Nuggets/Wolves GDT

[Wolvesfan21]

Donte seems to have moved into "whipping boy" status, and I get it to some extent. But with Ant out, this team needs 3-point shooting, and he's been one of the few bright spots this season in that area. Last night he was 3 for 8, and the only TWolf who made over 33% of his treys. And his 38.5% on the season makes him one of only 4 players over 30% (the others being Ant, Ju and TJ). He's been right around 40% each of the prior 3 years, so he is a legitimate 3-point threat.

All that said, I think some of our shooters (like Mike, Jaden, and Naz) are going to progress to their means, and when Ant returns, our 3-point shooting will be adequate again. And we do seem to have a lot of players who can play SG other than him (Ant, Clark, TJ, even Bones and Mike). Trading him for a serviceable defensive center or PG could be a good move.

I’m not blaming Donte for our team’s struggles early this season and I’m still a Donte fan. I just think he’s more valuable to us as a trade asset right now given what he does for us, who we have on our roster and the possible need to change things up a bit. That said, I’m not anxious to trade him and I see where we might miss his three-point shooting. For now, I’d go with who we have. We just need to guard better at the point of attack, especially when Rudy’s sitting. What I’ve noticed is that our defenders are allowing opposing shooters to get their feet set far too often. If a good shooter gets his feet set, closing out and getting a hand in the shooter’s face isn’t very effective. We need a Nolan Richardson 40 minutes of hell defensive effort for 48 minutes every game for this team to be good defensively and successful overall. So far, all I’ve seen is a maybe 10 minutes of heck. I’ll accept mistakes but I can’t accept failure to fight through screens or lazy closeouts on players who never should have been able to get their feet set in the first place. I still think we can be a good defensive team even with Rudy on the bench, but not if Jaden, Conley, Donte and others give space to the guys they’re guarding.

I’ll add that we were pretty good defensively when we won 46 games before Rudy arrived. We were relentlessly aggressive defending the perimeter that season with guys like Vanderbilt and Beverley. Let’s get Clark and Shannon on the court and get Jaden to step up his perimeter defense. I thought Bones played well defensively against the Pacers. In fact, he seemed like the only defender on our team who effectively stopped shooters from getting their feet set. So let’s give him a bigger role in the rotation.

I said we'd be the number one defense and that'd carry us to 56 wins. I'm looking like a clown . Still time to turn it around but the results so far are no bueno.

[Lipoli390]

Donte seems to have moved into "whipping boy" status, and I get it to some extent. But with Ant out, this team needs 3-point shooting, and he's been one of the few bright spots this season in that area. Last night he was 3 for 8, and the only TWolf who made over 33% of his treys. And his 38.5% on the season makes him one of only 4 players over 30% (the others being Ant, Ju and TJ). He's been right around 40% each of the prior 3 years, so he is a legitimate 3-point threat.

All that said, I think some of our shooters (like Mike, Jaden, and Naz) are going to progress to their means, and when Ant returns, our 3-point shooting will be adequate again. And we do seem to have a lot of players who can play SG other than him (Ant, Clark, TJ, even Bones and Mike). Trading him for a serviceable defensive center or PG could be a good move.

I’m not blaming Donte for our team’s struggles early this season and I’m still a Donte fan. I just think he’s more valuable to us as a trade asset right now given what he does for us, who we have on our roster and the possible need to change things up a bit. That said, I’m not anxious to trade him and I see where we might miss his three-point shooting. For now, I’d go with who we have. We just need to guard better at the point of attack, especially when Rudy’s sitting. What I’ve noticed is that our defenders are allowing opposing shooters to get their feet set far too often. If a good shooter gets his feet set, closing out and getting a hand in the shooter’s face isn’t very effective. We need a Nolan Richardson 40 minutes of hell defensive effort for 48 minutes every game for this team to be good defensively and successful overall. So far, all I’ve seen is a maybe 10 minutes of heck. I’ll accept mistakes but I can’t accept failure to fight through screens or lazy closeouts on players who never should have been able to get their feet set in the first place. I still think we can be a good defensive team even with Rudy on the bench, but not if Jaden, Conley, Donte and others give space to the guys they’re guarding.

I’ll add that we were pretty good defensively when we won 46 games before Rudy arrived. We were relentlessly aggressive defending the perimeter that season with guys like Vanderbilt and Beverley. Let’s get Clark and Shannon on the court and get Jaden to step up his perimeter defense. I thought Bones played well defensively against the Pacers. In fact, he seemed like the only defender on our team who effectively stopped shooters from getting their feet set. So let’s give him a bigger role in the rotation.

I said we'd be the number one defense and that'd carry us to 56 wins. I'm looking like a clown . Still time to turn it around but the results so far are no bueno.

I predicted 57 wins. That makes two clowns.