Minnesota Sports Forum

Recent comment from Edwards after last night's game:

Anthony Edwards on his role shifting:

"A while back, I'm in the corner, I come off, I'm just thinking, like, shoot. But now I'm on the ball every time, so I get to see everything. So it's pretty dope. It's actually fun, like I'm having the most fun I ever had playing basketball"

Anthony Edwards on DLO:

Anthony Edwards on sharing playmaking duties w/ D'Angelo Russell lately:

"DLo's a great shooter, man... So I just tell him, breh, let me just bring it up and initiate the offense. Just be right there, catch and shoot, because you know they gonna help. And he been killing, man."

What we've seen the last two games is what this team needs to build around going forward: Edwards as the primary ball-handler with DLO as a scorer who also has high-level passing skills, lots of ball movement, running the floor, etc. If they can do this with both Gobert and KAT on the floor with DLO, Edwards and McDaniels, then great. I don't think they can, but we'll eventually know. Meanwhile, we should have Gobert back soon. Forget drop coverage. Stop going out of your way to feed Gobert the ball inside. Do what you've been doing the past two games, but with the benefit of a really good rebounder and rim-protector in the middle.

Yeah, I liked those comments from those 2 yesterday and also liked how they clicked against the porous bulls defense. I've always thought Russell is more effective off ball than at the point. The problem with this pair is that there's a body of evidence that says the pairing doesn't work on the other side of the court. Kek gave us the stats on the effectiveness of the 2 together (spoiler alert...not good), and while a switching of roles may help them on the offensive end, what is the hope for us on defense if they are the starting backcourt? Anyway, yeah, I sure liked our offense last night!

Anthony Edwards still isn't ready to be the primary ball-handler on this team full-time, but the more comfortable he gets in that role and the more effective his play is the more opportunities he should be afforded there, certainly. That only makes Minnesota's offensive attack more dangerous and more unpredictable as we've seen lately. I also think putting him in ball-screen actions is something we have to continue doing to try and help simplify the game for him. In my opinion, the improved passing as of late is directly tied to the simpler, easier reads that come with pick-and-roll play, which Minnesota's been using more frequently (thank goodness) since Karl-Anthony Towns got injured.

The other obvious boon to playing more "point Ant" is that he's just not a good off-ball player yet. That's an underrated part of his development that doesn't get highlighted enough on any medium. He doesn't consistently know how or when to move without the basketball, which results in too many empty possessions from him -- some of which he's falling asleep in the corner with his hands on his hips.

D'Angelo Russell is still, by far, this team's best shot creator and they need to largely keep him on the ball until someone on the roster creeps into the same stratosphere as him in that regard, BUT that doesn't mean that's the only way he should be used, alluding to your point above. Run him off screens. Get him on the move. Make opposing defenses respect Minnesota away from the ball. Chris Finch actually has a handful of sets in his bag where he gets D-Lo cutting to the rim only to pop back out at the top of the floor and either initiate a pick-and-roll or get a spot-up three-point look. There's a lot more that he can do with him if Ant continues to progress as a lead ball-handler like he's doing.

What will be concerning to me is if everyone returns healthy and Finch goes back to his early season schemes despite what we've "learned" over the past month about this team. We can't afford to go back to fighting against what works.

Camden wrote:Anthony Edwards still isn't ready to be the primary ball-handler on this team full-time, but the more comfortable he gets in that role and the more effective his play is the more opportunities he should be afforded there, certainly. That only makes Minnesota's offensive attack more dangerous and more unpredictable as we've seen lately. I also think putting him in ball-screen actions is something we have to continue doing to try and help simplify the game for him. In my opinion, the improved passing as of late is directly tied to the simpler, easier reads that come with pick-and-roll play, which Minnesota's been using more frequently (thank goodness) since Karl-Anthony Towns got injured.

The other obvious boon to playing more "point Ant" is that he's just not a good off-ball player yet. That's an underrated part of his development that doesn't get highlighted enough on any medium. He doesn't consistently know how or when to move without the basketball, which results in too many empty possessions from him -- some of which he's falling asleep in the corner with his hands on his hips.

D'Angelo Russell is still, by far, this team's best shot creator and they need to largely keep him on the ball until someone on the roster creeps into the same stratosphere as him in that regard, BUT that doesn't mean that's the only way he should be used, alluding to your point above. Run him off screens. Get him on the move. Make opposing defenses respect Minnesota away from the ball. Chris Finch actually has a handful of sets in his bag where he gets D-Lo cutting to the rim only to pop back out at the top of the floor and either initiate a pick-and-roll or get a spot-up three-point look. There's a lot more that he can do with him if Ant continues to progress as a lead ball-handler like he's doing.

What will be concerning to me is if everyone returns healthy and Finch goes back to his early season schemes despite what we've "learned" over the past month about this team. We can't afford to go back to fighting against what works.

The rub is that there's $72M (and rising quickly) currently sitting out games returning soon.

Whether what should happen or not makes sense, or is blatantly obvious, it doesn't always matter. Money and star players still dominate the NBA. Hopefully, we see some progress in schemes to capitalize on recent offensive success for the guards.

But it's not like they can make Gobert into something he's never been. And Towns will change how the team plays, too. It's part of THE problem many people (especially non-Wolves fans and pundits) were pointing out from the very beginning.

In any event, it'll be interesting to see how things develop, progress... or even regress.

FNG wrote:Yeah, I liked those comments from those 2 yesterday and also liked how they clicked against the porous bulls defense. I've always thought Russell is more effective off ball than at the point. The problem with this pair is that there's a body of evidence that says the pairing doesn't work on the other side of the court. Kek gave us the stats on the effectiveness of the 2 together (spoiler alert...not good), and while a switching of roles may help them on the offensive end, what is the hope for us on defense if they are the starting backcourt? Anyway, yeah, I sure liked our offense last night!

In the 1,347 minutes D'Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards shared last year, they had an offensive rating of 115.8 and a defensive rating of 108.7 -- net rating of 7.1 -- indicating that they were largely very effective together on both ends of the court. In fact, that duo was Minnesota's second-most effective two-man combination last year among the 34 that played 400 minutes together or more. The only duo better was Russell and Patrick Beverley. For whatever reason (we know the reason), that continues to be overlooked or ignored when we talk about this duo. They've already shown they can play winning basketball together. The body of evidence points to that.

Was last year an aberration? It's a combination of "maybe" and "it remains to be seen." Minnesota has different personnel and a new identity this year, which has forced us to be patient with the team as a whole, but my thoughts are that they're still a potent backcourt offensively that can play well enough defensively -- with the help of the other three players they share the floor with. They haven't produced similar results to last year in the early part of this season, but how much of that is circumstance? Like the fit of Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert, I think it's just a matter of time.

I have a much better feeling about the DLO/Ant pairing than I do the Gobert/KAT pairing. Cam's stats from last season should at least stop us from summarily dismissing the notion that DLO and Edwards can be an effective backcourt in spite of legitimate doubts about DLO's defense and consistency. If the Gobert/KAT pairing ultimately works out, then this team will be a force to be reckoned with. That's the pairing I'm most concerned about.

I agree with Cam that Finch should NOT go back to the early season schemes that were meant to accommodate Gobert. However, Abe raises a good point about whether this team with Gobert and KAT on the floor can do what this team has been doing recently with one or both of those two bigs out. I have my doubts, but also my hopes. I'm with Cam in hoping this team doesn't revert back to what wasn't working.

FNG wrote:Yeah, I liked those comments from those 2 yesterday and also liked how they clicked against the porous bulls defense. I've always thought Russell is more effective off ball than at the point. The problem with this pair is that there's a body of evidence that says the pairing doesn't work on the other side of the court. Kek gave us the stats on the effectiveness of the 2 together (spoiler alert...not good), and while a switching of roles may help them on the offensive end, what is the hope for us on defense if they are the starting backcourt? Anyway, yeah, I sure liked our offense last night!

I was just checking out KEK's post earlier today and the ANT/DLO pairing even within this season has trended extremely positive since his posting. While their numbers are still negative (-2) their pace since his posting should bring them back to last years pairing numbers.

My issue is less with the pairings and more with how the four of them all mesh together. With KAT being out, DLO and Ant are fully engaged offensively and that perhaps has led to both of them playing more free. Let's hope they figure it out when they are all healthy.

One thing I think that's been different about Russell this season is that while he still wants to kinda do his thing dribbling the ball looking and maybe not being the ball mover some people want it feels like he gets the ball up the court faster which presents more opportunities for him and others to attack more quickly. Maybe I'm wrong on that since I haven't watched a ton of games. I'd be interested to hear what other people think.

Meanwhile it seems like the last few games with Towns out Edwards has picked up the pace a bit when he brings the ball up. It's not always good to play fast but I do think getting it up the floor fairly quickly and see what happens is a good strategy. If after that you want to play iso ball or dribble for 10 seconds looking to make an play after that great because then there is more time left after that. Lol