Game 45: Denver Nuggets (28-16) @ Minnesota Timberwolves (23-21)

[Calinks]

That might be the best win of the season. Also, its not crazy to think that if we did wind up getting the 6th seed, its possible we could somehow squeak past Denver in a series.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

Watch replay in the morning. Seems that we like to play Denver. Everybody play well. I like what Rob bring speed audacity… but I don’t get overexcited. His limitations Im défense and how he carry the ball will make it useless at PO time. Hope DDV come back on time. Overall when ANT and Randle touched less the ball and are focus on scoring we are a better team. Still hope we find a way to trade Randle for a guy who play défense as we won’t shoot like this every night. ANT was impressive tonight. He didn’t stick with the ball and move it well. And he still score a lot. Perfect game for him.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

Ball movement is everything. When ANT and Randle not sticky with the ball, our ball movement is as good as others teams. And we got the extra plus, Rudy defense. Seems that it take half season but we finally improve.

[Guest84]

Nice little video

https://youtu.be/OPuUaJ4RtxQ?si=UfZfv18eGZuECW_-

[ILC]

Maybe I'm an idiot but I'm liking this team AS IS more and more.

You can see chemistry is improving, you can see something happening with Jaden more off ball and rebounding. Ant is way more engaged defending on-ball than off-ball as well.

It seems like all issues all season have been mental with them. DDV spoke about it, having to "let go" of old stuff to improve. Rudy made a concerted effort to be more aggressive defensively, barely got any rebounds loose last night.

You can see they have it, just have to put it together more. Hopefully they can avoid the play-in and then I really think everything is wide open in the west.

[winforlose]

Maybe I'm an idiot but I'm liking this team AS IS more and more.

You can see chemistry is improving, you can see something happening with Jaden more off ball and rebounding. Ant is way more engaged defending on-ball than off-ball as well.

It seems like all issues all season have been mental with them. DDV spoke about it, having to "let go" of old stuff to improve. Rudy made a concerted effort to be more aggressive defensively, barely got any rebounds loose last night.

You can see they have it, just have to put it together more. Hopefully they can avoid the play-in and then I really think everything is wide open in the west.

You’re not an idiot, but you are also not seeing the whole picture. Imagine Rudy rolls and ankle and cannot play for 3 weeks. Let’s say this happens in late February and be conservative and say he only misses 7 games. Realistically 3 weeks is closer to 10, but again thought exercise. So Rudy is out 10 games and your starting center is one of Randle, Reid, or Garza. How many games does that win. Now Rudy is back but out of shape, so he has to ramp up for a week and cannot handle the full load. Let’s say that is 3-4 games of reduced Rudy, how much of that can we handle. At the same time what if Dilly hits the rookie wall and slumps hard, now with DDV either out or recently back and Mike being minute reduced in the ramp up to the playoffs, how do we proceed?

We are too thin at PG and C and when it comes time to actually play in the playoffs Dilly’s minutes will be even more limited. We need more balance and the only player we can send out to bring us that balance is Randle. Plus, if we leave things as is, we might well lose Naz in free agency.

[ILC]

Maybe I'm an idiot but I'm liking this team AS IS more and more.

You can see chemistry is improving, you can see something happening with Jaden more off ball and rebounding. Ant is way more engaged defending on-ball than off-ball as well.

It seems like all issues all season have been mental with them. DDV spoke about it, having to "let go" of old stuff to improve. Rudy made a concerted effort to be more aggressive defensively, barely got any rebounds loose last night.

You can see they have it, just have to put it together more. Hopefully they can avoid the play-in and then I really think everything is wide open in the west.

You’re not an idiot, but you are also not seeing the whole picture. Imagine Rudy rolls and ankle and cannot play for 3 weeks. Let’s say this happens in late February and be conservative and say he only misses 7 games. Realistically 3 weeks is closer to 10, but again thought exercise. So Rudy is out 10 games and your starting center is one of Randle, Reid, or Garza. How many games does that win. Now Rudy is back but out of shape, so he has to ramp up for a week and cannot handle the full load. Let’s say that is 3-4 games of reduced Rudy, how much of that can we handle. At the same time what if Dilly hits the rookie wall and slumps hard, now with DDV either out or recently back and Mike being minute reduced in the ramp up to the playoffs, how do we proceed?

We are too thin at PG and C and when it comes time to actually play in the playoffs Dilly’s minutes will be even more limited. We need more balance and the only player we can send out to bring us that balance is Randle. Plus, if we leave things as is, we might well lose Naz in free agency.

Oh no, my post wasn't an argument for keeping this team together, especially Randle. If I can get Cam Johnson and one BKN C back for him I am doing that right now.

It's more about general discourse on MIN twitter, where I see a lot of people advocating for dumping Randle's salary and going young, playing Rob 30 minutes etc. I'm not even close to that yet. I believe this team if DDV can come back this season can go on a deep run in the POs still. That's what I mean by "maybe I'm an idiot".

I can SEE the chemistry developing, I can see better decisions being made, I can see them being in all these games, they're not getting blown out by anyone etc.

[TimberKat]

Maybe I'm an idiot but I'm liking this team AS IS more and more.

You can see chemistry is improving, you can see something happening with Jaden more off ball and rebounding. Ant is way more engaged defending on-ball than off-ball as well.

It seems like all issues all season have been mental with them. DDV spoke about it, having to "let go" of old stuff to improve. Rudy made a concerted effort to be more aggressive defensively, barely got any rebounds loose last night.

You can see they have it, just have to put it together more. Hopefully they can avoid the play-in and then I really think everything is wide open in the west.

You’re not an idiot, but you are also not seeing the whole picture. Imagine Rudy rolls and ankle and cannot play for 3 weeks. Let’s say this happens in late February and be conservative and say he only misses 7 games. Realistically 3 weeks is closer to 10, but again thought exercise. So Rudy is out 10 games and your starting center is one of Randle, Reid, or Garza. How many games does that win. Now Rudy is back but out of shape, so he has to ramp up for a week and cannot handle the full load. Let’s say that is 3-4 games of reduced Rudy, how much of that can we handle. At the same time what if Dilly hits the rookie wall and slumps hard, now with DDV either out or recently back and Mike being minute reduced in the ramp up to the playoffs, how do we proceed?

We are too thin at PG and C and when it comes time to actually play in the playoffs Dilly’s minutes will be even more limited. We need more balance and the only player we can send out to bring us that balance is Randle. Plus, if we leave things as is, we might well lose Naz in free agency.

Oh no, my post wasn't an argument for keeping this team together, especially Randle. If I can get Cam Johnson and one BKN C back for him I am doing that right now.

It's more about general discourse on MIN twitter, where I see a lot of people advocating for dumping Randle's salary and going young, playing Rob 30 minutes etc. I'm not even close to that yet. I believe this team if DDV can come back this season can go on a deep run in the POs still. That's what I mean by "maybe I'm an idiot".

I can SEE the chemistry developing, I can see better decisions being made, I can see them being in all these games, they're not getting blown out by anyone etc.

Yes, I feel the same. Not going to trade Randle for DLow or attach a first round pick and Randle to Charlotte for 3 2nd round picks. I am not sure I would give up Randle for Cam Johnson. Certainly would trade him for an all star caliber player.

[Dewey]

You’re not an idiot, but you are also not seeing the whole picture. Imagine Rudy rolls and ankle and cannot play for 3 weeks. Let’s say this happens in late February and be conservative and say he only misses 7 games. Realistically 3 weeks is closer to 10, but again thought exercise. So Rudy is out 10 games and your starting center is one of Randle, Reid, or Garza. How many games does that win. Now Rudy is back but out of shape, so he has to ramp up for a week and cannot handle the full load. Let’s say that is 3-4 games of reduced Rudy, how much of that can we handle. At the same time what if Dilly hits the rookie wall and slumps hard, now with DDV either out or recently back and Mike being minute reduced in the ramp up to the playoffs, how do we proceed?

We are too thin at PG and C and when it comes time to actually play in the playoffs Dilly’s minutes will be even more limited. We need more balance and the only player we can send out to bring us that balance is Randle. Plus, if we leave things as is, we might well lose Naz in free agency.

Oh no, my post wasn't an argument for keeping this team together, especially Randle. If I can get Cam Johnson and one BKN C back for him I am doing that right now.

It's more about general discourse on MIN twitter, where I see a lot of people advocating for dumping Randle's salary and going young, playing Rob 30 minutes etc. I'm not even close to that yet. I believe this team if DDV can come back this season can go on a deep run in the POs still. That's what I mean by "maybe I'm an idiot".

I can SEE the chemistry developing, I can see better decisions being made, I can see them being in all these games, they're not getting blown out by anyone etc.

Yes, I feel the same. Not going to trade Randle for DLow or attach a first round pick and Randle to Charlotte for 3 2nd round picks. I am not sure I would give up Randle for Cam Johnson. Certainly would trade him for an all star caliber player.

Randle is not a winning basketball player.

[winforlose]

You’re not an idiot, but you are also not seeing the whole picture. Imagine Rudy rolls and ankle and cannot play for 3 weeks. Let’s say this happens in late February and be conservative and say he only misses 7 games. Realistically 3 weeks is closer to 10, but again thought exercise. So Rudy is out 10 games and your starting center is one of Randle, Reid, or Garza. How many games does that win. Now Rudy is back but out of shape, so he has to ramp up for a week and cannot handle the full load. Let’s say that is 3-4 games of reduced Rudy, how much of that can we handle. At the same time what if Dilly hits the rookie wall and slumps hard, now with DDV either out or recently back and Mike being minute reduced in the ramp up to the playoffs, how do we proceed?

We are too thin at PG and C and when it comes time to actually play in the playoffs Dilly’s minutes will be even more limited. We need more balance and the only player we can send out to bring us that balance is Randle. Plus, if we leave things as is, we might well lose Naz in free agency.

Oh no, my post wasn't an argument for keeping this team together, especially Randle. If I can get Cam Johnson and one BKN C back for him I am doing that right now.

It's more about general discourse on MIN twitter, where I see a lot of people advocating for dumping Randle's salary and going young, playing Rob 30 minutes etc. I'm not even close to that yet. I believe this team if DDV can come back this season can go on a deep run in the POs still. That's what I mean by "maybe I'm an idiot".

I can SEE the chemistry developing, I can see better decisions being made, I can see them being in all these games, they're not getting blown out by anyone etc.

Yes, I feel the same. Not going to trade Randle for DLow or attach a first round pick and Randle to Charlotte for 3 2nd round picks. I am not sure I would give up Randle for Cam Johnson. Certainly would trade him for an all star caliber player.

So I got curious and I checked, Julius Randle has 64 ASTs and 36 TOs in 2025 so far. 64/36 1.8 ASTs/TO. I am sorry, but that might look better for the eye test, but it is not a great formula for winning in April.

Some other good information

Randle’s has hit 12 out of 53 3PAs this year. 12/53 =0.226%
Randle has 106 rebounds this month in 24 games. 106/13 =8.154.
Randle has scored 213 points in 13 games this month. 213/13 =16.385
To score 213 points Randle took 175 shots. 175/13 =13.462
16.385 PPG and 13.462 FGA per game. 16.385/13.462 =1.217 points per shot.

The way you sell Randle to a fan base is not his point forward skills, it is the fact that even in a terrible shooting slump from deep he is still scoring at an efficient clip and rebounding.