The Ja Audition - Griz at Wolves GDT

[AussieWolf3]

It sucks we lost, but I have to give a lot of the credit to the Memphis defense and their overall effort. KCP won a ring just a few years ago as Denver's starting shooting guard and wing stopper. Wells is an outstanding defender. Their bigs worked their asses off and challenged everything. And with Morant out, they didn't need to hide anyone.

What I'm most down about is that Clark, Shannon, and Dilly (the trio responsible for replacing NAW) played poorly tonight. These guys are no longer rookies. Clark needs to hit those open corner 3s and stop fouling. Shannon needs to get a right hand. Dilly needs to stop turning it over so much. Finch couldn't trust any of these guys in the 2nd half and even folk-hero Bones came up empty. Now we know why Conley keeps getting minutes when he's healthy!

I noticed the same thing...Memphis's defense was very good, despite missing Edey. But still, we would have won if we hadn't missed 31 treys and 8 free throws...unacceptable.

Two other things I noticed: the sun rose in the east this morning, and KG4ever showed up during a bad loss after being absent while we won 7 out of 8 games!

I would be less bothered by the missed 3s if they had been clean looks generated by the offense- which is how is felt after the suns game- but there were a lot of bad shots taken in the 2nd half, a lot

[rapsuperstar31]

Robson posted that Memphis has the second best defensive rating the past 11 games (only behind OkC) as they have gone 8-3.

They were missing 7 guys. Including Cam Spencer for personal reasons who has averaged 19.4 points 5.8 assists on 68% shooting and 67% from three this month. Their best defender Edey who has missed the last 3 games.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Abe's I completely changed what I wanted to talk about after sleeping after watching my DVR Review:

I wrote stuff down like usual during the game... then thought of different things, including...

- The Grizzlies are among the league leaders in bench scoring, the Wolves are among the worst off the bench. BUT... in the 1st half... the Wolves bench outscored the Grizzlies bench 23 - 16.

Too bad it was a 28 - 5 advantage for the Grizzlies in the 2nd half. Jack Landale was the leading scorer and rebounder for either team in the 2nd half in less than 15 minutes.

And that Memphis bench dominance happened despite three key players out for the Grizzlies which made them dip even deeper into its bench. It would be like the Wolves having to use Leonard Miller or Juzang in a game.

For example... Cam Spencer didn't play. He had scored 47 in the previous two games on 13 - 16 (3fg) shooting. He's averaging 12/4 on the season on an amazing 72% TS . He'd be the Wolves best bench player by a WIDE margin. And he's making only $2.5M.

- Related to the above... it was a game of diminished returns from the Wolves bench, especially the young guys...

Clark, Dillingham and Shannon all did something good in the 1st half. Dillingham had an and-one followed by a confident jumper and a sweet pass to Reid. Shannon hit two threes. Clark struggled overall, but was his crafty self for a couple of defensive possessions.

The bench was a combined +3 in 40 minutes by halftime.
The bench was a combined -38 in only 20 minutes after halftime.

It seems statistically impossible... but Dillingham was -13 in fewer than 3 minutes. Shannon was -11 in only 2 minutes.

- And yet, Naz Reid might have been worse. After a great 1st half... he was only 2 - 9 in the 2nd half. That's fine. Players go cold... but as noted by many in this thread... he was punked by Jack Landale on the defensive end.

Reid has to be one helluva offensive player to make up for his poor defense. He's been fine... same guy as always on offense. The Wolves are just paying him 2x as much money as they used to so there's more scrutiny that comes with it.

Remember... Memphis is paying its top bench guy 10% of what Reid is making... and he's been better when on the court.

- Bad loss, but the Wolves have been playing with fire for the entire season. Ironically, yesterday was the first time they led at halftime in nearly 3 weeks... and yet they lost.

[Q-is-here]

It sucks we lost, but I have to give a lot of the credit to the Memphis defense and their overall effort. KCP won a ring just a few years ago as Denver's starting shooting guard and wing stopper. Wells is an outstanding defender. Their bigs worked their asses off and challenged everything. And with Morant out, they didn't need to hide anyone.

What I'm most down about is that Clark, Shannon, and Dilly (the trio responsible for replacing NAW) played poorly tonight. These guys are no longer rookies. Clark needs to hit those open corner 3s and stop fouling. Shannon needs to get a right hand. Dilly needs to stop turning it over so much. Finch couldn't trust any of these guys in the 2nd half and even folk-hero Bones came up empty. Now we know why Conley keeps getting minutes when he's healthy!

I noticed the same thing...Memphis's defense was very good, despite missing Edey. But still, we would have won if we hadn't missed 31 treys and 8 free throws...unacceptable.

Two other things I noticed: the sun rose in the east this morning, and KG4ever showed up during a bad loss after being absent while we won 7 out of 8 games!

I would be less bothered by the missed 3s if they had been clean looks generated by the offense- which is how is felt after the suns game- but there were a lot of bad shots taken in the 2nd half, a lot

I agree, a lot of those 3s we missed were well defended and felt rushed or not in the flow of the offense.

I think Memphis has quietly drafted/signed a lot of blue-collar type worker bees that can really defend. And yeah, Edey and Scotty Pippen Jr. will only make them better on that side of the ball.

Give me Scotty Pippen, Jr., Jaylen Wells, and Cam Spencer in place of Rob Dillingham, Shannon Jr., and Jaylen Clark. And two of those guys didn't even play for Memphis last night! That's how dire the situation is right now with our depth.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Value contracts can help out a team so much.

Rookie deals can be great for this obviously. Unfortunately, the Wolves don't have an above average guy on a rookie deal. And it can be argued they don't even have an average guy on a rookie deal. It could even be argued that they have three mostly poor to mediocre guys on rookie deals. They're also getting nothing from this year's two rookies. Memphis played a guy drafted #59 in last year's draft last night. (He did nothing in limited minutes, but still...)

So who has the best contract on the team?

- Bones at $2.3M
- Clark at $2.1M
- DiVincenzo at $12M
- McDaniels at $24M
- Randle at $30M
- Gobert at $35M
- Edwards at $46M

YIKES!

[AussieWolf3]

Value contracts can help out a team so much.

Rookie deals can be great for this obviously. Unfortunately, the Wolves don't have an above average guy on a rookie deal. And it can be argued they don't even have an average guy on a rookie deal. It could even be argued that they have three mostly poor to mediocre guys on rookie deals. They're also getting nothing from this year's two rookies. Memphis played a guy drafted #59 in last year's draft last night. (He did nothing in limited minutes, but still...)

So who has the best contract on the team?

- Bones at $2.3M
- Clark at $2.1M
- DiVincenzo at $12M
- McDaniels at $24M
- Randle at $30M
- Gobert at $35M
- Edwards at $46M

YIKES!

By far the biggest indictment of Connley's roster building.
The top 6 are good but they so desperately lack that NAW energy and play off the bench. Clark is close (and he should be playing so much more) but you need more of those types. TJ and Rob ain't it