DLo and Edwards as the starting backcourt

[Lipoli390]

Will be interesting to see if Moore Jr. ultimately displaces Rivers as the defensive guard off the bench. That would be a very encouraging development, as I really didn't expect Moore to contribute much this season.

My beloved Iowa team has been raided of all its talent! Already!

Lol. They still have AJ Lawson.

[FNG]

One of the bigger differences between now and last year is the position Edwards is playing. He was mostly a 3 last year, now he is mostly a 2.

I was thinking the same thing, Tim, with PatBev starting 54 games. I really can't put my finger on why the Russell/Edwards combo seems to work so much better when there is another guard on the court next to Russell...doesn't make sense, but the numbers are quite telling. Nowell gets the start tonight, so maybe we'll see some of the good play DLO and Ant put together last year. Butt frankly I'm concerned about a trio of ball stoppers on the court at the same time. Can it work? I guess we'll see in about 30 minutes.

Edit: OK, Wendell Moore starts instead of Nowell. Makes a lot more sense.

Yeah, Finch puts Nowell in the starting lineup because it seemed like he should be next in line since Rivers didn't work out very well. And then he saw the lineup card with Dlo/Nowell/Edwards and hit himself in the forehead and said "I can't do that!". :)

And then just to prove I know nothing about basketball, Tim, the three ball stoppers actually end up playing a lot together in this game and look pretty good...I give up!

[Q-is-here]

Will be interesting to see if Moore Jr. ultimately displaces Rivers as the defensive guard off the bench. That would be a very encouraging development, as I really didn't expect Moore to contribute much this season.

My beloved Iowa team has been raided of all its talent! Already!

Lol. They still have AJ Lawson.

Yeah, I think Lawson and Minott will continue to stay down in the G-League, but with KAT out Garza needs to stay up for big man depth and Moore Jr. may stay up because Finch knows he probably needs to lean into defense more and he provides another option besides Rivers.

[FNG]

Dane Moore
@DaneMooreNBA
·
17h
Utah's frequency / per possession effectiveness ranks in terms of pick and roll over Rudy Gobert's final five seasons there

21-22: 1st / 2nd
20-21: 3rd / 1st
19-20: 2nd / 10th
18-19: 1st / 15th
17-18: 2nd / 22nd

The Wolves this season: 24th in frequency / 23rd in effectiveness twitter.com/DaneMooreNBA/s...

Come on guards...this isn't that difficult to figure out.

[FNG]

As a follow on to my previous post, explain please why KAT has to be out of the lineup for the Wolves to employ more spread pick and roll.

[Q-is-here]

As a follow on to my previous post, explain please why KAT has to be out of the lineup for the Wolves to employ more spread pick and roll.

Two reasons...First, I think Finch generally prefers more of a motion, free flowing offense with more player movement and bigs getting touches early in possessions. That's on him if he doesn't adapt to the players he has. Speaking of which....As it relates to KAT specifically, he's a terrible screener and roll-man, so inevitably you are running this action almost exclusively with DLO/Gobert or Ant/Gobert. That means the three guys not involved in the action stand passively behind the 3-point line. If you know you need to make KAT a fairly central player in the offense, then spread pick and roll just isn't gong to be run as much since he's just a floor spacer in those sets.

[FNG]

As a follow on to my previous post, explain please why KAT has to be out of the lineup for the Wolves to employ more spread pick and roll.

Two reasons...First, I think Finch generally prefers more of a motion, free flowing offense with more player movement and bigs getting touches early in possessions. That's on him if he doesn't adapt to the players he has. Speaking of which....As it relates to KAT specifically, he's a terrible screener and roll-man, so inevitably you are running this action almost exclusively with DLO/Gobert or Ant/Gobert. That means the three guys not involved in the action stand passively behind the 3-point line. If you know you need to make KAT a fairly central player in the offense, then spread pick and roll just isn't gong to be run as much since he's just a floor spacer in those sets.

Solid answer, Q. I'm with Finchie in preferring a motion offense, but to your point, it doesn't fit the style of Russell, Ant and Nowell. And I agree that KAT is not effective in the screen and roll game. But can't that be changed, and isn't that on the coaching staff to work with KAT? Of all the skills involved in basketball, learning to play pick and roll doesn't seem to me to be on the higher end of the scale in terms of difficulty.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Dane Moore
@DaneMooreNBA
·
17h
Utah's frequency / per possession effectiveness ranks in terms of pick and roll over Rudy Gobert's final five seasons there

21-22: 1st / 2nd
20-21: 3rd / 1st
19-20: 2nd / 10th
18-19: 1st / 15th
17-18: 2nd / 22nd

The Wolves this season: 24th in frequency / 23rd in effectiveness twitter.com/DaneMooreNBA/s...

Come on guards...this isn't that difficult to figure out.

More like come on, Chris Finch. This is more of an indictment on him than anyone else, in my opinion. He's been notoriously against pick-and-roll centric offensive play for whatever reason, and even though the organization traded for one of the best, if not the best, screeners/rollers in the game -- while also still rostering an elite option in Towns -- he's still failed to incorporate that action into the silly "flow" that he wastes his breath on. Ranking 24th in pick-and-roll frequency to this point given the personnel we have is embarrassing coaching.

Sure, the guards can do an even better job of getting Rudy Gobert the basketball, no doubt. And Gobert absolutely has to be MUCH better in not only receiving the basketball when they do find him, but converting on those opportunities. None of it will make that big of a difference, though, if they're still ranking near the bottom of the league in possessions used in that action. It's mismanagement of the talent on the roster and it predominantly falls on one guy.

To my eyes, it did appear like Minnesota went to it more in the game against Memphis, thankfully, but as you noted in your following comment, why did it take Karl-Anthony Towns getting injured to force Finch's hand? Why weren't the Wolves incorporating this more through their first 20-ish games? They should easily be in the top-10 in frequency, if not top-five.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

As a follow on to my previous post, explain please why KAT has to be out of the lineup for the Wolves to employ more spread pick and roll.

Two reasons...First, I think Finch generally prefers more of a motion, free flowing offense with more player movement and bigs getting touches early in possessions. That's on him if he doesn't adapt to the players he has. Speaking of which....As it relates to KAT specifically, he's a terrible screener and roll-man, so inevitably you are running this action almost exclusively with DLO/Gobert or Ant/Gobert. That means the three guys not involved in the action stand passively behind the 3-point line. If you know you need to make KAT a fairly central player in the offense, then spread pick and roll just isn't gong to be run as much since he's just a floor spacer in those sets.

Points-per-possession leaders for 2021-22 in pick-and-roll actions:

1. Rudy Gobert: 1.320
2. Deandre Ayton: 1.249
3. Joel Embiid: 1.241
4. Karl-Anthony Towns: 1.201
5. Jusuf Nurkic: 1.187
6. Jakob Poeltl: 1.157
7. Jonas Valanciunas: 1.096
8. Nikola Jokic: 1.067
9. Wendell Carter Jr.: 1.062
10. Nikola Vucevic: 0.942

Towns is a lazy screen-setter, which makes the ball-handler's job more difficult, and he often pops after the screen way more than he rolls, but when he does he's absolutely elite in that action, as he is in many others. There should be no reason why Minnesota isn't terrorizing opponents with constant P&R sets no matter which big is on the floor.

Edit:

*Minimum of 200 possessions used, 10 players qualify

[Monster]

As a follow on to my previous post, explain please why KAT has to be out of the lineup for the Wolves to employ more spread pick and roll.

Two reasons...First, I think Finch generally prefers more of a motion, free flowing offense with more player movement and bigs getting touches early in possessions. That's on him if he doesn't adapt to the players he has. Speaking of which....As it relates to KAT specifically, he's a terrible screener and roll-man, so inevitably you are running this action almost exclusively with DLO/Gobert or Ant/Gobert. That means the three guys not involved in the action stand passively behind the 3-point line. If you know you need to make KAT a fairly central player in the offense, then spread pick and roll just isn't gong to be run as much since he's just a floor spacer in those sets.

Points-per-possession leaders for 2021-22 in pick-and-roll actions:

1. Rudy Gobert: 1.320
2. Deandre Ayton: 1.249
3. Joel Embiid: 1.241
4. Karl-Anthony Towns: 1.201
5. Jusuf Nurkic: 1.187
6. Jakob Poeltl: 1.157
7. Jonas Valanciunas: 1.096
8. Nikola Jokic: 1.067
9. Wendell Carter Jr.: 1.062
10. Nikola Vucevic: 0.942

Towns is a lazy screen-setter, which makes the ball-handler's job more difficult, and he often pops after the screen way more than he rolls, but when he does he's absolutely elite in that action, as he is in many others. There should be no reason why Minnesota isn't terrorizing opponents with constant P&R sets no matter which big is on the floor.

Interesting numbers Cam. I've ripped Towns for his screen setting and his overall feel for that part of the game but his screens last season were much better than in the past. He was actually an asset setting screens at times.

I haven't watched many games this year but even last year I thought it was a little wileird how little they used this type of action. Ultimately it was hard to complain when the Wolves finally got on a roll and were one of the best offensive teams in the league and even played defense!