Minnesota Sports Forum

To be fair, FNG and Kekgeek (other thread)...

Kyle Anderson had the Jokic assignment quite a bit. And Gobert played only 27 minutes. Nathan Knight and Luka Garza combined for 36 minutes.

kekgeek1 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:If there's one Wolves player who deserves criticism it's Rudy Gobert. 8 points, 4 rebounds and a -4 in 27 minutes would be OK for a role player signed as a free agent for the MLE. But it's unacceptable for a max player acquired in a trade for a boat load of valuable assets. Of course, that's on TC, not really on Rudy.

This team won the game when Garza and Knight were on the floor. They won because of Ant, McDaniels. Nowell was good too. They won because they played hard and played as a team

I'm not saying he was amazing but his primary matchup shot 4-18 tonight

His mere presence acts a deterrent and the bottom line is that between Aaron Gordon (his primary matchup as you point out) and Jokic (who he hedged to often to help out Anderson) were both very well contained as compared to their typical games.

One of the problems with Edwards is that every single time he draws a switch and it's no longer the opposing team's best wing defender on him, he believes in his heart and soul that it's a blatant mismatch in his favor. Ergo, everyone must clear out and let him take the guy one on one.

The good news is he's actually right a good portion of the time and perhaps we'll have enough healthy shooters out there some day to give him the space he needs. The Celtics let Tatum and Brown do this all the time - they get the initial switch and then just spread the floor and let either of them go to work.

The bad news is that sometimes you just gotta keep the ball moving or feed a guy like Gobert to keep him engaged, even if it may not always play to the percentages.

Hopefully he understands the nuances of iso-ball as time goes on, but this is who he is and we need to accept it.

Q-was-here wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:If there's one Wolves player who deserves criticism it's Rudy Gobert. 8 points, 4 rebounds and a -4 in 27 minutes would be OK for a role player signed as a free agent for the MLE. But it's unacceptable for a max player acquired in a trade for a boat load of valuable assets. Of course, that's on TC, not really on Rudy.

This team won the game when Garza and Knight were on the floor. They won because of Ant, McDaniels. Nowell was good too. They won because they played hard and played as a team

I'm not saying he was amazing but his primary matchup shot 4-18 tonight

His mere presence acts a deterrent and the bottom line is that between Aaron Gordon (his primary matchup as you point out) and Jokic (who he hedged to often to help out Anderson) were both very well contained as compared to their typical games.

I'm not sure how much of an impact Gobert had on Aaron Gordon's shooting. The "mere presence" point is one that's been made about Rudy repeatedly since he arrived. I'll just note that when he was present on the court last night, the the Wolves were -4. Again, he was OK last night as a functional role player. But Garza and Knight did more than Rudy to help the team win

lipoli390 wrote:

Q-was-here wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:If there's one Wolves player who deserves criticism it's Rudy Gobert. 8 points, 4 rebounds and a -4 in 27 minutes would be OK for a role player signed as a free agent for the MLE. But it's unacceptable for a max player acquired in a trade for a boat load of valuable assets. Of course, that's on TC, not really on Rudy.

This team won the game when Garza and Knight were on the floor. They won because of Ant, McDaniels. Nowell was good too. They won because they played hard and played as a team

I'm not saying he was amazing but his primary matchup shot 4-18 tonight

His mere presence acts a deterrent and the bottom line is that between Aaron Gordon (his primary matchup as you point out) and Jokic (who he hedged to often to help out Anderson) were both very well contained as compared to their typical games.

I'm not sure how much of an impact Gobert had on Aaron Gordon's shooting. The "mere presence" point is one that's been made about Rudy repeatedly since he arrived. I'll just note that when he was present on the court last night, the the Wolves were -4. Again, he was OK last night as a functional role player. But Garza and Knight did more than Rudy to help the team win

Lip, For the season as a whole, the facts back up the "mere presence" point because our defense has been a train wreck when Rudy is not on the floor. The offense is a different story and something Finch and the players, including Gobert himself, need to figure out.

As for last night, Knight and Garza gave us great energy and played well. Yes, Jokic was on the floor for part of their stints, but so was a lot of their bench players and their bench has not been good this year. All I know is that Rudy was on the floor when a critical mass of Denver's starters were on the floor and our starters outplayed their starters. In Rudy's final stint to close out the game, he was a +5 in 7 minutes. Jokic was a -6 in that stretch.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:To be fair, FNG and Kekgeek (other thread)...

Kyle Anderson had the Jokic assignment quite a bit. And Gobert played only 27 minutes. Nathan Knight and Luka Garza combined for 36 minutes.

I think this has been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, but Gobert's impact on defense goes far beyond the man he is guarding. And also goes beyond blocks, because his impact also includes shots altered and shots not taken...i.e. an opponent elects not to put up a shot underneath the basket because Rudy is there. I loved what SloMo did on Jokic last night, but Rudy's presence forced him to put up a lot of runners that were longer than his normal shot, and I believe that resulted in a worse than normal shooting percentage (albeit still quite good...he's Jokic after all). And he absolutely took Gordon out of the game. As Kekgeek has pointed out several times, the difference in the Wolves defense with and without Rudy is palpable. But as Lip has pointed out, his struggles on offense are still holding him and the team back.

The Wolves were very pleasing to watch on offense last night and had 29 assists and only 11 turnovers. Last game we had 17 assists, and the previous game we had 18 and another 18 in the game before that. And except for a rough period for Nowell where he forgot about Bones Hyland, I noticed a lot more hustle on defense and a much better job defending the perimeter. We held a full-strength, high-scoring Nuggets team to 111 points.

Maybe the noticeable improvement in team play and ball movement and the increased effectiveness and hustle on defense was due to the team meeting two nights ago.

Or could it be related to something else?

I still think the Nuggets on the back-end of a back-to-back after beating the NBA's best team the night before... and it being the only road game in an extended stretch of home games for two weeks... had a lot to do with the win.

And I KNOW we'll be revisiting the extent of Gobert as a defensive deterrent and analytics darling much more in the weeks and months and maybe even years to come.

But for now... great win, Timberwolves. It was very necessary... and entirely welcomed by this longtime fan.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:I still think the Nuggets on the back-end of a back-to-back after beating the NBA's best team the night before... and it being the only road game in an extended stretch of home games for two weeks... had a lot to do with the win.

And I KNOW we'll be revisiting the extent of Gobert as a defensive deterrent and analytics darling much more in the weeks and months and maybe even years to come.

But for now... great win, Timberwolves. It was very necessary... and entirely welcomed by this longtime fan.

Yeah, I think being on the back end was also a factor (although Denver was 2-1 in back ends prior to last night). Regardless, it was a very good win...especially with us missing two starters and 3 of our best reserves. Let's hope they can sustain the effort Wednesday against Portland.

FNG wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:I still think the Nuggets on the back-end of a back-to-back after beating the NBA's best team the night before... and it being the only road game in an extended stretch of home games for two weeks... had a lot to do with the win.

And I KNOW we'll be revisiting the extent of Gobert as a defensive deterrent and analytics darling much more in the weeks and months and maybe even years to come.

But for now... great win, Timberwolves. It was very necessary... and entirely welcomed by this longtime fan.

Yeah, I think being on the back end was also a factor (although Denver was 2-1 in back ends prior to last night). Regardless, it was a very good win...especially with us missing two starters and 3 of our best reserves. Let's hope they can sustain the effort Wednesday against Portland.

Last season... after the Covid-ravaged Wolves beat the Celtics around this same time... they lost the next three games.

But, maybe there was some residual feel-good fuzziness because the team took off shortly after the healthy bodies returned. Obviously, healthy bodies will make things easier for this year's squad.