Game 64: Minnesota Timberwolves (19-44) @ Houston Rockets (39-24) - 8:00 PM ET

[WolfAddict]

Can't watch as I'm at work, but checked and we were even, then checked again 5 mins later and we're down double digits!!

[WolfAddict]

Wow, Beasleys % really taking a hit this game...

[Calinks]

We blew it hard in that 3rd quarter. Houston got all their confidence back and took over. Beasley has killed me for the week, should have stuck with Russell.

[SCTwins]

Our defense is almost impossibly bad.

[Rookie-Mistake]

After watching this game. I am of the belief that you absolutely cannot fit both Layman and Hernangomez. One will be traded.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using RealGM mobile app

[WolfAddict]

2-11 for Beasley... Just not his night

[winforlose]

Things we saw tonight. Beasley struggles to create his own offense. Dlo is very sloppy with the ball. JO is the best passer on the this team. He is a drive and kick machine. Jaylen Nowell is just not gonna get minutes, and when he does his teammates aren’t going to give him the ball.

Moral of the story, we have too many players who cannot create their own offense. We need Dlo to either commit to playing PG or to move him to SG and get a FVV type player to play PG.

[Jedzz]

Not to be overly critical about the game, but just noticing some things.

I would say once again the team is showing they are working on certain things with individual players. At a crucial point in the 4th where there is maybe 5.5 minutes left and the Rockets are still in the 90 pts range, the Wolves start featuring Reid in the low post. These seem like live practice minutes for Reid. Also keeping in mind how successful JJ was in the first half and here they are focusing on someone else for what seems like live practice. Maybe I'm wrong and they thought this might be a nice changeup and expected it to be more effective. But I didn't really like his hook type attempts to finish these. I suppose they work more often in practice.

Josh Okogie. I'm constantly critical about how I think he's just not a starter yet. He's one of the reasons we don't really have the firepower offensively to outscore our lack of defense. The system works best when 3s are raining down on opponents. So he's got a skill to learn up yet to be a starter here imo. However, one or two times each game now he seems to be showing an increasing feather touch at the rim in contested layups that have no business being finished with a bucket. It's a really intriguing sign and if he keeps developing that at some point he could become a crazy good finisher at the rim. Maybe back in December I was suggesting guys like him just start watching film of Rose finishing. I remember suggesting it again for Beasley that first week he started here. But Josh seems to be showing he's working on this and might be paying off. Maybe we need to start seeing more drives from Okogie. Also regarding Josh, it's always fun to see how much he gets into Harden's head. Harden is always keeping an eye on him. But as usual, no one here is going to stop Harden enough.

Bsasley was clearly having an off shooting day. In typical Wolves fashion the prescription for this is to just stay status quo and hope the player breaks out of this with more shots. But since this is wildly out of character for Beasley since arriving here, it felt more like beating a dead horse. It's strange too since we see them "praticing" up Reid with live minutes. Maybe a moment like this from Beasley should have allowed the team to play a different player more this game.

[Jedzz]

Things we saw tonight. Beasley struggles to create his own offense. Dlo is very sloppy with the ball. JO is the best passer on the this team. He is a drive and kick machine. Jaylen Nowell is just not gonna get minutes, and when he does his teammates aren’t going to give him the ball.

Moral of the story, we have too many players who cannot create their own offense. We need Dlo to either commit to playing PG or to move him to SG and get a FVV type player to play PG.

Beasley just had an off game. I think he can create for himself fine most games. He's not creating for others however, he's an endpoint. Seeing Layman sloppy with the ball early in a possession showed he's got no experience on ball either.

Nowell has just been treated as such an afterthought this season he isn't any part of the team. They give him these random 5 min moments a game now and the ball isn't getting in his hands because he's not in any kind of rhythm with this team. 5 minutes.

It's a shame he keeps missing his single shot at 3 per game now. It just keeps adding to the collection of misses, yet they've never given him a game of mins or feature to unravel it and build on anything. Maybe they should have noticed Beasley's struggles and just gave all his minutes to Nowell to let Nowell shoot himself out of the funk instead. I do keep noticing how much larger or longer Nowell looks compared to other Wolves guards. Not sure if he's grown lately or what. But seeing him standing out at the 3 waiting for a pass that will never come is not really productive besides maybe helping him feel more comfortable just being there. I don't know if he'll need minutes at PG to get more on ball or for one of the other guards to miss a game and get all their minutes one game. But I still think once he reaches over 20 minutes in a game we are likely to see enough of something better. Amazing that shot still hasn't happened even once.

[winforlose]

Not to be overly critical about the game, but just noticing some things.

I would say once again the team is showing they are working on certain things with individual players. At a crucial point in the 4th where there is maybe 5.5 minutes left and the Rockets are still in the 90 pts range, the Wolves start featuring Reid in the low post. These seem like live practice minutes for Reid. Also keeping in mind how successful JJ was in the first half and here they are focusing on someone else for what seems like live practice. Maybe I'm wrong and they thought this might be a nice changeup and expected it to be more effective. But I didn't really like his hook type attempts to finish these. I suppose they work more often in practice.

Josh Okogie. I'm constantly critical about how I think he's just not a starter yet. He's one of the reasons we don't really have the firepower offensively to outscore our lack of defense. The system works best when 3s are raining down on opponents. So he's got a skill to learn up yet to be a starter here imo. However, one or two times each game now he seems to be showing an increasing feather touch at the rim in contested layups that have no business being finished with a bucket. It's a really intriguing sign and if he keeps developing that at some point he could become a crazy good finisher at the rim. Maybe back in December I was suggesting guys like him just start watching film of Rose finishing. I remember suggesting it again for Beasley that first week he started here. But Josh seems to be showing he's working on this and might be paying off. Maybe we need to start seeing more drives from Okogie. Also regarding Josh, it's always fun to see how much he gets into Harden's head. Harden is always keeping an eye on him. But as usual, no one here is going to stop Harden enough.

Bsasley was clearly having an off shooting day. In typical Wolves fashion the prescription for this is to just stay status quo and hope the player breaks out of this with more shots. But since this is wildly out of character for Beasley since arriving here, it felt more like beating a dead horse. It's strange too since we see them "praticing" up Reid with live minutes. Maybe a moment like this from Beasley should have allowed the team to play a different player more this game.

Your half right about Okogie. I agree that his finish at the rim is improving and that is an essential part of his floor value. But what your missing is his drive and kick. Our entire offensive scheme is predicted on drive and kick. Catch and shoot 3 point shooters who make it rain. We are modeled after Houston and you saw Houston do it to us all night long. The problem is neither Dlo nor Beasley are strong off the dribble. Dlo settles for midrange shots because he struggles to get to the rim off the dribble. Beasley, can get to the rim, but usually must be going downhill first. Neither Juancho nor Hernangomez have the driving ability either, this leaves Okogie. He is magnificent at reading defenses and finding the open 3 point shooter. I would argue he is the most valuable offensive player simply because he makes every other player better. The proof behind this concept is the success of the JMAC and Dlo duo. When Dlo can play off the ball he can get better shots. Also, JMAC drives and dishes to open shooters who are far better in catch and shoot than they are at the step back three or doing anything off the dribble. Dlo is a talented player, but he is not doing enough to make his teammates better. Okogie does this in spades.

[Jedzz]

Your half right about Okogie. I agree that his finish at the rim is improving and that is an essential part of his floor value. But what your missing is his drive and kick. Our entire offensive scheme is predicted on drive and kick. Catch and shoot 3 point shooters who make it rain. We are modeled after Houston and you saw Houston do it to us all night long. The problem is neither Dlo nor Beasley are strong off the dribble. Dlo settles for midrange shots because he struggles to get to the rim off the dribble. Beasley, can get to the rim, but usually must be going downhill first. Neither Juancho nor Hernangomez have the driving ability either, this leaves Okogie. He is magnificent at reading defenses and finding the open 3 point shooter. I would argue he is the most valuable offensive player simply because he makes every other player better. The proof behind this concept is the success of the JMAC and Dlo duo. When Dlo can play off the ball he can get better shots. Also, JMAC drives and dishes to open shooters who are far better in catch and shoot than they are at the step back three or doing anything off the dribble. Dlo is a talented player, but he is not doing enough to make his teammates better. Okogie does this in spades.

We don't really agree on much of this. We look at these things slightly differently. Okogie must first become that finisher that is a real threat to make those baskets and finish more times than not. Then, and only then does he become a real drive and kick threat. Getting to that point where he can at any moment decide to go under or over equally as well to finish, or decide a kickout is needed yet. Right now he's jsut working on these things, ie. not a starter yet. But as I said prior, I'm seeing signs of a feather touch showing up on his amazing layups. Add his inability to hit 3s yet and it seems you just are trying to find some way for him to exist in this system as a starter while not being a 3pt threat and the endpoint of a kickout in this system. One to two seasons down the road yet.

I don't think Dlo can't dribble drive. He does have the handles. I do think he settles for the floaters because he's hit enough of them, and he's a bit of a fairy on traffic contact. He's not the type of player to shoulder or body his way in.

You seem to like the Jmac / Dlop pairing because of Dlo's ability to hit 3s. No one else has proven they can hit them so it's defaulting to and devolving to that. But all it's doing is stopping other shooting guards from becoming that 3pt kickout target. Since Okogie can't hit those 3s yet. same with Culver, and Layman also isn't showing enoguh from 3, and these are the players getting all the minutes. If in a game like today Beasley is off, it's not going to be him. But usually it should be Beasley and others, maybe Nowell as the backup SG. But instead their other options every single game this season is either Okogie or Culver. Can't rain 3s if you can't hit 3s. Can't kick to 3 pt shooters if you don't have any. That's why you default to Dlo.

Here's my thing on the Dual PGs. If it's so fantastic, then make the duo part of the starting lineup and make it part of the teams identity they are building in doing so. Then go get another couple PGs for the next rotation. They can't keep devolving to using it purely out of need for more 3pt makes later in games because they've fallen behind. It's not building on the system, it's just getting by with closer losses without building the depth of the team out and finding out who can be the other 3 pt shooters for them. Once they run 5 minutes of that rotation of JMAC at PG and Dlo as SG, and even Beasley with them sometimes, after that rotation what can they use now? Who is the PG for the next group? There isn't one.

[Jedzz]

Elite guard play in the NBA in 2020.

dribble dribble dribble dribble dribble dribble dribble FOUL. Dribble dribble dribble dribble dribble dribble dribble dribble FOUL. dribble dribble dribble dribble dribble dribble dribble Bucket. dribble dribble dribble dribble dribble dribble dribble Foul.

You got one of those guys and you can win a title.

The MJ role? If I think back to the days of MJ in the playoffs that's all it was those games. MJ scoring or MJ drawing fouls to score some more. MJ used to get all the calls his way too.

[Jedzz]

Must suck for Ryan, having to run post game talks after all these losses. Like he said yesterday, the margin for error is just to slim yet. Enjoy the occasional win when you get them Ryan.

I wish he could save himself a little by being less rigid with the Okogie starts and Culver minutes and hiding from using larger players. But losing also again seems to be part of the goal at this point given the NBA system in place leading up to the next draft each season. Culver occasionally dropping below 20 minutes lately seems to hint that Ryan or someone is maybe feeling pressure to sneak in wins yet. Yet this game, Culver was one of the players shooting well. With Beasley struggling, this is the game where Culver maybe should have played more and back off of Beasleys minutes. Can't do that when you are inflexible handling these starters.

111-117 isnt' bad considering there is still no KAT. Needed a few more threes this game. 40+ would have been better than 35 attempts against Rockets. 40% was nice to see.

[Jedzz]

.

[winforlose]

Your half right about Okogie. I agree that his finish at the rim is improving and that is an essential part of his floor value. But what your missing is his drive and kick. Our entire offensive scheme is predicted on drive and kick. Catch and shoot 3 point shooters who make it rain. We are modeled after Houston and you saw Houston do it to us all night long. The problem is neither Dlo nor Beasley are strong off the dribble. Dlo settles for midrange shots because he struggles to get to the rim off the dribble. Beasley, can get to the rim, but usually must be going downhill first. Neither Juancho nor Hernangomez have the driving ability either, this leaves Okogie. He is magnificent at reading defenses and finding the open 3 point shooter. I would argue he is the most valuable offensive player simply because he makes every other player better. The proof behind this concept is the success of the JMAC and Dlo duo. When Dlo can play off the ball he can get better shots. Also, JMAC drives and dishes to open shooters who are far better in catch and shoot than they are at the step back three or doing anything off the dribble. Dlo is a talented player, but he is not doing enough to make his teammates better. Okogie does this in spades.

We don't really agree on much of this. We look at these things slightly differently. Okogie must first become that finisher that is a real threat to make those baskets and finish more times than not. Then, and only then does he become a real drive and kick threat. Getting to that point where he can at any moment decide to go under or over equally as well to finish, or decide a kickout is needed yet. Right now he's jsut working on these things, ie. not a starter yet. But as I said prior, I'm seeing signs of a feather touch showing up on his amazing layups. Add his inability to hit 3s yet and it seems you just are trying to find some way for him to exist in this system as a starter while not being a 3pt threat and the endpoint of a kickout in this system. One to two seasons down the road yet.

I don't think Dlo can't dribble drive. He does have the handles. I do think he settles for the floaters because he's hit enough of them, and he's a bit of a fairy on traffic contact. He's not the type of player to shoulder or body his way in.

You seem to like the Jmac / Dlop pairing because of Dlo's ability to hit 3s. No one else has proven they can hit them so it's defaulting to and devolving to that. But all it's doing is stopping other shooting guards from becoming that 3pt kickout target. Since Okogie can't hit those 3s yet. same with Culver, and Layman also isn't showing enoguh from 3, and these are the players getting all the minutes. If in a game like today Beasley is off, it's not going to be him. But usually it should be Beasley and others, maybe Nowell as the backup SG. But instead their other options every single game this season is either Okogie or Culver. Can't rain 3s if you can't hit 3s. Can't kick to 3 pt shooters if you don't have any. That's why you default to Dlo.

Here's my thing on the Dual PGs. If it's so fantastic, then make the duo part of the starting lineup and make it part of the teams identity they are building in doing so. Then go get another couple PGs for the next rotation. They can't keep devolving to using it purely out of need for more 3pt makes later in games because they've fallen behind. It's not building on the system, it's just getting by with closer losses without building the depth of the team out and finding out who can be the other 3 pt shooters for them. Once they run 5 minutes of that rotation of JMAC at PG and Dlo as SG, and even Beasley with them sometimes, after that rotation what can they use now? Who is the PG for the next group? There isn't one.

I am struggling with a proper response because I don’t want to repeat myself, but I feel like your response didn’t necessarily understand the points I was trying to make. I think a good compromise is for me to quickly state the points I would like you to address.

1. Most of our players struggle to create their own shot off the dribble. Of those who can, most of them do better in catch and shoot rather than in a step back or pull up situation (especially from 3.) For an example, look at how Beasley struggles early in games (first half stats) where Dlo takes more shots and doesn’t create for Beasley.

2. When JMAC plays with Dlo it allows Dlo to play SG (off the ball,) which makes the offense flow better. My contention is not that Dlo cannot play PG, but is not doing it correctly. On a team like GSW this season it might make sense to shoot frequently without passing, but on this team that kills the offense. JMAC has forced teams to respect his drive which creates opportunity him to draw and kick. Okogie has been doing the same for most of the season. Teams collapse not because he is a high percent off the drive, but because shots at the rim are high percentage.

3. We need to better utilize our players shooting talents with a system that focuses on the players we have instead of trying to fit the players to the system we want.