SL Game 1 - Pels at Wolves GDT

[Wolvesfan21]

Yup, Bailey and Cain looked competent out there and I would love to seem them stay with the organization. I wouldn't mind seeing Bailey take Newton's 2-way spot.

It's early, but it is difficult to see Dilly as a starting NBA PG, at least in the upcoming season. And given the Wolves championship aspirations, the question goes back to "what does our backcourt look like?". We know Mike's minutes are going to be shaved some more, plus I assume they intend to have him rest a game during back-to-backs. I see myself going back to DDV starting at PG alongside ANT, with some combination of Mike and Dilly coming off the bench.

On Joan, it sure seems like the things he does well should translate to the NBA fairly quickly. I bet he sees some consistent minutes.

That's exactly what I thought watching his highlight reels. He's already so skilled and quick defensively, he can play right now on that end. On offense he doesn't need to do too much either. Play with energy rim running, crash the glass, lob dunk, etc.. I do wonder how good he screens right now. Need to see more. He doesn't need to even shoot right now outsie of a few feet, ideally be a decent FT shooter though, if his 3P ability ever comes, it may take a few years, maybe even 4-5.

He should really be focusing I think on his screening and FT's. Those will be the most impactful right now leading to him being able to play.

I agree on the areas he should work on for this year. However, he made a little push touch shot along the baseline and also had a dunk off a baseline spin move where he put the ball on the floor one or two times, which had me really thinking about his offensive upside. He is still so damn young and new to the game that it may be hard to put a ceiling on what he might look like as a player in 5 or 6 years.

I agree he has potential to be a superstar (saw a nice dribble drive in Slovenia), potential DPOY candidate and potentially being good overall on offense, that would be a superstar combo! Like you said, who knows in 5-6 years. He could be draining 3's and driving too, maybe passing good as well? Who knows?

[FNG]

Knee jerk reactions after Game 1:

Clark can play for any team I cheer for any day...he'll get consistent minutes this year. He looks bigger to me, and I love his game. So will TJ...and his distributing was a nice surprise. I just wish I liked both of their shot mechanics better. They both surprised me last season with their shooting success, but I see them both as having a 35% career ceiling. And I'd be okay with that given other things they bring to the table.

Rob was very much what I expected. He's clearly not ready to start, but he doesn't have to. And I think he will be just fine in 15 minutes or so backing up Mike. And I still like his upside. His ability to change direction on a dime is exceptional.

Joan was really fun to watch tonight, but I'm skeptical that Finchy is going to give a lot of minutes to a guy who is only going to be 19 this season is Rudy is healthy. But if Rudy ever had to miss a lot of games, I think Joan will play.

[Monster]

Almost done with this game here are some thoughts before I go back through the thread.

Dillingham mixed bag but did a lot of good stuff. Just looked at his Stat line I thought he played better than that. Does his upper body look a little bigger or am I just hoping?

Beringer holy shit. OK it's just one game but that was Hella impressive.

Rocco looked Raw. Jesse Edwards started off a little rough but played better as time went on and was clearly better than Rocco.

Newton was meh i didn't see him do anything that made me think he was particularly good. Made me long for the days of Nix. Lol

Clark made life hell out there. He fouled a lot but oh well. He was basically punking the Pels.

TSJ was a little bit out of control at times earlier in the game but found his groove and was doing some nice passing in this game.

Miller...did some good things but didn't look any different than he did a year ago except he might be lighter. I hope he shows more despite him being productive.

I liked what I saw from Cain. Dude was really in guys jerseys and looked solid staying within himself on offense and doing good things. I suppose he should look worthwhile as he has actually played some legit minutes at the NBA level. He was better than any of the Wolves 2-way players.

Amari Bailey intruiges me to some extent. He looked better than Newton and looks like a clearly better athlete.

Overall mostly what we expected from this team.

[Monster]

Let's see what some of these guys do game 2. I remember people saying J-Mac was terrible his first game for the Wolves in SL and he ended up earning a 2-way contract after SL was over.

[60WinTim]

I don’t know monster, I am going to bed kind of giddy! Both TSJ and Joan exceeded my expectations. Anxious to see more!

[Monster]

I don’t know monster, I am going to bed kind of giddy! Both TSJ and Joan exceeded my expectations. Anxious to see more!

Idk I guess the bar for TSJ is really high at least on offense and to be honest I wasn't that surprised with his passing. The thing that jumps out at me even though I know it's there is the absolute warp speed he has once he has the ball going towards the basket in transition. It's wild like how many guys can even go that fast? Also idk if he was good on D or not and that was a big focus of the coaching staff.

[kekgeek]

I just finished the game and read the thread.

First off I’m telling you guys Marney can not be the part time play by play person. I watch every Lynx game and she is so bad and makes so many mistakes. There was a game recently against Washington where Courtney Williams (Lynx PG) hits a mid range jumper. Marney call was “Kelsey Mitchell with the bucket”. Kelsey Mitchell plays for Indiana, so the player was not even on a team playing!!! Something similar happens every game.


Now on to the wolves. Great First game from Beringer, can’t ask for a better debut. I thought Dilly was better than most, I thought he set up his teammates great but they missed so many open looks, thought he was a lot more in control compared to last year and 3 turnovers were Lenard Miller fault. TSJ passing was great, he’s too good for SL but I’m still really worried about his shot that needs to fall on a team with a lot of sub par shooter. Clark will be a rotation player on a title team. Miller has so much potential but I’ll be shocked if he lives up to it. No bench guy looked like a NBA player to me.

[D-Loser25]

Seeing a lot of positive reviews on Shannon, but idk if I agree. Im very high on Shannon and maybe I just expected a lot. I didn’t think he looked that great - I honestly expected a bit more for a guy his age who was playing in the conference finals recently. I expected something approaching domination out there… hoping to see more in game 2. IMO he should be the guy to step into the top 8 and replace Naw

[Lipoli390]

Seeing a lot of positive reviews on Shannon, but idk if I agree. Im very high on Shannon and maybe I just expected a lot. I didn’t think he looked that great - I honestly expected a bit more for a guy his age who was playing in the conference finals recently. I expected something approaching domination out there… hoping to see more in game 2. IMO he should be the guy to step into the top 8 and replace Naw

Actually, we did see more. We saw something in his game we haven’t seen before - i.e., dialing down, setting up teammates with nice passes to the tune of 9 assists. But here’s the thing. We don’t need to see more from him in Summer League. We’ve already seen him excel against the best team in NBA playoff basketball against the best team in the NBA. Before that, we saw him excel in the regular season during a stretch when Donte and others were out. But again, we DID see even more yesterday in his 9 assists.

[Lipoli390]

I just finished the game and read the thread.

First off I’m telling you guys Marney can not be the part time play by play person. I watch every Lynx game and she is so bad and makes so many mistakes. There was a game recently against Washington where Courtney Williams (Lynx PG) hits a mid range jumper. Marney call was “Kelsey Mitchell with the bucket”. Kelsey Mitchell plays for Indiana, so the player was not even on a team playing!!! Something similar happens every game.


Now on to the wolves. Great First game from Beringer, can’t ask for a better debut. I thought Dilly was better than most, I thought he set up his teammates great but they missed so many open looks, thought he was a lot more in control compared to last year and 3 turnovers were Lenard Miller fault. TSJ passing was great, he’s too good for SL but I’m still really worried about his shot that needs to fall on a team with a lot of sub par shooter. Clark will be a rotation player on a title team. Miller has so much potential but I’ll be shocked if he lives up to it. No bench guy looked like a NBA player to me.

Kek - I think at least Monster and I have the same view as you on Dilly yesterday. He had a nice game - much better than his box score. He clearly has elite speed, quickness and elusiveness by NBA standards. So he will be (and has proven to be) hard to defend at the NBA level. Think about his play yesterday and imagine him on the offensive end playing with elite NBA players like Ant, Jaden and Randle who can catch the ball and score at a high level. I think the key for Dilly has always been whether he can get to a point where he can be decent defensively and we saw yesterday what TC and Finch have said about Dilly - namely that he competes and has really improved on that end. He’s also clearly added muscle weight to his frame. He’s still only 20 years old with only one year of college and very limited rookie minutes last season so we’ll have to live with his growing pains. But the basics are there to be a very good starting PG and there’s no reason he can’t eventually get to the same level as Garland, Morant and Fox.

But the main storyline for me remains the play of Beringer. Unlike Dilly, Beringer had a terrific box score. But like Dilly, you have to look beyond the box score to fully appreciate what yesterday’s game showed Beringer brings to the table.