Minnesota Sports Forum

"As a tandem over 531 minutes, D'Lo & Ant are (-60). In D'Lo's other 119 minutes he's (-6). In Ant's other 232 minutes he's (+56). They seem to be bad for each other, which is consistent with the eye test of watching them hold the ball and stare at each other from opposite wings."

Revealing stats, bloop. Russell and Edwards are talented offensive players who obviously don't work together on the court. They don't work well together on offense because they are both ball stoppers, and they don't work on defense because neither understands proper rotation. Finchie (or his successor) has to see what we see! Swapping JMac (once he's healthy) with DLo in the starting lineup would do wonders for Ant I think. And it just might jump start Russell too.

The Westbrook treatment?!? ;-)

Last year they had a net rating of +7 per 100 possessions as a player pair, which was the best among the various pairs of regular starters that played together, including KAT/DLO and Ant/KAT. So something worked pretty good last year!

I guess that's what makes this season frustrating as hell. DLO was a plus player last year. Our starting 5 was rock solid. We changed out Vando and PBev for McDaniels and Gobert - which on paper looks a lot better - and everything goes to hell. Frustrating.

The quote above is from @PDWolves on Twitter for those who were curious, but I'll say essentially the same thing I said there.

Those two were +204 last year in 1,347 minutes together. They were Minnesota's fifth-most used two-man pairing in total minutes and second most-effective duo -- behind D'Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns at +236 in 1,435 minutes. Keep this in mind.

Saying "they seem to be bad for each other" is lazy analysis and overlooks arguably the biggest issue with the team right now, which is coaching. We have an entire season of data that suggests those two can not only coexist, but play really well together. However, Chris Finch hasn't accentuated player strengths this season whatsoever. There's zero structure, zero direction offensively. There's no obvious plan on a nightly basis. Are they playing through the post? Are they picking apart mismatches on the perimeter? Are they routinely setting high ball screens for one or two main ball-handlers and spreading the floor? None of that? Who knows? How could you? It looks different every single night. It's just not working for most of the roster and those issues are emphasized when half the roster is shooting well below their expected averages.

Both D'Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards haven't been their best selves for much of this season, and they deserve their share of the blame, but they're also being grossly mismanaged through the first quarter of the season.

One of the bigger differences between now and last year is the position Edwards is playing. He was mostly a 3 last year, now he is mostly a 2.

60WinTim wrote:One of the bigger differences between now and last year is the position Edwards is playing. He was mostly a 3 last year, now he is mostly a 2.

I was thinking the same thing, Tim, with PatBev starting 54 games. I really can't put my finger on why the Russell/Edwards combo seems to work so much better when there is another guard on the court next to Russell...doesn't make sense, but the numbers are quite telling. Nowell gets the start tonight, so maybe we'll see some of the good play DLO and Ant put together last year. Butt frankly I'm concerned about a trio of ball stoppers on the court at the same time. Can it work? I guess we'll see in about 30 minutes.

Edit: OK, Wendell Moore starts instead of Nowell. Makes a lot more sense.

FNG wrote:

60WinTim wrote:One of the bigger differences between now and last year is the position Edwards is playing. He was mostly a 3 last year, now he is mostly a 2.

I was thinking the same thing, Tim, with PatBev starting 54 games. I really can't put my finger on why the Russell/Edwards combo seems to work so much better when there is another guard on the court next to Russell...doesn't make sense, but the numbers are quite telling. Nowell gets the start tonight, so maybe we'll see some of the good play DLO and Ant put together last year. Butt frankly I'm concerned about a trio of ball stoppers on the court at the same time. Can it work? I guess we'll see in about 30 minutes.

Edit: OK, Wendell Moore starts instead of Nowell. Makes a lot more sense.

Yeah, Finch puts Nowell in the starting lineup because it seemed like he should be next in line since Rivers didn't work out very well. And then he saw the lineup card with Dlo/Nowell/Edwards and hit himself in the forehead and said "I can't do that!". :)

DLO missing too many shots. Then he commits a dumb frustration foul. Then we don't get rebounds.

Will be interesting to see if Moore Jr. ultimately displaces Rivers as the defensive guard off the bench. That would be a very encouraging development, as I really didn't expect Moore to contribute much this season.

My beloved Iowa team has been raided of all its talent! Already!