Q12543 wrote:- KBD came back down to earth in a big way.
- Culver was horrible offensively. Him and Graham are almost unplayable on offense. Okogie isn't far behind.
- WTF is the deal with Jeff Teague? How can he be an indecisive, brick-laying apathetic PG one night and then takes over a game (not the entire game obviously) in another? Can we get something in between the two on a consistent basis? Why on earth doesn't he shoot more 3s in his "normal" games? He'd probably be our 3rd best shooter after KAT and RoCo if he was more decisive and took the open 3 like he did tonight. So frustrating.
- Chris Paul showing why the mid-range game is far from dead. The way he can turn the corner perfectly on picks frees him up for that 10-15 foot shot or an easy dunk for the big every. single. time.
- Adams has an incredibly nice touch on his little baby hooks. He makes those look so easy.
- The first play of the game Ryan ran a nice play to get KAT a corner 3. Seemingly every game he draws up a pretty effective first play to get either KAT or Wiggins an easy basket. What happens to that playbook when the game gets close? He could go down as one of the best shooters in history! Get him the ball!
- This was one of the games in this 10-game stretch we had a chance to win. Things are starting to look bleaker and bleaker....
Thing about Adams is he has been on the massive decline the last 2 years but the wolves make him look good (I like him as a player still but not at the contract).
Teague is so weird. Honestly has to be the most confusing player in Wolves history and I don't think it is even close. He is either a top 10 PG or he is not even an NBA player and there is no in-between.
Your point on Ryan maybe that is why I am frustrated with him, he has good play sets in his pocket but when the game matters he hasn't found a way to make the offense run through KAT. Let Kat operate, run Kat off screens. Run elevator action. Run PnR with Kat as the ball handler, run flex action, get Kat the ball at the elbow, have him sometimes post up. But all we do is run PnP action. And it has been easy to defend.
Q12543 wrote:- KBD came back down to earth in a big way.
- Culver was horrible offensively. Him and Graham are almost unplayable on offense. Okogie isn't far behind.
- WTF is the deal with Jeff Teague? How can he be an indecisive, brick-laying apathetic PG one night and then takes over a game (not the entire game obviously) in another? Can we get something in between the two on a consistent basis? Why on earth doesn't he shoot more 3s in his "normal" games? He'd probably be our 3rd best shooter after KAT and RoCo if he was more decisive and took the open 3 like he did tonight. So frustrating.
- Chris Paul showing why the mid-range game is far from dead. The way he can turn the corner perfectly on picks frees him up for that 10-15 foot shot or an easy dunk for the big every. single. time.
- Adams has an incredibly nice touch on his little baby hooks. He makes those look so easy.
- The first play of the game Ryan ran a nice play to get KAT a corner 3. Seemingly every game he draws up a pretty effective first play to get either KAT or Wiggins an easy basket. What happens to that playbook when the game gets close? He could go down as one of the best shooters in history! Get him the ball!
- This was one of the games in this 10-game stretch we had a chance to win. Things are starting to look bleaker and bleaker....
I agree completely with all your observations, Q. Failing to get KAT the ball, especially in crunch time, is mind-boggling. That's one area in which Ryan is no different from Thibodeau. It's beyond bizarre.
Camden wrote:Speaking of the mid-range game... it's one of the areas that Jarrett Culver actually thrives in. That's definitely in his bag and yet in this glorious system it's been stripped from his game. Again, it feels like we're forcing personnel to play a style of basketball that doesn't exactly correlate to their strengths and weaknesses.
This is a great point, Cam! And your point raises an important question. That is, why did Rosas trade up to draft Culver knowing the style the Wolves organization was planning to play?? Is there something in the Target Center water that makes otherwise sound minds turn to mush?
Camden wrote:Speaking of the mid-range game... it's one of the areas that Jarrett Culver actually thrives in. That's definitely in his bag and yet in this glorious system it's been stripped from his game. Again, it feels like we're forcing personnel to play a style of basketball that doesn't exactly correlate to their strengths and weaknesses.
This is a great point, Cam! And your point raises an important question. That is, why did Rosas trade up to draft Culver knowing the style the Wolves organization was planning to play?? Is there something in the Target Center water that makes otherwise sound minds turn to mush?
Target Center was built under an ancient Indian burial grounds duh Lip ;)
Camden wrote:Speaking of the mid-range game... it's one of the areas that Jarrett Culver actually thrives in. That's definitely in his bag and yet in this glorious system it's been stripped from his game. Again, it feels like we're forcing personnel to play a style of basketball that doesn't exactly correlate to their strengths and weaknesses.
This is a great point, Cam! And your point raises an important question. That is, why did Rosas trade up to draft Culver knowing the style the Wolves organization was planning to play?? Is there something in the Target Center water that makes otherwise sound minds turn to mush?
Target Center was built under an ancient Indian burial grounds duh Lip ;)
crazy-canuck wrote:But seriously, who calls a tech for an untucked jersey in a close game?
It was an asinine call and another example of the lack of respect this team gets from officials. Nevertheless, there's no excusing Bell for walking casually onto the court with a completely untucked jersey. Calls aside, Culver just needed to do one better than hitting just 4 of his 13 shots. If he had just hit a 5th, he still would have been a horrible shooter tonight, but at least the Wolves would have won.
crazy-canuck wrote:But seriously, who calls a tech for an untucked jersey in a close game?
It was an asinine call and another example of the lack of respect this team gets from officials. Nevertheless, there's no excusing Bell for walking casually onto the court with a completely untucked jersey. Calls aside, Culver just needed to do one better than hitting just 4 of his 13 shots. If he had just hit a 5th, he still would have been a horrible shooter tonight, but at least the Wolves would have won.
A number of things could have changed the outcome of this game, but perhaps no individual play was bigger than Shabazz Napier having a case of the yips and letting a perfectly catchable inbound pass slip through his hands. That's a play that high school kids make routinely. The defense is going to foul him upon catching the ball since there was only 14.0 left on the game clock. He gave them a free possession without putting points on the board for the Wolves. He could have pushed the lead to five. Granted, the Thunder missed the shot following that possession but it led to Jordan Bell being at the free throw line and missing both of them. That's inexcusable any way you slice it.
