[Stein] Minnesota seeking two first round picks for Covington

I think people are overvaluing Covington just because he's a perfect fit...but he's not as good as people think he is. If you think about building a perfect player in a lab that fits our need, what does that player look like? It would be a guy who is offensively similar to Gerald Green/BMac with the quick trigger, can shoot 3s, doesn't hesitate, can get hot, but with a slightly higher percentage due to more consistency. But the key is willingness to shoot and knockdown threes without hesitation. Preferably a "never seen a shot he didn't like" kind of guy. Then on the defensive end you want a guy who is 6'7-6'9ish, 7ft+ wingspan who has incredible lateral quickness, can guard all 5 positions, is an elite switch defender. This guy has to be able to play 35+ minutes every single night and take on tough defensive assignments. Ideally you'd also want him to give a lot of effort on rebounding/boxing out, since we'll be playing a lot of small ball. So add on good rebounding to this imaginary player. But he can't be too good at anything else, otherwise you're looking at a max player and we can't afford that. So he has to be limited enough that his salary fits on our team, you can push all these sliders to 100.

Covington is one of the closest players that actually exists who can check these boxes, so I think that excites people. But I'm not sure he's actually good enough in all these areas to make the difference that we would need, and when you combine that with his injury history, I really don't know if he's worth so much.

 

Lowe: I like Rob Covington. I think Covington is top 10 most overrated in the NBA. People talk about him like he's Bruce Bowen with Kyle Korver's jump shot.

Windhorst: He's gettable. That's why people are talking about him.

Lowe: [People talk] Like he's gonna swing the championship! He's good. His contract is good. People are worried about his health. But people talk about him like he's a star.