Minnesota Sports Forum

CoolBreeze44 wrote:I don't like Jaden punching a wall, but I get it. Three seasons worth of touch fouls that he doesn't get on offense would drive a lot of people to react. I'm surprised he hasn't exploded before this. Just once Finch should have backed him and gotten a technical or thrown out of a game. Do you think he would get all these fouls if he played for the Lakers? Not even close.

But why then? He literally just tossed a dude to the floor and was lucky not to get reviewed for a flagrant 1.

Jaden is a great defender, no doubt. That's why we put him on our opponent's best player. But partly as a result of that and the fact that he is an aggressive defender, he does often make contact with offensive players who have the ball and when that happens, you're going to get called more often for fouls. Does he get a tough whistle? Maybe to some degree. But I don't think it's that bad, and more importantly, he's also young, and after this season, he'll probably get the benefit of the doubt more often because he's older, he's getting better, and his reputation has improved so much.

JJJ used to draw so many fouls, and still kind of does, but that hasn't stopped him from becoming one of the best defenders in the game. He's learned to be a bit better about now drawing fouls, and his defensive reputation helps him earn the benefit of the doubt more often. Jaden could do the same. Forget the whistle, just play the game. Finch does do plenty of complaining to refs, so I don't think he's at fault for not blowing up at the refs after a Jaden foul this year. And besides, Jaden's actually one of our LEAST demonstrably frustrated players about fouls now that I think about it. He generally DOES just play the game. At least outwardly. But today, his frustration boiled way over, and he's responsible for that. No excuses for him. It is also Finch's job to manage his players, and clearly, to that extent, he's responsible for figuring out how to get through to Jaden and today that clearly wasn't happening. What Jaden did today was simultaneously totally surprising and also somewhat unsurprising, honestly. I don't think blowing up at the refs earlier would have changed things, but I'm honestly now sure what would have.

EDIT: Yeah, the more I think about it, Jaden typically seems unfazed when called for fouls. It feels a bit less like mature perspective though and more like a kind of detachment. But clearly, he showed today that he definitely has feelings under that apparent detachment. Now he needs to learn from this how to deal with them better.

kekgeek1 wrote:For all the shit that happened that our 2 stars lead a 13 pt comeback. It's a stars league and with those 2 you have a chance

But it's largely because of one of those stars we HAD to come back from 13. Like we say, Ant giveth and Ant taketh away.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:For all the shit that happened that our 2 stars lead a 13 pt comeback. It's a stars league and with those 2 you have a chance

But it's largely because of one of those stars we HAD to come back from 13. Like we say, Ant giveth and Ant taketh away.

Yeah, he has some real lows to go with those highs. Same with KAT.

The other thing I think we have to remember is, I don't think New Orleans looked all that great tonight. I haven't seen them play a lot this year, but other than Ingram getting hot and us gifting them a boatload of open shots, I don't think they played particularly great. It feels great to win. But we can't expect to play such crappy defense early in the game, miss so many FTs, and make so many mistakes and win at this point. We really have to tighten things up and play smarter and more consistently engaged.

Ant was off the mark in the first half but had the only answer for BI. Had he made those shots the optics change quite a bit. Bottom line is he was IT today.

Props to KAT as well for doing his thing.

Slo Mo used his impeccable timing to grab some huge rebounds. I really want a Memphis rematch, I think Kyle would be huge.

SameOldNudityDrew wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:For all the shit that happened that our 2 stars lead a 13 pt comeback. It's a stars league and with those 2 you have a chance

But it's largely because of one of those stars we HAD to come back from 13. Like we say, Ant giveth and Ant taketh away.

Yeah, he has some real lows to go with those highs. Same with KAT.

The other thing I think we have to remember is, I don't think New Orleans looked all that great tonight. I haven't seen them play a lot this year, but other than Ingram getting hot and us gifting them a boatload of open shots, I don't think they played particularly great. It feels great to win. But we can't expect to play such crappy defense early in the game, miss so many FTs, and make so many mistakes and win at this point. We really have to tighten things up and play smarter and more consistently engaged

Too late for that Drew. This team just can't be trusted, regardless of who is healthy. I don't think they make it out of the play-in tourney unfortunately.

TC has some serious decisions to make this offseason. We know Ant and Jaden aren't going anywhere, but hard to believe anyone else is 100% safe at this point.

Abe's Wolves' Resurrection DVR Review:

- This could be the longest one ever. But I'll spare the three people that read this and try to stick to nuggets.

- The Wolves were TERRIBLE in the 1st half. They literally just dropped the ball four times either on passes or rebounds. Four different players. Edwards was atrocious. Again.

- I have to admit... I fast forwarded (but only at double-speed) during stretches into the 3rd quarter. So I missed the bench punch and wall punch if they showed them on tv.

- It's so Rudy Gobert (or a Frenchman) to hit a guy in the shoulder. C'mon man. That's actually sorta funny. Oui Oui.

- Now Jaden McDaniels. That guy legit scares me. Somebody mentioned darkness with him. I hope not... but I would much less willing to cross him than the really tall French guy.

- Anthony Edwards is going to kill a coach. And half the fanbase. "What a play!"... "What an idiot!"... What a FUCKING GREAT PLAY!!!!"... "What an idiot!!!" ... "What a player!!!" But the biggest thing, as many noted, he played hard. He put it out there in the 2nd half. I think he was working in the first half, but he seemed to be pressing a lot. There was one play early when he had Towns wide open five feet away wide open for a three. He looked him off to throw a bad lob that was picked to Gobert. Finch immediately called a TO and yelled at him.

- Towns was Towns. Those three pointers were huge in the 4th. And to his credit, he didn't foul out despite being in trouble.

- Ironically, the Timberwolves won this huge game by playing SMALL, despite mortgaging its future on a big man. Fluke? Remember, the Wolves benched Gobert down the stretch only two games ago... and won.

- And now that trade looks even worse.

- The players on the court played with energy and emotion and intensity. Crazy to have to celebrate that when they're paid so very much to that very thing. But that's the nature of pro sports, I guess. So good job guys, battling through all that weirdness.

- The Wolves are terrible at free throws the past 25 games. Edwards' struggles are notable. Lakers win the free throw battle in the play-in 30 - 13. You all know the Lakers all-time great free throw disparity this season. If you don't... just ask me to re-share the stats.

- Any win is still a good win???????

When are arena/team owners going to get smart and pad those cinder block hallways???????

Well that was quite the game. Somehow the wolves "found a way" to get this win.

I think for the most part the Gobert Anderson thing will blow over at least for this season or whatever is left of it.

Edwards was bad at times but the guy was trying to win the game even if some of it was ill advised. Especially in the 2nd half the guy was beat up and was pretty much everywhere.

McLaughlin had another good game. Not spectacular but he did good things out there.

Conley with another pretty good game.

With McDaniels out it's hard to feel optimistic and I guess that also means someone else is gonna need to step up or actually probably a couple guys. Rivers might actually get some minutes now and Prince is gonna be playing heavy minutes.

Monster wrote: ↑Mon Apr 10, 2023 7:54 am Well that was quite the game. Somehow the wolves "found a way" to get this win.

I think for the most part the Gobert Anderson thing will blow over at least for this season or whatever is left of it.

Edwards was bad at times but the guy was trying to win the game even if some of it was ill advised. Especially in the 2nd half the guy was beat up and was pretty much everywhere.

McLaughlin had another good game. Not spectacular but he did good things out there.

Conley with another pretty good game.

With McDaniels out it's hard to feel optimistic and I guess that also means someone else is gonna need to step up or actually probably a couple guys. Rivers might actually get some minutes now and Prince is gonna be playing heavy minutes.

Prince replacing McDaniels is not a total bust, but it is pretty deflating to know McDaniels won't be around for the playoffs. Although there seems to be some talk that SloMo will replace McDaniels once Gobert returns. I don't know about that -- doesn't it imply a lot of minutes for Knight? I think I would rather rely on JMac, NAW and Nowell getting the extra minutes and have Kyle's minutes be more at the 4/5, thus reducing the need for big minutes from Knight. We won't find out tonight with Gobert missing, but we'll know more after that.

Suggestions here that there is "history" between Rudy and SloMo that led up to punch (shove?) don't jive with anything either of them or Finchie/TC are saying...and doesn't jive with this moment.


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Because it's normal to kiss someone we don't like on the cheek...