Game report: House of the setting sun

[Phenom]

I will say first that the number of Wolves fans that are attending games in Phoenix continues to climb. I remember the playoff years I was hard pressed to find more than one or two others. They were everywhere yesterday. Unfortunately, we were treated to salty garbage on the court.

Nobody played particularly well yesterday as you all probably saw. This happens to many teams from time and it falls on the coach to make some adjustments. Sam hit on a few buttons like inserting Miller in, albeit a bit later than I had been calling for. He left Rudez in which did more good than harm. That was about it though.

As many of you know, seeing a game live can have a great impact on perspective and yesterday really magnified some things for me. First is Gorgui's role. I loathe him in the pick and roll. I like Gorgui and feel he has a role worth keeping but Sam isn'the putting him in a place to succeed. His awkward movements and plodding ways are not a good fit in pick and roll or initiating anything from the perimeter. His decision making feels slower than most other players and it results in too many empty or broken possessions. He can't get passes delivered quickly enough and his windup allows defenses to to cover the guard for a split second longer before they attempt to recover. It is the sorriest PnR I have seen in a while.

I get that Sam wants to space the floor with Nema but he has skills tailor made for PnR and can even extend the PnR to 3 point range. He should be the guy running this if not KG or Towns. Start Gorgui on the baseline and let him curl to the elbow and spot up instead.

Next is the LaVine at PG debate. I get why Sam plays him there since it allows Martin and Baza to continue to get minutes but I just do not like it. He is capable of making nice passes but is often careless and my eye test suggests he is much more effective shooting off the catch than the bounce. He is usually off balance when he pulls up. Now this isn't me being anti LaVine or not giving him time to grow. I will give all the young guys the time I give Rubio, I believe in them all. This is me saying that Zach isn't a point guard and Sam isn't taking advantage of his strengths such as spotting up or even making basket cuts for easier shots. I feel that he could be more effective and even learn more playing alongside Ricky and Dre.

Lastly I will just say how lousy the PnR defense was. The bigs were constantly late and the guards had no chance to recover. Back to the drawing board there, I think. Sam could have helped by getting KG in there to stop the flow from time to time but instead he wanted to ride Gorgui till the bitter end.

P.S. the Wolves were once again burned by trading 3s for long 2s. Until that changes, I can't see being a consistent winner. But you already knew that ;-)

[thedoper]

Thanks for the up close and personal perspective on that garbage. Yesterday's game was a sad affair, only because it looked as if there was no progress from where we were a year ago. I have saved any criticism of Ricky until now, but I think it all starts with him. He was careless with the ball, didn't control tempo, and yet again couldn't hit a shot. Him and Martin are supposed to be vets but they both look like they are playing their own game out there. I didn't see a team yesterday which is part of my frustration, just a bunch of individuals making mistakes. If Mitchell really has a plan I would hope he makes major adjustments with all aspects of the lineup next game, I am not seeing a plan though now that his initial experiments have fizzled.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Phenom, I was in your neck of the woods just a couple months ago. Holy crap was it hot down there! Low 100s in October.

While Miller definitely gave us a shot in the arm that game, he also had a couple of key defensive lapses where he sagged too far off of Brandon Knight, who proceeded to make a couple of wide open 3's. Without those 3's, we may have successfully closed the gap with Pheonix. Then again, without Miller, it might have not been close to begin with.....Just trying to balance a little negative with the positive!

(also, it figures that Brandon Knight, who had been ICE COLD from 3 prior to Sunday, would go off on us. Why are we always the team that streaky outside shooters suddenly break out of their slump against?!? So frustrating).

[AbeVigodaLive]

Phenom, I was in your neck of the woods just a couple months ago. Holy crap was it hot down there! Low 100s in October.

While Miller definitely gave us a shot in the arm that game, he also had a couple of key defensive lapses where he sagged too far off of Brandon Knight, who proceeded to make a couple of wide open 3's. Without those 3's, we may have successfully closed the gap with Pheonix. Then again, without Miller, it might have not been close to begin with.....Just trying to balance a little negative with the positive!

(also, it figures that Brandon Knight, who had been ICE COLD from 3 prior to Sunday, would go off on us. Why are we always the team that streaky outside shooters suddenly break out of their slump against?!? So frustrating).

The Suns were getting WIDE OPEN three pointers off of very simple action near the end.

[TAFKASP]

Regarding trading threes for long twos, does it really matter if we're trading made threes for missed twos/threes? The Wolves have a few players that can hit a three here and there, but outside of Martin and maybe Rudez they don't have anybody who's going to go off from behind the arc on a regular basis. We can complain all day long about long twos, but when the guys can't even hit those at a good rate I just don't see adding a few inches to their misses doing much to win.

Didn't some guy named Mark Madsen jack up a bunch of threes once, didn't they still lose? :-P

[AbeVigodaLive]

Regarding trading threes for long twos, does it really matter if we're trading made threes for missed twos/threes? The Wolves have a few players that can hit a three here and there, but outside of Martin and maybe Rudez they don't have anybody who's going to go off from behind the arc on a regular basis. We can complain all day long about long twos, but when the guys can't even hit those at a good rate I just don't see adding a few inches to their misses doing much to win.

Didn't some guy named Mark Madsen jack up a bunch of threes once, didn't they still lose? :-P

The make percentage between long 2s and 3s is not significant (35% vs. 40%?)... at least not enough to eschew three pointers.

The advantage of a three point make, however, is very significant.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Regarding trading threes for long twos, does it really matter if we're trading made threes for missed twos/threes? The Wolves have a few players that can hit a three here and there, but outside of Martin and maybe Rudez they don't have anybody who's going to go off from behind the arc on a regular basis. We can complain all day long about long twos, but when the guys can't even hit those at a good rate I just don't see adding a few inches to their misses doing much to win.

Didn't some guy named Mark Madsen jack up a bunch of threes once, didn't they still lose? :-P

The make percentage between long 2s and 3s is not significant (35% vs. 40%?)... at least not enough to eschew three pointers.

The advantage of a three point make, however, is very significant.

Exactly. You have to be really bad at 3-pointers to justify eschewing them in favor of a 20-footer. I also think that LaVine shows a lot of potential as a high volume and efficient 3-point shooter. Heck, he's halfway there right now. My guess is that if he had less play making responsibility and more of a full green light to shoot, he'd be even better. We'll give it time....

[Monster]

I finished watching this game this afternoon...so here are my thoughts.

Hey you know those Wolves teams we were used to watching the past few years? They were back.

Miller showed he still has plenty of game regardless of his flaws.

Rubio...yeah you have to question him some.

The my only issue with who Sam played down the stretch was Dieng. I thought putting Towns in made sense but he had his issues also. Rudez did some things worth getting minutes and he can hit a three.

Martin continues to be a pleasant surprise on D. He was looking to move the ball actually a good chunk early in the game was some really good looking offense lots of passin etc we all want there were even a couple good looking fast breaks this game! The Suns took it away the Wolves looked clueless and it was mostly downhill from there.