WCQ Game 1: Phoenix at Minnesota, 2:30 pm Saturday

[Klomp]

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[winforlose]

This is gonna sound dumb, but it is a fair and legit question, so please treat it accordingly. If the Suns go super small and play Durant at the center, can Rudy guard KD?

[guest81]

This is gonna sound dumb, but it is a fair a legit question, so please treat it accordingly. If the Suns go super small and play Durant at the center, can Rudy guard KD?

Depends on what you define as guarding. Kd is a career 30 ppg in the playoffs. Would holding kd to 30 ppg be considered a success?

[Klomp]

This is gonna sound dumb, but it is a fair a legit question, so please treat it accordingly. If the Suns go super small and play Durant at the center, can Rudy guard KD?

I brought it up in another thread.I think it's worth trying. Durant isn't a blow-by-you guy. He's a jab-jab-midrange shooter at his core.

Gobert's length can neutralize that somewhat. But where it really makes a difference is that it normalizes the rest of our matchups. Towns is fine guarding Nurkic. Have Conley chase Allen. McDaniels can check Booker and Ant can defend Beal. Along with that, I think Ant checking Beal can keep him a little bit fresher versus if he's checking Durant or Booker.

[winforlose]

This is gonna sound dumb, but it is a fair a legit question, so please treat it accordingly. If the Suns go super small and play Durant at the center, can Rudy guard KD?

Depends on what you define as guarding. Kd is a career 30 ppg in the playoffs. Would holding kd to 30 ppg be considered a success?

Can Rudy move quickly enough to stay in front? Can Rudy fight through screens or switch onto smaller defenders and play sufficient defense to not give up a shot we don’t want to give up. If Rudy can guard KD then he can play against super small lineups. If not you are in zone or Karl is the 5 and Rudy is on the bench.

[Klomp]

Can Rudy move quickly enough to stay in front? Can Rudy fight through screens or switch onto smaller defenders and play sufficient defense to not give up a shot we don’t want to give up.

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[winforlose]

Can Rudy move quickly enough to stay in front? Can Rudy fight through screens or switch onto smaller defenders and play sufficient defense to not give up a shot we don’t want to give up.

Are you new?

Watch on YouTube

I don’t mean for a couple possessions, I mean for 30+ minutes? Maybe even 40+?

Also playoff KD is not anything like what you showed above. This would be the matchup the Suns would look to exploit.

[Klomp]

I think part of where our defensive "issues" come into play against Phoenix is that the shots the defense is trying to give up are the shots the Suns top players want to take and excel at making.

Dane shared this on today's podcast. Only 9 players in the NBA attempted over 20% of their FGAs from "long midrange" (these are the shots Minnesota is usually fine giving up, because analytically they are the worst shots you can attempt). Two of them are Durant (26%) and Booker (23%). Beal is at 16% too.

Another stat Dane mentioned included the volume of these shots with the accuracy, and Durant is second behind Embiid.

[Colbinii]

This is gonna sound dumb, but it is a fair a legit question, so please treat it accordingly. If the Suns go super small and play Durant at the center, can Rudy guard KD?

No, Rudy then guards Royce O'Neale and the Suns get slaughtered on the boards while we likely play a 2-3 zone with extra pressure on the perimeter.

[Klomp]

This is gonna sound dumb, but it is a fair a legit question, so please treat it accordingly. If the Suns go super small and play Durant at the center, can Rudy guard KD?

If they do, it might be what helps unlock Ant. He's not going to be afraid of driving into Durant.

Minnesota's biggest issues this year have come when teams can match our size, strength and physicality. The Phoenix starting lineup has that. Once you go small or get into their bench, they begin to lose that advantage.

[Note30]

This is gonna sound dumb, but it is a fair and legit question, so please treat it accordingly. If the Suns go super small and play Durant at the center, can Rudy guard KD?

LOL no.

[Note30]

This is gonna sound dumb, but it is a fair a legit question, so please treat it accordingly. If the Suns go super small and play Durant at the center, can Rudy guard KD?

No, Rudy then guards Royce O'Neale and the Suns get slaughtered on the boards while we likely play a 2-3 zone with extra pressure on the perimeter.

Will he? If Rudy is guarding a 3 pt shooter, he's going to be on the perimeter. If we play zone he's not going to guarding ONeale. I'm not saying we can't play a zone but you don't mark any one person in a zone.

Your statement doesn't make sense. Also zones are broken either by a good passing big in the middle or by amazing 3 pt shooters. They have both.

[Colbinii]

This is gonna sound dumb, but it is a fair a legit question, so please treat it accordingly. If the Suns go super small and play Durant at the center, can Rudy guard KD?

No, Rudy then guards Royce O'Neale and the Suns get slaughtered on the boards while we likely play a 2-3 zone with extra pressure on the perimeter.

Will he? If Rudy is guarding a 3 pt shooter, he's going to be on the perimeter. If we play zone he's not going to guarding ONeale. I'm not saying we can't play a zone but you don't mark any one person in a zone.

I meant one or the other. Either he guards the inconsistent Royce O'Neale or we run a zone.

[Note30]

This is gonna sound dumb, but it is a fair a legit question, so please treat it accordingly. If the Suns go super small and play Durant at the center, can Rudy guard KD?

If they do, it might be what helps unlock Ant. He's not going to be afraid of driving into Durant.

Minnesota's biggest issues this year have come when teams can match our size, strength and physicality. The Phoenix starting lineup has that. Once you go small or get into their bench, they begin to lose that advantage.

I would argue that we haven't played a 5 out line up like theirs except for the Celtics kind of.

Booker, Allen, Beal, ONeale, Durant is a much stronger 5 out lineup than any one else in the league by far.

Jrue, White, Brown, Tatum, and Zingis is just as good but Durant is a true creator and Zinger isn't at all. So while BOS has a better lineup, they aren't as good of a 5 out team and it makes a huge difference in the plays they run.

Given that we have been regularly smoked by them, we don't actually know if they wouldn't have the advantage, because there isn't an equivalent to them.

[Klomp]

I would argue that we haven't played a 5 out line up like theirs except for the Celtics kind of.

Booker, Allen, Beal, ONeale, Durant is a much stronger 5 out lineup than any one else in the league by far.

Jrue, White, Brown, Tatum, and Zingis is just as good but Durant is a true creator and Zinger isn't at all. So while BOS has a better lineup, they aren't as good of a 5 out team and it makes a huge difference in the plays they run.

Given that we have been regularly smoked by them, we don't actually know if they wouldn't have the advantage, because there isn't an equivalent to them.

Well we fared much better against Boston than we did against the Suns in the regular season.

[guest81]

I think obviously they'll put Jaden on kd for as long as they're both out there. But if your going to play Jaden 35-40 minutes, he has to be an offensive factor. He has to be a 40 percent on 3s on high volume if the wolves are gonna win

[guest81]

I think obviously they'll put Jaden on kd for as long as they're both out there. But if your going to play Jaden 35-40 minutes, he has to be an offensive factor. He has to be a 40 percent on 3s on high volume if the wolves are gonna win

For reference, Jaden has been 30 percent post all star break. It has secretly killed the wolves offense this season

[Note30]

I think obviously they'll put Jaden on kd for as long as they're both out there. But if your going to play Jaden 35-40 minutes, he has to be an offensive factor. He has to be a 40 percent on 3s on high volume if the wolves are gonna win

I guess that puts Ant on Booker and Conley on Beale.

That's gonna be tough for the two of them. Mostly because Ant should be focusing on offense and instead most of his energy will be focusing on stopping Booker.

Meanwhile the Suns put Allen on Ant and ONeale on Towns.

NAW needs to be playing.

[Note30]

I would argue that we haven't played a 5 out line up like theirs except for the Celtics kind of.

Booker, Allen, Beal, ONeale, Durant is a much stronger 5 out lineup than any one else in the league by far.

Jrue, White, Brown, Tatum, and Zingis is just as good but Durant is a true creator and Zinger isn't at all. So while BOS has a better lineup, they aren't as good of a 5 out team and it makes a huge difference in the plays they run.

Given that we have been regularly smoked by them, we don't actually know if they wouldn't have the advantage, because there isn't an equivalent to them.

Well we fared much better against Boston than we did against the Suns in the regular season.

Both games went into OT and they went big against us in their loss and matched us in their win. I think that's not representative of the situation I'm outlining.

[Klomp]

I think obviously they'll put Jaden on kd for as long as they're both out there. But if your going to play Jaden 35-40 minutes, he has to be an offensive factor. He has to be a 40 percent on 3s on high volume if the wolves are gonna win

I guess that puts Ant on Booker and Conley on Beale.

That's gonna be tough for the two of them. Mostly because Ant should be focusing on offense and instead most of his energy will be focusing on stopping Booker.

Yep, this is part of what I come back to when looking at what went wrong in the regular season series.

I think we either need to lean heavily into the "big" thing by having Towns or Gobert cover Durant, or we need to scheme differently and play more with only one of them on the court, instead running a lot of NAW. I think they'll do the first option before considering the second.