Minnesota Sports Forum

kekgeek1 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:I was out tonight with family and missed the game. I'm about to watch the recording. Must have been a fun game. Some great numbers in the box score. Love Ant's 11 assists. Love Jaden's 8 rebounds. Love Knight's 16 points. Love 150 points. Love the all-around numbers and efficiency from DLO. I'm not sure why anyone is pining for the return of Gobert. Naz and Knight change the dynamic of this team. They fit perfectly with Edwards and McDaniels. And with either one of those bigs as the team's center, DLO becomes better because of their movement, quickness, athleticism and terrific hands. This game is about talent, but it's just as much about fit and team identity. The team on the floor these past two games is the team to build around. They can probably work well with either Gobert or KAT, but not both. They showed they can play well with KAT last season. But I just love the mobility, speed, athleticism and versatility of this group of guys.

Buy the way, Nathan Knight can joke on the sideline as much as he wants if he continues to play like he's played the last couple games. :)

This winning with this defense is not sustainable that is why we want gobert back. Fun 2 wins. Hopefully it continues

Kek - The winning last season was sustainable with the 7th ranked offense and 13th ranked defense. It was sustainable enough to result in a finish 10 games over .500. What we were seeing from this team with Gobert and KAT on the floor (or just with Gobert) was sustainably mediocre.

I think tonight was adding to the evidence of more primary ball handling responsibility for Ant even when Dlo is out there. Put more pressure on him to do the right thing. Ant was 37% USG this game, not that he should average that every game but I want him to continue to develop his PG skills.

Encouraging stuff.

The West being jumbled at least is a cause to believe that the end result that we want is still reachable.

I noticed that Naz only played 12 minutes. Watching the recording i now see Naz walking to the locker room with some sort of shoulder injury. That's a bummer. Hope it's a short-term issue. He's been playing so well.

thedoper wrote:I think tonight was adding to the evidence of more primary ball handling responsibility for Ant even when Dlo is out there. Put more pressure on him to do the right thing. Ant was 37% USG this game, not that he should average that every game but I want him to continue to develop his PG skills.

Absolutely. Continue to give Anthony Edwards responsibilities on the ball -- within reason. He's shown the talent/ability to spread the ball around, but his decision-making has typically been the question there. Him improving and getting more comfortable in that role only makes Minnesota's offense more dangerous. And get D'Angelo Russell on the move when he is off-ball because that's a part of the game that he's good at. Take advantage of it. Those two can play really well off of each other and we've been seeing it a lot lately.

Great win against a healthy, yet very uninspired, Bulls team. I know they are missing Ball, but otherwise their big three of Vuc, LaVine, and DeRozan were all playing.

- Good guard play makes such a massive difference. DLO and Ant making the extra pass and hitting their fair share of shots...just huge for this team. Nice to see Rivers finally make some shots too.

- I left Nate Knight for dead, but man, love his physicality out there. He's one of the few players we have on this roster that doesn't play soft.

- As Doper said, Ant getting some more reps as lead ball handler seems to be paying dividends. Yes, he still chucks up some ill-advised shots, but he does seem to be getting better at making good reads and delivering the ball with accuracy.

- We played high wall coverage all game - no drop - which probably suits the personnel we had better. We still gave up a lot of points! Like it or not, Rudy makes a big difference defensively. In fact, I'm pretty disappointed overall with just how bad our defense is without him.

- I still don't like LaVine's game.

Good win, back to .500! I'll be in town and going to the arena for Wednesday's game, so hope the same energy is on display then!

So it seems Ant and DLO each have a different perspective about their role which might be the best fit for their skills. It has seemed to happen with KAT and now Gobert out of the lineup. If KAT comes back and shoots how we expect and Gobert is Gobert...The Wolves might actually gain some traction.

Fun basketball! What an exciting team to watch!

There was one spectacular play (out of many options) that impressed me the most.

With about three minutes left, the ball touched three players... yet nobody dribbled... they each make split-second decisions to pass... with the last one being Nate Knight who caught it diving to the goal and immediately redirected it to the 4th guy, Rivers in the corner, who hit a three pointer.

It was beautiful basketball.

Just watched the replay with the bulls crew - Stacy king was a joy to listen to. He was so salty about the Bulls D, losing his mind when knight got all those dunks rolling to the hoop and then had a great nugget when Garza drove from above the free throw line for a layup: "Garza runs the 40 in about two weeks, you can't let him drive all the way to the hoop!" I don't see any way for them to really compete in the East any time soon.

For the wolves, the ball was flying around, especially in the second half. We killed the zone the bulls were trying to play and had a great 3rd quarter, two things the wolves have struggled with for awhile.

I loved Ant competing after his turnover with 2 seconds left in the third to get the steal and buzzer beater. He seems to have accountability for his turnovers, hopefully over time that extends to his decision making and shot selection.

DLO was fantastic. Knight is starting to show that his offensive impact at the NBA level is for real.

Defense as a whole was not great, but not for a lack of trying. Seemed like we were getting back in transition and recovering fairly well scrambling with the high wall, but with only 1 Jaden McDaniels, it's hard to keep that up over a full 48.

Edit: LaVine also quietly got his 10k career point. His athletic ability and shot are a thing of beauty, but he still seems like he hasn't really gotten any more basketball iq (Vuc was visibly pissed at him for getting lost as the low man on so many possessions)