GAME 1 | MIN @ TOR

[KGdaBom]

So no other factors other than the actual output of poor shooting are attributable to this loss? Let's say for example, shot selection?

If we had made 40% of our shots we would have won with ease. It was the shooting.

You didn't answer my question.

Bad shot selection will lead to bad shooting %. It's not rocket surgery or brain science. So don't select bad shots. If we simply shot really, really bad instead of what we did we would have won with ease. Make your shots.

[Guest84]

The funny thing is that during the pregame, Pete and Grady mentioned that the wolves lead the league in assists throughout the entire preseason.

What happened to that formula? This team loses their trust in each other when things get tight. Then they try to get it all back in one shot or go to hero ball.

You see this especially late in games which is a reoccurring theme with this team. Once Ant seemed to assert himself early feeling the need to score rather than just make the right play, it went downhill from there.

Towns body language changed a bit, other guys started to rush.

Also, with the depth we’re allegedly supposed to have, finch will have a tough task with trying to figure out what combinations work now that teams are playing their main guys.

To me, one of Ant, Karl, or Rudy needs to be on the floor at all times. You cannot have a spurt where they’re all on the bench at once.

But keep in mind, it was just the first game and Jaden was out. Teams are typically over amped that first game. A lot of good players throughout the league had poor shooting nights.I mean the bulls already had a players only meeting.

One thing we can’t do though is treat Karl like Ayton in phx. As long as he’s on the team, you have to feature him in some way. He was not in rhythm at all during the game and was missed on quite a few PnR opportunities.

Finch also needs to talk to Rudy about flashing in the paint when guys are driving. He brought his defender e on a Naz drive that completely messed it up.

It’s early but no time to panic

[Note30]

If we had made 40% of our shots we would have won with ease. It was the shooting.

You didn't answer my question.

Bad shot selection will lead to bad shooting %. It's not rocket surgery or brain science. So don't select bad shots. If we simply shot really, really bad instead of what we did we would have won with ease. Make your shots.

So then bad shot selection was part of why we lost last night?

[KGdaBom]

You didn't answer my question.

Bad shot selection will lead to bad shooting %. It's not rocket surgery or brain science. So don't select bad shots. If we simply shot really, really bad instead of what we did we would have won with ease. Make your shots.

So then bad shot selection was part of why we lost last night?

I never said we had bad shot selection. If we did it would have simply been a part of our bad shooting. Bad shooting is the one and only reason we lost.

[Note30]

Bad shot selection will lead to bad shooting %. It's not rocket surgery or brain science. So don't select bad shots. If we simply shot really, really bad instead of what we did we would have won with ease. Make your shots.

So then bad shot selection was part of why we lost last night?

I never said we had bad shot selection. If we did it would have simply been a part of our bad shooting. Bad shooting is the one and only reason we lost.

So then you think we had good shot selection?

[TwolvesFanRome]

Bad shot selection will lead to bad shooting %. It's not rocket surgery or brain science. So don't select bad shots. If we simply shot really, really bad instead of what we did we would have won with ease. Make your shots.

So then bad shot selection was part of why we lost last night?

I never said we had bad shot selection. If we did it would have simply been a part of our bad shooting. Bad shooting is the one and only reason we lost.

I don't agree with you Kg in this case: we had lack of defense and bad space in offense. They killed us with a lot of fast break. After a year now, we still haven't figured out how to make the game work with the two towers without distorting KAT too much.
I repeat myself: I expected progress in this first match of the season which I didn't see.

[KGdaBom]

Bad shot selection will lead to bad shooting %. It's not rocket surgery or brain science. So don't select bad shots. If we simply shot really, really bad instead of what we did we would have won with ease. Make your shots.

So then bad shot selection was part of why we lost last night?

I never said we had bad shot selection. If we did it would have simply been a part of our bad shooting. Bad shooting is the one and only reason we lost.

I've been misstating this. With Bad Shooting we win with ease. What we did last night is a whole different classification. Horrendous beyond all comprehension shooting is what I will go with.

[KGdaBom]

So then bad shot selection was part of why we lost last night?

I never said we had bad shot selection. If we did it would have simply been a part of our bad shooting. Bad shooting is the one and only reason we lost.

So then you think we had good shot selection?

Did I say that. I made no commentary whatsoever about our shot selection. And I've found a new classification for our shooting. It wasn't bad. It was horrendous beyond all comprehension shooting.

[KGdaBom]

So then bad shot selection was part of why we lost last night?

I never said we had bad shot selection. If we did it would have simply been a part of our bad shooting. Bad shooting is the one and only reason we lost.

I don't agree with you Kg in this case: we had lack of defense and bad space in offense. They killed us with a lot of fast break. After a year now, we still haven't figured out how to make the game work with the two towers without distorting KAT too much.
I repeat myself: I expected progress in this first match of the season which I didn't see.

We gave up only 97 points. We held them to a very bad 40% from the floor. Now they also shot 40% from 3 which is less than ideal. However if we had just matched their very bad shooting we still win with ease. Our horrendous, beyond all comprehension shooting was the one and only reason we lost.

[Guest84]

https://youtu.be/DMNyfP5bii8?si=xeTawFuctoYCe31s

Ant post game

[thinktank]

The root cause of shooting poorly was horrible offensive structure.

And that is coaching I'm afraid to say.

Nick would either of you know a good or horrible offensive structure if one came up and bit you? Just asking if you're qualified to make that determination. I'm not qualified. I just know a horrible shooting game when I look at the box score and we've shot 34%. I wonder when was the last time we shot that bad? I don't recall us ever shooting that bad, but we probably have. Make your freaking shots is my solution.

All you have to do is count passes and watch player movement. If they aren’t passing and they aren’t running, then that’s a bad possession.

[twolves31]

Sounds like Ant was 1-10 when defended by Anunoby. Looks like Jaden is going to be in a fight with OG over the next few years to be the first non big to get DPOY in while.

[KGdaBom]

Sounds like Ant was 1-10 when defended by Anunoby. Looks like Jaden is going to be in a fight with OG over the next few years to be the first non big to get DPOY in while.

Marcus Smart won it for the 21-22 season.

[Calinks]

Super disappointed about that loss but again it's not a surprise. Toronto bodies us at home. That team matches up really well with us and once again they exploited our weaknesses. I felt like we played horribly and it was still a close game. As long as we don't let this become a habit, we can bounce back. The team has to improve though, they can't fall into this pattern.

Typically we wont shoot this bad. Typically, teams wont be able to match up against us this well. We do need to worry about playing better in transition and we have to cut down the turnovers.

Things still looked very awkward for Towns, hopefully, he looks a lot more comfortable in the next couple of games.

[Nick K]

The root cause of shooting poorly was horrible offensive structure.

And that is coaching I'm afraid to say.

Nick would either of you know a good or horrible offensive structure if one came up and bit you? Just asking if you're qualified to make that determination. I'm not qualified. I just know a horrible shooting game when I look at the box score and we've shot 34%. I wonder when was the last time we shot that bad? I don't recall us ever shooting that bad, but we probably have. Make your freaking shots is my solution.

I sure would. I've been watching the game since Lew Alcindor at UCLA. The problem is we really don't have much of an offensive structure. It's kind of a free for all. Poor ball movement with too much isolation and hero ball.

Basketball is such a beautiful sport when there is flow. You can pass the ball faster than the other team can defend against it creating easy open shots. I don't see much of that. Yes, we get shots but usually not great one. That's why we miss so many.

Lastly, you have to be able to score when the shots aren't falling. We fail there too.

We have too much talent to lose the way we do. Mistakes etc. down the stretch. Really well coached teams execute like a machine and don't beat themselves like we do.

I'm sad to say this falls on the coach.

[Nick K]

Unbelievable, a game with a final score of 97-94 you have two players going for 8-27 and 8-25.

This team continues to have characters that only care about their personal numbers and where is the coaching staff to hold these guys accountable for this?

How can you shoot so much with such low efficiency?

What the hell?

Did you watch the game? We have no offense. Like we ran maybe the same 3 plays over and over. Most of the issue with the ball stopping came from a lack of players moving, not just the lack of ball movement. NAW and Conley were both parked on the corner wings while Ant and KAT sat up top and Ant, KAT, and Rudy just ran the same bored floppy screen action over and over. If Ant started off the possession he often passed it to KAT either at the top of the 3 or on the high post, Rudy would crash to the dunkers spot, and he would try to go one on one.

If the coach didn't see this he must have been at the concession stand.

We don't have any semblance of an offense how are guys supposed to do anything else?

For now, I am going to chalk this one up as Finch willing to give up a game until they get the basic offense right. I think they need to move Towns closer in to run other offense sets.

Yes. Absolutely. I have to agree with this.

Maybe we shouldn't have Towns run the offense? Maybe the PG should.

Trying to develop Rudy's offensive game is a disaster. He can only catch the ball forehead or higher at the basket. Towns has at least 3 turn overs trying to get Rudy the ball. Let Rudy defend, rebound and rim protect and maybe get 4 shots a game. Dunks at the basket. That's it.

Towns has to attack the basket more off the dribble rather than pass to Rudy.

Ant is at fault too being a ball hog.

We still should have won that game EVEN with the poor shooting. We beat ourselves.

[Nick K]

The funny thing is that during the pregame, Pete and Grady mentioned that the wolves lead the league in assists throughout the entire preseason.

What happened to that formula? This team loses their trust in each other when things get tight. Then they try to get it all back in one shot or go to hero ball.

You see this especially late in games which is a reoccurring theme with this team. Once Ant seemed to assert himself early feeling the need to score rather than just make the right play, it went downhill from there.

Towns body language changed a bit, other guys started to rush.

Also, with the depth we’re allegedly supposed to have, finch will have a tough task with trying to figure out what combinations work now that teams are playing their main guys.

To me, one of Ant, Karl, or Rudy needs to be on the floor at all times. You cannot have a spurt where they’re all on the bench at once.

But keep in mind, it was just the first game and Jaden was out. Teams are typically over amped that first game. A lot of good players throughout the league had poor shooting nights.I mean the bulls already had a players only meeting.

One thing we can’t do though is treat Karl like Ayton in phx. As long as he’s on the team, you have to feature him in some way. He was not in rhythm at all during the game and was missed on quite a few PnR opportunities.

Finch also needs to talk to Rudy about flashing in the paint when guys are driving. He brought his defender e on a Naz drive that completely messed it up.

It’s early but no time to panic

That's right. Good points.

[BlacJacMac]

Its easy to say "shoot better and we win".

And that's probably true. But it ignores the bigger problem.

We take A LOT of bad shots. And sure, sometimes they'll fall, but you give yourself a smaller margin for error playing that way. And you're never going to win a title being that reliant on hot shooting.

We need better shots. We need more (and quicker) passes, we need more movement by the off ball players. We need to figure out how to open up the lane for driving.

Anyone that simplifies it down to "we just need to shoot better" is probably a bigger fan of Fantasy Basketball than the actual game...

[thinktank]

Glad they rebounded.

Not glad they played stupid again. Low IQ. That’s the #1 issue. Raptors are younger than us. Booooo.

Not glad they didn’t pass, and that KAT passed to Rudy with the game on the line. (Rudy is our worst FT shooter in crunch time, he’s not good with his back to the basket, and he can’t catch).

We need to play smart. Watch more video. Look within. The cocky post-game from Ant I didn’t like either. It was like he forgot what the whole offseason was about (passing). It’s just not an encouraging sign.

The shots will fall, but we need to also play smarter.

[Calinks]

Glad they rebounded.

Not glad they played stupid again. Low IQ. That’s the #1 issue. Raptors are younger than us. Booooo.

Not glad they didn’t pass, and that KAT passed to Rudy with the game on the line. (Rudy is our worst FT shooter in crunch time, he’s not good with his back to the basket, and he can’t catch).

We need to play smart. Watch more video. Look within. The cocky post-game from Ant I didn’t like either. It was like he forgot what the whole offseason was about (passing). It’s just not an encouraging sign.

The shots will fall, but we need to also play smarter.

Yea. Full camp, healthy players. This is also on Finch too. They really have to make this work or it's a colossal failure. Huge pressure to get the message across to the team on how to play as a unit. If they can't do that, he might be toast. Really hope it was just a bad game, a holdover and we got exploited by a hyped team who gameplaned well. If this is a trend, it's an unmitigated disaster and we are probably shifting into rebuilding/retooling mode by the deadline. Good news is, we have our young core locked up so we have a foundation to build on if we have to restart yet again.