Wolves @ Suns GDT

[BloopOracle]

You HAVE to trade Beasley now, you can't risk having him and Russell come back only to stunt Anthony's game due to lack of touches

[FNG]

How can you not be excited about this win? A gritty come-from-behind victory against one of the hottest teams in the league. So much to like, but here's what I didn't:

1) Edwards' emphasis on the three: What...criticizing our rookie on a career night? Yes, he was terrific, but I side with Camden on this one...too much reliance on the three early in the clock. Ant's 3-point percentage on open threes is good...it's only when he forces them that his percentage goes down. His offensive game has exploded, but he's going to get even better when he replaces ill-advised threes with drives to the basket, where his finishing rate is approaching an elite level.

2) Vando. Yes, I was the second guy on the Vando Bandwagon after Q, but he was terrible tonight. Hands of stone, and not even effective on the offensive boards like he usually is. Kudos to Finch for limiting him to 8 minutes. It will be interesting to see if Finch starts him again tonight.

Ok, but everything else was great tonight. Finch's offensive scheme led to 55 shots by our two scorers, an extraordinary 59% of our shots! Rubio only had 5 assists tonight, but he constantly got the ball into KAT and Ant in positions where they could work their magic one-on-one.

One of the oddest box scores I have ever seen. The Suns kicked our asses in rebounds, assists and 3-point shooting. But uncharacteristically, we were the grittier team tonight and ended up on top.

PMP Alert stat of the night. McDaniels made 1-5 shots...0-3 on threes and 0-2 on free throws. But his +8 was exceeded only by Ant's team-leading +9 (and how great was it to see Ant get a plus game!), and anyone closely watching the game isn't surprised by this. We don't win this game without Jaden's 27 minutes. He is our best defender, and I love to see how Finch uses him on defense. He continues to be a very pleasant surprise.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Very surprising win. KAT finally making some big shots in the 4th was huge.

FNG, I agree on Vando. At some point, his hands of stone and foibles out there far outweigh the good things he can do. It's unfortunate because that starting PF role is there for the taking and he doesn't even need to do a lot. Rebound, defend, and don't effing fumble away the ball or throw bone-headed passes. He's done well in the first two categories, but not the second two.

Edwards is turning a corner in terms of efficiency. He made a pull-up mid-range and floater last night, two shots he almost always misses. But the biggest thing last night is he was finally getting calls. In a couple years he should make a living at the free throw line.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Looks like Any had an incredible game.

As for his 3-point shooting, consider the fact that by hitting just one more three, his 3-point percentage would have been 38%, which is considered really good.

It's been 32 years. We don't need to do this anymore.

________

Any rookie with the balls to take 31 shots is going to have some ugly performances. But any 19 year old capable of scoring 40+ points (and 20+ for a couple weeks straight) in the NBA has an incredible ceiling.

I think we've seen enough from Edwards to acknowledge that his potential is legit. It's not fool's gold potential as we've seen before with others. The guy might be elite at getting buckets.

Will that mean he's a 25 ppg scorer on bad teams? 30 ppg scorer with a selfish streak and serious flaws? Or, will he be the next perennial All NBA wing player? So much of that depends on who the person behind all that talent is. How much drive does he have? How great does he want to be? How much he cares about winning?

Only Anthony Edwards has the answers. Should be an interesting ride for the rest of us though. I'd rather be in this position than trying to talk myself into the potential of a guy who went 4 - 9 for 11 points with 2 rebounds because of one coast-to-coast move he made.

[AbeVigodaLive]

- Towns was magnificent offensively. But he still had a handful (or more) cringeworthy moments on defense. It seemed to change once the Wolves battled back into the game...

- The Wolves fought back through adversity?!?! As noted, the Suns kept scoring at the end of quarters. There was also a stretch in the 3rd quarter when the Wolves were on the wrong side of the whistle down about 6 points. There were like three straight questionable whistles... and it resulted in another 5 points for the Suns. But the Wolves simply kept battling back.

- There was one possession late when Okogie switched... and then recovered back to Booker twice on the same possession. It looked like he was on ice skates a bit but the frenetic energy was unmistakable... and it worked. It was great to see. It's not enough to justify heavy minutes on a good team, but it's something. Okogie still does dumb things though... like leave Booker at the end of the 1st quarter to attack non-shooter Cameron Payne... leaving Booker wide open. Those mistakes can overwhelm any defensive positives he brings.

- Good to see Towns hit the three pointer again. It was inevitable. He's not as natural a passer as a guy like Jokic. It's almost like he's forcing being a good passer a bit... but there's something there. He CAN be an exceptional passer. It's definitely going to be fun to watch moving forward.

- Rubio sorta seems like the Alex Smith of the NBA at this point, sans career/life threatening injury. I don't know if that is a compliment or an insult. But he's a caretaker. And when the Wolves have multiple 40+ scorers... sometimes that's all that's needed.

- Chris Paul is still so damn good. Still despise the guy. But it's hard not to marvel at him on the court.

- Mikal Bridges is looking exactly like the player he was projected to be... similar to D. Hunter in Atlanta.

- The Suns are good. But they have Cameron Payne. J. Carter. Kaminsky. Et al in the rotation. Those guys aren't playoff-level rotation players. I haven't heard much chatter about the Suns at the deadline... but I'd think they need somebody.

[FNG]

This is in the running for my favorite stat of the year. Wolves' scoring tonight:

Ant: 42
KAT:41
The other 7 guys: 40

[FNG]

The Wolves are now 3-2 since the break. 3 of the 4 teams we have played are certain Western Conference playoff teams, and the combined record of the 4 teams is 95-66. 5 games is an admittedly small sample size, but nobody can argue that it all seems different since the break.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Whoa, just finished watching. That was awesome. So glad to get a win against a really good team.

I do wish Ant were less selfish on some of these shots. It was really starting to feel like the Westbrook-Durant OKC teams there a bit. But man, getting the win made that so much fun. If Ant could just dial it back a bit and recognize that the attention he's going to start getting from defenses now is going to open up guys for wide open shots, he should be able to pick up a couple more assists per game and probably simultaneously increase his efficiency a bit.

Q, good point about how Ant was getting calls tonight. Totally true. He needs to freakin' hit those FTs. But at least his aggressiveness to the basket is helping him out. I think part of it is he's getting a couple calls per game that he wasn't before, but part of it also seems to be that he seems to be going right through and over defenders rather than trying to finish as often by driving around guys. He's definitely got a Jimmy Butler-esque ability to cradle the ball like a football and just drive into the defense and he should do that more often. And then hit his FTs.

42 points. As a rookie. Wow. Not super efficient, but that's awesome. The fact that he's even able to create enough shots to get to that point is really promising. And the crazy thing is, if he'd have hit a couple more FTs, plus that one layup he totally blew in the 4th and maybe another 3, he would have been knocking on the door of 50. Now, let's not forget, Brandon fucking Jennings dropped 55 like a week into his NBA career. Edwards looks to be so much better for a million reasons, but still, we should pump the brakes just a bit. But wow. 42 points.

And better yet (or worse, if you want to keep that pick!), this team looks like it might actually be turning a corner. I doubt getting to a play-in tournament is a possibility at this point, but man, that would be a crazy story if we actually could at least flirt with it a bit. Could you imagine if we turned it around that far?

[AbeVigodaLive]

Drew... considering Memphis is #10 and playing about .500 ball... the Wolves would have to go 25 - 6 or so to even get close.

The Timberwolves have NEVER been that good. 2004 was close. As was in 2003 when they started 31 - 10?

[Phenom]

Another important thing to consider is the Suns loaded the middle of the floor when Ant had the ball with Ricky, Jake, and Vandy out there. Juancho was really the only player other than Towns that made them pay. Ant had to regroup a number of times when the defense collapsed with 3 guys but he was also still able to navigate and score.

That was fun to watch but I do think he tired some. Having Beasley and DLO around to spot up would theoretically help open his lanes more. It'll be up to Finchy to put these guys in the best roles and I think he will. But will those 2 buy in? That would be huge.