Wolves@Spurs - GDT

[KG4Ever]

Welp. This thread has turned into a mess. It's definitely a make or miss sport and D-Lo missed too many at the end, but putting the blame on him for this loss is laughable. .

DLO is a stench on this team and what was the point of giving up all those assets for a guy who is either the problem, or at best a non-solution. Go Read the RealGM Forum, they are much more savage in their criticism of DLO than this Board.

Dalvin posted "D'Lo is my most hated Timberwolf player ever and that's saying something
Teague >>>>>> D'Lo"

AIJ posted "Russell is so bad. Man shrink was right" and "What a **** ballhog"

PharmD said "I came to the realization that DLo sucks like 10 games ago and have basically made my peace with it. It seems like the rest of the board is starting to move from the denial phase to the anger phase. I'm fully in the acceptance phase and am more interested in how to use his strengths and minimize the impact of his crippling weaknesses."

Trik posted "Watching Dlo is like watching some guy at the YMCA that has only ever watched basketball and never actually played competitively, one of those guys that tries all the dumb moves, barely passes, and yells 'Kobe!!' when he shoots. Admittedly, his hair at the moment is also not helping his likability."

Lucamillo posted "At this point I would rather have Wiggins than dlo and that is saying a lot. He is a black whole on offense. He has not passed the ball once in the past 8 min. And this is on Saunders for not getting ant involved. What a frustrating loss"

[FNG]

I almost threw up when I got up this morning and read the play-by-play section in ESPN of the 4th quarter...yet another disgusting collapse. I completely understand the doom and gloom in this thread in collapsing after what sounds like a terrific start to the game. I'm not going to add to the doom and gloom, because I have no expectations for this team without KAT. So I'll add a few rays of hope.

1) It sounds like DLO was quite good for 3 quarters, but reverted to his sticky ball style in the 4th and also missed some critical shots. Ryan treaded lightly on the change in style post-game, but you could tell he was pissed. Somehow DLO doesn't trust his teammates in crunch time, even when a guy like Beasley is on fire. DLO is what we thought he was, but I'm holding onto some hope that he plays less late game hero ball when KAT comes back. He likes and trusts KAT, and we can hope that he can find a way to get the ball into his hands when the game is on the line.

2) It's good to see Beasley shake off his road woes and put up some great numbers away from home.

3) Edwards is playing better than I would expect from a raw 19-year-old. 14-6-2 with a block and no TO's is a nice line. I don't like him only having 2 free throws, but I expect his scoring will become much more efficient as he starts earning some respect from officials and gets more calls.

4) I love Vanderbilt's Rodman-like line...11 rebounds (4 offensive), 2 assists and a block in only 16 minutes. I'm convinced this kid is going to continue to provide 15-20 minutes of high energy off the bench every night.

5) Jake Layman still can't get a rebound, but he's quietly providing some efficient offense off the bench. 7 points a game on 53% shooting is nice production in only 16 minutes his last 10 games.

6) Kek's post about how ineffective Rubio and DLO have been together is really disappointing...I had high hopes for this pairing coming into the season based on the success Ricky has had the past few seasons with other productive SGs. Still, it was good to see Ricky with a more typical 7 assists in his 28 minutes. And most importantly...

7) KAT was sitting behind the bench. That's a sign he will be back soon, maybe even in one of the OkC games. I'll go on the record that this team will be at least .500 in games that KAT plays this season.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Just looked this up. Wolves have 39 2-man lineups that have played over 100 minutes this year together the 38th best 2 man combo this year is Ricky and Dlo getting outscored by 25.1 pts per 100 possessions (not including tonight's game)

Yeah, the Rubio/DLO pairing at the end was puzzling. In theory, having another ball handler allows DLO to conserve energy for whatever halfcourt set gets run, with him being the main protagonist. The problem is there were no half-court sets run and if the plan is to simply have DLO run isolation, then Rubio should not be in there since he can't space the floor.

[BloopOracle]

I won't blame D'Angelo for letting the Spurs come storming back that was a team effort, but once our lead shrunk under five he put up one of the most pathetic hero ball performances I've ever seen from a timber wolf. Anthony Edwards TOUCHED the ball twice in the last 8 minutes, Malik Beasley who was on fire had only two shot attempts in the last 5 minutes.

[Wolvesfan21]

Welp. This thread has turned into a mess. It's definitely a make or miss sport and D-Lo missed too many at the end, but putting the blame on him for this loss is laughable. .

DLO is a stench on this team and what was the point of giving up all those assets for a guy who is either the problem, or at best a non-solution. Go Read the RealGM Forum, they are much more savage in their criticism of DLO than this Board.

Dalvin posted "D'Lo is my most hated Timberwolf player ever and that's saying something
Teague >>>>>> D'Lo"

AIJ posted "Russell is so bad. Man shrink was right" and "What a **** ballhog"

PharmD said "I came to the realization that DLo sucks like 10 games ago and have basically made my peace with it. It seems like the rest of the board is starting to move from the denial phase to the anger phase. I'm fully in the acceptance phase and am more interested in how to use his strengths and minimize the impact of his crippling weaknesses."

Trik posted "Watching Dlo is like watching some guy at the YMCA that has only ever watched basketball and never actually played competitively, one of those guys that tries all the dumb moves, barely passes, and yells 'Kobe!!' when he shoots. Admittedly, his hair at the moment is also not helping his likability."

Lucamillo posted "At this point I would rather have Wiggins than dlo and that is saying a lot. He is a black whole on offense. He has not passed the ball once in the past 8 min. And this is on Saunders for not getting ant involved. What a frustrating loss"

Ryan said he hated the last 6 minutes on offense. Blame Ryan for having DLO/Rubio combo but at the core the loss falls squarely on DLO missing shots. You want to be a hero sometimes or most of the time in DLO's case you become a zero.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

FNG, the other bit of "good news" of late is that we continue to creep up in defensive rating. And to me, one of THE most important metrics to this team's future success - Opponent eFG% - is now ranked 18th in the league.

The first half stint we got from the second unit was something else. Rubio looked like the Rubio of old, Vando was flying all over the pace getting rebounds, and Nowell, McDaniels, and Layman were doing their part as well. Unfortunately, the big lead we built up in the 3rd started to turn late in the third/early in the fourth with mostly this same unit on the floor: A Layman miss, a Layman offensive foul, a Rubio miss, a Vando turnover, a Nowell miss....

We simply had too many consecutive trips down the floor with empty possessions. Offensive discipline, sharpness and strategy ended up being our undoing. Not defense.

[DNatagal]

If Edwards could get a call on his many forays to the hoop, this game has a different outcome. Derozan would initiate contact, get ticky-tack calls, and then bitch the whistle wasn't fast enough. The officiating was ATROCIOUS.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Take your pick.

Questionable shooting. Questionable coaching. Questionable officiating.

We've seen it all before. Move the pieces, names and faces around. Change the date. The venue. Even the uniforms. But some things simply don't change for the Timberwolves... from Blair to Saunders to Rambis to Wittman to Adelman to Saunders. From Love to Towns. From Rubio to... Rubio.

Timberwolves fans deserve better.

[FNG]

Just looked this up. Wolves have 39 2-man lineups that have played over 100 minutes this year together the 38th best 2 man combo this year is Ricky and Dlo getting outscored by 25.1 pts per 100 possessions (not including tonight's game)

Yeah, the Rubio/DLO pairing at the end was puzzling. In theory, having another ball handler allows DLO to conserve energy for whatever halfcourt set gets run, with him being the main protagonist. The problem is there were no half-court sets run and if the plan is to simply have DLO run isolation, then Rubio should not be in there since he can't space the floor.

Q, I think I can explain the pairing. I didn't watch the game but instead reviewed the 4th quarter collapse in the ESPN play-by-play. The Wolves led by 8 with 7 minutes to play, and Ryan (correctly, I think) subbed Okogie in for Rubio...the intent being to close out the game with the 5 who started and had played so well. Unfortunately the strategy didn't work, and the lead was cut to 2 when Ryan called a timeout just 1 1/2 minutes later. He clearly felt he needed to insert Rubio back into the lineup to try to stabilize and avoid another 4th quarter disaster (I can't argue with that), so he put him in for Okogie, and it stopped the bleeding as we played them even the rest of the way

And reading into Ryan's restrained post-game comments, it's clear to me that the plan wasn't to have DLO run isolation. But it sounds like DLO's hero instincts took over, and the Wolves got away from the good ball movement they had employed all game. DLO made a couple shots, but he also missed 5 others plus a free throw.

That's what I get from the play-by-play. Did it seem a lot different live?

[FNG]

FNG, the other bit of "good news" of late is that we continue to creep up in defensive rating. And to me, one of THE most important metrics to this team's future success - Opponent eFG% - is now ranked 18th in the league.

The first half stint we got from the second unit was something else. Rubio looked like the Rubio of old, Vando was flying all over the pace getting rebounds, and Nowell, McDaniels, and Layman were doing their part as well. Unfortunately, the big lead we built up in the 3rd started to turn late in the third/early in the fourth with mostly this same unit on the floor: A Layman miss, a Layman offensive foul, a Rubio miss, a Vando turnover, a Nowell miss....

We simply had too many consecutive trips down the floor with empty possessions. Offensive discipline, sharpness and strategy ended up being our undoing. Not defense.

It's tough to find silver linings this year, but thanks for the improved defensive eFG% stat. I've noticed an improved Towns on defense this year...he's actually starting to look like the rim protector I was anticipating out of college by doubling his blocks per game this year...so hopefully that defensive measure improves even more when KAT returns. I suspect Vando/McD/Okogie instead of Juancho/Layman at PF might be one of the factors in our defensive improvement, as well as essentially J-Mac (who has surprised me with his defense despite his small stature...Lip might be right about him being a good defender) replacing DLO in the games he has missed for rest or injury.