NBA: **Cyclones in the NBA and G-League, 2019-2020

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I-stateTheTruth

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The season kicks off tomorrow (10/22) and we have more guys to follow than in recent memory, albeit not a lot of expected impact players. I'll try to post clips and guys' lines on here. Last year, we had quite a bit of discussion on Monte, who remains the hot bet to get the most PT of ex ISU guys. Here's where they are, with my thoughts on their expected impact on the team to start the season (I don't claim to be an expert).

Monte Morris - Denver Nuggets. Established himself last year as a solid role-player off the bench, with his usual ball security and reliability to go with an improving shot. Denver has a LOT of depth; we'll see how this impacts Big Game.

Georges Niang - Utah Jazz. From what I can take from pre-season, Georges will have some work to do to get up to a, say, 10-minute guy on a nightly basis. He didn't shoot well in pre-season and the Jazz have need shooting. He did have a good run for them in playoffs so I think they trust him on the court; I'm just not sure if Q. Snyder thinks they NEED him with the additions they've made.

Abdel Nader & Deonte Burton - OKC Thunder. It feels to me like Nader still has the advantage over DB for playing time; I think he'll get rotation minutes. Both will be impacted by Andre Roberson's expected return though. I'd hope that Nader will shoot the deep ball more consistently and that Deonte can be more consistent overall (his shooting, too, needs to improve).

Matt Thomas - Toronto Raptors. From NIck Nurse's recent press conference, it seems like he feels like Matt can help on the offensive end but is not yet confident in his D being NBA-level. No surprise there. Hopefully, Matty Ice can work his way into a specialist role as a shooter but I'm guessing minutes will be sparing early on.

Talen Horton-Tucker - LA Lakers - Talen's health is the first issue to deal with. He still has an injured foot and was held out of pre-season. When he makes it back, he'll be behind the curve in conditioning and the speed of NBA play so I wonder if we'll see him with some G-League time. My expectations aren't high for much of an impact in his first season.

Marial Shayok - 2-way contract Philadelphia 76ers - I think that the 76ers are hopeful that Shayok can contribute some in the next few years. He got some pre-season PT and did OK. He has the size to guard multiple positions and be a 3-and-D guy.

Naz Mitrou-Long - 2-way contract Indiana Pacers - Naz is older than most 2-way guys from what I can tell. I wonder if he's kind of an insurance policy. There haven't really been a lot of indications from Indiana that they're looking for contributions from him but I guess sometimes it comes down to doing well when there is a chance brought on by roster moves or injuries or something. He didn't get much PT in pre-season games so I assume he'll mostly be at Ft. Wayne with their G-League club.

Lindell Wigginton - Iowa Wolves (I think). 3 Canadians in a row. It seems official that he'll play in Des Moines this year.

Bubu Palo - Sioux F. Skyforce - It seems he's coming back for - what? - his 6th year or so in the G- League. Might be time to try to get paid overseas a little as he hasn't seen an NBA regular season game yet.

Did I miss anyone? (I don't count Wes Johnson).
 

I-stateTheTruth

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The season opens with 2 games Tuesday on TNT that may or may not involve ex-Cyclones:

Toronto at 8pm ET / 7 pm CT, followed by the two LA teams. My assumption is that THT will not be dressed for the game on TNT but that's just a guess.

 

I-stateTheTruth

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On Wednesday night, the Nuggets are on ESPN at 10pm ET/ 9 pm CT.

That same night, there could be some Cyclone-on-Cyclone action as the Jazz take on the Thunder. I don't think that there's national TV for that one.
 

Cyientist

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Great summary.

I think Monte's minutes may go down unless they are riddled with injuries again. Even though his minutes may take a hit, I think he'll be even more efficient than last year. That second unit with Grant and Beasley will be able to put some points on the board, and that should help a distributing PG like Monte. Seemed like teams started putting some length to disrupt Monte during the playoffs last year, and that really effected his performance. I don't think they will be able to do so this year without causing other match-up problems.

I feel like THT is just going to be buried in the G-League most of this year, which is probably good for him developmentally.

Niang has a bit of a battle as always, but I think he works his way into getting consistent minutes.

I think Matt Thomas will score more points than Niang this year.

This feels like Naz's last chance to crack a roster. I think Tyler Cook is Indianapolis' other 2-way player.
 

I-stateTheTruth

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Great summary.

I think Monte's minutes may go down unless they are riddled with injuries again. Even though his minutes may take a hit, I think he'll be even more efficient than last year. That second unit with Grant and Beasley will be able to put some points on the board, and that should help a distributing PG like Monte. Seemed like teams started putting some length to disrupt Monte during the playoffs last year, and that really effected his performance. I don't think they will be able to do so this year without causing other match-up problems.

I feel like THT is just going to be buried in the G-League most of this year, which is probably good for him developmentally.

Niang has a bit of a battle as always, but I think he works his way into getting consistent minutes.

I think Matt Thomas will score more points than Niang this year.

This feels like Naz's last chance to crack a roster. I think Tyler Cook is Indianapolis' other 2-way player.
I agree with all this except I don't know what to think about the Thomas-Niang prediction. It's plausible though. I'm just not sure yet if he'll get on the court much. But that dude can stumble out of bed and hit a 3.

And you're right about THT - a year in the G League would be good for him, I think. Too bad Georges only got like 6 games there his first year, which the Pacers wasted.
 
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Cyientist

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I agree with all this except I don't know what to think about the Thomas-Niang prediction. It's plausible though. I'm just not sure yet if he'll get on the court much. But that dude can stumble out of bed and hit a 3.

And you're right about THT - a year in the G League would be good for him, I think. Too bad Georges only got like 6 games there his first year, which the Pacers wasted.

Yeah, my Thomas-Niang thing was more of a bold prediction.

Thanks for firing this thread up again. Should be a fun season. I bit the bullet and bought NBA league pass. I love watching the Nuggets' games, and am hoping that I will be wanting to watch the Jazz and Raptors as well. I could just see myself tracking the games online wishing I was watching them, so I decided to go ahead with it.
 

srjclone

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The season kicks off tomorrow (10/22) and we have more guys to follow than in recent memory, albeit not a lot of expected impact players. I'll try to post clips and guys' lines on here. Last year, we had quite a bit of discussion on Monte, who remains the hot bet to get the most PT of ex ISU guys. Here's where they are, with my thoughts on their expected impact on the team to start the season (I don't claim to be an expert).

Monte Morris - Denver Nuggets. Established himself last year as a solid role-player off the bench, with his usual ball security and reliability to go with an improving shot. Denver has a LOT of depth; we'll see how this impacts Big Game.

Georges Niang - Utah Jazz. From what I can take from pre-season, Georges will have some work to do to get up to a, say, 10-minute guy on a nightly basis. He didn't shoot well in pre-season and the Jazz have need shooting. He did have a good run for them in playoffs so I think they trust him on the court; I'm just not sure if Q. Snyder thinks they NEED him with the additions they've made.

Abdel Nader & Deonte Burton - OKC Thunder. It feels to me like Nader still has the advantage over DB for playing time; I think he'll get rotation minutes. Both will be impacted by Andre Roberson's expected return though. I'd hope that Nader will shoot the deep ball more consistently and that Deonte can be more consistent overall (his shooting, too, needs to improve).

Matt Thomas - Toronto Raptors. From NIck Nurse's recent press conference, it seems like he feels like Matt can help on the offensive end but is not yet confident in his D being NBA-level. No surprise there. Hopefully, Matty Ice can work his way into a specialist role as a shooter but I'm guessing minutes will be sparing early on.

Talen Horton-Tucker - LA Lakers - Talen's health is the first issue to deal with. He still has an injured foot and was held out of pre-season. When he makes it back, he'll be behind the curve in conditioning and the speed of NBA play so I wonder if we'll see him with some G-League time. My expectations aren't high for much of an impact in his first season.

Marial Shayok - 2-way contract Philadelphia 76ers - I think that the 76ers are hopeful that Shayok can contribute some in the next few years. He got some pre-season PT and did OK. He has the size to guard multiple positions and be a 3-and-D guy.

Naz Mitrou-Long - 2-way contract Indiana Pacers - Naz is older than most 2-way guys from what I can tell. I wonder if he's kind of an insurance policy. There haven't really been a lot of indications from Indiana that they're looking for contributions from him but I guess sometimes it comes down to doing well when there is a chance brought on by roster moves or injuries or something. He didn't get much PT in pre-season games so I assume he'll mostly be at Ft. Wayne with their G-League club.

Lindell Wigginton - Iowa Wolves (I think). 3 Canadians in a row. It seems official that he'll play in Des Moines this year.

Bubu Palo - Sioux F. Skyforce - It seems he's coming back for - what? - his 6th year or so in the G- League. Might be time to try to get paid overseas a little as he hasn't seen an NBA regular season game yet.

Did I miss anyone? (I don't count Wes Johnson).
Thanks for the write up. I do believe that the Wolves parted ways with Lindell unfortunately. They may pick him up for the G League, but I know he is no longer with the Wolves at this time.
 
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LLCoolCY

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Thanks for the write up. I do believe that the Wolves parted ways with Lindell unfortunately. They may pick him up for the G League, but I know he is no longer with the Wolves at this time.


Lindell was waived from the Minnesota T-Wolves roster but signed a Exhibit 10 deal with Iowa Wolves. Local reported replied to the referenced tweet.

@DWolfsonKSTP Exhibit 10 deals. More talent for the Iowa Wolves (where Murphy and Wigginton will land). #Twolves
 

srjclone

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Lindell was waived from the Minnesota T-Wolves roster but signed a Exhibit 10 deal with Iowa Wolves. Local reported replied to the referenced tweet.

@DWolfsonKSTP Exhibit 10 deals. More talent for the Iowa Wolves (where Murphy and Wigginton will land). #Twolves
Yup, you are right. Once he clears waivers he is expected to sign with the I-Wolves
 

Bewilderme

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Thanks for the write up. I do believe that the Wolves parted ways with Lindell unfortunately. They may pick him up for the G League, but I know he is no longer with the Wolves at this time.

At the time the thought was they waived him and he was willing to be picked up by the Iowa Wolves. Not sure if that's official or not though.
 

I-stateTheTruth

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About a 4-minute interview with Georges after a recent Jazz practice. Kind of an interesting listen (and not just because whatever AI tries to do the captioning misses quite a bit) as they talk about team defense. You may not want to be drinking anything because Georges talks about being a "lock-down defender" and we remember him at ISU. He HAS improved a great deal on that end and he rebounds pretty well, too.

https://www.nba.com/jazz/video/team..._twitter_natural_practice&utm_content=natural
 

I-stateTheTruth

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Man, I'm excited for Matt. Like all the other guys we have in the NBA at the moment, he's really had to work at his craft. Until he went off for the Laker's summer league team after his senior year, it never occurred to me that the could play in the Association but hitting that 3-ball is a big deal now. Here's hoping he gets some chances to show he belongs.



When I've coached some shooting, I've used shots of Matt's form. Poetry indeed.

 

I-stateTheTruth

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srjclone

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Awesome. It works in a recruiting thread, too.

Amazing that Texas has 11 because they really haven't had a ton of success in the tourney. And we have Syracuse doubled at the moment.
For sure, but off the top of my head half of those 11 have to be from before 2011. All really good players too. Aldridge, Durant, PJ Tucker, Avery Bradley to name a few. All of the recent Texas prospects are typically big men and people who show flashes of being great but never put it all together in their 1-2 years there.
 
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I-stateTheTruth

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Matt Thomas got a DNP last night in Toronto's opener. I'm sure that's disappointing for the Ice Man but I'm sure he'll keep working to get his chance.

Denver takes on Portland tonight at 10PM ET / 9PM CT in a chance to see Big Game's opener. He will definitely get some PT.
 

Cyientist

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Matt Thomas got a DNP last night in Toronto's opener. I'm sure that's disappointing for the Ice Man but I'm sure he'll keep working to get his chance.

Denver takes on Portland tonight at 10PM ET / 9PM CT in a chance to see Big Game's opener. He will definitely get some PT.

Utah and the Thunder play at 8 CT too. Just a reminder to Direct TV subscribers that the NBA League Pass has a free preview this week. The channels should already be there, so you don't have to worry about adding and cancelling before they start charging.
 
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