Minnesota Sports Forum

AbeVigodaLive wrote:Abe's Late Night DVR Review:

- That 3rd quarter... huh? 10 points and 6 assists from Russell. Nice! Actually, it was awesome. The passing was exceptional. A couple of big shots. The energy from Russell was palpable. The other 3 quarters? 8 points. 1 assist. I don't know whether to be hopeful... or more ticked. But I think that's sort of the D. Russell experience.

- So the Wolves made concerted effort to split up Russell and Rubio. 30 minutes for Russell... 18 for Rubio. I think this is a critical point moving forward. It's not sustainable They HAVE to figure out how to play together. Otherwise, trading for Rubio was a massive misfire from Rosas. Obviously, they didn't agree to pay Rubio $34M and give up a the #17 for Russell's backup -- and if they did -- Rosas is worse than David Kahn.

- Edwards' passing. YES. I didn't expect that. I dug a couple of them, especially, the left-handed assist off the bounce.

- Beasley plays with energy. And he can get buckets. I don't dig the off-court stuff... but he's a professional player. He'd be a rotation guy for a lot of teams.

- Ed Davis seems... well... "fine." But ugh... He gets NO respect from opposing defenses. You put him out there with guys like Culver and Hernangomez and defenses can rest a bit needing to close out on guys.

- Good energy from Culver. But him becoming Josh Okogie v2.0 just won't be good enough. I can see the Wolves really using one of those guys. Not both. I'd put one of them at the top of any prospective Wolves trades.

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- Denver didn't play well... until it mattered. The change was stark. And obvious. Just another NBA game. We've seen more of these types of games than any other franchise over the past 15+ years.

BloopOracle wrote:Beasley was an excellent signing, he's retained his three-point shooting that earned him that contact. Now he seems to be improving his finishing ability and is a surprisingly good rebounder!

Q12543 wrote:

FNG wrote:At least all is right in the world again- Russell has assumed his rightful position of worst +/- on the team tonight. I hate to keep harping on it, but it's really quite astounding how consistently negative he is.

-110 in the last 4 games combined. That's incredible. He did look like an all-star for about 8 or so minutes in that 3rd quarter.

Q12543 wrote:

WolvesFan21 wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Are you guys seeing this camera angle on Culver's free throws? It's perfect for seeing the knuckleball he puts up there. Literally nothing is different from last year. WTF were they working on with him!? It looks no different. This doesn't happen with Toronto, Miami, San Antonio....

Pressure can bring back old bad habits. I'm disappointed to see it. I really like rooting for him cause he plays tough and hard.

Agree, really was hoping he'd be a big factor for us this season based on what we saw in the pre-season, but his shot mechanics are broken. If an extended Covid offseason can't fix his shot then nothing will.

kekgeek1 wrote:Nuggets- "we're done fucking around with you clowns."

FNG wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

FNG wrote:At least all is right in the world again- Russell has assumed his rightful position of worst +/- on the team tonight. I hate to keep harping on it, but it's really quite astounding how consistently negative he is.

-110 in the last 4 games combined. That's incredible. He did look like an all-star for about 8 or so minutes in that 3rd quarter.

To add some further context to that amazing stat, Q, the Wolves are only -95 in those 4 games. that means the Wolves are a +15 when D-Lo is not on the court! I'm not going to take the time to research this, but we'd be hard pressed to find a player who is hurting his team more than D-Lo is right now...and I'm certain we couldn't find a max player who is doing so much damage.

Q12543 wrote:

FNG wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

FNG wrote:At least all is right in the world again- Russell has assumed his rightful position of worst +/- on the team tonight. I hate to keep harping on it, but it's really quite astounding how consistently negative he is.

-110 in the last 4 games combined. That's incredible. He did look like an all-star for about 8 or so minutes in that 3rd quarter.

To add some further context to that amazing stat, Q, the Wolves are only -95 in those 4 games. that means the Wolves are a +15 when D-Lo is not on the court! I'm not going to take the time to research this, but we'd be hard pressed to find a player who is hurting his team more than D-Lo is right now...and I'm certain we couldn't find a max player who is doing so much damage.

To be fair, DLO probably overlaps with the other team's starting unit/stars more than any other player. You put Ed Davis, Juancho, and Culver out there with him and he's basically playing with one arm tied behind his back. Still, those numbers are incredible because they show how much of a gap exists between DLO and other teams' top 2 players. While I don't think he's as bad as the numbers suggest, he's not even close to an all-star caliber guard in today's NBA. There are at least 15 other PGs I'd rather have running my team.

FNG wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

FNG wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

FNG wrote:At least all is right in the world again- Russell has assumed his rightful position of worst +/- on the team tonight. I hate to keep harping on it, but it's really quite astounding how consistently negative he is.

-110 in the last 4 games combined. That's incredible. He did look like an all-star for about 8 or so minutes in that 3rd quarter.

To add some further context to that amazing stat, Q, the Wolves are only -95 in those 4 games. that means the Wolves are a +15 when D-Lo is not on the court! I'm not going to take the time to research this, but we'd be hard pressed to find a player who is hurting his team more than D-Lo is right now...and I'm certain we couldn't find a max player who is doing so much damage.

To be fair, DLO probably overlaps with the other team's starting unit/stars more than any other player. You put Ed Davis, Juancho, and Culver out there with him and he's basically playing with one arm tied behind his back. Still, those numbers are incredible because they show how much of a gap exists between DLO and other teams' top 2 players. While I don't think he's as bad as the numbers suggest, he's not even close to an all-star caliber guard in today's NBA. There are at least 15 other PGs I'd rather have running my team.

Q, after 5 years of watching him in the NBA, I think we're way past the "to be fair" stage with D-Lo. Yes, he almost always starts games so he plays a lot of minutes against the opponent's best players. But still, he consistently puts up +/- numbers worse than the other starters...no matter who they are! Juancho and Culver also started both halves with D-Lo, but they ended the game only -7 and -8, respectively. You don't often see huge discrepancies like that in your starting lineup, but you regularly do with Russell. The difference was Russell got his second foul, and the other starters (other than Davis, who was saddled with D-Lo for almost all his minutes) got the benefit of a few minutes with a true PG.

He's such a puzzle to me, because I recognize his enormous potential. And we all love those 8-minute runs he sometimes puts up that make us sit up and say "hmmm, maybe...". But the more I watch him, the more I realize who he is...although his style is much more "old man" and much less athletic, ultimately he is Zach LaVine. They're both guys who can fire up a fan base with a 30-point night, but at the end of the day the box score will show yet another -20.

3 NBA GM's have given up on him, and he's still only 24. The question for the Wolves is this: can Rosas find another sucker who will take his contract off our hands?