Could Jonathan Kuminga be Aaron Gordon 2.0?

0:00Judd here, and I want to talk to you about my friends at Victory Tire in Otto, where they believe in relationships and their goals to serve customers for the long-term with personalized trustworthy and consistent service. A family-owned business established right here in Minnesota in 1997. Victory has an industry leading 5-year, 50,000-mile warranty on all new parts in labor. Schedule an appointment at any of their 20-plus Twin Cities area locations. Just go to victorytirean Otto.com. You will also get complimentary multipoint safety inspection with every service appointment. You will have direct text communication with your service advisors about your vehicle as well. You can request appointments and ask questions. I've used Victory before, and I'm going to tell you right now, great customer service, great waiting room area, really, really comfortable. All of your questions answered and fast, efficient work as well. 22 locations again in Minnesota as well as O'Clayer Wisconsin and even one at St. Petersburg, Florida, quality work genuine care for all of life's miles at Victory Tire and Otto. Saturday, September 26, two of Combat Sports Most Dangerous Strikers collide.

1:04Bear Knuckle Liverpool's own down in the Gorilla Tilt goes to war with Cuban Powerhouse, LL Soldier of God Romero. Plus the Bear Knuckle Midow Head Championship of the world is on the line when the rating Champ Dave Veredneck Mundell defends against undefeated British challenger, Jack Demeek-Pleaver-Colin, BKFC 94, Tilt vs. Romero. Watch it live only on the zone. Sign up now at Dizone.com. I have not been in Minnesota in probably 20 years. Brain Yes. Welcome to Flakern House, a Minnesota-Temperable's Lifestyle Podcast. Alrighty, it's a feedback Friday here on Flaggren House. We got the Sports Dad Judd Zilgad in the house over there, producer, artist woods, and time-film-acquiem. Before we get to some of you guys, the audience, your questions, and there's a really fun take that we're going to start with here that I think makes some sense.

2:04Shout out to TSR Injury Law for powering this feedback Friday today, Judd. Absolutely. You've seen Steve Terry, who you can see right there with those three handsome guys at the State Fair. You've seen him at Wolves Games. He's obviously a huge Wolves fan. But you know what? While he enjoys watching the action on the court, Steve does his best work in the court. That's the courtroom. TSR Injury Law does a great job. Steven is a team, aren't just lawyers. They are members of our community dedicated to making Minnesota safe for everyone. So if you've been in a car accident or another situation where someone else's negligence has caused you harm or a loved one harm, don't hesitate. TSR, they're local. They're effective. Started to firm almost 30 years ago. So get a higher level of representation by calling 612 TSR time, 612 TSR time. I'm going to tell you right now, Steve Terry, it's a hell of a point guard when it comes to working in the courtroom. Look at that.

3:05Just weave it in those basketball references. He loves the action on the court. He's great in the court. What more can the man do? So feedback Friday, you can always hit us up in the Flagler House YouTube comment section, the feedback tab in the Scornorth app if you want to email the show. I will say the last three weeks, people are thrilled that producer artists is back. People are very excited for your takes and your presence on Flagler House. Hopefully you feel the love of artists from the audience. TSR I do. I do and I appreciate it. I definitely appreciate it. The Flagler House family, the Tim Woolf's family, they have welcomed me in. The fans, they have welcomed me in. And that's been happening since I've been knowing for a while, it takes like four years ago. So I'm very, I'm very appreciative. Well, has been for years. It's been a while. Maybe a couple years, two years. But I've been super appreciative to all the love and support and it definitely doesn't go unnoticed. So thank you guys. Thank you. I can see you to do my best for you all. Well let's dive into some of the feedback here. This one's from, it's from a couple of weeks ago when the Kaminga signing went down.

4:07Bailey Jensen. And the question is, could Jonathan Kaminga be Aaron Gordon 2.0? And so Bailey says, I don't have the stats in front of me. But if I remember correctly, Aaron Gordon was a high volume low efficiency athletic freak of a player for the magic and kind of trying to be their franchise guy, then in Denver, Tim Connolly traded for Aaron Gordon and got him to buy into an elite role player role. And he leaped up to pretty close to a star player level, reaching his potential next to the offensive engine that was yokich and then Jamal Murray. He became the third guy in a really good player with Kaminga coming to the wolves. Once again, Tim Connolly, I can't help but see the similarities. Kaminga, similarly athletic, kind of a streaky shooter, offensive skills involve cutting and slashing. And so putting him next to an offensive engine like Lamello and an elite shooting guard

5:09like Ant feels an awful lot like what happened with Aaron Gordon in Denver. I wonder if that had anything to do with selling him on coming to play for the Timber Wolves could be a dream scenario for both parties. We'd love to hear your guys thoughts on this and maybe even some deeper analysis and numbers comparisons on the matter. So by the way, so I did look this up here. It's a little different in that Denver circa like 2022. I think like yokich is a different engine than maybe Lamello, but in both cases, excellent passers and can take advantage of athletic cutting players. But yeah, like Aaron Gordon, like with the magic, he could make threes, but he wasn't a great shooter and maybe didn't get the open looks that he has been getting with Denver. I mean, he's emerged the last three years as like a high volume knocked down three point shooter. So, what do you guys think? Was the Aaron Gordon Denver comparison ring at all for what Jonathan Kamega could be

6:12here? I'll take it. I just go ahead. Okay. Okay. Yeah. I believe so. I believe he can fit that role. He has all the physical traits and all the skills to do. So he is kind of like a streaky shooter, but just like Aaron Gordon, he could work on his shot and improve with time as well. He's already told he's a pretty solid on ball defender, physical guy, speed, athleticism. He's all there. My biggest thing and I brought this up before is just him making sure that he's fully bought into the role. And I think it's going to be given take, you know, where Aaron Gordon, he's more Swiss army life can kind of do it all on the floor, can even facilitate a bit, but he was okay within that role, helping the Denver Nuggets, ascent ultimately to a championship a couple years ago. In the case of Kamega, the first thing I said when we signed Jonathan Kamega, if you remember Phil, the first thing I said was Kamega's a bucket. Like he's no more, am I paying for his scoring prowess than he is for his defense. And so one thing that's been slightly alarming to me is we've heard Matt Lloyd talk about

7:18it. We heard Anthony Edwards talk about it. I didn't bring this up on the last episode of Flagor House, but Chris Finch also talked about how can Kamega solidify himself in a starting lineup. And Chris Finch said, you know, hey, he's got to make our defense elite. All of the talk has been about his defense. There hasn't really been any talk about his offense. And so I think in order to get the best out of Jonathan Kamega, I think there are going to have to, you know, give them a ball from time to time, let them do this thing, run a couple plays through him just to keep him engaged on a defensive side of the ball, to keep him in the role that they want him to play. But if they do that and it works out that way, then I absolutely think he can be another Aaron Gordon. He fits that prototype perfectly. It's funny because I wonder what he wants to because it's one of your contracts. Like it's definitely he is, he will never have a more important season personally than this one. And so that's an interesting role to compare him to because I don't know what he sees

8:19himself as far as his potential here and in what the future might hold. It's a good comparison. Gordon's a good player, but at the end of the day, what's coming a trying to prove here? And I think it's a few things. One is definitely wants to maximize his game. If he plays defense, it's going to show a side of him that I think people currently doubt. And furthermore than if he plays as well as he thinks he can on this contract, he's going to get himself a payday, could be here elsewhere. So Gordon always seemed to me like a really, really good fit in his role, but artist to your point. With Kamenko, we keep talking about what he's going to do. And it will help him the most to try to fit in as best as possible. Because I think that will show a side of him as a player that the league right now doubts if that makes sense. You know, I just looking at the Gordon contract parameters kind of going in when he was

9:21traded from Orlando to Denver, I think he was, I think he had maybe like a year left on what was actually a $20 million a year contract. And then he signed a similar extension for like $20 million a year. So he didn't have to go down to whatever was $6 million worth of that. Kamenko's going on too. But in both cases, kind of playing for credibility and playing for a contract with Gordon being at the end of a contract cycle. And for him to settle in and be a little bit of a lower shot volume, taken like four fewer shots per game than he did at his peak with Orlando. There is a sacrifice that's needed. I absolutely think there's some validity to the comparison. And yeah, there's probably not to artist's point enough discussion about what Kamenko can bring offensively. It's easy to talk about. He's not a great three point shooter, but he brings a lot of other things offensively. Like just one last thing on the Denver five years ago comparison when they brought in Aaron Gordon. Obviously, Yoke Hitch and Murray were the driving forces for offense and the two best players

10:23on that team and high profile players. But they don't win a title without the two versatile athletic forwards that help round out that starting lineup, which is Michael Porter, Jr. and Aaron Gordon. Two guys that if you needed them to stretch and shoot a little bit, they could, if you needed them to play defense and rebound to be big bodies, they could, they could cut. And they were very interchangeable defensively too. You know, it's not quite apples to apples, but can Jayden McDaniels and John and the Kamenko kind of be those athletic versatile forwards two way players that can flank your two high profile guys on offense. Anthony Edwards and Lamella ball. So I, it's not perfect. It's not apples to apples exactly, but the fact that Tim Connelly is a through line from Aaron Gordon adding him to Denver, winds up being a championship final piece. And then Kamenko here, definitely a comparison to keep an eye out for sure.

11:24Okay. Let's see here. Okay. From Shane, Shane F in the YouTube comments. ESPN did their rankings of three year outlook power rankings for each team looking at different variables on the rosters. And they ranked the Timmerwolves 16th for a three year outlook. And Shane says this while the underrates the roster and leadership of this team as usual. And last was a couple days ago, we talked about or maybe it was last week, whatever. We talked about how many players are 26 or younger on this team right now. So I know we don't we're not going through every team on this list, but like the 16 feel a little low when you're ranking three year outlooks for teams in the NBA artists are there. Absolutely. I don't see how the wolves come in at 16. I just don't. First off, you have you have Anthony Edwards.

12:24You have a superstar already in place. You have a core for the most part already in place. That's already been to the conference finals multiple years. I just don't understand how I would love to know that the 15 teams ahead of them here. I got for it. I got to. Okay. So okay, see in San Antonio, our numbers one and two. And then you got Boston. The rockets, the nicks, the pistons. Charlotte is seventh. Charlotte. Yeah. I don't get this. Super interesting dude. Uh, okay, the sixers at eight. I guess I guess Jalen Brown is in his prime and Tyrese Maxi, but I can tell you who ain't going to be around in three years is LeBron and Joellen Bede. So yeah, if they're even healthy, and beat us less chance to be around three years, that's a great question. If you had to bet who's still going to be in the lead in the bronze of now LeBron or Joellen Bede.

13:24I like all of brown to Atlanta Cleveland Toronto 11. Indiana 12. Interesting. Lakers 13. Oh my God, dude. The heat 14, the jazz are 15. I thought this list. And then the Timmerwolves are 16. And it talks about the three year outlook, you know, you know, Rudy Gobert is getting older. The level of success, the wolves will have the season will certainly play a role in a new contract for Anthony outboard. So we're doing the will he. Oh, we're on that. We're already there, huh? Okay. So that's so there's so much. The jazz. You're telling me right now, gone to the head three year window, who's got the better outlook. The jazz or the Timmerwolves and you're taking the jazz? Dude, absolutely not. Absolutely. But like you just said, that has to have everything to do with the fact that you're banking on Anthony Evers potentially leaving Minnesota. That's the only way this makes any sense.

14:26And even then, I still kind of like the Timmerwolves outlook more than Utah's. Where shall I like to, I like their outlook a little bit more than the Hornets. Like I like their outlook a lot more than a good amount of teams on this list. Where should, where should they be seven in place to Charlotte? For sure, top 10 for three year outlook. So you've got, you get literally of 20, five year old Anthony Edwards and Lamello Ball. Yeah. Jaden McDaniels, Johan Berraje. What if that dude turns, turns into a monster? They're not considering him. 20 years old, dude. Clearly he's being dismissed. Well, actually, if you dig to the bottom of the wolves right up, there is a bold prediction for the next three years is Johan Berraje will win most improved player by 2030. Then what are they doing? Uh, but then that, that, that would help make up clearly for the loss of go bear. It's on the bold side though.

15:27Yeah, it's just, I would say Charlotte's the first one that stopped me. So I, I would say at the very least like the wolves should be seven. All right, it's Dex here. The weight is over. Football is here. And so is draft Kings. Draft Kings is now live in all 50 states. One app, every sport nationwide. New draft Kings customers sign up with code Howls. Spend five bucks to get $200 in rewards within 21 days includes all markets. That's code Howls in partnership with draft Kings. The crown is yours. Gambling problem called 1-800-Gamber. 1-800-Myreset. Connecticut call 888-7897777 or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of boot hill casino in Kansas, bed tax pass through may apply in Illinois. 21 and over, void in Canada. Bed with draft Kings sportsbook to get bonus bets that expire in seven days or trade with draft Kings predictions to get predictions dollars that expire in one year. A vent contract trading involves risk of loss. Predictions offer void in New York. Nonwithdrawable rewards issued as $50 clicked to claims every seven days for 21 days.

16:30Terms at DKNG.co slash offer limited time offer nationwide based on sportsbook predictions and free to play sports contest availability varies by state. When it's time to scale your business, it's time for Shopify. Everything you need to grow the way you want. Like all the way. Stack more sales with the best converting checkout on the planet. Track your cha-chings from every channel right in one spot and turn real-time reporting into big time opportunities. Take your business to a whole new level. Switch to Shopify. Start your free trial today. Brandon Miller is, if they've got some talent, they've got some talent. Conconn, conconnepal obviously. But to me, Charlotte Charlotte just Charlotte just lost their engine offensively and are kind of acting like we can we can just punt on the mellow ball and miles bridges and then you know bring in a couple of role players and not as read and continue forward. I mean, it's they got a lot to prove after those trades too.

17:33If we're talking three years, I'd make the argument that some will should be in the top five. To me, that should be the top five. I can't. Besides if you put, okay, see there if you put San Antonio there, obviously with Wimbee with SGA, I get it. Maybe for three years you put Miami in there. Maybe. But it's not too many other teams. I'm looking at that should be above the rules right now. Maybe again, maybe we're too high on them guys. Maybe we're a little too high on them and everybody hasn't caught on yet. I don't foresee them not being in the top team and even seven feels a little far to me. I just 16. Can I air a grape though? Something I'm sick of. Why are we why are why okay, Ant Edward returned once on a contract on a big contract? Why are we doing this again? Like there's a lot of it. Conkinepple can't leave short like he could look around to be like Charlotte. I I don't want to be here anymore.

18:33Like why are I don't understand why Minnesota sports teams and we're all look we're insecure. I know that in the state, but why are we always the ones being like I don't know if Ant's going to want to be there. Like the dude has said nothing that would lead to believe he wants out and furthermore he already signed here. Yeah, there's there's been to this point. The insecurity has been very low. I feel like inside the house here like in terms of there's been but why it's all a bit but but this is what this is what happened. And you know finally it actually happened in Milwaukee, but three years like. Yeah, the the the honest discussions and and they've done this with with other kind of smaller market teams too, but you know, it's as long as the wolves are continuing to be aggressive, put it to they literally brought Ant into the team building process this summer. And I mean, this these are not this is Tim Connelly speaking publicly in Chris Finch talking about. All right. So if we're going to go after this, it's going to cost us this.

19:37What are your thoughts? You know, and he's got opinions on that. And they stopped as far they didn't quite go as far as saying, Aunt Green lit the Nas Reed trade, but you can surmise that they were Ant was very much involved in the conversation. Are you are you excited if we were to trade for Lamellabal or Yannis before, you know, that went sideways to the Miami. If I got a title, so if Ant leaves in I don't know, take your pick a few years and he leaves behind an L O B in the target center lobby. Okay. I'll talk to you about that then like like like last I mean, Yannis left behind a freaking title. It was it was mission accomplished in Milwaukee. I know that like I think hardcore fans and artists, you have we both have family in Milwaukee. I think fans say it was a nice to have more than one, but like you got one, you got one and a league where it's hard to get. Yeah, when that parade is going down when when 94 is closed because the parade float is going down there, you know what? That's pretty damn good. Okay.

20:37Or maybe maybe they're closing 169 because the parades going down to mystic lake. I said, I said, you're going to say man, can I know? Let's go say, go and Taylor doesn't. Oh, yeah, we could keep going. But if it stops at mystic lake, that makes absolutely perfect sense because mystic lake is the place to stay dying and unwind and and the hot houses, the place to watch sports and furthermore, may I tell you on Sunday, the hot houses really the place to watch the Minnesota Chicago game because that's right. Your purple daily friends will be there for a watch party for the game and then a vent line afterwards. Make it a weekend. Go to mystically on Saturday, book a room at the hotel, go downstairs and watch college football or head up to the floor on Saturday and then join us on Sunday. It's this simple mystic lake.com mystic lake.com make this weekend a weekend a fun. Back to the feedback here. Jaden Sorenson 1763 in the YouTube comments says, I'm still recovering from my dream

21:40where Mackie and Judd told me off. I'm working on it guys. In this hypothetical dream scenario that the Jaden had, what were you mad about? Do you think, Judd? What do you think you were telling him off about? What's the odds on favorite? Got super. He got insecure about something. He was probably had the way he probably had the wolves rank 16th and the three out there. He had ants in the head or it's not staying here. Ants going to leave us. I had this nightmare that Ant left us. I was like, Ants never said a thing about leaving here. I also love this one. It's not that Ants going to leave for the lakes or the heat or the nicks. Ants is always going to leave for Atlanta because he's from Atlanta. You can't ever but- You can't always like whispering something about it. We'll see you back home. He literally spends time in Atlanta in the off season and during breaks. Here's what I've heard. I have heard it's very hard for multi-millionaires to get back to Atlanta unless they live their

22:44full time. So we can't possibly go back and visit. Mario easily 4656 says so we talked about the wolves likely moving to the Eastern Conference. He says, please, I hope the wolves stay in the Western Conference who wants to see the wolves play Milwaukee, Chicago, Indiana or Atlanta. You want to see ticket sales plummet with a laugh cry emoji. Oh, I mean, it's not like when New Orleans Sacramento, Memphis and I don't know. There's some there's some dud teams in the Western Conference too that aren't exactly packing the house. When the wolves were bad and look, I mean the the Western's long been competitive, right? When the wolves were bad, no, the place was empty. It has nothing to do with opponents. Yeah, it has everything to do with the star power that's in house. I was just able to say that. Yeah, well, that's yeah, because 100% like for years and years and years.

23:46Now KG brought people in house for a decade. Didn't matter if they were playing the wizards or whoever, right? But then there was like a 15 year stretch. Some people would show up to see love and rubio, you know, they had a couple, but it wasn't like you got this Anthony Edwards is a star attraction. The team wins at a high enough level. Now they still they don't pack the house every single night at Target Center, but yeah, you'd like to hope that it's less about Chicago being in rebuilding mode on your schedule. But also it's not like they're moving to the Eastern Conference. If this happens for a year, it's for the long haul and the NBA ebbs and flows and swings. And at some point like Milwaukee with the honest, if that would have overlap with wolves at Eastern Conference, that would have been dude, and versus Yannis four times a year, like border rivalry, that that would have had some juice to it for sure. And if Chicago could ever figure out how to be relevant again too, you'd you'd be able

24:47to have some good matchups that also have geographical sense when it comes to fandom and rivalry. So Detroit is a fun matchup right now too. They're on the up and up and on to come up. I don't see them getting bad anytime soon. And on the bright side, like, hey, look, you get to see Anthony Errerts. Hopefully you get to see a Timboultz easy win. That's always nice. You know, you just enjoy the game. And the way the Timboultz play, you never know. You might see a very close competitive game sometimes they just decide, like, hey, maybe not tonight. We don't really, we don't get up for this one. So you might see a good game overall. So I think it's win, win across the board. Yeah. Well, let's see. What else we got here on feedback Friday? Scott Larson, chime in in the Flagler and Hals YouTube comment section. Go ahead and hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. Hit that like button here. This year's iteration of the wolves has potential to be dominant on both ends of the floor. I think most people acknowledge that the offense will be awesome.

25:47But but but don't sleep on the defensive prowess of the wolves. Defense boils down to effort and personal responsibility. If our men have the desire to give the needed effort, we will be a top three defensive team. Our men. Yes. Going in basketball battle battle. Going a more. But yeah, like that is that's something that we've kind of touched around here. But they've got the bones of being a top five defensive team. And they've got some pieces that could make them a top five offensive team. Now can it all come together and everyone stay healthy? But there's been some years in the Rudy Go Bear era where you know they're going to be a pretty good defensive team. But you're really wondering about like offensive flow and fit and conjulious and aunt have chemistry together offensively. And you're just trying to get by offensively with Anthony Edwards caring as much as possible. It just feels like there's there's more possibilities for ball movements and open looks.

26:49And just general offensive creativity with the mellow ball here alongside Anthony Edwards. So yeah, they have to pay it off and they have to all gel together and guys have to stay healthy. But I don't think Scott's out of line here. Yeah. And when you're when you're a leader is coming out openly saying like we're going to be a defensive team, you know me and come in here are going to shut down. Like that's expected right from the jump when when Chris Finch is talking about defense. Matt Lloyd is talking about defense. You know, top down. Talk is about defense. So it's like yeah, that's. What's expected you have the tools you have the pieces there in place. You have the speed you have the athleticism. You have great coaching. Your are anything about the rules. They've already been a pretty solid defensive team with really go better in the fold anyway. So in my opinion like there's nothing but room but to continue to grow. I don't see them getting worse with the addition of coming up, you know, it given that they continue to, you know, involve them offensively like I brought up earlier. Make sure you touch us the rock. I think they continue to improve and get out in transition. So that's just our hoping for for sure. I foresee it.

27:51Where do you guys think where would you have ranked just roughly the wolves as an NBA league pass team last year versus what we're going to see this year as far as must watch bottom third in terms of because to me, league pass is all about offensive fun factor. Yeah. And like I enjoy watching the wolves because you know, whatever. Like right, but you're invested in them. You're tuning into watch Anthony Edwards. Right. Pretty much play hero ball. Most nights it kind of felt like I would go top five league pass team right now. Gotta be. Wow. Yeah, that's nice. Gotta be. Yeah. I'm ranking like what like when B is going to be high because he's just just an alien to watch play basketball. I think the sixers just for the star power are going to be top five league. I don't personally put Oklahoma in terms of league pass rankings like actual rankings top

28:52two. Right. Whatever top three, but league pass rankings. I don't know man. Like I just SGA and the foul baiting. It's not the most enjoyable watch in my opinion. So I'd have the wolves above OKC for league pass. Maybe someday for basketball for actual real basketball. But yeah, yeah, that's the basketball. For sure, that's the ranking ethical basketball. Yeah. Bottom three. Absolutely. That's the that's the feedback batch for this feedback Friday. We're on a Wednesday Friday schedule here throughout the month of September ramping up into October. Eventually, this will back to being a three sometimes four day a week podcast. We're going to unleash artists to bring back four wolfs takes as well. A little season starts. So there's going to be just plenty of stuff across flagren house here YouTube, Apple and Spotify. So thank you all for hanging out with us for producer artists for the sports dad jud.

29:52I'm Phil and we'll see you guys next week on flagren house. Saturday, September 26th, two of combat sports most dangerous strikers collide bare knuckle. Liverpool's own down in the gorilla tail goes to war with Cuban powerhouse, Joel soldier of dog Ramero. Plus the bare knuckle middleweight championship of the world is on the line when the rating champ Dave the redneck Mundell defends against undefeated British challenger Jack Demeek BKFC 94 till verse Ramero watch it live only on the zone. Sign up now at the zone.com. We have the tech to get food delivered in 15 minutes, but we all have horror stories about buying tickets.

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