Minnesota Sports Forum

Jester1534 wrote:After the first half from DLO he didn't score point is that correct? That's inexcusable from team perspective after a player was that hot.

Cam and Doper. Hope you guys have Merry Christmas thanks watching the game with me.

Yeah Merry Christmas guys have an extra eggnog.

Jester1534 wrote:After the first half from DLO he didn't score point is that correct? That's inexcusable from team perspective after a player was that hot.

Cam and Doper. Hope you guys have Merry Christmas thanks watching the game with me.

Jaylen Nowell kept shot-hunting. Combine that with the hot streak Anthony Edwards had of his own and D-Lo fell out of rhythm. Cooled off big time. Hate to see it.

This one was fun for about three quarters and then the stupid decision-making took over for Minnesota. Merry Christmas, Jester.

I love how there are still folks on this board that blame DLO for everything.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone

Wow, Gobert sure has made a big positive difference since his return, he said sarcastically. :). Merry Christmas everyone!

Jaylen Nowell has a higher usage this season than Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell, and the gap between him and Anthony Edwards is smaller than it is between him and those other two. This is actively hurting the Timberwolves because Nowell just isn't scoring or facilitating well enough to justify wasting those possessions. Remember when some here debated that Russell needed to take a backseat to Nowell in scoring hierarchy? Yeah, that hasn't worked out at all. We're witnessing what it looks like when a player is stretched beyond his capabilities, unfortunately.

Nowell also has a higher usage than the following: Jamal Murray, Jalen Brunson, Tyler Herro, Jrue Holiday, Dejounte Murray, C.J. McCollum, Bojan Bogdanovic, Jimmy Butler, Tyrese Haliburton, and Fred VanVleet, among many others.

Nowell is taking 25.1 FGA per 100 possessions, good enough for 18th-most in the league -- or 19.2 FGA per 36 minutes, which is 16th-most in the league. He comfortably leads Minnesota in both categories.

I get that Nowell's role this season has been to come in and score, but this is beyond absurd. Plus-minus and on/off metrics be damned, as he's positive in both, but he's flat out hurting the team with his play more often than not. He's approaching Marcus Thornton territory, which is far from a reliably useful rotation player. It's only a matter of time before Austin Rivers bumps him from the rotation altogether if this continues.

Let's face it...Boston is really good (I have no idea why they have struggled the past couple weeks), and we were missing our (arguably) best player and three of our most important bench players. I know moral victories don't mean much, but I'm going to take some solace in the fact we hung with them for three quarters. I'm encouraged by the way Russell played after two clunkers of a game...he was far and away our best offensive player in this game. I'm also going to defend Nowell a little here. Yes, he's ice cold from beyond the arc and plays too much hero ball, but he was 5-10 on 2's and added 5 rebounds and 2 assists and no turnovers. More importantly, this was the first time I've seen some defensive potential in him (Jim Pete saw it too and mentioned it a couple times). Despite his continuing 3-point shooting woes (22% his last 10 and now under 30% on the season...unacceptable), he was one player who actually showed some hustle tonight...I'm not surprised he led the team with a +7, and also not surprised that DLo, Jaden and Naz had nice stat lines. The problem is everyone else stunk.

Ant frustrated the hell out of me tonight. He had moments of brilliance on offense, but his defense was pathetic. We need much more from him on the defensive side of the ball. I'm also going to call out Rudy for a horrible game tonight. I don't know if his ankle was bothering him, but he didn't look like he wanted to be out there tonight. Terrible game.

We're not going to win many (any?) games against good teams with KAT out and a depleted bench, but Russell's excellent game tonight (21-10-7 on only 13 shots) gave me some hope. If he can give us more games like this and KAT comes back in two weeks, I think we will be fine.

And Merry Christmas everyone!

Two things killed us in the 4th: Poor defensive rebounding from our guards and wings and selfish play by DLO and Ant on the other end, where I think there was a series of three or so consecutive plays in the midst of Boston's run where they dribbled down the court and took a shot against a set half-court defense without a single pass. Otherwise, the team looked pretty damn good through three quarters.

Camden wrote:Jaylen Nowell has a higher usage this season than Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell, and the gap between him and Anthony Edwards is smaller than it is between him and those other two. This is actively hurting the Timberwolves because Nowell just isn't scoring or facilitating well enough to justify wasting those possessions. Remember when some here debated that Russell needed to take a backseat to Nowell in scoring hierarchy? Yeah, that hasn't worked out at all. We're witnessing what it looks like when a player is stretched beyond his capabilities, unfortunately.

Nowell also has a higher usage than the following: Jamal Murray, Jalen Brunson, Tyler Herro, Jrue Holiday, Dejounte Murray, C.J. McCollum, Bojan Bogdanovic, Jimmy Butler, Tyrese Haliburton, and Fred VanVleet, among many others.

Nowell is taking 25.1 FGA per 100 possessions, good enough for 18th-most in the league -- or 19.2 FGA per 36 minutes, which is 16th-most in the league. He comfortably leads Minnesota in both categories.

I get that Nowell's role this season has been to come in and score, but this is beyond absurd. Plus-minus and on/off metrics be damned, as he's positive in both, but he's flat out hurting the team with his play more often than not. He's approaching Marcus Thornton territory, which is far from a reliably useful rotation player. It's only a matter of time before Austin Rivers bumps him from the rotation altogether if this continues.

There were valid reasons to believe Nowell could grow into a potent 6th man role. He's a 4th year player that had made nice strides through three seasons and showed over a stretch last season that he could be a very efficient shot maker off the bench. He had also demonstrated last season that when given regular minutes, he would produce.

It's safe to say that he's been a disaster this season. You just can't be that bad of a defender AND be terribly inefficient from the field on a high volume of shots. It's the worst possible outcome from a role player.

Q-was-here wrote:There were valid reasons to believe Nowell could grow into a potent 6th man role. He's a 4th year player that had made nice strides through three seasons and showed over a stretch last season that he could be a very efficient shot maker off the bench. He had also demonstrated last season that when given regular minutes, he would produce.

It's safe to say that he's been a disaster this season. You just can't be that bad of a defender AND be terribly inefficient from the field on a high volume of shots. It's the worst possible outcome from a role player.

I don't disagree that some of those expectations were well-supported, and I was one of those optimists wishing to see Jaylen Nowell in an expanded role. Player development is a fickle thing, though. Like you said, it's been a disaster to this point on both ends of the floor.

What's interesting to me, though, is that Nowell doesn't even look like the same player. Perhaps he is who he always has been and the limited role in past seasons hid the true Nowell from us. Or he's truly just playing for his next contract -- winning basketball be damned. Either way, he looks to be more selfish and less instinctive than I ever remember. I never had Shabazz Muhammad flashbacks while watching Nowell prior to this season. The Nowell of last year regularly played through the offense, had really solid passing chops, and was one of the better finishers near the rim on the team. None of that has translated into this season.