Minnesota Sports Forum

Q-was-here wrote:Cleveland is the real deal. I know we kind of compare ourselves to them because they play with two bigs like us and they made a big trade for the other Utah star, Donovan Mitchell.

Right now the reason why Cleveland is so much better than Minnesota is guard play. Mitchell + Garland is >>>>>> than Ant + DLO.

Anyone that thought Mitchell and Ant were roughly equivalent players (or may be gave a slight edge to Mitchell) would be sorely mistaken based on the small sample size of this season. It's not even close unfortunately.

Cleveland bigs are so much more versatile defensively. They both can guard the perimeter.

Duke13 wrote:

Q-was-here wrote:Cleveland is the real deal. I know we kind of compare ourselves to them because they play with two bigs like us and they made a big trade for the other Utah star, Donovan Mitchell.

Right now the reason why Cleveland is so much better than Minnesota is guard play. Mitchell + Garland is >>>>>> than Ant + DLO.

Anyone that thought Mitchell and Ant were roughly equivalent players (or may be gave a slight edge to Mitchell) would be sorely mistaken based on the small sample size of this season. It's not even close unfortunately.

Cleveland bigs are so much more versatile defensively. They both can guard the perimeter.

Both you and Q are right. Q is correct that Cleveland has a much better guard tandem, which is critical to success in a League driven by guard and wing play. But you're also right that Cleveland's two bigs are more mobile and versatile defensively than our two bigs.

Q-was-here wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:More on that Celtics vs. Cavs game...

Why do officials keep falling for the same gimmicks from the same players. Game after game, year after year?

Case in point... Marcus Smart. He flopped 3x late in the game... and the officials called it every time. First was with about 3 minutes left, he exaggerated minimal contact under the rim from the very slightly built Garland and was rewarded with two free throws. Then, he wrapped his arms around Jarrett Allen who simply tried to move, only to see Smart suddenly lose all control and flop to the ground. Then, he basically wouldn't let Garland move and suddenly fell down again.

He got the call every time. Even as a Celtics fan, I'd have been embarrassed if they pulled out that game.

Great game overall though.

Yeah, that is frustrating, although it feels like that stuff is less tolerated or caught onto by officials deep in the playoffs.

Maybe. But there are 82 - 100 games that we have to watch it until then... it was very bad.

AND I ROOT FOR THE CELTICS!

34-year old Brook Lopez having a great start to this season and been absolutely a key cog in the Bucks' undefeated start. These smart, lengthy bigs age well. If we ever figure out how to play offense while Rudy is on the floor, perhaps he can have a nice 5-6 year run with the Wolves as well.

Big fan of Lopez. Early in his career his defense was heavily criticized. He has made himself into a key component to that squad on both ends and oh by the way made himself into quite the perimeter shooter.

Capela had 21 points, 19 rebounds and 4 blocks tonight. DeJounte Murray had 22 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists, 3 steals and only 2 turnovers in 42 minutes tonight. I'd love to have one or both of those two (especially Murray) on the Wolves right now.

As I've mentioned before, the cream tends to rise over the course of an 82-game NBA season. I think we started to see the cream rising in tonight's NBA action. The struggling Nets beat the Hornets. The Celtics beat the Knicks by 15. The Nuggets beat the Spurs by 25 and the Suns beat the Blazers by 20. Oh, and the Wolves beat the hapless Rockets by 12, but the game wasn't really that close.

The League will sort itself out over time based on talent (and health). As a result, initially hot but not very talented teams like the Spurs, Jazz, Blazers and Knicks will begin to fade if they haven't already. Meanwhile, we'll see the Nuggets, Clippers and Suns continue to surge. I fully expect the Warriors to get it together and get hot. And I think the Pelicans, who have looked good, will only get better. The question for Wolves fans is whether our team will also begin to rise with the rest of the cream in the West. The Wolves have the individual talent to rise with these other teams, but until tonight they didn't resemble anything I'd call cream.

But the Wolves are dealing with far more change than other teams. Playing with different rotations, philosophical changes on both ends , finding roles for all the new guys. Rudy's not the only one expected to make big contributions as a new guy. If at 30 games we aren't seeing improvement then I'll start sweating.

PorkChop wrote:But the Wolves are dealing with far more change than other teams. Playing with different rotations, philosophical changes on both ends , finding roles for all the new guys. Rudy's not the only one expected to make big contributions as a new guy. If at 30 games we aren't seeing improvement then I'll start sweating.

That's right, Pork. The Wolves have more change to deal with than most other teams. It's a problem created by our front office. We'll find out by Christmas whether it was a problem worth creating.

The Wolves were smart enough to spot AJ Lawson in Summer League and sign him to a two-way deal before the season started. But then they let him go to make room for who? In any event, Lawson has played two G-League games so far this season. In his first game, he had 22 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists in 27 minutes. In his second game he scored 28 points. I just finished watching his second G-League game on NBA TV. He looked great on both sides of the ball. He's super quick and athletic with a nice looking shot. We have Garza as one of our two-way players and that's great. Who has our other two-way?