Wolves v Lakers GDT

[thedoper]

I agree that the play has been off kilter. But we are downright dominant at times too. It will come together. Go Wolves!

[Lipoli390]

My conclusion jester Is you're a worthless piece of shit

Woah, where is that coming from?

Well cool. I'm an ass for asking a question. I'm also an ass because my grammar is never correct. Even though I've told everyone before that I've have always struggles with dyslexia. Remember it was year ago I was called the worst poster on here

But hey You guys just lost another poster. Thanks Kek, Cam, Q and Cool for always being good to me. But have fun with the negativity on this board.

Jester - Don't stop posting! I enjoy your posts and have no trouble understanding them. I didn't even know you had dyslexia until you mentioned it in this last post. You can't let one pathetic post drive you from this message board.

[Porckchop]

Observations...

- I'm still in the camp that any win for this franchise is a good win, no caveats or qualifiers or buts.

- Really like how KAT has played drama-less ball these last couple of games. He hasn't necessarily been dominant, but he seems to be making the right play 90% of the time.

- Ant is fun to watch....and frustrating at times. You gotta make at least one pass to Gobert when he has a little guy sealed off in the paint. I get we don't want to run our whole offense that way, but you gotta get it to him once. Ant still has a lot of maturing to do.

- Thought Jaden did yoeman's work against LeBron.

- While I know the Lakers were missing AD and have not been good this year, they will win a game at some point and they do play good defense (4th in the NBA heading into this game).

- Pat Beverley does not look so great out there. I think he's losing his outside shot, as we saw last year it was getting a bit unreliable.

- Prince has been ROCK solid for this year so far. Just an awesome vet wing off the bench.

4-2, I'll take it![/quot

I agree. A wins a win. A lot of teams have suffered losses to lesser teams this year. Didn't Jordan's Bulls lose to our Garnett lead Wolves once upon a time? Hell, Philly beat the Astros with Verlander pitching tonight. There are no gimmies in professional sports.

[FNG]

Good demeanor from Towns tonight

I've actually noticed that in every game this season, Cool. I attribute it to the mature presence of Gobert (but of course I don't know), and if so, it's another reason this was a great trade (in addition to his 20/20 game!). Towns seems to be enjoying his new role and accepting the fact that his rebounds (and probably points) will be down while his assists will be way up. He still needs to be a little more careful with his passes, but 7 assist games like tonight may become a regular thing. And what I liked best is he adjusted his game to the situation...a facilitator for the first three quarters, and then a 3-point scorer when we needed it in the 4th. I'm seeing a lot of growth in KAT, and I like what I'm seeing.

(One negative- Jester's observation that KAT was disengaged when Finchie was talking during the Spurs game. In all fairness, it was a depressing game, so maybe I'll give him a pass).

[FNG]

I was at the game last night and am just catching up on the board comments now. I don't check my phone much during games, and especially during Laker games...even though they are a struggling team this year, the arena is always a little more alive on Laker night!

While I am still a big proponent of the big trade, I find myself gravitating a little to Lip's and D-loser's take that the jury is still way out. I hear what others are saying that a win is a win, and I don't necessarily disagree, but I'm not at all happy with a 4-2 record when I think we have been 8+ point favorites in all 6 games. We should at least be 5-1 with the incredibly soft schedule we have experienced so far. But with my rose-colored glasses on, I'm going to conclude that this new roster is still figuring things out, and we're only going to get better on our way to 50+ wins.

Yes, AD and Schroeder were out tonight, but I don't think we should overlook the absence of key role players JMac and Slo Mo. Finchie tried Rivers at backup PG in the first half, and even though I have been calling for him to get some minutes, he was frankly terrible at both ends of the court. Finchie needs to use him only situationally, preferably at SG when we are protecting a 4th quarter lead.

DLo shot poorly tonight, and failed to get Ant and KAT involved in the first half, but I'm going to argue it was his best game of the year...you can't dismiss 7 assists, 6 steals and only 2 TOs. Take away the 11 missed shots (15 shots is simply too many for DLo when we have more efficient options) and I would be considering him for tonight's MVP. But JMac's absence and River's poor play forced Finchie to turn to Ant and Nowell to man the point. I missed the ball movement JMac brings, but it kind of worked. Nowell was Russell 2.0 tonight...he was the return of Eyechart tonight, but he displayed a nice feel for distributing that I haven't noticed before...5 assists and no TOs.

Gobert and Jaden...wow! Jaden was given some very bad calls and wasn't involved much on offense, but I couldn't take my eyes off of his defense on LeBron...he was terrific! Yes, LeBron got 28 points, but some of them were when Jaden was out (Nowell on LBJ for a few minutes...what's that all about, Finchie?), and Jaden was responsible for several James' misses. And 4 blocks!

So, Sunday night against the Spurs is a big game IMO. We need to show up on the road, and win another game where we will be favorites. Big game and Go Wolves!

[Leado01]

A couple of notes.

I thought this was KAT's best game. He was closing out with more speed and meaning and I don't recall seeing him in no man's land in the zone (now that i think about it there was one play under the basket he chose not to engage). But he looked like a superstar that chose his spots and didn't annoy the audience.

ANT is getting there on defense. He's still not engaged or attached for periods of time. But he's improving.

DLO and ANT both got sticky hands on offense at times, but there were also times when our spacing was great and no one moved to start any kind of motion. DLO's freaky arms continue to tip a lot of balls.

McD, Gobert, and Prince....(plenty said)

Rivers and Forbes aren't there yet, but Rivers does tend to be in the right place on defense.

We may need to slow our roll on Nowell taking over the starting PG spot. He's a perfect 6th man. He's streaky, and a liability on defense (see JET). If DLO goes down I'm not sure if either Nowell or Jordan can handle the role defensively.

[Q-is-here]

I agree that the play has been off kilter. But we are downright dominant at times too. It will come together. Go Wolves!

Yeah, things are definitely not clicking yet and I understand the concern of folks like Lip. There were a couple of post-game comments made by others that resonated with me.

Chris Finch on Ant:: "He has great confidence that if he's just done one thing, he's going to do it again."

Boy, isn't that for sure...How often have we seen Ant take an ill-advised stepback 3 because he just made one the prior trip down? I know sometimes he can get really hot and you have to give him some rope to take those shots, but he misses guys with far easier looks sometimes because of it. He could have been 11-19 last night with a couple more assists.

Michael Wilbon on the Wolves this year: "I want to see them get smarter and savvier."

Ant, DLO, and KAT....unfortunately all three have a tendency to make boneheaded plays at ill-advised times, which leads to the kinds of meltdowns we saw in the playoff series against Memphis. It could be a rushed, contested shot. It could be losing track of your guy off ball or mixing up coverage on screens. It could be a silly offensive foul. It could be arguing with the official instead of hustling back. All three are guilty of making really low IQ plays.

We have to hope that Finch and his assistants can somehow improve the collective basketball IQ of this team. Having the likes of Gobert, Anderson, and even McLaughlin really helps, but we need to see smarter basketball from DLO, KAT, and Ant.

[thedoper]

I agree that the play has been off kilter. But we are downright dominant at times too. It will come together. Go Wolves!

Yeah, things are definitely not clicking yet and I understand the concern of folks like Lip. There were a couple of post-game comments made by others that resonated with me.

Chris Finch on Ant:: "He has great confidence that if he's just done one thing, he's going to do it again."

Boy, isn't that for sure...How often have we seen Ant take an ill-advised stepback 3 because he just made one the prior trip down? I know sometimes he can get really hot and you have to give him some rope to take those shots, but he misses guys with far easier looks sometimes because of it. He could have been 11-19 last night with a couple more assists.

Michael Wilbon on the Wolves this year: "I want to see them get smarter and savvier."

Ant, DLO, and KAT....unfortunately all three have a tendency to make boneheaded plays at ill-advised times, which leads to the kinds of meltdowns we saw in the playoff series against Memphis. It could be a rushed, contested shot. It could be losing track of your guy off ball or mixing up coverage on screens. It could be a silly offensive foul. It could be arguing with the official instead of hustling back. All three are guilty of making really low IQ plays.

We have to hope that Finch and his assistants can somehow improve the collective basketball IQ of this team. Having the likes of Gobert, Anderson, and even McLaughlin really helps, but we need to see smarter basketball from DLO, KAT, and Ant.

Yeah the three you mentioned definitely have lapses. Im worried about it becoming habit with Ant but he sure has shown an ability to learn and adapt his game. His assist numbers seem to be trending upward.

Gobert is just making up for a ton of mistakes or low basketball IQ on both sides of the ball in ways that Pat Bev and Vando just werent capable of. He extends possessions, gives everyone great lanes in the half court, and covers so much ground on D. Once we really figure out the offense, Im less worried about the collapses with Gobert out there.

[FNG]

I would add Nowell to that trio that needs to get smarter, but I still appreciate what he brings and his upside.