GDT: Minnesota vs. Philadelphia

[Coolbreeze44]

A couple things about tonight's game. If 76er games are going to be officiated this way going forward, schedule the parade and hand them the trophy right now. And regarding Ant's outside shot - in my opinion he's struggling because his feet are too close together as he elevates. It's hard to stay balanced that way. Oh, and Doc Rivers is still a piece of shit.

[Coolbreeze44]

Another point I forgot to mention. Our starting lineup sucked puckey tonight.

[Leado01]

Fairly learned basketball fans with attention to detail on this board, and yet not ONE of you mentioned your hatred for James Harden

[Lipoli390]

Interestingly, the Sixers didn't really out-perform the Wolves on the boards last night. But they still won by 31 points. Let's break that down. Our two max salary vets, DLO and KAT, had 46 points. The Sixers' two top max players, Embiid and Harden, had 61 points. So their max duo out-scored our max duo by 15 points. The Sixers prize 2nd-year player, Maxey, outscored our prize 2nd-year player, Edwards, by 13 (28 to 15). In total, the Sixers two top max players and one prize 2nd-year player outscored our comparable three by 28, which is almost the entire Sixers' margin of victory.

Last night's game simply reinforced what we already know - the Wolves won't be a championship contender with KAT and DLO as their two best players. Edwards will have to become a superstar alongside KAT to put this team in championship contention. But first, Edwards has to be better than Maxey; last night he wasn't nearly as good. I know I'm oversimplifying things and that other factors and players come into play. But KAT still needs that second elite player he hasn't had since Butler left. DLO has been very good this season and I'm convinced it makes sense to keep him on something less than a max deal after next season. But DLO needs to be the third part of our core, not the 2nd part, to put this team in the running for a championship. In other words, a lot rides on the development of Anthony Edwards.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

KAT and Ant played like shit last night. Their final numbers don't even truly reflect it because of the stat-padding that occurred when the game had already been decided. Frankly, we won't win many games when D-Lo is the only contributor, regardless of the hierarchy. Those two have to be much better.

[Monster]

I just noticed in the Box score that WCS is on the Sixers. I guess he signed a 10-day contract. Apparently he is back playing. Did anyone hear how his issues were resolved?

This brings up a sort of interesting thing to consider. During the offseason many including myself considered Dallas a natural target for a trade for a big. They opted in for WCS 4 million in salary and ended up eventually letting him go in season. They signed Marquis Chriss and months later Moses Brown was waived. Those 3 guys sort of cover most of the spectrum of guys to sign to cheap contracts. Veteran guy in WCS, Younger vet that's not exactly proven but has experience and some upside to be worthwhile and then the young raw guy with the highest upside in Moses Brown. There can be benefits to going any of these routes. I've seen times where the vet that's kinda meh turns into a really solid player for a team when before he was signed he was on the fringes of the league. I just hope the Wolves add someone in a few days even if it's the vet route.

Is there anyone that wants to give a breakdown of Maxey's game this season?

[FNG]

I just noticed in the Box score that WCS is on the Sixers. I guess he signed a 10-day contract. Apparently he is back playing. Did anyone hear how his issues were resolved?

This brings up a sort of interesting thing to consider. During the offseason many including myself considered Dallas a natural target for a trade for a big. They opted in for WCS 4 million in salary and ended up eventually letting him go in season. They signed Marquis Chriss and months later Moses Brown was waived. Those 3 guys sort of cover most of the spectrum of guys to sign to cheap contracts. Veteran guy in WCS, Younger vet that's not exactly proven but has experience and some upside to be worthwhile and then the young raw guy with the highest upside in Moses Brown. There can be benefits to going any of these routes. I've seen times where the vet that's kinda meh turns into a really solid player for a team when before he was signed he was on the fringes of the league. I just hope the Wolves add someone in a few days even if it's the vet route.

Is there anyone that wants to give a breakdown of Maxey's game this season?

Not only did he look really good last night, monster, he's been very good all year...much improved over last year, and playing at a higher level than he did at Kentucky. A 29% 3-point shooter in college is making 39.5 % of his threes this season. And he's going to get a lot more open looks now with Harden on the team. He protects the ball much better than I would have anticipated watching him in college- only 1.2 TOs per game. I thought his erratic play was going to force Morey to deal Simmons for less than he wanted, but I was way wrong on that because Maxey has been terrific.

[FNG]

Just finished watching the replay- disappointing but not discouraging loss after a very good win the night before. I'm loving watching this team this year, but while I know they are improved over last year, I honestly don't know if they are truly a .500 team yet. Here are my optimistic and pessimistic takes after watching us get our butts kicked:

Optimistic take: This was a scheduled loss. Philly was very good even before picking up Harden, and Harden always puts up great numbers in his first game with a new team. And you know we had to be tired after playing a close game the night before against an up-tempo Memphis team. I wasn't expecting a win last night, and everyone but Vando played like they didn't expect a win either. And we've still won 6 of our last 10, and are a cinch to make the play-in tournament.

Pessimistic take: Even with our obvious improvement over last year, this team is baffling to me. I usually have a pretty good idea how good (or bad) a Wolves team is, but this one has me confused. On the positive side and unlike teams of recent years, we're not losing games we should win...that's good. But they haven't shown me yet that they can beat a healthy, good team. Here we are 61 games into the season, and we have exactly one (1) win against a team with a winning record not missing one or more key starters...the Miami win back in November. That's not good. That's why I was eager to see how we would play against Philly, because they are a healthy team with a winning record. I'm giving them a pass on last night's game because of the circumstances, but I'd feel a lot more confident going into the play-in tournament if we could at least get a second win over a healthy good team in our final 21 games.

Anybody have any theories about what's going on with Ant? After two brilliant 30+ point games before the break, he has only made 9 of his last 42 shots, and 2 of his last 23 3-pointers. On the other hand, he's distributing the ball well (12 assists in his past two games) and he's taken his on-ball defense to a new level...he owned Morant Thursday night. I'd like to blame it on his knee, but he looks 100% on the defensive side of the ball. You almost wonder if he has a hand injury or something, because is drop off in shooting is beyond bizarre.

[Coolbreeze44]

FNG, he looks like his mechanics are off a bit. As I mentioned earlier he's shooting with his feet very close together. He needs to broaden that base a bit so he can go up on balance. The shooting coach should see that.

[thedoper]

If I were to guess with Ant I would say the knees along with him not getting pegged as an all star de-motivated him a bit. Im not too worried about the slump. But it has definitely been a slump.