Wolves at Knicks GDT

[Q-is-here]

Lip, Even though JMac isn't fast by elite athlete standards, he plays fast, which I think should help assuming he stays in the rotation.

I totally agree on the reversion with forcing the ball to Rudy. His hands are simply not reliable enough to get him the ball unless it's perfectly thrown to him near the hoop or there is literally no one else within 4 feet of him (as we sometimes see on Conley/Rudy screen and rolls where the defensive low man doesn't come to help). Did we not learn anything from last season!?

I'm still amazed at how he is so good at securing defensive rebounds that coral his way with sometimes unexpected bounces, yet throw him a pass in traffic and he has zero chance of making a clean catch.

[thedoper]

Lip, Even though JMac isn't fast by elite athlete standards, he plays fast, which I think should help assuming he stays in the rotation.

I totally agree on the reversion with forcing the ball to Rudy. His hands are simply not reliable enough to get him the ball unless it's perfectly thrown to him near the hoop or there is literally no one else within 4 feet of him (as we sometimes see on Conley/Rudy screen and rolls where the defensive low man doesn't come to help). Did we not learn anything from last season!?

I'm still amazed at how he is so good at securing defensive rebounds that coral his way with sometimes unexpected bounces, yet throw him a pass in traffic and he has zero chance of making a clean catch.

I was thinking the same thing in yesterday's game about Gobert. He can tip and control so many defensive rebounds but can't catch a clean pass. Its so strange.

[thedoper]

Ultimately our bench woes are square on coaching and management thinking Kyle can be a back up point guard. He cant and this year has exposed him and us. Shake was also a waste of a roster spot. I think we bet too big on Kyle based on one year of great play for us. I still like him as a player, but our bench got worse when it feels like we should have more depth. I'm fine with playing Jmac but am not sure that is the solution either. Shake and TBJ isnt going to give us much of anything in a trade. Maybe we luck out and get a buyout candidate who likes us. Otherwise we may have to overspend.

[kekgeek]

Just a reminder this team has the best record in the west. And are 7-4 in their hell stretch of season

[Q-is-here]

Ultimately our bench woes are square on coaching and management thinking Kyle can be a back up point guard. He cant and this year has exposed him and us. Shake was also a waste of a roster spot. I think we bet too big on Kyle based on one year of great play for us. I still like him as a player, but our bench got worse when it feels like we should have more depth. I'm fine with playing Jmac but am not sure that is the solution either. Shake and TBJ isnt going to give us much of anything in a trade. Maybe we luck out and get a buyout candidate who likes us. Otherwise we may have to overspend.

The narrative on SloMo would be completely different if he were making his 3s like he did last year. Suddenly the "he's not a pure PG" isn't as much of an issue because he's making up for it in other ways. I think where the front office erred was on assuming he wouldn't regress on his outside shooting. Last year was an outlier. Of course no one thought he'd be THIS bad I suppose.

I think Shake was envisioned to be that scoring guard off the bench...didn't pan out. He's almost as slow as SloMo and isn't very sure-handed either, fumbling a lot of passes or making some bad turnovers. How the hell did he score 20-plus per game in that stretch with Philly last year!? I just don't see it.

[Q-is-here]

Just a reminder this team has the best record in the west. And are 7-4 in their hell stretch of season

Good perspective Kek. May be it's the PTSD of being a Wolves fan all these years, but I just don't see a "best in the West" team when I watch these guys even though the record says otherwise. I really worry about how we will fare in the playoffs.

Alas, it's a banner year if your a Wolves fan, regardless of what happens I guess. It's strange to be in this position. Meanwhile, fans in Philly and Boston will practically riot if they don't get to the Finals!

[FNG]

Just a reminder this team has the best record in the west. And are 7-4 in their hell stretch of season

Good perspective Kek. May be it's the PTSD of being a Wolves fan all these years, but I just don't see a "best in the West" team when I watch these guys even though the record says otherwise. I really worry about how we will fare in the playoffs.

Alas, it's a banner year if your a Wolves fan, regardless of what happens I guess. It's strange to be in this position. Meanwhile, fans in Philly and Boston will practically riot if they don't get to the Finals!

Yeah, definitely some PTSD for us Wolves fans, but thanks for the public service announcement, Kek!

I'm not losing sight of the fact that we are still in first place, but I've been saying since the Sac-Town game that I wasn't feeling good about this team...the Dallas and Laker wins felt hollow. And then the bizarre assist to turnover thing continued in the Knick game...at least until JMac came in and righted the ship. I'm actually feeling better about this team after the Knicks loss than I did after the 2 previous wins. We need to keep moving and sharing the ball, and we'll be fine.

[Coolbreeze44]

All teams go through tough stretches during the course of a season. Even the record setting Warriors struggled occasionally, albeit on a lesser scale. Don't be upset by a lull in play until it becomes the norm. Things are never as good as they sometimes seem, and never as bad either. One game at a time.

[60WinTim]

All teams go through tough stretches during the course of a season. Even the record setting Warriors struggled occasionally, albeit on a lesser scale. Don't be upset by a lull in play until it becomes the norm. Things are never as good as they sometimes seem, and never as bad either. One game at a time.

That’s some cool wisdom….

[Lipoli390]

Ultimately our bench woes are square on coaching and management thinking Kyle can be a back up point guard. He cant and this year has exposed him and us. Shake was also a waste of a roster spot. I think we bet too big on Kyle based on one year of great play for us. I still like him as a player, but our bench got worse when it feels like we should have more depth. I'm fine with playing Jmac but am not sure that is the solution either. Shake and TBJ isnt going to give us much of anything in a trade. Maybe we luck out and get a buyout candidate who likes us. Otherwise we may have to overspend.

The narrative on SloMo would be completely different if he were making his 3s like he did last year. Suddenly the "he's not a pure PG" isn't as much of an issue because he's making up for it in other ways. I think where the front office erred was on assuming he wouldn't regress on his outside shooting. Last year was an outlier. Of course no one thought he'd be THIS bad I suppose.

I think Shake was envisioned to be that scoring guard off the bench...didn't pan out. He's almost as slow as SloMo and isn't very sure-handed either, fumbling a lot of passes or making some bad turnovers. How the hell did he score 20-plus per game in that stretch with Philly last year!? I just don't see it.

The blunder with Milton is even worse than you described Q. I recall TC being interviewed before the season and he was adamant that Milton is a point guard and that they expected him to play point for this team. That’s a major blunder. As my friend from Philly said, the Sixers tried the Milton as PG experiment and it failed miserably. They finally deployed him solely as a scorer off the bench and that worked out better. He’s not what this Wolves team needs. If our front office really believed Slo MO’s shooting from last season would carry over to this season they must not have listened to Kyle who said in an interview that his shoulder surgery make his shooting motion permanently awkward. I still love all the other things Kyle does, but it would have been really dumb to assume that he’d be anything other than a terrible perimeter shooter going forward. I don’t think the Wolves front office were deluding themselves about Kyle’s shooting. Instead, I think they valued his overall skill set and veteran savvy. The problem is that we need more shooters/scorers and we also, in my view, need more speed/athleticism.

I’ve noticed that winning teams in the NBA typically have at least four or five players scoring in double digits. Last night, the Wolves had three and one of them, Rudy, only scored 10.