Good for them! Rochester has a long baseball history. I'm glad they have a new affiliation.
And I'm kind of glad it's my NL team!
☝☝☝
Looks like they were in an even worse situation. Their AAA affiliate was the Fresno Grizzlies. Bears are cool but cross-country flights are not cool.
So the Timberwolves drafted Goose—who are Maverick and Iceman in this scenario? Viper? Merlin?
Also, SG with huge talent plus questions about motivation = Wiggins 2.0?
Sure seems like the easy comparison, his pre-draft quotes weren't exactly inspiring. Maybe Glen made him sit down and promise to play hard?
I like the Rubio acquisition, but it's admittedly not for basketball-related purposes. Although looking at the team's shooting percentages the wings will appreciate someone being able to create easy shots and stats from his time with Booker and Mitchell show he works really well with young players.
Hopefully SBG and others will provide more educated opinions, but I don't really see where this roster is going. You hope KAT and D'Angelo turn into a dynamic duo and Edwards makes good on his talent, sure, but the defense is likely going to be atrocious and is there enough 3pt shooting ability on the wings?
Before the draft, I said anyone but Edwards. The last time I said something like that, it was about Shabazz Muhammad.
Luckily, Rosas knows way more than I do.
shades of JR Rider?
(who, it should be noted, was quite a good -- offensive -- player for a number of years. I just couldn't stand him)
I had forgotten what a miserable return the Wolves got for him when they traded him to Portland: Bill Curley, James Robinson, and the pick that became Paul Grant.
Now, given that his performance nose-dived soon thereafter, that haul probably was appropriate. But for a former 5th pick in the draft, who had averaged 18.8 ppg on an effective FG% above 50 pct over his first three seasons in the league....
I am mostly joking. I think Tolstoy would probably say that all great players are alike; every disappointing player is disappointing in his own way. Maybe Edwards works out, maybe he doesn't, but he probably won't be just like Edwards.
How bad is the defense going to be, really? My understanding was that KAT's defense is better than the national opinion of his defense. First time around, I didn't think Rubio's defense was bad, maybe I'm not remembering correctly.
NBA defensive stats aren't my cup of tea, but I remember stories about improved defense after Towns' injury last year. I found this and am assuming it is legit:
In 33 games this season, the Wolves have allowed 101.8 points per 100 possessions when Towns has been off the floor, and when Towns plays their defensive rating spikes to 114.5
Russell is similar, the team is better defensively without him on the floor throughout his career. Looking at ESPN's Real Plus/Minus KAT is 72 out of 72 centers. Russell ranks 129th out of 138 shooting guards. Again, not sure how well respected the stat is, but it doesn't look great for those two.
Rubio is rated much better--he's 9th out of 95 PGs.
Caveat: I know very little about the details of basketball stats and roster construction, so this could be completely off base here. And, the 72 out of 72 for centers is obviously not good; even if the stat is questionable, it would presumably be better to be higher ranked.
But, I wonder how common it is to have the defense improve when a starter is out. Presumably the backups have some significant deficiency in their game compared to the starters. I would think it could be easier/cheaper to find a bench player who is a plus-defender but not an outstanding scorer, compared to the opposite of that. So, it wouldn't seem completely shocking to me to have a top player's defensive abilities be worse than that of their backup.
plus-minus is valuable, but it doesn't directly scale based on the offensive talent on the floor on the other side. To the degree that KAT is playing against the other team's top offensive players, and when he's off the floor, the other team also tends to have less firepower on the floor, it will be a biased measure.
that said, comparing across starters from other teams is useful.
Good for them! Rochester has a long baseball history. I'm glad they have a new affiliation.
And I'm kind of glad it's my NL team!
☝☝☝
Looks like they were in an even worse situation. Their AAA affiliate was the Fresno Grizzlies. Bears are cool but cross-country flights are not cool.
So the Timberwolves drafted Goose—who are Maverick and Iceman in this scenario? Viper? Merlin?
Also, SG with huge talent plus questions about motivation = Wiggins 2.0?
Sure seems like the easy comparison, his pre-draft quotes weren't exactly inspiring. Maybe Glen made him sit down and promise to play hard?
I like the Rubio acquisition, but it's admittedly not for basketball-related purposes. Although looking at the team's shooting percentages the wings will appreciate someone being able to create easy shots and stats from his time with Booker and Mitchell show he works really well with young players.
Hopefully SBG and others will provide more educated opinions, but I don't really see where this roster is going. You hope KAT and D'Angelo turn into a dynamic duo and Edwards makes good on his talent, sure, but the defense is likely going to be atrocious and is there enough 3pt shooting ability on the wings?
Before the draft, I said anyone but Edwards. The last time I said something like that, it was about Shabazz Muhammad.
Luckily, Rosas knows way more than I do.
shades of JR Rider?
(who, it should be noted, was quite a good -- offensive -- player for a number of years. I just couldn't stand him)
I had forgotten what a miserable return the Wolves got for him when they traded him to Portland: Bill Curley, James Robinson, and the pick that became Paul Grant.
Now, given that his performance nose-dived soon thereafter, that haul probably was appropriate. But for a former 5th pick in the draft, who had averaged 18.8 ppg on an effective FG% above 50 pct over his first three seasons in the league....
I am mostly joking. I think Tolstoy would probably say that all great players are alike; every disappointing player is disappointing in his own way. Maybe Edwards works out, maybe he doesn't, but he probably won't be just like Edwards.
How bad is the defense going to be, really? My understanding was that KAT's defense is better than the national opinion of his defense. First time around, I didn't think Rubio's defense was bad, maybe I'm not remembering correctly.
NBA defensive stats aren't my cup of tea, but I remember stories about improved defense after Towns' injury last year. I found this and am assuming it is legit:
Russell is similar, the team is better defensively without him on the floor throughout his career. Looking at ESPN's Real Plus/Minus KAT is 72 out of 72 centers. Russell ranks 129th out of 138 shooting guards. Again, not sure how well respected the stat is, but it doesn't look great for those two.
Rubio is rated much better--he's 9th out of 95 PGs.
Caveat: I know very little about the details of basketball stats and roster construction, so this could be completely off base here. And, the 72 out of 72 for centers is obviously not good; even if the stat is questionable, it would presumably be better to be higher ranked.
But, I wonder how common it is to have the defense improve when a starter is out. Presumably the backups have some significant deficiency in their game compared to the starters. I would think it could be easier/cheaper to find a bench player who is a plus-defender but not an outstanding scorer, compared to the opposite of that. So, it wouldn't seem completely shocking to me to have a top player's defensive abilities be worse than that of their backup.
plus-minus is valuable, but it doesn't directly scale based on the offensive talent on the floor on the other side. To the degree that KAT is playing against the other team's top offensive players, and when he's off the floor, the other team also tends to have less firepower on the floor, it will be a biased measure.
that said, comparing across starters from other teams is useful.
Arecibo Observatory to be shut down rather than repaired. NSF determined the repairs are too dangerous and instead it will be decommissioned. I hope something new takes it place for some hidden* base in a future Bond film.
* I don't know how a 305 meter observatory could be a hidden base.
Contact would be a better movie for Arecibo's epitaph
Anyone want a large K? Last seen blocking a major thoroughfare.
Gift-giving season is coming....
Could be the best white elephant gift ever.