All Things 2024-25 Minnesota Timberwolves In-Season Thread

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Randle's offense is better than I anticipated. DDV, not so much. The Ingles experiment needs to end. Minott needs 8-10 minutes a game and Conley's play is providing an opportunity for short minutes for Dillingham. Finch should give it to him.
 

jamiche said:
Randle's offense is better than I anticipated. DDV, not so much. The Ingles experiment needs to end. Minott needs 8-10 minutes a game and Conley's play is providing an opportunity for short minutes for Dillingham. Finch should give it to him.
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Team probably has a lotto going as to what player will be the next off the bench. Finch isn’t very trusting at the moment.
 


fan of Ray Williams said:
Geeze, 93 shots to the Wolves 77
Wolves had 8 more free throws
52 to 38 points in the paint favoring Dallas
20 to 10 on fast break points favoring Dallas
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Great last two (2) stats, Ray...they are very indicative our our struggles along with the horrendous amount of TOs.

We are no longer considered a "big" team nor are we playing like an uptempo team. That's going to be a problem.

On a positive note, Randle has been as good as we could've possibly hoped for and it appears that Finch can unleash parts of his game that were stifled by Thibs.

It's way early in the season but if our identity is going to be a high volume 3-point shooting team, we better figure out this turnover issue and make our free throws.

The 3-pointers will not always fall. Imagine the score if Ant had an off night. 😐
 

jamiche said:
Randle's offense is better than I anticipated. DDV, not so much. The Ingles experiment needs to end. Minott needs 8-10 minutes a game and Conley's play is providing an opportunity for short minutes for Dillingham. Finch should give it to him.
Click to expand...
I'd love to see Minott start for McDaniels.

McDaniels........8 points per game and 3 rebounds. Minott could do that on one leg.
 





jamiche said:
Randle's offense is better than I anticipated. DDV, not so much.
Click to expand...
It’s early- he’ll shoot himself into a rhythm


The Ingles experiment needs to end. Minott needs 8-10 minutes a game and Conley's play is providing an opportunity for short minutes for Dillingham. Finch should give it to him.
 


I know I sound like the biggest shill for The Athletic, but gosh their reporting is good and I like what the team said regarding the L -

Some snippets (Love Ant’s leadership)


“Looks like the offense is starting to set into a rhythm a little bit, but the defense has got to be better,” coach Chris Finch said.

In this very early portion of the season, the Wolves offense has improved from 17th last season to 11th, but the defense has plummeted from first to 13th. Who knew the biggest issue the Wolves would face after trading Towns was on defense?

“It goes to show how well we still played outside of that to even be in the game with 20 turnovers is pretty good. But can’t settle there,” said Alexander-Walker, who scored 11 points and went 3 of 5 from deep. “It’s still a loss and we got to sharpen those things up before April.”

The big trade did address that shortcoming in a significant manner. One of Randle’s biggest strengths is shot creation. The Wolves have already seen that in action in Sacramento last week when he propped up a struggling offense in the first half with a barrage of tough buckets in isolation. DiVincenzo also has shown more ability to make plays off the dribble to help when the clock is winding down.

The Wolves believe they’re a little bit tougher and a lot deeper after the trade, but they are not under any illusions that they have gained some sort of edge over the Mavericks.

“We didn’t put a roster together to beat Dallas per se,” Finch said. “Right now, we’re just trying to figure out who we are on a nightly basis, what we can do at a highly repeatable level.”

Finch is still experimenting with lineup combinations to see what works and what doesn’t. That is why Joe Ingles was on the court in the second quarter without Gobert to help him on defense. The Wolves were outscored by seven points in Ingles’ four minutes. But Finch also went to a small-ball lineup in the fourth quarter with Randle at center, and that worked well to help the Wolves trim a double-digit deficit down to three points in the final four minutes.

“We do feel like we have some physicality now in Donte and Julius. It gives us a little bit more defensive versatility, too,” Finch said. “That’s not to say we have all the answers right now even in that. We’re still trying to figure out some defensive chemistry.”

“It’s on us, especially myself, I’m big as hell,” Edwards said. “I’ve got to be able to box them bigs out. But (the Mavericks) do a good job of getting those offensive rebounds. I gotta figure it out.”

“Just transition defense and rebounding and we’ll be OK,” Edwards said. “I feel like we can beat anybody. If we get back in transition and we rebound, and if I rebound, we’ll be good.”
 

It's been 4 games and overall we're a good team. If last season taught me anything it's that home court doesn't really matter in the playoffs. Just stay healthy, be a top 6 in the west, get into the playoffs, and let's party.
 



Irving with 25 points and 0 turnovers in the 2nd half
Dallas with 1 (one) turnover in the 2nd half? None in the 4th quarter. That's it?
 



Towns with some nice numbers last night. 39 minutes, 44 points on 17-25 and 6-6 at the line. 13 rebounds and 2 assists. Knicks beat the Heat in Miami.
 


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