Wolves 2 Rockettes 0-GDT

[Coolbreeze44]

Lip, let me add that the final score wasn't indicative of how bad the game really was. We could just have easily lost by 35. Basically whatever the Rockets wanted the final score to be. Jaden is the only guy who seems to have a full understanding of how the game should be played. He moves the ball, makes good timely cuts, and plays terrific defense. As someone else said he received some great coaching somewhere along the way. He was really the only reason I was able to keep interest in the game.

[Lipoli390]

Lip, you make a great point about Rosas largely ignoring defense in his drafts and free agent signings. I would add Reid and J-Mac to the free agent list...two guys who have impressed me with their offense, but have very poor defensive metrics. And I would add Nowell to the draft list. His defense was not rated highly at draft time, but I was pleasantly surprised earlier in the season...but my eye test tells me his defense as fallen off a cliff, and the metrics support this assessment. I would argue only Culver was regarded as a good defender in college and has performed well on defense with the Wolves, but his offensive flaws far more than offset his modest defensive success. McDaniels has proven to be a good, and potentially great, defender...but since his defensive reputation was not good in college (except for weakside blocks), I would label Rosas more lucky than good with that pick.

Rosas's lack of emphasis on bringing in solid defenders has put this team in a big hole, and is one of the reasons I was hoping for a DLO/Collins deal. There's no question in my mind that this roster is going to have to be significantly retooled in the off-season to get us back to being even an average defensive team. Until then, fasten your seat belts and get ready for more 74 point defensive first halves.

Edit: I forgot about Rubio. While Ricky has been a plus defender his entire career and despite always going all out on the defensive end, he has not been as effective on defense this year as others. And since I really don't think Rosas considers defense much at all in personnel decisions, I would guess that he didn't bring Ricky in because of his previous defensive success, but rather as a veteran presence on a young team.

FNG - You've add more good examples of Gersson's failure to significantly consider defense in his roster decisions. Like you, I would have loved a DLO for Collins trade. But we both knew that wasn't going to happen. It's clear that Rosas is still wed to DLO as one of his franchise pillars. One thing that's clear about Rosas is that, once he covets a player, he doesn't seem lose any of his enthusiasm for that player regardless of the evidence. I suspect that Rosas still sees DLO as a budding James Harden.

[Lipoli390]

Lip, let me add that the final score wasn't indicative of how bad the game really was. We could just have easily lost by 35. Basically whatever the Rockets wanted the final score to be. Jaden is the only guy who seems to have a full understanding of how the game should be played. He moves the ball, makes good timely cuts, and plays terrific defense. As someone else said he received some great coaching somewhere along the way. He was really the only reason I was able to keep interest in the game.

Cool - Thanks for the additional perspective. I still haven't watched the game, but I haven't deleted it either. I might watch it some day just out of morbid curiosity. Right now, I can't stand the thought of watching that game and I'm not sure I can stomach watching any more Wolves games this season. The only good thing about the Covid pandemic is that I haven't had to pay for or witness any Wolves games in person this season.

[FNG]

Lip, you make a great point about Rosas largely ignoring defense in his drafts and free agent signings. I would add Reid and J-Mac to the free agent list...two guys who have impressed me with their offense, but have very poor defensive metrics. And I would add Nowell to the draft list. His defense was not rated highly at draft time, but I was pleasantly surprised earlier in the season...but my eye test tells me his defense as fallen off a cliff, and the metrics support this assessment. I would argue only Culver was regarded as a good defender in college and has performed well on defense with the Wolves, but his offensive flaws far more than offset his modest defensive success. McDaniels has proven to be a good, and potentially great, defender...but since his defensive reputation was not good in college (except for weakside blocks), I would label Rosas more lucky than good with that pick.

Rosas's lack of emphasis on bringing in solid defenders has put this team in a big hole, and is one of the reasons I was hoping for a DLO/Collins deal. There's no question in my mind that this roster is going to have to be significantly retooled in the off-season to get us back to being even an average defensive team. Until then, fasten your seat belts and get ready for more 74 point defensive first halves.

Edit: I forgot about Rubio. While Ricky has been a plus defender his entire career and despite always going all out on the defensive end, he has not been as effective on defense this year as others. And since I really don't think Rosas considers defense much at all in personnel decisions, I would guess that he didn't bring Ricky in because of his previous defensive success, but rather as a veteran presence on a young team.

FNG - You've add more good examples of Gersson's failure to significantly consider defense in his roster decisions. Like you, I would have loved a DLO for Collins trade. But we both knew that wasn't going to happen. It's clear that Rosas is still wed to DLO as one of his franchise pillars. One thing that's clear about Rosas is that, once he covets a player, he doesn't seem lose any of his enthusiasm for that player regardless of the evidence. I suspect that Rosas still sees DLO as a budding James Harden.

Unfortunately, if you blur your eyes, DLO's upside is a (very) poor man's Harden...ball-dominant and productive on offense, but totally indifferent and unsuccessful on defense. There's reason to still be intrigued by what the return of DLO does for this offense, but I'm still concerned a DLO/Beasley/Ant 1-3 combo will be sieve-like on defense. I've also enjoyed watching the way Rubio/J-Mac and to a lesser degree Nowell have pushed the ball up the court in response to Finch's sped-up offense. That's not DLO's style, and it will be interesting to see if he adapts to a quicker pace.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

We talk about playing fast and pushing the ball up the court for two main reasons, in my opinion. Firstly, teams do this to use more possessions -- more possessions should lead to more points, theoretically. Secondly, teams do this to attack defenses before they're set and get easier looks, theoretically. I say "theoretically" because playing fast isn't always a good style depending on the team's personnel. I think we can agree on that much.

The NBA tracks this sort of thing using pace factor. Pace factor is defined as the number of possessions a team uses per game. Specifically, this metric illustrates how many combined possessions a team averages per 48 minutes (per game). In other words, if a team has a pace factor of 100, that means their games typically see 100 possessions in total (both sides). If they play slow or fast, we should be able to spot that using this statistic. Pace factor is also calculated for individual players and can be found both on ESPN and NBA sites.

D'Angelo Russell
2018-19: 102.40
2019-20: 104.75
2020-21: 102.65

Three-year average: 103.27

Ricky Rubio
2018-19: 101.92
2019-20: 103.53
2020-21: 103.79

Three-year average: 103.08

This isn't to say that Rubio doesn't get the ball up the court faster than Russell, but that it might not really matter in terms of using more possessions per game, which is the idea here.

My guess as to why Russell and Rubio are comparable in pace despite the differences in play style are because of Rubio's inability to score the ball himself. We'll often see D-Lo bring the ball up the court himself and shoot a rhythm jumper or dish whereas we often see Rubio race the ball up the floor only to pull it back out if he doesn't have a teammate with him. The difference ends up being negligible.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Meh.

If we want the Wolves to get out of the perpetual basement... it's probably time we stop comparing Russell with Rubio. If we're not ever able to compare him to perennial All Stars in any serious way... the Wolves are in big trouble.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Meh.

If we want the Wolves to get out of the perpetual basement... it's probably time we stop comparing Russell with Rubio. If we're not ever able to compare him to perennial All Stars in any serious way... the Wolves are in big trouble.

Sure, but as someone who literally made a poll comparing Russell and Rubio and asking everyone to pick a side, maybe you shouldn't be the one to say this... even though I agree that Russell will need to be closer to All-Star level than whatever level Rubio is on if the Wolves are going to be a playoff team again.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Meh.

If we want the Wolves to get out of the perpetual basement... it's probably time we stop comparing Russell with Rubio. If we're not ever able to compare him to perennial All Stars in any serious way... the Wolves are in big trouble.

Sure, but as someone who literally made a poll comparing Russell and Rubio and asking everyone to pick a side, maybe you shouldn't be the one to say this... even though I agree that Russell will need to be closer to All-Star level than whatever level Rubio is on if the Wolves are going to be a playoff team again.

You realize I was just trying to push buttons with that, right? I never even gave my opinion...

Everybody else seemed to realize it.