GDT: Minnesota vs. Denver

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Well, this is precisely the reason why I pegged this team for 42 wins instead of 45 or more. This is an overall young and immature group still figuring out how to win games. They're definitely on the right path and the talent is clearly there, in my opinion, but they're still learning how to finish quarters let alone games. There were many chances to win this game tonight. Hopefully, there will be many more lessons learned from this one. It's a tough loss, but they have to take this one on the chin and move on.

[thedoper]

Those green jerseys have done nothing for us. Glad I missed this one.

[TheGrey08]

Pain. This game should have been a win, or at the very least be heading into overtime. That final play is infuriating.

Granted they could have put the game away and failed to many times, that buzzer was horrendous. 2-3 seconds after possession changed. Just unbelievable.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Minnesota ranks 29th in wide open three-point percentage. The Wolves are getting a lot of good looks, but just haven't been making their shots. It's obviously frustrating and disappointing that they're missing so many, but I'm encouraged by the the quality of looks this team is creating. I continue to believe the shots will fall eventually. We need D'Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley, Taurean Prince, and Patrick Beverley to be making their shots as those are the reliable shooters on the team besides Karl-Anthony Towns. Only Towns and Beverley have made their shots consistently. Beasley finally got it going last night. We need all five to be in sync moving forward.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Well, this is precisely the reason why I pegged this team for 42 wins instead of 45 or more. This is an overall young and immature group still figuring out how to win games. They're definitely on the right path and the talent is clearly there, in my opinion, but they're still learning how to finish quarters let alone games. There were many chances to win this game tonight. Hopefully, there will be many more lessons learned from this one. It's a tough loss, but they have to take this one on the chin and move on.

But are they really that young? I get that Ant and McDaniels are young. But KAT and DLO are almost at the ideal level of experience and peak physical performance at this stage in their career. They should be methodically running their offense and generating good shots.

Instead, we saw a bunch of disjointed halfcourt sets with bad shots and careless turnovers.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Well, this is precisely the reason why I pegged this team for 42 wins instead of 45 or more. This is an overall young and immature group still figuring out how to win games. They're definitely on the right path and the talent is clearly there, in my opinion, but they're still learning how to finish quarters let alone games. There were many chances to win this game tonight. Hopefully, there will be many more lessons learned from this one. It's a tough loss, but they have to take this one on the chin and move on.

But are they really that young? I get that Ant and McDaniels are young. But KAT and DLO are almost at the ideal level of experience and peak physical performance at this stage in their career. They should be methodically running their offense and generating good shots.

Instead, we saw a bunch of disjointed halfcourt sets with bad shots and careless turnovers.

Yes, Q, this is a young and immature team. Five of the players in the main rotation are 23-years old or younger including three starters last night. Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell are not "young" in terms of the NBA, but they are immature in the sense that they haven't been on many winning teams. They're still figuring out what it takes to win themselves.

I don't disagree with what you observed. That's exactly what happened. The problem as I see it is that there's only one veteran on the roster that's been a key player on winning teams and that's Patrick Beverley. The rest of the guys are still figuring it out and there are going to be growing pains for all involved.

[Lipoli390]

Well, this is precisely the reason why I pegged this team for 42 wins instead of 45 or more. This is an overall young and immature group still figuring out how to win games. They're definitely on the right path and the talent is clearly there, in my opinion, but they're still learning how to finish quarters let alone games. There were many chances to win this game tonight. Hopefully, there will be many more lessons learned from this one. It's a tough loss, but they have to take this one on the chin and move on.

But are they really that young? I get that Ant and McDaniels are young. But KAT and DLO are almost at the ideal level of experience and peak physical performance at this stage in their career. They should be methodically running their offense and generating good shots.

Instead, we saw a bunch of disjointed halfcourt sets with bad shots and careless turnovers.

That's my concern too, Q. KAT and DLO should be poised by this point in their careers.

I actually think DLO shows a lot more poise than KAT. He just makes careless turnovers, which is something he's done his entire career. An emblematic example is the Shaqtin' a Fool winning moment when DLO let the ball roll to presumably keep the clock from starting on an inbounds as many players do only to have the ball roll out of bounds. We know he loves his weed. Honestly, a lot of times it simply looks like he's still a little high from the night before (or maybe from just before the game. :) But DLO deserves credit for playing consistently good defense so far this season. He's been playing hard and you can see that he's taking the game and his role seriously. He just has some mental lapses where it looks like he's lost his concentration. KAT's been much better than DLO overall so far this season, but his issues are more troubling because they are so fixable if he would just get out of his own head and play within himself.

[Monster]

This is a disappointing loss but for me it's mostly encouraging because the Wolves look like a good team to me. They made some mistakes and didn't make shots they needed to to win but I feel good about this team.

Russell is playing better D which is really great but he has not played well offensively as a whole so far. He is not playing like a starting level guard right now. Beasley looked like he may have turned the corner and if Russell does that this team will be in great shape. Russell simply has been bad both as a scorer at as a distributor.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

After 5 games we're ranking #4 in defensive rating. Denver by the way is ranked #3, so what we saw last night wasn't 100% based on unforced errors and dumb plays - Denver has been good defensively too.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

I'm disappointed in the way Anthony Edwards has played the last couple of games since his bold post-game press after the loss against New Orleans. He called for more accountability and getting teammates involved more, but I feel like he's actually been more selfish than he was to start the season. Too many offensive possessions are used by him simply settling in isolation. He's talented enough where he can get his shot off anywhere, but there's too much talent on the team for four guys to stand around and watch him dribble the air out of the basketball. He needs to be better. He needs an education on what "settling" means. And he needs to attack the rim more than he has been. I feel like he's trying too hard to show off the work he put into his jumper. That's never going to be the best part of his game.

On the other hand, I like that he's rebounding his position. I also like the defensive effort that I've seen. Those are awesome developments, but he's not quite getting it yet on offense despite the skills and physical ability.