Fun facts and unreal stats

[Klomp]

I had no idea.

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Micah was actually a baseball player at Indiana in the mid-90s.

Another fun Minnesota sports connection: Nori's first NBA coaching job was as a scout in Toronto under Butch Carter, who is the older brother of Cris Carter. Nori's father coached Butch in high school (but not Cris)

[Klomp]

MINUTES PLAYED IN COLLEGE/G LEAGUE BEFORE GETTING DRAFTED
Jaylen Clark – 1,718 (UCLA)
Leonard Miller – 1,126 (G League Ignite)
Rob Dillingham – 746 (Kentucky)
Josh Minott – 483 (Memphis)
ABOVE TOTAL - 4,073
TJ Shannon – 4,159 (Texas Tech / Illinois)

[Klomp]

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[minimus]

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Guys, how do you read these stats about MIN offense:

29th in fastbreak points, despite having Edwards, Reid and McDaniels
23rd in 3PT attempts, despite being 3rd in 3PT efficiency 38.7%
22 in AST/TO ration, despite having Mike Conley
8th in corner three attempts, but only 25th in above the break three attempts and non corner three three attempts, despite Conley shooting 43% non corner three threes, KAT and Naz both shooting 42%. As team MIN were #1 in non corner three threes accuracy

[Colbinii]

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Guys, how do you read these stats about MIN offense:

29th in fastbreak points, despite having Edwards, Reid and McDaniels

Reid isn't really a good rebounder so he isn't starting the break. Towns and even Edwards play slow. McDaniels isn't anything special in the open court.

23rd in 3PT attempts, despite being 3rd in 3PT efficiency 38.7%

Towns needs to shoot more. Edwards loves his mid-range game.

22 in AST/TO ration, despite having Mike Conley

Conley isn't the whole offense.

[shrink]

Guys, how do you read these stats about MIN offense:

29th in fastbreak points, despite having Edwards, Reid and McDaniels

Reid isn't really a good rebounder so he isn't starting the break. Towns and even Edwards play slow. McDaniels isn't anything special in the open court.

23rd in 3PT attempts, despite being 3rd in 3PT efficiency 38.7%

Towns needs to shoot more. Edwards loves his mid-range game.

22 in AST/TO ration, despite having Mike Conley

Conley isn't the whole offense.

Good answers, Colbini. I would add that when the ball isn’t in Conley’s hands, either KAT or Ant are initiating plays. Ant is not a good play-maker for others yet, and tends to shoot himself, which is the antithesis of AST/TO ratio. However, I expect that this will become a primary focus for his development, and when he adds playmaking to his arsenal, he will quickly become a Top 5 player, and can go higher than that.

[Klomp]

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Guys, how do you read these stats about MIN offense:

29th in fastbreak points, despite having Edwards, Reid and McDaniels
23rd in 3PT attempts, despite being 3rd in 3PT efficiency 38.7%
22 in AST/TO ration, despite having Mike Conley
8th in corner three attempts, but only 25th in above the break three attempts and non corner three three attempts, despite Conley shooting 43% non corner three threes, KAT and Naz both shooting 42%. As team MIN were #1 in non corner three threes accuracy

I see a lot of these stats as the reasoning behind drafting both Dillingham and Shannon

Fastbreak: I shouldn't need to explain this.
3-pointers: Don't forget that Dillingham's 4.5 attempts per game came in only 23.3 minutes per game. His volume per minute isn't far below what Ant's was at Georgia, while Dillingham did it at a 44% clip.
A/TOs: Don't disregard having another playmaker on the court in Dillingham. After Conley, our next two playmaking options were Ant and two bigs (Towns, Anderson).

[minimus]

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I feel like MIN did a much better job at cleaning the glass. But I still think there is room for improvement.

[Calinks]

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Guys, how do you read these stats about MIN offense:

29th in fastbreak points, despite having Edwards, Reid and McDaniels
23rd in 3PT attempts, despite being 3rd in 3PT efficiency 38.7%
22 in AST/TO ration, despite having Mike Conley
8th in corner three attempts, but only 25th in above the break three attempts and non corner three three attempts, despite Conley shooting 43% non corner three threes, KAT and Naz both shooting 42%. As team MIN were #1 in non corner three threes accuracy

Our offense was pretty ho-hum for a team as good as we were. And I also think we were down right bad at using Towns on offense, I'd give us a C- grade there. We find a way to get a lot more out of Towns, that can change the game, he wasn't really a problem for opponents on most nights, not a serious one.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

We need more shooting and better play making for sure. KAT have to shoot more, Mike could shoot a bit more too and ANT keep going for 28-30 every night. Hope new comers bring a bit of shooting.
For playmaking, i do hope Dilligham and Ingles to contribute well. And ANT will improve for sure.

[shrink]

KAT is tied with Booker and Myles Turner for a team’s longest tenured players - Wolves are sixth, with nine years.

It’s great that such a talented player has wanted to stay in MIN. And you get good vibes, until you realize the Top 5 are Steph, Giannis, Embiid and Jokic .. and Dwight Powell, for some reason.

We miss you, Udonis!

[Klomp]

Joe Ingles has made 100 field goals against just one NBA franchise in his career. The Minnesota Timberwolves (exactly 100)

Next up: Golden State (98), Portland (95), San Antonio (94)

[shrink]

I wrote this piece on expansion for someplace else, but didn’t know where to put it.

1. Why are the Wolves even in the West? They came in as an expansion team with Orlando in 1989, and the league obviously wanted to keep the conferences balanced. Glen Taylor had been trying since 1989 to get the team moved to the East, but even when he was leading the Board of Governors, there was never a really good opportunity. Even when teams changed cities and moved east, like Vancouver and Seattle, they stayed in the Western Conference.

2. What’s this about travel mileage in the division?

297 miles. MIN to MIL
334 miles. MIN to CHI
503 miles. MIN to IND
528 miles. MIN to DET
622 miles. MIN to CLE

680 miles. MIN to DEN
694 miles. MIN to OKC
991 miles. MIN to UTA
1426 miles. MIN to POR

3. Does this make MIN the hardest travel schedule?

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Most years MIN is one of the worst, even though the NBA schedules some of their games consecutively, like playing two away games in a row at Portland.

Speaking of Portland, they are often one of the hardest travel schedules as well. Moving MIN to the East benefits the Wolves, but it also benefits the Trailblazers, by removing some of those trips to the Twin Cities. Las Vegas is about half the distance for Portland than Minnesota, and Seattle is only 129 miles away.

[Klomp]

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[minimus]

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?

[winforlose]

I don’t know if this is a record (either franchise or NBA,) but we had 98 bench points in preseason game 1. The starters played a combined 47:12. That means the bench played 192:48 seconds and scored 98 points. Also worth noting this was without Ant or Randle and using all three two ways. No NAW, Naz, DDV, or Jingles in the second half.

[shrink]

https://awfulannouncing.com/orig/nba-local-announcer-rankings-2024.html

Michael Grady and Jim Peterson voted the sixth best announcing team in the NBA

[Klomp]

https://awfulannouncing.com/orig/nba-local-announcer-rankings-2024.html

Michael Grady and Jim Peterson voted the sixth best announcing team in the NBA

Too low.

[shrink]

Josh Minott leads the NBA Preseason in Scoring at 22. Dillingham is third with 21, and Garza is #7 at 20.

[winforlose]

Josh Minott leads the NBA Preseason in Scoring at 22. Dillingham is third with 21, and Garza is #7 at 20.

Didn’t KAT drop 25 last night?