Bears v Wolves

[DNatagal]

Finch needs to take some heat for his rotations. Having 4 bench players on the floor with DLO just isn't the best idea. Not having Nowell really hurt the rotations (or having all of the bench basically just show up for the paycheck.) Does this team need improvements to the roster? Yup. But which team is going to get suckered into taking pieces of our poo-poo platter of reserves? Beasley is playing himself out of the rotation. Could he be sent down to the G-League for a few games to get his groove back or does the team wait until the all-star break for his reset?

[kekgeek]

Finch needs to take some heat for his rotations. Having 4 bench players on the floor with DLO just isn't the best idea. Not having Nowell really hurt the rotations (or having all of the bench basically just show up for the paycheck.) Does this team need improvements to the roster? Yup. But which team is going to get suckered into taking pieces of our poo-poo platter of reserves? Beasley is playing himself out of the rotation. Could he be sent down to the G-League for a few games to get his groove back or does the team wait until the all-star break for his reset?

To go along with that point the lineup of Dlo/Beasley/Mcdaniels/prince/Naz has had 72 possessions this year and it has been a terrible lineup. It is in the 0th percentile getting outscored by 27 pts per 100 possessions. It is competitive on defense but it is 0th percentile when it comes to offense

[FNG]

What's the typical Wolves prescription for winning? Get very good games out of their Big 3...check. Let PatBev hassle their best offensive player all night...check. Let Vando dominate the boards at both ends of the court...check. I would argue that we are going to win 80% of our games where these three things happen, even on nights when the bench is as bad as they were tonight.

But Memphis is very deep (even with two key starters out of the game) and John Konchar happened...and man, did he happen. I have to admit Konchar has never been on my radar. I never heard of him in college, and I haven't really followed him much with Memphis. But if you look at his underlying numbers, he's been very good...and he's starting to get more minutes and will continue to with Brooks out. Maybe I never heard of him in college because he played for Purdue- Ft. Wayne...I guess I don't follow the Mastodons closely. But the guy averaged 19.5/8.5/5.4 his senior year, and shot almost 42% on threes for his career. Tip of the hat to the Memphis scouts. They bring in a guy like Konchar originally on a 2-way deal...we go with Nathan Knight.

So without Konchar tonight, we could have stolen a nice win in Memphis against a team that has now won 11 in a row. I know this sounds like a broken record, but I think this is the second consecutive "moral victory". I thought we played a very good game. I think Q mentioned it in the game thread, but it looks like Chris Finch is getting through to the players on offense...much less ball stopping last night, and excellent use of the pick and roll. DLo looks really good to me on offense, especially now that his shot seems to be working again.

So yeah, the bench is a problem and so is the schedule the next three weeks. But I think this team can get some wins the last third of the season, and if the bottom feeders in the league keep playing like they are, qualify for a play in game. IF their Big Three and PatBev stay healthy...IF.

[AbeVigodaLive]

So two more offensive fouls (turnovers) for Towns last night.

And one free throw. I didn't see the entire game... but did he get some other foul calls? Otherwise, it would be close to unprecedented for an "all star" type player fouling the defenders more than they fouled him, right?

I still can't find any stat for offensive fouls. But I am 100% certain Towns leads the league by a country mile. But I'm less certain he realizes how often it happens or how big of a problem it is.

[FNG]

So two more offensive fouls (turnovers) for Towns last night.

And one free throw. I didn't see the entire game... but did he get some other foul calls? Otherwise, it would be close to unprecedented for an "all star" type player fouling the defenders more than they fouled him, right?

I still can't find any stat for offensive fouls. But I am 100% certain Towns leads the league by a country mile. But I'm less certain he realizes how often it happens or how big of a problem it is.

,

He continues to use his arms to push off too often on drives to the basket...obvious offensive fouls. He's such a terrific talent, but he needs to be much smarter with the ball in his hands.

The Wolves extraordinary luck may continue in their next game against the Warriors. I had this one as a sure loss, but now with all the Warrior injuries (Green, Thompson, Payton, Wiseman), we might even be favored. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

[kekgeek]

So two more offensive fouls (turnovers) for Towns last night.

And one free throw. I didn't see the entire game... but did he get some other foul calls? Otherwise, it would be close to unprecedented for an "all star" type player fouling the defenders more than they fouled him, right?

I still can't find any stat for offensive fouls. But I am 100% certain Towns leads the league by a country mile. But I'm less certain he realizes how often it happens or how big of a problem it is.

I can't find offensive foul stats but Kat is #1 in the NBA in fouls per game at 3.7. (He does draw 5.7 fouls per game). Jaden McDaniels is 6th in the NBA in fouls per game. So 2 of the Wolves to 7 players foul a lot

[AbeVigodaLive]

So two more offensive fouls (turnovers) for Towns last night.

And one free throw. I didn't see the entire game... but did he get some other foul calls? Otherwise, it would be close to unprecedented for an "all star" type player fouling the defenders more than they fouled him, right?

I still can't find any stat for offensive fouls. But I am 100% certain Towns leads the league by a country mile. But I'm less certain he realizes how often it happens or how big of a problem it is.

I can't find offensive foul stats but Kat is #1 in the NBA in fouls per game at 3.7. (He does draw 5.7 fouls per game). Jaden McDaniels is 6th in the NBA in fouls per game. So 2 of the Wolves to 7 players foul a lot

Yeah. the difference with Towns and McDaniels is HOW they're fouling.

McDaniels' fouls are nearly all defensive. I'd love to see the percentage of Towns fouls (turnovers) that are offensive.

With all the stats out there, this one seems like an easy one to have readily available but it's not.

[Q-is-here]

Just to to put an exclamation point on the bench issue, the undrafted John Konchar had 15 points, 17 rebounds, and 3 assists in 30 minutes off the bench for Memphis.

Our ENTIRE bench had 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists in 67 minutes.

This says two things: 1) Memphis has absolutely killed it with their rebuild. Besides getting a couple of blue-chippers in Jackson Jr. and Morant, they unearthed John Konchar, picked Desmond Bane, and signed Tyus Jones - smart, fairly inexpensive players that are punching way above their weight right now, and 2) Gupta, fix our bench!!!

Meh. The bench had nothing to do with it. They played virtually even with Memphis.

Minnesota Bench -- 13 points. 5 - 26 fg (2 - 14 3fg). 11 rebounds. 4 assists. 3 TO. 0 STL.
Memphis Bench -- 48 points. 21 - 42 fg (4 - 12 3fg). 34 rebounds. 7 assists. 1 TO. 4 STL.

This is basically all anyone needs to see to know exactly why one team is a top 3 team in the West and the other is fighting to stay around .500. Amazing.

[kekgeek]

Of the 100 players who players who play 30 MPG this year. Kat is #8 in fouls drawn per game. So I think that number could be higher but I think we probably complain to much on Kat not getting calls.

With Ant it could be a different story. Ant is 64th in fouls drawn but 34th in drives. Of those 33 players who drive more than Ant only Garland, Cunningham and Herro get the whistle less.

Think it is interesting that all 4 of those guys are really young in terms of NBA service. So the "earn your stripes" could be a factor here what is stupid

[FNG]

Of the 100 players who players who play 30 MPG this year. Kat is #8 in fouls drawn per game. So I think that number could be higher but I think we probably complain to much on Kat not getting calls.

With Ant it could be a different story. Ant is 64th in fouls drawn but 34th in drives. Of those 33 players who drive more than Ant only Garland, Cunningham and Herro get the whistle less.

Think it is interesting that all 4 of those guys are really young in terms of NBA service. So the "earn your stripes" could be a factor here what is stupid

Thanks for the research here, kek, and also in the post above. A few thoughts:

1) It's good to see that KAT draws more fouls than he is called on. I do think we advance the narrative that the refs are too tough on KAT too much here.
2) The McDaniels fouling situation is a recurring issue with him. He averaged 4.3 fouls per 40 minutes at Washington, and it was a major factor in his limited minutes. I think he has so much potential on defense and is realizing a lot of it, but he needs to control the fouls. Frankly, I'm more optimistic about Jaden improving in this area than I am about KAT.
3) Others have mentioned this, but Ant's extraordinary body control allows him to avoid contact around the basket, and limits the number of "and 1's" he gets. He's young and a student of the game, so I expect to see a lot if improvement in this area as he matures...i.e., I want to see him actually seek contact rather than avoid it. If I were Finch, I would have Ant watch video of Dwayne Wade, who was a master of drawing contact around the basket. Can you imagine Ant's upside if he were shooting 11 free throws a game like Wade compared to the 3.7 he is taking? It's exciting to think of what kind of scorer he can become if he learns to draw fouls.