Dante Exum vs. Zach Lavine

[Beer]

I do believe he is currently the better offensive player because of his ability to shoot and finish at the rim. But I actually said that he would TURN OUT to be the far better offensive player. Why do people think Lavine is a finished product? He's the same age as Dante. Lavine has tools and skills that Dante doesn't. Dante has a better feel for the game and playmaking. Both can learn.

I'd lump him in with Trey. He does more bad things than good things on both ends of the floor.

 

[Flc]

This conversation will be one worth having in two years. As I've mentioned before, generally PGs take a moderate leap from year one to year two, and then a major leap from year two to year three, and then minor jumps or regressions after that.

We'll have a very good idea in what we have with Trey next year and Exum the year after. The conversation is fun, but ultimately an exercise in futility, until then.

 

[AlaskanAssassin]

I'm not even sure how this is a question. Zach Lavine is having a much better year than Dante. I'm glad we have Dante. I think he could be REALLY good in a couple years. But Lavine is clearly better right now. In essentially the same minutes per game, Lavine is averaging more points, assists, and rebounds. He also has much higher shooting percentages. Dante is certainly a better defender right now, but he's sort of an anomaly. Not many 19-20 year olds are expected to be good defenders right away. Lavine has much more confidence right now. I'm hoping an off-season of working on physique and developing a left hand will give Dante some confidence.

Who's going to be better in 5 years? Who knows? Let's hope it's Dante.

The biggest think Dante has going for him is that he hasn't played against much competition during his life. Zach had the benefit of playing US High School ball and UCLA. Dante went straight from Australian HS Ball to the NBA. Next year will be much more telling than this one regarding who will be a better player.

 

[seattlejazzfan]

I'm not even sure how this is a question. Zach Lavine is having a much better year than Dante. I'm glad we have Dante. I think he could be REALLY good in a couple years. But Lavine is clearly better right now. In essentially the same minutes per game, Lavine is averaging more points, assists, and rebounds. He also has much higher shooting percentages. Dante is certainly a better defender right now, but he's sort of an anomaly. Not many 19-20 year olds are expected to be good defenders right away. Lavine has much more confidence right now. I'm hoping an off-season of working on physique and developing a left hand will give Dante some confidence.

Who's going to be better in 5 years? Who knows? Let's hope it's Dante.

The biggest think Dante has going for him is that he hasn't played against much competition during his life. Zach had the benefit of playing US High School ball and UCLA. Dante went straight from Australian HS Ball to the NBA. Next year will be much more telling than this one regarding who will be a better player.

In a nutshell, LaVine isn't afraid of the ball and is willing to step on the court and compete on the offensive end of the court. Only one thing worse than sucking - being unwilling or scared to compete.

 

[LogGrad98]

The defensive ability that Dante is showing at his age and lack of experience bodes very well for us. He could turn into a Gary Payton like player. That might be a decent comparison for him, especially if Dante can find some nasty to his game.

 

[framer]

I'm not even sure how this is a question. Zach Lavine is having a much better year than Dante. I'm glad we have Dante. I think he could be REALLY good in a couple years. But Lavine is clearly better right now. In essentially the same minutes per game, Lavine is averaging more points, assists, and rebounds. He also has much higher shooting percentages. Dante is certainly a better defender right now, but he's sort of an anomaly. Not many 19-20 year olds are expected to be good defenders right away. Lavine has much more confidence right now. I'm hoping an off-season of working on physique and developing a left hand will give Dante some confidence.

Who's going to be better in 5 years? Who knows? Let's hope it's Dante.

The biggest think Dante has going for him is that he hasn't played against much competition during his life. Zach had the benefit of playing US High School ball and UCLA. Dante went straight from Australian HS Ball to the NBA. Next year will be much more telling than this one regarding who will be a better player.

You also realize in that game against us that he committed seven turnovers and that isn't even counting the times he was stuffed by Gobert. Any true measure of playing basketball has Exum better than Levine, and Exum's mental game will help him improve at a high rate. Hell, at this point I don't think that Levine is better than Trey. It is interesting to see how many people hate Trey but love Levine when they kind of play the same type of game. Except Trey takes care of the ball.

 

[Cope]

Best part of this thread? Not more than 3 posters I almost guarantee have watched Levine play outside of the games vs. Utah, the dunk contest, and the All Star game - yet they are experts.

There is a some strong opinions with the 'analytics' piece which may or may not be true.

I have watched maybe 3 other TWolves games in which Levine was definitely off his game. You can see the athleticism there... more than Dante and the exciting part for Dante was how athletic he was.
One poster mentioned teaching Exum to have the 'fire' I believe, drive the ball, etc. To me those are things that can't be taught so that is concerning. With Levine can you teach him to produce in the flow of the offense? Both of them have their areas of improvement.

In no way am I supporting Levine over Exum as it is way too early to tell but the night he had against us opened some eyes from the sounds of things.

 

[freakazoid]

Only one thing worse than sucking - being unwilling or scared to compete.

Unless the goal is winning games, of course. You call it scared and I agree, but there's a positive to understanding personal limitations and making an effort not to allow those limitations to hurt the team. If only Trey could understand that concept.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Unless the goal is winning games, of course. You call it scared and I agree, but there's a positive to understanding personal limitations and making an effort not to allow those limitations to hurt the team. If only Trey could understand that concept.

Pretty spot on. Exum is trying to make winning plays by deferring. I think he is a self-aware dude and is trying to hard to run the offense the right way and give us the best chance to win. I do think he is staying a little too far in his lane and I understand our frustration with him.

The good news is ... Exum's development curve is only a problem because we are much better now than we thought we would be. We need to give him an offseason to work on his body and game before we can really judge.

 

[Hekate]

You also realize in that game against us that he committed seven turnovers and that isn't even counting the times he was stuffed by Gobert. Any true measure of playing basketball has Exum better than Levine, and Exum's mental game will help him improve at a high rate. Hell, at this point I don't think that Levine is better than Trey. It is interesting to see how many people hate Trey but love Levine when they kind of play the same type of game. Except Trey takes care of the ball.

I would love to see Exum get blocked. These guys are supposed to make mistakes. At least Lavine tries.

 

[framer]

Best part of this thread? Not more than 3 posters I almost guarantee have watched Levine play outside of the games vs. Utah, the dunk contest, and the All Star game - yet they are experts.

There is a some strong opinions with the 'analytics' piece which may or may not be true.

I have watched maybe 3 other TWolves games in which Levine was definitely off his game. You can see the athleticism there... more than Dante and the exciting part for Dante was how athletic he was.
One poster mentioned teaching Exum to have the 'fire' I believe, drive the ball, etc. To me those are things that can't be taught so that is concerning. With Levine can you teach him to produce in the flow of the offense? Both of them have their areas of improvement.

In no way am I supporting Levine over Exum as it is way too early to tell but the night he had against us opened some eyes from the sounds of things.

I'm not sure you can be an upper crust defender in basketball and not have a little aggression. In the end, I'm not worried about Exum going all hippy on us.

 

[da ThRONe]

Unless the goal is winning games, of course. You call it scared and I agree, but there's a positive to understanding personal limitations and making an effort not to allow those limitations to hurt the team. If only Trey could understand that concept.

Here's the thing you have to try to know what your limitations are, but most importantly which limitations can be over come or simply needs to be avoided.

You threw Burke in this. Unlike most I think Burke's confidence in himself combine with his work ethic is what's going to make him a borderline all-star player. I know his 1-11, 2-19, and 4-22 games does nothing for his fg% which everybody wants to kill him for. However you want a guy who has enough self belief that the next shot is the one to get him started. Now his accuracy has to get consistently better and time will tell if his does. I've seen some player aggression level not be equal with their skill level and with hard work they became stars-megastars. What you don't see are players who are afraid to make mistake in this league just gain that kind of faith in themselves. Can't think of one player.