Minnesota Sports Forum

So we are now 27 games into the season and I am not going to lie I am starting to get into the nervous zone. I do want to bring context to this season though.

The Wolves 27 games in to this season have a better record then last years team 27 games in and they figured it out. We like to honor that team a ton but this team is better record wise and this years team has consistently missed 4 of their top 9 rotation pieces this year (a combo of Jmac, Kat, Prince, Mcdaniels, Andersaon).

The Wolves are actually 2.1 pts per 100 possessions better this year on defense when Rudy is on the floor compared to last years defense. The Wolves are currently in the 81st percentile when it comes to defense when Rudy is on the floor, so they are an above average defensive team when Rudy is on the floor. The issue is when Rudy comes off the floor the wolves are really struggling to defened anyone. Wolves are 8.7 pts per 100 possessions worse on defense when Rudy is off the floor, that is in the 6th percentile of all NBA players. The Wolves can't guard a sole when Rudy sits. The other issue the Wolves have had defensisivly is when Naz has to play PF, Wolves are getting outscored by 27.9 pts per 100 possessions in lineups where Naz playes with Kat and not shockingly that is in the 0th percentile in the NBA. Wolves are in the 2nd percentile on defense when Naz and Kat are a combo together. It does not get much better in Naz and Gobert lineups either, they are getting outscored by 13.1 pts per 100 possessions what is the 3rd percentile.

I guess some good signes are Kat and Gobert lineups defensivley at least by the numbers have worked. They are in the 88th percentile when it comes to defense in Kat and Gobert lineups that is freaking eliete and that is a really good sign going forward.

There are 24 linups in the NBA that have played a min. of 250 possessions together. The Wolves normal starting lineup of Dlo,Ant,Mcdaniels, Kat, Gobert are 6th out of the 24 lineups in defense.

Wolves need to get healthy, stop playing Naz at PF, need to find a way to defend when Gobert sit and need to continue to shoot the 3 ball better. Its been a rough start to the season, not going to lie I am starting to get worried about this squad but last years squad was worse at this time last year and they figured it out. Gobert has been really good defensivly for the Wolves this year and I hope they continue to build chemisty and turn this season around because I feel like they have the talent still.

That's nice Kek... but...

The Timberwolves are still looking at 3 - 4 weeks without Towns... and then, they're going to have to go through a spell where Towns ramps his workload back up and everybody has to change how they play together.

Again.

______

And I'm not too concerned with record. It's more about the other teams bunched together.

Golden State
Dallas
Utah
Sacramento
Clippers
Portland
Nuggets
Grizzlies
Suns
Pelicans

That's 10 teams already ahead of the Timberwolves. Who's dropping out? Utah? Probably. Who else is in a worse position than Minnesota? And that's just to make the last play-in spot. And once again, Towns is out for another few weeks.

Things are bleak. And there are very real reasons behind that bleakness.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:That's nice Kek... but...

The Timberwolves are still looking at 3 - 4 weeks without Towns... and then, they're going to have to go through a spell where Towns ramps his workload back up and everybody has to change how they play together.

Again.

______

And I'm not too concerned with record. It's more about the other teams bunched together.

Golden State
Dallas
Utah
Sacramento
Clippers
Portland
Nuggets
Grizzlies
Suns
Pelicans

That's 10 teams already ahead of the Timberwolves. Who's dropping out? Utah? Probably. Who else is in a worse position than Minnesota? And that's just to make the last play-in spot. And once again, Towns is out for another few weeks.

Things are bleak. And there are very real reasons behind that bleakness.

Yeah it would be nice if they could just start being competitive with these good teams. The one win against Memphis was a nice start but they are laying eggs against good teams and the schedule is only getting tougher. They have shown glimpses of nice play, but its never sustained, especially when Rudy sits.

thedoper wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:That's nice Kek... but...

The Timberwolves are still looking at 3 - 4 weeks without Towns... and then, they're going to have to go through a spell where Towns ramps his workload back up and everybody has to change how they play together.

Again.

______

And I'm not too concerned with record. It's more about the other teams bunched together.

Golden State
Dallas
Utah
Sacramento
Clippers
Portland
Nuggets
Grizzlies
Suns
Pelicans

That's 10 teams already ahead of the Timberwolves. Who's dropping out? Utah? Probably. Who else is in a worse position than Minnesota? And that's just to make the last play-in spot. And once again, Towns is out for another few weeks.

Things are bleak. And there are very real reasons behind that bleakness.

Yeah it would be nice if they could just start being competitive with these good teams. The one win against Memphis was a nice start but they are laying eggs against good teams and the schedule is only getting tougher. They have shown glimpses of nice play, but its never sustained, especially when Rudy sits.

It's the Timberwolves way.

Garnett. Love. Towns. And now Gobert?

Meanwhile, other teams can throw vagabond rosters out there and still get wins. Memphis went 20 - 4 last season without its best player. Paul George has missed more games than Towns and Gobert have missed combined... and then K. Leonard has missed 20 games and yet the Clippers are still better.

The Timberwolves have a long, storied, sordid history of just having all-around shitty rosters. This year's version simply isn't good enough. The best players haven't been good enough. And the bench guys collectively aren't as good as other bench players for other teams.

It means the Timberwolves are a middling average team. Now, that's actually a GOOD thing historically for this franchise, just not in the season when the team is coming off 46 wins and gave away several quality players and 4 or 5 quality draft picks for a guy who was supposedly going to make the team better.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

thedoper wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:That's nice Kek... but...

The Timberwolves are still looking at 3 - 4 weeks without Towns... and then, they're going to have to go through a spell where Towns ramps his workload back up and everybody has to change how they play together.

Again.

______

And I'm not too concerned with record. It's more about the other teams bunched together.

Golden State
Dallas
Utah
Sacramento
Clippers
Portland
Nuggets
Grizzlies
Suns
Pelicans

That's 10 teams already ahead of the Timberwolves. Who's dropping out? Utah? Probably. Who else is in a worse position than Minnesota? And that's just to make the last play-in spot. And once again, Towns is out for another few weeks.

Things are bleak. And there are very real reasons behind that bleakness.

Yeah it would be nice if they could just start being competitive with these good teams. The one win against Memphis was a nice start but they are laying eggs against good teams and the schedule is only getting tougher. They have shown glimpses of nice play, but its never sustained, especially when Rudy sits.

It's the Timberwolves way.

Garnett. Love. Towns. And now Gobert?

Meanwhile, other teams can throw vagabond rosters out there and still get wins. Memphis went 20 - 4 last season without its best player. Paul George has missed more games than Towns and Gobert have missed combined... and then K. Leonard has missed 20 games and yet the Clippers are still better.

The Timberwolves have a long, storied, sordid history of just having all-around shitty rosters. This year's version simply isn't good enough. The best players haven't been good enough. And the bench guys collectively aren't as good as other bench players for other teams.

It means the Timberwolves are a middling average team. Now, that's actually a GOOD thing historically for this franchise, just not in the season when the team is coming off 46 wins and gave away several quality players and 4 or 5 quality draft picks for a guy who was supposedly going to make the team better.

Yep. Pretty bleak and, unless things turn around substantially and fairly soon, it will be a profound failure given the Gobert deal and its implications.

I also agree poor roster mixes around a top-tier big guy like the current roster appears to be is in the long-standing tradition of this franchise. But I'll distinguish the KG era a bit from all the others. The Wolves routinely made the playoffs during most of KG's time here. The Marbury pairing would have probably resulted in NBA title contention for many years if Marbury hadn't lost his mind in a bizarre web of jealousy. Pairing KG with Sam and Spree almost resulted in an NBA Finals appearance. McHale was probably our best PBO at roster assembly. If not for the moronic Joe Smith debacle, I suspect McHale would have have more success building a good roster around KG. Rosas seemed to be on the right track, but he left too soon to know.

In any event, here we are in familiar territory hoping that our Wolves will respond to this season's mediocrity through 1/3 of their games the same way they responded last season. So far I haven't seen any clear signs of that happening. But there's always hope. That's what we cling to as Wolves fans. Unfortunately, this year's hope does not include a first-round pick.

It seems like this is a good time to mention that coaching matters. Memphis, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, etc. are able to sustain injuries and continue winning not just because of their depth or because they've hit on quality draft picks, but because their coaching is able to make up for personnel losses one way or another.

Minnesota is 3-3 over this stretch without Karl-Anthony Towns and some quality reserves (yes, Jordan McLaughlin too) so you could argue that Chris Finch is doing a decent job of keeping the boat afloat, I guess, but that's until you remember that the schematic changes that have been made should have been installed prior to the season's start.

This team also hasn't gotten enough out of their young talent. Is there anyone who believes Memphis, for example, wouldn't be getting much more out of Wendell Moore Jr. right now? How about Jaylen Nowell? It's funny (not really) because young players often require the most structure at the professional level and Finch would rather not have any of that!

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

thedoper wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:That's nice Kek... but...

The Timberwolves are still looking at 3 - 4 weeks without Towns... and then, they're going to have to go through a spell where Towns ramps his workload back up and everybody has to change how they play together.

Again.

______

And I'm not too concerned with record. It's more about the other teams bunched together.

Golden State
Dallas
Utah
Sacramento
Clippers
Portland
Nuggets
Grizzlies
Suns
Pelicans

That's 10 teams already ahead of the Timberwolves. Who's dropping out? Utah? Probably. Who else is in a worse position than Minnesota? And that's just to make the last play-in spot. And once again, Towns is out for another few weeks.

Things are bleak. And there are very real reasons behind that bleakness.

Yeah it would be nice if they could just start being competitive with these good teams. The one win against Memphis was a nice start but they are laying eggs against good teams and the schedule is only getting tougher. They have shown glimpses of nice play, but its never sustained, especially when Rudy sits.

It's the Timberwolves way.

Garnett. Love. Towns. And now Gobert?

Meanwhile, other teams can throw vagabond rosters out there and still get wins. Memphis went 20 - 4 last season without its best player. Paul George has missed more games than Towns and Gobert have missed combined... and then K. Leonard has missed 20 games and yet the Clippers are still better.

The Timberwolves have a long, storied, sordid history of just having all-around shitty rosters. This year's version simply isn't good enough. The best players haven't been good enough. And the bench guys collectively aren't as good as other bench players for other teams.

It means the Timberwolves are a middling average team. Now, that's actually a GOOD thing historically for this franchise, just not in the season when the team is coming off 46 wins and gave away several quality players and 4 or 5 quality draft picks for a guy who was supposedly going to make the team better.

This is what frustrates the living daylights out of me. How come we are never the ones with a group of overachievers where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts!? Instead, shooters come here to die and vets that come here tend to have career-worst seasons (or at least a dip) until they move onto somewhere else.

I think the constant change in front office and coaching must have some impact. Other than ownership and some back-office types, the place has been rudderless and never been able to establish a strong culture of winning.

I wonder if you were to take this exact same roster with the exact same injuries and plop them in Miami or Boston or even San Antonio with their front office and coaches and arenas and fans, would it still perform pretty much the same way?

I threw in the towel about a week or so ago. The roster/coaching staff isn't good enough to make noise in the West. I realize things could turn around, but it would be very surprising, as most nights we are just out-executed and out-smarted. Our talent is good enough to go ~ .500, but hard to see us going beyond that due to team chemistry issues, coaching, and just poor IQ by some of our guys.

By the way, I'd probably come to the same conclusion if we had the same roster as last season without the Gobert trade. Ant, Jaden, and Nowell haven't made the strides we'd need in either scenario to compete amongst the big boys in the West. That's not to say I give up on them or they'll never get better, but it just hasn't happened to the degree we needed it to happen this season.

Camden wrote:It seems like this is a good time to mention that coaching matters. Memphis, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, etc. are able to sustain injuries and continue winning not just because of their depth or because they've hit on quality draft picks, but because their coaching is able to make up for personnel losses one way or another.

Minnesota is 3-3 over this stretch without Karl-Anthony Towns and some quality reserves (yes, Jordan McLaughlin too) so you could argue that Chris Finch is doing a decent job of keeping the boat afloat, I guess, but that's until you remember that the schematic changes that have been made should have been installed prior to the season's start.

This team also hasn't gotten enough out of their young talent. Is there anyone who believes Memphis, for example, wouldn't be getting much more out of Wendell Moore Jr. right now? How about Jaylen Nowell? It's funny (not really) because young players often require the most structure at the professional level and Finch would rather not have any of that!

On coaching I think there have been good shots all year on offense. I dont think Finch can be called to task for us being near the league bottom in Turnovers and 3pt%. We've been careless and from my eyes we ditch Finch's system regularly. Unless his intention is more iso action when the game gets tight.

I know youve been calling for more spread pick and roll and that might give us some unique looks but the players have to start hitting the shots and not giving the ball away as basic fundamentals.

How come we are never the ones with a group of overachievers where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts!?

We had last year