Wolves vs Warriors Game 3 GDT

[FNG]

Plus minus weirdness: the other 9 Warriors other than Kuminga were all minuses in just a 5 point loss...hardly seems mathematically possible.

Kuminga has been a handful for us. Interesting watching him and Moody alternate from starring role to doghouse.

JK has been shooting lights out. I'm ok if he cools down next game.

It's so odd that Kerr had Kuminga on the bench so much this season, including zero minutes in their critical finale loss to the Clippers. In that game Moses Moody was a -14 with 4 points and no rebounds in 30 minutes. You wonder if Kuminga would have been a better choice in those minutes and maybe raised the Warriors to a better seed. I value Kerr as a coach, but it seems like he has done a terrible job developing this guy. Unless there's something I don't know, which is highly likely.

[FNG]

Jon K mentions our review coordinator Jeff Newton on X for his terrific review decisions...they were critical to this victory.

[FNG]

Jimmy Butler is 35 years old and averaged 31.7 MPG this season and only 33 for his career (despite logging much higher minutes in his younger years with Thibs)...tonight he played 43 minutes. And after going 11 for 20 and a +9 in the first 3 quarters and playing stellar defense, he was only 1 for 6 with a turnover and a -10 after checking in in the 4th quarter. He looked tired to me at both ends and played like it. Ant, Jaden and Ju also logged over 40 minutes in this game, but they are younger.

We've noted a total turnaround in clutch play for the Wolves in this playoffs compared to their regular season futility, and there seems to be a common theme: old guys like LeBron and Jimmy as well as an out of shape guy like Luka are not ready to play the kind of minutes they are being asked to play, and our relatively younger team just looks fresher down the stretch.

[Monster]

Kuminga has been a handful for us. Interesting watching him and Moody alternate from starring role to doghouse.

JK has been shooting lights out. I'm ok if he cools down next game.

It's so odd that Kerr had Kuminga on the bench so much this season, including zero minutes in their critical finale loss to the Clippers. In that game Moses Moody was a -14 with 4 points and no rebounds in 30 minutes. You wonder if Kuminga would have been a better choice in those minutes and maybe raised the Warriors to a better seed. I value Kerr as a coach, but it seems like he has done a terrible job developing this guy. Unless there's something I don't know, which is highly likely.

Moody had a pretty solid season as well and has been a significantly better 3 point shooter. From February-March Moody played more minutes and that was part of the stretch where GS was playing better and played better D. During that time Kuminga made 11 3's and really struggled from 3 in March and April. Moody made 57 3's over that span. Kuminga has always seemed pretty inconsistent to me he is still only 22. I think one of the problems with Kuminga is he is kinda small for a PF (maybe he will get strong enough) and his lack of 3 point shooting is a problem if he plays on the wing and the Warriors have quite a few perimeter players already. I have no idea what he might get paid or what he is actually worth. I know in the past it seemed like the Warriors were pretty enamored with him.

[Monster]

Jimmy Butler is 35 years old and averaged 31.7 MPG this season and only 33 for his career (despite logging much higher minutes in his younger years with Thibs)...tonight he played 43 minutes. And after going 11 for 20 and a +9 in the first 3 quarters and playing stellar defense, he was only 1 for 6 with a turnover and a -10 after checking in in the 4th quarter. He looked tired to me at both ends and played like it. Ant, Jaden and Ju also logged over 40 minutes in this game, but they are younger.

We've noted a total turnaround in clutch play for the Wolves in this playoffs compared to their regular season futility, and there seems to be a common theme: old guys like LeBron and Jimmy as well as an out of shape guy like Luka are not ready to play the kind of minutes they are being asked to play, and our relatively younger team just looks fresher down the stretch.

It probaly also helps when some of the other guys around those top guys on opposing teams aren't exactly wildly experienced playoff players or not much more than the guys the Wolves are playing.

Meanwhile the Wolves are starting to stack up some playoff experience for the guys that are still relatively young. You know who of the Wolves typical 8 man rotation has played the fewest playoff games? Randle at 23. Naz is next with 29. Everyone else has played 30 or more with Conley the most experienced with over 100 playoff games played.

[FNG]

JK has been shooting lights out. I'm ok if he cools down next game.

It's so odd that Kerr had Kuminga on the bench so much this season, including zero minutes in their critical finale loss to the Clippers. In that game Moses Moody was a -14 with 4 points and no rebounds in 30 minutes. You wonder if Kuminga would have been a better choice in those minutes and maybe raised the Warriors to a better seed. I value Kerr as a coach, but it seems like he has done a terrible job developing this guy. Unless there's something I don't know, which is highly likely.

Moody had a pretty solid season as well and has been a significantly better 3 point shooter. From February-March Moody played more minutes and that was part of the stretch where GS was playing better and played better D. During that time Kuminga made 11 3's and really struggled from 3 in March and April. Moody made 57 3's over that span. Kuminga has always seemed pretty inconsistent to me he is still only 22. I think one of the problems with Kuminga is he is kinda small for a PF (maybe he will get strong enough) and his lack of 3 point shooting is a problem if he plays on the wing and the Warriors have quite a few perimeter players already. I have no idea what he might get paid or what he is actually worth. I know in the past it seemed like the Warriors were pretty enamored with him.

That's fair, monster...I admire Kerr as a coach, and I'm sure his opinion of JK is valid. JK has been terrific in this series, but it's not how he consistently played in the regular season. Here's my prediction for Game 4: Kuminga starts and tries to play hero ball like he did down the stretch last night. But this time the shots aren't falling, perhaps because Jaden is on him, and Kerr puts him back on the bench. Just a guess.

[Monster]

It's so odd that Kerr had Kuminga on the bench so much this season, including zero minutes in their critical finale loss to the Clippers. In that game Moses Moody was a -14 with 4 points and no rebounds in 30 minutes. You wonder if Kuminga would have been a better choice in those minutes and maybe raised the Warriors to a better seed. I value Kerr as a coach, but it seems like he has done a terrible job developing this guy. Unless there's something I don't know, which is highly likely.

Moody had a pretty solid season as well and has been a significantly better 3 point shooter. From February-March Moody played more minutes and that was part of the stretch where GS was playing better and played better D. During that time Kuminga made 11 3's and really struggled from 3 in March and April. Moody made 57 3's over that span. Kuminga has always seemed pretty inconsistent to me he is still only 22. I think one of the problems with Kuminga is he is kinda small for a PF (maybe he will get strong enough) and his lack of 3 point shooting is a problem if he plays on the wing and the Warriors have quite a few perimeter players already. I have no idea what he might get paid or what he is actually worth. I know in the past it seemed like the Warriors were pretty enamored with him.

That's fair, monster...I admire Kerr as a coach, and I'm sure his opinion of JK is valid. JK has been terrific in this series, but it's not how he consistently played in the regular season. Here's my prediction for Game 4: Kuminga starts and tries to play hero ball like he did down the stretch last night. But this time the shots aren't falling, perhaps because Jaden is on him, and Kerr puts him back on the bench. Just a guess.

If you look at the Warriors stats you can see Kerr had some options in the regular season. Quinton Post looks like he was reasonably effective and he was a late 2nd round pick rookie. Melton getting hurt early in the season opened up various opportunities for other guys. Kuminga also missed 2 months with an ankle injury.

It's also worth noting that Kuminga scoring shouldn't be that surprising it's more that he is hitting 3's. He scored over 15ppg in the regular season on less than 25mpg. The Warriors depth isn't wildly proven but some of these guys like Kuminga have done some worthwhile things before it's not a total fluke. What's frustrating is some of the the Wolves depth guys especially Donte haven't shown up on offense consistently. The Wolves aren't the only team that has had some lacking in that regard but it would be nice if Donte could get on track.

[FNG]

[quote=FNG post_id=648732 time=<a href="tel:1746972380">1746972380</a> user_id=648]
[quote=Monster post_id=648730 time=<a href="tel:1746971642">1746971642</a> user_id=637]
[quote=FNG post_id=648727 time=<a href="tel:1746967981">1746967981</a> user_id=648]


It's so odd that Kerr had Kuminga on the bench so much this season, including zero minutes in their critical finale loss to the Clippers. In that game Moses Moody was a -14 with 4 points and no rebounds in 30 minutes. You wonder if Kuminga would have been a better choice in those minutes and maybe raised the Warriors to a better seed. I value Kerr as a coach, but it seems like he has done a terrible job developing this guy. Unless there's something I don't know, which is highly likely.

Moody had a pretty solid season as well and has been a significantly better 3 point shooter. From February-March Moody played more minutes and that was part of the stretch where GS was playing better and played better D. During that time Kuminga made 11 3's and really struggled from 3 in March and April. Moody made 57 3's over that span. Kuminga has always seemed pretty inconsistent to me he is still only 22. I think one of the problems with Kuminga is he is kinda small for a PF (maybe he will get strong enough) and his lack of 3 point shooting is a problem if he plays on the wing and the Warriors have quite a few perimeter players already. I have no idea what he might get paid or what he is actually worth. I know in the past it seemed like the Warriors were pretty enamored with him.
[/quote]

That's fair, monster...I admire Kerr as a coach, and I'm sure his opinion of JK is valid. JK has been terrific in this series, but it's not how he consistently played in the regular season. Here's my prediction for Game 4: Kuminga starts and tries to play hero ball like he did down the stretch last night. But this time the shots aren't falling, perhaps because Jaden is on him, and Kerr puts him back on the bench. Just a guess.
[/quote]

If you look at the Warriors stats you can see Kerr had some options in the regular season. Quinton Post looks like he was reasonably effective and he was a late 2nd round pick rookie. Melton getting hurt early in the season opened up various opportunities for other guys. Kuminga also missed 2 months with an ankle injury.

It's also worth noting that Kuminga scoring shouldn't be that surprising it's more that he is hitting 3's. He scored over 15ppg in the regular season on less than 25mpg. The Warriors depth isn't wildly proven but some of these guys like Kuminga have done some worthwhile things before it's not a total fluke. What's frustrating is some of the the Wolves depth guys especially Donte haven't shown up on offense consistently. The Wolves aren't the only team that has had some lacking in that regard but it would be nice if Donte could get on track.
[/quote]

Moody had a pretty solid season as well and has been a significantly better 3 point shooter. From February-March Moody played more minutes and that was part of the stretch where GS was playing better and played better D. During that time Kuminga made 11 3's and really struggled from 3 in March and April. Moody made 57 3's over that span. Kuminga has always seemed pretty inconsistent to me he is still only 22. I think one of the problems with Kuminga is he is kinda small for a PF (maybe he will get strong enough) and his lack of 3 point shooting is a problem if he plays on the wing and the Warriors have quite a few perimeter players already. I have no idea what he might get paid or what he is actually worth. I know in the past it seemed like the Warriors were pretty enamored with him.

That's fair, monster...I admire Kerr as a coach, and I'm sure his opinion of JK is valid. JK has been terrific in this series, but it's not how he consistently played in the regular season. Here's my prediction for Game 4: Kuminga starts and tries to play hero ball like he did down the stretch last night. But this time the shots aren't falling, perhaps because Jaden is on him, and Kerr puts him back on the bench. Just a guess.

If you look at the Warriors stats you can see Kerr had some options in the regular season. Quinton Post looks like he was reasonably effective and he was a late 2nd round pick rookie. Melton getting hurt early in the season opened up various opportunities for other guys. Kuminga also missed 2 months with an ankle injury.

It's also worth noting that Kuminga scoring shouldn't be that surprising it's more that he is hitting 3's. He scored over 15ppg in the regular season on less than 25mpg. The Warriors depth isn't wildly proven but some of these guys like Kuminga have done some worthwhile things before it's not a total fluke. What's frustrating is some of the the Wolves depth guys especially Donte haven't shown up on offense consistently. The Wolves aren't the only team that has had some lacking in that regard but it would be nice if Donte could get on track.

Yes, it’s not the scoring that’s surprising, it’s the efficiency. He’s only a 52% TS, and he’s scoring much more efficiently than that in this series. I think he will regress to the mean.

[Phenom]

I saw a stat that the Wolves clutch time scoring is 84 points. The next best team is 38.

Should we feel better about this team?

[FNG]

I saw a stat that the Wolves clutch time scoring is 84 points. The next best team is 38.

Should we feel better about this team?

I think you mean clutch time net rating, phenom, and you’re right…it’s very impressive! I see it as a combination of fresher legs and better decision making on our part, and overused aging players on there’s. It won’t be the same in the next round, so let’s enjoy it now!