like a KAT type of "build with" guy, and if we're still looking for the actual guy.

Easy answer is they should never stop looking for a top talent to build around.
Helps if they can get a top pick like how Minny got the #1 pick in 2020.
If we can get at least one of 2025's top 3 or maybe even top 5, that's great.

[slaw]

Is everything forgiven around here?
All good?

He's the #1 guy on a NBA team. It's never all good. The pressure is never off. Everything will be analyzed. When they play poorly he will be criticized - sometimes unfairly. When they win, he will be showered with glory - sometimes too much. All part of the gig.

[slaw]

Yep. If a superstar becomes available in trade, Wolves would offer KAT long before they'd make Ant & Gobert available. They are building "with" KAT..... not "around" KAT. They tried a few iterations to build "around" KAT and it didn't work... which was great, because they sucked enough to get the #1 pick (Edwards).

The question is if Scottie is more like a KAT type of "build with" guy, and if we're still looking for the actual guy.

The direction of this team still isn't clear as the signals are muddied. They could go a few different ways this offseason and it won't surprise me. Ultimately, I think they need an elite SG/SF to go with Barnes/RJ but that's easier said than done.