All Things 2023-2024 Minnesota Timberwolves In-Season Thread

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Bad Gopher said:
Even if Finch can be present at the games, he'll be in pain and on medication. I can't see any way this works. The sports gods have done it to us again. 20 years ago it was the injury to Cassell during the playoffs. 27 years ago it was the injury to Eric Harris in the Clemson game.
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Keep the knives away from you.
 

Bad Gopher said:
Even if Finch can be present at the games, he'll be in pain and on medication. I can't see any way this works. The sports gods have done it to us again. 20 years ago it was the injury to Cassell during the playoffs. 27 years ago it was the injury to Eric Harris in the Clemson game.
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🎭👸🏽

If I was you, I wouldn’t operate heavy machinery for the foreseeable future😃
 

coolhandgopher said:
How bout a Hannibal Lecter type set-up, except with movement from waist up and no constriction of mouth. Thinking outside the box here--it would really suck if he's unable to be a physical part of the rest of these playoffs.
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What I could see happening is Finchy up in a box and Nouri wearing a headset during the coaches' little huddle at the beginning of TO's. That way they could talk a little strategy in the moment before Nouri goes over to the players. Finch could probably participate on a limited basis in practices and pregame stuff.

Assuming it's a full rupture, I hope Finch doesn't put off the surgery.
 

jamiche said:
What I could see happening is Finchy up in a box and Nouri wearing a headset during the coaches' little huddle at the beginning of TO's. That way they could talk a little strategy in the moment before Nouri goes over to the players. Finch could probably participate on a limited basis in practices and pregame stuff.

Assuming it's a full rupture, I hope Finch doesn't put off the surgery.
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Finch should go full on Ronnie Lott-mode for the playoffs. j/k
 




jamiche said:
What I could see happening is Finchy up in a box and Nouri wearing a headset during the coaches' little huddle at the beginning of TO's. That way they could talk a little strategy in the moment before Nouri goes over to the players. Finch could probably participate on a limited basis in practices and pregame stuff.

Assuming it's a full rupture, I hope Finch doesn't put off the surgery.
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This could work.

Nouri impressed me during that game and in his postgame remarks.
 


jamiche said:
What I could see happening is Finchy up in a box and Nouri wearing a headset during the coaches' little huddle at the beginning of TO's. That way they could talk a little strategy in the moment before Nouri goes over to the players. Finch could probably participate on a limited basis in practices and pregame stuff.

Assuming it's a full rupture, I hope Finch doesn't put off the surgery.
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I don't know, and can't find anything, but the NBA might have some sort of rule that prohibits electronic communication like that.
 



Breakin' The Plane said:
I don't know, and can't find anything, but the NBA might have some sort of rule that prohibits electronic communication like that.
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Yeah, but they have all those guys in the 2nd row on laptops, checking this and that. They go to them in a heart beat on challenges.
 






don't know if the NBA has rules governing this - but if you're worried about Finch being run into again, couldn't Finch move to the second row behind the bench? let Nori be the 'front' man, but have Finch within earshot to discuss strategy, etc.

meanwhile - nice win, but the Wolves have to keep the underdog mentality going forward. If it is Denver in the next round, the Nuggets are the defending champions for a reason, or multiple reasons. every round, you have to play better if you want to advance.
 




Too soon?
giphy.gif
 


Not to bury the lede... The Wolves overcame everything the Suns could throw at them--including huge games by their top players--not to mention the Scott Foster factor, and still won! It might have been the most impressive of the series wins, even though it was the closest. Or perhaps BECAUSE it was the closest.

I'm not much of an NBA guy, but that was one seriously awesome game of basketball, win or lose. I just never felt, throughout the whole game, that the Wolves wouldn't have the ultimate answer and come out on top. I was never really nervous. There's no question who the better team is.
 

Gopher_In_NYC said:
There was MJ, there was Kobe and now there is Ant 🐜
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4 different analysts on two different ESPN shows said Ant is the face of the league now based on his performance. KD also said Ant is his favorite player to watch.

He averaged 31 in the series and is +60 in the playoffs (2nd in the playoffs). KD/Booker/Beal were -51 😱 (when all three were on the floor together).

Phoenix also is scheduled to have the highest payroll in NBA history next season. They also gave the lowest scoring bench in the league
 
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Gopher_In_NYC said:
4 different analysts on two different ESPN shows said Ant is the face of the league now based on his performance. KD also said Ant is his favorite player to watch.

He averaged 31 in the series and is +60 in the playoffs (2nd in the playoffs). KD/Booker/Beal were -51 😱.
Phoenix also is scheduled to have the highest payroll in NBA history next season. They also gave the lowest scoring bench in the league
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Wilbon gave ANT lots of flowers in his weekly spot on Tony Ks podcast this morning, so I expect he will be brought up on PTI as well.

Also disclosed that he had him #2 on his Official MVP Ballot.
 

Timberwolves fans are the ones least familiar with this feeling, and barely a week ago they were forgiven for feeling a sense of doom.

Remember when the Suns were an unbeatable opponent, a looming lower-seeded postseason juggernaut who had dispatched the Wolves easily in all three regular-season meetings? Yeah, that was about 10 days ago.

As it turns out, there was a sweep in the series — by the Timberwolves, the first time ever that a Minnesota team has swept a best-of-seven series. The Wolves won a playoff series for the first time in 20 years, with 2003-04 being the only year in franchise history they have advanced in the postseason.

Wolves fans can now dream about what's next, while Suns fans have to be dreading it..
www.startribune.com

Minnesota sports fans: Can you handle the optimism?

A little over a week ago, the Timberwolves were about to face an unbeatable team, the Vikings were in a land of 10,000 uncertainties and the Twins were floundering. You might have noticed a difference since then.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com
 

When the Timberwolves traded the world for massive center Rudy Gobert, and announced that he would play alongside All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns, respected basketball analysts suggested that going big was an outdated philosophy.

Their point: You win with guards and wings, and three-point shooting. The NBA was dominated by players like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Steph Curry.

Sunday night, the Wolves swept a playoff series for the first time in their history, and they did so against a team built around three perimeter players — the great Kevin Durant, the irrepressible Devin Booker and the pouty Bradley Beal.

The analysts made two mistakes in their judgment of the Gobert trade and the Wolves roster:

1. They discounted the importance of rebounding and defense. The Wolves were terrible at both before Gobert arrived. He helped fix both problems.

2. They assumed that the presence of large players would lessen the importance of rising star Anthony Edwards, and conflict with Towns.

The Wolves went big, and they didn't go home. Thanks to coach Chris Finch, they proved able to be a dominant defensive team, a tremendously improved rebounding team, and also a team that fully encourages Edwards to be their best player.

The Wolves won 122-116 on Sunday night, and the three players most impacted by the Gobert trade — Edwards, Towns and Gobert — turned in clutch performances.

Towns kept the Wolves alive until their offense woke up in the third quarter, finishing with 28 points, 10 rebounds and three assists.

Gobert had a quiet night offensively but once again anchored the NBA's best defense.
And Edwards played like a superstar, producing 40 points, nine rebounds, six assists, two blocks and a steal. He scored 31 points in the second half, and all but ended the game with a tomahawk dunk over Beal and a ducking Durant late in the fourth quarter..
www.startribune.com

Timberwolves trade for Rudy Gobert fooled many basketball analysts

For the Timberwolves, The trade for Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns' value and Anthony Edwards' ascension all worked together, and it showed in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
www.startribune.com www.startribune.com
 

Have the Lakers led at half in all 5 games of their series?
Murray sends the Lakers home with another game winner.
 
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2nd round of playoffs and there'll be no Lebron, Curry, Durant, AD. Likely no Giannis, Lillard, Butler, Embiid. Either Leonard, George, Harden, Westbrook or Irving and Doncic also sidelined.

Definitely a youth movement afoot in the association. Are the Wolves ready to step into that space? If they can get past the Nuggets. . .have to feel pretty good about their chances.
 

coolhandgopher said:
2nd round of playoffs and there'll be no Lebron, Curry, Durant, AD. Likely no Giannis, Lillard, Butler, Embiid. Either Leonard, George, Harden, Westbrook or Irving and Doncic also sidelined.

Definitely a youth movement afoot in the association. Are the Wolves ready to step into that space? If they can get past the Nuggets. . .have to feel pretty good about their chances.
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Wolves are going to have to play disciplined to beat Nugs. Nugs the only team that consistently runs the same stuff, like a machine. The rest play, as Kobe Bryant once put it, accidental basketball.
 


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