Minnesota Sports Forum

Q-was-here wrote:Just an FYI for the Garza fans.....The Iowa team exclusively plays high wall coverage. He'll need to adjust in the event he or any of the other Iowa boys get a chance to play in the upcoming stretch. Come to think of it, seems odd that Iowa hasn't changed their defensive scheme at this point to match what Finch is doing. He's gone almost exclusively to drop.

It's probably because Iowa simply doesn't have a drop coverage center on their roster. You know the roster as well as anyone here what do you think?

monsterpile wrote:

Q-was-here wrote:Just an FYI for the Garza fans.....The Iowa team exclusively plays high wall coverage. He'll need to adjust in the event he or any of the other Iowa boys get a chance to play in the upcoming stretch. Come to think of it, seems odd that Iowa hasn't changed their defensive scheme at this point to match what Finch is doing. He's gone almost exclusively to drop.

It's probably because Iowa simply doesn't have a drop coverage center on their roster. You know the roster as well as anyone here what do you think?

Understood, but playing drop coverage isn't just about the Center. It impacts the entire system, so even if we don't have a guy ideally suited for it in Iowa, their job is to replicate (I would assume) what the big league club is doing so that guys like Garza or Minott or whoever can adapt quickly if ever called up.

Q-was-here wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

Q-was-here wrote:Just an FYI for the Garza fans.....The Iowa team exclusively plays high wall coverage. He'll need to adjust in the event he or any of the other Iowa boys get a chance to play in the upcoming stretch. Come to think of it, seems odd that Iowa hasn't changed their defensive scheme at this point to match what Finch is doing. He's gone almost exclusively to drop.

It's probably because Iowa simply doesn't have a drop coverage center on their roster. You know the roster as well as anyone here what do you think?

Understood, but playing drop coverage isn't just about the Center. It impacts the entire system, so even if we don't have a guy ideally suited for it in Iowa, their job is to replicate (I would assume) what the big league club is doing so that guys like Garza or Minott or whoever can adapt quickly if ever called up.

Sure but if you are going to emulate that system but don't have a drop center...damn you are probably not gonna do well on that end. I guess you could question why they didn't try to bring in a bigger center in that level but maybe they didn't see enough value in that.

I think Finch really would rather not actually play drop all the time but for one reason or another it doesn't sound like that's been what's happening. I haven't been watching the games so I don't know.

Tonight is Day 1 of the Post-KAT era and I'm sure there is a lot of curiosity about how we will respond. Fortunately Memphis will be without Desmond Bane and quite likely Dillon Brooks too, so they are only favored by a couple points. Let's see what happens.

By the way, my (and other's) crush Tyus Jones has not been very good this season. His effectiveness numbers (especially on the defensive end) have fallen rather significantly. Hmm...did our home town boy dial it back a little now that he has been paid?

Could be could chance for Naz to get his trade value up

Promising article in the StarTrib today with Anderson comparing the loss of KAT to Memphis playing without arguably their best player Ja Morant for 25 games last season. As we all know, the Griz went 20-5 in those 25 games! Kyle has been described as a veteran leader in the locker room, so I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't talk about that situation in the locker room before the game as a means of buoying spirits. I don't expect the Wolves to win 80% of their games while KAT is out, but I'm certain nobody expected Memphis to do that well without Ja either. Last night was a good start...let's see if they can build on it against OkC.

Kyle Anderson played 39 minutes in the last game. He is a good basketball player and that's basically around 20 minutes more than he typically plays. He is gonna be a key to the Wolves winning games with Towns out. He isn't gonna keep playing that many minutes but I'd guess with towns out he plays closer to 30 mpg regularly and that's gonna help a lot. His ability to make the right plays with the ball in his hand as a ball mover or as a playmaker even with multiple other ball handlers on the floor is kinda unique.

With Anderson to make a comparison to former Wolves that were are familiar with and played with a number of players on this roster. Anderson as a player we get some but not all of what made Vanderbilt valuable combined with some but not all of what makes Ricky Rubio valuable. Anderson is also sort of a lesser version of Ben Simmons.

monsterpile wrote:Kyle Anderson played 39 minutes in the last game. He is a good basketball player and that's basically around 20 minutes more than he typically plays. He is gonna be a key to the Wolves winning games with Towns out. He isn't gonna keep playing that many minutes but I'd guess with towns out he plays closer to 30 mpg regularly and that's gonna help a lot. His ability to make the right plays with the ball in his hand as a ball mover or as a playmaker even with multiple other ball handlers on the floor is kinda unique.

With Anderson to make a comparison to former Wolves that were are familiar with and played with a number of players on this roster. Anderson as a player we get some but not all of what made Vanderbilt valuable combined with some but not all of what makes Ricky Rubio valuable. Anderson is also sort of a lesser version of Ben Simmons.

It's interesting that you bring up Rubio, monster, because I was thinking about Ricky last night as I watched Kyle's not-so-pretty form on his 3-point set shot. It's quite remindful of Ricky's, and their 3-point shooting percentages are quite similar too. They are also both crafty ball handlers and smart defenders. One area where Kyle excels compared to Ricky is in 2-point shooting percentage...52% compared to 42%. That tells me that Kyle has a much better mid-range game and is a better finisher around the basket.

But yeah, you're overall point that Kyle becomes a much more important player with KAT out is very true.

Hate to see KAT out, but at the same time we should see the teams CPM drop drastically!

Complaints per minute is a stat, right?

FNG wrote:

monsterpile wrote:Kyle Anderson played 39 minutes in the last game. He is a good basketball player and that's basically around 20 minutes more than he typically plays. He is gonna be a key to the Wolves winning games with Towns out. He isn't gonna keep playing that many minutes but I'd guess with towns out he plays closer to 30 mpg regularly and that's gonna help a lot. His ability to make the right plays with the ball in his hand as a ball mover or as a playmaker even with multiple other ball handlers on the floor is kinda unique.

With Anderson to make a comparison to former Wolves that were are familiar with and played with a number of players on this roster. Anderson as a player we get some but not all of what made Vanderbilt valuable combined with some but not all of what makes Ricky Rubio valuable. Anderson is also sort of a lesser version of Ben Simmons.

It's interesting that you bring up Rubio, monster, because I was thinking about Ricky last night as I watched Kyle's not-so-pretty form on his 3-point set shot. It's quite remindful of Ricky's, and their 3-point shooting percentages are quite similar too. They are also both crafty ball handlers and smart defenders. One area where Kyle excels compared to Ricky is in 2-point shooting percentage...52% compared to 42%. That tells me that Kyle has a much better mid-range game and is a better finisher around the basket.

But yeah, you're overall point that Kyle becomes a much more important player with KAT out is very true.

Anderson has a physical issue with his shoulder that limits his ability to shot the ball well from distance. I don't think he would probably be a super high volume 3 point shooter anyway but he has a real reason for his struggles there. Fortunately that seems to be his only issue when it comes to the shoulder as he does have his Slo Mo game when he gets closer to the basket. Of course his size and length helps a lot also in finishing as well. I think there could be some benefit for McDaniels seeing how Anderson does things especially because they both have that ability to use a soft short jump shot to finish in the paint a few feet from the rim.