Game Day Thread 11/10/23 @ Spurs

[KG4Ever]

I don't care if Shake is point or shooting guard, but the guy deserves his minutes. I'm all for NAW, Kyle and Naz getting their minutes too. I like JMAC, Lenny, Garza and TB too if we need to go deeper. Wolves bench is best it has ever been.

[Lipoli390]

Great breakdown, Drew. I’ll add a few things.

I thought last night was a great illustration of why this team needs KAT. You can’t be a legitimate contender in the NBA today without at least two elite scorers and for the Wolves right now that’s Ant and KAT. KAT was back to his old form offensively last night, which was bound to happen eventually. The Wolves needed the 57 points they got from KAT and Ant - almost half the Wolves total. Jaden’s offense is still a work in progress and no one on the team is remotely close to being an elite scorer in a high-scoring, offensive-oriented League. What bodes particularly well for the Wolves is the fact that, as KAT’s offense has started to come around the last couple games, his much-improved defense hasn’t declined. KAT needs to bring the demeanor he had last night to every game. If he does that and maintains his improved defense, this will be his best season in a career that so far has a lot of terrific all-star seasons. Let’s not forget that if KAT hadn’t come back late last season, the Wolves probably would not have made the play-in tournament. You’ll see what I mean if you look back at the box scores of those last few games when KAT’s contributions were obviously critical to the team’s wins down the stretch. So we need KAT to be his better self if we’re going to be a genuine competitors this season.

Something really exciting about both KAT and Rudy is that both of them seem to have significantly improved an important aspect of their respective games. KAT has significantly improved his defense, while Rudy has improved both his conditioning and his passing while also doing a better job of staying out of the way on offense. You don’t see a lot of players age 28 or 31 making those sorts of improvements. They’re still not entirely in sync offensively with one another, but it sure looks like they’re both committed to figuring it out.

Regarding Milton, I’ve already posted my view that he’s not a good fit at the PG position given his relatively shaky handle and overall lack of feel for the position. I know that one of my favorite posters (KG) disagrees. Milton’s deficiencies were evident again last night. Let’s face it, Shake’s handle isn’t going to improve over the course of a single season, and at his age, it’s not going to improve over a period of years. He is what he is. I like him as a shooter off the bench and think his shooting will come around, but he’s not an adequate backup PG. Unfortunately, Milton’s defense doesn’t make up for his offensive shortcoming at the PG position. He’s not a good defender, especially against quick PGs, because he’s is not particularly quick or nimble. I’ll take a smaller and very quick player (JMac) over a longer and slow player (Shake) defensively at the PG position because the crux of defending perimeter players is staying in front of them, getting into them and pestering them quick hands. That’s as true in the playoffs as it is in the regular season. I’m not suggesting that JMac is necessarily THE answer at the backup PG spot, but I’m convinced Shake is not. Nevertheless, if JMac comes back healthy in a month and we don’t lose Mike Conley for an extended period of time this season, I think we’ll be OK at the PG position. And Shake will ultimately help this team as a shooter off the bench.

I like JMAC particularly his ballhandling, but Shake is a better shooter, rebounder and defender than JMAC. How did Philly win 15 of 19 games that Shake played 28 or more minutes then if he sucks as bad as you think. I hope you come around. Shake plays better with more minutes and this is probably more true coming into a new team and learning a new system. Signing Shake was one of many brilliant moves by TC and TC views Shake as a point guard.

Despite Shake's age, he is young in terms of NBA play, so I don't buy the "he is what he is" thought. He's played a total of 262 NBA games and has 49 career starts. He's probably played off guard more than point guard. Point guard is the position that takes the longest to learn. Shake is already a good player for a backup and he does have upside. He was one of the best college shooters (three years over 42%) and with time, he has the potential to be a 40% NBA shooter. With more time at point guard, I think he is likely to improve on his 2.31 turnover to assist rate. He is very long and has a good basketball IQ and plays hard, so I think he can be a decent defender.

All this talk about Shake, meanwhile NAW has done quite well playing as the backup PG. He played excellent in this game in his role. Meanwhile Anderson tried to throw the game away. It was annoying on the Spurs broadcast Sean Elliot had no clue about Anderson’s glasses. Anyway until it’s proved otherwise NAW should be playing more as a PG than Shake because he simply has been better at it this season. I believe Shake is going to end up being a valuable contributor regardless of what role he ends up playing.

Great point about NAW, Monster. I agree completely. Outside of JMac, NAW is our best backup PG. Naz, Slo Mo and NAW have been our best bench players by far - best bench trio we’ve had in a long time, maybe ever. Milton is going to be fine and I’m glad we have him. But NAW’s held up well as our primary ballhandler for significant stretches and his defense has been outstanding. Can’t say enough positive things about NAW.

[KG4Ever]

Lip, lets call a truce. You are going to keep insulting Shake and I'm going to keep defending him. I think the board is tired of us arguing.

[Q-is-here]

I think Shake has been OK-ish so far, but hoping for more.

It was definitely nice to see NAW put together a really nice game against the Spurs offensively: 3-4 FG, 1-1 3Pt, 4 assists, zero turnovers, +11. He's otherwise been a bit of a train wreck on that end.

Getting solid guard play when Ant is on the bench is crucial to this team, so hopefully Shake and NAW keep getting more comfortable in their roles.