Yeah, Gobert was easily the best player we had on the floor tonight. Not sure that will be the case every night, but as Tim said, we lose that game without Rudy.
I'll give KAT a bit of a pass since he is still working his way back from the illness.
And I'll even give Ant a bit of a the benefit for those outside misses. But he simply cannot keep missing so many bunnies at the rim. That should literally be his greatest strength.
Dane mentioned it on his podcast with Chris Hine that Ant is only league average at the rim
Yeah, Gobert was easily the best player we had on the floor tonight. Not sure that will be the case every night, but as Tim said, we lose that game without Rudy.
I'll give KAT a bit of a pass since he is still working his way back from the illness.
And I'll even give Ant a bit of a the benefit for those outside misses. But he simply cannot keep missing so many bunnies at the rim. That should literally be his greatest strength.
Dane mentioned it on his podcast with Chris Hine that Ant is only league average at the rim
Not good for a guy who can get to the rim practically at will.
I will take any win we can get, give me 60 ugly wins anyday than 50 feel good losses.
Gobert is a legit difference maker
and impact player. Dlo, jalen and jaden were positives. Surprised that Naz was out of the rotation completely.
Kat and especially ant with stinkers. But I am confident both will get going eventually. The early schedule favors us and they can use this time to work things out.
The problem in the 3rd quarter was that the ball stopped moving. And that is mostly due to Ant. He's the one guy who doesn't seem to have bought in to the team concept yet.
As great as he can sometimes be, KAT is a moron who can't keep it together for 48 minutes. I really wonder what he's thinking sometimes when he tries to bulldoze through 3 guys in the paint. And if you want to blame someone for the lack of defensive rebounding, KAT is your guy. He never boxes out and relies on his length and athleticism.
So now that I've bagged on our supposed two best players, nice to get a win tonight. Rudy and KAT did play well next to each other, and Rudy was a fun watch. I think it can only get better from here. Play together, make the extra pass and keep the ball moving. That is our recipe for success.
I will say it again. Kat and Ant shot 6-27 and the team shot 26% from 3 and they won the game.
Personally I think Ant and Kat are pretty darn good and I highly doubt the wolves will consistently shoot that bad.
Not worried one bit.
I said it at the time of the trade also that Rudy skill set makes it really hard to lose to bad teams because his defense and rebounding is always there
CoolBreeze44 wrote:The problem in the 3rd quarter was that the ball stopped moving. And that is mostly due to Ant. He's the one guy who doesn't seem to have bought in to the team concept yet.
As great as he can sometimes be, KAT is a moron who can't keep it together for 48 minutes. I really wonder what he's thinking sometimes when he tries to bulldoze through 3 guys in the paint. And if you want to blame someone for the lack of defensive rebounding, KAT is your guy. He never boxes out and relies on his length and athleticism.
So now that I've bagged on our supposed two best players, nice to get a win tonight. Rudy and KAT did play well next to each other, and Rudy was a fun watch. I think it can only get better from here. Play together, make the extra pass and keep the ball moving. That is our recipe for success.
Totally agree, Cool! You nailed it with your recipe for this team's success. However, the ball movement problem isn't just Ant. I saw a lot of hesitation and lack of off-ball movement by everyone, especially our starters. The offense lacked purpose, structure and energy. Too much standing around. In a number of cases, Ant didn't have a clear target to pass to. I get the sense a lot of the problem is that these guys really don't know yet how to play together. DLO, KAT and Ant are playing with two very different starters in Gobert and McDaniels. Towns and Gobert didn't play much in preseason. And to be fair, Ant had 7 assists tonight so his fingers weren't as sticky as it might have appeared. But yes, he needs to move the ball more readily and earlier. One good thing is that Finch won't shy away from holding him accountable.
CoolBreeze44 wrote:The problem in the 3rd quarter was that the ball stopped moving. And that is mostly due to Ant. He's the one guy who doesn't seem to have bought in to the team concept yet.
As great as he can sometimes be, KAT is a moron who can't keep it together for 48 minutes. I really wonder what he's thinking sometimes when he tries to bulldoze through 3 guys in the paint. And if you want to blame someone for the lack of defensive rebounding, KAT is your guy. He never boxes out and relies on his length and athleticism.
So now that I've bagged on our supposed two best players, nice to get a win tonight. Rudy and KAT did play well next to each other, and Rudy was a fun watch. I think it can only get better from here. Play together, make the extra pass and keep the ball moving. That is our recipe for success.
Totally agree, Cool! You nailed it with your recipe for this team's success. However, the ball movement problem isn't just Ant. I saw a lot of hesitation and lack of off-ball movement by everyone, especially our starters. The offense lacked purpose, structure and energy. Too much standing around. In a number of cases, Ant didn't have a clear target to pass to. I get the sense a lot of the problem is that these guys really don't know yet how to play together. DLO, KAT and Ant are playing with two very different starters in Gobert and McDaniels. Towns and Gobert didn't play much in preseason. And to be fair, Ant had 7 assists tonight so his fingers weren't as sticky as it might have appeared. But yes, he needs to move the ball more readily and earlier. One good thing is that Finch won't shy away from holding him accountable.
I agree Lip. It was really just the 3rd quarter where the ball got stuck. Other than that it wasn't too bad.
kekgeek1 wrote:I will say it again. Kat and Ant shot 6-27 and the team shot 26% from 3 and they won the game.
Personally I think Ant and Kat are pretty darn good and I highly doubt the wolves will consistently shoot that bad.
Not worried one bit.
I said it at the time of the trade also that Rudy skill set makes it really hard to lose to bad teams because his defense and rebounding is always there/quote]
Agree Kek. Shooting comes and goes from night to night, but rebounding, rim rolling, and paint defense isn't subject to the same statistical variance. He was easily our most impactful player on the floor last night. You can see why Utah won so many games year after year.
But....we need a lot of nights where we say KAT or Ant are our best players in the game. We don't become truly great until Gobert becomes our 2nd or 3rd best player and is consistently outshined by someone else.
It was so crazy to see so many wide open shots and open driving lanes last night. If we could have hit a few of them it would have been a blowout. Winning when your stars play poorly is a great sign. Keep it rolling.
