Minnesota Sports Forum

At the one quarter mark of the season, the biggest surprise to me is DLO. He leads the team in net rating, has won a couple of 50/50 games for us with late game heroics, and looks like a new man defensively.

The biggest disappointment to me is.......also DLO! WTF is wrong with his shooting!? Sub-40% from the field and sub-33% from 3 is simply not good enough if this team ever expects to play .500-plus ball. He takes too many shots and is in too prominent of a role for that to be acceptable, despite the other things he's done well. He literally shot us out of the Washington game.

This team seems to have a built-in defect whereby it's nearly impossible for players to be two-way performers. One must not play well on defense if he is excelling on offense. And one must not play well on offense if he is excelling on defense. Grrrrrrrr!

Nice idea. My biggest surprise is the D. I never in any way would have expected that we have a great defense. My biggest disappointment is the fouls. We have the most fouls per game at 23.2 with a significant gap to the second worst team Miami at 20.5. That variance to the next data point is the widest in the league. We are playing a more aggressive style of D, but any way you slice it, the fouls bad for this team. KAT and Jaden are in foul trouble every night. They have to keep it under control in spite of often getting a tough whistle.

Ha, you have perfectly captured the enigma that is D'Angelo Russell, Q! His transformation from his previous performance has been nothing short of remarkable. His defense is unrecognizable from past DLo...yes, there is still the occasional pointing while his man back doors him, and he's still below average as an on-ball defender, but his team defense has been quite good. I mentioned in another thread that I find myself counting surprising disruptive plays he makes, rather than annoying defensive lapses. I will also say his play with the second unit (or players not known for their offense) has been a big surprise for me. Some of us talk about how Rubio makes his teammates better. Well DLo definitely makes Naz and Vando better on offense.

But then there is the shooting. He has never been an efficient scorer, but he is setting new lows for himself with a disastrous 50.6 TS%...far below the league average. With a quarter of the season gone, the narrative that "his shooting will return to normal" is getting more difficult to support. So much of shooting is mental, and he has commented publicly that the new ball is a struggle for him...it seems like it has gotten in his head, and only a good psychiatrist can change that! His facilitating and defense have been so outstanding this year, that while he still has a negative net rating on basketball reference (as he has had every year of his career), he leads the Wolves in on/off...by a large margin. And that meets my eye test, by the way...except for his horrible play in the Brooklyn game when we looked much better when rookie Bolmaro was at the point, we have looked much better when DLo has been on the court. But there's no question in my mind that if he shot less and focused on facilitating for players who see the ball go through the nets on a more consistent basis, this team would be more successful.

So yeah I agree...DLo is our most surprising player and truly having a Bizarro season. But there's no question in my mind he is having the best season of his career. But he needs to quit shooting so much...a 38% shooter taking over 17 shots a game is not a prescription for making the playoffs.

I would also like to nominate Vando as biggest surprise so far. Many of us saw some potential last season, but the Vando Experience was also difficult to watch at times. This season his relentless defense and rebounding have not diminished, but he also looks more like a basketball player. He has earned the starting PF position.

-third on the team in on/off behind DLo and Edwards
-best basketball reference net rating of +20...best defensive rating on team (101) and second best ORtg (121)
-incredibly improved free throw shooting. 83% (compared to 60% career)...4th best on the team!

If he can hit free throws like that, can he develop a mid-range game to keep defenders honest?

I know Coach Finch has said that he prefers to not call offensive plays, I think he needs to start calling offensive plays! Please institute whatever offense Washington played against us. Vando could use a dozen dunks a game! This is my biggest disappointment for the Wolves currently. The lack of imagination on offense.

On to the biggest surprise end, the Wolves are a fun team to watch in practically EVERY. SINGLE. GAME! Even when they fall behind by a dozen in the first half, they are not automatically out of it like in the past. This is a nice surprise to see! 2nd would be the play of Bolmaro lately. He is looking more and more like a player that great franchises find and develop internally. This franchise needs more of that. Our fired GM brought us numerous players that the Wolves never could find in the past (remember that awful trade for Adrien Payne??? WTF was that!)

D'Natagal wrote:I know Coach Finch has said that he prefers to not call offensive plays, I think he needs to start calling offensive plays! Please institute whatever offense Washington played against us. Vando could use a dozen dunks a game! This is my biggest disappointment for the Wolves currently. The lack of imagination on offense.

On to the biggest surprise end, the Wolves are a fun team to watch in practically EVERY. SINGLE. GAME! Even when they fall behind by a dozen in the first half, they are not automatically out of it like in the past. This is a nice surprise to see! 2nd would be the play of Bolmaro lately. He is looking more and more like a player that great franchises find and develop internally. This franchise needs more of that. Our fired GM brought us numerous players that the Wolves never could find in the past (remember that awful trade for Adrien Payne??? WTF was that!)

I agree on all points D'N. I still think this is about a 35 win team, but that's a huge improvement over last year's 23, and I find myself watching almost every minute of every game. It's the energy of guys like Vando, Ant, JO and PatBev that keeps me coming back. The offensive flow is frustrating for me though...way too much one-on-one for my taste, and I would like to see more coaching involvement on offense...just like there has been obviously more involvement on the defensive end (from the coaching staff and PatBev).

And I agree the play of Bolmaro in the past week has been a pleasant surprise. He is so long and fluid, you can see a lot of potential in him. So far his contribution has been limited to what he feels comfortable with...defense, rebounding and taking care of the ball. But I think his offensive game will develop as he gets more court time. I like J-Mac, but I have no problem with all of his minutes going to Leo.

thedoper wrote:Nice idea. My biggest surprise is the D. I never in any way would have expected that we have a great defense. My biggest disappointment is the fouls. We have the most fouls per game at 23.2 with a significant gap to the second worst team Miami at 20.5. That variance to the next data point is the widest in the league. We are playing a more aggressive style of D, but any way you slice it, the fouls bad for this team. KAT and Jaden are in foul trouble every night. They have to keep it under control in spite of often getting a tough whistle.

Good take. I guess I have a more bottom-line oriented view to defense. We are #5 in D-rating, which is just incredible to me. This is primarily driven by Opponent eFG%, where we are also #5 in the NBA. We actually have a defense that forces a bunch of missed shots. Even the last time we were halfway decent on defense (under Adelman), it was mostly because we won the possession battle via rebounding and turnover differential. I NEVER would have thought we could pull this off with DLO, KAT, and Edwards making up 3/5ths of our starting lineup. I'll take the fouling if it means we stay top 10 in terms of overall defense. This aggressive approach is worth it....so far.

Now where it's more of a problem is on offense, where we are #24 in FTA rate. That would be fine if we were a lights-out shooting team, but we're #25 in eFG%.

I guess the frustration, and perhaps silver lining, is that this roster should not be this below average on offense. The incredulity at how good we've been on defense is only equaled by how crappy we've been on offense. Again, I would have never predicted this roster to perform so poorly on that end, yet here we are...Top 10 defense and Bottom 10 offense.