Defensive Rebounding - Gameday Thread VS Bucks

[kekgeek]

Dlo a solid 3-15

[kekgeek]

11-41 from 3

[AbeVigodaLive]

Abe's (not DVR... but at-the-game) Late Night Review...

- Three point shooting was huge in this one. The Bucks hit 11 or 12 in the 1st half and shot 45%... the Wolves shot 27% and it's becoming more than a trend. A couple of notes... the Bucks were getting WIDE OPEN three point attempts. The Wolves (especially the 1st half) were taking more contested threes. Even when the Bucks were contested, they were hitting them. Finch grew more and more exasperated with each make. I don't know for certain if it was about Wolves breakdowns... or the Bucks not missing. But it was amusing.

- Ant got hot and hit two threes in a row. So, the next time down, McDaniels set a pick and rolled... and was wide open... not a single person in the arena thought Edwards was gonna pass (or even see) the wide open McDaniels. He shot instead against two guys and missed. Oof. He's a pure talent. But he's going to get passed by MANY young players if he can't figure out how to be less sticky and a better creator for others.

- Later in the 2nd half, the Wolves ran a simple set. But McLaughlin had to tell Towns what to do. Then, Nowell had to tell Gobert what to do. And then, so and so told so and so what to do. Oof. The Wolves are fighting against themselves right now. There's no continuity. No chemistry. It's rough.

- And it shows in MANY ways, including not taking open shots. The team seems so discombobulated that they were passing up wide open looks only to pass to another guy who passed up a good look, only to give it to somebody else who ends up taking the 3rd best look in the possession. Again, no continuity. No chemistry. And it's leading to no confidence.

- Gobert's airball. I was free throw line extended in section 110. I had a good look at the three point "attempt." It went about 18 feet.

- Grayson Allen is a bit of a punk. But he made so many little plays to help the Bucks win. A tap out rebound for a three pointer. A crafty flop. A battle for a loose ball. I saw McLaughlin really go after a loose ball early. I can't say for sure the entire Wolves team had as many "hustle" plays as Allen did. The Wolves need at least one guy like that. The Bucks have several. (Jru Holiday is another one... only he's also an All Star quality talent... and Giannis is another... only he's an all-time talent.)

- Camden left the board at the right time. We're all prone to celebrate our hits... and downplay our misses. But as the BIGGEST proponent of D. Russell and J. Wiseman (and his tendency to dig in instead of admitting mistakes), things would probably be pretty ugly right about now. Russell's style just doesn't seem to be working right now. And McLaughlin can't shoot. The PG is a big issue with this team. And I don't know how they fix it... this year or next year.

- BIGGER ISSUE... the Cavs traded for an all star guard. And he's thriving... and the team is thriving. The impact of a creative talented guard happens immediately (AS EXPECTED). Mitchell is a 31/4/7 guy right now. Atlanta traded for an all star guard. And he's thriving... and the team is thriving. Murray is a 22/6/8 guy right now.

Minnesota zigged... instead of zagging. The NBA just isn't the place for lumbering bigs. The drastic difference between the three teams is alarming, even if super early. This is a guard's league. Murray and Mitchell have their fingerprints all over the game. Gobert? Defensively, yeah sorta, I guess. Offensively, it's a trainwreck.

I preferred Murray over Gobert. I felt like it was a surer thing. Instead, the Wolves are tied to an awkward frontcourt that might not work and now paper thin in the backcourt with a starting PG who's been among the very worst starters at the position. OOOF.

- Giannis shot 20 free throws... the other 20 guys who played combined to shoot 25 free throws. In the Bulls/Celtics game, Demar Derozan had 22 free throw attempts in 36 minutes. He made 20. His teammates had 3 attempts in 204 minutes. On the other side, Jayson Tatum had 20 attempts and made 17.

Anthony Edwards had 2 free throws. And he has only 35 attempts in 9 games. He's made only 22. It's year 3... if he's the guy we think he'll be... he needs to come close to doubling his free throw attempts.

- Even the Timberwolves mid-game entertainment is off. The breakdancers were... ummm... well... nevermind. But the trampoline dunkers were very Wolves like. They mostly were off fumbling passes and missing targets and then would do something great that showed their talent. And then flubbed the next one. OOOOOOF!

[FNG]

The gap between our starters and reserves continues to increase. Our starters were a combined -82 tonight with 12 turnovers. Our reserves were a combined +17 with only 4 turnovers. The eye test doesn't lie...the energy level picks up when our starters go to the bench. And the numbers follow.

Lip this week called for Finchie to replace D'Angelo "The Pointer" Russell and Jaden "What's a Rebound?" McDaniels in the starting lineup to shake things up, and I am now on board...neither is deserving of a starting role right now. And while Finchie continued to start both of them, I think we saw a subtle change in the rotations tonight, as Pointer and Jaden only played 45 minutes. I look for this trend to continue.

Pointer tonight was a sterling 9-4-3 with 3 turnovers and 20% shooting, while playing the kind of defense he has shown throughout his career...is anyone surprised he was again a team-worst -18?

We play Hapless Houston Saturday night in a back to back and are 9-point favorites. Pointer, Jaden and Ant are all likeable guys, but I want to see them all on the bench at the start of the game...Pointer and Jaden because they are just not getting it done, and Ant because he has admitted that he is ineffective in back to backs. The season is still early and we're not the only talented team struggling (the Sixers, Nets, Warriors and Heat are a combined 14-25), but it could slip away quickly if Finchie doesn't act and set a fire under some of our underperformers. Come on Chris...do something different tonight!

[D-Mac [enjin:19736340]]

Jmac needs to shoot better

Bad guard play all year

Jmac can't make a shot

DLO looks like he will be out of the league in 2 years

Nowell puts up every shot attempt he can get searching for contract.

Ant has extremely low Basketball IQ

This is a big reason I didn't like the Rudy trade. I knew that upgrading our backcourt was going to be a bigger priority (could have done it last offseason, but preferably next offseason). Now we don't have any assets to do that AND we don't have any financial flexibility to do that. This team was in a great place after that Memphis series and these idiots managed to screw it up completely with one move. We had vando and Beverly, we could have upgraded our front court on the cheap (I think Kessler alone could have helped), and waited patiently for the right opportunity to come along to upgrade Dlo. Sure, if Ant turns into Kobe or Jordan than everything is great (again, why the trade was a bet on Ant), but I don't see that happening.

[D-Mac [enjin:19736340]]

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.

[Coolbreeze44]

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.

[Lipoli390]

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.

[Coolbreeze44]

KAT is an all-NBA player. Gobert is an all-NBA player. Ant can become an all-NBA player. Jaden has worlds of ability. DLO can pass. Can it really be THAT hard to make this work? Start playing for each other instead of a bunch of individuals. Winning should be the only priority, and clearly the roster isn't singularly focused on it.

[Coolbreeze44]

Quote from Giannis last night:

"Passing the ball creates a lot of energy," Antetokounmpo said. "We were able to move the ball -- everybody was touching it, everybody was driving and kicking it, everybody was getting open shots, open looks. And it was fun. Guys were making shots and it was just contagious."

Should be words to live by if you're a Wolves player.