Grade 3 Big Toe Sprain - Wolves at Memphis GDT

[Phenom]

Ant now 2/20 on shots to tie or take the lead

That is so brutal.

A regression to mean is coming.

[thedoper]

Keep Ant, Dilly, Naz and Jaden. Fire finch.
Trade literally everyone else.

Not sure I’m quite ready to join your call to fire Finch. Otherwise, I agree with you although I’d include TSJ as part of our core group moving forward. I’d probably also include DDV. Moving forward with that core has been my view for the past two months although I wavered on Jaden for a bit. Fortunately, Jaden has turned things around. His three-point shooting still isn’t as consistent as it needs to be and I’m still looking for more of a dribble drive game from him. But he’s back to being a great defender and he’s doing other stuff as well. Jaden’s three point shots weren’t falling today, but I love that he pulled down 11 rebounds. And love that Naz had 8 boards.

Randle has to go. I’d keep Rudy over Randle, but if we can get adequate value in return for Rudy I’d trade him as well. On the other hand, I can see us moving forward with Rudy and a core of Ant, Jaden, Dilly, Naz, DDV and TSJ. If we can trade Randle’s $30 million contract for expiring contracts and we let NAW walk, we can re-sign Naz and possibly get below the 1st apron, which would allow us to use our full MLE as well as our biennial exception and maneuver without significant transactional limitations.

I like keep TSJ and DDV but figured they can get us assets. If we dont fire Finch we need to do something like the Clippers where we bring in a respected guy to build a system on offense. We are a joke. Clutch moments should be when coaching and systems shine. We are literally giving Ant the ball and encouraging him to go 1 v 5.

[Q-is-here]

Keep Ant, Dilly, Naz and Jaden. Fire finch.
Trade literally everyone else.

Not sure I’m quite ready to join your call to fire Finch. Otherwise, I agree with you although I’d include TSJ as part of our core group moving forward. I’d probably also include DDV. Moving forward with that core has been my view for the past two months although I wavered on Jaden for a bit. Fortunately, Jaden has turned things around. His three-point shooting still isn’t as consistent as it needs to be and I’m still looking for more of a dribble drive game from him. But he’s back to being a great defender and he’s doing other stuff as well. Jaden’s three point shots weren’t falling today, but I love that he pulled down 11 rebounds. And love that Naz had 8 boards.

Randle has to go. I’d keep Rudy over Randle, but if we can get adequate value in return for Rudy I’d trade him as well. On the other hand, I can see us moving forward with Rudy and a core of Ant, Jaden, Dilly, Naz, DDV and TSJ. If we can trade Randle’s $30 million contract for expiring contracts and we let NAW walk, we can re-sign Naz and possibly get below the 1st apron, which would allow us to use our full MLE as well as our biennial exception and maneuver without significant transactional limitations.

I like keep TSJ and DDV but figured they can get us assets. If we dont fire Finch we need to do something like the Clippers where we bring in a respected guy to build a system on offense. We are a joke. Clutch moments should be when coaching and systems shine. We are literally giving Ant the ball and encouraging him to go 1 v 5.

But TSJ and DDV are assets! One is on a rookie contract that we just haven't had a chance to see yet, but is NBA-ready. The other is on a bargain of a contract.

Totally on board with trading Julius and as much as I love NAW, it's really hard to see paying him $15+M when we have guys like DDV, TSJ, Dilly, and Ant on the roster.

Rudy is a tough one. Rudy raises the floor of this team, but might limit its ultimate ceiling. I don't mind keeping him around during our competitive rebuild, as I think it's important that this team keeps winning games at a .500+ clip.

[Sundog]

Randle was wide open under the basket. Come on

[AbeVigodaLive]

Abe's "I have today off but still refuse to watch the Wolves game in real time" DVR Review:

- Win a couple, lose a couple. Rinse. Repeat. It's what average teams do.

- The final play. I realize it's kneejerk reactionary in the moment... but that final play... oof! The Wolves had great numbers with Edwards with the ball if no time out is given. Instead. They throw it back into the backcourt basically where Edwards was anyway... only all give Grizzlies were in position.

That's a bad look. And maybe even bad luck. The Wolves would have been much better off obviously without the timeout. As for the play... last time Edwards did his own thing and the final play sucked. This one looked more like it was drawn up as a sucky play.

- Jackson hit some big shots in that 4th quarter. The Wolves missed just enough easy ones. And there you go.

- We can probably start counting Gobert's very bad, no-good, frustratingly awful games at this point. This one was pretty ugly offensively. His indecisiveness with the ball in his hands hurt the Wolves. The rub is that Randle was no match for Jackson and he struggled shooting, too.

- Conley, Randle and Gobert (the team's three veteran players) combined to shoot 4 - 24 fg for 14 points. It brought back visions of Trent Hassell, Ervin Johnson and Michael Olowakandi offensively.

- We all know about Desmond Bane's arms. But for reals... they're kinda creepy CGI looking things.

- Memphis shot 7 - 33 on threes... and still won.

- The Timberwolves have forced only 11 TOs per game over this 2 - 4 stretch marred by 3 close losses. No opponent has turned it over more than 13 times in that span.

The league average is 14.7 TOs per game.

- The 2025 Timberwolves aren't the most talented team... and they're not the smartest either. I don't see them making the playoffs. And I'd take the odds against them making the play-in if I was to bet right now. It's just one of those types of seasons... and the bottom could still fall out.

- Silver lining!?!?!?? I might be wrong about Dillingham. I still don't know about his playmaking chops, but if he's a legit three-point shooter, he's got the wiggle to get to the rim. He's brought great energy in multiple games now. No choice but to run with it. If he pans out... yes, it'll be a bad look for me... but I'll be happy. It could be a bigger problem for Finch though, if the team misses the playoffs and failed to build its youth.

In a season without FUN... Dillingham has brought life and FUN to the Timberwolves at the very least.

[Yosimar]

The offense started to sputter after they took out Rob and brought in Conley’s corpse.

You’re left with one ball handler on the floor, well at least one who’s a threat offensively off the dribble in ANT and it makes it so easy for the opponent to just face guard him deny for as long as possible while Conley looks around trying to get him the ball because he himself knows he no longer can do anything offensively and by the time they get the ball to Ant there’s very little time on the clock. Dillingham’s decision making is nowhere near Conley’s which is the reason Finch rolls with him but at this point in time during this specific game and this season to be honest

Dillingham’s skills>Conley’s veteran intangibles.

It’s too bad he injured his ankle for a few games there, as that would’ve been more valuable experience for the rook. But at this point if Finch isn’t desperate enough to see that Rob’s play may the only thing that can change and spicy things up for this team the man is more comfortable than he should be in his role.

[thedoper]

The only reason Dillingham is playing is because of DDV’s injury. Its a bad look for Finch that we are looking at his development this late in the year. Giving him meaningful minutes would not have changed our 500 record that drastically in my opinion. Im really having a hard time seeing what Finch is going for with this roster. I think it is becoming pretty clear that we have to go for the future now and move Naz and Dlillingham ahead of Randle and Conley.

[Q-is-here]

Yeah, no question Ant needs a ball handler next to him that can break down a defense. It will force Ant to not ALWAYS be the obvious go-to guy in the clutch, which he continues to struggle with.

It's pretty rare for a young guard still getting his feet wet to shoot 50%+ from the field and 40%+ from 3, but that's what Dillingham is doing so far this season. And we know the shot making isn't just crazy good fortune since he's doing exactly what he did at Kentucky.

Regardless of how the rest of his game evolves, I am 100% certain that he can be a pretty elite bucket-getter. It's all the other nuances of being a good-enough defender, passer, and decision maker that are question marks. The good news is that he is still so damn young and has room to grow physically.....not even close to a finished product.

[KiwiMatt]

I can't believe how bad our clutch time plays are. Seriously is all we can come up with is give the ball to Ant and watch him dribbling around while everyone else stands around and then jack up a heavily contested shot while being double teamed. It's so predictable and such a low percentage play. This is where I really struggle with Finch and his inability to draw up winning plays when it matters.

[thedoper]

Jenkins played 11 players more than 10 minutes. Finch played 8 players more than 10. We looked gassed at the end of the game. I dont think its a coincidence.