Minnesota Sports Forum

Also on that last rebound it was clearly KAT was fouled.

Immaturity. That's about all I have to say. That word applies to so many different aspects of this franchise. The truth is pretty easy to see if you're looking for it. As disappointing as it is......................we should know what should happen sooner rather than later.

I'm actually not surprised at all by the Wolves woeful start. KAT is not a leader, Ant and Jaden are talented but are works in progress, Pat Bev is old and the remainder of the roster are one way nonimpactful players who should be collecting near minimum salaries. DLO and Beasley are vastly overpaid for how much (or how little) they contribute to winning or adding in positive culture. Of course, we heard all last year from our resident geniuses that everything was Ryan Saunders fault and now the Wolves would turn the corner under Finch.

WildWolf2813 wrote:Y'all gotta treat the Wolves like a can't get right junkie. As much as you love them, they can't stay in your house anymore until they get right.


There's gonna be another 5-7 straight games of this and deep down inside you guys know that.

The armchair psychologist shtick with you playing the detached observer and showing up when things are at their worst is getting a bit old. Either you're a fan or you're not.

Minnesota's currently 3-6 now after yet another embarrassing loss to Memphis. They're on a five-game losing streak after starting the year 3-1. That win against Milwaukee feels like a year ago already and the Wolves will be big time underdogs against Golden State on Wednesday.

But the season is still young, technically. There's still plenty of time to right the ship. I continue to believe that there's an abundance of talent on this roster. I still think Chris Finch is a damn good head coach, though he's working through some mistakes too. The Wolves should be 6-3 with one lousy loss against New Orleans and two against Los Angeles. That's how well they've played before collapsing late in games. Not to mention, missing D'Angelo Russell for a couple games definitely hurt the team.

It's looking like a 3-7 start to the year, but oddly enough I think the Wolves are still in a good place despite the poor record. The team defense is objectively better. And not just better to the point of being poor instead of terrible. Defense has been a clear strength so far. Surprisingly, the offense has been a struggle. A huge part of that is Minnesota's inability to make wide open shots. That simply won't be the case all season. But the other main issue as I see it is a lack of structure in the offense. I understand letting your talented scorers be creative and have the flexibility to do what they want with the ball, but when it's not working there needs to be plays or naturally-occurring action that leads to good looks for these highly-talented scorers. It's a rarity when Karl-Anthony Towns, Anthony Edwards, or Russell get an easy bucket manufactured by a set play. It just doesn't happen. The offense was cooking just fine last year when he took over. It's only a matter of time before they get it right.

Minnesota is worst rebounding team in NBA measured by rebound differential. Minnesota is fifth worst in FG% shooting differential. I don't see the first stat changing without some personnel changes.

A close and entertaining game, but another disappointing finish. Once again the schedulers were trying to give us a victory with Wolves-killer and 2nd-highest scorer Brooks out injured, but despite being 100% healthy ourselves, we couldn't pull it out. We're now 3-5 with a 4-game losing streak, and if our West coast swing goes according to history, we will be 3-8 with a 7-game losing streak when we come home to play the Suns on the 15th. This season is on the precipice of being a lost one, and things have to change quickly to avert a total disaster. While there were some positives last night which I will cover, the biggest negative for me was the relative lack of energy on the court compared to the first 4 games of the season (except during JO's minutes). That observation combined with a visibly dour post-game KAT and Ant makes me wonder if this team is beginning to realize what some of us here already knew...this is not a playoff roster.

It's always interesting to me to watch the opposing team feed when I do my early morning replay. While I miss out on Benz's interesting factoids about the world of ants, it's informative for me to hear what the other announcers think of us. There were four major takeaways I got from the Grizzly announcers:

1) The Wolves have an elite wing in Ant...if they can find an offense that can maximize his skills, they have something very special.
2) There is a lot of talent on this Wolves roster, but they continue to show the sum of parts is less than the individual pieces.
3) The half court offense may be the worst in the NBA...the announcers were astonished at the lack of movement and reliance on one-on-one play.
4) Everything picks up when JO comes into the game. Several times they pointed out his disruptive defense, and how he moved the ball and kept rebounds in play on the offensive end.

Here are the positives I saw:

1) Russell had a good game. He rediscovered his shot, and some nice dishes, and continued to show a grasp of team NBA defense he has not shown before in his career. On the negative side, his on-ball defense was awful. His new focus on help defense seems to have taken its toll on his man-to-man, because he was ineffective last night. He provided a much needed spark for our offense, but I think Finch needed to sub him out with a 16 point lead and 7 1/2 minutes to go. If he plays these six the final 7 1/2 minutes (KAT, Jaden, JO, PatBev, Ant), we easily protect that lead and steal a win on the road. Yes, there is some shooting challenges in that group, but they also create a lot of turnovers and easy fast break baskets. Bad finish by Finch, and I pin this loss on him.

2) Naz Reid. I thought he was terrific in this game at both ends of the court. One of the Memphis announcers talked about watching Naz in pre-game warmups, and marveled at his near PG-like ball handling. I agree...I'm generally comfortable when he has the ball in his hands. He hadn't shot the 3-ball well before his 2 makes last night, but having a bench big that can be counted on to make 35% of his threes is a great asset.

3) I mentioned that the announcers brought up JO several times, and I also noticed the positive impact he made. It's not surprising he was a +8 on the game (second only to Naz). He doesn't ever let the opponent get comfortable on offense (especially when PatBev and Jaden are on the court with him), he is aggressive on the offensive boards, and the ball is never sticky when it's in his hands. I agree with the Grizzly announcers.

4) McDaniels finally showed some aggressiveness on offense. I wonder if he got a pep talk from Finch this week, because for the first time all season, he actually looked like he wanted to be part of the offense. I was also impressed that he was not intimidated by a much larger JJJ, and held his own on the boards. For Jaden to be the effective player I think he can be, he needs to make that corner three and avoid fouls. I'm more optimistic about the first than the second.

Improvement in our young players is my goal for this season, because the playoffs are already a pipe dream.

Minnesota's Struggles in the Fourth Quarter

Points: 21.4 (29th)
Field Goal Percentage: 34.7 (30th)
Three-Point Percentage: 29.2 (26th)
Free Throws Made: 3.9 (20th)
Rebounds: 9.7 (27th)
Assists: 3.8 (30th)
Turnovers: 4.4 (27th)

Camden wrote:Minnesota's Struggles in the Fourth Quarter

Points: 21.4 (29th)
Field Goal Percentage: 34.7 (30th)
Three-Point Percentage: 29.2 (26th)
Free Throws Made: 3.9 (20th)
Rebounds: 9.7 (27th)
Assists: 3.8 (30th)
Turnovers: 4.4 (27th)

I'm hoping someone can come up with a more optimistic explanation for this than mine, but here's what I think. NBA teams that come into a game expecting to win tend to coast during the first three quarters, and then turn it on in the 4th if they need to. We seem to have a team that can look really good in the first quarter while the other team is on auto pilot, and then awful when the opponent turns up the defensive intensity.

Can someone come up with something a little more positive?

Q12543 wrote:

WildWolf2813 wrote:Y'all gotta treat the Wolves like a can't get right junkie. As much as you love them, they can't stay in your house anymore until they get right.


There's gonna be another 5-7 straight games of this and deep down inside you guys know that.

The armchair psychologist shtick with you playing the detached observer and showing up when things are at their worst is getting a bit old. Either you're a fan or you're not.

Deal with it. The only reason why I even still occasionally post here is because it's good conversation. It damn sure ain't the team. Could you really blame me? Starting tonight y'all are gonna on Banchero and Holmgren watch for the rest of the year! Is it fun? No. Is it enjoyable seeing the score, knowing the team is up 16 and still feeling like they're gonna blow it somehow? No. This franchise isn't giving you anything else to hold on to. Being detached is the best way to watch this team without obliterating your liver or causing your anger on this team to somehow affect you anywhere else. That doesn't make me not a fan. That makes me apathetic to it all. I'm not gonna let this team ruin my basketball enjoyment by being the most feeble-minded organization in sports. I just wonder what the breaking point is for y'all.


If you think being a detached observer is getting old, then constantly buying the fool's gold they sell is really old. I refuse to buy into til Glen ain't there anymore.