Glutton for punishment Hawks @ Wolves GDT

[Wolvesfan21]

I think on/off can often be poor for younger players. He just turned 26 last month, but was never a major piece his first few years. Hopefully it's something that improves as he keeps getting better.

Very true. Randle's first few years was a nightmare of red ink in this stat. But I don't really think of a guy in his 5th season as being that young anymore. To your point of growth, his net rating stuff was less negative this season in Chicago than the prior ones, so may be his actual talent level and work ethic is starting to show up more.

Statistically, Ayo is having a breakout year, especially in terms of efficiency.

Anyone know what he is not good at? The constant yearly negative on off has to be for some reason. Rebounding maybe, hustles for loose balls, low stocks, too many TO's? I'm not sure to be honest. Especially this season his stats look mostly great and I love how he pushes in transition and scores (we still need more of that from Ant especially in the playoffs because he can be a transition monster!).

[Coolbreeze44]

Very true. Randle's first few years was a nightmare of red ink in this stat. But I don't really think of a guy in his 5th season as being that young anymore. To your point of growth, his net rating stuff was less negative this season in Chicago than the prior ones, so may be his actual talent level and work ethic is starting to show up more.

Statistically, Ayo is having a breakout year, especially in terms of efficiency.

Anyone know what he is not good at? The constant yearly negative on off has to be for some reason. Rebounding maybe, hustles for loose balls, low stocks, too many TO's? I'm not sure to be honest. Especially this season his stats look mostly great and I love how he pushes in transition and scores (we still need more of that from Ant especially in the playoffs because he can be a transition monster!).

Yes, we do need that from Ant but it's not going to happen. He wants to play in the half court where he can control what's going on and beat his man one on one, or even one on two. That's what drives him, not getting out in transition and splitting scoring opportunities. And it's too bad because most of the guys would flourish in an up-tempo system. Even NAZ would be very good on the break. I love watching us play on the rare occasion Ant and Julius are both on the bench.

[Wolvesfan21]

Statistically, Ayo is having a breakout year, especially in terms of efficiency.

Anyone know what he is not good at? The constant yearly negative on off has to be for some reason. Rebounding maybe, hustles for loose balls, low stocks, too many TO's? I'm not sure to be honest. Especially this season his stats look mostly great and I love how he pushes in transition and scores (we still need more of that from Ant especially in the playoffs because he can be a transition monster!).

Yes, we do need that from Ant but it's not going to happen. He wants to play in the half court where he can control what's going on and beat his man one on one, or even one on two. That's what drives him, not getting out in transition and splitting scoring opportunities. And it's too bad because most of the guys would flourish in an up-tempo system. Even NAZ would be very good on the break. I love watching us play on the rare occasion Ant and Julius are both on the bench.

You're right he rarely does it. I do remember one play in the playoffs against OKC where he went coast to coast after getting a rebound, he was so fast to get to the rim and without letting the defense set up it's just a much easier opportunity to score. I think you're right he enjoys the challenge of taking on a set up defense. But whats more important? Easy buckets are.

[Q-is-here]

Very true. Randle's first few years was a nightmare of red ink in this stat. But I don't really think of a guy in his 5th season as being that young anymore. To your point of growth, his net rating stuff was less negative this season in Chicago than the prior ones, so may be his actual talent level and work ethic is starting to show up more.

Statistically, Ayo is having a breakout year, especially in terms of efficiency.

Anyone know what he is not good at? The constant yearly negative on off has to be for some reason. Rebounding maybe, hustles for loose balls, low stocks, too many TO's? I'm not sure to be honest. Especially this season his stats look mostly great and I love how he pushes in transition and scores (we still need more of that from Ant especially in the playoffs because he can be a transition monster!).

Yeah, his box score stuff looks pretty clean, meaning not a big turnover guy or super inefficient shooter.

He's always had a pretty mediocre defensive rating and even this year he is only in the 30th percentile of defenders according to Defensive Estimated Plus Minus and that's about the closest stat you can get to that isolates individual defense (and even then it's far from perfect). Yet those who have watched him say he's a good defender.

Sometimes working harder on defense is different than working smarter. Again, he was taking a positive step forward in those on/off stats this season with Chicago so it was trending in the right direction, but he's literally never had a positive net rating while on the court and his team has always done better when he's off the court. It's head-scratching.

[Coolbreeze44]

Anyone know what he is not good at? The constant yearly negative on off has to be for some reason. Rebounding maybe, hustles for loose balls, low stocks, too many TO's? I'm not sure to be honest. Especially this season his stats look mostly great and I love how he pushes in transition and scores (we still need more of that from Ant especially in the playoffs because he can be a transition monster!).

Yes, we do need that from Ant but it's not going to happen. He wants to play in the half court where he can control what's going on and beat his man one on one, or even one on two. That's what drives him, not getting out in transition and splitting scoring opportunities. And it's too bad because most of the guys would flourish in an up-tempo system. Even NAZ would be very good on the break. I love watching us play on the rare occasion Ant and Julius are both on the bench.

You're right he rarely does it. I do remember one play in the playoffs against OKC where he went coast to coast after getting a rebound, he was so fast to get to the rim and without letting the defense set up it's just a much easier opportunity to score. I think you're right he enjoys the challenge of taking on a set up defense. But whats more important? Easy buckets are.

Totally agree man, but he doesn't bust ass getting down court unless he's the one getting rewarded.

[Wolvesfan21]

Statistically, Ayo is having a breakout year, especially in terms of efficiency.

Anyone know what he is not good at? The constant yearly negative on off has to be for some reason. Rebounding maybe, hustles for loose balls, low stocks, too many TO's? I'm not sure to be honest. Especially this season his stats look mostly great and I love how he pushes in transition and scores (we still need more of that from Ant especially in the playoffs because he can be a transition monster!).

Yeah, his box score stuff looks pretty clean, meaning not a big turnover guy or super inefficient shooter.

He's always had a pretty mediocre defensive rating and even this year he is only in the 30th percentile of defenders according to Defensive Estimated Plus Minus and that's about the closest stat you can get to that isolates individual defense (and even then it's far from perfect). Yet those who have watched him say he's a good defender.

Sometimes working harder on defense is different than working smarter. Again, he was taking a positive step forward in those on/off stats this season with Chicago so it was trending in the right direction, but he's literally never had a positive net rating while on the court and his team has always done better when he's off the court. It's head-scratching.

Hmmm, interesting. My feeling was that his defense couldn't be as good or great as people were saying. You simply can't be good at defense and offense plus on a losing team and still be a minus year after year. Didn't make sense (yes I know his 3P shot came around this year).

However I think that he has developed into a fairly solid well rounded player who could continue to make progress as well. I like the trade and he could be a valuable player for us this year and possibly into the future.

I still kind of think White would have been better, I feel he's a bit more dynamic/athletic/maybe better vision and passer. But Ayo is solid too so I'm cool with it. CW also had that calf thing going on/off so he's a bit riskier that way.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

I haven't gotten into these on/off numbers that make Ayo look bad, but his raw stats and efficiency stats seem good, the Bulls fans are pretty pissed about losing him, and just watching him indicates the dude is pretty good and brings good energy--at least these first few games.

He's not super tall, but he's got long arms and--if my eyes aren't tricking me--relatively long legs for his size, which also seems to help him cover a lot of ground fast. He's clearly got a big size advantage over Conley and Dillingham too, on top of they eye test and stats saying he's clearly better than those two.

[FNG]

I don't normally watch replays of games when I already know the result, but I needed to get the sour taste out my mouth from attending Sunday's game. Glad I did.

-I think we are really going to like Dosunmo...he works his tail off out there. Unlike Sunday's game, I saw nothing but positives watching him in this game. I think he really improves our playoff chances.
-That said, we're all mystified by his poor +/- and on/off numbers...if it doesn't improve, we'll all be looking for explanation...right now, I don't have a clue. Today the Wolves were a plus 7 in his 30 minutes on the court, and a plus 15 in the 18 minutes he was on the bench. Just seems weird...
-Ju was our best player in this game, although Jaden gets honorable mention (good to see after the stinker he had Sunday). One of the coaches must have lit a fire under Ju, because I don't seen him play defense like that often. Not to mention the efficient triple double. Such a mercurial personality. Wish he could bring it every night.
-The pace tonight was fun to watch. I don't think that Ayo has the reputation of an uber athletic player, but he sure likes to play fast. Hyland too. I agree with the comments above that Ant could be so effective if he liked to push the pace, but it just isn't who he is.
-The only negative in this game is how clunky we look against a zone...I'm not sure why every team doesn't play more zone against us. We were a solid zone offense when we had SloMo playing QB in the paint, but we haven't been as good since he left. Ju is probably our best option, and he actually looked effective after a while. Actually, I think Ingles could be terrific as the man in the middle against a zone, but that's not going to happen.
-Okay, another negative...sorry. Is Finchy the slowest coach in the league to take his starters out of the game in a blowout? It's so odd. He could have emptied the bench with 5 minutes left in the game. There's no reason Ju and Ant have to play 39 and 38 minutes in a game that was never in doubt.
-Good job, Wolves, saving Finchy's job and renewing my enthusiasm!

[FNG]

I haven't gotten into these on/off numbers that make Ayo look bad, but his raw stats and efficiency stats seem good, the Bulls fans are pretty pissed about losing him, and just watching him indicates the dude is pretty good and brings good energy--at least these first few games.

He's not super tall, but he's got long arms and--if my eyes aren't tricking me--relatively long legs for his size, which also seems to help him cover a lot of ground fast. He's clearly got a big size advantage over Conley and Dillingham too, on top of they eye test and stats saying he's clearly better than those two.

Stay in your lane, Drew...it's Lip's job to cover measurements for us

[Lipoli390]

I haven't gotten into these on/off numbers that make Ayo look bad, but his raw stats and efficiency stats seem good, the Bulls fans are pretty pissed about losing him, and just watching him indicates the dude is pretty good and brings good energy--at least these first few games.

He's not super tall, but he's got long arms and--if my eyes aren't tricking me--relatively long legs for his size, which also seems to help him cover a lot of ground fast. He's clearly got a big size advantage over Conley and Dillingham too, on top of they eye test and stats saying he's clearly better than those two.

Stay in your lane, Drew...it's Lip's job to cover measurements for us

FNG is absolutely right, Drew! I’m now here to set the record straight. Yes, Ayo isn’t tall but has long arms. And yes, he’s longer than Conley and Dillingham. So there. . More specifically, Ayo’s only 6’3.5 tall without shoes and his standing reach isn’t noteworthy either at 8’0.5. But he has a really impressive 6’10.25 wingspan. And he was a solid 194.5 lbs at the combine.

How does Ayo compare to NAW? Well, NAW is taller than Ayo at 6’4.25 without shoes. NAW is also much longer vertically with a standing reach of 8’5. But NAW has a slightly shorter wingspan of 6’9.5. NAW was a bit heavier coming out of college at 203.8 lbs.

Interestingly, Bones Hyland has a 6’9.25 wingspan and an 8’5.5 standing reach. So Bones has length comparable to both Ayo and NAW. I really like what Bones brings - including consistent effort, the ability to hit threes, a nice handle and as it turns out, excellent length for a PG.

Note that Coby White has short arms compared to NAW, Ayo and Bones with a paltry 6’5 wingspan. Sigh of relief that we ended up with Ayo rather than Coby.