Minnesota Sports Forum

If only the Grizzles knew to just put Dillon Brooks on Kat. Teams have gotten burned all year by forcing a big onto Kat. I assume there will be some adjustments.

thedoper wrote:If only the Grizzles knew to just put Dillon Brooks on Kat. Teams have gotten burned all year by forcing a big onto Kat. I assume there will be some adjustments.

They'll definitely adjust defensively. Jackson can keep up with Towns, but as somebody else said, that could get him into foul trouble too and it can take him away from the paint, where he's a beast of a shot intimidator. We should definitely have a strategy for dealing with it if they put Brooks on him. What would you guys suggest? I still feel like getting KAT into more pick and rolls/pops in general is a good idea.

I'm surprised they didn't double him harder. They did a few times, when he got the ball close to the paint, but not as intensely as the Clippers did and it definitely flustered KAT in that Clippers game. The thing is, if we're ready for it, we should be able to take advantage of those doubles if KAT swings the ball as soon as it comes. Should be able to get a decent number of open 3s if we take advantage of that or dumps to Vando for the dunk if he's in. Speaking of which, I think Vando's nonexistent range makes it a lot easier to double off of him, so if we're not able to capitalize on it if they're doubling him with Vando out there, we should be ready to go with McDaniels at the 4 and make it a little easier to stretch the floor and swing it for the open 3.

In addition to being ready to make adjustments, the key for us offensively is to protect the ball better.

The other thing is defense. We did a fairly good job with that in the last game, and obviously we need to be ready to adjust offensively to what they do defensively, but it feels like our defense overall is a bigger area for improvement. Anybody have any suggestions on that? I'm wary about doubling Ja because they've got great shooters and he's so sneaky he can get through those. That's also why I'd be wary of going to a zone against these guys. Ideally, you'd prefer Ja taking jumpers rather than getting to the paint, but you can't sag off him too much or he'll get a head of steam on you and draw the foul. I thought Jaden and Ant both did a pretty good job against him. I don't know what defensive strategy would work best against these guys other than just doing everything possible to keep him out of the paint and then boxing out like crazy to keep them off the offensive boards and limit second chances.

Just finished watching the game this morning. It was MUCH more thrilling than the 2022 Film "Death on the Nile" that I watched with my wife last night. Lol

This was a big win for the Wolves to go in and get game 1 on the road. Edwards was amazing Towns had a bounce back game and props to Beasley he had a very good game. I'll have to read through the game thread later I hope everyone enjoyed this game as much as I did.

SameOldNudityDrew wrote:

thedoper wrote:If only the Grizzles knew to just put Dillon Brooks on Kat. Teams have gotten burned all year by forcing a big onto Kat. I assume there will be some adjustments.

They'll definitely adjust defensively. Jackson can keep up with Towns, but as somebody else said, that could get him into foul trouble too and it can take him away from the paint, where he's a beast of a shot intimidator. We should definitely have a strategy for dealing with it if they put Brooks on him. What would you guys suggest? I still feel like getting KAT into more pick and rolls/pops in general is a good idea.

I'm surprised they didn't double him harder. They did a few times, when he got the ball close to the paint, but not as intensely as the Clippers did and it definitely flustered KAT in that Clippers game. The thing is, if we're ready for it, we should be able to take advantage of those doubles if KAT swings the ball as soon as it comes. Should be able to get a decent number of open 3s if we take advantage of that or dumps to Vando for the dunk if he's in. Speaking of which, I think Vando's nonexistent range makes it a lot easier to double off of him, so if we're not able to capitalize on it if they're doubling him with Vando out there, we should be ready to go with McDaniels at the 4 and make it a little easier to stretch the floor and swing it for the open 3.

In addition to being ready to make adjustments, the key for us offensively is to protect the ball better.

The other thing is defense. We did a fairly good job with that in the last game, and obviously we need to be ready to adjust offensively to what they do defensively, but it feels like our defense overall is a bigger area for improvement. Anybody have any suggestions on that? I'm wary about doubling Ja because they've got great shooters and he's so sneaky he can get through those. That's also why I'd be wary of going to a zone against these guys. Ideally, you'd prefer Ja taking jumpers rather than getting to the paint, but you can't sag off him too much or he'll get a head of steam on you and draw the foul. I thought Jaden and Ant both did a pretty good job against him. I don't know what defensive strategy would work best against these guys other than just doing everything possible to keep him out of the paint and then boxing out like crazy to keep them off the offensive boards and limit second chances.

Good stuff here Drew.

- The beauty of having three guys capable of carrying a high usage is that you can take one guy out of his game and you still have two other players capable of carrying the offense. So I'm not too worried about how they guard KAT. If they put Brooks on him, then who the heck is guarding Ant!?

- In terms of the defense, I think the emphasis needs to be protecting the paint, even at the expense of open 3s. Memphis is actually not a great shooting team; they are OK-ish. Obviously you can't leave Bane alone, but other than him, I'm kind of OK with guys like Brooks or JJJ taking 3's. Their strength is getting into the paint and hitting the O-glass, so I kind of think we need to build a wall in there and force them to beat us from the outside.

- What I worry about is a JJJ-Clarke-Bane-Melton-Jah lineup. Bane and Melton are their best shooters and you can probably throw Clarke on KAT with JJJ as the double. I can't remember if they ever had those 5 out there yesterday, but that's the lineup I fear the most.

- Adams was totally impotent that game. Never have I seen a huge Center like that just disappear against the Wolves. Again, we may see a lot more JJJ/Clarke in game 2.

The real question of this playoffs:




Who's who's getting one?

Good point on their 3 point shooting, Q. I just looked up their numbers and I was under the impression that Brooks was better than he actually was this year. And JJJ's 3pt % was down this year too. Both around 30% after Brooks was at around 35% in recent years and JJJ was at 39% his last full season (side note--if he can get back to that and still play defense this well, he'll really be a huge asset for them). Bane is a killer from deep, Melton can hit it, and Ja was surprisingly solid from deep this year. Tyus has become an average 3 pt shooter. I feel like I remember hearing Williams could be a good shooter (Stanford, wasn't it?), but I don't think he brings enough to justify playing him much right now. So yeah, I'm not so worried about them hitting from deep.

I'm surprised we didn't see more Ja pick and rolls with Jackson and Clarke. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong, but I feel like they didn't run that as much as I was afraid they would. I feel like if they ran that, they'd probably get a lot of alley-oops and/or fouls on Ja. That feels like a really similar set of players to Young, Capela and Collins, and those guys are a pick and roll nightmare to defend. I hope we practice defending that and are ready in case they go to it more.

Good point too, Q, on the problems they'll have to deal with if they put Brooks on KAT. I hope Ant is ready to feast if they do that a lot.

I'm still worried about them doubling KAT hard and whether we're ready to respond. If they do that with Vando in, it'll probably be Vando's guy doubling, so Vando needs to be ready to get himself in position to catch a pass and KAT needs to be ready to hit him if they do that.

I would not be too surprised if we see Steven Adams only for short stretches the rest of this series. It's weird. Big guys have often killed us this year, definitely on the glass, and if they can score, also by getting paint buckets. But Adams averaged just 5 points and 6 rebounds against us in the 3 games he played against us in the regular season. We should be ready for them to go small. I think it kind of plays into our hands.