Play me a tune Jazz @ Wolves GDT

[Phenom]

Memphis up 8 after 3 against Denver. Will it hold? One of Rockets or Lakers will lose. Not a bad scenario at all.

[rapsuperstar31]

Nice to see Pullin make his first NBA bucket. Donte made sure to grab the ball for Pullin after the game.

[Leado01]

Obviously the competition is bad but the joy of playing with each other is back. (They need Ant to win at a high level)

TJ finally making some positive plays here in the 3rd. Had a string of defensive stops which is not something he usually does. But yeah, the competition.....

TJ can play in this league. He needs to be on the floor. What's insane is infrequently he recieves the ball in transition

[Q-is-here]

Obviously the competition is bad but the joy of playing with each other is back. (They need Ant to win at a high level)

TJ finally making some positive plays here in the 3rd. Had a string of defensive stops which is not something he usually does. But yeah, the competition.....

TJ can play in this league. He needs to be on the floor. What's insane is infrequently he recieves the ball in transition

He has to prove that he can impact the game without the ball in his hands, although your complaint is legit. There just isn't much of a role for him in Minnesota to be a secondary ball-handler/high usage bench scorer when Naz, Ayo, and Bones are all ahead of him. That's why I thought tonight was so positive because he was impacting the game defensively, something he's really struggled with this year.

[AussieWolf3]

TJ finally making some positive plays here in the 3rd. Had a string of defensive stops which is not something he usually does. But yeah, the competition.....

TJ can play in this league. He needs to be on the floor. What's insane is infrequently he recieves the ball in transition

He has to prove that he can impact the game without the ball in his hands, although your complaint is legit. There just isn't much of a role for him in Minnesota to be a secondary ball-handler/high usage bench scorer when Naz, Ayo, and Bones are all ahead of him. That's why I thought tonight was so positive because he was impacting the game defensively, something he's really struggled with this year.

God if TJ could become a passable defensive wing, wouldn't that be great!

[AbeVigodaLive]

Abe's "closest thing to a guaranteed win of the season" DVR Review:

- Utah isn't serious about winning basketball games. Yet. But next year... maybe not too bad.

- Something named Brice Sensabaugh is averaging 13.5 ppg for the Jazz. Hmmm... a few moments later... I think we're going to hear more about Brice Sensabaugh in the future. He's a bucket. Was getting some Saddiq Bey vibes from him... only he might be better.

- The rest of the Jazz are mostly putrid.

- Gobert is too big. Or, the Wolves are actually looking for him. Or... a bit of both.

- A sign of a bad defensive team... some of the Wolves best three point shooters have a second (or even more) to set up before an open three. There's nobody near Bones and Divincenzo on a couple of these shots.

- Ayo is finding his role. I saw a $15M/year contract mentioned. I feel like that is a low estimate. Why wouldn't he be looking at something closer to $25M annually?

- TJ Shannon still looks all sorts of goofy on offense much of the time. But this has been the best he's looked defensively. Early in the game as he was getting scored on, I was thinking "that's solid defense, just better offense. He's a bit snakebit." But the kid kept battling and things evened out as the game went on. Hopefully, he gets back to serviceable on offense.

- Is this Bones stuff going to last?!?

[FNG]

I only watched the first three quarters, but a very satisfying win against a really bad team. Nobody played 30 minutes, so we should be quite rested for Portland. Hopefully Naz will be back too.

I like what Ju did in this game. I'm sure Finchy has told him he needs to pick up the scoring with Ant out, and he scored in the first quarter like he was going to put up 50. But with the game in the bag, he turned the scoring over to his teammates, and 4 teammates took more shots than he did. I'm sure most of us noticed more intensity on defense from him also. This is the Ju we need in the playoffs.

Filipowski is so Duke soft...I'm guessing he is glad he doesn't have to see Rudy again this season...Gobert manhandled him for 21/12.

I joked about Shannon being a +16 in the first half when I hadn't even noticed him. Apparently he did some good things after I turned the game off...good, we can use that. But if he could make his free throws, we would have had a 50/40/90 game.

It doesn't seem often that both Bones and Donte are making their threes in the same game, but it really helps our offense when they are both on.

I'm an unabashed Conley bobo, so I wish I could have seen him deliver 4 assists in the 7 minutes he was out there. And wow...39 assists for the game!

Still knee-jerking after 2 games without Ant: can you name another team that is so much more fun to watch at both ends of the court when their star is out?

[rapsuperstar31]

I only watched the first three quarters, but a very satisfying win against a really bad team. Nobody played 30 minutes, so we should be quite rested for Portland. Hopefully Naz will be back too.

I like what Ju did in this game. I'm sure Finchy has told him he needs to pick up the scoring with Ant out, and he scored in the first quarter like he was going to put up 50. But with the game in the bag, he turned the scoring over to his teammates, and 4 teammates took more shots than he did. I'm sure most of us noticed more intensity on defense from him also. This is the Ju we need in the playoffs.

Filipowski is so Duke soft...I'm guessing he is glad he doesn't have to see Rudy again this season...Gobert manhandled him for 21/12.

I joked about Shannon being a +16 in the first half when I hadn't even noticed him. Apparently he did some good things after I turned the game off...good, we can use that. But if he could make his free throws, we would have had a 50/40/90 game.

It doesn't seem often that both Bones and Donte are making their threes in the same game, but it really helps our offense when they are both on.

I'm an unabashed Conley bobo, so I wish I could have seen him deliver 4 assists in the 7 minutes he was out there. And wow...39 assists for the game!

Still knee-jerking after 2 games without Ant: can you name another team that is so much more fun to watch at both ends of the court when their star is out?

We were just as fun to watch 2 years ago when Kat went down and Ant, Jaden and Naz went on a tear going into the playoffs especially that big win against Indiana when Ant had the game winning block. We were just as fun to watch last year when Randle got hurt, our record wasn't great but we saw good things from Clark and Shannon during that time that made us think they could easily take over for NAW this year. When a team has two high iso guys, taking one away will always open shots up for other guys.
We used to notice it with the Clippers when they had Leonard and George. The Wolves loved playing as Ant called them they old ass iso players. It was easy to contain and predict for us. This year we have struggled with just Leonard isoing, and Harden gone.
We saw it in Phoenix as well with Durant, Booker and Beal being too many iso players.

[TheFuture]

After watching the game I began to think is this team much more fluid without Ant? I know he can be a complete game-changing player. But ... the defensive rotations and ball movement were purely enjoyable to see. The lobs from everybody to Gobert, the kickoffs from every teammate to open players. That is the step he has not taken. The playmaking to make his team better. I love the kid, but if we are honest. He is a very selfish player right now. Everybody was in sync in that game.

Naz is the same way. I know he is a town favorite, but all he is ever going to do is hunt his own shot. He cannot defend any position, he cannot rebound. He can just shoot. Obviously, it would be stupid to move off of Ant right now, but Naz can go. I'd much rather sell high on him to gain assets and retain Ayo , Bones, and Divo.

[rapsuperstar31]

After watching the game I began to think is this team much more fluid without Ant? I know he can be a complete game-changing player. But ... the defensive rotations and ball movement were purely enjoyable to see. The lobs from everybody to Gobert, the kickoffs from every teammate to open players. That is the step he has not taken. The playmaking to make his team better. I love the kid, but if we are honest. He is a very selfish player right now. Everybody was in sync in that game.

Play making is the hardest thing to learn once you get to the NBA, you either have it or you don't. Ant takes 20.5 shots per game, I wouldn't consider that unreasonable. When Jordan was 24 he took 27.8 shots per game. Ant takes 20.5 shots on 35.5 minutes so .577 shots per minute, SGA shoots 19.7 shots in 33.5 minutes so .588 shots per minute. Luka takes 22.4 shots per game on 35.8 minutes per game so .626 shots per minute. I don't think Ant is selfish in shot attempts per game. When you remove someone that takes 20 shots per game, there is going to be more shots to go around. After taking 27.8 shots per game at 24, Jordan dropped his shots per game to get his teammates a bit more involved and dropped it down to 24.4 shots per game the next season. I trust Ant to keep learning from losses, and adapting his game as he goes. Hopefully this is a point emphasis this summer for him.