Wolves vs Wiz GDT

[FNG]

After a fun, successful first half, our team imploded in the second half and played possibly their worst half of basketball this season. At the risk of offending Rick Carlyle, the whitest team in the NBA from the blackest city in the country kicked our asses. 4 pigmentally-challenged Wizards made 11 out of 20 3-pointers, or 55%. The Wizards are red hot...only a loss to the Clippers in their last 8 games...but you just can't get beaten so badly by Bertans, Matthews, Neto, Wagner, Len and Avdija. Westbrook and Beal are going to get theirs, but don't let those other guys beat you.

I railed on Ant, our perimeter defense, and our lack of ball movement in my response to Lip. But there were a few things to like even in this bloodbath.

Vando continues to improve every game...another double/double on only 7 shots. He has great chemistry with Rubio, and the two need to be on the court together...if Ricky goes to bench upon DLO's return, Vando needs to also.

Another good offensive effort from Nowell. 15/5/4 with no TOs is a great line. His +/- was terrible mainly because he was on the court when the Wizard Whities were unconscious beyond the arc, but he was not without blame here. While our starters closed out and protected the arc well, Nowell, J-Mac, Culver and even McDaniels were uncharacteristically awful defensively tonight. As bad as Ant was, it was our second team that lost this game tonight. But that should not detract from Nowell's fine offensive play.

Finch is now 0-3 with 2 blowouts after the Wolves had gone the entire month without a blowout before he was hired. But it's way too early to judge him...he deserves at least 10 games. We all like how he has gotten KAT involved more...Karl touches the ball now on every half court possession....and that's great. But my sense is that he is coddling Ant too much. Finch is credited with molding Damian and CJ into great NBA players, and I'm hoping he can do the same with Ant. It starts with accountability...Ant can't lead the team in minutes when he is playing selfish, ball stopping offense like he did last night.

[Wolvesfan21]

Will Finch win an NBA game in his head coaching career?

[Lipoli390]

Lip, your box score analysis is pretty close, but I'll add some color. The defense in the first half was quite good. Finch started a lineup that looked disastrous...KAT and 4 non-shooters. But Okogie, whom I have ripped all year, really stepped up against Beal, and we had one of our first sub-30 defensive first quarters of the season. Only a lucky bouncing three by Mo Wagner got them even to 27. And despite the lack of shooters on the floor and Ant's insistence on putting the ball up every time he touched it, we still were able to put up 29 points...thanks primarily to relentless offensive rebounding, great back cuts by Vando and JO, and easy looks from Rubio (he didn't have many assists, but KAT and Vando feasted at the free throw line off of good looks by Ricky.

But everything changed in a terrible third quarter. Both PG's quit moving the ball, and we forgot how to defend the perimeter...the number of open looks we gave outside the arc was embarrassing.

Finch was visibly angry postgame about the lack of ball movement. While or PGs were not good (6 assists and 4 TOs with 2-8 shooting), I sensed a lot of Finch's anger was directed toward Ant. When the ball went to him, it stopped, as he dribbled around probing for an opening to miss another three...he frankly looked like DLO to me, except without made shots. Finch has publicly asked Ant to limit his threes to 1/3 of his shots, but 11 of Ant's 22 shots were beyond the arc. Tellingly, he missed 8 out of 11 threes, but he made 6 of his 11 2's. Shame on Ant for relying on an inefficient shot, and shame on Finch for giving him a team-high 32 minutes when he clearly wasn't doing what the coach wanted. If Culver had shown anything, I would have encouraged Finch to start him at SF in place of Ant tonight, but Culver was actually worse than Ant.

Thanks for the insights, FNG!

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

I thought swapping Ricky Rubio for D'Angelo Russell or Malik Beasley in the starting lineup was supposed to transform the Wolves defense? Isn't he a drastically better defender? Wasn't that the narrative? What happened?

[kekgeek]

After a fun, successful first half, our team imploded in the second half and played possibly their worst half of basketball this season. At the risk of offending Rick Carlyle, the whitest team in the NBA from the blackest city in the country kicked our asses. 4 pigmentally-challenged Wizards made 11 out of 20 3-pointers, or 55%. The Wizards are red hot...only a loss to the Clippers in their last 8 games...but you just can't get beaten so badly by Bertans, Matthews, Neto, Wagner, Len and Avdija. Westbrook and Beal are going to get theirs, but don't let those other guys beat you.

I railed on Ant, our perimeter defense, and our lack of ball movement in my response to Lip. But there were a few things to like even in this bloodbath.

Vando continues to improve every game...another double/double on only 7 shots. He has great chemistry with Rubio, and the two need to be on the court together...if Ricky goes to bench upon DLO's return, Vando needs to also.

Another good offensive effort from Nowell. 15/5/4 with no TOs is a great line. His +/- was terrible mainly because he was on the court when the Wizard Whities were unconscious beyond the arc, but he was not without blame here. While our starters closed out and protected the arc well, Nowell, J-Mac, Culver and even McDaniels were uncharacteristically awful defensively tonight. As bad as Ant was, it was our second team that lost this game tonight. But that should not detract from Nowell's fine offensive play.

Finch is now 0-3 with 2 blowouts after the Wolves had gone the entire month without a blowout before he was hired. But it's way too early to judge him...he deserves at least 10 games. We all like how he has gotten KAT involved more...Karl touches the ball now on every half court possession....and that's great. But my sense is that he is coddling Ant too much. Finch is credited with molding Damian and CJ into great NBA players, and I'm hoping he can do the same with Ant. It starts with accountability...Ant can't lead the team in minutes when he is playing selfish, ball stopping offense like he did last night.

I actually agree with almost everything you post here. The only thing I disagree with is Finch deserves more then 10 games. Really tough spot for him, taking over a team who's season is over and now by far our best 2 perimeter offensive players are out. Right now outside of Nowell (who is a 2nd year 2nd round pick) the wolves guards and wings are really offensively challenged. Also Jmac is struggling.

[kekgeek]

Wolves 1-7 with Kat and without Dlo

So DLO is better than KAT? Is that what you're trying to stand on?

Kat is by far better. Just there is was a narrative that Dlo sucks and the Wolves would be significantly better without Dlo. That has not been the case. Wolves have struggled to win at a better rare since Kat has returned. Also for how good Kat is im worried about him he can't will the team to just one win. I'm worried Kat will ask out and I'm worried if Kat wants to stay is he worth the super max

[FNG]

After a fun, successful first half, our team imploded in the second half and played possibly their worst half of basketball this season. At the risk of offending Rick Carlyle, the whitest team in the NBA from the blackest city in the country kicked our asses. 4 pigmentally-challenged Wizards made 11 out of 20 3-pointers, or 55%. The Wizards are red hot...only a loss to the Clippers in their last 8 games...but you just can't get beaten so badly by Bertans, Matthews, Neto, Wagner, Len and Avdija. Westbrook and Beal are going to get theirs, but don't let those other guys beat you.

I railed on Ant, our perimeter defense, and our lack of ball movement in my response to Lip. But there were a few things to like even in this bloodbath.

Vando continues to improve every game...another double/double on only 7 shots. He has great chemistry with Rubio, and the two need to be on the court together...if Ricky goes to bench upon DLO's return, Vando needs to also.

Another good offensive effort from Nowell. 15/5/4 with no TOs is a great line. His +/- was terrible mainly because he was on the court when the Wizard Whities were unconscious beyond the arc, but he was not without blame here. While our starters closed out and protected the arc well, Nowell, J-Mac, Culver and even McDaniels were uncharacteristically awful defensively tonight. As bad as Ant was, it was our second team that lost this game tonight. But that should not detract from Nowell's fine offensive play.

Finch is now 0-3 with 2 blowouts after the Wolves had gone the entire month without a blowout before he was hired. But it's way too early to judge him...he deserves at least 10 games. We all like how he has gotten KAT involved more...Karl touches the ball now on every half court possession....and that's great. But my sense is that he is coddling Ant too much. Finch is credited with molding Damian and CJ into great NBA players, and I'm hoping he can do the same with Ant. It starts with accountability...Ant can't lead the team in minutes when he is playing selfish, ball stopping offense like he did last night.

I actually agree with almost everything you post here. The only thing I disagree with is Finch deserves more then 10 games. Really tough spot for him, taking over a team who's season is over and now by far our best 2 perimeter offensive players are out. Right now outside of Nowell (who is a 2nd year 2nd round pick) the wolves guards and wings are really offensively challenged. Also Jmac is struggling.

I think that's fair, kek. Better said by me, I'm going to avoid any criticism of the new coach for at least 10 games, and I'll hold off on any kind of full scale conclusions of his performance until end of season. I suspect his rotations are going to look a lot like Ryan's until he has had time to get in some true practice time and evaluate what works and what doesn't, and the upcoming break will afford him that opportunity (even Beasley is allowed to practice with the team, and I hope DLO is at least there to absorb any new approaches. I am going to note positives that seem different than the Saunders era though. For instance, as everyone has pointed out, it seems every offense possession now involves at least one touch by KAT. That may have something to do with KAT presenting himself better, but I also think Finch may be pounding it into the players' heads more than the Saunders boys and Thibs did...and that's good. Other than that, I haven't seen much different, and I don't really think we should have expected to.

[thedoper]

I thought swapping Ricky Rubio for D'Angelo Russell or Malik Beasley in the starting lineup was supposed to transform the Wolves defense? Isn't he a drastically better defender? Wasn't that the narrative? What happened?

This has always been a frustrating narrative for me. While Rubio is a smart defender and does well with what God gave him, he has always been far from a good defender as I see it. Even before whatever excuses fans are making for him now. Fundamentally you cant be a good perimeter defender in the NBA without being able to occasionally stay in front of your man and be able to fight through screens. Rubio does some things to make up for his deficiencies there, (he dives and gets phantom calls, he has really quick hands) but these smart plays dont make up for his lack of fundamental ability.

[D-Mac [enjin:19736340]]

I thought swapping Ricky Rubio for D'Angelo Russell or Malik Beasley in the starting lineup was supposed to transform the Wolves defense? Isn't he a drastically better defender? Wasn't that the narrative? What happened?

This has always been a frustrating narrative for me. While Rubio is a smart defender and does well with what God gave him, he has always been far from a good defender as I see it. Even before whatever excuses fans are making for him now. Fundamentally you cant be a good perimeter defender in the NBA without being able to occasionally stay in front of your man and be able to fight through screens. Rubio does some things to make up for his deficiencies there, (he dives and gets phantom calls, he has really quick hands) but these smart plays dont make up for his lack of fundamental ability.

I don't know whose narrative you're referring to, but I never thought we'd be significantly better Defensively with Rubio in there. My problem with Dlo has always been the opportunity cost (how much we're paying him and the draft picks we gave up). If Dlo had the same contract as Beasley and we didn't give up picks to get him, I'd be solid with Dlo (think he actually has pretty similar value to Beasley). Point guards simply don't make that big of a difference defensively and Rubio isn't really that great anyway.

[FNG]

That's my narrative Doper is referring to, D-Loser. I prefer Ricky's defense to DLO's.

Sample size, doper, sample size! If we were to take just one game against the Knicks when Ricky made 3 out of his 5 3-point shots and concluded on his long-range shooting, we would declare him elite! And if we were to judge the Rubio/JO backcourt just using the second half last night, we would say both are sieves on defense. But we have career defensive data on Ricky that rates him as an above average defender, and elite just last season, and rates DLO and Beasley as consistently at the bottom of their positions on defense. You just can't argue with the data. Rubio and JO had a terrible defensive second half last night, as did the entire team, but to try to argue a DLO/Beas backcourt is on par defensively with a Rubio/JO backcourt is a non-starter.

There aren't many PG's who can consistently stay in front of their man, and sadly none on our roster...I would argue that only 19-year-old McDaniels has the requisite natural instincts and lateral quickness to keep his man in front of him more often than not. What's more important to me in today's PnR centric offenses is what happens after the PG beats the defender...how does our PG/SG defend the other man if they can't fight through the screen (as none of our PGs can) and how well do they rotate. Unfortunately DLO and Beas are unbelievably bad at this part of the game, and while they can both score, I think we all know that is not a winning backcourt defensively.