All Things Minnesota Timberwolves 2022-2023 In-Season Thread

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From the Parkinglot said:
KAT played his butt of tonight. Best player on both sides of the court for the twolves. That’s the kind of KAT this team needs for 60 games in the regular season next year.
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In a typical Minnesotan way, this series looks so much different if we have McDaniels.
 



Bad Gopher said:
That was an entertaining game.
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Yep. Hellofa game.No Reid, McDaniels or Anderson and they lost to the best team in the West by three. Can't say that many people, including myself, thought they had a chance.
 



Bob_Loblaw said:
The ending of this game was gross. Missing the push on Gobert and then the phantom 6th on Towns was just gross.
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The other part that was just gross is what the story always is. We just can't get a defensive rebound in the clutch to save our ass.

It's been an on going theme for a long time. We gave up 17 offensive rebounds. That to me was the key.
 



kg21 said:
The other part that was just gross is what the story always is. We just can't get a defensive rebound in the clutch to save our ass.

It's been an on going theme for a long time. We gave up 17 offensive rebounds. That to me was the key.
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Rebounding...and the difference in free throw shooting. And dangit, some of those rebounds were there for the taking. As is the case in the NCAA tournament, when you get to this time of year, it's about the details and the little things.
 






GopherWeatherGuy said:
He was much better in the 2nd half, but he was still a -9 for the night.
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You love the +/- except on a small sample size, but ignore it on the larger sample size. He was our best player all season on +/-.

His +/- was garbage last night because they staggered his time on the bench with Ant's time and when Ant went out Jaylin Nowell and/or Austin Rivers came in for him. Nowell is completely unplayable.

He was bad for half the series, he was our best player last night by a wide margin.
 


kg21 said:
The other part that was just gross is what the story always is. We just can't get a defensive rebound in the clutch to save our ass.

It's been an on going theme for a long time. We gave up 17 offensive rebounds. That to me was the key.
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Yeah, we aren't a very athletic front court without McDaniels.

Last night, we were outrebounded 16-8 on the offensive rebounds, but we absolutely destroyed the Nuggets with points in the paint but still shot fewer free throws. I do put some of that on Towns, his body language and pouting after every call just is going to get him fewer calls.

But last night's game was poorly officiated.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Gobert wasn't great but a couple of those "crucial mistakes" were given by the officials.
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There were three moments that all went for Jokic toward the end of the game. Two non-calls and one against the Wolves. I wonder what it is like to have a player who always gets his way.
 

ESPN summary of the game.

"Anthony Edwards, who led Minnesota with 29 points, hit the back iron on a 27-foot 3-point attempt at the buzzer that would have sent the game into overtime..

A 15-4 advantage at the free throw line helped Denver inch ahead 48-47 at the break. They finished 32 of 36 from the stripe.

Michael Porter Jr. was held without a basket until his dunk with 10:08 left in the game. Jokic missed eight of his first 10 shots 48 hours after tying his career playoff high with 43 points in a Game 4 overtime loss at Minnesota.

Karl-Anthony Towns added 26 points for the Wolves, Rudy Gobert had 16 points and 15 rebounds before fouling out and Nickeil Alexander-Walker chipped in 14 points.

“Guys were super-engaged and it showed," Wolves point guard Mike Conley said. “And that showed that we're going to fight no matter what.”

The Nuggets got 14 points from Aaron Gordon and Bruce Brown, who was in Edwards' face on the game-tying attempt at the buzzer. Porter scored all eight of his points in the fourth quarter, including a pair of clutch 3-pointers after missing his first five shots from behind the arc.

The Wolves, who avoided a sweep with an overtime win in Minneapolis on Sunday, jumped out to a 25-12 lead before the Nuggets began chipping away.

“We started slow,” Murray said, “but once they started talking that woke us up. We locked in. We fought back in the second quarter and then I thought we did a good job executing down the stretch.”

GOOD TRY

A disappointing season came to an end for the Wolves, who were banged up — Karl-Anthony Towns missed 52 games with a calf injury — and never really jelled like they had hoped after the monster trade for Gobert."

www.espn.com

Timberwolves 109-112 Nuggets (Apr 25, 2023) Game Recap - ESPN

Expert recap and game analysis of the Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Denver Nuggets NBA game from April 25, 2023 on ESPN.
www.espn.com www.espn.com
 

tikited said:
There were three moments that all went for Jokic toward the end of the game. Two non-calls and one against the Wolves. I wonder what it is like to have a player who always gets his way.
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I actually like the Nuggets and Jokic but he could get called for pushing players in the back on offensive rebounds on just about every position. It's difficult to watch people get called for being at all physical with him when he often plays old man bully ball on the low post.

Those two were glaring. I guarantee you those get called if the Nuggets play the Lakers.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
You love the +/- except on a small sample size, but ignore it on the larger sample size. He was our best player all season on +/-.

His +/- was garbage last night because they staggered his time on the bench with Ant's time and when Ant went out Jaylin Nowell and/or Austin Rivers came in for him. Nowell is completely unplayable.

He was bad for half the series, he was our best player last night by a wide margin.
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Your own comment tells me Ant is and was our best player, which he has been all year.

+/- is just one metric, but it is telling. If he’s your best player, the team wouldn’t be nearly double digits worse with him on the court.

Ant is also a better player when Towns is off the court.
 

GopherWeatherGuy said:
Your own comment tells me Ant is and was our best player, which he has been all year.

+/- is just one metric, but it is telling. If he’s your best player, the team wouldn’t be nearly double digits worse with him on the court.

Ant is also a better player when Towns is off the court.
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I strongly prefer Ant to Towns.

My own comment doesn't tell you that Ant was our best player. LOL. It is saying that Nowell is so much worse than Prince that the drop off was more severe when Ant sat.

You're not being consistent, you're sometimes using +/- to determine who you think is better and sometimes not. You seem to prefer using that stat only with small sample sizes.

Like you said, +/- is only one metric and Towns was significantly better than Ant all season.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I strongly prefer Ant to Towns.

My own comment doesn't tell you that Ant was our best player. LOL. It is saying that Nowell is so much worse than Prince that the drop off was more severe when Ant sat.

You're not being consistent, you're sometimes using +/- to determine who you think is better and sometimes not. You seem to prefer using that stat only with small sample sizes.

Like you said, +/- is only one metric and Towns was significantly better than Ant all season.
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What the wolves record when Towns played as compared to when he didn't play?
 

kg21 said:
What the wolves record when Towns played as compared to when he didn't play?
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We were 16-14 with him and 26-26 without him.

So if you projected that out the year, we'd be 41-41 without him, and 44 - 38 with him. Oddly enough, that would have been the difference between the 5th seed and the 10th seed this year (I'm not pretending that's a normal variance just kind of interesting this season).

The Wolves went 2-1 without Ant.
The Wolves were 8-4 without Gobert.
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
We were 16-14 with him and 26-26 without him.

So if you projected that out the year, we'd be 41-41 without him, and 44 - 38 with him. Oddly enough, that would have been the difference between the 5th seed and the 10th seed this year (I'm not pretending that's a normal variance just kind of interesting this season).

The Wolves went 2-1 without Ant.
The Wolves were 8-4 without Gobert.
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so basically .500 either way with Towns.

Trade him. He's a max player.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
We were 16-14 with him and 26-26 without him.

So if you projected that out the year, we'd be 41-41 without him, and 44 - 38 with him. Oddly enough, that would have been the difference between the 5th seed and the 10th seed this year (I'm not pretending that's a normal variance just kind of interesting this season).

The Wolves went 2-1 without Ant.
The Wolves were 8-4 without Gobert.
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Here is the issue with that though.

The without KAT team is playing with a roster that is built paying a player like KAT.

So what those records tell me is that we should 100% trade him and find someone to take his salary. Add other players with the free money(Keep a player like Naz as well).
 


Philly and Minny both chose the wrong player over Butler.

Luckily for Philly they are still really good. Wolves are stuck with KAT
 


MUgopher32 said:
Here is the issue with that though.

The without KAT team is playing with a roster that is built paying a player like KAT.

So what those records tell me is that we should 100% trade him and find someone to take his salary. Add other players with the free money(Keep a player like Naz as well).
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Why would that tell you that? IF we could get another similar player in return, I'd be all for it. KAT annoys me as much as the next person. However, every deal I've seen has people talking about building around role players who wouldn't be on cheap deals. The only thing harder than moving a good player who is paid too much is moving 4 average players who are paid too much (hint - you have to give up picks to get rid of them).

There would not be any free money. None.

(A) We would have to trade him for equal salary in return. So we would be building our team with 4-5 average players to take up his salary.
(B) Signing Naz has no impact on KAT. We could resign him now if they want. You can go over the cap to resign your own players and even if we got rid of KAT, we would still be over the cap.
(C) There is nothing that kills an NBA team more than overpaying for average players. KAT, while probably not a max player, is someone we could get something in return for. He has value.


How is our roster built around KAT? I'm not saying it should be, but he is playing semi-out of position at PF rather than C. The offense doesn't run through it anymore than it probably should.
 

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