Wolves 2022-23 Outlook

[FNG]

I always like listening to Jonny Athletic on the radio and reading his columns, and this is a very good article. Lip, I agree that Finchie needs to send a wakeup call to some of his starters, and I would not be opposed to starting JMac and Prince against the Bucks...both have been terrific this season and deserve to be rewarded with at least additional minutes if not a starting role.

I will give a slight pass to Jaden though. I believe his terrible on/off numbers this season...almost equal to Russell's...has to do with Finchie's insistence that Jaden always be on the floor when the opponent's best offensive weapon is out there. Prince has been quite good on defense this season, but would he be as effective on guys like LeBron as Jaden is? I don't know. Jaden works so hard every minute on defense against elite scorers, I think it impacts his impact on the offensive end, where he has been quite disappointing this season...Kek would have the data on this, but my eye test tells me that Jaden has our the worst 3-point percentage on wide-open 3's.

My conclusion- start JMac, but leave Jaden in the starting lineup.

[Lipoli390]

I always like listening to Jonny Athletic on the radio and reading his columns, and this is a very good article. Lip, I agree that Finchie needs to send a wakeup call to some of his starters, and I would not be opposed to starting JMac and Prince against the Bucks...both have been terrific this season and deserve to be rewarded with at least additional minutes if not a starting role.

I will give a slight pass to Jaden though. I believe his terrible on/off numbers this season...almost equal to Russell's...has to do with Finchie's insistence that Jaden always be on the floor when the opponent's best offensive weapon is out there. Prince has been quite good on defense this season, but I don't think he would he be as effective on guys like LeBron as Jaden is. Jaden works so hard every minute on defense against elite scorers, I think it impacts his impact on the offensive end, where he has been quite disappointing this season...Kek would have the data on this, but my eye test tells me that Jaden has our the worst 3-point percentage on wide-open 3's.

My conclusion- start JMac, but leave Jaden in the starting lineup.

Good point about Jaden. But I'd still prefer Prince over him right now. I'm still high on Jaden's potential, but I haven't seen the development I expected. Right now I think we'd be a better team with Prince starting and Jaden coming off the bench. But the main thing for me is to replace DLO with JMac. And I'm conceived we need to try to move DLO,

[Tactical unit]

I would love for this team to start playing well but it's not even close right now. These Wolves flat out suck!

4-4 right now with 14 games left in November. What do you think the Wolves record will be by the end of the month?

[Lipoli390]

https://theathletic.com/3754048/2022/11/02/timberwolves-start-five-numbers/

This is a good article. It points out, with statistical support, that the problem with the Wolves goes beyond poor three-point shooting. It's turnovers, lack of ball movement and slow close-outs on the perimeter among other things. As I'm re-watching "The Last Dance" I'm reminded of the need for the right blend of players and the critical need for players who do what Dennis Rodman did for the Bulls. Beverley and Vando togetehr provided a lot of what Rodman provided - great disruptive, hustle defense, rebounding, chasing down loose balls, etc. The Wolves don't have anyone on the roster to fill that Rodman-type role. Meanwhile, with Gobert, KAT and Russell, 3/5 of the Wolves starting lineup is pretty slow-footed.

Time might fix what plagues the Wolves right now, but I'm not sure. This team lacks grit, but also lacks speed and quickness in its starting lineup. The fact that Finch says he wants to get Naz more minutes tells me there's an issue with the Gobert/KAT experiment. Most of all, this team lacks an identity. I don't think the Wolves problems are solvable without personnel changes. I don't know exactly what changes should be or what's feasible. Short of personnel changes, if it were up to me, my starting lineup against the Bucks on Friday would be JMac, Edwards, Prince, KAT and Rudy. Starting JMac and Prince instead of DLO and McDaniels would likely improve ball movement while also reducing fouls and turnovers. Maybe the Wolves can trade DLO and/or Nowell for a player who could help fill the void left by the departure of Beverley and Vando. Maybe we're closing in on the time to trade McDaniels.

While in the end you may be right Lip, it is 100% unrealistic to expect these kinds of rash changes this early in the season. Finch will make tweaks using guys off the bench and then deciding if he leaves them in longer for a struggling starter. But I don't foresee any trades or big starting lineup shakeups in the near future.

I agree with you completely, Q. The sorts of personnel changes I mentioned in my post won't happen any time soon if at all this season. And honestly, I wouldn't make any of the moves I suggested right now if I were in charge. I thought the Wolves front office was rash and impulsive in making the Gobert deal. I wouldn't want them to act impulsively again to fix the problems they've created. I'm still open to the possibility that the Wolves' problems are fixable, although I have profound doubts. In the end, I don't think DLO is the right PG for this team. No matter what happens with DLO, things could definitely change dramatically in the Wolves favor if Ant starts playing now at age 21 the way I think he'll be playing in two years at age 23 (assuming the organization manages him better than they have so far in letting him come back 10 pounds heavier after weekends of burgers, fried chicken fillets and French fries) :)

[Lipoli390]

I thought this video was interesting and perhaps applicable to the Wolves situation right now:

https://twitter.com/KalebNFL/status/1589687613832957952?s=20&t=Wd6Rz93iRSZw9Y7uLrMXQA

[Lipoli390]

The Wolves outlook at this point following the loss to Memphis? Obviously, not good!

The Wolves were out-rebounded substantially again last night against Memphis. Here's what Finch had to say about the rebounding:

"We've got to find a way to be more physical and more gritty with our smalls on the glass," Finch said. "A lot of the rebounds guys are getting on us are like these 50-50 rebounds that come out to the mid-range. Those should be ones that our guards are able to get. We're just not getting those."

My initial reaction to Finch's comment is, duh! As I've mentioned before, we lost an average of 13 rebounds per game giving up Vando and Beverley. And I'm not factoring in Beasley's rebounding contribution even though he's a very good rebounder at his position and played significant minutes last season. The rebounds that Vando and Beverley used to get were primarily those "50-50 rebounds that come out to mid-range" Finch was referring to. Gobert's rebounding has been as expected for the most part this season, but his rebounds are in precisely the same area and the same kind as the rebounds KAT used to pull down last season. It's just one of the many reasons why the Gobert deal never made sense to me.

My question to Finch is this: What did you expect would happen when your traded away our two best 50-50-ball rebounders who accounted for 13 rebounds per game? I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but I'm beyond pissed at this team - specifically pissed at the front office as well as the head coach and new ownership who went along with the risky and impulsive decision to trade a king's ransom for Rudy Gobert. I get the arguments for it. But there were always profound questions surrounding the impact the deal would have on the team. Would KAT be able to change his position and defend modern PFs? Would Gobert reduce KAT's effectiveness on the offensive end by reducing space KAT used so effectively last season for scoring on dribble penetration? Would the deal really help rebounding when you consider the types of rebounds Gobert gets relative to KAT, Vando and Beverley? How much would the team miss the high energy and toughness provided by both Vando and Beverley - and also Beasley for that matter? Could the team really count on DLO to gel with Gobert into an highly effective PG given how terrible DLO was in the playoffs last season and how inconsistent he's been throughout his time with the Wolves? Could this team really be effective in today's NBA, built on speed and athleticism, when three of the Wolves four starters are slow and not particularly athletic (Gobert, KAT, DLO)?

So here we're are - rooting for a team that's playing like crap and headed towards a lottery finish unless things change substantially in the next 4-6 weeks. Meanwhile, the Wolves' potential trade assets are severely limited. They can't use draft capital for trades because of the Gobert deal. DLO has effectively eliminated any trade value he might have had entering the season except perhaps for his expiring contract. KAT can't be traded until after the season and I think it would be dumb to trade him in any event. The list goes on. Other than Gobert, Ant, McDaniels, Prince and maybe Naz, this franchise has no meaningful trade value they can use this season.

Shortly after he was hired, Tim Connelly said he wanted to stay out of the way and not screw things up. Clearly, he wasn't true to his word. Not long before that, he said there are no shortcuts to success. Yet, he himself in perhaps the biggest way possible within a month or so after he was hired and made a huge deal that gutted the team's future draft assets while also significantly transforming the team's personnel in a way that was bound to significantly impact the team's energy and style of play. It was a deal that the vast majority of basketball minds around the nation considered a bad, lopsided deal for the Wolves.

This team is broken. Can it be repaired and, if so, can it be fixed before the nightmare scenario of a lottery finish at the end of the season? I have my doubts. This is Connelly's problem. He created it and now he has to fix it. Unfortunately, in creating this problem, Connelly also depleted the franchise of critical assets needed to do the fixing.

Obviously, I'm really frustrated. I'm not only a fan, but an investor in this team via my season tickets. I've spent a ton of money over the years on these tickets, including this season. My wife is at her wits end with me on the cost of these tickets and I don't think she'll allow me renew next season. She, like me, was excited about last season's team. We both loved the energy and the vibe as well as the strong finish. Now she refuses to go to any games because it's so depressing. I feel the same way, but I have to go anyway because my tickets aren't selling.

This franchise should have picked up where it left off last season, and if things didn't go well they would have have the resources to maneuver and adjust on the fly. I'm tired of incompetent front offices running this team. Rosas was the closest thing we've ever had to competence in our front office except for the early days of Kevin McHale. This is getting old. Perhaps Connelly is as brilliant as touted. If so, perhaps he can find a way out of the mess he's created. That will be the true test of his worth.

[Duke13]

Lip this should turn out well then because you ripped Rosas literally in everyone one of your posts for a year. I feel better about the future now. Thanks.

[Tactical unit]

The Wolves outlook at this point following the loss to Memphis? Obviously, not good!

The Wolves were out-rebounded substantially again last night against Memphis. Here's what Finch had to say about the rebounding:

"We've got to find a way to be more physical and more gritty with our smalls on the glass," Finch said. "A lot of the rebounds guys are getting on us are like these 50-50 rebounds that come out to the mid-range. Those should be ones that our guards are able to get. We're just not getting those."

My initial reaction to Finch's comment is, duh! As I've mentioned before, we lost an average of 13 rebounds per game giving up Vando and Beverley. And I'm not factoring in Beasley's rebounding contribution even though he's a very good rebounder at his position and played significant minutes last season. The rebounds that Vando and Beverley used to get were primarily those "50-50 rebounds that come out to mid-range" Finch was referring to. Gobert's rebounding has been as expected for the most part this season, but his rebounds are in precisely the same area and the same kind as the rebounds KAT used to pull down last season. It's just one of the many reasons why the Gobert deal never made sense to me.

My question to Finch is this: What did you expect would happen when your traded away our two best 50-50-ball rebounders who accounted for 13 rebounds per game? I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but I'm beyond pissed at this team - specifically pissed at the front office as well as the head coach and new ownership who went along with the risky and impulsive decision to trade a king's ransom for Rudy Gobert. I get the arguments for it. But there were always profound questions surrounding the impact the deal would have on the team. Would KAT be able to change his position and defend modern PFs? Would Gobert reduce KAT's effectiveness on the offensive end by reducing space KAT used so effectively last season for scoring on dribble penetration? Would the deal really help rebounding when you consider the types of rebounds Gobert gets relative to KAT, Vando and Beverley? How much would the team miss the high energy and toughness provided by both Vando and Beverley - and also Beasley for that matter? Could the team really count on DLO to gel with Gobert into an highly effective PG given how terrible DLO was in the playoffs last season and how inconsistent he's been throughout his time with the Wolves? Could this team really be effective in today's NBA, built on speed and athleticism, when three of the Wolves four starters are slow and in athletic (Gobert, KAT, DLO)?

So here we're are - rooting for a team that's playing like crap and headed towards a lottery finish unless things change substantially in the next 4-6 weeks. Meanwhile, the Wolves' potential trade assets are severely limited. They can't use draft capital for trades because of the Gobert deal. DLO has effectively eliminated any trade value he might have had entering the season except perhaps for his expiring contract. KAT can't be traded until after the season and I think it would be dumb to trade him in any event. The list goes on. Other than Gobert, Ant, McDaniels, Prince and maybe Naz, this franchise has no meaningful trade value they can use this season.

Shortly after he was hired, Tim Connelly said he wanted to stay out of the way and not screw things up. Clearly, he wasn't true to his word. Not long before that, he said there are no shortcuts to success. Yet, he himself in perhaps the biggest way possible within a month or so after he was hired and made a huge deal that gutted the team's future draft assets while also significantly transforming the team's personnel in a way that was bound to significantly impact the team's energy and style of play. It was a deal that the vast majority of basketball minds around the nation considered a bad, lopsided deal for the Wolves.

This team is broken. Can it be repaired and, if so, can it be fixed before the nightmare scenario of a lottery finish at the end of the season? I have my doubts. This is Connelly's problem. He created it and now he has to fix it. Unfortunately, in creating this problem, Connelly also depleted the franchise of critical assets needed to do the fixing.

Obviously, I'm really frustrated. I'm not only a fan, but an investor in this team via my season tickets. I've spent a ton of money over the years on these tickets, including this season. My wife is at her wits end with me on the cost of these tickets and I don't think she'll allow me renew next season. She, like me, was excited about last season's team. We both loved the energy and the vibe as well as the strong finish. Now she refuses to go to any games because it's so depressing. I feel the same way, but I have to go anyway because my tickets aren't selling.

This franchise should have picked up where it left off last season, and if things didn't go well they would have have the resources to maneuver and adjust on the fly. I'm tired of incompetent front offices running this team. Rosas was the closest thing we've ever had to competence in our front office except for the early days of Kevin McHale. This is getting old. Perhaps Connelly is as brilliant as touted. If so, perhaps he can find a way out of the mess he's created. That will be the true test of his worth.

This is exactly how each fan should feel! Screw this glass half full, draft picks would have been late anyways narrative. This team is lacking everything that makes teams win. How can they win with subpar effort? Do they think the refs care if they get on there case, it literally will only lead to less calls. Who's the leader?

I think you said it best.....BROKEN

[Lipoli390]

Lip this should turn out well then because you ripped Rosas literally in everyone one of your posts for a year. I feel better about the future now. Thanks.

Lol. Ripped him "literally in every one of my posts? You mean as in not "figuratively"? You could just say I ripped him in all of my posts. Of course, you'd be wrong. But I did rip him in a number of my posts because I thought he did a terrible job initially when he drafted Culver and made Ryan Saunders permanent up through the time he re-signed Juancho. I also disliked the DLO deal. Fortunately, he made some nice moves in his last 12 months with the team - drafting Edwards and McDaniels as well as trading for Beverley and bringing in Finch. So he improved over time and the result was last season's 46-win team. As for Connelly, let's not forget that I was among those who praised his Josh Minott pick in the second round. I also liked his SLO MO signing. While I wasn't initially thrilled with the Kessler pick, I was coming around on it as I leaned more about Kessler. I always like Moore as a guy on my list to potentially draft in the first or second found. If not for the Gobert deal, my take on Connelly so far would be a net positive. That doesn't bode for Connelly, does it. :)

[D-Mac [enjin:19736340]]

The Wolves outlook at this point following the loss to Memphis? Obviously, not good!

The Wolves were out-rebounded substantially again last night against Memphis. Here's what Finch had to say about the rebounding:

"We've got to find a way to be more physical and more gritty with our smalls on the glass," Finch said. "A lot of the rebounds guys are getting on us are like these 50-50 rebounds that come out to the mid-range. Those should be ones that our guards are able to get. We're just not getting those."

My initial reaction to Finch's comment is, duh! As I've mentioned before, we lost an average of 13 rebounds per game giving up Vando and Beverley. And I'm not factoring in Beasley's rebounding contribution even though he's a very good rebounder at his position and played significant minutes last season. The rebounds that Vando and Beverley used to get were primarily those "50-50 rebounds that come out to mid-range" Finch was referring to. Gobert's rebounding has been as expected for the most part this season, but his rebounds are in precisely the same area and the same kind as the rebounds KAT used to pull down last season. It's just one of the many reasons why the Gobert deal never made sense to me.

My question to Finch is this: What did you expect would happen when your traded away our two best 50-50-ball rebounders who accounted for 13 rebounds per game? I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but I'm beyond pissed at this team - specifically pissed at the front office as well as the head coach and new ownership who went along with the risky and impulsive decision to trade a king's ransom for Rudy Gobert. I get the arguments for it. But there were always profound questions surrounding the impact the deal would have on the team. Would KAT be able to change his position and defend modern PFs? Would Gobert reduce KAT's effectiveness on the offensive end by reducing space KAT used so effectively last season for scoring on dribble penetration? Would the deal really help rebounding when you consider the types of rebounds Gobert gets relative to KAT, Vando and Beverley? How much would the team miss the high energy and toughness provided by both Vando and Beverley - and also Beasley for that matter? Could the team really count on DLO to gel with Gobert into an highly effective PG given how terrible DLO was in the playoffs last season and how inconsistent he's been throughout his time with the Wolves? Could this team really be effective in today's NBA, built on speed and athleticism, when three of the Wolves four starters are slow and in athletic (Gobert, KAT, DLO)?

So here we're are - rooting for a team that's playing like crap and headed towards a lottery finish unless things change substantially in the next 4-6 weeks. Meanwhile, the Wolves' potential trade assets are severely limited. They can't use draft capital for trades because of the Gobert deal. DLO has effectively eliminated any trade value he might have had entering the season except perhaps for his expiring contract. KAT can't be traded until after the season and I think it would be dumb to trade him in any event. The list goes on. Other than Gobert, Ant, McDaniels, Prince and maybe Naz, this franchise has no meaningful trade value they can use this season.

Shortly after he was hired, Tim Connelly said he wanted to stay out of the way and not screw things up. Clearly, he wasn't true to his word. Not long before that, he said there are no shortcuts to success. Yet, he himself in perhaps the biggest way possible within a month or so after he was hired and made a huge deal that gutted the team's future draft assets while also significantly transforming the team's personnel in a way that was bound to significantly impact the team's energy and style of play. It was a deal that the vast majority of basketball minds around the nation considered a bad, lopsided deal for the Wolves.

This team is broken. Can it be repaired and, if so, can it be fixed before the nightmare scenario of a lottery finish at the end of the season? I have my doubts. This is Connelly's problem. He created it and now he has to fix it. Unfortunately, in creating this problem, Connelly also depleted the franchise of critical assets needed to do the fixing.

Obviously, I'm really frustrated. I'm not only a fan, but an investor in this team via my season tickets. I've spent a ton of money over the years on these tickets, including this season. My wife is at her wits end with me on the cost of these tickets and I don't think she'll allow me renew next season. She, like me, was excited about last season's team. We both loved the energy and the vibe as well as the strong finish. Now she refuses to go to any games because it's so depressing. I feel the same way, but I have to go anyway because my tickets aren't selling.

This franchise should have picked up where it left off last season, and if things didn't go well they would have have the resources to maneuver and adjust on the fly. I'm tired of incompetent front offices running this team. Rosas was the closest thing we've ever had to competence in our front office except for the early days of Kevin McHale. This is getting old. Perhaps Connelly is as brilliant as touted. If so, perhaps he can find a way out of the mess he's created. That will be the true test of his worth.

This is exactly how each fan should feel! Screw this glass half full, draft picks would have been late anyways narrative. This team is lacking everything that makes teams win. How can they win with subpar effort? Do they think the refs care if they get on there case, it literally will only lead to less calls. Who's the leader?

I think you said it best.....BROKEN

This team is a bigger joke now than it's ever been. You have new owners that don't even have enough money to buy the team, you hire a new PBO who makes the lazy, big splash, "instant gratification" move, with no regard for the future assets and financial outlook of the organization, you have no leaders, because leadership is obviously not something that is valued in this organization. You have a star player who is all talk and absolutely no character, just a complete snowflake. From top to bottom this team embodies everything that is wrong with our culture and I think that's why it pisses me off so much. You reward a mental midget with a supermax contract and instead of offloading your terrible point guard before the rest of the league realizes just how terrible he is, we go out and make a completely ill advised trade, promoting the best case scenario narrative, that we'll only lose 4 picks in the late 20's lol. Wise people in life hope for the best case scenario but plan for the worst. Others are more diplomatic, but I'll say that anyone who thought Dlo was the answer for this team or thought this Gobert trade was a good idea is not very smart person. It's unfortunate that the ownership and top execs fall into this category along with many of the fans. As far as I'm concerned, everyone in this organization (ownership, execs, players) deserve exactly what they're getting right now and I think it's funny. I don't have any money invested in season tix (never will financially support these woke, snowflakes with a dime of my hard earned money ever again). I feel really bad for any of you that have bought season tix and hope you booo the hell out of these guys and show them your dissatisfaction by not renewing next year.