Minnesota Sports Forum

DNatagal wrote: ↑Fri Dec 29, 2023 11:08 am I thought Finch was supposed to be a genius offensive whiz? This doesn't look like an organized offense. It is either Conley and Gobert screening until something happens, KAT setting a screen and then going 1 on 5, or Ant getting the ball after standing in the corner for 8 seconds and then going 1 on 5. The lack of movement, properly set screens, and lack of creativity caused by the ball watching is hard to fathom on a team that is 23-7. If the Wolves weren't so talented going 1- on 5, they would be every Wolves team up until now, .500 or less right now.

Yeah, 17th in offensive rating. If you dig further, it's mostly turnovers that causes us to be below average. Our eFG% and free throw rates are good, so if we don't turn it over, we're a pretty efficient offense. Our offensive rebounding is OK-ish, but I'm fine with sacrificing that to make sure we get back on defense. But we are 28th in the league in turnover rate. 28th!

Mmmmm, I wonder who FNG is talking about when he speaks of a player we already have on the roster that could help with that....

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Fri Dec 29, 2023 11:25 am

DNatagal wrote: ↑Fri Dec 29, 2023 11:08 am I thought Finch was supposed to be a genius offensive whiz? This doesn't look like an organized offense. It is either Conley and Gobert screening until something happens, KAT setting a screen and then going 1 on 5, or Ant getting the ball after standing in the corner for 8 seconds and then going 1 on 5. The lack of movement, properly set screens, and lack of creativity caused by the ball watching is hard to fathom on a team that is 23-7. If the Wolves weren't so talented going 1- on 5, they would be every Wolves team up until now, .500 or less right now.

Yeah, 17th in offensive rating. If you dig further, it's mostly turnovers that causes us to be below average. Our eFG% and free throw rates are good, so if we don't turn it over, we're a pretty efficient offense. Our offensive rebounding is OK-ish, but I'm fine with sacrificing that to make sure we get back on defense. But we are 28th in the league in turnover rate. 28th!

Mmmmm, I wonder who FNG is talking about when he speaks of a player we already have on the roster that could help with that....

(for DNatagal...)

It's one thing to scheme a plan for guys making hundreds of millions of dollars based on their basketball talent. It's another to have those players consistently execute it.

If Edwards is getting a ton of acclaim for doing it his way sometimes... what's stopping him? If Towns is being rewarded with a $300M contract for doing things his way... why stop? If Gobert is still going to earn $40M+ annually despite trying to go coast to coast at times... why not?

The bottom line is that the team is 23 - 7... best start ever. And there's still plenty of time to clean things up for a playoff run.

I love the fact that we are 23-7 and that we can pick apart the issues, but damn I would love to see a free flowing offense that makes it easy for bench players to be inserted in and contribute.

We have a 36 year old PG and play 2 centers the whole game. I think expecting an offense that is free flowing isnt really realistic. We are going to continue to bully ball teams for wins if we are insistent on playing this much size all the time.

Ant moving up 3 spots to 7th on the NBA MVP ladder isn't going to help with getting him to play differently

thedoper wrote: ↑Fri Dec 29, 2023 2:18 pm We have a 36 year old PG and play 2 centers the whole game. I think expecting an offense that is free flowing isnt really realistic. We are going to continue to bully ball teams for wins if we are insistent on playing this much size all the time.

I think you’re probably right, Doper. And the fact that this team hasn’t improved in that regard more than a third into the season supports your conclusion. I’d still like to believe this team can cut down it’s prolific turnover rate, which would help our offense and defense, but seeing no improvement this deep into the season makes me doubt that we’ll see significant improvement in this area either. It’s likely a personnel issue - including Ant’s youth and recklessness, Rudy’s bad hands, and KAT’s low IQ.

To your point, I think the Wolves team we’re seeing now is the team we’ll see the rest of the season. We’re a big team with players who play bully ball. We have too many rotation players with turnover tendencies. The only quality shooter/scorer we have coming off the bench is Naz. And we don’t have a reliable quality PG to back up Conley. But our defense is dam good, and coupled with two elite scorers in our starting lineup (Ant and KAT), that defense has us at the top of the Western Conference. So I’ll continue to enjoy the season.