Defensive Rebounding - Gameday Thread VS Bucks

[Lipoli390]

Two great posts, Cool!!

[Wolvesfan21]

The team still defensively hasn't learned yet to simply defend the 3P line. It doesn't help either that our own shooting is terrible from 3P. Sure a lot are contested, but even the wide open ones seem to not be dropping.

Both will improve. We're not going to keep shooting sub 30% all year.

That said, DLO is in a serious slump. He might continue to be trash till we trade him. These 3-15 nights are hard to overcome for the rest of the team.

[Jester1534]

The number of times we shoot the ball when there is NOBODY on our team to rebound. These are fundamentals... we are terrible at fundamentals...how are we terrible at fundamentals?!?

Cause it's a team full of stat hunters

Nailed it. Kat, Ant, Dlo and now Nowell are all stat hunters.

Those same "stat hunters" were on last season's team that won 46 games and took the 2nd seed in the West to six games. If one of those three "stat hunters (DLO) had played at least as well as one of the other two, the Wolves would have probably won their first round series.

We need to be honest about what's happening this season. This team is terrible compared to the team we saw from about the mid-point of last season through the Memphis playoff series. What's changed since then? Well, we now have Gobert, Anderson, Forbes and Rivers, but no longer have Vando, Beverley or Beasley. Meanwhile Ant came into the season 10 pounds heavier and hasn't had a dunk yet (unless he got one last night). So what's wrong? We have a very different mix of players even though we still have KAT, Ant and DLO.

Gobert protects the paint and sucks up rebounds around the basket to a degree we never saw from Vando. But Vando would fly around and disrupt opposing offenses both in point and on the perimeter in a way Gobert can't. On the offensive side of the ball, Vando was constant motion. He could also bring the ball down on the fast break since he had the skill-set of a wing without the perimeter shooting. Beverley provided an intense, disruptive ball-hawking perimeter defense we no longer have in his absence. Vando and Beverley combined brought a level of energy, intensity and competitiveness that we no longer have. In spite of his flaws and inconsistency, Beasley was a lights-out three-point shooter whose athleticism, quickness and lightning quick release allowed him to get shots off in a way Forbes cannot.

Meanwhile, KAT not only missed training camp but had an illness that landed him in the hospital and took 10 points he needed off his frame. At the same time, Ant stupidly came to camp 10 points heavier and hasn't had a dunk yet this season. I'm not worried about those two stat hunting. I'm worried about them providing the productivity (measured in stats) this team needs to succeed. They need to get fit and sharpen get their skills honed individually at the same time they adjust to a very different mix of players around them. As for DLO, he is who he's always been since he arrived, namely an incredibly inconsistent player who generally slows the offense while providing mediocre defense. He can carry the team when his shooting's hot, but otherwise he's a liability and an grossly overpaid liability.

If we're talking about stats, I'll come back to the elephant in the room. In the last two games Rudy Gobert has averaged 7 points, 11 rebounds and 1 block per game. The Wolves gave up a ton of value to bring Rudy here. A max-contract player, especially one the Wolves gave up so much value to get, has to give the team FAR more production that we've seen from him in the last two games. We don't need fewer stats from KAT and Ant. We need more stats from them AND from Gobert. If anything, KAT should be praised for improving his assist numbers - a glimmer of hope for a team that has seen too much individual play on the offensive side of the ball.

Yes, we need more ball-movement on the offensive side of the ball. Last season we had five ball-handlers in our starting lineup who were highly mobile both with and without the ball. This season we have three or four depending on what you think of McDaniels' ballhandling. And we still have a starting PG whose hands tend to get way to sticky. Meanwhile, the team's head coach is still questioning the team's overall effort and intensity and rightly so.

This team has lots of problems right now, but stat-hunting by KAT and Ant aren't among them in my view. I hope KAT continues his upward trajectory towards reclaiming his place as one of the League's most efficient high-level scorers. And I hope he continues his improved assist stat line because that will ultimately help the team. I want Ant to score MORE points. I want to see him dunk more and string together 30+ point games with some 40+ point games like we often see from players like Tatum, Morant and Giannis. And I know this will piss a lot of people off, but Rudy has to provide a lot more than we've seen from him thus far to come close to justifying the trade that brought him here. I believe he can provide more even though I still don't like the trade. KAT will settle in as the player he's always been, which makes him highly valuable. As we saw last season and when Butler was here, this team can win with KAT if he has decent talent around him. If Ant gets his shit together physically and mentally, then this team will improve significantly. The question for management is what to do with DLO. That's the one thing in my view that has to change. He'll get hot at some point this season and I think that's when Connelly should trade him.

Lip I think you kind of made my point for me on this with this excellent write up. Yes they were on this team last year but they also had 2 do shit players in Bev and Vando covering up their problems.

I still contend that our guard play is reason why this team has suffered. Other than Ant one game against SA has there been one game where you could say a guard has played well without adding a yeah but to it.

[Wolvesfan21]

Lil JMac has been solid at the point. Positive contributor and mostly consistent. DLO has been terrible and Ant has been up and down. Certainly our lack of shooting and playmaking from the backcourt has been the issue so far.

[Jester1534]

Lil JMac has been solid at the point. Positive contributor and mostly consistent. DLO has been terrible and Ant has been up and down. Certainly our lack of shooting and playmaking from the backcourt has been the issue so far.

Jmac has been good for what he does but he can't shoot 14% from the 3pt line

[ItsJustSoSab]

The board is becoming more and more convinced this mix isn't going to work. I'm not ready to go there yet, but if this turns out to be true, we have one choice. We have to pivot by trading KAT. He should bring a quality point guard and restore most of our lost draft picks. That really wouldn't be that bad. So I don't think the situation is as bad as it appears, provided we have the guts to trade our most talented player. I'm going to wait another 10 games or so before I judge this current edition of the team. I'm still waiting for us to leverage our built-in advantage and pound teams inside. If we continue to play iso-hero ball we will fail and fail miserably.

Fuck it I'll give it a season. I'm taking over for Monster and Tim! I think it works out much better than people think it will, but I agree if it goes bad....KAT has got to go. 8 years at this point, he is what he is