WCS Game 5: Minnesota at Denver, Tuesday

[jpatrick]

As some have said, lots of overreacting right now. Jokic is a generational player. Denver is really good. We may be the second best team in the league, but we just don’t have the shooting/offense to keep up.

Is Rudy overpaid? Yes. Is KAT overpaid? Yes. Neither affects a playoff game like a $50m+ player should. Is McDaniels elite on defense but killing our offense? Yes. And, unfortunately, when you count on players in the 30s, they are going to break down. Conley out and I really think something is wrong with Rudy.

If Connelly stays, I trust changes will be made in the offseason for the better (if we lose this series). I’d guess that includes cutting payroll too. But also getting us more shooting around Ant. Even KAT, an incredible shooter, does not have the quick release of a catch/shoot floor spacer.

[thinktank]

Rudy has never been part of a team that has made it to even the WCF. Excuse after excuse he's overrated af.

I don't want to be in the second round because this is all we will ever be in at this point. Unless the Western conference loses a bunch of stars we'll never win a chip.

Also you don't know that because we could have done a million things with those assets besides burn them on a player who clearly doesn't fit with KAT on offense or defense. KAT isn't a necessity to win a chip, but Gobert isn't better than KAT.

KAT is at best a 3rd option on a championship team. If you're gonna burn assets you better bring in a #1 or #2 option.

Overreacting again...

Twolve have their best playoff run in 20 years, are 2-3 against defending champions and title favourites, with a stellar performance from a 3-time MVP, and you act like this team is the Atlanta Hawks.

Denver didn't become a champion in one season, and even if Minnesota doesn't go further in the PO this year, it would still be a very good year and a promising one for the future.

Except you're missing a whole bunch of stuff. For one, there are at least 3 teams in the West that have a much brighter future than ours. So even if this is considered a success of a year, we're going to be competing against teams that are about to get better. OKC being one of them and was the 1st seed this year. We won't be able to beat Denver next year unless some crazy internal developments happen with McDaniels or we somehow luck into an amazing draft pick or FA.

Two. We're maxed out. Unless we strike lottery gold and draft a #2 option behind Ant, this is as good as we will be for a long time. We don't have any flexibility, we'll need a new PG after next year and we'll have to resign Gobert. We might not be able to hold onto our current core.

Three. We'll likely have to trade KAT for a lesser return if Taylor doesn't want to go into the 2nd apron. Unless we also strike gold there we aren't going to be better than this year's version.

Four. If by some miracle none of those things are problems, we still have get better offensive and defensive schemes and see growth in our current team. I'm not holding my breath.

Fifth. The best FA we've ever signed was SlowMo, so don't hold your breath their even if we did have room to sign players.


Honestly, we're fuicked and this was our best shot, we might have another shot at it next year, but unless there are injuries I don't expect a different result.

Ant's probably going to leave or ask for a trade in a couple of years and then we'll be back to where we started.

You’re the over-reaction king. My goodness!

[Worm Guts]

There is something very frustrating about having the 7'2 defensive player of the year and watching him have zero impact against Jokic. There's a lot of things we can tighten up, but that feels huge to me, that they can go right at our strength and beat it.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

Jokic have an incredible game today but overall in the series he is just at his usual level. Our problem is not a defense issue but an offense one. We got the best defense in regular season, swept PHX, play 2 incredible games against Denver. The point is that playing defense at this level cost you a lot of energy and we are kind of short of it right now. We are unable to beat Denver 120-115. Unfortunately our offense can not take the next step with this current roster.

[life_saver]

There is something very frustrating about having the 7'2 defensive player of the year and watching him have zero impact against Jokic. There's a lot of things we can tighten up, but that feels huge to me, that they can go right at our strength and beat it.

Just looking back at lot of these Jokic buckets, Gobert did a decent job for the most part tbh...but Jokic made some extremely tough shots today. I am not sure you can do anything more to stop Jokic when he is making those kind of shots. I think the change for G6 should be on offensive end and hope Denver's role players won't have another hot shooting night

[_AIJ_]

Wolves in 7

[Guest84]

This lets the FO know how they stack up against one of if not the top team in the league. If you can't get past them this year, you should have a better idea of what's needed going forward.

I still think the team is beatable but you have to decide what you're willing to give up. Let Jokic get his or make the others consistently beat you but NOT both. He can't have 40pt with 10+ ast

This also isn't uncommon for a rising team/star to encounter. MJ vs Pistons, LBJ vs Pistons, Wade vs Pistons, Den vs GS, etc; If the wolves can get by Den, I would think they'd be the strong favorite going forward.

[life_saver]

Read on Twitter

[life_saver]

At this point, best hope for Wolves to salvage the series is more on offensive end improvements. KAT needs to fly it out from 3...4-5 attempts won't cut it out.

Read on Twitter

[jpatrick]

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With our limited offense, this has been an absolute killer. He started the first month shooting okay but over the past 60+ games I have no doubts he’s under 30% from 3. And that’s shooting wide open, practice type threes.

We talk about having Gobert and Anderson on the court together being a space/offense killer. Having McDaniels/Gobert together is almost as bad.

[Guest84]

Another thing to keep in mind, there's been a ton of blowouts and losses in all of these series. Teams have looked unstoppable and then dead in the water the next.

While it's a daunting task to win 2 straight against the defending champs, the wolves have already done it in this series. Hoping they can at least get it to game 7 then the pressure swings back to Den.

[BlacJacMac]

1. Rudy Gobert guarding Nikola Jokic on an island is not only a difficult task, it pulls him away from cleaning the glass in the event Jokic misses. This opens up opportunity for Aaron Gordon to crash and create second chance opportunities.

2. The Wolves had the #1 rated defense all year using Gobert as a free safety around the rim. This scheme is not a secret, nor is it even a new idea. Budenholzer did this with Giannis during their championship run. The Lakers do the same with AD. ****, they had Rui guarding Jokic for a bit in the West Finals last year to see if this helped. Help defense comes in many forms when the talent is that great.

3. Gobert is not nearly as effective of a defender 30 feet from the rim as he is in close proximity to it. This is not an insult! So, of course, the Nuggets are going to do their best to drag him into the deep end away from his domain. If Gobert's assignment is Gordon, then you will see Gordon in pick-and-rolls with Jokic to force switches far away from the rim.

4. Jokic destroys everybody. Gobert, AD, Wemby, Giannis, Bam, you name it ... they got it too. This ass-whooping is not just proprietary to Rudy.

5. If KAT wasnt in foul trouble every ten seconds, the Wolves' Rudy floating scheme can make Jokic look (somewhat) mortal. We even saw Gobert deflect the unstoppable Jokic alley-oop to Gordon in Game 1 because of it. When KAT is in foul trouble, Gobert has to be involved in much more away-from-the-rim actions involving Jokic. There is no safety net once he leaves the paint if KAT is on the bench. McDaniels is busy elsewhere most of the time.

Read on Twitter

[Note30]

Jokic have an incredible game today but overall in the series he is just at his usual level. Our problem is not a defense issue but an offense one. We got the best defense in regular season, swept PHX, play 2 incredible games against Denver. The point is that playing defense at this level cost you a lot of energy and we are kind of short of it right now. We are unable to beat Denver 120-115. Unfortunately our offense can not take the next step with this current roster.

Letting them shoot 56% and 47% from 3 feels like a defensive issue.

[Note30]

At this point, best hope for Wolves to salvage the series is more on offensive end improvements. KAT needs to fly it out from 3...4-5 attempts won't cut it out.

Read on Twitter

Problem is the best way to break down their defense is 5 out. We can't run 5 out here.

[Worm Guts]

1. Rudy Gobert guarding Nikola Jokic on an island is not only a difficult task, it pulls him away from cleaning the glass in the event Jokic misses. This opens up opportunity for Aaron Gordon to crash and create second chance opportunities.

2. The Wolves had the #1 rated defense all year using Gobert as a free safety around the rim. This scheme is not a secret, nor is it even a new idea. Budenholzer did this with Giannis during their championship run. The Lakers do the same with AD. ****, they had Rui guarding Jokic for a bit in the West Finals last year to see if this helped. Help defense comes in many forms when the talent is that great.

3. Gobert is not nearly as effective of a defender 30 feet from the rim as he is in close proximity to it. This is not an insult! So, of course, the Nuggets are going to do their best to drag him into the deep end away from his domain. If Gobert's assignment is Gordon, then you will see Gordon in pick-and-rolls with Jokic to force switches far away from the rim.

4. Jokic destroys everybody. Gobert, AD, Wemby, Giannis, Bam, you name it ... they got it too. This ass-whooping is not just proprietary to Rudy.

5. If KAT wasnt in foul trouble every ten seconds, the Wolves' Rudy floating scheme can make Jokic look (somewhat) mortal. We even saw Gobert deflect the unstoppable Jokic alley-oop to Gordon in Game 1 because of it. When KAT is in foul trouble, Gobert has to be involved in much more away-from-the-rim actions involving Jokic. There is no safety net once he leaves the paint if KAT is on the bench. McDaniels is busy elsewhere most of the time.

Read on Twitter

I don't disagree with any of this, but there's still a perception to the defensive player of the year getting his butt-whooped. More importantly though, we need figure out a way to stop it. It's not really anybody's fault with the way he's played, but we need step up or figure out a strategy.

[Calinks]

Not going to over react to this. We have a great team this year, Denver is still just better it seems and that is largely due to their MVP who is one of the best of all time. Murray and Gordon have shown multiple flashes though that have made them better than anyone else on our team outside of Ant.

Gordon has been amazing in his role, he knows exactly what he needs to do and he has done it the last few games. Murray has come up big when he needed it.

Our offense is just not on par with Denver, they can get buckets when they need them at any team, we cannot. They have also out-coached us with how they are deploying their players.

We are simply getting beat on multiple fronts and nothing other than an otherworld performance from one or two of our guys would have changed that. Maybe if our bench played a lot sharper, maybe if we could consistently force some more stops, but we haven't been able to do that.

If we lose tomorrow, it will be time to give Denver their flowers and our team will have to reassess and retool some more. It looks like we just aren't there yet, and that's ok, we still had a hell of a season, we got further than we have been in 20 years, and gained a lot of experience.

This is also another lesson in how important it is to hold on to the rope all year (which we mostly did) and get that number 1 seed. I think we would have made it to the WCF without much fuss if had that top seed though we still probably have a hard time against Denver after that.

Conelly will get back on his horse and find a way to make us better.

[life_saver]

At this point, best hope for Wolves to salvage the series is more on offensive end improvements. KAT needs to fly it out from 3...4-5 attempts won't cut it out.

Read on Twitter

Problem is the best way to break down their defense is 5 out. We can't run 5 out here.

Finch has to try giving KAT at 5 with Ant, Conley, NAW, Jaden/Naz more minutes...at this point, you probably need to make some risky adjustments if you wanna stay alive

[guest81]

Your gonna get the most desperate wolves team at home next game. They'll want it more then Denver. You win that then it's winner take all. If wolves win this series all these posters who are calling to blow it up should have their fan card revoked

[life_saver]

Not going to over react to this. We have a great team this year, Denver is still just better it seems and that is largely due to their MVP who is one of the best of all time. Murray and Gordon have shown multiple flashes though that have made them better than anyone else on our team outside of Ant.

Gordon has been amazing in his role, he knows exactly what he needs to do and he has done it the last few games. Murray has come up big when he needed it.

Our offense is just not on par with Denver, they can get buckets when they need them at any team, we cannot. They have also out-coached us with how they are deploying their players.

We are simply getting beat on multiple fronts and nothing other than an otherworld performance from one or two of our guys would have changed that. Maybe if our bench played a lot sharper, maybe if we could consistently force some more stops, but we haven't been able to do that.

If we lose tomorrow, it will be time to give Denver their flowers and our team will have to reassess and retool some more. It looks like we just aren't there yet, and that's ok, we still had a hell of a season, we got further than we have been in 20 years, and gained a lot of experience.

This is also another lesson in how important it is to hold on to the rope all year (which we mostly did) and get that number 1 seed. I think we would have made it to the WCF without much fuss if had that top seed though we still probably have a hard time against Denver after that.

Conelly will get back on his horse and find a way to make us better.

Not sure about this tbh...Murray has mostly been contained in this series bar 1 game..Wolves have also done a good job on MPJ after G1. I think the role players making shots has been the major difference. Also, if KAT had a G5 type performance in G4, then we could have won the G4...it's like our team rarely has games where both Ant + KAT go off.

[life_saver]

Forgot G4 is tomorrow...not sure why but I initially thought it was on Friday