Since Kat went down

[Crazysauce]

In the last 9 games we are 6-3.

Loss at cleveland in ot on a back to back.

Loss at LAL without Towns Gobert and Anderson.

Loss vs Denver by 3 on back to back without Kat Gobert or Reid.

This team is damn good and very deep. Really love the resilience that the have shown. Tonight was a very desperate GS team and we just wouldn't let them up off the mat. We didn't play our best but it was good enough. Why can't we be NBA champions?

[thedoper]

Woohooo. Let's go!! Calling us out as champs. Bold but I like it.

[Carlos Danger]

Yep. I started a thread on Towns a couple weeks ago. I'm not going to say we haven't missed him. He certainly makes this team deeper. But yeah...if we go on a run without him, there will be big decisions to make in the off season.

In defense of Towns, last night was the first night in a while where I thought we missed him - specifically the scoring. Obviously Towns is a 20+ a night guy. Naz has filled in very well since he went down. But moving Naz into the starting role leaves our bench without much scoring. They don't have ANY double digit scorers coming off the bench now:
NAW - 7.6 pts/game
SloMo - 6.5
Monte - 5.3
JMac - 3.3

It's pretty weak from a scoring stand point. That's where I feel Towns is missed the most. It helps our depth and we have Naz as a 6th man and his 13 pts/game on the bench. I really wish they'd have picked up a scorer for the bench when Towns went down.

[FNG]

In the last 9 games we are 6-3.

Loss at cleveland in ot on a back to back.

Loss at LAL without Towns Gobert and Anderson.

Loss vs Denver by 3 on back to back without Kat Gobert or Reid.

This team is damn good and very deep. Really love the resilience that the have shown. Tonight was a very desperate GS team and we just wouldn't let them up off the mat. We didn't play our best but it was good enough. Why can't we be NBA champions?

Love the enthusiasm, Crazy!

Yeah, we've played really well since KAT went down, and to Carlos's point, it very well may have some impact on how management is approaching the offseason. But I think most Wolves fans lean in one of these directions or the other:

-This team is as good without KAT as they are with him, and we can find much better ways to use his $49 million next year, or-

-This team is very deep, and is going to be even better when we bring back a unicornish 43% 3-point shooting 6'11" guy.

I can see a little of both, but I'm more focused on the latter right now.

[DNatagal]

I see nothing wrong with a team that can play many different ways. Injuries happen, load management happens, disgruntled players happen, but the ability to win with different lineups doesn't always happen.

[FNG]

I see knitting wrong with a team that can play many different ways. Injuries happen, load management happens, disgruntled players happen, but the ability to win with different lineups doesn't always happen.

Take this to the Knitting forum, D'...this is a volleyball forum!

[Q-is-here]

I see knitting wrong with a team that can play many different ways. Injuries happen, load management happens, disgruntled players happen, but the ability to win with different lineups doesn't always happen.

Take this to the Knitting forum, D'...this is a volleyball forum!

[Q-is-here]

Yep. I started a thread on Towns a couple weeks ago. I'm not going to say we haven't missed him. He certainly makes this team deeper. But yeah...if we go on a run without him, there will be big decisions to make in the off season.

In defense of Towns, last night was the first night in a while where I thought we missed him - specifically the scoring. Obviously Towns is a 20+ a night guy. Naz has filled in very well since he went down. But moving Naz into the starting role leaves our bench without much scoring. They don't have ANY double digit scorers coming off the bench now:
NAW - 7.6 pts/game
SloMo - 6.5
Monte - 5.3
JMac - 3.3

It's pretty weak from a scoring stand point. That's where I feel Towns is missed the most. It helps our depth and we have Naz as a 6th man and his 13 pts/game on the bench. I really wish they'd have picked up a scorer for the bench when Towns went down.

I wonder if there is any stat out there that captures what the opponent does off player possessions that end in either a missed shot or turnover. Obviously we can easily measure how many TOs and misses a player has, but what happens afterwards is just as important.

My question is this: Do Naz Reid possessions that end in a miss or TO lead to worse outcomes for the opponent (and better for Minnesota) than KAT misses or TOs?

For example, if KAT misses one of his driving layups and is sprawled out on the floor, he obviously leaves the defense vulnerable in a 5 on 4 transition situation.

But if you look on only at TOs, Naz turns it over less, both on an absolute basis and on a per possession basis. So he's already better than KAT in ball security. Is he also better at having less bad misses and TOs in terms of opponent outcomes?

[DNatagal]

I hope KAT is watching and decides to join the fun rather than change everything to suit him. I would love to see KAT back in the post when Ant is on the bench. Get rid of the drives from the perimeter. Then when he is sharing the floor with Ant, spot up at the 3 point line and let it fly. He should average 8+ 3s a game with at least 6 of those wide open.

[davemang]

I hope KAT is watching and decides to join the fun rather than change everything to suit him. I would love to see KAT back in the post when Ant is on the bench. Get rid of the drives from the perimeter. Then when he is sharing the floor with Ant, spot up at the 3 point line and let it fly. He should average 8+ 3s a game with at least 6 of those wide open.

I hope Kat continues his "sacrificing good teammate" trajectory that has flipped a lot of national media's view on him. You are spot on with the next steps he can take to continue that: be a lot more judicious about when he drives to the hoop instead of forcing it, swapping out the ill advised/forced drives for posting up more when he's out there without Gobert (especially if slomo isn't out there too), and spotting up in the corner more when we don't have as many shooters out there. His drive game can still be a really good change of pace and get him easy buckets in spots (like 2 a game instead of like 7 or whatever he's averaging now), but his drive game needs to evolve to be more like slomo's if he wants it to be a weapon he uses often, where he can rely on his footwork and touch to get buckets when he's cutoff from just doing a straightline drive.

I think that would also help him expend less energy (not to mention get fewer "useless" fouls) in order to have more energy to move his feet on defense and cover perimeter players.