Minnesota Sports Forum

Q12543 wrote:- Worst loss of the year in my opinion, hands down.

- I mean, how do you get outworked, outshot, and outhustled by a Denver team on the 2nd night of a back to back while playing in front of your home crowd with two days rest. Pathetic.

- So much for the KG effect....(although he actually played pretty well. It was everyone else that sucked).

- I would say put Pekovic on the shelf and just let Gorgui get all of his minutes. But the more I watch Gorgui, the less I like him. So we have a cripple and a wet noodle for our Center combination. Brilliant.

- Wiggins, make your free throws! We're at the point in the season where he should practically be automatic by now. Otherwise, he had a solid, if not spectacular, game.

- Rubio has fallen in love with that pull-up jumper and I don't like it. His trigger has become way too quick on that shot.

- You know you're in trouble when you are hoping for Gary Neal to take over the game offensively. Sorry Flip, but that engine only has a couple of gears. Neal is not going to shoot you back into a game.

- I hate all that stupid pin-down action Flip runs. Quick catch and shoot 20-footers is not a formula for success on offense.

- LaVine looked like a 19-year old rookie again tonight and Payne also looked like a 19-year old rookie.


Ugh.

Yep, in the words of Larry David "pretty, pretty, pretty bad"

Q12543 wrote:- Worst loss of the year in my opinion, hands down.



- LaVine looked like a 19-year old rookie again tonight and Payne also looked like a 19-year old rookie.


Ugh.

On the other side... the Wolves made Jameer Nelson look like a 24-year-old All Star.

How did THAT guy get THAT much penetration THAT many times? This makes two abysmal efforts in a row defensively vs. opposing PGs. It's one thing when Chris Paul does it with Deeandre Jordan setting screens devised by Doc Rivers. But, Jameer Nelson?

The rebounding was bad. Until yesterday, Denver had been outrebounded in 15 straight games.

Basically, effort stuff. The Wolves didn't have it. It happens in the NBA. Although usually it's the road team on the back-end of a back-to-back that mails it in...


[note: gotta love the nba by the way. the nuggets looked very much like a team that loved that they got their previous coach fired. it's not the same team that lost 19 of 21 with uninspired performances.]

Q12543 wrote:- Worst loss of the year in my opinion, hands down.

- I mean, how do you get outworked, outshot, and outhustled by a Denver team on the 2nd night of a back to back while playing in front of your home crowd with two days rest. Pathetic.

- So much for the KG effect....(although he actually played pretty well. It was everyone else that sucked).

- I would say put Pekovic on the shelf and just let Gorgui get all of his minutes. But the more I watch Gorgui, the less I like him. So we have a cripple and a wet noodle for our Center combination. Brilliant.

- Wiggins, make your free throws! We're at the point in the season where he should practically be automatic by now. Otherwise, he had a solid, if not spectacular, game.

- Rubio has fallen in love with that pull-up jumper and I don't like it. His trigger has become way too quick on that shot.

- You know you're in trouble when you are hoping for Gary Neal to take over the game offensively. Sorry Flip, but that engine only has a couple of gears. Neal is not going to shoot you back into a game.

- I hate all that stupid pin-down action Flip runs. Quick catch and shoot 20-footers is not a formula for success on offense.

- LaVine looked like a 19-year old rookie again tonight and Payne also looked like a 19-year old rookie.


Ugh.

A lot to respond here to Q, you actually took a lot of thoughts from me on this one. To start out, I agree on the KG thing. He played well, but the team didn't. I had the continual nagging feeling that every time he was on the court we had a chance, but every time he was off the court we didn't.

Totally agree on Dieng. I'm becoming frustrated with his defense. I am starting to get the impression that he leaves his man too early in trying to assist in help defense. It becomes an automatic dump off for the penetrating guard every time. I know that's not all his fault because someone needs to back him up too, but I'd really like to see him play with as much of a mean streak on the low post defensively as he does on the low post offensively at times.

I'm not worried about Wiggins FT shooting. He's young and will only improve in this area. And overall he's not too poor in it anyway.

Bet you never thought you'd say that comment about Rubio. I'm not worried about this... I'm actually EXCITED to hear Penberthy will be spending MONTHS with Ricky this summer working on finishing at the rim and shooting. And in response to Ricky's shot being flat at times again, Penberthy points to it being triggered by being tired and it will take time to get out of that habit. Good stuff, and it makes sense. This guy really has a finger on the pulse of Rubio's shooting game.

On Gary Neal. I feel like this guy is taking on more of a role simply because he thinks he can do that on a bad team. You'd never see Gary Neal taking this much load on the Spurs. When he was with the Spurs, I remember his shot selection being better and fitting the role rather than trying to define a big role. I like the guy, but I wish we had enough talent for the guy to know his place.

Agreed on Flip's catch and shoot formula. Flip's always been big on creating open mid-range shots off picks at the elbows. If they were 3's I'd be more excited.

For LaVine I expect the up and down... For Payne, although I like his hustle and some of the things he brings, I'm underwhelmed. I don't see him ever being more than a 2nd-3rd string player...and that's IF he ends up getting it.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:
On the other side... the Wolves made Jameer Nelson look like a 24-year-old All Star.

How did THAT guy get THAT much penetration THAT many times? This makes two abysmal efforts in a row defensively vs. opposing PGs. It's one thing when Chris Paul does it with Deeandre Jordan setting screens devised by Doc Rivers. But, Jameer Nelson?

The rebounding was bad. Until yesterday, Denver had been outrebounded in 15 straight games.

Basically, effort stuff. The Wolves didn't have it. It happens in the NBA. Although usually it's the road team on the back-end of a back-to-back that mails it in...


[note: gotta love the nba by the way. the nuggets looked very much like a team that loved that they got their previous coach fired. it's not the same team that lost 19 of 21 with uninspired performances.]

Agreed on the rebounding, but disagreed on the PG comments. While Jameer Nelson got his, Ty Lawson got shut out. Faried and Gallo were the killers IMO. Bad loss though, for sure.

mrhockey89 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:
On the other side... the Wolves made Jameer Nelson look like a 24-year-old All Star.

How did THAT guy get THAT much penetration THAT many times? This makes two abysmal efforts in a row defensively vs. opposing PGs. It's one thing when Chris Paul does it with Deeandre Jordan setting screens devised by Doc Rivers. But, Jameer Nelson?

The rebounding was bad. Until yesterday, Denver had been outrebounded in 15 straight games.

Basically, effort stuff. The Wolves didn't have it. It happens in the NBA. Although usually it's the road team on the back-end of a back-to-back that mails it in...


[note: gotta love the nba by the way. the nuggets looked very much like a team that loved that they got their previous coach fired. it's not the same team that lost 19 of 21 with uninspired performances.]

Agreed on the rebounding, but disagreed on the PG comments. While Jameer Nelson got his, Ty Lawson got shut out. Faried and Gallo were the killers IMO. Bad loss though, for sure.

As we know from Rubio... it's not so much the PG "getting his" sometimes as much as it is breaking down the entire defense so everybody else "gets theirs."

In the past two games, I've been disappointed in how easy the Wolves have given up dribble drive penetration. And, I'm one of the guys who thinks PG defense is largely overrated as long as you have a good scheme.


[note: just read that the wolves had zero fast break points. that's sorta remarkable, aint it?]

Q12543 wrote:- Worst loss of the year in my opinion, hands down.

- I mean, how do you get outworked, outshot, and outhustled by a Denver team on the 2nd night of a back to back while playing in front of your home crowd with two days rest. Pathetic.

- So much for the KG effect....(although he actually played pretty well. It was everyone else that sucked).

- I would say put Pekovic on the shelf and just let Gorgui get all of his minutes. But the more I watch Gorgui, the less I like him. So we have a cripple and a wet noodle for our Center combination. Brilliant.

- Wiggins, make your free throws! We're at the point in the season where he should practically be automatic by now. Otherwise, he had a solid, if not spectacular, game.

- Rubio has fallen in love with that pull-up jumper and I don't like it. His trigger has become way too quick on that shot.

- You know you're in trouble when you are hoping for Gary Neal to take over the game offensively. Sorry Flip, but that engine only has a couple of gears. Neal is not going to shoot you back into a game.

- I hate all that stupid pin-down action Flip runs. Quick catch and shoot 20-footers is not a formula for success on offense.

- LaVine looked like a 19-year old rookie again tonight and Payne also looked like a 19-year old rookie.


Ugh.

Hard to argue with any of that.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

mrhockey89 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:
On the other side... the Wolves made Jameer Nelson look like a 24-year-old All Star.

How did THAT guy get THAT much penetration THAT many times? This makes two abysmal efforts in a row defensively vs. opposing PGs. It's one thing when Chris Paul does it with Deeandre Jordan setting screens devised by Doc Rivers. But, Jameer Nelson?

The rebounding was bad. Until yesterday, Denver had been outrebounded in 15 straight games.

Basically, effort stuff. The Wolves didn't have it. It happens in the NBA. Although usually it's the road team on the back-end of a back-to-back that mails it in...


[note: gotta love the nba by the way. the nuggets looked very much like a team that loved that they got their previous coach fired. it's not the same team that lost 19 of 21 with uninspired performances.]

Agreed on the rebounding, but disagreed on the PG comments. While Jameer Nelson got his, Ty Lawson got shut out. Faried and Gallo were the killers IMO. Bad loss though, for sure.

As we know from Rubio... it's not so much the PG "getting his" sometimes as much as it is breaking down the entire defense so everybody else "gets theirs."

In the past two games, I've been disappointed in how easy the Wolves have given up dribble drive penetration. And, I'm one of the guys who thinks PG defense is largely overrated as long as you have a good scheme.


[note: just read that the wolves had zero fast break points. that's sorta remarkable, aint it?]

I think our bigs do a poor job of defending the PnR. I think we had 2 fast break points at the end of the game? (23 seconds left or so)

Brutal loss tonight to a team that has mentally checked out already. But man, it is SO apparent that this team is still one elite big man away from transitioning from a lottery loser to a perennial playoff contender. Towns/Okafor/whatever....this team has complimentary pieces (4th, 5th, 6th best guy on a championship team) but it clearly lacks that 2nd guy (with Wiggins 1st and Rubio 3rd).

zigzag22 wrote:Brutal loss tonight to a team that has mentally checked out already. But man, it is SO apparent that this team is still one elite big man away from transitioning from a lottery loser to a perennial playoff contender. Towns/Okafor/whatever....this team has complimentary pieces (4th, 5th, 6th best guy on a championship team) but it clearly lacks that 2nd guy (with Wiggins 1st and Rubio 3rd).

Yep, I think they have checked out too Zig. We really do have a bigs problem. Too many guys who are injury prone and/or part time players. So if we get Towns or WCS, we'll have Pek/Dieng/KG/Payne/AB/New guy.

I'm not a smart guy, but isn't that a lot of roster spots?

BizarroJerry wrote:

zigzag22 wrote:Brutal loss tonight to a team that has mentally checked out already. But man, it is SO apparent that this team is still one elite big man away from transitioning from a lottery loser to a perennial playoff contender. Towns/Okafor/whatever....this team has complimentary pieces (4th, 5th, 6th best guy on a championship team) but it clearly lacks that 2nd guy (with Wiggins 1st and Rubio 3rd).

Yep, I think they have checked out too Zig. We really do have a bigs problem. Too many guys who are injury prone and/or part time players. So if we get Towns or WCS, we'll have Pek/Dieng/KG/Payne/AB/New guy.

I'm not a smart guy, but isn't that a lot of roster spots?

It is, especially when you consider Flip threw away a future first rounder for one of them unnecessarily. The Payne trade still makes me dizzy. Anyways, I would have to assume that Bennett somehow gets dumped in that scenario. Pekovic/Dieng and Garnett/2015 Draftee would get regular minutes with Payne, our first round pick of 2017 essentially, watches from the end of the bench.