More Please! Wolves at Pacers GDT

[Coolbreeze44]

Kek, I think Jaden's confidence is okay

[Phenom]

Jaden's shot has looked premier

[kekgeek]

Kek, I think Jaden's confidence is okay

Agreed!! We need to have him keep shooting them. Dane talked about it today about if Jaden misses early 3s he starts to pass them up, and the wolves need him to continue to let them fire away.

Then he pass one up early so my confirmation bias started. Happy he is letting them fly

[Phenom]

Kuminga's shot looks horrible. That could be a problem.

Yeah, not a confident looking shot. Need to get him some actions going to the hoop.

[Q-is-here]

Bench as a unit was bad tonight. Ayo and Shannon - two pillars of our bench and Ayo being paid like a starter - once again pretty deep in the red whereas all the starters except Kuminga were positive.

Evans, supposedly a brilliant shooting prospect, actually can't shoot. His shot looks just as bad as it did in summer league.

Cody Williams not so impressive tonight.

[Leado01]

A lot of ripping on the bench unit. Ayo snd Shannon both looked really good on the floor with Rudy and both had good numbers ... Shannon got back cut which can't happen, but otherwise the defense was good (and 9 pts on 4 shots is pretty efficient). I do think Lyles is going to have to play a lot of backup centet at least early in the season. I'm high on Beringer, but he's not a stabilizer at this point

[FNG]

I wasn't able to watch last night, so my comments and questions are box score review only.

1) Our starting backcourt plus Jaden were 12 for 17 on three's! Many are predicting these three are going to get so many open looks, and all three have the ability to knock them down...I guess we saw it last night! My question...Ant was 4 for 5 on threes, a nice turnaround from the previous game. Were at least some of these shots catch and shoots from Ball? That's where I think Ant can really take off if he uses Ball the way he should.
2) The Ayo and TJ mystery with respect to poor on/off continues, as both have been negative in the first two games. Ayo was close to neutral last season after some bad on/off years in Chicago, but only the injured Ant was more negative in the playoffs last season. I don't know if TJ will continue to be in the rotation, but Ayo is widely thought of as our 6th man. I continue to think his problem is his defense...it's not due to lack of effort or athleticism, I think it's because he still has a tendency to get lost on the defensive end (Ant suffers from this also). We need Ayo to be effective at both ends of the court for us to reach our ceiling as a team
3) I see that Cody didn't shoot well last night, but a couple podcasters have raved about his defense the first two games, and also how he handles the ball and runs the court. My hot take is he will replace TJ in the rotation if TJ doesn't pick up his performance.
4) It was good to see Joan with 5 defensive rebounds. My question is...were any of them truly contested rebounds? We've talked about the non-Rudy minutes a lot the past two seasons...despite Joan's enormous upside, my sense is this might be even a bigger issue this season. It's absolutely imperative that Rudy stays healthy most of the season...like he almost always does.

Last night was a loss, but that doesn't temper the enthusiasm I had after game 1. I think Indy is going to be very good this season, and to have our starters outscore their starters on Tyrese's return to Ames is a nice result.

[KiwiMatt]

Funny old game. Quite the crowd. I'm not familiar with American College sports but believe it was played in Iowa where Haliburton played his college hoops. The stream I was watching had the Pacers announcers, one which was a total homer almost to the point where I had to turn audio off.

Ball, Edwards and Jaden looked really good. Kuminga forced it a bit too much, but was unlucky not to get a couple of foul call driving to the hoop. Gobert was Gobert.

Ayo and TJ were solid. Lyles hit two corner 3's which is what we need him to do. Behringer was good and bad as to be expected by a sophomore still learning the craft, but the potential is clear to see. Bones did ok, made some shots. Everyone else was pretty uninspiring. No ones really putting their hand up for the 15th roster spot that's for sure.

Indiana look like they'll make some noise in the East if they can stay healthy.

[Q-is-here]

I wasn't able to watch last night, so my comments and questions are box score review only.

1) Our starting backcourt plus Jaden were 12 for 17 on three's! Many are predicting these three are going to get so many open looks, and all three have the ability to knock them down...I guess we saw it last night! My question...Ant was 4 for 5 on threes, a nice turnaround from the previous game. Were at least some of these shots catch and shoots from Ball? That's where I think Ant can really take off if he uses Ball the way he should.
2) The Ayo and TJ mystery with respect to poor on/off continues, as both have been negative in the first two games. Ayo was close to neutral last season after some bad on/off years in Chicago, but only the injured Ant was more negative in the playoffs last season. I don't know if TJ will continue to be in the rotation, but Ayo is widely thought of as our 6th man. I continue to think his problem is his defense...it's not due to lack of effort or athleticism, I think it's because he still has a tendency to get lost on the defensive end (Ant suffers from this also). We need Ayo to be effective at both ends of the court for us to reach our ceiling as a team
3) I see that Cody didn't shoot well last night, but a couple podcasters have raved about his defense the first two games, and also how he handles the ball and runs the court. My hot take is he will replace TJ in the rotation if TJ doesn't pick up his performance.
4) It was good to see Joan with 5 defensive rebounds. My question is...were any of them truly contested rebounds? We've talked about the non-Rudy minutes a lot the past two seasons...despite Joan's enormous upside, my sense is this might be even a bigger issue this season. It's absolutely imperative that Rudy stays healthy most of the season...like he almost always does.

Last night was a loss, but that doesn't temper the enthusiasm I had after game 1. I think Indy is going to be very good this season, and to have our starters outscore their starters on Tyrese's return to Ames is a nice result.

Man, dead around here. That's too bad given the excitement of the new faces and finally seeing some Wolves basketball again.

Here are my belated responses since I watched the game:

#1 - Yes, a number of those makes were catch and shoots whereas others he took off the bounce. It was a good mix.

#2 - Yeah, the Ayo/Shannon pairing has not given me much confidence. Their first stint was a disaster in that it was their offense that was really bad. They dug out of the hole they helped create in their second stint (which was later in the first half) with the offense igniting a nice run. But not so good again in the second half. Defensively both look like they are working hard, but as we know effort alone isn't enough on defense. I'm growing increasingly worried about the Joan/Ayo/Shannon bench trio.

#3 - Cody was not nearly as impressive last night in my opinion. His shooting is going to be a major impediment to contributing off the bench.

#4 - Yes, at least a couple of Joan's rebounds were in decent traffic. In fact, he had like three or four in a row at one point on missed shots by Indiana. Finch had Lyles play a little Center last night, a player I think he will gradually have to lean on more as the season progresses.

[FNG]

I wasn't able to watch last night, so my comments and questions are box score review only.

1) Our starting backcourt plus Jaden were 12 for 17 on three's! Many are predicting these three are going to get so many open looks, and all three have the ability to knock them down...I guess we saw it last night! My question...Ant was 4 for 5 on threes, a nice turnaround from the previous game. Were at least some of these shots catch and shoots from Ball? That's where I think Ant can really take off if he uses Ball the way he should.
2) The Ayo and TJ mystery with respect to poor on/off continues, as both have been negative in the first two games. Ayo was close to neutral last season after some bad on/off years in Chicago, but only the injured Ant was more negative in the playoffs last season. I don't know if TJ will continue to be in the rotation, but Ayo is widely thought of as our 6th man. I continue to think his problem is his defense...it's not due to lack of effort or athleticism, I think it's because he still has a tendency to get lost on the defensive end (Ant suffers from this also). We need Ayo to be effective at both ends of the court for us to reach our ceiling as a team
3) I see that Cody didn't shoot well last night, but a couple podcasters have raved about his defense the first two games, and also how he handles the ball and runs the court. My hot take is he will replace TJ in the rotation if TJ doesn't pick up his performance.
4) It was good to see Joan with 5 defensive rebounds. My question is...were any of them truly contested rebounds? We've talked about the non-Rudy minutes a lot the past two seasons...despite Joan's enormous upside, my sense is this might be even a bigger issue this season. It's absolutely imperative that Rudy stays healthy most of the season...like he almost always does.

Last night was a loss, but that doesn't temper the enthusiasm I had after game 1. I think Indy is going to be very good this season, and to have our starters outscore their starters on Tyrese's return to Ames is a nice result.

Man, dead around here. That's too bad given the excitement of the new faces and finally seeing some Wolves basketball again.

Here are my belated responses since I watched the game:

#1 - Yes, a number of those makes were catch and shoots whereas others he took off the bounce. It was a good mix.

#2 - Yeah, the Ayo/Shannon pairing has not given me much confidence. Their first stint was a disaster in that it was their offense that was really bad. They dug out of the hole they helped create in their second stint (which was later in the first half) with the offense igniting a nice run. But not so good again in the second half. Defensively both look like they are working hard, but as we know effort alone isn't enough on defense. I'm growing increasingly worried about the Joan/Ayo/Shannon bench trio.

#3 - Cody was not nearly as impressive last night in my opinion. His shooting is going to be a major impediment to contributing off the bench.

#4 - Yes, at least a couple of Joan's rebounds were in decent traffic. In fact, he had like three or four in a row at one point on missed shots by Indiana. Finch had Lyles play a little Center last night, a player I think he will gradually have to lean on more as the season progresses.

Thanks for the reply, Q. I like that Ant's treys were a mixture...I have a feeling he may average 30+ this season. Ayo is one of my favorite guys on the team, and yeah, he always plays hard. I think he will stay in the rotation for the season and hopefully figure out NBA defense. I'm not so sure about TJ...I think he is going to feel a lot of rotation pressure from Clark and Williams (remember Q, he shot better than his brother in college!). Joan grabbing rebounds in traffic is really good news...my sense is he will be fine this season on the offensive side of the court, but will only be an adequate backup to Rudy if he rebounds, defends and stays out of foul trouble.

I'm probably where you are, Q...really excited about what the new guys may bring, but quite worried about the bench.