Playoffs or Play-in? Wolves at Suns GDT

[FNG]

I'm sure people recognize that I'm quite conflicted about Ant. On one hand I recognize his enormous talent, but on the other hand, I question whether he has the character and gravitas to lead a team to a championship. And something I heard on NBA Radio today made me more worried about Ant. I didn't know this, but apparently he was chirping loudly at Brooks most of the 4th quarter. I don't have a big problem with that in and of itself, but it's embarrassing that he couldn't back it up...I'm guessing Brooks pointed to the scoreboard after the game was over. When you look less classy than Dillon Brooks, that's a problem.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Wolvesfan and Finch. A perfect match. LOL.

I think he and I need to sit down so I can regale him with Kurt Rambis, Sidney Lowe, Randy Wittman, Ryan Saunders, Jimmy Rodgers and Bill Blair stories.

As for the TO... Coaching criticism is all about hindsight. In this case, The Wolves didn't call their last TO with 45 seconds on the clock and up 6. And I think there are 29 other coaches who also wouldn't have called their last TO in that situation. Why? Because in the NBA, there's a chance there will still be another 3 or 4 (or more) possessions to inbound the ball.

The execution was poor on the inbounds play. If Finch wanted Edwards to be the inbounds guy and DDV to be the guy receiving the ball... and someone disagrees... fine. Rip him for that. Or rip him for not having Clark out there on D or Conley on offense. I think those coaching decisions have more merit.

But I have no problem with Finch not calling TO and assuming pro players can inbound the basketball up 6 with 45 seconds left.



[Note: If we're being honest WolvesFan... would you honestly be quiet if Finch used the team's last TO with 45 seconds left (when we didn't have the knowledge of impending doom and it looked mostly like a random inbounds play)... but then didn't have one later in the game? Imagine if the game tightened anyway, and the Wolves took a 5-second call or something with 6 seconds left because they were out of TOs? I have a sneaky suspicion you'd be all over Finch for that one, too. Again, it's all about hindsight.]

I 100% disagree, I thought TO after they cut it to 6!!! The ONLY real chance you have to lose that game is turn it over quick dagger 3P there. You go back up 7 or 8 and the game is over, they have to score now 3 or 4 times in 40ish maybe less seconds without YOU scoring at all, just not happening 99.999% of the time and they don't have Reggie Miller.

They stole the ball and stole all the momentum in the process causing our guys to fold. Don't give them any hope and just ice it then and there. When you got your foot on a teams throat don't let off it, Keep it there till you win.

Thats not even mentioning how Conley wasn't in the game either. That's the tried and true tested method in the history of basketball. Go to you best FT shooting/handling vet PG to ice it. It's not even a question of doing it or not. You just do it, everyone does it. If they double him, fine then go somewhere else, but then you got guys wide open. Also wasn't Rudy in the game? His one downfall is his FT shooting so he shouldn't be in there either. That is one situation he has to be off the floor.

The entire lineup was bad for that situation, the non TO was an absolute boneheaded mistake.

Hindsight. 100%... you would be here calling for FInch's head if that game came down to the wire and they didn't have a TO left.

As for who was in the game or not... have at it. Those are the types of things that can be debated without relying 100% on hindsight, which skews opinions wildly.

[Wolvesfan21]

Wolvesfan and Finch. A perfect match. LOL.

I think he and I need to sit down so I can regale him with Kurt Rambis, Sidney Lowe, Randy Wittman, Ryan Saunders, Jimmy Rodgers and Bill Blair stories.

As for the TO... Coaching criticism is all about hindsight. In this case, The Wolves didn't call their last TO with 45 seconds on the clock and up 6. And I think there are 29 other coaches who also wouldn't have called their last TO in that situation. Why? Because in the NBA, there's a chance there will still be another 3 or 4 (or more) possessions to inbound the ball.

The execution was poor on the inbounds play. If Finch wanted Edwards to be the inbounds guy and DDV to be the guy receiving the ball... and someone disagrees... fine. Rip him for that. Or rip him for not having Clark out there on D or Conley on offense. I think those coaching decisions have more merit.

But I have no problem with Finch not calling TO and assuming pro players can inbound the basketball up 6 with 45 seconds left.



[Note: If we're being honest WolvesFan... would you honestly be quiet if Finch used the team's last TO with 45 seconds left (when we didn't have the knowledge of impending doom and it looked mostly like a random inbounds play)... but then didn't have one later in the game? Imagine if the game tightened anyway, and the Wolves took a 5-second call or something with 6 seconds left because they were out of TOs? I have a sneaky suspicion you'd be all over Finch for that one, too. Again, it's all about hindsight.]

I 100% disagree, I thought TO after they cut it to 6!!! The ONLY real chance you have to lose that game is turn it over quick dagger 3P there. You go back up 7 or 8 and the game is over, they have to score now 3 or 4 times in 40ish maybe less seconds without YOU scoring at all, just not happening 99.999% of the time and they don't have Reggie Miller.

They stole the ball and stole all the momentum in the process causing our guys to fold. Don't give them any hope and just ice it then and there. When you got your foot on a teams throat don't let off it, Keep it there till you win.

Thats not even mentioning how Conley wasn't in the game either. That's the tried and true tested method in the history of basketball. Go to you best FT shooting/handling vet PG to ice it. It's not even a question of doing it or not. You just do it, everyone does it. If they double him, fine then go somewhere else, but then you got guys wide open. Also wasn't Rudy in the game? His one downfall is his FT shooting so he shouldn't be in there either. That is one situation he has to be off the floor.

The entire lineup was bad for that situation, the non TO was an absolute boneheaded mistake.

Hindsight. 100%... you would be here calling for FInch's head if that game came down to the wire and they didn't have a TO left.

As for who was in the game or not... have at it. Those are the types of things that can be debated without relying 100% on hindsight, which skews opinions wildly.

Nope I'd say hey nice comfortable win.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I 100% disagree, I thought TO after they cut it to 6!!! The ONLY real chance you have to lose that game is turn it over quick dagger 3P there. You go back up 7 or 8 and the game is over, they have to score now 3 or 4 times in 40ish maybe less seconds without YOU scoring at all, just not happening 99.999% of the time and they don't have Reggie Miller.

They stole the ball and stole all the momentum in the process causing our guys to fold. Don't give them any hope and just ice it then and there. When you got your foot on a teams throat don't let off it, Keep it there till you win.

Thats not even mentioning how Conley wasn't in the game either. That's the tried and true tested method in the history of basketball. Go to you best FT shooting/handling vet PG to ice it. It's not even a question of doing it or not. You just do it, everyone does it. If they double him, fine then go somewhere else, but then you got guys wide open. Also wasn't Rudy in the game? His one downfall is his FT shooting so he shouldn't be in there either. That is one situation he has to be off the floor.

The entire lineup was bad for that situation, the non TO was an absolute boneheaded mistake.

Hindsight. 100%... you would be here calling for FInch's head if that game came down to the wire and they didn't have a TO left.

As for who was in the game or not... have at it. Those are the types of things that can be debated without relying 100% on hindsight, which skews opinions wildly.

Nope I'd say hey nice comfortable win.

We all believe you.

[Wolvesfan21]

Hindsight. 100%... you would be here calling for FInch's head if that game came down to the wire and they didn't have a TO left.

As for who was in the game or not... have at it. Those are the types of things that can be debated without relying 100% on hindsight, which skews opinions wildly.

Nope I'd say hey nice comfortable win.

We all believe you.

Nice comfy win because you held onto the 8 point lead, yeah, nice.

Finch did his job and put the players in the best positions to succeed. I like it!

[Coolbreeze44]

You just don't call a timeout there when it's the last one you have. I get that it makes sense today, but things happen and the percentage play was to not call a TO there.

[60WinTim]

Oh, and we have our answer to the playoff/play-in question. The Wolves are a play-in team. Let's just hope they can stay afloat at the top of the group of play-in teams. Kind of sucks.