FNG wrote:WF21- I'm a bit of a Rubio bobo, but I would say he had a good game. 9-4-4 and no turnovers in 18 minutes, and only a -9 in a 36-point loss is a good game IMO. Also all four PFs at least were nor embarrassing for the first time all season, albeit primarily in garbage time. And while Naz played his worst game of the season, he again showed he is a reliable center off the bench backing up KAT.
Saunders needs to slap Edwards upside the head in the locker room after his performance. His shot selection was so poor he must have thought he was back at Georgia- 6-21 ain't gonna cut it.
But to continue beating the dead horse that is already lying bloodied on the ground, there are no words to describe D-Lo tonight. I've accepted the fact that he is going to be a minus player on the court- he's not going to change what he has been his entire career- because his ability to score in bunches will win some games for us. But there is no excuse for his abysmal performance tonight- no effort and lazy play at both ends of the court. This is how awful he was tonight- there were times I actually would have preferred to see Wiggins out there.
You're not going to win any games with one max player out hurt and the other playing like a guy who looks like he should be coming off the bench in the G League. Let's hope they both return to the court soon, or this is going to be tough to watch.
I'll give you that, Rubio was the best of the worst. It's good to get beatdown though too, they might have been feeling themselves a bit too much after starting 2-0. I don't think anyone thought we would win anyways, especially without KAT. I was actually hoping KAT would go off for 30 to give the team a chance before I heard he was ruled out.
As far as DLO, I don't have too high of expectations for him overall. He plays above his skill level too much. Taking too many tough shots and contested midrange jumpers. I would hope he would work to improve his assist game more, versus jacking up tough shots. Still early in the season. We'll see how it progresses as guys get use to playing with each other more. More team game, less one on one.
Anyways, a good time to get beatdown. Hopefully the entire team will bring it versus the Clippers. They need to in order to have a chance.
At this point, after 5 seasons in the League, I wouldn't expect DLO to change. He'll always take way too many bad contested shots and he'll always have lots of stretches where he's lazy with the ball. He doesn't have any truly elite skills, so there's not upside for him to capture down the road. He's just another bad max contract. Is he as bad as Wiggins? No, he's better. But that low bar doesn't provide any solace. Russell is still way overpaid for what he provides. I'd feel a little better if we had simply swapped Wiggins straight up along with our 2nd round pick for DLO. But we gave up what will likely be a lottery pick next year along with what will likely be a pretty high second round pick in what's expected to be talent-filled draft.
DLO will have some good games and he'll probably win a game or two with some big shots at the end of the game. Actually, Wiggins did that a few times two. DLO will come through in that regard more than Wiggins. But as our starting PG, Russell controls the fate of this team far more than Wiggins. And he's simply not enough of a net positive to justify his central role as our #2 max cornerstone player, especially in light of what we gave up to get him.
You are probably right. Though the one season he had where is was a net positive plus minus the team was also in the playoffs. Does DLO give up when the team sucks and simply play half assed? Will he play more energized if the team is winning and competing? I think that is my hope. The better the team is the more engaged he is.
I think it's only natural for guys to "get lazy" or play half assed when the team is bad. But then others simply don't allow that to happen either, those are true superstars. The LeBrons or Jordans.
Hopefully DLO will eventually become the number 3-4 option as far as scoring. Culver and Edwards could surpass him, though I have much more hope for Edwards. Culver struggles finishing around the rim too much, doesn't draw fouls. Edwards seems to have much better body and ball control on the drive.
Though he is still youngish, I would say he can get better over the next 4-5 years, skill wise, basketball IQ wise. So we'll see. A guy that continues to get better in his mid twenties I can think of is Harden. I think LeBron got a little better, Jordan as well. Guys do it if they want it bad enough.
I just saw guys getting paid millions of dollars clanking layups that I could make. I am utterly confused by what I just watched. I believe I watched a JV highschool team play a NBA team.
Camden0916 wrote:All hail the great plus-minus statistic. All hail the great plus-minus gods. Why, oh why, must there be other statistics out there when we have the almighty plus-minus? I can do all things through plus-minus which strengthens me. The holy grail of numbers and basketball, if you will.
Hmmm... Some people would admit, 'yeah, maybe he isn't a star', and then other people would do... that
Camden wrote:All hail the great plus-minus statistic. All hail the great plus-minus gods. Why, oh why, must there be other statistics out there when we have the almighty plus-minus? I can do all things through plus-minus which strengthens me. The holy grail of numbers and basketball, if you will.
Well, outscoring your opponent does seem to have some significance to me...they're still not awarding wins based on style points ;-) .
Plus/minus is just one stat where D-Lo consistently ranks near the bottom of his class. The problem is it's difficult to find a stat where he shows up in the top half of SG's or PG's, and shouldn't we expect better results than he puts up for a guy making the money he's making? And it goes beyond stats. The clip AbeVigoda showed just seems to happen way too much for my taste. If D-Lo is gassed, he needs to raise his hand and Ryan will take him out. But if he's going to be out there, I want to see the kind of intensity guys like Culver and Okogie bring on every play. My god, he's so much more talented than almost anyone on our roster. My frustration comes from a belief he could earn his contract if he would consistently play smarter and harder.
Absent that, I'm afraid his best comp might be Zach LaVine.
FNG wrote:WF21- I'm a bit of a Rubio bobo, but I would say he had a good game. 9-4-4 and no turnovers in 18 minutes, and only a -9 in a 36-point loss is a good game IMO. Also all four PFs at least were nor embarrassing for the first time all season, albeit primarily in garbage time. And while Naz played his worst game of the season, he again showed he is a reliable center off the bench backing up KAT.
Saunders needs to slap Edwards upside the head in the locker room after his performance. His shot selection was so poor he must have thought he was back at Georgia- 6-21 ain't gonna cut it.
But to continue beating the dead horse that is already lying bloodied on the ground, there are no words to describe D-Lo tonight. I've accepted the fact that he is going to be a minus player on the court- he's not going to change what he has been his entire career- because his ability to score in bunches will win some games for us. But there is no excuse for his abysmal performance tonight- no effort and lazy play at both ends of the court. This is how awful he was tonight- there were times I actually would have preferred to see Wiggins out there.
You're not going to win any games with one max player out hurt and the other playing like a guy who looks like he should be coming off the bench in the G League. Let's hope they both return to the court soon, or this is going to be tough to watch.
I'll give you that, Rubio was the best of the worst. It's good to get beatdown though too, they might have been feeling themselves a bit too much after starting 2-0. I don't think anyone thought we would win anyways, especially without KAT. I was actually hoping KAT would go off for 30 to give the team a chance before I heard he was ruled out.
As far as DLO, I don't have too high of expectations for him overall. He plays above his skill level too much. Taking too many tough shots and contested midrange jumpers. I would hope he would work to improve his assist game more, versus jacking up tough shots. Still early in the season. We'll see how it progresses as guys get use to playing with each other more. More team game, less one on one.
Anyways, a good time to get beatdown. Hopefully the entire team will bring it versus the Clippers. They need to in order to have a chance.
At this point, after 5 seasons in the League, I wouldn't expect DLO to change. He'll always take way too many bad contested shots and he'll always have lots of stretches where he's lazy with the ball. He doesn't have any truly elite skills, so there's not upside for him to capture down the road. He's just another bad max contract. Is he as bad as Wiggins? No, he's better. But that low bar doesn't provide any solace. Russell is still way overpaid for what he provides. I'd feel a little better if we had simply swapped Wiggins straight up along with our 2nd round pick for DLO. But we gave up what will likely be a lottery pick next year along with what will likely be a pretty high second round pick in what's expected to be talent-filled draft.
DLO will have some good games and he'll probably win a game or two with some big shots at the end of the game. Actually, Wiggins did that a few times two. DLO will come through in that regard more than Wiggins. But as our starting PG, Russell controls the fate of this team far more than Wiggins. And he's simply not enough of a net positive to justify his central role as our #2 max cornerstone player, especially in light of what we gave up to get him.
You are probably right. Though the one season he had where is was a net positive plus minus the team was also in the playoffs. Does DLO give up when the team sucks and simply play half assed? Will he play more energized if the team is winning and competing? I think that is my hope. The better the team is the more engaged he is.
I think it's only natural for guys to "get lazy" or play half assed when the team is bad. But then others simply don't allow that to happen either, those are true superstars. The LeBrons or Jordans.
Hopefully DLO will eventually become the number 3-4 option as far as scoring. Culver and Edwards could surpass him, though I have much more hope for Edwards. Culver struggles finishing around the rim too much, doesn't draw fouls. Edwards seems to have much better body and ball control on the drive.
Though he is still youngish, I would say he can get better over the next 4-5 years, skill wise, basketball IQ wise. So we'll see. A guy that continues to get better in his mid twenties I can think of is Harden. I think LeBron got a little better, Jordan as well. Guys do it if they want it bad enough.
I just saw guys getting paid millions of dollars clanking layups that I could make. I am utterly confused by what I just watched. I believe I watched a JV highschool team play a NBA team.
I get that point a bit. But the couple times I watched NBA games from lower level / near courtside the thing that I was amazed at was how fast the game is and how quick the players are moving. My Nephew plays varsity ball and I will tell you that obviously it's at a completely different level. The time to make a layup and with the contested nature is completely different. A layup in the NBA with tall athletic freaks contesting is much different then high school kids.
Was Dlo terrible last night. Yep. Was he arguably the worst player on the wolves last night. Yep. Should we be happy with his performance last night. Nope. Did he play like a max player last night. Of course not. Im still not going to take much from a one game sample size even though it was terrible. Dlo has been a key cog in the Wolves wins the 1st 2 games (not the most important piece but he has helped the wolves win). Games like these happen in the NBA. Giannis lost to arguably the worst roster in the NBA in the New York Knicks by 20 yesterday (I guess when you have thibs this isn't that shocking, Im kidding). Embiid was a late scratch yesterday, so Ben Simmons lost by 24 to the Cavs. Kawhi missed his first game of the season and max player Paul George fell down by 50 at halftime and lost by 51. The Warriors lose Thompson before the season and future HOF and super max player Steph Curry lost his 1st 2 games by 30 each game.
If we get this Dlo consistently Ill be the first one on this board to rip him to shreds. He was terrible last night, just think we shouldn't rush to conclusions based off one game. I mean I just listed 4 All NBA Max players who had there teams get their ass kicked in one of the 1st 3 games. Its the NBA it happens. Lets hope its not this is not a sign to come but its one game of pathetic play.
kekgeek1 wrote:Was Dlo terrible last night. Yep. Was he arguably the worst player on the wolves last night. Yep. Should we be happy with his performance last night. Nope. Did he play like a max player last night. Of course not. Im still not going to take much from a one game sample size even though it was terrible. Dlo has been a key cog in the Wolves wins the 1st 2 games (not the most important piece but he has helped the wolves win). Games like these happen in the NBA. Giannis lost to arguably the worst roster in the NBA in the New York Knicks by 20 yesterday (I guess when you have thibs this isn't that shocking, Im kidding). Embiid was a late scratch yesterday, so Ben Simmons lost by 24 to the Cavs. Kawhi missed his first game of the season and max player Paul George fell down by 50 at halftime and lost by 51. The Warriors lose Thompson before the season and future HOF and super max player Steph Curry lost his 1st 2 games by 30 each game.
If we get this Dlo consistently Ill be the first one on this board to rip him to shreds. He was terrible last night, just think we shouldn't rush to conclusions based off one game. I mean I just listed 4 All NBA Max players who had there teams get their ass kicked in one of the 1st 3 games. Its the NBA it happens. Lets hope its not this is not a sign to come but its one game of pathetic play.
I am totally understanding about losses and off games. The effort and laziness was the issue for me.
khans2k5 wrote:We're a young team with basically no training camp who just lost their best player for the game that day. Of course they looked unorganized and terrible. Literally the centerpiece on both sides of the floor was gone with zero time to prepare for that reality. This isn't a team that's been together for years with an established system that they can just fall back into. This year was built completely around Towns and he was out. We're probably going to lose every single game he doesn't play because he is the the foundation on both ends of the floor. It's one game without our franchise player. I wouldn't read into it further than that. It'd be a different story if this were March or April but it's game 3 with no prep time against the defending champs who just won the title a month or two ago and kept their core team in tact around the best player in the world. Even with Towns they were gonna smoke us because they have the momentum and the team play that we don't yet.
These excuses are getting dumb. There is no excuse for what was on the court.
Young coach, young team, no culture. Until those change you are going to get games like tonight. That's the reality of the NBA. If you can't stand millionaires taking games off here and there then this isn't the sport for you because even the best do it. There's no difference between D Lo stinking it up on the court or Kawhi skipping a game for "load management". Both guys are max players not earning that game check and we see it everywhere across the league in different forms. It's part of the NBA. Welcome to player empowerment era where you just have to leverage the market appropriately to make big money and you don't even have to live up to that deal if you don't want.
The Lakers were playing well and obviously the Wolves weren't. I didn't mind watching the whole game though because...
Some young guys got out there and did stuff.
Naz Reid is a nice player.
Vanderbilt made Q somewhat proud. He started off looking pretty good but had some green moments but overall showed something.
Edwards fell in love with his jumper and this wasn't his best game but we knew this was going to happen.
McDaniels is a guy that could end up looking pretty good later on. He is a different body type but Horton Tucker has really developed for the Lakers. He has to have grown some too but he has really worked on his body. McDaniels showed something on both ends of the court even if it was garbage time.
Culver struggled to some extent but I like what I see still.
McLaughlin looked rusty in that I think if he would have been around he would have been more aggressive with his shot. He still looks like a legit NBA player and plays bigger than his size. He is a pretty good athlete.
Juancho and Layman actually did some stuff.
Russell was kinda bad in this game.
Rubio had a pretty nice game really.
That's all it will be interesting if this team can show something the next game. They went from looking like a team that could play D against the Jazz to one that never played it against the Lakers.
The Wolves have the youngest team in the NBA with the youngest and most inexperienced head coach in the NBA, and have only two players above the age of 30 on the entire roster. It's not an excuse to be abused, but it definitely plays a part this season. There will be more games like this one, I'm sure. Hopefully, there are more games like the one against Utah. Overall, growth in individual players and as a cohesive team is the main goal. The wins will come. Just as the team should be doing, we as fans need to shake last night's game off and look to the next game.
Camden0916 wrote:The Wolves have the youngest team in the NBA with the youngest and most inexperienced head coach in the NBA, and have only two players above the age of 30 on the entire roster. It's not an excuse to be abused, but it definitely plays a part this season. There will be more games like this one, I'm sure. Hopefully, there are more games like the one against Utah. Overall, growth in individual players and as a cohesive team is the main goal. The wins will come. Just as the team should be doing, we as fans need to shake last night's game off and look to the next game.
Which I would be totally used to. At least I could look forward to the top 10 pick in other years. Not so much this year.
