Camden wrote:Good reason to hold on to Naz is this particular matchup. He could care less who on Los Angeles is near the paint. Could come in handy in a potential playoff series.
Yep and teams aren't gonna worry enough about him to double him so he could really get some easy buckets. Like you and others have said before he had a nice game tonight.
kekgeek1 wrote:Think the new play by play guy is settling in.
He's definitely has a different style. He's the opposite of Kevin Harlan or Gus Johnson. He's not very noticeable.
I'm cool with that. I liked Benz also. Different styles that both can work
I watched the Clipper broadcast. Brian Sieman was doing play by play and said he still has a foundness for Minnesota from his time there. I had to look up what he did. Maybe it was posted somewhere else but I hadn't heard this before but Sieman said that when Lore and ARod did an audit of the whole organization they looked at salaries for everyone that was a Wolves employee and if anyone was below market rate they raised their salary. That's pretty cool.
As for Benz...I liked him about as much of anyone and last season I asked myself if they could do better. Let's see how Grady works out. Meanwhile it looks like Benz had some fun doing coverage for Pickleball last month.
Seems like Naz is the one big on our roster that can attack a smaller player in the paint and get buckets. KAT struggles with this and TBD with Gobert although he's struggled in the playoffs punishing smaller guys on offense.
It's a good problem to have, but it's really tough seeing Anthony Edwards taking any sort of leap this year in terms of the more box-score centric stats we all look at - points, rebounds, assists, etc. We have too many weapons, which is why it's a good problem to have. I mean, KAT is a walking 24PPG at 60%+ TS. How can you not prioritize him for shots!? Gobert was literally the most efficient scorer in basketball last season because he is such a great rim roller and finisher. Nowell and Forbes both look in top form.
So if Ant is going to impact the game more, it's going to have to come on defense and through finding ways to score more efficiently. The volume of rebounds, assists, and points for him to go get just isn't going to be there and may in fact look very similar to last season.
Camden wrote:John Wall looks solid for the Clips. He's not the guy he used to be, but still effective.
Yeah he absolutely looks like he can still play.
Took McLaughlin to the woodshed on three or so plays in a row. That's where you really see JMac struggle - when isolated in a pure one on one situation against physically superior players.
One other thing I was trying to pay attention to was when Naz got switched onto wings. It seemed like he moved his feet well enough and a couple times guys made a move tested him a bit then moved the ball. I'm certainly not suggesting Naz is a super switch big or whatever but if being lighter helps him guard perimeter players better that could help the case for him to play in general but especially as a PF next to Gobert or maybe even Towns. He also got beat easily a few times early in the game.
I also felt like I saw him really pursue rebounds more in this game too. Maybe he did that in other games also but I really noticed him getting some balls out of his area. I thought the last couple games McDaniels has also seemed to be crashing the boards more. It's not leading to good rebounding numbers for him but it's kept some balls alive. I don't know if he will ever be a big rebounder but he needs to utilize his length more in that area. There will be times he is gonna tower over guys he is matched up with.
Michael Grady seems like a really nice guy. He's very smart, smooth and articulate. He's an excellent interviewer. But I won't hold back like some. I'll say straight away that Michael Grady is a terrible play-by-play announcer.
The only point of having a play-by-play announcer for TV broadcasts is to covey, even magnify, the excitement and emotion of the game for the benefit of home viewers who aren't in arena to feed off the synergistic energy of the crowd. I grew up in Chicago where Harry Carey set the standards in Major League Baseball. Kevin Harlen is as good as it gets in the NBA and Benz was pretty darn good. Michael Grady is pure milk toast. He brings absolutely no emotion to the broadcast. The decision to replace Benz with Michael Grady does not reflect well on our new owners.
Honestly, I don't think Dave Benz is that difficult to replace. Although Benz was certainly interested in the games he called and professional, I typically felt that he was corny, dry, and mostly bland -- like unseasoned and overcooked chicken breast. The star of the Timberwolves broadcast team has always been Jim Petersen. Benz was mostly an afterthought for me.
All Michael Grady has to do is compliment Petersen and provide some sort of excitement when necessary. It's not like he's replacing Mike Breen or Kevin Harlan... The bar just isn't that high. I think he'll do a fine job. Those are my thoughts, anyways.
