shrink wrote:winforlose wrote:I agree with some of this, but I cannot bring myself to and 1 it. Naz is not a C. Putting him at C is wasting him the same way putting Jaden at PF is wasting him. Playing big ball is the way to win. We need a Myles Turner like C who can pace and space while also rim protecting. I am also cool with Unicorn lineups a few minutes a game (but only when appropriate,) with Jaden at the 2, Naz at the 3, and our starting and backup Cs assuming pace and space at both positions. Ant and Rudy is the wrong fit. That said, I don’t love small ball, and I especially don’t love it if we don’t box out consistently (which we do not.)
I agree with most of this too, except that Ant and Rudy are the wrong fit.
What? Rudy clogs the paint to keep Ant from driving, right? Nah. Ant simply isn’t using Rudy to his advantage.
National sources say Rudy sets the best picks in the NBA. Not only is he a very large human being, but his positioning and footwork to get to spot are prefect. He knows exactly how close he can get to setting a moving screen without it being illegal. With Ant’s explosive first step, the two can shed any defender, and that is magnified because of Ant’s newfound ability to shoot the three.
The problem though is that Ant STILL hasn’t learned to throw the lob. When Rudy comes off his screen and rolls to the basket, he is open almost every time. Part of this is because if Ant won’t throw the lob, defenders rush to stop him, and ignore Rudy. Gobert has his hands up, he’s looking for the ball. He just never gets it from Ant. If Ant will just sit down with Mike Conley, and be half as good as he is (which should be easy with so much better physical gifts), then that could be a terrific offensive combination.
The other important thing about Gobert is, of course, his defense. His whole career, he has been a walking top ten defense, regardless of how bad his teammates are. But in MIN, he has even better teammates, but it all comes down to Gobert. Naz has always been a poor defender, but put him on the floor with Rudy behind him, and his numbers soar. Players like Jaylin Clark or Ant can get into opponents and go for steals, knowing that if they miss and get beat, there is a good chance Rudy will erase them at the rim. I think trading Gobert now would hurt the chemistry the team has built with him, and while Miles Turner has been a good defender in the past, the team would take a dramatic hit defensively (and our identity) if the Wolves turned Gobert into Turner.
I could give you a long answer about how hard it is to get Rudy the ball in a position to score. I could talk about how Rudy in the dunker makes it harder for guys like Jaden to get out of the corner, which makes it easier to cheat off Jaden and help on Ant. I could talk about the pace Rudy plays at, and how Ant wants to go faster to take advantage of the broken floor defense instead of the set defense. I could talk about Rudy’s back issues and how it leads him to have poor rebounding games and how those poor rebounding games lead to broken floor situations the other way or open 3s on 2nd chance shots. All of that we have seen this year, but my biggest concern with Rudy and Ant long term is that Rudy’s hands are getting worse. He misses a lot of passes already, and as you said Ant is already bad at getting Rudy the ball (especially in the lob.) When Rudy does not complete the catch or does but cannot go up with it immediately, bad things happen more often than not. As Rudy ages, I have doubts that his performance offensively will keep pace with what we have already seen. Moreover, on bad Rudy nights we struggle to compete no matter who the opponent is.
I think a change is coming and would try to focus that change on a rim protector like Turner who can add some pace and space. That said, Rudy’s money is still valuable at the moment because he is still a walking top 10 defense, and I am not sure how much longer that will be true.
