Post#63 » by minimus » Sat Apr 6, 2024 3:09 pm
From the very beginning it was felt that there was not enough energy. Ant needs to forget about his "hey" in playoffs. If MIN want to play physical basketball Edwards must adjust as well: be accurate and aggressive in defense AND decisive and physical in offense.
It looks like opponent teams are going to blitz every Edwards PnR possession, making Edwards passer, so part of the solution is implementing more horns, DHOs, split, double drag screen actions.
Regarding Towns possible return, my main concern is transition defense. Last season it was very glaring weakness of this roster: if Towns is out of shape our twin towers lineup is exposed in transition, it is kind of predefined issue of this roster. But IF Towns is not 100% he is very prone to turnovers which lead to open court opportunities for opponent. Also Finch likes to use small backcourt lineups with two PGs: such as Conley-McLaughlin, Conely-Morris, Morris-McLaughin. All these lineups are not great in transition defense, although our all three PGs give 100% effort in defense, it is just lack of ideal size and athletic abilities. For instance, PHO ran Nurkic-Bol-KD-O'Neal-Allen lineup against our Gobert-Anderson-NAW-Conley-McLaughlin.