All Things 2024-25 Minnesota Timberwolves In-Season Thread

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Luka Doncic is overrated. If he doesn't have the ball, he does nothing on offense.

On defense, he has to be one of the worst/laziest in the league if not the worst/laziest.

He is not a top 5 player, and Dallas was right to dump him. You can't win with him because he commands a huge portion of the salary cap, he's only effective on offense dominating the ball, and he's a tremendous liability on defense.

He doesn't take his body or conditioning seriously.

When he declines, it won't be graceful and slow like LeBron James and Steph Curry. When he declines, he'll drop off a cliff. It'll be dramatic, and it could easily be at age 29 or 30.
 


GopherPharmaBiz said:
Who’s the better matchup for the Wolves in round 2? Houston or Golden State?
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Who knows? The Wolves today are different than the pre-all-star game Wolves, so you can't use the regular season as a barometer.

The Wolves could beat either. OKC is the team that they don't want, and thankfully, they won't see them next.
 

TruthSeeker said:
Luka Doncic is overrated. If he doesn't have the ball, he does nothing on offense.

On defense, he has to be one of the worst/laziest in the league if not the worst/laziest.

He is not a top 5 player, and Dallas was right to dump him. You can't win with him because he commands a huge portion of the salary cap, he's only effective on offense dominating the ball, and he's a tremendous liability on defense.

He doesn't take his body or conditioning seriously.

When he declines, it won't be graceful and slow like LeBron James and Steph Curry. When he declines, he'll drop off a cliff. It'll be dramatic, and it could easily be at age 29 or 30.
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I thought the Wolves could have even done a better job of exploiting his lame defense, and the Wolves still won the series in five!

I don't care what anyone says, though, he's a top 5 offensive player. He does things that nobody else can do. He's fun to watch...until he starts bitching, of course, which is every possession.
 




I don't claim to follow the Wolves very closely, so I'm kind of a fraud when it comes to opining this time of year. That said, I know what I see and hear.

Last night I stayed up and watched the post-game remarks. In short, Chris Finch is the man. He's an impressive guy. There's no question why he's been successful. He's a five-tool coach, a total package.
 

upnorthkid said:
if you're looking for some fun, go check out wolves twitter. they've been savaging the lakers all night and into the morning today

ESPN article if you prefer
www.espn.com

'No more parties in LA': Timberwolves repeatedly troll Lakers after eliminating them from playoffs

The Timberwolves started trolling the Lakers immediately after their series victory ... and haven't stopped yet.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
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I read the Lakers fan board before the series.

A non trivial amount of posters were arguing the Gobert would be unplayable. He was too much of a liability against Luka; and couldn't score against the Lakers.

The other absurd argument was the Lakers big 3 was better than anyone the wolves could put on the floor.

I was thinking there are probably 10 Twolves that would start for the Lakers (I believe Shannon could and likely Clark).

However, after last night, maybe 11. I think Luka Garza might be able to improve that team too.

It's absurd how bad their defense would be without Lebron telling them what to do.
 



TruthSeeker said:
Luka Doncic is overrated. If he doesn't have the ball, he does nothing on offense.

On defense, he has to be one of the worst/laziest in the league if not the worst/laziest.

He is not a top 5 player, and Dallas was right to dump him. You can't win with him because he commands a huge portion of the salary cap, he's only effective on offense dominating the ball, and he's a tremendous liability on defense.

He doesn't take his body or conditioning seriously.

When he declines, it won't be graceful and slow like LeBron James and Steph Curry. When he declines, he'll drop off a cliff. It'll be dramatic, and it could easily be at age 29 or 30.
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Donkey picked up his 2nd foul with 7:29 left in the first half, and the Wolves did not attack him.

Drove me crazy, and he ended the game with only 4 fouls.
 

atsgopher said:
I read the Lakers fan board before the series.

A non trivial amount of posters were arguing the Gobert would be unplayable. He was too much of a liability against Luka; and couldn't score against the Lakers.

The other absurd argument was the Lakers big 3 was better than anyone the wolves could put on the floor.

I was thinking there are probably 10 Twolves that would start for the Lakers (I believe Shannon could and likely Clark).

However, after last night, maybe 11. I think Luka Garza might be able to improve that team too.

It's absurd how bad their defense would be without Lebron telling them what to do.
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the lakers vs the wolves really turned into an enigma of a series for them. In talking to my buddy, who is a huge lakers backer and has been for a long time, he was most concerned about the size inside and said the series would hinge on if Hayes could play minutes or not to try to protect the rim and rebound. JJ decided that he wasn't going to play him at all and it effectively ended the series, with the lakers only winning another game we had a historically bad shooting night. oddly enough we also murdered them on the glass even when Rudy was awful (because you can't just trot out a tallest guy of 6'9" and think you're going to get away with it with a bunch of other soft rebounders) such as when Jaden went off for 25/9 and his 30 point night almost all in the paint or Julius just being able to back into the post and have no one be able to shot block on him.

It was kind of funny to watch Redick get all sensitive when he was being questioned like he didn't seem grossly out of his depth out there this postseason. I get the roster isn't great, but he coached like a child and had no idea how to try attack the wolves offensively or defensively other than hope Luka and Lebron could just do it all. Guess that tracks with who he'd previously coached.

On the Lakers big 3 being better, yeah maybe in a one and done game you'd take Luka and Lebron (Austin Reeves should not make up a "big 3" anywhere; great high end roll player/scoring 6th man). I'm really hoping the Wolves depth continues to show. If we end up with Houston we'll for sure need it as they defend hard and if its the Warriors, well need Jaden, NAW, Donte, and probably a little bit of Jaylen or TSJ to try keep Steph and co running all night to wear them down.

we'll have the inside advantage against anyone in the playoffs outside of OKC where it'll be closer to even.

Super fun series and I love sending Lebron and Luka golfing. Special kudos to Rudy for playing good defense on Luka the majority of the time as well as to Naz(!) for locking him up multiple times too. Julius also had some good efforts there though he killed me with the couple of fouls on 3s after playing outstanding D leading up to the shot.
 

I thought this series was Finch's best coaching job so far. They should have won by 30 last night and continuing to brick 3's when they could do whatever they wanted to around the basket still drove me nuts.

But Finch was always a step ahead of JJ, just like Kidd was always a step ahead of Finch in last years WC finals.
 






Knicks moving on. Brunson

Edit: Fell asleep at the half with the Nuggets at Clippers. Good series. Harden went 47 minutes last night. On to game 7
Now get the Rockets to handle the Warriors tonight.
 
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tikited said:
I'll always take the home court advantage, but I fear Curry more than Houston.
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As much as I fear Curry, I'd much rather play GS than Houston. Houston is bigger, faster, meaner, hungrier and younger than GS. They play slightly better defense and have a slightly better offense than GS, plus home court.

If I have a choice, I'll take my chances against 35 year old Butler, 35 year old Green and 37 year old Curry, especially with four games at home.
 

jamiche said:
As much as I fear Curry, I'd much rather play GS than Houston. Houston is bigger, faster, meaner, hungrier and younger than GS. They play slightly better defense and have a slightly better offense than GS, plus home court.

If I have a choice, I'll take my chances against 35 year old Butler, 35 year old Green and 37 year old Curry, especially with four games at home.
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Exactly.
 




Wolves will play on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Monday.
In Houston on Tuesday and Thursday if it’s the Rockets and in Minneapolis if it’s the Warriors.
 




Quite the shooting night by Hield. Only 7 turnovers for Golden State.
Indy beats Cleveland and steals home court. Missed Garland.

Knicks at Celtics
Nuggets at Thunder
 

Brunson and Towns both with 3 fouls now with about 1:30 left in the 1st half.
Knicks are 8 of 19 on free throws.
Celtics opening it up. 61 to 45 now at the half.
Fabulous comeback by the Knicks.
 
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