Wolves vs Kings Game Thread

[KG4Ever]

Fire Finch, Fire Connelly, Fire Glen, Fire ARod and Lore. Wolves suck and with no draft picks to get better, we are an Ant injury from being a bottom three team. No short term fixes. Just burn this franchise to the ground, LOL

[Phenom]

I don’t think this team is fixable

I felt that way the instant KAT was traded. Just knew it wouldn't work and knew Randle would fk up the team chemistry and cause our defense to lose its luster. Depsite all the sht talked about KAT, he was still a lot better defender than Randle. I never expected DDV to be this bad, but that's because Finch is an idiot who doesn't know how to utilize players to maximize their value. So many peoples stink on Wolves and elsewhere they are productive rotation players. Even Wolves bum Wendell Moore is playing decently in Detroit.

I've been thinking about how this team would be faring with KAT and player X as the 8th man instead of DDV. The Knicks lost to the Mavs without Luka. I don't want to spend any more mental energy on this team for the time being.

[KiwiMatt]

There's a reason why the Knicks were a lot better team last season after Julius Randle got injured.

[WildWolf2813]

I don’t think this team is fixable

I felt that way the instant KAT was traded. Just knew it wouldn't work and knew Randle would fk up the team chemistry and cause our defense to lose its luster. Depsite all the sht talked about KAT, he was still a lot better defender than Randle. I never expected DDV to be this bad, but that's because Finch is an idiot who doesn't know how to utilize players to maximize their value. So many peoples stink on Wolves and elsewhere they are productive rotation players. Even Wolves bum Wendell Moore is playing decently in Detroit.

I've been thinking about how this team would be faring with KAT and player X as the 8th man instead of DDV. The Knicks lost to the Mavs without Luka. I don't want to spend any more mental energy on this team for the time being.

The Knicks suffer from injuries and lack of depth.

The Wolves suffer from underutilized depth and the relative failure of any potential guy who has the opportunity to be the 2nd best offensive player behind Ant.

I've been railing on Jaden since he got the extension. Him becoming a plus offensively is just never gonna happen.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Abe's Turkey-of-a-DVR Review:

It's too sad + frustrating to go with the bigger picture stuff... so I'm gonna nitpick the game tonight... but the point about the team sucking balls will leak through...

- The 1st half swung just 4 minutes into the game. McDaniels had one foul and then he took one 60 feet from the basket. Why? That's the type of play that has plagued him since he was a struggling malcontent at Washington. It's dumb basketball.

- There were three unforced just absolutely embarrassing TOs fairly early in this one. Conley. Dillingham. Randle. Oh and then the play Reid just forgot how to dribble. I'm sure those possessions won't matter. It's the NBA, we can throw them away.

- I've had about four VERY STRONG Timberwolves takes over the years. Michael Beasley/Eddie Griffin were not even good enough to be fool's gold. Rambis/Kahn would be a disaster. Troy Hudson is not very good. Shabazz Muhammad is the most selfish player in NBA history. Rashad McCants is actively trying to steal your soul and is the worst person in the world. Ever.

Next hot take that turns out to be 100% accurate: Dillingham aint him. I'm just not seeing it. At all. (I sincerely hope I'm wrong and this is too premature to be a legendary Abe hot take which will now negate the fact that I was actually right about all of those things above!)

- Jae Crowder keeps landing in places around the league... but it's not to play basketball. Not really. He's a professional instigator (see Tucker). Argue super loudly about ridiculously obvious calls. Get into arguments with opposing team. Hand the ball off just a bit too hard and a bit close to the neck area EVERY time. Bump, accidentally trip, stumble into guys at the end of every whistle. That's his role nowadays. The Wolves are the opposite of that right now.

- I was shocked when I saw the stats in the 3rd. I thought the Wolves played HARD... but I didn't like the offense. Yet again. Two plays come to mind. Randle hits a three. He's super excited heading into the timeout. Crowd is loud. The next possession, you can see him with a bit of a bounce, ready for the easy pass from Edwards. Nope. Edwards dribbles for many seconds until he throws it to Randle four seconds late and completely out of rhythm. Miss. Right after that, Randle has it up top, you can feel he wants to iso, but instead of clearing Edwards stays and Randle grudgingly throws him the ball. Dribble and many more and then a tough miss.

They are struggling to connect on the court.

- Twice we saw Randle pick up his dribble and everyone else just stands there. MOVE! Well, actually... not so fast. We've all played hoops so most of us have had a "Randle" the guy who everyone in the gym knows is going iso. There's nothing to do but stand and watch.

And then that same mfer starts freaking out the moment he picks up his dribble. Damn! I've been sitting over here for 30 seconds, now you need my bailout?

- Sweet layup Grandpa Mike.

- I just checked... Malik Monk is averaging 82.7 points per game vs. the Wolves in his career.

- Edwards was 0 - 9 fg in the 4th quarter yesterday. He was 2 - 7 fg in the 4th tonight.

- Hey look everyone... Julius Randle got his 21/9/4. It's eerily similar to the stat line from ALL the games in this losing streak. And that's all that matters.

- Jayden McDaniels and Divicenzo are pretty bad and atrociously awful basketball players right now, respectively.

[Wolvesfan21]

Abe's Turkey-of-a-DVR Review:

It's too sad + frustrating to go with the bigger picture stuff... so I'm gonna nitpick the game tonight... but the point about the team sucking balls will leak through...

- The 1st half swung just 4 minutes into the game. McDaniels had one foul and then he took one 60 feet from the basket. Why? That's the type of play that has plagued him since he was a struggling malcontent at Washington. It's dumb basketball.

- There were three unforced just absolutely embarrassing TOs fairly early in this one. Conley. Dillingham. Randle. Oh and then the play Reid just forgot how to dribble. I'm sure those possessions won't matter. It's the NBA, we can throw them away.

- I've had about four VERY STRONG Timberwolves takes over the years. Michael Beasley/Eddie Griffin were not even good enough to be fool's gold. Rambis/Kahn would be a disaster. Troy Hudson is not very good. Shabazz Muhammad is the most selfish player in NBA history. Rashad McCants is actively trying to steal your soul and is the worst person in the world. Ever.

Next hot take that turns out to be 100% accurate: Dillingham aint him. I'm just not seeing it. At all. (I sincerely hope I'm wrong and this is too premature to be a legendary Abe hot take which will now negate the fact that I was actually right about all of those things above!)

- Jae Crowder keeps landing in places around the league... but it's not to play basketball. Not really. He's a professional instigator (see Tucker). Argue super loudly about ridiculously obvious calls. Get into arguments with opposing team. Hand the ball off just a bit too hard and a bit close to the neck area EVERY time. Bump, accidentally trip, stumble into guys at the end of every whistle. That's his role nowadays. The Wolves are the opposite of that right now.

- I was shocked when I saw the stats in the 3rd. I thought the Wolves played HARD... but I didn't like the offense. Yet again. Two plays come to mind. Randle hits a three. He's super excited heading into the timeout. Crowd is loud. The next possession, you can see him with a bit of a bounce, ready for the easy pass from Edwards. Nope. Edwards dribbles for many seconds until he throws it to Randle four seconds late and completely out of rhythm. Miss. Right after that, Randle has it up top, you can feel he wants to iso, but instead of clearing Edwards stays and Randle grudgingly throws him the ball. Dribble and many more and then a tough miss.

They are struggling to connect on the court.

- Twice we saw Randle pick up his dribble and everyone else just stands there. MOVE! Well, actually... not so fast. We've all played hoops so most of us have had a "Randle" the guy who everyone in the gym knows is going iso. There's nothing to do but stand and watch.

And then that same mfer starts freaking out the moment he picks up his dribble. Damn! I've been sitting over here for 30 seconds, now you need my bailout?

- Sweet layup Grandpa Mike.

- I just checked... Malik Monk is averaging 82.7 points per game vs. the Wolves in his career.

- Edwards was 0 - 9 fg in the 4th quarter yesterday. He was 2 - 7 fg in the 4th tonight.

- Hey look everyone... Julius Randle got his 21/9/4. It's eerily similar to the stat line from ALL the games in this losing streak. And that's all that matters.

- Jayden McDaniels and Divicenzo are pretty bad and atrociously awful basketball players right now, respectively.

The ONLY stat that matters is the WIN or LOSS. The team was a LOSER again tonight.

[DNatagal]

At least Randle doesn't chase stats like KAT... right?

[AbeVigodaLive]

At least Randle doesn't chase stats like KAT... right?

Yes. That was my point... that I mentioned after the Rockets game.

It's VERY OBVIOUS Julius Randle is playing more for his stats than anything else right now. "Hey, I'm getting 21/7/3 every night!" I'm getting R. McCants vibes (without the devil in disguise trying to steal your soul) vibes.

[FNG]

Another great game from NAW, but I can't credit anyone else with a great game. You win with 2-way players, and I would say right now we have only NAW. It's not a lack of talent...it's a lack of urgency and effort. Look at the stretch in the second half when we went from down 14 to up 12...we showed the same swarming defense we had last year, even with Randle on the court. We were so dominant during that stretch that I just knew we were going to win by 15 or so. It didn't even bother me when we made two incredibly boneheaded plays...Ant letting Fox steal the ball from him and scoring as time ran out in the 3rd, and Conley missing a wide open layup. We all chuckled in my household at both plays because the game was in hand. But then 29-6 happened. 29 to fucking 6 to end the game.

This team needs to decide who they are...the team that outscored the Kings by 26 during that terrific stretch in the second half, or the team that finished 29-6. And Ant can lambast his teammates, the fans, and himself in the locker room all he wants...it's frankly getting a little boring. Ant is the face of this franchise, and when he turns the ball over at the end of a quarter and goes on an extended defensive holiday, his teammates notice...far more than they notice his wonderful post-loss speeches. We are a 58 win team if Ant comes out working like NAW every night, and a 40 win team if he continues to show up for only half of every game. We need Ant to put as much effort into his performance on the court as he does into his post-loss locker room performance. If he does, we'll be just fine.