So much to see in this clip, and it doesn't reflect well on a couple of our Wolves.
1) Rudy posts up near the basket and is available for an easy dunk.
2) Instead of getting him the ball, DLo jacks up a missed three from 5 feet beyond the arc.
3) Rudy glares at him and gestures as they get back on defense.
4) Rudy loafs on defense while The Pointer points...meanwhile the Wolves give up an easy bucket (after KAT gets beat off the dribble).
5) But...the next two times down the court, KAT finds Rudy in the paint for easy buckets.
So much to digest here. On the negative side, DLo's lack of recognition and ill-advised 3-point shot tells me that DLo is not what we need on this team. But Rudy's public pouting and lazy defense on the subsequent defensive possession is immature and embarrassing. But then on the positive side: KAT understands what is going on, and finds a way to get the ball to Rudy on the next two possessions for buckets.
Interesting sequence that tells us a lot about where the Wolves are right now.
Guard play, guard play, guard play....it's all about DLO, Ant, and Nowell getting their shit together and figuring out a way to a) start making some shots, b) moving the ball, and c) figuring out how to play with Rudy when any of them are on the floor with him.
KAT and Gobert have largely have stayed true to form (weaknesses included). I don't really blame either for our slow start. The guards have to adjust and play better to make this work.
Very clear that is the issue, Q. On the positive side, it's encouraging that KAT seems to be embracing playing with Rudy. His PPG are down almost 3 points, but his assists are up...and his on-court demeanor is much improved. Now if we could just get our backcourt (other than JMac) to understand that Rudy is a potent, efficient scorer if you just get him the ball when he is close to the basket...
It was reported by multiple people that Dlo called the same play 4 straight times to make sure Rudy got the ball after Ant and Dlo missed him (the 1st 2 were those Rudy dunks).
Yeah Finch said that in the post game presser. For all his shitty play there are aspects of his game that prove his value as a game manager.
Maybe. But I give even more credit to the guy actually passing him the ball...
Not passing to him repeatedly, but getting credit for calling a play so somebody else can pass to him seems so odd to me. Very DLoian even.
So much to see in this clip, and it doesn't reflect well on a couple of our Wolves.
1) Rudy posts up near the basket and is available for an easy dunk.
2) Instead of getting him the ball, DLo jacks up a missed three from 5 feet beyond the arc.
3) Rudy glares at him and gestures as they get back on defense.
4) Rudy loafs on defense while The Pointer points...meanwhile the Wolves give up an easy bucket (after KAT gets beat off the dribble).
5) But...the next two times down the court, KAT finds Rudy in the paint for easy buckets.
So much to digest here. On the negative side, DLo's lack of recognition and ill-advised 3-point shot tells me that DLo is not what we need on this team. But Rudy's public pouting and lazy defense on the subsequent defensive possession is immature and embarrassing. But then on the positive side: KAT understands what is going on, and finds a way to get the ball to Rudy on the next two possessions for buckets.
Interesting sequence that tells us a lot about where the Wolves are right now.
Guard play, guard play, guard play....it's all about DLO, Ant, and Nowell getting their shit together and figuring out a way to a) start making some shots, b) moving the ball, and c) figuring out how to play with Rudy when any of them are on the floor with him.
KAT and Gobert have largely have stayed true to form (weaknesses included). I don't really blame either for our slow start. The guards have to adjust and play better to make this work.
Very clear that is the issue, Q. On the positive side, it's encouraging that KAT seems to be embracing playing with Rudy. His PPG are down almost 3 points, but his assists are up...and his on-court demeanor is much improved. Now if we could just get our backcourt (other than JMac) to understand that Rudy is a potent, efficient scorer if you just get him the ball when he is close to the basket...
It was reported by multiple people that Dlo called the same play 4 straight times to make sure Rudy got the ball after Ant and Dlo missed him (the 1st 2 were those Rudy dunks).
Yeah Finch said that in the post game presser. For all his shitty play there are aspects of his game that prove his value as a game manager.
Maybe. But I give even more credit to the guy actually passing him the ball...
Not passing to him repeatedly, but getting credit for calling a play so somebody else can pass to him seems so odd to me. Very DLoian even.
Dlo was the first pass to Towns on a set play that he called out. That is what PGs are supposed to do and that is why Finch gave him the credit.
So much to see in this clip, and it doesn't reflect well on a couple of our Wolves.
1) Rudy posts up near the basket and is available for an easy dunk.
2) Instead of getting him the ball, DLo jacks up a missed three from 5 feet beyond the arc.
3) Rudy glares at him and gestures as they get back on defense.
4) Rudy loafs on defense while The Pointer points...meanwhile the Wolves give up an easy bucket (after KAT gets beat off the dribble).
5) But...the next two times down the court, KAT finds Rudy in the paint for easy buckets.
So much to digest here. On the negative side, DLo's lack of recognition and ill-advised 3-point shot tells me that DLo is not what we need on this team. But Rudy's public pouting and lazy defense on the subsequent defensive possession is immature and embarrassing. But then on the positive side: KAT understands what is going on, and finds a way to get the ball to Rudy on the next two possessions for buckets.
Interesting sequence that tells us a lot about where the Wolves are right now.
Guard play, guard play, guard play....it's all about DLO, Ant, and Nowell getting their shit together and figuring out a way to a) start making some shots, b) moving the ball, and c) figuring out how to play with Rudy when any of them are on the floor with him.
KAT and Gobert have largely have stayed true to form (weaknesses included). I don't really blame either for our slow start. The guards have to adjust and play better to make this work.
Very clear that is the issue, Q. On the positive side, it's encouraging that KAT seems to be embracing playing with Rudy. His PPG are down almost 3 points, but his assists are up...and his on-court demeanor is much improved. Now if we could just get our backcourt (other than JMac) to understand that Rudy is a potent, efficient scorer if you just get him the ball when he is close to the basket...
It was reported by multiple people that Dlo called the same play 4 straight times to make sure Rudy got the ball after Ant and Dlo missed him (the 1st 2 were those Rudy dunks).
Yeah Finch said that in the post game presser. For all his shitty play there are aspects of his game that prove his value as a game manager.
Maybe. But I give even more credit to the guy actually passing him the ball...
Not passing to him repeatedly, but getting credit for calling a play so somebody else can pass to him seems so odd to me. Very DLoian even.
Dlo was the first pass to Towns on a set play that he called out. That is what PGs are supposed to do and that is why Finch gave him the credit.
It's all conjecture... but I think Finch was giving Russell the credit to ward off more criticism in a PR-inspired move.
The stats are more damning to me than sound bites. Towns has clearly been the team's most effective player getting Gobert good looks. It's not remotely close.
And that's a problem if the team's 4 is doing it at 2-1 pace compared to the ball-dominant backcourt.
[Note: Especially, since previous sound bites from the team has led us to believe they don't call a lot of specific plays and believe in more of a freewheeling style.]
It captures my thinking. I hope the author and I both turn out to be wrong, but so far it's not looking good. Tomorrow night will be a fairly revealing test for the Wolves. Beating a bad team that played without it's top players doesn't tell us much. Barely beating a Cavs team playing without it's best player didn't tell us much. Playing against the Sixers on their court will tell us something. The Sixers won't have Harden tomorrow night and probably won't have Maxey on the court either. So the opportunity is there for a tough win on the road. A Wolves win tomorrow night would be a decent start down the road of proving me wrong about the Gobert trade. :)
It captures my thinking. I hope the author and I both turn out to be wrong, but so far it's not looking good. Tomorrow night will be a fairly revealing test for the Wolves. Beating a bad team that played without it's top players doesn't tell us much. Barely beating a Cavs team playing without it's best player didn't tell us much. Playing against the Sixers on their court will tell us something. The Sixers won't have Harden tomorrow night and probably won't have Maxey on the court either. So the opportunity is there for a tough win on the road. A Wolves win tomorrow night would be a decent start down the road of proving me wrong about the Gobert trade. :)
Sixers with an impressive victory over the Bucks last night. As long as Embiid plays, they will be tough to beat, even if a few other guys are out. But yeah, we need to win some games against legit good teams at some point!
I haven't seen the games but I'll throw in my take of some things based on some basic stats.
When I finally broke down and looked at what the Wolves were doing a few days ago it was pretty obvious a few ways they were struggling. Several players were underperforming offensively. Edwards looks to have recovered but he was struggling. Prince and Kyle Anderson were about the only guys shooting better than usual and lots of guys were doing poorly. Bryn Forbes when he got on the court apparently couldn't hit a shot.
Russell I assume isn't playing well but he is doing what many people asked him to do which was take less shots. He is not shooting the 3 well which obviously is a problem but he is currently shooting a career high from 2 which means all this will end up evening out. His turnovers are high again tho. It's the same thing only more pronounced for McLaughlin. He is hitting 2/3 of his two point shots and can't buy a 3 pointer. Let's remember this: if the Wolves basically need to trade Russell this season to improve good luck getting something back that helps the team much more or becomes the answer at that spot.
I believe this team will figure out the offensive end to some extent. This team has too much talent and options not to get there.
Defense is maybe more concerning and probably the bigger surprise of the struggles. Will they turn things around and become a top 10 defensive team? It wouldn't not shock me.
Are Finch coached teams that make some sort of change before the season slow starters? Maybe. I'm not all that surprised they didn't get off to the nice start we were all hoping for and somewhat expecting. Some of those supposedly bad teams turned out to not be as easy as some people thought they were. There are other disappointing teams out there too. Which teams will right themselves and which teams aren't as good as their current record? The Wolves just need to stay around .500 for a while and figure stuff out and if they do they can make a run not unlike what they did last year or what Portland did for years.
It captures my thinking. I hope the author and I both turn out to be wrong, but so far it's not looking good. Tomorrow night will be a fairly revealing test for the Wolves. Beating a bad team that played without it's top players doesn't tell us much. Barely beating a Cavs team playing without it's best player didn't tell us much. Playing against the Sixers on their court will tell us something. The Sixers won't have Harden tomorrow night and probably won't have Maxey on the court either. So the opportunity is there for a tough win on the road. A Wolves win tomorrow night would be a decent start down the road of proving me wrong about the Gobert trade. :)
What I found so far this year troubling is that both Ant and DLO cannot pass out of the pick and roll. We've seen it watching the games and the stats here also prove it.
It honestly has blown my mind how terrible they have been. I still expect them to figure it out and have both a top 10 offense and defense by the end of the year.
