GDT: The Rising Stars vs. The All-Stars

[Volans19]

Hope and Ping Pong Balls!!

Great game by the young pups!!!

to quote the great khans2k5 - "Ben Simmons please be good"

[worldK]

Would have been nice to win this one.

Lavine was great tonight. He should be taking 6-8 3's every game. Let him shoot it.

[worldK]

Another positive is the 9 man rotation we have with martin out. This gives more time and touches to lavine and bazz to get them going without martin hunting shots out there.

Hopefully, we stick with this 9 man rotation going forward with martin out of it.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

One of the hallmarks of Flip's (and now Mitchell's) outdated system is the isolation post-up for Pekovic. Pek has almost never been a very good isolation post player, yet Flip and now Smitch somehow believe that's an effective offensive play. I don't get it. It never has been and it especially isn't now since the dude is a shell of his former self. Quick duck-ins and rim-running seal-offs against smaller guys - great, get him the ball. But iso-ing him 10 feet from the hoop against an evenly matched big man doesn't work.

Bah! Doesn't matter in this game I guess. We scored more than enough points with a virtuoso performance by LaVine. Too bad we couldn't rebound or defend.

[Coolbreeze44]

Another positive is the 9 man rotation we have with martin out. This gives more time and touches to lavine and bazz to get them going without martin hunting shots out there.

Hopefully, we stick with this 9 man rotation going forward with martin out of it.

Excellent point World. Provided we stay healthy.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Fun, entertaining game. A lot of guys did some great things:

- We saw Rubio control tempo and will the team into running early.
- Towns was... Towns. Which is AWESOME that 19/13 games are almost expected of a rookie.
- LaVine was 14 - 17 fg and made a couple of nice, alert passes. Wow.
- Dieng was active and did some good things.
- Belly moves really well on offense.
- Wiggins was efficient again as a shooter and ran the break better.
- Muhammad is a scorer. Boom. That's who he is. It's what he does.
_________________________

NOW... a few less glowing things:

- OKC played an OT game in NY last night.
- OKC was playing its last game in a 4-game road swing. (one of those NBA "scheduled" losses.)
- Rubio made 1 basket in a game where the Wolves shot 56% and scored 123.
- LaVine. He made shots. But... we can't count on him to make those shots every game. They were tough shots. More importantly, he made them tougher! He's still passing up open 3 pointers only to take a contested 22 or 23 footer. I already know he has talent and looks pretty with that jumper. To make any substantial/sustainable leap, he has to learn good/bad shots.
- Belly was... ummm... well... ummmm... worked on the boards.
- Wiggins doesn't board.
- Muhammad is a scorer. That's who he is. It's all he does.
- The Wolves need to improve defensively. And there are so many little things that happen that lead to losses.

But... to come out of a week vs. Cleveland and OKC with those types of entertaining games? Thumbs up from me.

[Lipoli390]

Another positive is the 9 man rotation we have with martin out. This gives more time and touches to lavine and bazz to get them going without martin hunting shots out there.

Hopefully, we stick with this 9 man rotation going forward with martin out of it.

We can hope, but don't count on it. The the reality is that it took injuries putting Martin and KG in formal wear to get Sam down to a 9 man rotation.

[Monster]

Watched this game this afternoon. Fun game to watch would have been nice to win but ping pong balls and this was a game that probably brought plenty of positive vibes both for the players and coaches and fans. Hey this team has been more fun to watch lately good times.

[Monster]

One of the hallmarks of Flip's (and now Mitchell's) outdated system is the isolation post-up for Pekovic. Pek has almost never been a very good isolation post player, yet Flip and now Smitch somehow believe that's an effective offensive play. I don't get it. It never has been and it especially isn't now since the dude is a shell of his former self. Quick duck-ins and rim-running seal-offs against smaller guys - great, get him the ball. But iso-ing him 10 feet from the hoop against an evenly matched big man doesn't work.

Bah! Doesn't matter in this game I guess. We scored more than enough points with a virtuoso performance by LaVine. Too bad we couldn't rebound or defend.

Per looks fine he just needs to pass out of those post ups where he is too far out. He seems closer on the lost ups this year than he was last year in general. He gets tunnel vision sometimes. Unfortunately he has missed the postup and duck ins you mentioned he is good at where he is basically at the rim. He spoiled us his first couple games but it turns out he has that 10+ games to get the rust off after all thing.

[Monster]

Fun, entertaining game. A lot of guys did some great things:

- We saw Rubio control tempo and will the team into running early.
- Towns was... Towns. Which is AWESOME that 19/13 games are almost expected of a rookie.
- LaVine was 14 - 17 fg and made a couple of nice, alert passes. Wow.
- Dieng was active and did some good things.
- Belly moves really well on offense.
- Wiggins was efficient again as a shooter and ran the break better.
- Muhammad is a scorer. Boom. That's who he is. It's what he does.
_________________________

NOW... a few less glowing things:

- OKC played an OT game in NY last night.
- OKC was playing its last game in a 4-game road swing. (one of those NBA "scheduled" losses.)
- Rubio made 1 basket in a game where the Wolves shot 56% and scored 123.
- LaVine. He made shots. But... we can't count on him to make those shots every game. They were tough shots. More importantly, he made them tougher! He's still passing up open 3 pointers only to take a contested 22 or 23 footer. I already know he has talent and looks pretty with that jumper. To make any substantial/sustainable leap, he has to learn good/bad shots.
- Belly was... ummm... well... ummmm... worked on the boards.
- Wiggins doesn't board.
- Muhammad is a scorer. That's who he is. It's all he does.
- The Wolves need to improve defensively. And there are so many little things that happen that lead to losses.

But... to come out of a week vs. Cleveland and OKC with those types of entertaining games? Thumbs up from me.

I pretty much agree with your excellent breakdown but I need to give Wiggins a little credit...

Wiggins still has to ramp up his effort overall but he has gotten in there a lot more lately on the boards. He may not be coming down with them (because like a lot of wolves he doesn't have strength especially in his lower body base) but he has been in there more and keeping balls alive etc. it may not be enough but it SEEMS like he is at least putting a lot more effort into going after the ball.

Like you said thumbs up for the way they have been playing lately and it's against some very good teams.