Game Report - Preseason Wolves v. Hornets

[Lipoli390]

A bigger crowd tonight than Wednesday but still pretty sparse. A lot of fun tonight. Sometimes blowout wins when the game gets out of reach so early can be boring. But the way this team plays makes them fun to watch.

Words can't describe how much better this team is defensively compared to last season and it goes far beyond the individual development of the players. This team plays intelligently on the defensive end. They seem connected to one another. The switching is sharp and purposeful. For the second game in a row the opposing team often looked confused against our defense. On the offensive end, there is constant ball and player movement. The ball rarely sits in one place with one player. More than anything, the players are playing with so much more confidence than we saw last season.

It's fun to watch Thibs. I have a great view of him not too far up behind the Wolves bench. He barks at the officials far more than at his players. He gets on the officials on just about every call against the Wolves. He always looks angry. But he rarely barks at his players. In fact, on a number of occasions I saw him switch from screaming at an official to having a calm conversation with one of our players. He is clearly in charge and the players know it. But you don't get any sense that any of the players are intimidated by him or tentative because of him. To the contrary, they all play with a high degree of confidence and clearly aren't afraid to drive or shoot. And you never see Thibs yank a guy for a poor shot even if the shot was ill-advised.

The best player on the floor tonight was Ricky. He was incredible and his stats grossly understate how good he was. Tremendous defense, great passing and timely scoring on drives to the hole.

Interestingly, the next best player on the floor in my view was Kris Dunn. His shot was still terrible, but otherwise his game was a thousand percent better than Wednesday night. Tonight he showed why the Wolves drafted him and why he was so coveted at our spot in the draft. His defense was phenomenal. And it's not just his quickness or athleticism. He really knows how to play defense. He knows how to use his body to fend off the pick and then use his quickness, strength and tenacity to fight off the pick and stay with his man. He also showed tonight that he definitely has an NBA PG's passing accumen. He'll struggle from time to time this season as a rookie and his shot needs a lot of work. But he can become a very good player and I now think he'll be a big help to the Wolves this season. I've been trying to come up with a comparision for him and two guys come to mind -- Rajon Rondo, and if his shooting improves, Gary Payton.

Belly was the last of what I'd call my top three tonight. He had another great all-around floor game, but tonight his shots were also falling. He is so talented. He has a nice dribble drive game and, of course, has excellent shooting range. He's also a good passer. In addition to his nice offensive game, he's a very good rebounder and defender. He played some tremendous defense tonight. Bazz also played well, running the court aggressively and doing what he does best -- scoring. He hit some corner threes tonight - another encouraging sign.

And let's not overlook Cole's 10 boards and 2 blocks. The guy is big, tough, smart and surprisingly mobile. A huge upgrade from last season as a backup center.

Tonight's game signaled the emergence of a very solid bench. When Wiggins returns, Rush can become part of a second unit that would also likely include Belly, Bazz, Dunn and Aldrich. That's a nice second unit. Dunn, Alrich and Belly provide very solid defense. Rush, Bazz and Belly can score and Rush isn't a bad defender.

Things will get tougher in the regular season and I'm not going to get carried away. But the Wolves beat the Hornets tonight by nearly 40 points without Wiggins and with only 15 minutes from KAT. Now, let the regular season begin!

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Nice report Lip, thanks! Agreed on Ricky. He looked great. And Towns was playing like a man possessed.

Nice to see Dunn effective. You can tell the athleticism and effort are there. The guy can be really disruptive defensively, he just needs to cut down on unforced errors, capitalize in transition, and learn to play within himself offensively and trust his shooters in the half court.

Aldrich looked great. Bjelica looking like the guy we thought we were getting last year. Bazz being Bazz. Rush filling a nice role. I like our bench this year!

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I wasn't able to go last night, but it's fun to look at the blowout box score and read Lip's favorable game report. I'm not sure the preseason could have ended on a more positive note than the last 2 games!

Lip, I need more info on Dunn though, because the box score shows he continues to have the A:TO issues he had in college. Are we setting the success bar too low for him if we label him the second best player on the floor with 3 TOs against 4 assists? From a box score standpoint, I wonder if Belly (14-4-2-1-2), Rush (4-4 on 3-pointers), KAT (another absurdly efficient scoring game with 15 points on only 7 shots), or Muhammad (17 points in only 9 minutes...exactly what we need from him)) might be challenging for that second spot behind Rubio? Or was Dunn's defense so exceptional that it lets us overlook the substandard A:TO ratio?

[Lipoli390]

LST --

First of all, I should clarify that I excluded KAT from my ranking because he played only 15 minutes and didn't play at all the second half. If included, I'd have to put him at #2 behind Ricky if not #1. 15 points and 9 boards in only 15 minutes. He just picked up where he left off on Wednesday.

As for ranking Dunn #2, on reflection I might put Belly slightly ahead of him. But Dunn was, at worst, the 3rd best player on the floor. As you suspected, it was his defense that elevated his play above what you see in the box score. It was truly exceptional. You can see part of his defense in the box score in the form of his 4 steals. Those 4 steals don't reflect his deflections either. His defense was both disruptive and smothering. His ability to read and fight through screens last night was incredible. His instincts and effort were tremendous. Look at his 6 boards in the box score. As for his 3 turnovers, I can't even remember them. He handled the ball a lot last night in his 26 minutes and protected the ball well overall. He has a presence and you can tell his teammates are really pulling for him.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Thanks for the additional color on Dunn, Lip. I thought the same thing about his defense when I watched him Wednesday night. In some ways he reminded me of a more athletic Rubio...combining smarts, 100% effort and above average wingspan to be a disruptive force on defense. I find it extraordinary that a rookie PG can be such a force on defense in his first month in the NBA, but he is. It doesn't appear that he is going to need a transition year or 2 (like Wig, KAT and Zach did) to be a big factor on defense...I think the fact that he is older than all three of them has something to do with that.

Having a backup PG that is so good on the defensive side of the ball is a blessing this team hasn't had in ages...if ever. That (combined with Rush's value off the bench backing up Zach) is why Tyus is only going to see the court this season if there are injuries (or in blowouts).

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Nice report Lip. I would just caution once again that we weren't going up against a real team last night. Yes, they had Kemba and MKG, but a number of their key guys didn't play at all, while we were missing "only" Wiggins.

That being said, we did what we were supposed to do: Thoroughly dismantle an undermanned team on our home court. A few additional observations to Lip:

- Wow, what a sight for sore eyes seeing so many half-court plays end with a corner 3! Rush was terrific, but Bazz and LaVine hit a few corner 3s too. It's the best shot in basketball outside of a layup and we got a ton last night.

- Lynch made the point Abe, Khans and others have made about Rubio's future with the Wolves and whether he is the right PG for what we want to become, not for what we are right now. He alluded to the scenario of deep playoff runs and how Rubio's lack of shooting/scoring could come into sharp focus. We'll see how it all plays out, as I'd love to have the "problem" of a deep playoff run with Rubio!

- Speaking of Rubio, his outside shot was not falling last night, but he did a very nice job finishing around the rim and had another efficient floor game.

- Bazz was being Bazz. I'm still not enamored with this guy's game. He dribbled off his foot once. He forced a 2 on 3 fast break that got stymied. He put up a couple of awful looking shots against a double-team. Geez, if only he knew how to pass the damn ball. I guess a bench role is perfect for him and at the end of the day he did end up scoring a bundle of points.

- Lip is right about Dunn's defense. We might just have two of the five best defensive PGs in the entire league on the roster right now. The only problem will be the officiating bias Dunn will encounter as a rookie against the star PGs. You just know they'll call a bunch of ticky-tack stuff on him.

Nice way to end the pre-season, but let's face it - we did not encounter much competition throughout. I still think it will be tough to nab a playoff spot, but it should hopefully be close.

[Monster]

I am watching this game now on broadband pass and I'll post my thoughts here.

It's just the first quarter but the passing is certainly a wow factor. the Ball is really moving.

[Monster]

I just saw Wiggins chatting with his teammates during a time out before the end of the 1st quarter his face defiantly looked more puffy than usual. His eyes were not as wide open and yeah if you just saw him you would have though he gained Some weight based on his face.

[Monster]

Bazz is Bazz but there are a couple things that seem to not be mentioned when it comes to his value. His attacking draws fouls. That's a good thing.

The other thing about him is he is a target to get the ball to intransition. As a Wolves fan I have endured so many wing players that couldn't finish near the rim. It's nice now to have multiple guys that can do it.

I didn't keep my eye on him too much defensively because it's more fun to see what Dunn is doing but it seems he is doing fine. He was in the right spot and had an easy steal earlier in the game and then was gifted another one. If Bazz can do Bazz things while being a decent defender that would make him pretty valuable. We will see.

[bleedspeed]

Would Avery Bradley be a comparison for Dunn?