Griz at Wolves GDT

[FNG]

OK, now that I got my sarcastic post out of the way, let me say how much fun it was to watch that win! I think it's the oddest box score I have ever seen in my entire life...getting outrebounded by 30, make only 30.8% of your threes while your opponent makes 34.6%, and win the game by 8! It's a Twilight Zone box score.

But I agree with what others have said in the thread...we hustled start to finish and showed a lot of grit against a team that thrives on grit...we out-gritted the Griz! But I guess one more takeaway from this game is the ultimate importance of moving and protecting the ball. Despite having 3 notorious ball stoppers on the court much of the game, we moved the ball quite well. Ja Morant was far and away the most entertaining player on the court tonight (followed by Ant and Nowell), but he had 6 assists and 7 turnovers while our starting PG had 10 assists and only 2 turnovers. There it is...ball game.

Long time sports watchers love what they saw tonight... a team missing its best player that pulls together and puts out one of their best efforts of the season. Now, let's see if they can sustain it...,

[AbeVigodaLive]

Abe's Next Morning DVR Review:

- I had to triple check that rebounding boxscore. It seemed bad... but not THAT bad watching the game.

- The effort and intensity was notable. It's been rare this season... which I think has been the primary point of frustration for fans (and seemingly coaches).

- Edwards took over late. He was awesome. Can he bring that level of intensity and effort to most games? That's the billion-dollar question for this franchise.

- The Grizzlies had 27 TOs and only 17 assists. YUCK! In their previous game, they had 32 assists and only 10 TOs. The Grizzlies average nearly 10 more assists than TOs for the season. They haven't had more than 20 TOs in any other game this season. They've only been worse than +3 on Assist/TOs one other time all season.

So I'd expect Memphis fans are wondering "WTF happened?!?!" because it is the anomaly. And it's such an anomaly that we have to wonder if it's a fluke or the sign of an emerging type of effort from the Timberwolves. The verdict is obviously up in the air.

- The Grizzlies also missed 12 free throws (60%)... but while worse than normal... they're a 69% shooting free throw team, dead last in the NBA.

- A win is a win though. And it was vs. Memphis, a good team. Take it. Relish it. Weird... but enjoyable game to watch.

[FNG]

One more post about last night's surprising win

I suspect many of us have played on teams in various sports, and likely have experienced what the Wolves were feeling when they heard KAT was going to be out 4-6 weeks...wtf do we do now??? Well, what we do is show that we can win without our best player, and give one of our best efforts of the year. Conversely, I've had the feeling that there have been several games this season where the Wolves saw themselves as the more talented team and just had to show up to win...and we know that happened. I suspect Memphis had the same pre-game thoughts last night.

Talent is important, but often effort trumps talent. The Wolves played their hearts out last night and it felt good. Now we just have to sustain it while KAT remains out. OkC is next and even with KAT out I see us as the more talented team. It will be a good test for the Wolves to see if they can duplicate the terrific effort and get over .500 again.

[Q-is-here]

Dane Moore pointed out that when KAT went was out for 15 games in the '19-20 season, Dieng and Covington played C and PF. The Wolves ranked #3 in defensive rating during that stretch. Before that point, they were #22 with KAT at Center.

I could easily envision a similar outcome with Gobert and Anderson as our starting 5 and 4. And don't forget McDaniels should be back soon.

The reality is that KAT is a defensive liability. The high wall scheme last year finally utilized him in a way that minimized his shortcomings and there were nights he was quite effective defensively. But throughout his career, he's been a problem. This season as a 4, he has to do more in rotation and think more like a wing defender. This is something Kyle Anderson does much more naturally.

The bottom line is that without KAT's offense, we'll have to rely on elite level defense to keep our head above water while he's out.

[FNG]

Dane Moore pointed out that when KAT went was out for 15 games in the '19-20 season, Dieng and Covington played C and PF. The Wolves ranked #3 in defensive rating during that stretch. Before that point, they were #22 with KAT at Center.

I could easily envision a similar outcome with Gobert and Anderson as our starting 5 and 4. And don't forget McDaniels should be back soon.

The reality is that KAT is a defensive liability. The high wall scheme last year finally utilized him in a way that minimized his shortcomings and there were nights he was quite effective defensively. But throughout his career, he's been a problem. This season as a 4, he has to do more in rotation and think more like a wing defender. This is something Kyle Anderson does much more naturally.

The bottom line is that without KAT's offense, we'll have to rely on elite level defense to keep our head above water while he's out.

I found that tweet very interesting too, Q. And even though you hint at it in your last paragraph, you left out another part of his tweet: "In KAT's absence, while the Wolves ranked 3rd on D, they ranked dead-last on O".

15 games is not a very small sample size, and I think we can draw some conclusions from it. KAT is a remarkably skilled unicorn on offense, but terribly challenged on defens ...not at all what I expected from watching him in college. What an incredibly telling stat story that our defense excelled and offense cratered in the 15 games he was out. We saw some of that last night, although Ant and Nowell kept our offense afloat.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

This is an irrational, knee-jerk reaction, "what if" type of post so bear with me, but there's a part of me that really wants to see what this team does in Karl-Anthony Towns' absence, assuming he'll need time to recover from his presumed calf strain injury.

To be clear, I don't think Towns has been anywhere near the problem for this team, but I think it could be interesting and potentially enlightening to see what life without him -- with this roster -- could look like. I say "with this roster" because they've been awful without him on past teams that didn't have an All-NBA center to replace him.

Specifically, I'm intrigued by what a Russell-Edwards-McDaniels-Anderson-Gobert lineup looks like with bigger minutes. In theory, I see a cohesive, two-way unit there with defined roles that has a little bit of everything. Perimeter shooting would likely remain a problem, but the defense is likely much better while playing in a consistent scheme, and Gobert has looked more comfortable from my view as the lone big on the floor (obviously).

Again, it won't matter if they still can't make shots, move the ball, make timely rotations, and turn the ball over, but this could be an opportunity to see if a different blend makes a difference. What if Towns misses multiple weeks and the team starts rolling... What happens then long-term?

Reposting my comment that was made late in the last game thread for context, but we saw some of those defined roles and improved team defense last night as Minnesota forced a whopping 24 turnovers and held Memphis to a .477 effective field goal percentage. They were noticeably quicker as a unit flying around the court and rotations were sharper. Lots of active hands and multiple efforts contesting shots. Opponents are now shooting 39-percent from three when Karl-Anthony Towns is on the court and 32-percent when he's off, and that's probably not by accident. Overall, I thought it was a good showing and maybe Anthony Edwards' best full game defensively that I've ever seen.

I also suspect that the team we saw last night could be even better with the return of Jaden McDaniels -- as well as Jordan McLaughlin and Taurean Prince off the bench. No surprise there, obviously, as those three are very important rotation players for this team, especially defensively. Wendell Moore Jr. also had himself a solid performance and likely earned some trust from Chris Finch moving forward despite his rookie status.

This is all to say that I'm still expecting wins from this team even without Towns. They'll feel his absence against the top-tier teams in the league, I think, but they have plenty of talent and cohesive parts to remain very competitive, if not better than what we've seen from them completely healthy thus far. We also expect this team to shoot the ball respectably from three at some point and that hasn't happened yet (12-39 last night).

The Russell-Edwards-McDaniels-Anderson-Gobert unit has played just two (!) minutes together this season, but my feeling is that will be who Finch turns to as his starting lineup while we wait for Towns to recover. And that unit looks strong on both ends of the court to me.

[Q-is-here]

Dane Moore pointed out that when KAT went was out for 15 games in the '19-20 season, Dieng and Covington played C and PF. The Wolves ranked #3 in defensive rating during that stretch. Before that point, they were #22 with KAT at Center.

I could easily envision a similar outcome with Gobert and Anderson as our starting 5 and 4. And don't forget McDaniels should be back soon.

The reality is that KAT is a defensive liability. The high wall scheme last year finally utilized him in a way that minimized his shortcomings and there were nights he was quite effective defensively. But throughout his career, he's been a problem. This season as a 4, he has to do more in rotation and think more like a wing defender. This is something Kyle Anderson does much more naturally.

The bottom line is that without KAT's offense, we'll have to rely on elite level defense to keep our head above water while he's out.

I found that tweet very interesting too, Q. And even though you hint at it in your last paragraph, you left out another part of his tweet: "In KAT's absence, while the Wolves ranked 3rd on D, they ranked dead-last on O".

15 games is not a very small sample size, and I think we can draw some conclusions from it. KAT is a remarkably skilled unicorn on offense, but terribly challenged on defens ...not at all what I expected from watching him in college. What an incredibly telling stat story that our defense excelled and offense cratered in the 15 games he was out. We saw some of that last night, although Ant and Nowell kept our offense afloat.

Right, we had the great Jarrett Culver in the starting lineup during that timeframe! Don't forget we also had Wiggins, who was basically at a DLO-level of inefficiency back in those days.

While we still have inefficient DLO, I do feel like Ant and Nowell are far more talented shot creators than anything we had back then. And while neither are as efficient as KAT, they certainly have proven that they can carry help carry an offense for stretches.

But yeah, in the end, we aren't going to be a great offensive team without KAT. But if we can be great on defense and good enough on offense, that may win us more than 50% of our games while he's out.

[Monster]

Dane Moore pointed out that when KAT went was out for 15 games in the '19-20 season, Dieng and Covington played C and PF. The Wolves ranked #3 in defensive rating during that stretch. Before that point, they were #22 with KAT at Center.

I could easily envision a similar outcome with Gobert and Anderson as our starting 5 and 4. And don't forget McDaniels should be back soon.

The reality is that KAT is a defensive liability. The high wall scheme last year finally utilized him in a way that minimized his shortcomings and there were nights he was quite effective defensively. But throughout his career, he's been a problem. This season as a 4, he has to do more in rotation and think more like a wing defender. This is something Kyle Anderson does much more naturally.

The bottom line is that without KAT's offense, we'll have to rely on elite level defense to keep our head above water while he's out.

I found that tweet very interesting too, Q. And even though you hint at it in your last paragraph, you left out another part of his tweet: "In KAT's absence, while the Wolves ranked 3rd on D, they ranked dead-last on O".

15 games is not a very small sample size, and I think we can draw some conclusions from it. KAT is a remarkably skilled unicorn on offense, but terribly challenged on defens ...not at all what I expected from watching him in college. What an incredibly telling stat story that our defense excelled and offense cratered in the 15 games he was out. We saw some of that last night, although Ant and Nowell kept our offense afloat.

Right, we had the great Jarrett Culver in the starting lineup during that timeframe! Don't forget we also had Wiggins, who was basically at a DLO-level of inefficiency back in those days.

While we still have inefficient DLO, I do feel like Ant and Nowell are far more talented shot creators than anything we had back then. And while neither are as efficient as KAT, they certainly have proven that they can carry help carry an offense for stretches.

But yeah, in the end, we aren't going to be a great offensive team without KAT. But if we can be great on defense and good enough on offense, that may win us more than 50% of our games while he's out.

Dane Moore was also the guy driving the buss this off-season with stats that showed Towns played better on D next to a true center like Dieng. Towns often sucks defensively playing next to undersized PF types.

I've seen people talk about Brook Lopez compared to Towns. Interesting because Lopez was a poor defender much of his career and offense first guy not considered a winning basketball player etc.

Towns doesn't move or play D like a hybrid wing player like Vanderbilt, Anderson etc he plays more like a traditional big or PF from yesteryear. He can move his feet well enough on the perimeter if switched on smaller players. I think last year especially in the playoffs showed Towns has improved as a defender and is capable of playing good defense. Towns probably as a player may not be specifically the problem on D but I think other players having to play with him on D is. What I mean is other players have to play a different way with Towns at PF (and to some extent Gobert at C) and some of them have not made that adjustment. Maybe some players are less a capable of doing so but it's obviously different than what they did last year where Towns was the scramble center and various very mobile guys were playing next to him in a scheme that helped everyone...McDaniels may have not been a great fit initially but he figured it out. Switch Towns out it's gonna be easier to play D because it's gonna look and feel more like last year even if they play a drop scheme. You also have another guy that's getting to rotations quicker you don't have to think about what to do as much. Obviously Towns needs to learn what he needs to do better too and if the Wolves can play solid while he is out and he can see what things look like it might help. Also maybe he can chill seeing the team doesn't need him to be superhuman or whatever. Not sure if he is having that kind of thing this year but it's been a problem most of his career so...yeah this could be a really good thing for Towns if the Wolves can play reasonably well with him out and obviously the team as a whole.

[thedoper]

Dane Moore pointed out that when KAT went was out for 15 games in the '19-20 season, Dieng and Covington played C and PF. The Wolves ranked #3 in defensive rating during that stretch. Before that point, they were #22 with KAT at Center.

I could easily envision a similar outcome with Gobert and Anderson as our starting 5 and 4. And don't forget McDaniels should be back soon.

The reality is that KAT is a defensive liability. The high wall scheme last year finally utilized him in a way that minimized his shortcomings and there were nights he was quite effective defensively. But throughout his career, he's been a problem. This season as a 4, he has to do more in rotation and think more like a wing defender. This is something Kyle Anderson does much more naturally.

The bottom line is that without KAT's offense, we'll have to rely on elite level defense to keep our head above water while he's out.

Great post. I think the level of KAT's liability on D is hugely significant. Yes it was one game, but if we start to creep back into a top 10 defense in KAT's absence he needs to take a hard look at himself. I agree that he has to defend more like a wing, I am not sure he can. What is even more troubling to me is I am not sure he would admit that he needs to work on his defensive awareness.