Minnesota Sports Forum

I just decided to look at which Wolves are showing up on which leader boards. Feel free to add your own stats to this thread. Here are some I found:

*DISCLAIMER - All stats from Basketball Reference. Some of these are part of a tie and I didn't bother to calculate actual vs. where it automatically sorts the tied players - but everything is directionally correct IMO.

Minutes Played:
#15 - Anthony Edwards (1786)
#17 - Rudy Gobert (1775)
#21 - Karl Anthony Towns (1739)

The Big Three have been healthy this year.

Field Goal Percentage
#4 - Rudy Gobert (.649)

Only Rudy shows up here in top 30. KAT shows up tied around #37 with .516

Three Point Percentage
#10 - Mike Conley (.441)
#13 - Karl A. Towns (.436)
#25 - Naz Reid (.414)

Interesting to see we have three of the top three point shooters this year. And two of them are Bigs.

PER
No Wolves found in top 30. Best is Edwards coming in at #36 with Towns not far behind that.

True Shooting Percentage
#6 - Rudy Gobert (.668)
#23 - Karl A. Towns (.638)

Total Rebound Percentage
#3 - Rudy Gobert (21.5)
#30 - Karl A. Towns (14.6)

Twin Towers doing what they are supposed to do.

Assist Percentage
#18 - Mike Conley (30.6)

Steal Percentage
#23 - NAW (1.9)

Block Percentage
#9 - Rudy Gobert (5.4)
#28 - Naz Reid (3.0)

Did not expect to find Naz here.

Turnover Percentage
* No Wolves found in top 30. Best guy we have is Naz who'd come in somewhere in the 80s. This seems to be our biggest area of opportunity.

VORP
#20 - Anthony Edwards (2.4)
#24 - Karl A. Towns (2.2)
#30 - Mike Conley (2.1)

My favorite stat. I'm surprised Rudy doesn't reflect better here considering he's on the top of so many leaderboards. But he's currently at 1.7 which isn't too far back from those three.

Good stuff Carlos. Yeah, as the stat tracker I update every 20-25 games shows and this data does as well, we really don't have just one alpha dog that dominates, like Jokic, SGA, and Doncic for example.

We have truly an ensemble cast, with Ant and KAT as co-alpha dogs offensively and Rudy the alpha dog defensively. But even in those areas, Ant and KAT rely heavily on "adult supervision" with Mike Conley at PG and defensively Rudy can't be the best version of himself without capable perimeter defenders like Jaden and NAW.

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Wed Feb 14, 2024 12:03 pm Good stuff Carlos. Yeah, as the stat tracker I update every 20-25 games shows and this data does as well, we really don't have just one alpha dog that dominates, like Jokic, SGA, and Doncic for example.

We have truly an ensemble cast, with Ant and KAT as co-alpha dogs offensively and Rudy the alpha dog defensively. But even in those areas, Ant and KAT rely heavily on "adult supervision" with Mike Conley at PG and defensively Rudy can't be the best version of himself without capable perimeter defenders like Jaden and NAW.

Regarding Jaden McDaniels...I am admittedly a stat watcher vs. a game watcher. He does not show up well in anything stat wise. In fact, after last night's poor offensive performance he's now a negative VORP for the year (and for his career). Is it possible we over value him? He's no where to be found in any leader boards and while everyone here lauds him as a top defender, I don't see him recognized with any awards through four years.

If we subbed NAW for McDaniels (for a fraction of the price) how big of a drop off would there be? To me, he's turning into a better version of Josh Okogie or Trenton Hassell (valuable, but is it worth what we paid?) I don't have a bone to pick one way or another. I'm just trying to reconcile what I'm seeing in stats vs. the praise he often gets...

Carlos Danger wrote: ↑Wed Feb 14, 2024 12:32 pm

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Wed Feb 14, 2024 12:03 pm Good stuff Carlos. Yeah, as the stat tracker I update every 20-25 games shows and this data does as well, we really don't have just one alpha dog that dominates, like Jokic, SGA, and Doncic for example.

We have truly an ensemble cast, with Ant and KAT as co-alpha dogs offensively and Rudy the alpha dog defensively. But even in those areas, Ant and KAT rely heavily on "adult supervision" with Mike Conley at PG and defensively Rudy can't be the best version of himself without capable perimeter defenders like Jaden and NAW.

Regarding Jaden McDaniels...I am admittedly a stat watcher vs. a game watcher. He does not show up well in anything stat wise. In fact, after last night's poor offensive performance he's now a negative VORP for the year (and for his career). Is it possible we over value him? He's no where to be found in any leader boards and while everyone here lauds him as a top defender, I don't see him recognized with any awards through four years.

If we subbed NAW for McDaniels (for a fraction of the price) how big of a drop off would there be? To me, he's turning into a better version of Josh Okogie or Trenton Hassell (valuable, but is it worth what we paid?) I don't have a bone to pick one way or another. I'm just trying to reconcile what I'm seeing in stats vs. the praise he often gets...

There really isn't anything in Basketball reference that does a good job assessing individual defensive impact. Jaden is top 30 when it comes to Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus, something not tracked on basketball reference or NBA.com. It probably does as good a job as anything in trying to isolate individual defensive impact, but even that isn't perfect.

He's not worth what we paid him....yet. I think that contract was like investing in a growth stock - you expect a higher return in the future while still getting some value today. While he's stagnated this year, growth isn't always linear. He is still young enough to keep improving, but in a couple more years he is pretty much going to be whatever he is at that time.

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Wed Feb 14, 2024 1:46 pm
There really isn't anything in Basketball reference that does a good job assessing individual defensive impact. Jaden is top 30 when it comes to Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus, something not tracked on basketball reference or NBA.com. It probably does as good a job as anything in trying to isolate individual defensive impact, but even that isn't perfect.

He's not worth what we paid him....yet. I think that contract was like investing in a growth stock - you expect a higher return in the future while still getting some value today. While he's stagnated this year, growth isn't always linear. He is still young enough to keep improving, but in a couple more years he is pretty much going to be whatever he is at that time.

I can buy into the idea of investing into a growth stock. I know he was highly coveted this past off season based on trade rumors...if I recall correctly, something like we had to include a couple extra draft picks for Rudy instead of including McDaniels.

And...going back to stat tracking, McDaniels did improve year over year in my go-to stat of VORP:

Year 1 was a minus .06
Year 2 was a minus .04
Year 3 was +.05

Based on that, I was happy he was rewarded with an extension and excited to see continued growth. But so far this year - not so much (at least in the stats I follow). Hopefully it's just a bump in the road. With more money obviously comes higher expectations.

I saw that Boston just eviscerated Brookyln tonight. I mean, just a ruthless beatdown. Then it got me thinking about their team. They are similar to the Wolves in that I don't think they have a top 10 NBA player on their team.

Tatum might be top 15. But he is not on the same tier as Jokic, Embiid, SGA, Doncic, Giannis, and a few others. But after Tatum, it's just an ideal mix of guys that can all shoot and defend and it allows them to play 5-out ball without having to go super small or give up much defensively.

Boston seems poised to win it all this year, but I bet they don't want to see the Wolves in the Finals!

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Wed Feb 14, 2024 8:51 pm I saw that Boston just eviscerated Brookyln tonight. I mean, just a ruthless beatdown. Then it got me thinking about their team. They are similar to the Wolves in that I don't think they have a top 10 NBA player on their team.

Tatum might be top 15. But he is not on the same tier as Jokic, Embiid, SGA, Doncic, Giannis, and a few others. But after Tatum, it's just an ideal mix of guys that can all shoot and defend and it allows them to play 5-out ball without having to go super small or give up much defensively.

Boston seems poised to win it all this year, but I bet they don't want to see the Wolves in the Finals!

Tatum is better than Embiid and SGA. Foul baiting does not work in the playoffs

kekgeek wrote: ↑Wed Feb 14, 2024 9:32 pm

Q-is-here wrote: ↑Wed Feb 14, 2024 8:51 pm I saw that Boston just eviscerated Brookyln tonight. I mean, just a ruthless beatdown. Then it got me thinking about their team. They are similar to the Wolves in that I don't think they have a top 10 NBA player on their team.

Tatum might be top 15. But he is not on the same tier as Jokic, Embiid, SGA, Doncic, Giannis, and a few others. But after Tatum, it's just an ideal mix of guys that can all shoot and defend and it allows them to play 5-out ball without having to go super small or give up much defensively.

Boston seems poised to win it all this year, but I bet they don't want to see the Wolves in the Finals!

Tatum is better than Embiid and SGA. Foul baiting does not work in the playoffs

Embiid is more of a force defensively (not that Tatum is bad defensively) and SGA is a better all around player IMO, as he has to run the OKC offense too. Tatum does some foul baiting himself, although it may not be quite as egregious as others. He loves to drive and while driving do the old Harden stick his arms out parallel to the floor hoping that someone will swipe down on them.