22/23 Preseason game 2

[Klomp]

2-0

[winforlose]

Whoever scheduled this game should have known better. Lakers on a back 2 back were never going to play their big names. We got practice against the Laker’s bench, sadly, looks like Dlo badly needed it. On to the next.

[wolves_89]

Some thoughts from tonight's game:
- Watching Gobert defend the paint and rebound was eye opening. Seeing Rudy play really makes clear how bad this team has been in those areas.
- Naz is not a PF. He just isn't able to defend well enough on the perimeter.
- When the team is healthy, I don't see many minutes for Forbes/Rivers. If Finch goes with a 9-man rotation those guys won't be part of it.
- I would really like to see Knight get some pre-season minutes playing next to KAT. I think he could be a good complement to KAT and bring some size when Rudy is on the bench.
- Elleby was way worse than I expected him to be. I'm now doubtful he gets a two-way deal from another team, which means he likely ends up in Iowa. I also expect Garza to end up in Iowa.
- I'm wondering about Dozier's health. Not playing yet makes me question how ready to play he actually is.

[shrink]

Rudy with 12 RB in 17 minutes!

[winforlose]

Some thoughts from tonight's game:
- Watching Gobert defend the paint and rebound was eye opening. Seeing Rudy play really makes clear how bad this team has been in those areas.
- Naz is not a PF. He just isn't able to defend well enough on the perimeter.
- When the team is healthy, I don't see many minutes for Forbes/Rivers. If Finch goes with a 9-man rotation those guys won't be part of it.
- I would really like to see Knight get some pre-season minutes playing next to KAT. I think he could be a good complement to KAT and bring some size when Rudy is on the bench.
- Elleby was way worse than I expected him to be. I'm now doubtful he gets a two-way deal from another team, which means he likely ends up in Iowa. I also expect Garza to end up in Iowa.
- I'm wondering about Dozier's health. Not playing yet makes me question how ready to play he actually is.

Garza looked decent/good out there considering who he was playing against. I wouldn’t be opposed to trying to find some earlier minutes in game 3 or 4 to see what he can do with real teammates and competition. Elleby looked awful. Dozier is the X factor. I like Klomp’s idea of keeping River’s till PJ is healthy, then making the switch.

Naz needs more time and practice at PF before we write him off. Two bad plays (when where he was hooked,) is too small a sample size. Naz also showed off some of his shot blocking tonight.

Knight needs a consistent 3 to be of any real value. We cannot play two non shooters together. JMAC is already a borderline shooter, as is Anderson. Having to plan a rotation for Knight without JMAC, Anderson, or Rudy is borderline impossible. With a 33-34% 3 point shot, Knight might (MIGHT,) be a decent backup 4. But, remember that we have seen him humiliated against legit Cs, way worse than Naz.

[Dalvin]

Aaaarrrrooooooo!!!! Winning against the Lakers with a commanding lead always feels good man. Still undefeated in the preseason! So hyped! With KAT and a fully healthy roster, we might average 130 points per game

[Mattya]

Forbes will def get minutes. His shooting and movement is too valuable. I think it’s more likely Naz gets played out of the rotation and we see small ball lineups since Naz isn’t a defensive presence anyway.

[KGdaBom]

I wasn't able to watch yesterday. I was doing a fantasy auction and nobody liked any wolves except one guy outbid me for Gobert. I got Kat, Edwards, Russell and McDaniels at exceptional values . Judging by the box score Russell played fine. Why is everybody saying he was a$$?

[winforlose]

I wasn't able to watch yesterday. I was doing a fantasy auction and nobody liked any wolves except one guy outbid me for Gobert. I got Kat, Edwards, Russell and McDaniels at exceptional values . Judging by the box score Russell played fine. Why is everybody saying he was a$$?

Sloppy turnovers, defensive lapses, general malaise, and he couldn’t throw a lob dunk to save his life. To say he was the turd in the bunchbowl of the first quarter would almost be fair. Except of course that award goes to MCD who got 3 fouls in 3 minutes, each of which were stupid.

[KGdaBom]

I wasn't able to watch yesterday. I was doing a fantasy auction and nobody liked any wolves except one guy outbid me for Gobert. I got Kat, Edwards, Russell and McDaniels at exceptional values . Judging by the box score Russell played fine. Why is everybody saying he was a$$?

Sloppy turnovers, defensive lapses, general malaise, and he couldn’t throw a lob dunk to save his life. To say he was the turd in the bunchbowl of the first quarter would almost be fair. Except of course that award goes to MCD who got 3 fouls in 3 minutes, each of which were stupid.

That's supposed to be a huge strength of Russell. Is there any cause for concern or is it just a case of $hit happens sometimes?

[winforlose]

I wasn't able to watch yesterday. I was doing a fantasy auction and nobody liked any wolves except one guy outbid me for Gobert. I got Kat, Edwards, Russell and McDaniels at exceptional values . Judging by the box score Russell played fine. Why is everybody saying he was a$$?

Sloppy turnovers, defensive lapses, general malaise, and he couldn’t throw a lob dunk to save his life. To say he was the turd in the bunchbowl of the first quarter would almost be fair. Except of course that award goes to MCD who got 3 fouls in 3 minutes, each of which were stupid.

That's supposed to be a huge strength of Russell. Is there any cause for concern or is it just a case of $hit happens sometimes?

It was a mix of rust, disinterest (because all the Lakers starters were out,) and he may have been drunk. I say that jokingly, but if you watch him play, you might start to wonder.

[KGdaBom]

Sloppy turnovers, defensive lapses, general malaise, and he couldn’t throw a lob dunk to save his life. To say he was the turd in the bunchbowl of the first quarter would almost be fair. Except of course that award goes to MCD who got 3 fouls in 3 minutes, each of which were stupid.

That's supposed to be a huge strength of Russell. Is there any cause for concern or is it just a case of $hit happens sometimes?

It was a mix of rust, disinterest (because all the Lakers starters were out,) and he may have been drunk. I say that jokingly, but if you watch him play, you might start to wonder.

The end result was a somewhat average game with too many TOs.

[winforlose]

That's supposed to be a huge strength of Russell. Is there any cause for concern or is it just a case of $hit happens sometimes?

It was a mix of rust, disinterest (because all the Lakers starters were out,) and he may have been drunk. I say that jokingly, but if you watch him play, you might start to wonder.

The end result was a somewhat average game with too many TOs.

They were generous with his TOs. I would have given him at least 5 instead of 3. He got it together in the 2nd quarter (the team did in general,) but Dlo should not get more games off till he gets his head on straight. MCD went the rest of the game without picking up any more fouls (I think like 14-15 minutes of play,) and we got our **** together. Minott looked a little too raw for the NBA against Lakers 4th string. Moore looked better, but still Iowa bound. Luka showed he might need more minutes against better competition for a legit look. Lawson disappointed, and Elleby had the equivalent of both vomiting and ******* himself at the same time. Ugly, smelly, disgusting, and gross.

[twolves31]

I wasn't able to watch yesterday. I was doing a fantasy auction and nobody liked any wolves except one guy outbid me for Gobert. I got Kat, Edwards, Russell and McDaniels at exceptional values . Judging by the box score Russell played fine. Why is everybody saying he was a$$?

Rusell was fine, started poorly but played better in the 2nd half. Had some rust but hey it's a preseason game. I'll wait until he is playing with our full starting 5 for a month before I get too worried about him. The one thing I didn't like last night besides our terrible start, was Jaden getting 3 fouls in his first 2 minutes. We really need him to stop fouling and stay in the court.

[KGdaBom]

I wasn't able to watch yesterday. I was doing a fantasy auction and nobody liked any wolves except one guy outbid me for Gobert. I got Kat, Edwards, Russell and McDaniels at exceptional values . Judging by the box score Russell played fine. Why is everybody saying he was a$$?

Rusell was fine, started poorly but played better in the 2nd half. Had some rust but hey it's a preseason game. I'll wait until he is playing with our full starting 5 for a month before I get too worried about him. The one thing I didn't like last night besides our terrible start, was Jaden getting 3 fouls in his first 2 minutes. We really need him to stop fouling and stay in the court.

We have two players in our lineup totally capable of defending the POA player almost no matter who it is with Ant and Jaden. The sky is the only limit Jaden has if he can stay out of foul trouble.

[shrink]

Sloppy turnovers, defensive lapses, general malaise, and he couldn’t throw a lob dunk to save his life. To say he was the turd in the bunchbowl of the first quarter would almost be fair. Except of course that award goes to MCD who got 3 fouls in 3 minutes, each of which were stupid.

That's supposed to be a huge strength of Russell. Is there any cause for concern or is it just a case of $hit happens sometimes?

It was a mix of rust, disinterest (because all the Lakers starters were out,) and he may have been drunk. I say that jokingly, but if you watch him play, you might start to wonder.

This was my biggest concern from last night.

I think I had expectations that Russell was such a good passer that these lobs would just flow. DLo couldn’t throw lobs to freakin’ Rudy Gobert, even without more experienced bigs like LeBron and Anthony Davis there?

[MN7725]

Forbes will def get minutes. His shooting and movement is too valuable. I think it’s more likely Naz gets played out of the rotation and we see small ball lineups since Naz isn’t a defensive presence anyway.

all the Wolves content i've heard/read has said that Reid won't be a rotation player, meaning he'll only play with injury/foul trouble

KAT/Gobert will be 48 mins at C
Prince/KA at PF when KAT isn't with Gobert

[MN7725]

That's supposed to be a huge strength of Russell. Is there any cause for concern or is it just a case of $hit happens sometimes?

It was a mix of rust, disinterest (because all the Lakers starters were out,) and he may have been drunk. I say that jokingly, but if you watch him play, you might start to wonder.

This was my biggest concern from last night.

I think I had expectations that Russell was such a good passer that these lobs would just flow. DLo couldn’t throw lobs to freakin’ Rudy Gobert, even without more experienced bigs like LeBron and Anthony Davis there?

Russell hasn't played with that many above the rim players (Nance Jr, J Allen off the top of my head), certainly none with the Wolves

I'm more concerned about his pounding the ball and surveying style of being a PG rather than attacking quick in half court, I've always thought Russell had great vision going back to his OSU days

[Klomp]

That's supposed to be a huge strength of Russell. Is there any cause for concern or is it just a case of $hit happens sometimes?

It was a mix of rust, disinterest (because all the Lakers starters were out,) and he may have been drunk. I say that jokingly, but if you watch him play, you might start to wonder.

This was my biggest concern from last night.

I think I had expectations that Russell was such a good passer that these lobs would just flow. DLo couldn’t throw lobs to freakin’ Rudy Gobert, even without more experienced bigs like LeBron and Anthony Davis there?

Sorry, but that's not built overnight.

Remember, not only was this their first game but there haven't been many days of reps before this. Ad it's not like we have anyone who could replicate either end of the connection in practice either.

[winforlose]

It was a mix of rust, disinterest (because all the Lakers starters were out,) and he may have been drunk. I say that jokingly, but if you watch him play, you might start to wonder.

This was my biggest concern from last night.

I think I had expectations that Russell was such a good passer that these lobs would just flow. DLo couldn’t throw lobs to freakin’ Rudy Gobert, even without more experienced bigs like LeBron and Anthony Davis there?

Sorry, but that's not built overnight.

Remember, not only was this their first game but there haven't been many days of reps before this. Ad it's not like we have anyone who could replicate either end of the connection in practice either.

I don’t see why Dlo couldn’t throw lobs to MCD, and why JMAC couldn’t throw lobs to Rudy. In fact I could have sworn JMAC did throw a lob to Rudy last night. I agree it will take time. That said, Dlo is naturally capable of way more than he showed last night. Especially in the first quarter.

The biggest fear I had about losing PB from the locker room, was that we wouldn’t stay motivated and hungry for the gimme games. Last night we let the Lackers bench take at least a 9 point lead (multiple times,) in the first quarter. Despite the fact that we righted the ship later in the half, and especially in the third quarter, it was concerning. We will have a lot of games against weaker teams, and we need to treat every game like it is something to be earned, not handed to us just because we showed up. I am hoping Prince, Anderson, Rudy, and Ant get on guys and fill that leadership void.