Kekgeek grades G55 vs Bucks

[AbeVigodaLive]

Naw: D
Ant: D
Jaden: C+
Naz: C-
Rudy: A-
Ingles: B+
Clark: D+
Shannon: A+
Dilly: F

I’d give an F to Finch for having NAW instead of TSJ on the court down the stretch. We needed offense and TSJ had it tonight. Neither NAW nor anyone else other than TSJ was shooting well for the Wolves tonight. The most important thing a head coach does, and perhaps the only thing that matters, is decide who plays and when. In my view, Finch failed at that basic task.

Yeah, he seems to have had pretty down year from a coaching perspective.

It's tough for any coach to go with the guy with only 100 NBA minutes down the stretch of a big close game. It's fine to call Finch out for it... but I think 29 other NBA coaches are doing the same thing he did.

[kekgeek]

I’d give an F to Finch for having NAW instead of TSJ on the court down the stretch. We needed offense and TSJ had it tonight. Neither NAW nor anyone else other than TSJ was shooting well for the Wolves tonight. The most important thing a head coach does, and perhaps the only thing that matters, is decide who plays and when. In my view, Finch failed at that basic task.

Yeah, he seems to have had pretty down year from a coaching perspective.

It's tough for any coach to go with the guy with only 100 NBA minutes down the stretch of a big close game. It's fine to call Finch out for it... but I think 29 other NBA coaches are doing the same thing he did.

To go along with this the ball is not going to be in Shannon hands down the stretch he is going to be asked to sit in the corner and that has been massive mixed results so far. Also it’s not like the others missed shots down the stretch outside of Ant and one bad Naw fast break to Rudy. Not sure how much Shannon changes that


I don’t blame Finch going with Naw down the stretch even though Shannon played better.

[Lipoli390]

Closing lineup (at least on offense):

C - Naz
PF - Jaden
SF - Shannon
SG - Ant
PG - NAW

Why not a lineup like that? Spread it the hell out and let Ant try to get to the basket with a 5-out set.

I think Ant is largely to blame for this loss, but it's hard to get to the bucket when you have two huge giants in Fumble Fingers Rudy and Brook Lopez in your way!

I was thinking Shannon instead of NAW. That would have been an improvement. We needed points and I’ll take Shannon over NAW as a scorer any day of the week, especially in a game like tonight when we needed points down the stretch and Shannon was in a nice groove. And I thought Shannon was terrific defensively as well so I don’t think we would have given up anything on that end by swapping out NAW for Shannon. But I like your suggested lineup too.

I still like Rudy overall as part of Wolves 2.0 if he’s paired with Naz and not Randle. But even then, there will be times when Rudy’s more of a liability than an asset, especially late in games when we more need space, pace and points.

[kekgeek]

Because he was brought up in this game thread. I’m actually going to defend Shabazz a little bit. Shabazz had NBA skill he was a good low post scorer, driver and rebounder. However he was not a good enough scorer to build an offense around him, then it was hard to have Shabazz develop into a role player because he was not a good 3 pt shooter, playmaker or defender (even though he tried) and that is why he was out of the league semi quickly because he could not play a role even though he had a pretty good ability to score going to the hoop.


So I understand why people brought up TSJ when talking about Shabazz. Both can get down hill and score. TSJ inconsistent 3 pt shot in college shooting 29% on catch and shoot 3s his senior year and so far in his pro career it’s gone in or he has air balled a couple. I know lip brought up his playmaking and he had 6 assists tonight. However he only had 6 or more assists 5 times in TSJ 145 career college games. So tonight was a rare sighting when it comes to TSJ playmaking ability.

At the end of the day like Shabazz, I think TSJ is going to be able to get down hill and get to the line at a decent clip in the NBA. But his future in the NBA will come down to can be hit catch and shoot 3s or can be playmake as a 2nd scorer with Ant because Shannon is not going to have the ball like he did in college. He is also an older rookie.

I believe in TSJ but will need to be able to compliment Ant like he did tonight or he is going to have a Shabazz like career where he can put the ball in the hoop but he is not good enough in other places to be a contributing winning role player.

*once again I like Shannon a lot but understand why Shabazz was brought up (Shannon is a better shooter and playmaker but not by a wide margin)

[KiwiMatt]

Ant deserves an F.

This team feeds off his energy and tonight he didn’t have any. Add to that 28 points off 33 shots and a pathetic display defensively.

Somethings up with this team when they play at home. It’s like they’re all not getting enough sleep. Maybe they should stay in a hotel room tonight, Ant especially.

[kekgeek]

Closing lineup (at least on offense):

C - Naz
PF - Jaden
SF - Shannon
SG - Ant
PG - NAW

Why not a lineup like that? Spread it the hell out and let Ant try to get to the basket with a 5-out set.

I think Ant is largely to blame for this loss, but it's hard to get to the bucket when you have two huge giants in Fumble Fingers Rudy and Brook Lopez in your way!

I was thinking Shannon instead of NAW. That would have been an improvement. We needed points and I’ll take Shannon over NAW as a scorer any day of the week, especially in a game like tonight when we needed points down the stretch and Shannon was in a nice groove. And I thought Shannon was terrific defensively as well so I don’t think we would have given up anything on that end by swapping out NAW for Shannon. But I like your suggested lineup too.

I still like Rudy overall as part of Wolves 2.0 if he’s paired with Naz and not Randle. But even then, there will be times when Rudy’s more of a liability than an asset, especially late in games when we more need space, pace and points.

The wolves did score on 7 of the last 14 shots. in the last 5 minutes and of those 7 misses 5 of those where Ant misses. I know you are saying you want offense I just don’t know how much having Shannon changes that. Like Jaden missed a shot at the rim and Naw passed to Rudy and he missed, does Shannon change that, idk. The others scored 5 of their last 7 shots.

They lost because they played with their for 3 and a half quarters and then bucks made multiple super tough buckets down the stretch and that’s the risk you play when you don’t burry them early

[kekgeek]

Ant deserves an F.

This team feeds off his energy and tonight he didn’t have any. Add to that 28 points off 33 shots and a pathetic display defensively.

Somethings up with this team when they play at home. It’s like they’re all not getting enough sleep. Maybe they should stay in a hotel room tonight, Ant especially.

I do think some of it is that 4 of our current starters are new Dads. A lot more responsibility when you are at home than on the road. Ant shooting wise is the only one really effected though. 5% from the field and 8% worse from 3 when at home than on the road (not even counting tonight)

[Coolbreeze44]

Ant deserves an F.

This team feeds off his energy and tonight he didn’t have any. Add to that 28 points off 33 shots and a pathetic display defensively.

Somethings up with this team when they play at home. It’s like they’re all not getting enough sleep. Maybe they should stay in a hotel room tonight, Ant especially.

That's a pretty good observation Kiwi, something is definitely up. As Abe said, this isn't a fluke anymore. Something needs to change, and soon.

[FNG]

Yeah, I agree with all of Kek's grades, low as they may be. I love Dilly's potential and NAW's hustle, but let's face it...neither one is a capable NBA PG yet. This is not a bad roster, but we are essentially without a PG when Mike is out. Even with a noticeable decline in his performance, we are 2-6 when he doesn't suit up (actually 1-6, because technically he was in uniform for the Portland game) and a very respectable 28-19 when he does. I'm all about ball movement, and there just isn't enough when Mike is out. I think we found out last night that the second best player on our roster in terms of running the offense is....Joe Ingles! He isn't shooting this year like he has in his career and he's slow on defense, but I trust him more with the ball in his hands...hopefully we see more of him in that role tonight and less NAW.

[DNatagal]

Finch needs to take a lot of the blame here. His questionable leadership has lost the Wolves a lot of games. When an actual play was called to get Ant or another shooter free, good things happened. When you have 4 people standing watching Ant dribble at the logo, you get what we saw last night, which is the way Ant wants it, so he gets it. And the Wolves lose another game they should win. Hell, Naz should bring the damn ball up Magic Johnson style if that would get some movement on the court. That whole hand-off weave bullshit that happens at the top of the 3 point line is completely worthless. It doesn't cause the defense to react because the Wolves never look to make a rim cut or pass.