Minnesota Sports Forum

FNG wrote:Last night was a night to jump on the Lip "bad-trade" train...it was embarrassing to see Rudy get outplayed by 2 G League quality centers. Further, Jon K has an article in the Athletic today asking where the Rudy of last season has gone. There are a lot of reasons to question the trade right now, especially since after the next two games, there's a good chance we will be 4 games under .500.

But I'm not jumping off the train yet for a couple reasons:

1) In almost every GDT, Kek points out how our interior defense falls apart as soon as Rudy leaves the court. His blocks may be down, but he is still a major rim protecting force.

2) Jonny K laments in his Athletic article how our starting backcourt has been largely unsuccessful in getting Rudy effectively involved in the offense. And it's true...Rudy has a negative rating when on the court with either Ant or Russell, and a negative rating when he is out there with both of them. This doesn't make sense to me, because both of our starting guards should be talented enough to thrive in a pick and roll offense with one of the best screening centers in the Association. But at least so far it isn't working.
The silver lining? The 2 players that Gobert pairs with best through this point in the season are both currently out...SloMo and JMac. Both have shown an ability to find Rudy open for easy dunks, while also providing effective defense when out there with him. We don't know when JMac will be back, but SloMo's back is good enough to go (he missed last night's game because he was sick). Hopefully Finchie will pair these two up more frequently with Rudy once they are both ready to go.

monsterpile wrote:This game was Lip's fault. It was Oscar Robinson's revenge game for Lip saying he wouldn't be an NBA player. :) I'm joking but I swear every time I end up looking at a Heat box score (not often) Oscar has a pretty good game then I look at his season stats and they are...Ok-ish. lol

TheFuture wrote:Connelly should be run out of town. The only thing he was maybe decent at was drafting, and he traded that all away. Maybe to hide that wasn't him and more the Nuggets scouting team? The Bulls sought Karnisovas for what he did with the Nuggets and look how odd that Bulls team is.

Go look at some of his other trades with the Nuggets. Nurkic and a First for Plumlee. The pick that ended up being Mitchell for Trey Lyles and some other washout. The pick that became Gobert for pick #46 and cash.

His crowning jewel is that he picked Jokic in the 2nd round. Who he also passed on twice prior in that draft.

He passed on trading Barton for KCP and filler. Look how great KCP now looks there as the POA defender.

On and on.

I do not trust him to be able to fix this. I just pray Ant does not ask out early into his next extension.

monsterpile wrote:

TheFuture wrote:Connelly should be run out of town. The only thing he was maybe decent at was drafting, and he traded that all away. Maybe to hide that wasn't him and more the Nuggets scouting team? The Bulls sought Karnisovas for what he did with the Nuggets and look how odd that Bulls team is.

Go look at some of his other trades with the Nuggets. Nurkic and a First for Plumlee. The pick that ended up being Mitchell for Trey Lyles and some other washout. The pick that became Gobert for pick #46 and cash.

His crowning jewel is that he picked Jokic in the 2nd round. Who he also passed on twice prior in that draft.

He passed on trading Barton for KCP and filler. Look how great KCP now looks there as the POA defender.

On and on.

I do not trust him to be able to fix this. I just pray Ant does not ask out early into his next extension.

You're basically picking everything he did wrong. I'm not saying he is awesome but this post does not represent the entirety of Connelly's work accurately.

Also this season isn't even over yet. I wonder what Celtics fans thought about Brad Stephens a year ago at this time. That team ended up in the NBA finals. I'm not suggesting the Wolves will be in the Finals but I don't think we can say for certain whether the Gobert trade is or isn't going to work out. I get why people say it won't though.

TheFuture wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

TheFuture wrote:Connelly should be run out of town. The only thing he was maybe decent at was drafting, and he traded that all away. Maybe to hide that wasn't him and more the Nuggets scouting team? The Bulls sought Karnisovas for what he did with the Nuggets and look how odd that Bulls team is.

Go look at some of his other trades with the Nuggets. Nurkic and a First for Plumlee. The pick that ended up being Mitchell for Trey Lyles and some other washout. The pick that became Gobert for pick #46 and cash.

His crowning jewel is that he picked Jokic in the 2nd round. Who he also passed on twice prior in that draft.

He passed on trading Barton for KCP and filler. Look how great KCP now looks there as the POA defender.

On and on.

I do not trust him to be able to fix this. I just pray Ant does not ask out early into his next extension.

You're basically picking everything he did wrong. I'm not saying he is awesome but this post does not represent the entirety of Connelly's work accurately.

Also this season isn't even over yet. I wonder what Celtics fans thought about Brad Stephens a year ago at this time. That team ended up in the NBA finals. I'm not suggesting the Wolves will be in the Finals but I don't think we can say for certain whether the Gobert trade is or isn't going to work out. I get why people say it won't though.

I do agree the wolves have to see this roster, fully healthy, out through this whole season and assess from there. Can't go full TC yet.

I am worried about a team in the playoffs just employing the 5 out offense against this team just as they did to Utah. Cause ya know, you don't need a true big to guard Gobert on offense.

lipoli390 wrote:

Camden wrote:Turnovers. A game to forget for Rudy Gobert. Transition defense. Zone offense. A very bad loss against a thin Miami team.

I'd say Rudy has been pretty forgettable all season. Seriously, he hasn't been an impact player for the Wolves this season - at least not in a positive way. Tonight he had 10 points, 8 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 steals and 0 blocks along with 2 turnovers. So sure, he's had better games. But tonight's game wasn't a total aberration for him. As I've mentioned before (master of the obvious), the one major personnel move this franchise made since last season was swapping Vando, Beverley and Beasley for Gobert. The result? The team has a much lower winning percentage, is worse offensively, no better defensively and no better on the boards than last season. Just isolating this season, the team also has a worse winning percentage with Gobert on the floor than without him.

Cam - I know you weren't a fan of the Gobert deal, yet you've preached patience to see if the team can turn things around yet this season with Rudy. But I'll just say that I don't have the patience to wait until next summer to move on from Gobert. You would probably respond that I had better have patience because he won't be moved, if at all, until after the season. I'd have to admit you're right, but I'm at a point where I think I'll just have to tune this team out for the rest of the season. And unfortunately, I don't think the Wolves front office will trade Rudy next summer under any circumstances so I don't see patience paying off.

I agree with you that the team misses KAT and I expect this team will improve once he's back and has returned to game shape. But this time without KAT has simply confirmed my sense of Rudy Gobert. Many of us, including me, have been saying for two years that DLO's not a max player. Well, neither is Rudy. Make me Wolves PBO for a day (or at least until the Feb. trade deadline) and I'll trade Rudy for as many pennies as I can get. Unfortunately, it will be pennies compared to what the Wolves gave up.