Minnesota Sports Forum

First let me just say:


YYYYEEEEAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thoroughly enjoyed the telecast tonight. So many highs, a few lows, but all in all a very satisfying win for this young team. They were probably better tonight than I actually thought they could be at this point in the season. So here we go with the 2 + 1:

1) I want to see us push the ball more after defensive rebounds. Especially against a team like the Nets. We aren't getting as many easy baskets as I think we could be. Ricky tends to go back and get the ball instead of getting out on the wing and having the thoroughbreds fill the lanes. It's really surprising we haven't seen hardly any highlight reel fast breaks so far. Not only that, it SHOULD be a real strength of this team.

2) Role acceptance. You can tell so many of our young guys haven't fully bought in to the plan yet. They all want to be scorers and they aren't facilitating other things on the court. Those triggers are just ready to unload once they get in the game and get their hands on the ball. We took several questionable shots too early in the shot clock tonight because guys seem to be anxious to get "theirs". As Pete said, take a breath before you hurry up a forced shot. The starters generally have it down, but the 2nd unit needs to create for each other.

Plus 1 - So many good things tonight. Ricky was awesome and looked like the "man" tonight,. Pek made some big plays down the stretch. Martin hit several nice J's. But tonight I want to give the Plus 1 to the kid. Andrew gave you a little glimpse of things to come. My choice for rookie of the year had it going on. I can foresee a point where as the game slows down for him, he will either score or get to the line nearly every time he puts the ball on the floor toward the basket. No one is going to be able to guard him 1 on 1. He's quite simply a freak. He will have his ups and downs this year, but make no mistake, he is going to be great.

And that's CoolBreeze's 2 things I didn't like tonight Plus 1

Cool, I am in complete agreement on AW. His interview with Marney revealed some growing confidence. I think he is already starting to realize that he has a decisive advantage over opponents. I think he is easily a Paul George type of player, and likely better.

Great to see Ricky have the confidence to take (and make) those shots late in the game, and the enthusiasm when he made them. Also happy to see him taking some 3's.

Agree on number 1 and your plus 1 cool.

I thought your number 2 should of been the chemistry of the 2nd unit. I think the players know their roles its just that with mo being the only player that can dribble, pass and shoot in the 2nd unit. Its hard to run a proper offense when both your wings cant dribble, shoot and pass well. Kills floor spacing and made the d clamp down inside, forcing us to shoot contested jumpers.

I like AB and dieng but both cant really be a post option at this point to have the offense run through them. Therefore mo have to handle the ball for the most part and play jj barea ball.

Nevertheless, a fun win and game for us. Loved what rubio and wiggins showed tonight.

Cool, a couple of other worrisome takeaways from what was overall a great night. First, Pek played over 30 minutes and he was absolutely critical to the victory tonight. Hell, he even provided some weakside help on that final Joe Johnson miss. Let's hope we don't need him too much on Friday, because as we know, he is a ticking time bomb for injuries.

I'm also surprised you didn't mention our bench more directly (I think you addressed it indirectly in point #2 above). They were awful, especially in that long dry spell to start the 4th quarter.

To add to your Plus 1, what impressed me is that four of our five starters all made super clutch plays/shots in the closing minutes, something that seemed to elude these guys last year. Young, Pek, Rubio, and Martin were just huge at the end. Again, keeping these guys healthy will be key to us having any kind of success this year (in terms of Wins/Losses).

3 assists from the bench tonight versus 19 from the starters. It is pretty clear when the starters are all +'s and the bench guys are all -'s that the bench just didn't have a good night. I don't really get Corey's role on this team now that he is coming off the bench and Wiggins is closing out games. Corey can't dribble or create offense particularly well outside of transition ball and his defense doesn't matter as much against second unit guys. I think the second unit should swap Dieng for AB as the pick setter and let Dieng pass the ball out of the high post to cutters. That is really the only other source of passing I can see them having unless they bring in Lavine to open the floor up more than Brewer and to provide a better secondary ball handler. It's also hard to play consistently in under 20 minutes which none of our bench players topped tonight (Mo was at the top at 17 minutes). At this point if I were Flip I'd see if I could unload Bud for a backup 2 with a little bit of a ball handling/playmaking ability to better round out the roster. That seems to be the biggest weakness on the team right now and it is why Martin played 38 minutes tonight when he should really be around 30-33 as he is also an injury risk.

Helluva win tonight. Huge.

I'll add a few quick thoughts:

1) Seeing Ricky hit clutch shots down the stretch almost brought tears to my eyes.

2) Kevin who? I like offense down the stretch that doesn't center around one player, especially when that player isn't even a go-to player in crunch time to begin with.

3) Wiggins is exceeding my expectations early on. Imagine what a couple years of physical maturity will do for him.

4) Mo Williams: someone needs to sit him down and show him every 4th quarter Barea played last season. When Mo is finished watching, you simply say to him: Don't be that guy!!!

LaVine needs to start receiving Brewer's minutes. There's five huge reasons why.

1. He's capable of handling the basketball and/or making plays for others. No body else on the second unit can do that. The more the merrier.

2. He's a much better shooter. Can come flying off a down screen and stop, plant and connect on a jumper. Also better in spot up opps.

3. LaVine might actually play better defense than Brewer, even as a rookie. He's much better laterally than him and he plays with better fundamentals. Won't leave his man to peruse for steals. Doesn't reach often either.

4. LaVine needs as much meaningful burn as he can get. Needs to develop his skills and mental game. Only way to do that is with real in-game reps. High ceiling guy, get him some damn minutes.

5. Brewer hasn't played well in any game so far. In fact, I think he's hurt the team more than he's helped them. I hate to say that because I really like Corey. His fumbling of the ball, blowing layups, over handling of the ball and careless defense have irritated me five games in.

#FreeLaVine #ZachAttack

I'd like to see GR3 get some minutes with the second unit. He seems to have a calm presence and can accept a role as a facilitator and won't crank up bad shots. He is near money near the basket, keeps good ball flow and has the tools to be a plus defender. He has some range now with the potential to be a decent three point shooter down the road.

By letting JJ go, the Wolves are placing a lot of faith that Zach will be able to step in if either Rubio or Mo are unavailable. But I can certainly understand that Zach needs to earn the minutes in practice first. Hopefully that happens over the next week or two with all these practice days coming up!

And I just have to add: Old-man Adelman cannot hold a candle to Flip in the coaching department. Flip has this team executing very well!

Ok so the bench on offense didn't do so hot tonight. I wasn't happy with them either and yeah they took some bad shots, but they held on just enough to keep the Wolves in the game. The defense didn't fall apart and that was key. the Bench also only had 2 turnovers. Take Bennett as an example. He took at least 2 bad shots, but at least we also saw him do something nearer the rim tonight. It wasn't successful, but he attacked more. on the other side of the ball I'm continuing to be surprised with what he brings defensively and just the little things he brings. He sets good picks and makes good rolls to the basket and not just that one dunk he had either. This was the worst bench performance, but sadly it would have been decent for the Wolves compared to many performances last year especially when you consider the defense seemed decent.

Bazz did some damage and if Wiggins wouldn't have been playing so well I bet he would have gotten back in there.

The box score may not make it look this way, but Pek owned Lopez tonight. His play at the end of the game was pretty huge. Great game for Pek tonight.

Also I like euro guys for the Nets and that team may be better than I thought.