GDT: Minnesota vs. San Antonio

[thedoper]

Hopefully they dont start acting like they already qualified for the playoffs.

They broke through, so anything is possible. I'll keep predicting losses, might be the reverse jinx we need.

Yeah keep it going cool.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Man can't believe we traded future assistant Texas Tech coach Culver for this guy. What a steal.

Are you sure? Culver is shooting 57% fg and 80% ft in Memphis.

So typical that he figured out how to shoot after leaving Minnesota!!!


[Note: In all seriousness, I'd like to hear what Chris Vernon, Memphis broadcast guy and co-host of the Ringer Mismatch, has to say about Culver now. He was pretty clear blaming the Wolves for Culver's ineptitude earlier this season. Yet Culver has only had 21 minutes of run this season. Obviously, Memphis doesn't think too highly of him either.]

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Man can't believe we traded future assistant Texas Tech coach Culver for this guy. What a steal.

Are you sure? Culver is shooting 57% fg and 80% ft in Memphis.

So typical that he figured out how to shoot after leaving Minnesota!!!


[Note: In all seriousness, I'd like to hear what Chris Vernon, Memphis broadcast guy and co-host of the Ringer Mismatch, has to say about Culver now. He was pretty clear blaming the Wolves for Culver's ineptitude earlier this season. Yet Culver has only had 21 minutes of run this season. Obviously, Memphis doesn't think too highly of him either.]

Add Tyus Jones to the list - 33% career 3pt shooter in 4 seasons with Minnesota as a backup PG; 36.2% shooter in 2+ seasons with Memphis, including 48% so far this year as a backup PG. Classic!

[Lipoli390]

Man can't believe we traded future assistant Texas Tech coach Culver for this guy. What a steal.

Are you sure? Culver is shooting 57% fg and 80% ft in Memphis.

So typical that he figured out how to shoot after leaving Minnesota!!!


[Note: In all seriousness, I'd like to hear what Chris Vernon, Memphis broadcast guy and co-host of the Ringer Mismatch, has to say about Culver now. He was pretty clear blaming the Wolves for Culver's ineptitude earlier this season. Yet Culver has only had 21 minutes of run this season. Obviously, Memphis doesn't think too highly of him either.]

Add Tyus Jones to the list - 33% career 3pt shooter in 4 seasons with Minnesota as a backup PG; 36.2% shooter in 2+ seasons with Memphis, including 48% so far this year as a backup PG. Classic!

Tyus shot 32% from behind the arc last season with Memphis. He shot 35.6% one season with MN. He continues to be up and down. But overall he's improved. Maybe the Wolves gave up on him too early.

[FNG]

The NBA Scheduling Gods offered up another gift, and the Wolves gladly accepted it with an almost perfect game. Hopefully the gamblers here took advantage of the absurd Vegas 2-point line, because this one was never in doubt. The Wolves jumped off to a 21-3 lead against the Midget Spurs (I'm discounting Poetl's minutes, because he is clearly still suffering from his bout with Covid), and never looked back. This is what the Wolves look like when both of their max players play perfect games...not going to happen often, but it sure is fun when it does. So many good performances in this one, I have to award the game ball to...

The court sweat sweeping guy- the quickness and agility he showed in avoiding Vassell as he went in for an uncontested layup after a steal was one of the greatest plays of the season. Jim Peterson hilariously broke the play down with his telestrator, and the Spurs announcers reported that he was clearly within the circle, and it would have been a charge had Vassell run into him. Funny stuff.

The only negative on the night was Ant. He came out smoking with the first 7 points of the night, and then disappeared. He did have 6 assists, but also was quite careless with 4 bad TOs. Not a good game for the future of this franchise, but fortunately everyone else on the roster picked him up...even struggling Wide Load and Taurean Prince. Special commendations to:

Our Max guys: KAT continues to stuff the stat sheet, and at least last night, was much more careful with his passing...5 assists (2 spectacular ones) and only 2 TOs. He has so much potential as a distributor and he showed up last night. DLo continues to shoot poorly (below 33% again), but night in and night out is playing unlike he has ever played before. His revitalized defense has been the most pleasant surprise of the year...let's hope he can keep it up. He needs to shoot less (leading the team with 19 shots is not a good strategy when you're shooting 38% on the season), but his surprisingly effective 2-way game has him far and away the on/off leader with a remarkable +26.6! Another nice game for him last night.

Jaden and Vando: Along with the remarkable PatBev, they are our energy guys, and both were terrific last night. I loved the moments that all three of them were on the court along with KAT and Ant (both of whom I thought were very good on D last night also) because they never let the Spurs get into their offense. We look like a top ten defense when those guys are on the court. Vando was outstanding on the boards again with 12 rebounds (4 offensive).
But I have to give a particular shoutout to Jaden and give a nod to the Headband Effect. Since he added the band, he seems like a totally different player on the offensive end. He continues to be a brilliant defender, but the last three games he has been a willing participant on offense. Last night he made 6 out of 8 shots, and one of his misses was a 3/4 court shot at the buzzer. He looks like the player we thought he might become last season.

A tougher test coming up with a Memphis team that has Wolves-killer Dillon Brooks back and a red hot Ja Morant. I was comfortable predicting 2 easy wins this week, but unfortunately the win streak stops Saturday.

I know the board is mostly high on Naz, but frankly I think his absence was a positive last night. Yes, he has terrific instincts and footwork on offense, but he is a revolving door on defense. Vando is undersized as a center, but against the Midget Spurs, he was a much better option than Naz with his great defense and rebounding.

So a great overall game. I'm happy, but sadly still not optimistic. We're 6-9, but I thought we needed to be 10-5 at this point in the season to have a chance of sniffing the playoffs. With the ridiculously challenging January coming up that Q pointed out, we needed to take advantage of this very easy part of our schedule. At least the two wins this week make us look more like a 35-win team than the 25-win team we looked like just a week ago.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Man can't believe we traded future assistant Texas Tech coach Culver for this guy. What a steal.

Are you sure? Culver is shooting 57% fg and 80% ft in Memphis.

So typical that he figured out how to shoot after leaving Minnesota!!!


[Note: In all seriousness, I'd like to hear what Chris Vernon, Memphis broadcast guy and co-host of the Ringer Mismatch, has to say about Culver now. He was pretty clear blaming the Wolves for Culver's ineptitude earlier this season. Yet Culver has only had 21 minutes of run this season. Obviously, Memphis doesn't think too highly of him either.]

Add Tyus Jones to the list - 33% career 3pt shooter in 4 seasons with Minnesota as a backup PG; 36.2% shooter in 2+ seasons with Memphis, including 48% so far this year as a backup PG. Classic!

Tyus shot 32% from behind the arc last season with Memphis. He shot 35.6% one season with MN. He continues to be up and down. But overall he's improved. Maybe the Wolves gave up on him too early.

Everyone goes up and down with their shooting which is why I looked at his overall career numbers with both teams. Bottom line...he's shot better with Memphis which simply is another data point backing up my assertion that you can generally expect a "Wolves Performance Discount" with most players that come to us via the draft, free agency, or trades. There are exceptions to the rule, like KAT or Kevin Love, but they are few and far between.

As for giving up on him too early, he was here for four seasons and was a solid, but not great, backup. Unfortunately Memphis made him an offer that was hard for us to justify matching.

[Lipoli390]

Man can't believe we traded future assistant Texas Tech coach Culver for this guy. What a steal.

Are you sure? Culver is shooting 57% fg and 80% ft in Memphis.

So typical that he figured out how to shoot after leaving Minnesota!!!


[Note: In all seriousness, I'd like to hear what Chris Vernon, Memphis broadcast guy and co-host of the Ringer Mismatch, has to say about Culver now. He was pretty clear blaming the Wolves for Culver's ineptitude earlier this season. Yet Culver has only had 21 minutes of run this season. Obviously, Memphis doesn't think too highly of him either.]

Add Tyus Jones to the list - 33% career 3pt shooter in 4 seasons with Minnesota as a backup PG; 36.2% shooter in 2+ seasons with Memphis, including 48% so far this year as a backup PG. Classic!

Tyus shot 32% from behind the arc last season with Memphis. He shot 35.6% one season with MN. He continues to be up and down. But overall he's improved. Maybe the Wolves gave up on him too early.

Everyone goes up and down with their shooting which is why I looked at his overall career numbers with both teams. Bottom line...he's shot better with Memphis which simply is another data point backing up my assertion that you can generally expect a "Wolves Performance Discount" with most players that come to us via the draft, free agency, or trades. There are exceptions to the rule, like KAT or Kevin Love, but they are few and far between.

As for giving up on him too early, he was here for four seasons and was a solid, but not great, backup. Unfortunately Memphis made him an offer that was hard for us to justify matching.

I just don't think there's anything mystical or even cultural about poor shooting with the Wolves. Players will typically shoot better with better teams and the Wolves have been a bad team for a long time. I don't think Love and KAT are exceptions and a can't imagine KAT shooting better elsewhere. Beasley's shooting percentage before this season was slightly better with the Wolves than it had been with Denver. He's in a slump now, but he'll come out of it. Butler's 3-point shooting with the Wolves was better than his career average and better than it's been since he left the Wolves. Zach LaVine's 3-point shooting with the Wolves was in line with his career average and comparable to what it's been since he left. Chaucey Billups' 3-point percentage increased substantially when he came to Minnesota and didn't go up much further after he left. Wayne Ellington's 3-point percentage with the Wolves was in line with his career percentage. KG's shooting percentages didn't go up significantly if at all after he left the Wolves. Anthony Edwards' FG and 3-point percentage with the Wolves thus far are higher than they were in his one college season.

Bottom line is that when the Wolves draft or acquire good shooter, those players shoot well. When the Wolves draft or acquire poor shooters they generally don't shoot well. Once in a while a young player's shooting will improve when he changes teams and matures. There's no mystical or cultural shooting problem with the Wolves. There has typically been a talent problem. Draft a guy like Culver with broken shooting mechanics coming out of college instead of a shooter like Tyler Herro and you end up with a bad shooter instead of a good one. Culver is young enough that he might fix his shooting at some point, but I wouldn't bet on it. There's no reason to believe Herro's shooting percentages would be significantly different if he ended up on the Wolves, although they might be a bit less because he'd have lesser talent around him. Meanwhile, KAT will continue to be an elite 3-point shooter and the best 3-point shooting big in the League with the Wolves. And he's been elite in that area without a lot of talent around him for most of his career here. If he's traded, he'll continue to be an elite 3-point shooter with the team he ends up on.