Wolves vs Thunder GDT

[Q-is-here]

I watched all of it without falling asleep.

It wasn't necessarily easy. The Wolves were depleted and the Thunder were... mostly bad.

But a nice win. Once again, Austin Rivers is ingratiating himself on yet another team. Year after year, team after team... the fanbase is treated to more and more Austin Rivers than they'd have ever expected.

He does play hard on defense and finally made some shots. I thought it was so Wolves-ian that he got called for all those travels. You absolutely know he would never be called for that if he played for the LA Clippers or Celtics. I'm not saying they weren't by-the-book travels, but c'mon, for that to be called so tight was such a joke.

Q - You are so right about the Wolvesian nature of those travel calls! And yes, Rivers plays really hard. If he makes shots, he's a net positive with his effort and toughness.

But kind of to Abe's point, you really don't want to HAVE to play Rivers 20+ minutes every night. He seems ideally suited to be a spot guy you put out there for very specific defensive matchups. Hopefully McLaughlin, DLO, and Prince get healthy soon so that he can go back to that role.

Rivers should be given Nowell's minutes. Either you're developing talent or you're trying to win. I thought they picked a course.

Nowell is in his 4th year so he's not longer green and they each offer a completely different set of skills. Nowell sucks on defense, but can create offense and Rivers (usually) sucks on offense but plays defense. I wouldn't call playing Rivers ahead of Nowell equivalent to trying to win more games versus developing talent. That seems odd to me that you see it that way. It's more of an offense/defense tradeoff.

[Lipoli390]

I think Q summed it up well. Rivers is mainly a defensive player and Nowell a one-way offensive guy. Again, too many one-way players on this team.

When Nowell is on, he's an offensive force. He has a tremendous burst of speed to the rim. And while he doesn't elevate quite as well as Edwards, he actually seems to finish better than Edwards. He has an excellent mid-range game and an erratic although sometimes excellent 3-point shot. Sadly, he' s a poor defender even though he seems to compete hard on that end.

Both Rivers and Nowell can be liabilities. But each one in his own way can be (and has been) a significant net positive for the team in certain games and certain times in various games. Some of us had hoped he'd take a big leap forward and become either a starter or highly valuable 6th man. He hasn't achieved either, but he's still a valuable rotation player off the bench and so is Rivers.

None of us should lose sight of the fact that neither Rivers nor Nowell has been the reason why the Wolves have faltered so far this season. The problem has been our starters. Edwards came to camp out of shape and underperformed as a result until recently. Overall, he's shown some promising signs recently, but he looks like he won't have his breakout season until next year when he turns 22. Jaden continues to be amazingly inept as a rebounder while still unable to defend consistently without fouling and not yet consistently reliable as a spot-up shooter. DLO has been terrible until very recently. Gobert gets a lot of praise on this board, but he hasn't exactly been dominant as evidenced by the fact that this team's defensive rating is no better than it was totality of last season. The main problem is that the pieces in our starting lineup and top of our rotation haven't fit well. I think it's a square peg in a round hole, so I don't see those pieces ever fitting well. Others think the team just needs more time to figure it out. In any event, it's not working so far and Nowell and Rivers are the least of this team's problems.

[Lipoli390]

I watched the whole game live last night. I'm watching it again tonight. Naz is even more impressive on the second viewing. He repeatedly ran the break last night - something he does really well. He reminds me of Vanderbilt in that regard, but he's a much better shooter. He's also a really good passer. I just love how mobile he is. He was closing out beautifully on shooters while effectively challenging shots in the paint. He is tremendously quickly and agile and not just for his size. His three-point shooting is a bit off this season, but he's still hitting 34% of them and I think he'll continue to improve in that area. In any event, I continue to be blown away by Naz Reid's overall talent and arsenal of skills. What he does at the center position, Gobert can't even attempt - leading the break, handling the ball like a SF in the half court, flying around the court on both ends, making nifty highly athletic moves to the basket, closing out on outside shooters, etc. His defense looks like it has improved over last season. KAT can do some of those things, but not all of them. Naz is a perfect fit for this team and for today's NBA.

[Lipoli390]

Looking at the box score again, I noticed that the Wolves were only out-rebounded by two last night. A couple more takes on my second take. Moore isn't ready yet to be a rotation NBA player. He might get there some day, but he's not there yet.

[Q-is-here]

Looking at the box score again, I noticed that the Wolves were only out-rebounded by two last night. A couple more takes on my second take. Moore isn't ready yet to be a rotation NBA player. He might get there some day, but he's not there yet.

Every time I watch Moore Jr. play my first impression is that he looks like he doesn't belong on an NBA court. Then he'll flash some sneaky-good positional defense or knock down a shot and you question yourself....but I'm trusting the eye test with him.....not sure he makes it in this league.

[TheFuture]

I think Q summed it up well. Rivers is mainly a defensive player and Nowell a one-way offensive guy. Again, too many one-way players on this team.

When Nowell is on, he's an offensive force. He has a tremendous burst of speed to the rim. And while he doesn't elevate quite as well as Edwards, he actually seems to finish better than Edwards. He has an excellent mid-range game and an erratic although sometimes excellent 3-point shot. Sadly, he' s a poor defender even though he seems to compete hard on that end.

Both Rivers and Nowell can be liabilities. But each one in his own way can be (and has been) a significant net positive for the team in certain games and certain times in various games. Some of us had hoped he'd take a big leap forward and become either a starter or highly valuable 6th man. He hasn't achieved either, but he's still a valuable rotation player off the bench and so is Rivers.

None of us should lose sight of the fact that neither Rivers nor Nowell has been the reason why the Wolves have faltered so far this season. The problem has been our starters. Edwards came to camp out of shape and underperformed as a result until recently. Overall, he's shown some promising signs recently, but he looks like he won't have his breakout season until next year when he turns 22. Jaden continues to be amazingly inept as a rebounder while still unable to defend consistently without fouling and not yet consistently reliable as a spot-up shooter. DLO has been terrible until very recently. Gobert gets a lot of praise on this board, but he hasn't exactly been dominant as evidenced by the fact that this team's defensive rating is no better than it was totality of last season. The main problem is that the pieces in our starting lineup and top of our rotation haven't fit well. I think it's a square peg in a round hole, so I don't see those pieces ever fitting well. Others think the team just needs more time to figure it out. In any event, it's not working so far and Nowell and Rivers are the least of this team's problems.

One thing about Jaden that you left out - he is tasked to guard the main guard threat every game. Curry, Dame, Mitchell, etc. That is tough.

Nowell can make a shot, but he is shit in all other aspects, and is playing for a contract. Rivers has accepted his role, defends well, makes a pass when needed, and can score.

You are right that the pieces just don't fit. People here are talking about another play-in visit. A what?!? I saw that that hump was approached, beaten, negated. Now that is the current optimistic view..