Here's my 2 cents. Somewhere along the line KAT, Ant, and DLO decided they had to carry the entire offense in order for us to compete. We don't run an offense, these 3 guys just take turns. We don't even move the ball accidentally. It's not the refs that are killing us, it's our shot selection and selfishness. Selfishness on both ends of the court. I would include everyone in that trait except for Vando. He plays the game the right way.
Pretty much everyone is culpable. Finch is also because he's the only one who can stop it but chooses not to. I've often marveled at KAT's skills but have never respected him as a player. His stats mean nothing to me. He's just as immature as the day he walked into the Wolves locker room for the first time. You can't build anything worthwhile on a shaky foundation. We really can't move forward until he gets moved. Ant needs to grow up too. He acts like he's arrived, but he needs to put in the work and get serious about his profession. You can't win by yourself, not even MJ could do that. I really hope the new ownership can see what is going on here and does the things necessary to give us a chance. Arod was a winner, hopefully he sees the problems and makes changes.
Is KAT Derrick Coleman? Hes way better offensively, but Coleman was one of these guys that was respected by everyone for having superior talent for his size but just never put it together.
KG4Ever wrote:Where is this hot start that I heard so much talk about?
Couple things. I do think the dlo injury hurt.
Kat went back to his losing habits.
Ant is not ready to take over yet.
McDaniels continues to massively struggle (me and a buddy have a bet when does he shoot his 1st FT)
Wolves don't have shot creators.
For those who were predicting a 7-3 or even 8-2 start that would create momentum for the season, I think they were oblivious to the past. The Wolves lack gritty tough minded players and I think they had a terrible offseason-No picks (thanks to the terrible DLO trade) and trading away Rubio for Prince was a terrible move in my opinion especially since DLO is fragile and there is not much depth at point guard. Sure, Beverley might have made sense once Rubio was traded but Pat Bev is old and can't be expected to make any more difference than when KG was brought back for a second time.
thedoper wrote:Is KAT Derrick Coleman? Hes way better offensively, but Coleman was one of these guys that was respected by everyone for having superior talent for his size but just never put it together.
Coleman was a really talented guy who was better defensively. But yeah, I think you nailed it.
Still way too early in the season with way too many games left on the schedule for me to echo the current sentiment of the board, but this roster needs to reach back to whatever motivation they had leaving training camp because that team played much better basketball than the team we've watched the last week. Also, laugh all you want, but they are missing D'Angelo Russell in a very bad way right now. Even just the threat of him scoring the basketball opens up the floor for other guys let alone the desperate need of another ball-handler and shot-creator. It's been a much worse team without him.
- They started the broadcast discussing the Wolves progressive in-game scoring woes... and well... the Wolves got worse and worse and worse.
- Kekgeek blew a gasket here. But it's more of a sign of frustration and I get it. Towns getting 3 offensive fouls and 2 really stupid defensive fouls a game is old news. IT MUST STOP. He's soft. He's whiny. The Wolves have never won with him as THE guy. All true.
... BUT... he's light years better than anybody else out there. It's not remotely close. Towns shot 7 - 11. The rest of the team shot 24 - 78. You don't think other teams know this? You don't think they notice the starting SF is averaging 3.7 ppg. That Prince is shooting 25%. That Beasley, Beverley and everybody else are "meh" in every way offensively. And that Edwards is well sorta fun but a pretty damn inefficient chucker?
So where do I come down on the Towns thing?
DUMP HIM. Is it because he's not good? No. Because I'm ready for another 10-year rebuild hoping/praying for another player of his caliber? No. Because I'm sick of the Wolves building unsuccessfully around big men MUCH better than their teammates? Well...
Basically it comes down to this -- IF teams are guarding your 7-foot all-time great offensive player Center with 6'5" guys effectively... give it up. Start over. Try something else. Whether it's Towns or the coaching or the officials who very clearly aren't changing their tune toward Towns in year 7... blow it up. He's not getting the calls. He's not going to get the calls. And he'll continue to retaliate and get called for it. It's not working. Game after game. Year after year. Blow it up.
The man got two shots as his teammates went on an 8 - 41 fg shooting tear. The Clippers took 32 free throws to the Wolves 5 at one point.
It's fine to rip Towns for his antics. But c'mon now. There's plenty of blame to go around. We're in year 17 of this for chrissakes. Blame Rosas. Blame the non-shooting Wolves. Blame Taylor. Blame Finch. And blame Towns.
One other thing... for all of us who bitch about the Wolves players bitching about calls. Rewatch this game. Not for justification about bad calls.
Just watch the Clippers players.
The Clippers had 32 free throws. The Wolves had 6 (1 was a technical). And the Clippers players complained on 98.7% of the calls against them. (I'm 99.9% certain of that stat. :idea: ) It's the way the NBA is "played" now. There's just so much gamemanship. Zubac and Batum and Mann are all over Towns and they know they're fouling him. But they will complain EVERY time because the next time down the court they know they can exaggerate contact or flop and get the call.
That's just the way the game is played. And Towns is really really bad at it... like worst in the league bad. Heck, if he could just figure out the ebb and flow and how to play the gamemanship side better... we'd all be pretty damn happy with him.
It's crazy. But that might be his biggest flaw as a basketball player. And to have that even be part of the criteria is pretty sad.
The noticeable drop off in intensity or to even give a shit on the defensive end is clearly different from the start of the season. Kat is a terrible leader. Terrible leaders don't win. How do you supposedly get doubled all the time and end up with zero assists. None. Its almost unfathomable. Not to mention the carelessness with the ball. So many stupid turnovers.
