Minnesota Sports Forum

Hell of a game. That last 6 or so minutes in the 2nd quarter was rough. The team came back and ended up stuff Jimmy at the end for the win. Man you can't draw it up better than that.

Other thoughts

Yep Bam is pretty good.

Culver had some solid moments in this game.

Juancho was certainly more of a positive in the 2nd half after a pretty brutal 1st. That probably bought him some more run.

Layman is pretty rusty.

DLO and Beasley can fill it up even with some questionable shots here and there but that happens with guys that are guys that take a lot of shots. I thought DLO's defense was oddly solid. I think they tended to keep him on guys that were less of a threat to challenge driving the ball. It seemed he was able to utilize his size in this game more although I'm not sure I can say exactly why.

Even if you want a tank For the best pick possible this team needed a win at some point. That was a fun one.

The Miami announcers were actually pretty good except they were pronouncing Okogie wrong but they did correct that like in the 2nd half. I found myself actually wishing I could listen to their takes instead of fast forwarding through stoppages of play. That's mostly unusual. Lol

Massive credit to Pauga. Wolfson has mentioned a couple times JMAC was going to go to Phinoex but Pauga convinced him to come to the wolves SL.

Huge hit for the front office to have JMAC (legit NBA backup PG) Ried (At least an NBA backup C) and Martin (an NBA player) all coming from undrafted players. Wolves never do this.

kekgeek1 wrote:Massive credit to Pauga. Wolfson has mentioned a couple times JMAC was going to go to Phinoex but Pauga convinced him to come to the wolves SL.

Huge hit for the front office to have JMAC (legit NBA backup PG) Ried (At least an NBA backup C) and Martin (an NBA player) all coming from undrafted players. Wolves never do this.

No doubt. To have found two, potentially three, legit rotation players on the cheap is unprecedented for this franchise.

Now if only we could draft people as effectively.....

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:McLaughlin seems to be acclimating well to the L.

He's also following in Tyus Jones' footsteps as a very low TO guy.

4.0 apg / 0.7 TO.
I imagine he's right up there at the top of the league with Jones... 4.4 apg / 0.9 TO

In fact their stats are eerily similar across the board so far this season. The paychecks, however, are vastly different.

One massive difference is that JMac makes 3's, Tyus couldn't. That makes him even more valuable. Tyus was better defensively, but that impact is more than offset by the better shooting.

McLaughlin:
19.3 mpg
7.4 ppg
4.0 apg
47.4% fg
41.0% 3fg (1.1 makes | 2.7 attempts)

Jones:
18.8 mpg
7.1 ppg
4.4 apg
46.8% fg
38.4% 3fg (0.7 makes | 1.7 attempts)

So yes... a difference. A massive difference? Maybe... we'll see as the sample size grows. Everything else, like I said, is strikingly similar so far.

I guess I'm mostly basing that on how Tyus shot with Minnesota (.317 last season) and the fact he's lower volume overall. Of course none of us should be surprised that he goes to another franchise and suddenly becomes a competent 3-point shooter. Smh.....

I also want to say thought it was interesting that the last 2 possessions the wolves went to Jmac. Not Dlo, not Beasley. The team has massive faith in Jmac and he rewarded them. Also think layman deserves credit, made 4 straight FTs including FTs to give the wolves the lead after a great cut by layman and great find by Jmac

The game was a ton of fun. Watched it late last night with a group and there is just such a difference in the overall effort level.It's been a long time since we had a team that beat other teams down the court and "out efforted" the competition.

kekgeek1 wrote:I also want to say thought it was interesting that the last 2 possessions the wolves went to Jmac. Not Dlo, not Beasley. The team has massive faith in Jmac and he rewarded them. Also think layman deserves credit, made 4 straight FTs including FTs to give the wolves the lead after a great cut by layman and great find by Jmac

Yeah, they basically ran 5-out action with Jauncho playing the 5. DLO spaced out in both plays, opposite the point of attack by JMac.

Gutsy call by Saunders, but not illogical given that JMac is actually quicker with the ball than DLO.

kekgeek1 wrote:I also want to say thought it was interesting that the last 2 possessions the wolves went to Jmac. Not Dlo, not Beasley. The team has massive faith in Jmac and he rewarded them. Also think layman deserves credit, made 4 straight FTs including FTs to give the wolves the lead after a great cut by layman and great find by Jmac

Big change of pace from the days of just giving the ball to Butler or Wiggins in iso sets... over and over again?

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:I also want to say thought it was interesting that the last 2 possessions the wolves went to Jmac. Not Dlo, not Beasley. The team has massive faith in Jmac and he rewarded them. Also think layman deserves credit, made 4 straight FTs including FTs to give the wolves the lead after a great cut by layman and great find by Jmac

Big change of pace from the days of just giving the ball to Butler or Wiggins in iso sets... over and over again?

Ya big change of pace. Speaking of butler, some random Twitter guy posted stats on Butler for the Heat. (So I don't know how accurate the stats are) but Butler is 1 of 15 on last possessions to take the lead or win. And is shooting like 37% in the 4th quarter this year. Once again don't know how accurate these stats are

Miami's broadcast crew said McLaughlin was 2nd among rookies in assists. Yep he is 2nd in assists a game to Morant. Some of that is about the lack of passing in this rookie class but that's something.

Just for fun...

https://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/pcm_finder.fcgi?request=1&sum=0&player_id1_hint=Darius+Garland&player_id1_select=Darius+Garland&player_id1=garlada01&y1=2020&player_id2_hint=Coby+White&player_id2_select=Coby+White&y2=2020&player_id2=whiteco01&idx=players&player_id3_hint=Jordan+McLaughlin&player_id3_select=Jordan+McLaughlin&y3=2020&player_id3=mclaujo01&idx=players