Around the League 2022-23

[Q-is-here]

Walker Kessler and the Utah Jazz about ready to take down a full-strength Nuggets team! Love it!

[Q-is-here]

Memphis barely held off the Knicks at home. Not sure about the Memphis bench this year...

[FNG]

So great to have NBA basketball back...including our Wolves! After a blah Tuesday night, last night was special. So many resurgent teams to keep an eye on (knee jerk alert)...Orlando, Detroit, New Orleans, for starters. Welcome back NBA!

[Lipoli390]

I want to come back to the Utah v. Denver game. Vanderbilt had 12 rebounds in only 18 minutes. That's only four less than Gobert in roughly half the minutes. Kessler had 10 rebounds and 12 points on 5-5 FG shooting in 24 minutes. Beasley had 15 points and 5 rebounds in 25 minutes. Although he only hit 33% of his threes, that was a better percentage than the Wolves shot collectively last night. And 5 rebounds in 25 minutes from your SG off the bench is pretty impressive, but that's no surprise because Beasley has always been a good rebounder. Collectively, Vando, Kessler and Beasley had 27 rebounds last night as part of a 10+ point win over top-tier Nuggets team. The Wolves barely beat a lottery team at home. I'm not suggesting that either Vanderbilt or Kessler is better than Gobert. But the performance of those two former T-Wolves is a reminder that we gave up more value than just four future unprotected first found picks. Did I just say "just" four future unprotected picks? :)

That same Jazz team will be in town to play our Wolves tomorrow night. The Wolves had better player better than last night or they will lose.

[FNG]

Yeah, it was fun to see how well the three ex wolves did last night...I was especially happy to see vando have a big game. And I never would have predicted a Utah win last night against a very good Denver team.

And Lip is correct that how these guys do will impact opinions about this trade, especially with the lost picks too. It will be a discussion topic here for many years.

Here's where I stand though. The atmosphere coming into target center last night was electric. I'm pretty sure fans weren't too excited walking into the Jazz's building last night. I'm glad I'm here rather than in Utah. I'm tired about dreaming about the future...I want to win now. And we know which of these two teams is built to win now.

[Lipoli390]

The Bucks are ahead of the Sixers by 1 point and have possession with 2.5 seconds left. Hang on Bucks! I love that Harden didn't get the foul call on the last play. The replay showed he didn't deserve the call. If anything it should have been an offensive foul on Harden. And the Bucks should have had the ball anyway except for a bad out of bounds call by the officials.

[Lipoli390]

Bucks win! Bucks win! I love it. The Sixers start the season 0-2, losing one game on the road to the Celtics and tonight's game at home against the Bucks.

[Lipoli390]

Yeah, it was fun to see how well the three ex wolves did last night...I was especially happy to see vando have a big game. And I never would have predicted a Utah win last night against a very good Denver team.

And Lip is correct that how these guys do will impact opinions about this trade, especially with the lost picks too. It will be a discussion topic here for many years.

Here's where I stand though. The atmosphere coming into target center last night was electric. I'm pretty sure fans weren't too excited walking into the Jazz's building last night. I'm glad I'm here rather than in Utah. I'm tired about dreaming about the future...I want to win now. And we know which of these two teams is built to win now.

I'm also glad I'm a Wolves fan and not a Jazz fan right now. But the Wolves didn't need to do the Gobert deal to be at a different level than the Jazz are at now and certainly didn't need the deal to generate excitement. There were a number of games last season that had more energy and a louder crowd than last night's game. Coming off a 46-win team and a highly competitive 1st playoff round, there would have been a lot of excitement at Target Center last night watching last year's team.

[Lipoli390]

Barkley had some good observations about the Sixers tonight. One point he made was that the Sixers play too slow. I agree with him. Today's NBA is all about pace and space - speed, quickness, athleticism and shooting. Another point he made is that Embiid overdribbles and, as a result, reduces the effectiveness of Maxey and others.

Embiid and Jokic are the two best big men in the League without question. However, Barkley's point about Embiid is a good one. One of the things I love about Gobert as our center is that he really works well in the offensive flow. What I really noticed last night was how he elevates the play of his teammates on both ends of the court. KAT sometimes stalls the ball, but he was much better in that regard last season and he's a much more skilled ball handler than Embiid.

One of the exciting things about the Gobert-KAT pairing the potential to bring out the best in KAT's passing/playmaking skills. We saw glimpses of that last night. KAT's passing skills are right there with Jokic, but unfortunately, KAT doesn't have the same basketball IQ.

[Q-is-here]

Barkley had some good observations about the Sixers tonight. One point he made was that the Sixers play too slow. I agree with him. Today's NBA is all about pace and space - speed, quickness, athleticism and shooting. Another point he made is that Embiid overdribbles and, as a result, reduces the effectiveness of Maxey and others.

Embiid and Jokic are the two best big men in the League without question. However, Barkley's point about Embiid is a good one. One of the things I love about Gobert as our center is that he really works well in the offensive flow. What I really noticed last night was how he elevates the play of his teammates on both ends of the court. KAT sometimes stalls the ball, but he was much better in that regard last season and he's a much more skilled ball handler than Embiid.

One of the exciting things about the Gobert-KAT pairing the potential to bring out the best in KAT's passing/playmaking skills. We saw glimpses of that last night. KAT's passing skills are right there with Jokic, but unfortunately, KAT doesn't have the same basketball IQ.

Yeah, it was just one game of course but it was abundantly clear who the most mature and impactful player was on the court that night and it was Rudy Gobert. He's been there/done that for Utah and it got them to the Conference semi-finals a few times, but no further.

We need KAT and/or Ant to be the guy that so clearly sticks out as the best player on most nights if we have any hopes of making a Finals push eventually. Rudy being our best player takes us only so far.