Wolves vs Pelicans, 1/3, Game Thread

[BlacJacMac]

Being honest, Anthony Edwards ball-hogging for ten seconds and turning the ball over on the drive is maddening. Just a vibe killer.

It's tough because there are stretches where he just takes over the game by doing this same thing.

But also worth noting, the GOAT Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is 2-9 right now and the Thunder are down 11 to a bad Atlanta in the second half. These things do happen over the course of an 82-game season.

They’re happening more frequently to us lately.

[shrink]

Couple nice passes by KAT and McDaniels, and a nice finish by Jaden too,

[younggunsmn]

They are kicking our butts because they are better than us and their schemes are much better than ours.

Teams have us scouted to a tee and we have zero ability to make adjustments.
We just keep pounding the square peg into the round hole, over and over.

We are running pick and rolls to Gobert and passing him the ball when there are 4 defenders in the paint and he is absolutely bracketed.
We've got Ant in the right slot trying to create on every single play instead of moving him around.
We are incredibly easy to defend.

Defensively, teams know all they have to do to get their star players shots from their sweet spots is to run a simple pick and roll.
No trap is coming, no help is coming until it's already too late.

Gobert is absolutely useless tonight with defense and rebounding, balls bouncing off his hands, head, legs, and feet, and doing nothing but mucking up the spacing on offense.

The coaching staff needs to start making some serious adjustments or we're going to see more and more beatdowns like this from opponents.

[shrink]

Just lob the ball, Ant! Ugh!

[Murphs56]

It was a good run folks lol

I see you've given up. Don't be surprised to see us come back and win this game.

I sure hope we do but this is a far cry from the way we were playing to start the year. It's been a good stretch now.

[Klomp]

The coaching staff needs to start making some serious adjustments or we're going to see more and more beatdowns like this from opponents.

Related, in both assistant coach interviews, they relayed that the staff likes the looks we're getting but they just aren't falling.

[KGdaBom]

It's a little unconventional because we rely so much on our bigs for shooting, which results in a lower volume. But...

Conley 45.5% on 5.2 attempts = very good
Towns 41.3% on 4.6 attempts = very good
Reid 39.7% on 4.7 attempts = very good
Edwards 37.9% on 6.8 attempts = solid
Alexander-Walker 36.9% on 3.8 attempts - decent
McDaniels 36.4% on 3.0 attempts = decent

Thank you. All 6 players I mentioned and they play a lot of minutes.

But they don’t shoot nearly enough.

We’re 4th in 3PT%, but 25th in attempts.

You don’t see the problem?

Why do you ask such a question. Of course I see the problem. It would be good if we had better volume. However, I was pointing out that we had good 3 point shooters and we do.

[_AIJ_]

Defense overall has gone down the drains

[Domejandro]

Being honest, Anthony Edwards ball-hogging for ten seconds and turning the ball over on the drive is maddening. Just a vibe killer.

It's tough because there are stretches where he just takes over the game by doing this same thing.

But also worth noting, the GOAT Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is 2-9 right now and the Thunder are down 11 to a bad Atlanta in the second half. These things do happen over the course of an 82-game season.

It isn’t inefficiency (though SGA is generally way better there), but rather decision-making.

Assist-to-Turnover ratios:
6.4/1.9 - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
5.1/3.3 - Anthony Edwards

Keep in mind, shot-clock violations are not counted as player turnovers.

[KGdaBom]

It was a good run folks lol

I see you've given up. Don't be surprised to see us come back and win this game.

I sure hope we do but this is a far cry from the way we were playing to start the year. It's been a good stretch now.

Long season. I personally believe we will be just fine. Time will tell.

[KGdaBom]

Being honest, Anthony Edwards ball-hogging for ten seconds and turning the ball over on the drive is maddening. Just a vibe killer.

It's tough because there are stretches where he just takes over the game by doing this same thing.

But also worth noting, the GOAT Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is 2-9 right now and the Thunder are down 11 to a bad Atlanta in the second half. These things do happen over the course of an 82-game season.

It isn’t inefficiency (though SGA is generally way better there), but rather decision-making.

Assist-to-Turnover ratios:
6.4/1.9 - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
5.1/3.3 - Anthony Edwards

Keep in mind, shot-clock violations are not counted as player turnovers.

Ant and SGA are similar type players, but SGA is just far superior in most ways.

[BlacJacMac]

Thank you. All 6 players I mentioned and they play a lot of minutes.

But they don’t shoot nearly enough.

We’re 4th in 3PT%, but 25th in attempts.

You don’t see the problem?

Why do you ask such a question. Of course I see the problem. It would be good if we had better volume. However, I was pointing out that we had good 3 point shooters and we do.

Because you’re pushing back against the idea that we need more shooting.

We need volume shooting. Badly.

At our current rates, teams are unafraid to pack the paint and force Ant and Towns to drive into traffic because they aren’t afraid of our outside shooting.

[KGdaBom]

Ant has 3 TOs right now. That is probably one more than should be expected at this point in the game.

[BlacJacMac]

Our starters have 6 rebounds halfway through the 3rd…

[Domejandro]

It's tough because there are stretches where he just takes over the game by doing this same thing.

But also worth noting, the GOAT Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is 2-9 right now and the Thunder are down 11 to a bad Atlanta in the second half. These things do happen over the course of an 82-game season.

It isn’t inefficiency (though SGA is generally way better there), but rather decision-making.

Assist-to-Turnover ratios:
6.4/1.9 - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
5.1/3.3 - Anthony Edwards

Keep in mind, shot-clock violations are not counted as player turnovers.

Ant and SGA are similar type players, but SGA is just far superior in most ways.

The hope is that Anthony Edwards will improve with age, but in the short-term, his decision-making is so frustrating.

[Calinks]

Our starters only having 6 rebounds is absolutely ridiculous. What the hell are we doing out there?

[_AIJ_]

Ant is ball hogging again

[KGdaBom]

But they don’t shoot nearly enough.

We’re 4th in 3PT%, but 25th in attempts.

You don’t see the problem?

Why do you ask such a question. Of course I see the problem. It would be good if we had better volume. However, I was pointing out that we had good 3 point shooters and we do.

Because you’re pushing back against the idea that we need more shooting.

We need volume shooting. Badly.

At our current rates, teams are unafraid to pack the paint and force Ant and Towns to drive into traffic because they aren’t afraid of our outside shooting.

How does packing the paint force Ant and KAT to drive into traffic? They should be taking the outside shots given to them.

[Guest84]

I think ant needs to go to the bench for a bit

[BlacJacMac]

Why do you ask such a question. Of course I see the problem. It would be good if we had better volume. However, I was pointing out that we had good 3 point shooters and we do.

Because you’re pushing back against the idea that we need more shooting.

We need volume shooting. Badly.

At our current rates, teams are unafraid to pack the paint and force Ant and Towns to drive into traffic because they aren’t afraid of our outside shooting.

How does packing the paint force Ant and KAT to drive into traffic? They should be taking the outside shots given to them.

Tell them, not me.

Teams have figured us out and so far we’ve done nothing to counter.