Wolves vs Clippers GDT part 2

[thedoper]

With D-Lo: 3-2

Without D-Lo: 0-3

I'm not saying he's played great. He's been uncharacteristically bad shooting the basketball. He's had careless turnovers. I get all of that. What he does do is cause more problems for opposing defenses. He does create shots for others while also creating makeable shots for himself. He also has a propensity to make big shots in a time of need -- and I'm not just talking about end of game situations.

This team is severely missing him right now. Anthony Edwards noted it tonight after the game. The shots haven't been falling, but just the threat of D-Lo scoring is a weapon. The Wolves don't have that right now with Patrick Beverley and Jordan McLaughlin sharing point guard duties. Hopefully, D-Lo returns on Monday and provides a calming presence to the team and finds his stroke from range while maintaining the very solid defense he's shown early in the season. Lord knows this team needs a shot in the arm any way they can get it.

DLo is great at getting everyone in their place and running an offense while being an offensive threat. There is no doubt we're a better team with him. The crappy issue seems to be that the wheels shouldnt come off that bad. There needs to be some sort of system that can weather significant losses. And it should be KAT shooting 25 times a game even if theyre all jumpers.

[BloopOracle]

I blame Jmac

[Wolvesfan21]

I blame Jmac

He was poor tonight. Let's hope we can get Bolmaro going here eventually. Jmac has had good nights but it seemed he passed on some open 3P looks and drove into traffic too much.

The ball just stopped moving later and later in the game. Guys keep trying to do too much on offense themselves. Like the further they get away from the gameplay, the worse it gets.

Jaden was also pretty iffy, he continues to foul too much. You have to like his aggressiveness, hopefully he will learn to defend without fouling as the season progresses.

[Wolvesfan21]

Abe's DVR Review:

- Yikes.

- 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.

Obviously, it's a combination of all of them.

I said the post game is dead and it is. I wonder what the stats are points per possession when KAT is in the post? Because teams simply double, KAT isn't a good passer out of the post either so we don't end up with wide open daggers.

The refs also are not calling fouls defensively in the post. KAT gets mauled and then he makes an offensive foul. I don't see the point of trying to keep doing that. Get KAT back to the 3P line where he is one of the best shooters in the NBA.

[kekgeek]

With D-Lo: 3-2

Without D-Lo: 0-3

I'm not saying he's played great. He's been uncharacteristically bad shooting the basketball. He's had careless turnovers. I get all of that. What he does do is cause more problems for opposing defenses. He does create shots for others while also creating makeable shots for himself. He also has a propensity to make big shots in a time of need -- and I'm not just talking about end of game situations.

This team is severely missing him right now. Anthony Edwards noted it tonight after the game. The shots haven't been falling, but just the threat of D-Lo scoring is a weapon. The Wolves don't have that right now with Patrick Beverley and Jordan McLaughlin sharing point guard duties. Hopefully, D-Lo returns on Monday and provides a calming presence to the team and finds his stroke from range while maintaining the very solid defense he's shown early in the season. Lord knows this team needs a shot in the arm any way they can get it.

With all due respect - post less

I'm confused in what way was Cams post a bad one?

[Wolvesfan21]

Not to mention the turnovers we get just trying to get KAT the ball in the post. So we can have a turnover before KAT gets the ball, KAT gets an offensive foul, KAT gets doubled and we just burned time passing the ball back out.

Finch has to be a fool not see see this isn't working.

[kekgeek]

Abe's DVR Review:

- Yikes.

- 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.

Obviously, it's a combination of all of them.

Ya my bad. I shouldn't blow up as much during games. I'm just sick of it. Year after year after year.

Just mentally preparing for another rebuild in the long line of rebuilds.

I used to love Kat, still by far the Wolves best player. Just really sick of watching his body language and his on the court behavior. It's sad when I'm sick of watching such a talented player.

Then Ant is uber talented but shot selection is bad.

McDaniels has just as many pts as fouls this year and really worried about his development.

Nobody has exceeded expectations through 8 games. The players look like they are ready for the season to be over already.

Wolves don't deserve my time and yet I give them a lot of time. (Also I blow up during games because it's the one time in my current life I'm allowed to blow up. I'm one of the most calm cool and collective people in my social and professional life and that is why I'm good at my job)

[kekgeek]

Not to mention the turnovers we get just trying to get KAT the ball in the post. So we can have a turnover before KAT gets the ball, KAT gets an offensive foul, KAT gets doubled and we just burned time passing the ball back out.

Finch has to be a fool not see see this isn't working.

Ya been a little disappointed with Finch offense this year.

I'm curious though. I would love to see a comparison of the amount of times Kat rolls to the basket compared to Naz. Seems like Kat never rolls

[Wolvesfan21]

Not to mention the turnovers we get just trying to get KAT the ball in the post. So we can have a turnover before KAT gets the ball, KAT gets an offensive foul, KAT gets doubled and we just burned time passing the ball back out.

Finch has to be a fool not see see this isn't working.

Ya been a little disappointed with Finch offense this year.

I'm curious though. I would love to see a comparison of the amount of times Kat rolls to the basket compared to Naz. Seems like Kat never rolls

I mean KAT's biggest mismatch is being able to pull another 4-5 out of the paint and allow driving room for others, because of his ability to hit 3's. Putting him in the post because we see a smaller guy on him simply fails because they just double him.

Then KAT of course has the offensive foul issue which then takes him away from being able to stay on the floor and use some fouls on the defensive side.

3 offensive fouls he had this game? That's almost unheard of.

Then we also have a problem of both Prince and Jaden not making the 3P themselves when they have the big guarding them.

I don't see how this post up game is going to work anymore. Mostly because refs simply are not calling the defensive fouls. You can't just keep doing something that doesn't work.

[KG4Ever]

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.

Well, the Wolves traded Rubio away so yes they miss DLO as the Wolves don't have many other guys that can pass, but perhaps they miss Rubio as much as DLO. After all, a terrible Cleveland team from last year is now 6-4 with Rubio aboard. Say what you want about Ricky's shooting but the offensive is energized when he's playing and his plus minus numbers are good.

Is that Cleveland team 6-4 because of Ricky Rubio or is he along for the ride? There are some very talented young players on that Cavs team that are driving the bus, so to speak. Also, it's not like the guy has an extensive history of being a winner or a culture setter. Rubio orchestrates the offense well, plays hard on defense, and misses over 60-percent of his shots. He's been doing that his entire career. It's just up for debate how much he actually contributes to winning with that style. Minnesota watched him lose here for about a decade. While those losses aren't solely his responsibility, I think it's fair to say that we've seen enough of him to know that he's not that much of a difference-maker.

If you want to say Ricky is not a difference maker that is your prerogative, just as it is your prerogative to spam the board hyping up a below average point guard earning a max salary. I disagree with you about Ricky. He is bringing energy and order to a lifeless franchise just as helped Phoenix get turned around. I think DLO matters in a negative way like an anchor keeping this franchise down, tying up a max salary, costing the Wolves the opportunity for young talent and being a selfish player. Which player did Ant give a big shout out to? I seem to forget.