FNG wrote:At least all is right in the world again- Russell has assumed his rightful position of worst +/- on the team tonight. I hate to keep harping on it, but it's really quite astounding how consistently negative he is.
-110 in the last 4 games combined. That's incredible. He did look like an all-star for about 8 or so minutes in that 3rd quarter.
Q12543 wrote:Are you guys seeing this camera angle on Culver's free throws? It's perfect for seeing the knuckleball he puts up there. Literally nothing is different from last year. WTF were they working on with him!? It looks no different. This doesn't happen with Toronto, Miami, San Antonio....
Pressure can bring back old bad habits. I'm disappointed to see it. I really like rooting for him cause he plays tough and hard.
Agree, really was hoping he'd be a big factor for us this season based on what we saw in the pre-season, but his shot mechanics are broken. If an extended Covid offseason can't fix his shot then nothing will.
Some positives
- Dlo for the 1st time this year looked like a max player in the 3rd quarter
- Layman played well
-naz is very solid, needs to cut down on fouls though
- Beasley brings it every night
- I like Ed Davis
- Thought Culver played well with energy
- Edwards passing
- McDaniels scored 5 pts in garbage time
- Wolves more competitive and won the 3rd quarter for the 1st time this year
Negatives
- Edwards floated a lot
- Dlo was bad in the 1st half again
- Hernangomez is bringing nothing
- Naz fouling issues
- Rubio killed us in the 4th
- Culver's shot (he attacked nicely though)
- Jmac hasn't brought anything since his return
- Ryan allowed a 11-0 to start the 4th with no TO or sub
- 4th straight 15+ pt loss
Volans19 wrote:Guys Rubio is cooked. Take off the rose colored glasses.
I was excited on draft night, but I'm really wishing we had that 17th pick back
Did you see the first half? He, Beasley and Naz got us back into the game. This half....not as good.
Agreed! He brought us back in the first half. He may have lost a half step, but he isn't cooked. Still brings the same things he's always brought. He needs to shoot the 3 less though... still a bad 3 point shooter, I don't care if his percentage was decent last year.
Volans19 wrote:Guys Rubio is cooked. Take off the rose colored glasses.
I was excited on draft night, but I'm really wishing we had that 17th pick back
Did you see the first half? He, Beasley and Naz got us back into the game. This half....not as good.
Not a single player drafted after 17 has really done anything outside Payton Pritchard
Right, I'm good with the trade, especially since they were able to grab mcdaniels. I love his potential that I've seen so far and you can only have so many rookies on your roster.
thedoper wrote:Rubio should not be playing in the 4th quarter. Same old story. There were some good moments this game. Every set should be for Ant here on out.
Yeah, I want to see way more action for Ant. In addition to the Dlo towns pick and roll... I think the Ant/towns pick and roll will be awesome. I think this will become our #1 play, because ant can do all three things well. I still see Wiggins comps mentioned and I don't get that... this guys handle is sooo much better and he's a tank for a wing, not to mention his passing looks good and he has the alpha mentality. He will be just fine.
kekgeek1 wrote:Some positives
- Dlo for the 1st time this year looked like a max player in the 3rd quarter
- Layman played well
-naz is very solid, needs to cut down on fouls though
- Beasley brings it every night
- I like Ed Davis
- Thought Culver played well with energy
- Edwards passing
- McDaniels scored 5 pts in garbage time
- Wolves more competitive and won the 3rd quarter for the 1st time this year
Negatives
- Edwards floated a lot
- Dlo was bad in the 1st half again
- Hernangomez is bringing nothing
- Naz fouling issues
- Rubio killed us in the 4th
- Culver's shot (he attacked nicely though)
- Jmac hasn't brought anything since his return
- Ryan allowed a 11-0 to start the 4th with no TO or sub
- 4th straight 15+ pt loss
Good summary Kek.
This team is weird in that we have just a massive hole right now at the 4 between Juancho and Layman. The 3 is mostly being played by one-way defensive types in Culver and Okogie. So we have this massive problem at the forward positions (gee, did any of us notice this during the offseason!?).
But then you look at our 2nd and 3rd tier guys and there is some intriguing talent along the front line. Naz, Vanderbilt, McDaniels, Edwards....some pretty significant upside in positions of need but all these guys are so young and inexperienced.
- That 3rd quarter... huh? 10 points and 6 assists from Russell. Nice! Actually, it was awesome. The passing was exceptional. A couple of big shots. The energy from Russell was palpable. The other 3 quarters? 8 points. 1 assist. I don't know whether to be hopeful... or more ticked. But I think that's sort of the D. Russell experience.
- So the Wolves made concerted effort to split up Russell and Rubio. 30 minutes for Russell... 18 for Rubio. I think this is a critical point moving forward. It's not sustainable They HAVE to figure out how to play together. Otherwise, trading for Rubio was a massive misfire from Rosas. Obviously, they didn't agree to pay Rubio $34M and give up a the #17 for Russell's backup -- and if they did -- Rosas is worse than David Kahn.
- Edwards' passing. YES. I didn't expect that. I dug a couple of them, especially, the left-handed assist off the bounce.
- Beasley plays with energy. And he can get buckets. I don't dig the off-court stuff... but he's a professional player. He'd be a rotation guy for a lot of teams.
- Ed Davis seems... well... "fine." But ugh... He gets NO respect from opposing defenses. You put him out there with guys like Culver and Hernangomez and defenses can rest a bit needing to close out on guys.
- Good energy from Culver. But him becoming Josh Okogie v2.0 just won't be good enough. I can see the Wolves really using one of those guys. Not both. I'd put one of them at the top of any prospective Wolves trades.
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- Denver didn't play well... until it mattered. The change was stark. And obvious. Just another NBA game. We've seen more of these types of games than any other franchise over the past 15+ years.
