All Things 2021-2022 Minnesota Timberwolves In-Season Thread

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JimmyJamesMD said:
DLo is still and will forever be trash
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When Ant went nuts in the third quarter, Dlo got benched, Beverly came in.

Two things happened. Dlo wasn't dribbling in circles as always and holding the ball, and Beverly realized Ant was on fire and got him the ball. He was coming down and literally looking for him. That's not happening with you know who.

I just despise Dlo, and to top it off, he may be the worst defending point guard in the league.
 

MplsGopher said:
There's nothing wrong with the Target Center, other than being not new. And if they're winning, then they're winning with the Target Center.

The practice facility is much more important, and as far as I know is top-notch and only a few years old.


Nothing you said is incorrect or impossible.


Another market, maybe, is Cincinnati. They have a really old arena downtown and if they could land an NBA or NHL franchise, maybe they could use that to build a new one. https://heritagebankcenter.com/whatsnextcincy
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Target Center is economically obsolete. Too few seats in the lower bowl and too many seats in the upper bowl. Also, too few suites. The newer arenas have two levels of suites. The practice facility is very nice but it doesn't do anything, beyond naming rights, for the team's bottom line.
I don't think Cincinnati has the corporate strength or economic velocity to support a third major league franchise. Sort of like St. Louis.
 

jamiche said:
Target Center is economically obsolete. Too few seats in the lower bowl and too many seats in the upper bowl. Also, too few suites. The newer arenas have two levels of suites. The practice facility is very nice but it doesn't do anything, beyond naming rights, for the team's bottom line.
I don't think Cincinnati has the corporate strength or economic velocity to support a third major league franchise. Sort of like St. Louis.
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I don't think it's as bad as you say. Otherwise, why would GT put $60M of his own money into a reno?

Cincy could pull NBA fans from Nashville, Columbus, and Louisville too, maybe.
 

kg21 said:
When Ant went nuts in the third quarter, Dlo got benched, Beverly came in.

Two things happened. Dlo wasn't dribbling in circles as always and holding the ball, and Beverly realized Ant was on fire and got him the ball. He was coming down and literally looking for him. That's not happening with you know who.

I just despise Dlo, and to top it off, he may be the worst defending point guard in the league.
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Sometimes more is less. Maybe Dlo needs to play the majority of his minutes without KAT and ANT on the floor? Rosas is gone, so they don't need to needlessly play DLO. His contract is a sunk cost at this point, so dont let that affect how much you play him
 


MplsGopher said:
I don't think it's as bad as you say. Otherwise, why would GT put $60M of his own money into a reno?

Cincy could pull NBA fans from Nashville, Columbus, and Louisville too, maybe.
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I don't have a good answer for you. Maybe for the same reason you install some new carpeting in your house before you get ready to sell it.

Don't forget, Glen put a shockingly small amount of his own money in the deal when he bought the team and hasn't invested much in the asset through the years. $60M is a pittance relative to what he's getting if the sale is completed.
 

jamiche said:
I don't have a good answer for you. Maybe for the same reason you install some new carpeting in your house before you get ready to sell it.

Don't forget, Glen put a shockingly small amount of his own money in the deal when he bought the team and hasn't invested much in the asset through the years. $60M is a pittance relative to what he's getting if the sale is completed.
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Fair points.


If there was no Xcel Center, and the Wild had always been playing in TC .... I think it's an easy done deal, to build a new arena for both.

But we have a perfectly good Xcel, which is also the main major concert venue.

If the Wolves won't play in there, or make due with the TC, then they should leave and the TC should be knocked down, as silly as it would be to do that to a building that just had a nine figure reno. But that's what you're talking about anyway, with a new arena.
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
Sometimes more is less. Maybe Dlo needs to play the majority of his minutes without KAT and ANT on the floor? Rosas is gone, so they don't need to needlessly play DLO. His contract is a sunk cost at this point, so dont let that affect how much you play him
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I think I heard somewhere that they want to not play Beverly too much. He's 33, and goes so hard, he could wear down.

If you start Beverly, you are then playing McDaniels, Okogie, and Beverly. Three non-scorers. It's a tough situation.
 

JimmyJamesMD said:
Sometimes more is less. Maybe Dlo needs to play the majority of his minutes without KAT and ANT on the floor? Rosas is gone, so they don't need to needlessly play DLO. His contract is a sunk cost at this point, so dont let that affect how much you play him
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Maybe you have to play him to trade him. (No, he's not going to be traded for Simmons. Morey isn't that stupid and Gupta isn't as ego driven as Rosas so he's not going to attach four picks to DLo.) Maybe they can get a decent starter and salary filler for him.
 



Ant's postgame comments were interesting last night:

"Wake-up call for sure. Lock in. Lock the **** in. Everybody coming in here thinking it’s sweet playing the Pelicans. Whooped our ass. Now our back’s on the wall again. We got to wake up."

"We think we the only ones on the team. We got to be willing to pass the ball. There’s no “I” in team. We can’t beat five people with three people. We beat five people with five people."

"I’m gonna start talking more as far as, ‘you need to lock in, bruh. Pass the ball. Four people on you, pass the ball, know what I’m sayin?’ I’m finna start talking a lot more. It’ll be better coming from me."
 

kg21 said:
Ant's postgame comments were interesting last night:

"Wake-up call for sure. Lock in. Lock the **** in. Everybody coming in here thinking it’s sweet playing the Pelicans. Whooped our ass. Now our back’s on the wall again. We got to wake up."

"We think we the only ones on the team. We got to be willing to pass the ball. There’s no “I” in team. We can’t beat five people with three people. We beat five people with five people."

"I’m gonna start talking more as far as, ‘you need to lock in, bruh. Pass the ball. Four people on you, pass the ball, know what I’m sayin?’ I’m finna start talking a lot more. It’ll be better coming from me."
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Oh yeah. Edwards had a LOT of interesting stuff to say after that debacle. :giggle:
Iceland12 said:
Shoot under 30% for half the game? Generally you lose. Edwards had another idea. Maybe they should play like they did in the exhibition season. Having all 5 players involved in the Offense, not just three.

As Anthony Edwards once again turned Target Center into his own personal playground on Monday night, the energy coursing through the crowd made it felt like Edwards was singularly going to bring the Timberwolves back from a 21-point second-half deficit.

With each transition bucket and three-pointer Edwards hit, that belief grew stronger. But it seemed only Edwards held the key to the lid that was on the basket most of the night, and the Wolves made sure that lid was secured by laying brick upon brick on top of it in a 107-98 loss to New Orleans. This marked the second consecutive poor showing by the offense, which shot 34%. That left Edwards ticked.
After the game, Edwards (28 points) had some of his most pointed comments in a postgame media session since joining the Wolves. In particular, Edwards, who was the last person to speak postgame, said he, Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell had to do a better job of sharing the ball with their teammates.

"We think we the only ones on the team," Edwards said. "We got to be willing to pass the ball. There's no 'I' in team. We can't beat five people with three people. We beat five people with five people. We got to be willing to play with our teammates. Trust our teammates and ... share the ball."

www.startribune.com

Anthony Edwards blames himself, Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell after Wolves lose to Pelicans

Anthony Edwards said the Wolves key offensive players need to trust their teammates after the threesome took more than two-thirds of the Wolves' field-goal attempts.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com
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jamiche said:
I'll bet that if it is possible to do a quantitative analysis the finding would be that KAT's behavior towards the refs costs the wolves 3-5 points a game. Between the physical beating he takes that the refs ignore and the baby soft fouls that are called against him, it has to add up to a handful of points every game going the wrong way. And it's all because he's out there screaming like an opera singer all of the time. Refereeing is an imperfect, human process and KAT appears to have nothing but bad relationships with the folks who hold a lot of power. None of his coaches have been able to get through to him on this.

It impacts his defense because he doesn't get back. It impacts his health because he takes a beating. It will impact the team this year because those points every game may be the difference between the playoffs or an April exit.
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I was there last night and Kat's behavior was embarrassing. He isn't wrong in feeling picked on by bad ref's but come on...
 

tikited said:
I was there last night and Kat's behavior was embarrassing. He isn't wrong in feeling picked on by bad ref's but come on...
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At some point you have to do all of the things necessary to help your team win games if you want to be a leader. That includes not embarassing the refs and inviting them to screw you.
 



MplsGopher said:
Fair points.


If there was no Xcel Center, and the Wild had always been playing in TC .... I think it's an easy done deal, to build a new arena for both.

But we have a perfectly good Xcel, which is also the main major concert venue.

If the Wolves won't play in there, or make due with the TC, then they should leave and the TC should be knocked down, as silly as it would be to do that to a building that just had a nine figure reno. But that's what you're talking about anyway, with a new arena.
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Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. If you want a professional franchise in your market, it has to have its own building with no shared revenue streams. The only exceptions that I know of are Lakers/Clippers and the Clips are building their own building in Orange County and Rams/Chargers and the Chargers are the orphan stepchild in the deal. The wolves will leave town before they share a building with the wild.
 


kg21 said:
Ant's postgame comments were interesting last night:

"Wake-up call for sure. Lock in. Lock the **** in. Everybody coming in here thinking it’s sweet playing the Pelicans. Whooped our ass. Now our back’s on the wall again. We got to wake up."

"We think we the only ones on the team. We got to be willing to pass the ball. There’s no “I” in team. We can’t beat five people with three people. We beat five people with five people."

"I’m gonna start talking more as far as, ‘you need to lock in, bruh. Pass the ball. Four people on you, pass the ball, know what I’m sayin?’ I’m finna start talking a lot more. It’ll be better coming from me."
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I love to read that Ant is not deferring to the “vets” who frankly speaking, haven’t done anything professionally to deserve deference. Pretty pointed comments here-I wonder if Ant’s seeing what Jimmy Butler saw while here and realizing he needs to seize the leadership role. I hope so.
 

kg21 said:
So who exactly was he talking, too? Towns, Dlo......or both?
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Both of them. He included himself in there too. There were 2 articles in the Strib about it and one in the Pioneer Press. Here's the version in the Pioneer Press:

It was time for the 20-year-old Edwards to lead. Minnesota has three lethal offensive weapons in Edwards, D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns. Those three, Edwards noted, are to blame.

“We think we the only ones on the team. We got to be willing to pass the ball,” Edwards said. “There’s no ‘I’ in team. We can’t beat five people with three people. We beat five people with five people. We got to be willing to play with our teammates.”

Edwards noted those teammates are the ones doing all the little things to help Minnesota win games. He paraphrased Timberwolves coach Chris Finch’s recent message from practice, noting Josh Okogie and Jaden McDaniels are going all out on the defensive end, and guys like Malik Beasley are running the floor hard.

And yet, they can’t get any shots on offense.

“We’ve got to do a better job of getting them involved, making them feel wanted in the offense, not just on defense,” Edwards said. “I told Beas that us three — me, KAT and D-Lo — do a bad job of getting y’all the ball, because we’re gonna get our shots. In order for them to keep fighting for us, we gotta get them the ball. We’ve gotta make them feel involved. We just gotta trust them, man. … If we’re not giving them the ball, then what are we doing?”..

www.twincities.com

Anthony Edwards begins to establish himself as leader of the Timberwolves’ pack

The weight usually fell on Ricky Rubio’s shoulders a year ago.
www.twincities.com www.twincities.com
 

Iceland12 said:
Both of them. He included himself in there too. There were 2 articles in the Strib about it and one in the Pioneer Press. Here's the version in the Pioneer Press:

It was time for the 20-year-old Edwards to lead. Minnesota has three lethal offensive weapons in Edwards, D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns. Those three, Edwards noted, are to blame.

“We think we the only ones on the team. We got to be willing to pass the ball,” Edwards said. “There’s no ‘I’ in team. We can’t beat five people with three people. We beat five people with five people. We got to be willing to play with our teammates.”

Edwards noted those teammates are the ones doing all the little things to help Minnesota win games. He paraphrased Timberwolves coach Chris Finch’s recent message from practice, noting Josh Okogie and Jaden McDaniels are going all out on the defensive end, and guys like Malik Beasley are running the floor hard.

And yet, they can’t get any shots on offense.

“We’ve got to do a better job of getting them involved, making them feel wanted in the offense, not just on defense,” Edwards said. “I told Beas that us three — me, KAT and D-Lo — do a bad job of getting y’all the ball, because we’re gonna get our shots. In order for them to keep fighting for us, we gotta get them the ball. We’ve gotta make them feel involved. We just gotta trust them, man. … If we’re not giving them the ball, then what are we doing?”..

www.twincities.com

Anthony Edwards begins to establish himself as leader of the Timberwolves’ pack

The weight usually fell on Ricky Rubio’s shoulders a year ago.
www.twincities.com www.twincities.com
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McDaniels and Okogie literally cant score though. They can't shoot or put the ball on the floor.

I personally think he was talking about Dlo dribbling all day and Towns acting like a continual two year old. .
 


kg21 said:
McDaniels and Okogie literally cant score though. They can't shoot or put the ball on the floor.

I personally think he was talking about Dlo dribbling all day and Towns acting like a continual two year old. .
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You should read the links. As much as you'd like it to be that's not what he said.
 


LakevilleBro said:
I was not sure about picking Ant with the #1 pick, but he is now my favorite player. He is super competitive and seems to have fun on the court, that is a rare combination.
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Wiseman would have been the pick if not Ant. Lord have mercy on that one. There was talk they might put Wiseman in the G league this year.
 

jamiche said:
Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. If you want a professional franchise in your market, it has to have its own building with no shared revenue streams. The only exceptions that I know of are Lakers/Clippers and the Clips are building their own building in Orange County and Rams/Chargers and the Chargers are the orphan stepchild in the deal. The wolves will leave town before they share a building with the wild.
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Wrong!

Blackhawks and Bulls, Bruins and Celtics, Knicks and Rangers, Capitols and Wizards, Maple Leafs and Raptors, and many more.
 

TruthSeeker said:
Wrong!

Blackhawks and Bulls, Bruins and Celtics, Knicks and Rangers, Capitols and Wizards, Maple Leafs and Raptors, and many more.
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Oops. My bad.

In terms of the wolves, I’d be surprised if Lore moved into somebody else’s building.
 

jamiche said:
Oops. My bad.

In terms of the wolves, I’d be surprised if Lore moved into somebody else’s building.
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It might be different if Xcel was a year or two old........but its getting up there too
 

There isn't going to be any new stadium. Zero chance. The Target Center is good enough right now. They can always do more renovations at a later date but there is no need right now since they are a terrible team.
 

I saw all I need to see (from Monday night's game) to know this team will not go anywhere without a big power forward. Simple as that. They kept trying the three-guard line-up (two pg's) and it was disastrous. They need to go traditional having a soft center like Kat.
 

Yeah but, you're not entirely wrong @jamiche .

NY Islanders (upcoming next year), LA/Anaheim, Miami, Phoenix, San Jose are all examples of where the NHL team has its own arena when the market has NBA teams.

Particularly in the latter three examples, it seems like the NHL arena is "farther away" while the NBA arena is "closer" the (main) city center. SJ if you consider it as its own separate metro, of course, then the arena is right downtown.


But in any case, I don't think the Wolves would play in an arena that was given to them for free even, if it was out in Lakeville, Monticello, or up by Running Aces, for example. I think they want to be in either downtown and probably Mpls.


Xcel is not brand new, true. 20ish years old now. But I think major arenas need to be more like 40+ years old before they reasonably can be considered "time to just knock it down and start over".


And then TC just had that reno. If they really wanted to knock it down and start over, they never should've done that.

Assuming they tried that (new arena) first, city/state said "no way", so they compromised on the reno.
 

MplsGopher said:
Xcel is not brand new, true. 20ish years old now. But I think major arenas need to be more like 40+ years old before they reasonably can be considered "time to just knock it down and start over".
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Probably more like 30 years. Both the Palace at Auburn Hills (Pistons) and the Bradley/BMO Center (Bucks) made it to 30 years before those teams moved to new arenas opened in the past few years.

Maybe that's tied to the leases those teams signed. Feels like the Xcel should make it to at least 40 years, but make no mistake the Wild will be stomping for huge upgrades/renovations when their lease is due in 2035.
 

So I have been a secret fan of Trae Young and John Collins. I try to catch a Hawks game. I haven't watched them yet this year, but the crazy dunk by Collins got me thinking is a hawks style of play feasible? It feels like the i'm going to outscore you type and those tend to fizzle out in a long series set up. Are they actually a defensive team that I haven't paid attention to?
 

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