Minnesota Sports Forum

FNG wrote: ↑Tue Nov 07, 2023 5:20 am One more comment. Brian Scallabrini is terrific. Enthusiastic and fun, and loves the game. And quite fair despite his passion for his Celtics. Really enjoyable to hear his color comments.

Yeah, I was stuck listening to Jim Pete for some reason. I was trying to find Scalabrine on my League Pass app but only was able to watch him during my replay watch. I like Grady quite a bit, and while I sometimes like Jim Pete if its a good insight during game stoppage, I don't like it when he is rambling on during game play when I'm trying to follow the game.

One thing different about this year is that even if our offense is playing like hot garbage, we are still in it at end of games due to our defense. It may not look pretty, but we are finding ways to win. It would have been great if we could have pulled this win off against a Celtics team that’s starting 5 is scary. How much does the games outcome change with Derrick White in the line up? Alternatively, maybe getting this confidence booster early in the season, regardless of it was against a squad at full strength, builds momentum going forward.

SO excited for this season.

BUT….what about KAT.

To regurgitate…
A great human being
More loyal to this franchise than anyone not named KG to date.
But when he steps on the court he puts up empty stats when it doesn’t matters, and melts when it does. His offensive fouls, inexcusable turn overs for someone with his experience, and antics when he gets fouls called on him that should be called is nauseating. Addition by subtraction like Q mentioned? Even if all we get is a bag of peanuts and Julius Randle does this make us better? Maybe his newly found defense makes him a net neutral going forward, so anything he contributes on offense is a bonus…but man, what I thought he could be and what he is are oceans apart, especially at his price tag.

Yeah, I agree that KAT''s been nothing but a class act towards this organization and personally I've been a big supporter of his despite not liking his lobbying for his pal DLO and the resulting trade. I'm a bit down on KAT, but that was from a very lofty and apparently unrealistic viewpoint. Going back to KAT's earlier career, he was voted as the best young player to build a franchise around and I was drinking the kool aid too as I thought he would at least be a top ten player. I'm not the only one, as even a year ago when I brought up trading KAT for Mikal Bridges, most people on this board pooh-poohed the idea. I think at one point KAT could have easily netted a Mikal Bridges, DeJounte Murray, Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey etc. Maybe, I'd aim for the next tier below if we decide to trade KAT. Some names that might make sense would be Anunoby, Siakam, Porzingis (better than KAT but he's struggled with injuries for his career), Derrick White and I'm sure there are others. Otherwise, I don't want to take on a pile of junk like the Knicks are likely to offer. I think I'd rather just ride KAT out and accept that he's more like a 3rd or 4th best player behind Ant, Rudy and Jaden. I think KAT would perform better if he went back to being a center and I think some coaches could better utilize KAT than Finch is able to and so I still think any trade has to net us a very good player to make sense.

I didn't consider this an "ugly" win. I sat right in front of J Pete and checked his reactions most every time we showed toughness and he looked genuinely surprised! This game had more of a playoff feel than an ugly game.

The refs allowed this to be a physical game. Boston is very good at their off-arm pushes to create space and our closeness and length allowed us to challenge the majority of their shots.

ANT, McDaniels, and NAW (even Conley to a lesser extent) were able to challenge their outstanding perimeter players and frankly in spite of the missed free throws Rudy's defensive impact on the game can't be overstated. I thought it was a huge mistake at the onset to let him guard Porzingis and once he settled into it he did an outstanding job.

Boston is a handful. A classic Eastern conference physical team.

We all know KAT looked like shit offensively. But to some extent that falls on Finch. When he's on the floor with Rudy, being guarded by a lockdown guard, we need to post him up. Even if it's 10 feet out with his back to the basket. No Wolf, other than ANT, can take Holiday from the key to the rim, but KAT can take him 80% of the time from a crab dribble to a baby hook if Rudy gives some space. It was a bad game for KAT, but we screwed those sets up.

Also, when I rewatched the game it didn't show KAT getting fully chucked in the chest or throat (couldn't tell live) from Horford in transition, but when that happened with no call I knew we were in for some stray voltage. That would have been a good time to sub him out . . .

Two favorite plays happened in the same spot on the floor last night... Rudy playing lock down defense above the three point line resulting in a time out...and ANT's defense on Tatum that resulted in Tatum falling and a jump ball. Both were dominating and both were disheartening for Boston.

Great game.

FNG wrote: ↑Tue Nov 07, 2023 5:20 am One more comment. Brian Scallabrini is terrific. Enthusiastic and fun, and loves the game. And quite fair despite his passion for his Celtics. Really enjoyable to hear his color comments.

Yeah, I listened to the Celtics crew and agree they were good. Didn't realize it was him at first. I like how they gave plenty of time to talk about the other team. Sometimes, announcers focus only on their team and it's like the other team doesn't even exist. Nice to hear announcers who know more than their own side. They clearly wanted the Celtics to win, but weren't total homers out there.

Two Points:

1) Am I the only guy on the board who hasn't noticed this dramatic improvement in KAT's defense?
2) We received NAW AND Conley for DLO. <smile>

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 07, 2023 3:52 pm Two Points:

1) Am I the only guy on the board who hasn't noticed this dramatic improvement in KAT's defense?
2) We received NAW AND Conley for DLO. <smile>

On the Kat defense thing the numbers are showing great improvement (obviously small sample size). Kat overall in the 85th percentile in defensive rating, 97th percentile when Gobert is off the court and Kat is anchoring the defense, Kat and Rudy in the 70th percentile in defense.

Crazy stat, Rudy lineups without Kat are the worst offense in the NBA, however the defense has been so good with just Rudy the wolves are out scoring opponents by 8.3 pts per 100 possessions. Rudy by himself is by far the number 1 player lineups in defensive rating.

Coolbreeze44 wrote: ↑Tue Nov 07, 2023 3:52 pm Two Points:

1) Am I the only guy on the board who hasn't noticed this dramatic improvement in KAT's defense?
2) We received NAW AND Conley for DLO. <smile>

Big Smile, but there is more! One of the three picks we acquired in the DLO trade (Utah's 2026 second rounder) was used along with our own 2028 second round pick to acquire the pick that netted us Leonard Miller. So Conley, NAW and the good half of Lenny Miller, plus two future second rounders (2025 Utah, and 2024 worse of Memphis and Washington who both suck) for DLO. TC absolutely crushed it with that trade.

Question - I'm not watching games yet. But just looking at box score, it looks like they only played three guys off the bench (Anderson, NAW and Naz). Any mention/explanation for that? Jmac and Shake each only got like 3 or 4 minutes. Was it due to match ups? Or is that going to be the norm?

Carlos Danger wrote: ↑Tue Nov 07, 2023 4:26 pm Question - I'm not watching games yet. But just looking at box score, it looks like they only played three guys off the bench (Anderson, NAW and Naz). Any mention/explanation for that? Jmac and Shake each only got like 3 or 4 minutes. Was it due to match ups? Or is that going to be the norm?

I don’t think there is a chance of only playing 8ish guys until injury. Shake has been on the injury report and in limited minutes has been a non factor (hasn’t been a negative either), Jmac has played spot minutes and has actually been solid but hurt his knee last night