This idea is branching from discussions that stemmed in the NBA forum between Wolfenstein, The Merry Prankster, and myself, among others...

Who is more maddening to you as a Wolves fan, B-Easy or Wes Johnson?

Discuss. I'll start in a subsequent post.

My short answer: Wes frustrates me more. He has a fantastic NBA body. He has a great looking stroke. He is explosive and athletic. By all accounts, he is an intelligent and clean citizen. He has good physical dimensions for a wing player in the NBA. He has all of the physical tools.

My long answer: Wes frustrates me more. Beasley is a bit of a headcase, I cannot deny that, but I would argue that on the court, between the lines, Wes is even more of a headcase, just not in the traditional sense. Seriously, has Wes Johnson ever broken a sweat in an NBA game? I'm only half-joking. Has he ever frowned or mean mugged instead of smiled and grinned? Has he ever shouted instructions at teammates or been vocal on the court in any way? I cannot recall instances of any of these assets of a productive and involved player/teammate.

Bease is probably more up and down than Wes. He has great games, and he has bad ones. But can you really say his inconsistency is worse than Wes' consistency, when Wes' consistency consists of consistenly bad play (sorry I just wanted to see how many times I could use that word in a sentence)? And is Beasley's personality on the court really worse than Wes Johnson's? I mean, at least sometimes Beas gets pumped up, breaks a sweat, shouts defensive instructions to teammates, talks to refs, and makes aggressive plays. Wes is so passive and just wastes. Wastes playing time, wastes open driving lanes, wastes open passing lanes, wastes open 2 point looks, etc.

Oh wow, this is good. I just went to 82games.com to look at some detailed Wes Johnson stats. 89% of his shots are jumpers. 89%!!!! And he is super athletic! And he shoots less than 40% on the season! He averages less than 1 FT a game, and he is a starting swingman.

Well, at least Wes averages 0.8 assists per game. My goodness, I quit.

I wish we could put Wayne Ellington's head and heart in Wes Johnson's body. Then we would have a keeper.

Co-sign that biatch. Literally nothing to add. Answer is Wes.

At least Beasley is funny off the court, like in N'Syn parodies.

I am calculating an advanced statistic called, "Bitchassness" which calculates how much contact is deliberately avoided throughout the course of a game, on either end of the court. Wes is leading the league in this category and is running away with it. It's all a bit complicated, so I'll spare you all the numbers crunch. Just trust Daddy.

BonK wrote: Awesomeness. I could not agree more. That would be a perfect combo (plus it would save us a roster spot haha!)

P.S. HOWL for your other comment. Perfect analysis and well articulated.

Wes def frustrates me more...At least with Beasley, I know I'm going to get shitty defense, but he's going to wow you here and there with his offensive game...Wes on the other hand? He literally makes me want to vomit 95% of the time..and when he's having a somewhat decent game, it all goes away very quickly

You know, Wes is less good. This is obvious. And I agree with everything Bonk said about him having the tools, not being a weirdo, etc.

Here's the thing. My expectations of Wes are so much lower than Beasley and the list of things I want Beasley to stop doing so he would be much, much better is SO short, that Beasley drives me more nuts.

Example: Beasley needs to stop holding the ball every time he touches it. Every once in a while he actually acts decisively and makes quick decisions and it is usually a good thing.

Next example: Beasley can and should score between 20-30 points/48 minutes. Wes will not do that at this point in his career (even though he has the tools to). Beasley disappoints me every time he goes out and throws a dud.

Those are just 2 examples, I know there are more. My point is that Beasley right now is so much better than Wes that it bothers me that he doesn't make the 3 or 4 responsible and simple decisions to be really, really good. Plus my expectations of him are higher. So for me Beasley is more disappointing.

However, that statistic on 89% of Wes's shots being jumpshots? R U serius? Awful. Get to the rack. If he ever figures that out he could be a good player in the half court.

I looked again at Beasley's stats yesterday. Considering the fact that he is only playing around 22 mpg this season vs about 32 mpg last - roughly a 1/3 difference - his stats kind of even out. His FG%, FT% 3Pt% are all close to last season's and close to his career averages. So, then my question becomes,"Why doesn't he play more?" Headcases who can put 20 PPG usually don't have any trouble getting significant minutes in the NBA. I have generally high regard for Adelman and his coaching abilities. Can't he get through to Beas?

Because Beasley scoring 20 ppg does not translate to wins. It just means he scored 20 points and probably jacked up a ton of shots to get there.

roundhouse wrote: Truth.

Remember that Wages of Wins link I posted a while back??? Beasley was the 51st highest rater player.... amongst SF. Like, in the entire league. So basically, most teams in the entire league have TWO SF's better than Beasley.

To me it's Beasley. Wes sucks, has no game, can jump but is a stiff, Wes can practice all he wants but will never have the natural skills that Beasley has, so he is useless. Beasley is more frustrating because he has all the talent in the world. If he can only focus or care he would be an All Star. It's frustrating because the Timberwolves starting SF position is right there for him to take and run with, but his pea size brain can't focus enough to do that.

So, Beasley is more frustrating because he has All Star skills and Wes will never come close to have those type of skills.

wolfenstein wrote:
Another example, Beasley can get the rim WHENEVER he wants. When he attacks and gets the rim good things happen, like against Houston. But, he settle for the jumpshot too much, even when the defender is right in his face.

There are very few power forwards in the league that can guard Beasley's combination of speed, ballhandling, and shooting. The only problem is that he's not aggressive enough and settles for bad shots most of the time. When he does drive, he has a propensity to miss those close shots for whatever reason.

He's the exact same player that he was as a rookie and has no desire to get better. I think the chances he ever "figures it out" are very slim. He's following the same career arc as Tyrus Thomas. Which is to say, there is no arc, it's a flatline.

In a vacuum, I would obviously take Beas over Wes. In real life, Beas is a free agent that will be looking for as much money as possible and Wes is not. That settles that.

roundhouse wrote:
If I had a vacuum, I'd suck the sand out of Wes' vag so he didn't tread so gingerly on the court.

If I had a vacuum, I'd suck the air out of Kahn's head and we would have never picked up the team option on Wes' contract.