lipoli390 wrote:I just looked at the box score and noticed that Culver had 10 rebounds in 21 minutes. I thought he played really well tonight in all aspects of the game just watching him. But that box score stat? Wow! We'll see how he progresses, but right now I'm really glad we didn't trade him.
Yeah if he plays all year like he played tonight or even continues to improve he's a solid rotation guy for sure. Its still hard to conceive of a working unit with him and Okogie out there together, but he's really played well.
Yeah, terrific game for Culver- 10/10/2, no turnovers and terrific, smart defense (no steals, but he seemed to be part of a few). I have to admit I cringed when one of his free throws was a Dan Bailey-like wide right, but he made his other 4. Perhaps more importantly, he looks like a different guy than even the somewhat successful Culver we saw at the end of last season- bigger, and much more confident. Many of us here are cautiously optimistic about Culver this season, and last night did nothing to change that.
I've been a Wolves fan for a long time, and there have been so many games in the past that, despite having the lead, I had a feeling of impending doom- I knew they were going to lose to a superior team, I just didn't know how. The odd thing about last night is I felt the opposite- I could see we were the superior team, and I just knew we were going to win. At halftime I posted this:
Don't lose sight that one of our max players put up a 4-2-1 with a TO in the first half. Any normal second half from D-Lo and we win by double digits.
Well, D-Lo put up a very nice 14-3-3 in the second half, and we won going away by 10. I'm not saying we're a good team yet- way too many question marks. But last night we did what good teams and good coaches do- figure it out mid-game and beat an inferior team. That's a really good sign.
I do think we have to look inside D-Lo's numbers though. He had most of his success when he was playing off the ball next to Rubio. Rubio started the game because of Russell's delayed Covid test, and Ryan largely substituted then for each other most of the game- I think they played less than 5 minutes together until Ryan finally put them together with 5 minutes left in the game and the score tied. We all know what happened- the Wolves outscored Detroit by 10 in those last 5 minutes with both Russell and Rubio playing well.
In other words- Russell was a -5 largely playing PG for the first 3 1/2 quarters, and a +10 playing next to Rubio the final 5 minutes. Small sample size, but not surprising to many of us here- D-Lo simply has to play most of his minutes at the 2. Ryan, are you listening?
How many games can this team win when 2 out of five positions on the court are giving you next to nothing in terms of scoring production. Rickys not going anywhere, so that PF situation needs to be addressed immediately.
PorkChop wrote:How many games can this team win when 2 out of five positions on the court are giving you next to nothing in terms of scoring production. Rickys not going anywhere, so that PF situation needs to be addressed immediately.
Rubio will be "fine." He's proven to be "fine" for quite awhile now. He'll get better.
I'm more worried about the "4" because those guys have not proven capable of more after several years in the league. But mostly because if Towns is asked to cover for them... he'll be exposed more than ever and get in foul trouble even more than ever... and the team will inevitably crumble if Towns isn't playing 35 minutes per game.
I was pulling my hair out it was so ugly in the first half. Ryan deserves a ton of credit for switching to zone. Detroit is not a good shooting team and couldn't capitalize. We escaped with a win after a completely terrible start. That's all that matters. The first step to building a winning culture is to actually win games and we beat and team we should tonight. We would have lost by 30 if that was the opener against Brooklyn so it's time to get back to work. Also I can imagine Blake didn't force everything inside because small defenders get away with murder in the post. Okogie could 100% go the PJ Tucker route and it works because the refs will give you a lot more leeway. If Layman or Juancho don't show anything in the first 10 games I would just stick them on the bench and just go all in on 4 guards and Towns. Get Nowell and the other end of the bench guys who actually do something on the court in the game rather that two tall guys who do nothing.
I just finished watching the game and here are my takes.
Bad:
Layman and Juancho were invisible except Jauncho missing 3's and blowing a layup. Maybe Layman's D was ok...maybe but these guys made a STRONG case for RHJ or really anyone else.
Guys that did about what you expect:
Okogie did ok against Griffin. I would have thought it would have been much worse regardless of who was on him. Okogie was a positive and his box score actually looks pretty good. I'm not sure played as good as that stat line but he was a positive. Meanwhile Rubionwas better than his stat line but wasn't amazing. Russell did his thing. So did Towns although it feels like he has to work hard on offense. They did go through him near the end of the game and he delivered. The Zone they played had some moments and ended up not being a disaster. There is some promise there but it needs to be used carefully IMO. RHJ would be great to have playing a zone.
Young guys looked good
Edwards has a really nice game. His ability to handle the ball and set up some guys was the nicest part. He also looked fine on Defense. I'm getting excited about this guy.
Beasley does not look like a liability on defense. He is really getting after it and he looks like he knows what he is doing as a team defender which according to people that watching him in Denver said was his biggest weakness. It's one regular season and but it's following up what we saw in preseason. I also like what he brings on offense. He takes mostly good shots and other than some misguided playmaking he stays within himself and has a few different ways to get buckets. I'm not thinking he goes for 20 a night but even a neutral defender that plays his butt off and gives you 16ppg is pretty valuable. So far that contract looks pretty good.
Culver had a double double and looked just fine defending Rose which is kind of impressive. He looks good getting to the basket and in general looks much improved and like an NBA player which is big even if he doesn't end up being a star. Josh Jackson looked solid, Culver has a much better rep and is earlier in his career than Josh Jackson.
Naz Reid looks like a legit rotation player. If you want to have any hope for this franchise he continues to be part of it in terms of finding a legit NBA player out of a guy that wasn't drafted. The 3 blocks were nice as was his ability to drive to the rim.
Overall I'm not sure I loved how the team played overall but there were a lot of positives when it came to a few young guys and that's a big deal if the trend continues. It was big to get a win and doing it down the stretch was important. This was a good team to play their first game as Detroit has a bunch of new guys too and it's not like they have high end talent along the roster. Hopefully the offense can start clicking
My take from the game is that it was sloppy, and if we play like that against any good teams we are in trouble. The amount of layups missed were terrible. Clanked.
I loved what I saw from Edwards. Towns did his thing. Naz looked capable of taking up a few minutes. All of the guards/wings played fine, but I was especially impressed with Beasley both on offense and defense.
The intensity on defense seems great from our 1-3 positions.
But my god, our team needs to do something to get an actual PF. Okogie did damn well considering, but also got bullied by Blake Griffin. That won't change. Juancho, Layman, picks, whatever. Go get someone.
"Okogie could 100% go the PJ Tucker route and it works because the refs will give you a lot more leeway"
Great point khan, it is sad that the league has been trending this way, hell we see it with our own Karl Anthony Towns on a nightly basis. That being said if it turns out that Okogie can mug people like Tucker and get away with it things could get interesting...
Given the opening schedule, this was a must win game. The next few games could be ugly and this allows them to avoid an 0-4 start.
I won't cover the negatives because you guys already plowed that ground. To me the main positive was seeing them run their closing action through KAT along with Rubio and DLO on the strong side. KAT delivered the right passes and DLO and Beasley made big shots.
Kudos to Saunders for a well-coached game. Not sure we'll be able to say that every night, but I thought his zone looks and the closing offensive sets to seal the game was well done.
