Minnesota Sports Forum

Use this thread to share you favorite playoff stats from round 1. Most people know I'm a VORP guy. Here are my favorite advanced stats from the 1st round playoffs:

VORP
0.5 - Edwards
0.2 - Gobert
0.2 - NAW
0.2 - Towns
0.1 - McDaniels
0.0 - Everyone else

Comments:
No question based on this stat who the King was. Conley was the only starter without any VORP. NAW was the only bench guy with VORP.

I have confidence in Conley to bounce back. Same with Naz. The one guy I'm losing a little confidence in is SloMo. I hope he's got enough in the tank to help us make a run. It will be a lot easier if we can get a couple bench guys to flash in this stretch run.

The Wolves outrebounded the Suns 185-131 in the series. It won't be as easy when we face the Nuggets, but this series was total dominance on the boards.

Thanks for making a thread for this Carlos, as I was going to do the same thing. Here is how the Wolves did using the same stats I tracked during the regular season, including VORP that Carlos uses above.

This is sorted by minutes played. I excluded any one that did NOT play in all four games (so no SloMo or Morris):

Player - PER/WinShares/48/VORP/Net Rating
Ant - 27.6/.281/ .5/+16.9
Jaden - 14.4/.171/.1/+16.4
Rudy - 20.5/.236/.2/+22.7
Conley - 11.7/.108/0.0/+11.4
NAW - 15.0/.190/.2/+20.3
KAT - 24.0/.278/.2/+7.6
Naz - 13.2/.160/0.0/+22.7

Commentary:

- To Carlos' point, there is no question who our best player was. Remember that tracking these same stats during the regular season yielded a more balanced outcome with no one guy blowing the roof off with huge stats. One could argue Rudy was our best player in the regular season. Ant absolutely leveled up and played like a superstar against Phoenix.

- At the end of the day, KAT did his part. He was in constant foul trouble and did make some dumb decisions, but when he was on the floor, he helped provide offensive firepower and was an absolute beast on the defensive glass. And he played his best in Games 1 and 4, helping us get that critical first win and then helping to close out the series.

- Like Ant, but starting at a lower floor of course, Jaden McDaniels seems to relish the playoffs and thrive in them. Remember that two years ago he played his best ball as a Timberwolf in the Memphis series. The dude is a gamer and got absolutely jobbed by Booker and the officials last night. What a disgrace, but we came out on top despite that.

- Add NAW to the "leveling up for the playoffs" party. Ant + Jaden + NAW are absolute attack dogs out there. Also the NAW-Point Ant lineup seemed to have much more success in this series than at the beginning of the year.

- On the downside is Naz Reid. We just seemed to have a hard time getting him involved in this series. And he was alternatively getting beat up by Nurkic or beat by Durant.

Good stuff Q. It was pretty refreshing to see our top players step up in round one with Edwards leading the way. Obviously things will get more difficult. We are most likely going to need more from guys like Naz and SloMo. Both those guys had solid seasons, so I am very hopeful.

I'm not sure if we collectively defined "successful season" for this year? I think a lot of people would have said "get past the first round". Possibly a few more might have stated Finals. For me, I would probably log this season as a "success" after the first round sweep. Considering how last year ended and what many on here were writing? Yes, this has been a success. But there is more success to be had - let's keep this thing rolling. I feel like this team is just as good as anyone this year.

Carlos Danger wrote: ↑Tue Apr 30, 2024 8:55 am Good stuff Q. It was pretty refreshing to see our top players step up in round one with Edwards leading the way. Obviously things will get more difficult. We are most likely going to need more from guys like Naz and SloMo. Both those guys had solid seasons, so I am very hopeful.

I'm not sure if we collectively defined "successful season" for this year? I think a lot of people would have said "get past the first round". Possibly a few more might have stated Finals. For me, I would probably log this season as a "success" after the first round sweep. Considering how last year ended and what many on here were writing? Yes, this has been a success. But there is more success to be had - let's keep this thing rolling. I feel like this team is just as good as anyone this year.

I agree Carlos. At the beginning of the season, the line between successful and unsuccessful season to me is what you just said - just win a freakin' playoff series. They did that emphatically, so I deem the season a success due to their great regular season record and winning a playoff series. And there is no shame in losing to the champs again, although it will be very painful since expectations are high now.

The bigger picture here is how we continue to see the growth of Ant and Jaden as big-time playoff performers in their role. Them getting this experience while still young in their career is super critical to the franchise over the next 5 years as they enter their prime.

The Wolves rebounded 48% of their missed shots in Game 4...complete board dominance on three of the 4 games.