Wolves at Spurs GDT

[AbeVigodaLive]

2 Things: The way he treats people and his politics

I agree he’s a fucking basketball coach. I don’t need to give to shits what he thinks about politics. Same goes for Lebron just play fucking basketball.

Kind of hypocrytical given that the person he's most critical of is a reality TV star....don't you think?

LOL.

Obviously, people will do whatever mental gymnastics they need to do to avoid acknowledging such obvious hypocricy.

Religion and politics are incredibly important in different ways. But both are used as excuses by people who are simply mean and awful sometimes.

___________

Back to basketball... another very bad loss. Things have escalated. If it was near the end of the season, I'd be even more alarmed. The Wolves simply can't keep playing as bad as they have over the past five 4th quarters. (It's impossible.) They came into the Spurs game with a -42 rating over the previous 4 games. It didn't improve last night.

Yes, teams are hitting crazy shots. But is it a confidence thing? Are coaches saying "stay within 10, I promise you they will fold and we'll win?" Because teams are looking incredibly confident over this stretch and the Wolves players are looking like they're worried about peeing down their legs.

It's been historically bad.

We'll find out what the team is made of soon. This is the type of thing that derails a season or a tough team will use it to rally the troops.

I'm still not seeing this team as a serious team. I hope I'm wrong.

[Lipoli390]

If you lose to the Spurs with your four highest paid players on the floor, including your signature star (Edwards), you’re not a championship caliber term. It’s that simple. If you need your 36-year old PG to beat the Spurs, then forget about a trip the NBA finals and just hope you can make it to the second round. This team simply isn’t as good as many have come to believe based on the first half of the season. They are settling into the team they really are relative to the rest of the League.

We should enjoy to rest of the season but temper our expectations. It will be a tough off season for Wolves executives as the team faces the 2nd apron after a 4th or 5th place finish and second round exit.

The nuggets went 8-10 to close the season last year including losses to the taking Raptors, Spurs, Jazz and Rockets.

Who knows if the wolves recover from this recent poor stretch of play but to temper expectations I think is sort of dumb because every nba champion goes through these bad play parts of the season

It’s only dumb if you believe the Wolves are a championship caliber team. As I’ve indicated, the Wolves are better than I thought they’d be, but they are not as good as they appeared to be the first half of the season. I believe they overachieved and that there flaws are catching up with them as the top teams in the League continue to put things together and improve. So my expectations have been tempered for a long time. . We’ll see how things go as the season winds down and the playoffs begin and I’ll continue to hope I’m pleasantly surprised.

[KiwiMatt]

The problem is that when Mike is out we DO NOT have an NBA quality PG.

NAW - ANT - McDaniels - KAT - Gobert

There isn't a playmaker in that lineup. We are running two centers, a lockdown defender on the wing with average handles and passing ability and two shooting guards not known for their point guard abilities. And the bench situation is even worse. It compounds in 4th quarters. Hence why Mike has been so important.

Point guard is the most important position in basketball. They are the quarterbacks. This franchise hasn't had an All Star PG since Stephon Marbury. In comes 36 year Mike Conley who appears to be the difference maker to this team winning 55 games or 40 games. That's not wise to hedge your season on the health of a 36 year old.

Hopefully TC is working the phones searching for a serviceable PG.

[AbeVigodaLive]

The problem is that when Mike is out we DO NOT have an NBA quality PG.

NAW - ANT - McDaniels - KAT - Gobert

There isn't a playmaker in that lineup. We are running two centers, a lockdown defender on the wing with average handles and passing ability and two shooting guards not known for their point guard abilities. And the bench situation is even worse. It compounds in 4th quarters. Hence why Mike has been so important.

Point guard is the most important position in basketball. They are the quarterbacks. This franchise hasn't had an All Star PG since Stephon Marbury. In comes 36 year Mike Conley who appears to be the difference maker to this team winning 55 games or 40 games. That's not wise to hedge your season on the health of a 36 year old.

Hopefully TC is working the phones searching for a serviceable PG.

To be fair... OKC is the #1 seed. They don't have a PG. Neither does Phoenix, New Orleans or Dallas.
Anthony Edwards and Towns are just falling apart at the end of games. Both are talented enough to do much better.

Conversely, San Antonio is an entirely different team with Tre Jones. Wembanyama is back in the front for the ROY... and it's not a coincidence his numbers have skyrocketed with an actual PG.




[Note: Monte Morris is back playing. He's much more gettable than Tyus Jones. And he'd basically be Mike Conley lite.]

[KiwiMatt]

The problem is that when Mike is out we DO NOT have an NBA quality PG.

NAW - ANT - McDaniels - KAT - Gobert

There isn't a playmaker in that lineup. We are running two centers, a lockdown defender on the wing with average handles and passing ability and two shooting guards not known for their point guard abilities. And the bench situation is even worse. It compounds in 4th quarters. Hence why Mike has been so important.

Point guard is the most important position in basketball. They are the quarterbacks. This franchise hasn't had an All Star PG since Stephon Marbury. In comes 36 year Mike Conley who appears to be the difference maker to this team winning 55 games or 40 games. That's not wise to hedge your season on the health of a 36 year old.

Hopefully TC is working the phones searching for a serviceable PG.

To be fair... OKC is the #1 seed. They don't have a PG. Neither does Phoenix, New Orleans or Dallas.
Anthony Edwards and Towns are just falling apart at the end of games. Both are talented enough to do much better.

Conversely, San Antonio is an entirely different team with Tre Jones. Wembanyama is back in the front for the ROY... and it's not a coincidence his numbers have skyrocketed with an actual PG.




[Note: Monte Morris is back playing. He's much more gettable than Tyus Jones. And he'd basically be Mike Conley lite.]

Yes those teams you listed don't have traditional PGs. But CJ McCollum, Devin Booker and Luka Doncic are light years ahead of Ant in regards to executing PG duties. That's not a knock on ANT, but he is an out and out shooting guard, not a combo or point guard.

And yes KAT and ANT have hardly been 'clutch', but it's been more our 2nd units fault for continually falling apart to start the 4th quarter and giving away double digit leads. A lot of these games shouldn't even be close in the final two minutes.

Monte Morris is second on my trade target list behind Tyus and likely acquirable.

I would offer Kyle Anderson and our 2024 2nd RP (high 30's) and see if they bite. Maybe even our 2026 2nd RP as well They do have a glut of PGs in Cunningham, Ivey, Hayes and Morris.

There's been Lavine to Detroit rumors circulating a bit recently. Maybe we could get involved in that as a third team to pick up Morris:

Minnesota receives: Monte Morris

Detroit receives: Zach Lavine and Kyle Anderson

Chicago receives: Bojan Bogdanovic, Alex Burc, 1st Round Pick (2027 from Detroit, top 8 protected) and two 2nd RPs (MIN's 2024 and DET 2029 via MIL)

[Q-is-here]

I'm still debating which of the following we need more: A) a volume shooter/scorer off the bench or B) a backup PG upgrade (like Monte Morris).

[60WinTim]

I'm still debating which of the following we need more: A) a volume shooter/scorer off the bench or B) a backup PG upgrade (like Monte Morris).

It would be great to somehow address both, either by trade and/or buyout market.

The idea of somehow tagging onto a Zach Lavine to Detroit trade is intriguing. I assume Chicago's primary interest is getting out from Zach's multi-year contract since he is not fitting with their roster. So in addition to getting assets, expiring deals would be valued as well. Something like this would be interesting:

Chicago Out: Zach Lavine
Chicago In: Joe Harris, Kyle Anderson and Shake Milton

Detroit Out: Joe Harris, Danilo Gallinari and Monte Morris.
Detroit In: Zach Lavine.

Minnesota Out: Kyle Anderson and Shake Milton.
Minnesota In: Danilo Gallinari and Monte Morris.

A filler or two and picks would need to be added to make teams happy and preserve roster spots. But the money pretty much works. Chicago gets out from under Zach's contract and receives some assets, Detroit gets Zach, and we change the look of two of our roster spots -- a SF who is an outside threat and a guard who is more of a PG.

[Coolbreeze44]

I don't believe we will go with more than a 9 man rotation in the playoffs So given good health, we really only need to add one player unless we send a current rotation player out. As much as I'd like a shooter like Burks, we probably have a greater need for a facilitator to back up Conley. Whatever they decide, they need to go for it this year. And it's going to be fascinating to see how they work the salary cap next year. One of the big 4 salaries has to go right?

[AbeVigodaLive]

I don't believe we will go with more than a 9 man rotation in the playoffs So given good health, we really only need to add one player unless we send a current rotation player out. As much as I'd like a shooter like Burks, we probably have a greater need for a facilitator to back up Conley. Whatever they decide, they need to go for it this year. And it's going to be fascinating to see how they work the salary cap next year. One of the big 4 salaries has to go right?

Yep. A shorter playoff rotation is a given.

The Timberwolves have been mostly a 9-man rotation this season. And they've even gone with an 8-man rotation in key games. I'd expect to see more of the same tonight (barring foul trouble).

[Jester1534]

I'm still debating which of the following we need more: A) a volume shooter/scorer off the bench or B) a backup PG upgrade (like Monte Morris).

Not sexiest name to me but in my perfect world we trade for morris and get Gordon Hayward as a buyout candidate.