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Game 12 MIN @ NOP

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BlacJacMac
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Re: Game 12 MIN @ NOP 

Post#121 » by BlacJacMac » Sun Nov 19, 2023 4:44 pm

thinktank wrote:It seems like the Wolves are completely flying under the national radar…

…which is good, actually.

A flyover-anonymity benefit.


Are they? Before the Phoenix debacle, I believe, NBA.com had us #2 and ESPN #4.
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Re: Game 12 MIN @ NOP 

Post#122 » by Calinks » Sun Nov 19, 2023 6:31 pm

gandlogo wrote:Other than the record and the play of KAT, not a lot of positives from the road trip. Only one quality win, and that was with the Warriors on a back-to-back (and now losers of six straight). The last three games have been very concerning. Struggle to beat the Warriors JV squad. Complete no-show against a depleted and struggling Suns team. And escaping with a one-point win against a team missing two major pieces. All of this while the Wolves have been healthy. The defense has either gone away or teams have figured out how to exploit it. Ant was very average all week. Shake is worthless. Naz was off. SloMo and Rudy have been meh. Conley looking a little old. The wins are great, but the red flags are there too. Hopefully they figure it out.

I do think we should take these red flags seriously, at the same time these are still good wins. I am worried about the defense too. A few things worry me right now.

Will our defense bounce back? It has fallen off a cliff, I hope we are just tired and are just slacking off a bit and its not something that will become the norm.

Will Ant get back to playing at an elite level? All his career has had spurts of being amazing and then mediocre. I hope that's not something he hasn't gotten past or even worse, that's not who he is as a player forever.

A part of me thinks we will look better after some rest and a stint at home but I'm not sure. Maybe we just got really hot for a while and we are falling back to a more regular pace.

I suppose the good news is, even if we aren't as good as we looked during that seven game stretch, as long as we are just a solid team, at the very least we should still be in the playoffs, we have won so many games to start out, playing .500 ball here on out should pretty much put us in great position to make the post-seaon. That's how beneficial this opening three week period has been.
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Re: Game 12 MIN @ NOP 

Post#123 » by shrink » Sun Nov 19, 2023 11:36 pm

Ever since KG left, the Wolves would need to play well to have a chance at a win, and many times they still fell short. Jefferson, or Love, or Towns, would need to play great - there just weren’t other players on the team to pick up the slack. In addition, it was a vicious cycle. Play bad, get a lottery pick, play the youth, play bad, get a lottery pick, …!

This season is different. Ant is sick? Towns has his back. KAT struggling with stray voltage? Maybe Gobert and Jaden lead a strong team defensive effort so we don’t need as many points. The bigs’ games aren’t built for crunch time? Give Ant the ball.

I suppose you can predict doom and gloom when you only see narrow victories. We are all, after all, Wolves fans. To me, I look at it like we are showing we can win ugly games that used to surely be losses. And it’s wins that matter, so I’m excited we have vastly improved our margin for error with the player talent, the coaching, and just the attitude of this current team! A-Rooooooo!
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Re: Game 12 MIN @ NOP 

Post#124 » by thinktank » Sun Nov 19, 2023 11:51 pm

BlacJacMac wrote:
thinktank wrote:It seems like the Wolves are completely flying under the national radar…

…which is good, actually.

A flyover-anonymity benefit.


Are they? Before the Phoenix debacle, I believe, NBA.com had us #2 and ESPN #4.


Very little chat about us on general chat, nba Reddit, etc.
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Re: Game 12 MIN @ NOP 

Post#125 » by Neeva » Sun Nov 19, 2023 11:57 pm

That’s fine with me let them talk up the 76ers.
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Re: Game 12 MIN @ NOP 

Post#126 » by TimberKat » Mon Nov 20, 2023 12:00 am

Calinks wrote:
gandlogo wrote:Other than the record and the play of KAT, not a lot of positives from the road trip. Only one quality win, and that was with the Warriors on a back-to-back (and now losers of six straight). The last three games have been very concerning. Struggle to beat the Warriors JV squad. Complete no-show against a depleted and struggling Suns team. And escaping with a one-point win against a team missing two major pieces. All of this while the Wolves have been healthy. The defense has either gone away or teams have figured out how to exploit it. Ant was very average all week. Shake is worthless. Naz was off. SloMo and Rudy have been meh. Conley looking a little old. The wins are great, but the red flags are there too. Hopefully they figure it out.

I do think we should take these red flags seriously, at the same time these are still good wins. I am worried about the defense too. A few things worry me right now.

Will our defense bounce back? It has fallen off a cliff, I hope we are just tired and are just slacking off a bit and its not something that will become the norm.

Will Ant get back to playing at an elite level? All his career has had spurts of being amazing and then mediocre. I hope that's not something he hasn't gotten past or even worse, that's not who he is as a player forever.

A part of me thinks we will look better after some rest and a stint at home but I'm not sure. Maybe we just got really hot for a while and we are falling back to a more regular pace.

I suppose the good news is, even if we aren't as good as we looked during that seven game stretch, as long as we are just a solid team, at the very least we should still be in the playoffs, we have won so many games to start out, playing .500 ball here on out should pretty much put us in great position to make the post-seaon. That's how beneficial this opening three week period has been.

There is no easy wins on the road unless it's against one of the bottom 6 teams. All other teams besides GSW are around 500+ at home. GSW loss to CLE, a hot Wolves team, and a hot OKC team on a miracle Holmgren shot at home. Going 4 and 1 on the road is still very good.

The next 4 games will be very telling about where this team is at. I expect the defense to "rebound" at home.
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Re: Game 12 MIN @ NOP 

Post#127 » by BlacJacMac » Mon Nov 20, 2023 12:15 am

thinktank wrote:
BlacJacMac wrote:
thinktank wrote:It seems like the Wolves are completely flying under the national radar…

…which is good, actually.

A flyover-anonymity benefit.


Are they? Before the Phoenix debacle, I believe, NBA.com had us #2 and ESPN #4.


Very little chat about us on general chat, nba Reddit, etc.


Oh, you're talking about fans.

I couldn't care less what fans of other teams think of us.
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Re: Game 12 MIN @ NOP 

Post#128 » by thinktank » Mon Nov 20, 2023 12:45 am

BlacJacMac wrote:
thinktank wrote:
BlacJacMac wrote:
Are they? Before the Phoenix debacle, I believe, NBA.com had us #2 and ESPN #4.


Very little chat about us on general chat, nba Reddit, etc.


Oh, you're talking about fans.

I couldn't care less what fans of other teams think of us.


I couldn’t care less about nba.com or ESPN, FYI. Certainly not any more than fans or podcasts or writers, etc.
BlacJacMac
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Re: Game 12 MIN @ NOP 

Post#129 » by BlacJacMac » Mon Nov 20, 2023 1:05 am

thinktank wrote:
BlacJacMac wrote:
thinktank wrote:
Very little chat about us on general chat, nba Reddit, etc.


Oh, you're talking about fans.

I couldn't care less what fans of other teams think of us.


I couldn’t care less about nba.com or ESPN, FYI. Certainly not any more than fans or podcasts or writers, etc.


Totally valid.

I just don’t personally read any boards other than Minnesota ones. But I do read and watch National stuff.
thinktank
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Re: Game 12 MIN @ NOP 

Post#130 » by thinktank » Mon Nov 20, 2023 1:13 am

BlacJacMac wrote:
thinktank wrote:
BlacJacMac wrote:
Oh, you're talking about fans.

I couldn't care less what fans of other teams think of us.


I couldn’t care less about nba.com or ESPN, FYI. Certainly not any more than fans or podcasts or writers, etc.


Totally valid.

I just don’t personally read any boards other than Minnesota ones. But I do read and watch National stuff.


Well, that’s what I see (people sleeping on your Wolves, which, as I said, I think is good.)
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Re: Game 12 MIN @ NOP 

Post#131 » by Calinks » Mon Nov 20, 2023 1:43 am

shrink wrote:Ever since KG left, the Wolves would need to play well to have a chance at a win, and many times they still fell short. Jefferson, or Love, or Towns, would need to play great - there just weren’t other players on the team to pick up the slack. In addition, it was a vicious cycle. Play bad, get a lottery pick, play the youth, play bad, get a lottery pick, …!

This season is different. Ant is sick? Towns has his back. KAT struggling with stray voltage? Maybe Gobert and Jaden lead a strong team defensive effort so we don’t need as many points. The bigs’ games aren’t built for crunch time? Give Ant the ball.

I suppose you can predict doom and gloom when you only see narrow victories. We are all, after all, Wolves fans. To me, I look at it like we are showing we can win ugly games that used to surely be losses. And it’s wins that matter, so I’m excited we have vastly improved our margin for error with the player talent, the coaching, and just the attitude of this current team! A-Rooooooo!

Well said, I think that's the difference, we now have a much bigger margin for error. That currently includes our record. We can afford to lose a few games when before a few losses would be damn neat catastrophic.
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Re: Game 12 MIN @ NOP 

Post#132 » by Clav » Mon Nov 20, 2023 4:19 am

I was sweating this game too. Great win! Only one loss road-trip. Excellent progress in fighting back and not breaking completely.

Working on the early game-flow will help the team look better.... especially if it's taking a lead early on and hold it, beceause the defense is showing up most games.
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Re: Game 12 MIN @ NOP 

Post#133 » by Guest84 » Mon Nov 20, 2023 11:50 am

shrink wrote:Ever since KG left, the Wolves would need to play well to have a chance at a win, and many times they still fell short. Jefferson, or Love, or Towns, would need to play great - there just weren’t other players on the team to pick up the slack. In addition, it was a vicious cycle. Play bad, get a lottery pick, play the youth, play bad, get a lottery pick, …!

This season is different. Ant is sick? Towns has his back. KAT struggling with stray voltage? Maybe Gobert and Jaden lead a strong team defensive effort so we don’t need as many points. The bigs’ games aren’t built for crunch time? Give Ant the ball.

I suppose you can predict doom and gloom when you only see narrow victories. We are all, after all, Wolves fans. To me, I look at it like we are showing we can win ugly games that used to surely be losses. And it’s wins that matter, so I’m excited we have vastly improved our margin for error with the player talent, the coaching, and just the attitude of this current team! A-Rooooooo!


This is what I’ve been thinking. I think the wolves staff has focused on defense and not so much on offense so far. I believe this is by design and so far it’s worked. The only thing is that it could diminish some guys “stats”. However, I believe the goal is efficiency over output.

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