Minnesota Sports Forum

Well, as predicted, Lonzo Ball got hazed big-time last night and he had a miserable game. Gee, thanks Dad! What poetic justice that in his first NBA game he had to go up against, gulp, Patrick Beverley.

Markkanen would have been the Wolves pick if not for the Jimmy Butler trade. Last night Markkanen had 17 points, 8 rebounds and 1 block in 33 minutes. Nice start for the rookie in his first NBA game against a really good opponent. With our luck he'll become the next Dirk.

Q12543 wrote:Well, as predicted, Lonzo Ball got hazed big-time last night and he had a miserable game. Gee, thanks Dad! What poetic justice that in his first NBA game he had to go up against, gulp, Patrick Beverley.

Did you see the game Q? The Clippers PGs didn't exactly put up any kind of amazing numbers and Ball had some other plenty decent stats. I heard via twitter he struggled beating guys off the dribble.

lipoli390 wrote:Markkanen would have been the Wolves pick if not for the Jimmy Butler trade. Last night Markkanen had 17 points, 8 rebounds and 1 block in 33 minutes. Nice start for the rookie in his first NBA game against a really good opponent. With our luck he'll become the next Dirk.

Ugh - I had that guy as a bust, but he has been showing a lot of promise. Will we look back and wonder what a line up of Rubio, LaVine, Wiggins, Markkanen, and Towns could have done?

bleedspeed177 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:Markkanen would have been the Wolves pick if not for the Jimmy Butler trade. Last night Markkanen had 17 points, 8 rebounds and 1 block in 33 minutes. Nice start for the rookie in his first NBA game against a really good opponent. With our luck he'll become the next Dirk.

Ugh - I had that guy as a bust, but he has been showing a lot of promise. Will we look back and wonder what a line up of Rubio, LaVine, Wiggins, Markkanen, and Towns could have done?

How many points would that lineup give up? My question about Markkanen was always the other stuff. I didn't want to draft him but I had faith he would score.

The east has been ravaged by injuries. Gordon and Lin go down the first night. Various players have been hit with injuries taking them out for at least a couple months. The West has had some injuries but not as much as the east espcially significant players and significant injuries.

monsterpile wrote:

How many points would that lineup give up? My question about Markkanen was always the other stuff. I didn't want to draft him but I had faith he would score.

Instead of providing the long answer here with a lot of data to back it up I will cut to the chase. A LOT!

I watched some of the Bulls game last night, and I remain as unimpressed about Markkanen as ever. He benefited from two things last night...a horrible Bulls team that guarantees him minutes and shots, and a Raptors defense that just didn't care after they got up 20 (almost all of his points came after the game was out of hand). His defense and ballhandling were terrible...3 turnovers, but he could have had more. And I'm still going with my pre-draft take that he is not a very good 3-point shooter, even though that is the one thing he was known for in college. He padded his 3-point stats early in the season (17 for 25 against Bakersfield, Sacred Heart and Northern Colorado), but was not good at all the last 15 games of the season against better competition...only 15 for 56, or 26.8%. He made 2 out of 6 yesterday, but most of them were wide open looks against a disinterested defense. I'm predicting he doesn't make 33% of his shots this season. I still think we were lucky to get Patton rather than him.

longstrangetrip wrote:I watched some of the Bulls game last night, and I remain as unimpressed about Markkanen as ever. He benefited from two things last night...a horrible Bulls team that guarantees him minutes and shots, and a Raptors defense that just didn't care after they got up 20 (almost all of his points came after the game was out of hand). His defense and ballhandling were terrible...3 turnovers, but he could have had more. And I'm still going with my pre-draft take that he is not a very good 3-point shooter, even though that is the one thing he was known for in college. He padded his 3-point stats early in the season (17 for 25 against Bakersfield, Sacred Heart and Northern Colorado), but was not good at all the last 15 games of the season against better competition...only 15 for 56, or 26.8%. He made 2 out of 6 yesterday, but most of them were wide open looks against a disinterested defense. I'm predicting he doesn't make 33% of his shots this season. I still think we were lucky to get Patton rather than him.

Thanks for the report LST. I know probably a lot of what you watched was relatively meaningless minutes. But did you have any other takeaways? I saw on Twitter OG played minutes in the rotation and he looked healthy.

hey guys, just here to gloat about Markannen