worldK wrote:Towns is the only player on the team who can impose his will on the game. The talent gap between him and the rest is huge. Good thing is he seems to be all in in embracing his leadership status and this culture.
Wig attack the basket for his first 4pts. Then settled for a couple of his midrange misses and miss 2 3's. Looks like the old wig but the foul trouble put him out of rythem.
I suggest we start with towns-vonleh-cov-wig-teague next game. The small lineup kills us on the glass. We can still playbfast with that unit.
I would like to see layman-graham-dieng(until bell is healthy) - culver -okogie as the subs. Yes, napier is good enough for a rotation spot on this team but im all for development and culver and okogie need minutes.
Covington can impose his will defensively. He looked very good on that end and he is probably a bit rusty.
If Napier can play he needs to play. Having a ball handler that plays the way you want to helps development. The last week or 2 I've been kicking around the idea of him being the bridge PG for this team on a reasonable deal if that's possible.
Vonleh...what is his role? I think some people think he is trying to get his next contract but I think the Wolves are allowing and even encouraging guys to try and make plays. Vonleh does have some skill but he needs to learn to pick his spots better. I think he needs to know what he is supposed to do so that might be your angle of starting him next to more established guys. Based on tonight's game I'd rather start Layman but it's just the first preseason game. I think they may start different guys based on matchups which I think is actually a smart thing to do unless your starting 5 is good and stuff.
Not sure if it was mentioned, but i really liked that culver, okogie, wiggs, cov, and kat line up.
Kat was able to see where to help while wiggs was responsible for the point of attack. Then we had culver, okogie, and cov able to roam and be everywhere.
Offensively, culver brought the ball up, but his job was to give it to kat. Then kat facilitated the offense from the top.
crazy-canuck wrote:Not sure if it was mentioned, but i really liked that culver, okogie, wiggs, cov, and kat line up.
Kat was able to see where to help while wiggs was responsible for the point of attack. Then we had culver, okogie, and cov able to roam and be everywhere.
Offensively, culver brought the ball up, but his job was to give it to kat. Then kat facilitated the offense from the top.
That was the lineup that got us back in the game in the 2nd quarter. I like that lineup for the reasons you mentioned.
Overall, I thought we were playing too fast on offense and that hurt us on d. I like pushing the pace but we need to play better on defense.
lipoli390 wrote:It's only the first preseason game and I haven't seen anything other than the box score. But it doesn't inspire :LOL: confidence to see our Wolves lose by 10+ points to last season's worst team in the West.
Alas, at least there's the new Wiggins -- tonight hitting 37.5% of his field goal attempts, while going 0-2 from behind the arc and missing his one free throw attempt. He also pulled down a whopping 1 rebound and showcased his playmaking skills with 1 assist in his 11:16 minutes. I can hardly wait to see him in action this season.
Didn't watch the game, but I did see their shot chart on Wolfson's twitter feed: Very few mid-range/long 2 attempts. Unfortunately, this will be the types of process-related things we will need to hang our hat on this season.
"Hey, I know we lost, but look at all the 3's we took!".
"I know he went 0-12 from 3, but man, Jake Laymen doesn't hesitate like Okogie or Teague. How refreshing! And boy, does he move well without the ball!"
"KAT showing some great passion on that huge block he made. You would never know we were down by 30 based on that effort!"
Q12543 wrote:Didn't watch the game, but I did see their shot chart on Wolfson's twitter feed: Very few mid-range/long 2 attempts. Unfortunately, this will be the types of process-related things we will need to hang our hat on this season.
"Hey, I know we lost, but look at all the 3's we took!".
"I know he went 0-12 from 3, but man, Jake Laymen doesn't hesitate like Okogie or Teague. How refreshing! And boy, does he move well without the ball!"
"KAT showing some great passion on that huge block he made. You would never know we were down by 30 based on that effort!"
2 things were missing from that shot chart:
Long 2s and the corner 3.
There was no plan for most of those 3s other than step into it and shoot because they were told not to hesitate.
It may be worth noting on the idea that we looked meh or lost to the Suns that were a 19 win team last year...
The PG situation there last year was horrendous. Jamal Crawford MIGHT have been their best PG type and we know what the advanced stats say about him. Rubio is a pretty significant upgrade for them on both sides of the ball and his shooting is probably right in line with the trash they threw out there last year.
TJ Warren had a nice season but only played 43 games. They have Saric as his replacement. Some would argue he is an upgrade. I didn't watch Warren enough to know. Booker missed 18 games.
I'm not suggesting the suns are good but there is a chance they aren't the dumpster fire they were last year mostly because their PG play should be massively better with Rubio out there. That's a pretty important position and Ayton and Booker (and other guys) are gonna get some easier looks this year. The west is gonna be so tough because unless there are some injuries or flat disappointments I don't see a flat out horrible team like the Suns last year
monsterpile wrote:It may be worth noting on the idea that we looked meh or lost to the Suns that were a 19 win team last year...
The PG situation there last year was horrendous. Jamal Crawford MIGHT have been their best PG type and we know what the advanced stats say about him. Rubio is a pretty significant upgrade for them on both sides of the ball and his shooting is probably right in line with the trash they threw out there last year.
TJ Warren had a nice season but only played 43 games. They have Saric as his replacement. Some would argue he is an upgrade. I didn't watch Warren enough to know. Booker missed 18 games.
I'm not suggesting the suns are good but there is a chance they aren't the dumpster fire they were last year mostly because their PG play should be massively better with Rubio out there. That's a pretty important position and Ayton and Booker (and other guys) are gonna get some easier looks this year. The west is gonna be so tough because unless there are some injuries or flat disappointments I don't see a flat out horrible team like the Suns last year
I would like to think we aren't the dumpster fire we were last year, either... ;-)
monsterpile wrote:It may be worth noting on the idea that we looked meh or lost to the Suns that were a 19 win team last year...
The PG situation there last year was horrendous. Jamal Crawford MIGHT have been their best PG type and we know what the advanced stats say about him. Rubio is a pretty significant upgrade for them on both sides of the ball and his shooting is probably right in line with the trash they threw out there last year.
TJ Warren had a nice season but only played 43 games. They have Saric as his replacement. Some would argue he is an upgrade. I didn't watch Warren enough to know. Booker missed 18 games.
I'm not suggesting the suns are good but there is a chance they aren't the dumpster fire they were last year mostly because their PG play should be massively better with Rubio out there. That's a pretty important position and Ayton and Booker (and other guys) are gonna get some easier looks this year. The west is gonna be so tough because unless there are some injuries or flat disappointments I don't see a flat out horrible team like the Suns last year
I would like to think we aren't the dumpster fire we were the last 14 years, either... ;-)
