Kekgeek grades G27 vs lakers

[kekgeek]

Conley: A
Ant: B-
Mcdaniels: B+
Kat: B+ (please be ok)
Gobert: B-
Naz: C
Slow Mo: C+
Naw: C
Brown: C

[60WinTim]

I would down grade all the starters half point, except Conley. It was a pretty poor defensive effort in my opinion.

[Lipoli390]

I would down grade all the starters half point, except Conley. It was a pretty poor defensive effort in my opinion.

I’ll watch the game recording tomorrow. But looking at the box score, it’s hard to see KAT getting anything less than a B+. He was a +12, which was the best plus/minus on the team tonight. He had 20 points, 4 assists and 0 turnovers. I wonder if he’s ever had a game before with no turnovers. Maybe I’ll change my mind when I see the game, but I suspect I’ll agree with kek’s B+ for KAT.

I think we should expect more lesser defensive performances from the Wolves going forward. In today’s NBA there are a lot of games when you have to rely mainly on your offense. The Wolves needed at least 112 points to beat the Lakers tonight and they ended up with 118. There will be games this season in which the Wolves will need to score over 125 points to win. This team’s ability to ramp up its offense going forward will be critical to staying on top in the West.

[kekgeek]

I would down grade all the starters half point, except Conley. It was a pretty poor defensive effort in my opinion.

I’ll watch the game recording tomorrow. But looking at the box score, it’s hard to see KAT getting anything less than a B+. He was a +12, which was the best plus/minus on the team tonight. He had 20 points, 4 assists and 0 turnovers. I wonder if he’s ever had a game before with no turnovers. Maybe I’ll change my mind when I see the game, but I suspect I’ll agree with kek’s B+ for KAT.

I think we should expect more lesser defensive performances from the Wolves going forward. In today’s NBA there are a lot of games when you have to rely mainly on your offense. The Wolves needed at least 112 points to beat the Lakers tonight and they ended up with 118. There will be games this season in which the Wolves will need to score over 125 points to win. This team’s ability to ramp up its offense going forward will be critical to staying on top in the West.

I don’t think our defense was that bad today, I think the lakers made some tough shots.

It’s hard to grade these last few games because I don’t think the wolves are playing great ball but they lock in for the 4th. Like Rudy would of gotten a D because he was so bad the first 3 Q but then he was huge in the 4th, Ant would have moments of greatness then he would play ball stopper Ant, Kat was good but didn’t feel the impact while watching the game. The bench was just meh all game, each player had moments but mostly negative off the bench. Slow Mo legit might shoot under 10% from 3 this year, I have to imagine his eye really screwed up his jump shot but I think he is still too valuable to trade

[Q-is-here]

I was at the game and me and my brother-in-law were just bracing ourselves every time Gobert got the ball in the paint in the first half. Seemingly every damn time it resulted in a bobble, strip, or errant shot or pass. No wonder Donovan Mitchell eventually just stopped passing it to him.

Just before the 4th quarter, Crunch and his crew were doing the old T-Shirt tosses and slings into the crowd. Well, my nephew caught a Rudy Gobert jersey. And suddenly Rudy's play turned around! Every time he made a big play in the 4th, my nephew held up the jersey and we all started pointing to it and chanting, "Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!". Good times.

[FNG]

Q, I'm glad you were able to enjoy a Timberwolves win in another sold-out arena...I'm guessing an extra hour of drinking with the 8pm start had the crowd a little more fired up than usual! I haven't been able to get to a game yet this year, but have tickets to the next Laker game a week from today...really hope KAT is back for that one.

But yeah, I thought this was Rudy's worst "hands" performance of the year. Not only not catching passes...I also noticed several times when he couldn't corral a rebound he was in position to get (and yet he still ended up with 13!) He's never really very good at catching the ball, but his performance was almost comical the first 3/4 of the game...I'm glad your nephew was able to turn his game around! Rudy is so big and active out there, he can even have a positive impact on a game on nights when he can't catch the ball. We're really going to need him tonight with KAT out, so let's hope he puts a little stickum on his hands pre-game.

[Lipoli390]

Well done, Q! You and your nephew turned the game around just in time. .

I watched the game carefully on replay, watching some parts multiple times. My take-away was that his hands and overall offense weren’t any worse than usual. Rudy has three major flaws that show up on the offensive end: (1) epically terrible hands, which result in dropped or fumbled passes; (2) lack of physical strength/toughness, which allows opponents to easily knock the ball out of his hands on rebounds or scoring attempts (note he rarely gets an and-one); and (3) the lack of any offensive scoring skills beyond dunking, which we see when he misses the entire basket on one-foot layup attempts or tries to dribble. We saw the latter last night and it was comically embarrassing. He does a couple things well offensively (in addition to setting picks): (1) put-back dunks; and (2) pick-and-roll dunks if the pass is thrown just right and there’s no contact with a defender. He’s had a lot of huge put-backs that have helped us win games. I think he looked worse offensively against in the Laker game because he just didn’t have as many opportunities to do those two things he does well and instead ended up defaulting too often to the many things he does poorly. Otherwise it was the same Rudy we’ve seen all season.

Rudy’s stellar defense, terrific rebounding, nice picks and timely put-back dunks this season have made us a better team in spite of his uniquely bad hands and extremely limited offensive capabilities. It’s up to the coaching staff and Rudy’s teammates to keep Rudy’s role strictly and consistently confined to the few things he does well. There’s no mystery surrounding Donovan Mitchell’s reluctance to pass Rudy the ball all those years and his eventual frustration playing with Rudy. But this Wolves team is more talented than those Utah teams and that makes it easier to constrain Rudy to the very limited offensive role that suits his capabilities. Rudy needs to buy into that and so far this season he has, which doesn’t surprise me because Rudy strikes me as a true team-oriented pro’s professional. He looks like a guy you’d like to play with in spite of his bad hands.

Rudy has been amazingly consistent game to game this season. It’s up to the rest of the team to be consistent in making sure the offense doesn’t expose his weaknesses.

[FNG]

Lip, I'm going to double down on my take that the Laker game was an unusually bad "hands" game for Rudy, and that he occasionally has games where his hands are not an issue. Take the Kings game for instance...I can't think of one time that he mishandled a pass or didn't grab a rebound he should have (in contrast to the Laker game, where there were at least 5 or 6 fumbling instances). It makes me wonder if a lack of focus is part of the problem for Rudy. Don't know, but I love it when he shows up focused like he did against the Kings. The Laker game...not so much.