Raptors rematch-GDT

[FNG]

McDaniels will make an All defensive team in his career

It's funny kek, but as I was watching the replay of this disastrous game this morning, I had the same exact thought. His on-ball footwork and shot-blocking instincts are outstanding for a skinny 19-year-old kid. I don't remember any of the pundits praising his defense pre-draft. What a pleasant surprise he has been.

[FNG]

Edwards: "I don't care about the dunk. I couldn't make shots."

I loved this post-game comment. The kid is brutally honest and doesn't deal in cliches, but you can see he wants to win. The joy on his face on the court when the team is doing well is a joy to watch. I loved how he said something funny to Jaden after he missed the first of three free throws. Jaden smiled, relaxed, and made the next two.

He had a disastrous game and good on him for focusing on that rather than the dunk. He needs to be better, and I think he will be.

[Coolbreeze44]

Hello Mr. McDaniels

I know he got bunch of techs in college. But what was the deal man. He seems so calm and collected for a rookie. I don't see how this guy was consider a hot head. Maybe he just grew up real fast.

I was going to comment on this last night, but forgot....I'm also befuddled by McDaniels. If I didn't know a thing about him prior to the Wolves, I would be shocked to find out he had 9 technicals and got yanked from the starting lineup for a stretch of time last year. Like, the guy almost never reacts to anything, good or bad.

McDaniels currently contributes more to winning basketball than Edwards and may be even Beasley. His defense is crazy-good. Besides making Siakam look silly, he matched up against Van Fleet on a switch and FVF could go absolutely nowhere against him. Once he learns to stay down a bit better and puts on a bit more weight to help on the defensive glass, he will be a top 5 or 10 NBA defender.

It got to the point where you could sense Siakam wanted no part of trying to attack him. He ended up just moving the ball and settling. It's just weird for someone so young to have this kind of defensive chops.

I want to see him start to expand his offensive game now. He was stuffed at the rim a couple times earlier in the season, and I think it's made him a bit tentative to attack the basket. He certainly has the potential to be a complete player, I hope he doesn't relegate himself to just a 3 and D guy.

[FNG]

Very tough loss...maybe the worst of the year. Rubio's two turnovers in the final minutes were the main culprit, but missed shots at the end of the game were another factor. As badly as he played in the final 5 minutes, Rubio did get the ball to KAT and Ant at critical moments with the closest defender not even in the same zip code...and they missed wide-open threes. Beas also missed 2 threes in the closing minutes.

Again Ryan is taking the brunt of the criticism here for not playing J-Mac the last five minutes. Hindsight is 20/20 but here's what I was thinking at that time:

1) J-Mac looked good all game, but he had played 12 consecutive minutes and looked gassed on defense to me...that was probably the longest stretch he had played in the NBA his entire career.

2) At the time of the substitution, Ricky was a +7 and J-Mac was a -3 for the game. In all fairness, the main reason for J-Mac's minus was a lot of missed shots by his teammates all game. But another reason for the 10-point spread between our PGs at that point in time was defense. Go back and look at the 3rd quarter run we made with Ricky at PG...yes, Jaden was magnificent, but Ricky's defense had a lot to do with that run.

With a 4-point lead and a tired J-Mac, I'm making the same move Ryan did and putting in the superior defender and more experienced player. Did it work? Nope. But like I said, hindsight is 20/20.

It's a shame that Ricky's turnovers and poor shooting by everyone at the start and end of the game negated incredible performances by Jake Layman and Jaden McDaniels...they were both sensational. And again props to KAT who says he isn't even close to being healthy for putting up a gritty 19-13-4. Those three guys deserved to win the game, but when the two guys taking the most shots (Beasley and Ant) go 8-30, it's tough to win a game.

Finally, what a tragic bet for Cool. He makes the right bet (I think) with the Wolves +4, and is 10 points up on his bet with 3:40 to go. That's gotta be a win, doesn't it? But Ricky turns it over twice, Ant and KAT miss wide-open threes, Beas foolishly forces and misses a bad three, and then maybe worst of all, Beas misses a meaningless 12-footer with Toronto hardly putting up any defense (just trying not to foul) with 11 second left that would have won his bet. That's why I gave up betting on hoops...I feel ya, Cool.

[Lipoli390]

For the record, yes, Rubio was brutal, but he shouldn't have been checked into the game down the final stretch. It was clear he didn't have it tonight and McLaughlin did. Once again Saunders fails to recognize what's so obvious to many.

I've probably written this 1,000 times... this is the NBA, not high school. For all we complain about the wrong rotations depending on what happens in each game... players repeatedly request set rotations and clearly defined roles and the highest paid, most experienced ones often have a say in those rotations. It's just the way the NBA is.

Rubio is a seasoned vet. I doubt he gets nearly as much say as Towns or others. BUT... McLaughlin is a 2-way rookie. Benching Rubio the game after he went for 20/13 with only 1 TO for a two-way rookie would not sit with a single veteran in the league... even those watching the Wolves from afar.

Does that make it right? No. Did Rubio suck balls? Yep. Was he a big reason the Wolves lost? Yep. But that's the NBA... the same game we've all watched for many years. There's really no story here.

Case in point... Fred Van Fleet was 4 - 20 fg. And he had 5 TOs. He stunk. There was no way he was being pulled for Malachi Flynn regardless if Flynn could actually play hoops or not.



[Note: Eventually, we'll all get our wish. But these things take time. The changing of the guard has happened hundreds of times previously... it's been happening for the last 20, 30, 50 years... but it rarely happens overnight from one game to the next.]

It wasn't just that Ricky was playing poorly tonight. JMac was playing particularly well and the team was having success with him on the floor tonight. Any vet watching the game would have seen a decision to play JMac down the stretch as the right move for the team. Playing JMac down the stretch might not have sat well with Ricky, but it was the right move to make. Ricky has no clout with this organization. I don't know why what other vets watching might have thought should matter to Ryan. And seriously, no other player in the League would have cared whether Ryan played Ricky or not those final 5 minutes tonight. In fact, they'd probably respect Ryan for that decision because it was so clearly the right basketball decision in that moment.

Having said all that, I'll come back to the view I had on draft day - i.e., Rosas should not have traded for Ricky. And that was before I knew how much Ricky has regressed. Ricky dribbled the ball off his foot and a play later just fell down. There is clearly something wrong with him physically.

I'm just telling you how the NBA works... not whether I agree with it or not.

That sort of move is very rare... even rarer if it's coming from the youngest, greenest coach in the L.

I understood your point, Abe. I just think there was an alignment of factors that gave Saunders both the impetus and room to buck convention on a one-time isolated basis for the last 5 minutes of last night's game. The team was playing really well with JMac, and Ricky was playing particularly poorly. It would be one thing if we were talking about our franchise all-star KAT or even DLO. But we're talking about our backup PG, Ricky Rubio. Ricky might have been upset if Ryan sat him for the final 5 minutes, but so what. No one else on the team would have cared if the Wolves had won. And no player on any other team would give a hoot.

I have no idea what was going through Ryan's head. Did he consider himself bound by convention or concern about Ricky's psyche to keep Ricky in the game? Or was he convinced that Ricky was the better choice compared to JMac at that point? Then again, maybe he didn't want to piss off Rosas by playing the PG who Rosas didn't consider valuable enough to sign as a full roster player rather than one of Gersson's prize pre-season acquisitions. We'll never know. But I don't see NBA convention as an adequate explanation for Ryan's two-fold blunder last night - playing Ricky instead of JMac and then running the offense through Ricky. And there's no way of knowing whether it was NBA convention that actually motivated Ryan's decision.

[Coolbreeze44]

Very tough loss...maybe the worst of the year. Rubio's two turnovers in the final minutes were the main culprit, but missed shots at the end of the game were another factor. As badly as he played in the final 5 minutes, Rubio did get the ball to KAT and Ant at critical moments with the closest defender not even in the same zip code...and they missed wide-open threes. Beas also missed 2 threes in the closing minutes.

Again Ryan is taking the brunt of the criticism here for not playing J-Mac the last five minutes. Hindsight is 20/20 but here's what I was thinking at that time:

1) J-Mac looked good all game, but he had played 12 consecutive minutes and looked gassed on defense to me...that was probably the longest stretch he had played in the NBA his entire career.

2) At the time of the substitution, Ricky was a +7 and J-Mac was a -3 for the game. In all fairness, the main reason for J-Mac's minus was a lot of missed shots by his teammates all game. But another reason for the 10-point spread between our PGs at that point in time was defense. Go back and look at the 3rd quarter run we made with Ricky at PG...yes, Jaden was magnificent, but Ricky's defense had a lot to do with that run.

With a 4-point lead and a tired J-Mac, I'm making the same move Ryan did and putting in the superior defender and more experienced player. Did it work? Nope. But like I said, hindsight is 20/20.

It's a shame that Ricky's turnovers and poor shooting by everyone at the start and end of the game negated incredible performances by Jake Layman and Jaden McDaniels...they were both sensational. And again props to KAT who says he isn't even close to being healthy for putting up a gritty 19-13-4. Those three guys deserved to win the game, but when the two guys taking the most shots (Beasley and Ant) go 8-30, it's tough to win a game.

Finally, what a tragic bet for Cool. He makes the right bet (I think) with the Wolves +4, and is 10 points up on his bet with 3:40 to go. That's gotta be a win, doesn't it? But Ricky turns it over twice, Ant and KAT miss wide-open threes, Beas foolishly forces and misses a bad three, and then maybe worst of all, Beas misses a meaningless 12-footer with Toronto hardly putting up any defense (just trying not to foul) with 11 second left that would have won his bet. That's why I gave up betting on hoops...I feel ya, Cool.

The bold is what some of you don't realize. Especially for a guy not used to playing big minutes. Sure, you can always rest him for a couple minutes and then put him back in, but he needed a rest at that point.

As far as the bet goes, it works both ways. I was also on the Suns last night and they exploded in the 4th quarter to pull out a bet. I also had the 2nd half over in the Clippers game, and I still don't know how there was so many points scored in the last minute of that game to pull out another win. So as you know in betting, hopefully you win more than you lose. But yes, that Wolves ending was maddening for a couple reasons.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Most of us realize a guy needs a blow, but when it comes down to it even Jordan McLaughlin would probably tell you he had enough gas in the tank for the final stretch of the game. I guess we'll never know.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Hello Mr. McDaniels

I know he got bunch of techs in college. But what was the deal man. He seems so calm and collected for a rookie. I don't see how this guy was consider a hot head. Maybe he just grew up real fast.

I was going to comment on this last night, but forgot....I'm also befuddled by McDaniels. If I didn't know a thing about him prior to the Wolves, I would be shocked to find out he had 9 technicals and got yanked from the starting lineup for a stretch of time last year. Like, the guy almost never reacts to anything, good or bad.

McDaniels currently contributes more to winning basketball than Edwards and may be even Beasley. His defense is crazy-good. Besides making Siakam look silly, he matched up against Van Fleet on a switch and FVF could go absolutely nowhere against him. Once he learns to stay down a bit better and puts on a bit more weight to help on the defensive glass, he will be a top 5 or 10 NBA defender.

It got to the point where you could sense Siakam wanted no part of trying to attack him. He ended up just moving the ball and settling. It's just weird for someone so young to have this kind of defensive chops.

I want to see him start to expand his offensive game now. He was stuffed at the rim a couple times earlier in the season, and I think it's made him a bit tentative to attack the basket. He certainly has the potential to be a complete player, I hope he doesn't relegate himself to just a 3 and D guy.

But an elite 3 & D forward can make $15M-18M per year in the NBA. Super valuable player to a team that already has play makers and scorers and something this franchise has almost never had (Covington for a year or so may be). So even if he "settles" for this, it's still incredibly valuable - more so than a pure volume scorer/no defense kind of player in my opinion.