Minnesota Sports Forum

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Carlos Danger wrote:

monsterpile wrote:
One thing that Rubio has improved every year that is pretty significant is his taking care of the ball. It kinda bugged me one preseason game when an announcer said how he had too many turnovers. A pure passing PG that makes passes at times nobody else can make averaged less than 3 turnovers a game the last 2 years and it's too many? No

He could have had a few more assists last night too. I haven't finished watching all the game yet, but I did see one half court outlet over the shoulder to Prince that was like Brady to Gronkowski. Just absolutely perfect. Prince flubbed the layup but was fouled, so it still led to points.

Every PG in the league, heck every good player in the league, makes good passes that don't get the assist because of fouls, missed shots, et al.

bleedspeed177 wrote:I didn't see this.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/julius-randle-kevin-garnett-scuffle_56322ff5e4b0c66bae5b372c?ncid=txtlnkusaolp00000592

Carlos Danger wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Carlos Danger wrote:

monsterpile wrote:
One thing that Rubio has improved every year that is pretty significant is his taking care of the ball. It kinda bugged me one preseason game when an announcer said how he had too many turnovers. A pure passing PG that makes passes at times nobody else can make averaged less than 3 turnovers a game the last 2 years and it's too many? No

He could have had a few more assists last night too. I haven't finished watching all the game yet, but I did see one half court outlet over the shoulder to Prince that was like Brady to Gronkowski. Just absolutely perfect. Prince flubbed the layup but was fouled, so it still led to points.

Every PG in the league, heck every good player in the league, makes good passes that don't get the assist because of fouls, missed shots, et al.

Thanks for chiming in Captain Obvious. But my point still stands. Rubio had some terrific passes last night that won't show up in the box score. And the example I provided fit with what Monster stated (which is why I piggy backed on his post) about passes few guys can make. It didn't turn into an assist. But it was still a great pass which directly led to points. That's about as good as I've seen Rubio play.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:42 pages of posts... holy shitballs! OK. I get to chime in now:

- Rubio was fantastic. Wonderful game. He took command. Took shots with confidence and made those shots. Also finished better than he has in the past. Also played solid D, which we expect. All NBA type of performance.

- Towns. I'm not known as a Wolves optimist. But, damn. He's fluid, but not in the Mark Blount-let-me-stand-over-here-away-from-the-fray-and-launch-jumpers-while-counting-my-money sort of way. Not a perfect performance, but nobody expected that. I'm impressed. I'm eager to see more.

- Wiggins. Ummm... I don't want to say anything negative or run the risk of starting a 2,358 page thread. But I've heard he was ailing a bit. Maybe that was part of it.

- Garnett. Helpful... when he's on the court. He'll be sitting more than playing this season though.

- Kevin Martin. Obviously, he can score. Obviously, the Wolves need him to score. But, there's going to be some ugly nights. (and some good ones) I guess everybody just has to live with it going in. Martin knows he's out there for one reason... and seems intent on living up to that. The final offensive set for MN was beyond terrible. A clearout for Martin to launch a 21 foot contested jumper? They need to work on that. He's not that type of player. Hopefully, Mitchell isn't that type of coach.

- LaVine. He'll entice. Entertain. Disappoint. Frustrate. Excite. All in the same game... usually every game. I still contend his NBA future is as that combo guard off the bench you bring in to impact the game immediately. Maybe not Gerald Green v.2.0... but we can "hope" for Jamal Crawford v.2.0. Basically, the Wolves version of Lou Williams. Oh, his defense remains terrible.

- Dieng. Not super impactful tonight. But I think he's still ready to be one of the Wolves most consistently capable players this season.

- Bjelica. For not seeing the guy play before... it felt pretty close to what I expected. The guy isn't a game-changer when he's out there. But he's also not out of his element either. He seems to be a legit NBA player who can help by doing several things. Glad he's here.

- Prince. That boxscore will be the norm. Low minutes. Mostly 1s, 2s, and 0s across it.

- Payne. Only played 3+ minutes. Still annoyed me during that time.

- These teams are not good. I got a kick out of Jalen Rose on the ESPN broadcast. He could barely (actually, he couldn't) hide his disdain for covering this game. He admitted the only reason it was on was because of Kobe Bryant (the #1 and #2 didn't hurt either). And the look he gave Sage Steele when she asked if either team was a "playoff team" was awesome. No sugarcoating it. No appeasing the local audiences watching. No covering up for a dumb question by a colleague. He just glared at her before getting up and leaving to draw attention to the absurdity of the question.

- Good win on the road vs. a team near the same level.

- Damn. Rubio was really really good last night.

60WinTim wrote:I saw a couple comments about this being "two bad teams". But the Lakers look better to me than I thought they would. I prefer to think of these two teams as mediocre, but looking to improve over the course of the season.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

My point was that we've been hearing about Rubio getting screwed out of assists for 4+ years now. It happens to everybody regularly and evens out over time. No reason to repeatedly talk about all of his "could-a-been" assists time after time after time.