Game 3: Wolves vs Raptors

[Calinks]

We are BAAAAALLLLLIIIINNNNNNNNN!!!!

[Dalvin]

Aaaaaarrrrroooooo!!!! First win streak of the season!

[Calinks]

Over .50000!

Arrrrooooo!!!

[Folklore]

We are BAAAAALLLLLIIIINNNNNNNNN!!!!

We really aren't. Sloppy ball against a tanking team. Looked like the starters wanted out of the game once they got the lead up.

[wolves_89]

I'll take the win, but I'm not a fan of the team having 5 turnovers in the last 5 minutes which let the Raptors hang around. Playing Ant and Rudy 39 minutes against a depleted Raptors team is not a good thing either.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

We make the game difficult. 5 min of non sense basketball, throwing 3, TO....Mike get back to put things in order and play ANT and Rudy way too long. But a win is a win. Go Wolves!

[Neeva]

Conley was awful again shooting wise. Smh he needs to hit shots if he keeps starting.

[Loaf_of_bread]

Ingles didn't have much to show in the box score, but was intregal piece in the win. Need Joe in close games only. We need godfather of trash talk fresh in the playoffs.

[shrink]

I’d really like to see Dillingham, Minott and Luka get some minutes.

If MIN is going to play the vets, they need to play hard and create a big lead. TOR actually outscored MIN in thr 2nd Quarter.

Once the Wolves got up by 15-16 points you could almost feel the intensity and focus drain out of the players on the court.

I didn’t see the game, but I’m not surprised. This has been a problem for the last two years for the Wolves, and it starts with Ant. As soon as he feels that we are going to win a game, he doesn’t bring the effort.

1. Two years ago, we had a terrific record against playoff teams, but had a horrible record against the worst teams.

2. Last year was similar, but our improved talent helped us win more against bad teams, but effort was often still low.

The playoffs were a microcosm of the way we don’t get up for games we’re expected to win.

a. Everyone says the Suns will beat the Wolves, and a match up nightmare. We crush them

b. Everyone says we won’t beat DEN, the champs. We crush them the first two games, people say we’re a lock, DEN sucks, then they crush us. When people say DEN is a lock, we come back for a win. We were even counted out in Game 7, because we got so far behind.

c. Everyone says after beating DEN, we’re the favorites and we’ll beat DAL. We get crushed, with no energy.

Ant has mentioned this, so you know Finchie has talked to them about it. It’s frustrating though to continue to see us struggle against bad teams. This should have been over by halftime, we could rest the starters, and give the young players some development time.

[karch34]

I trust Finch. I see that he’s trying to figure the best combos with the core 8. It’s going to be ugly a for a bit. But I think Randle has been better fit than we thought initially which is a positive.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

I don’t blame the team too much. We have been serious for large part of the game. Chemistry is getting better. Next game against Dallas will be interesting.

[younggunsmn]

That might be the least talented team we will face all year without quickley, barret, and olynyk.

Kind of disappointing, we got up 16-3 and then played really uneven the rest of the way.
Defense is still not locked in yet and having trouble with ball screens and closeouts.

Randle is really good offensively when he is not turning the ball over.
His ability to get to the middle of the floor and breakdown the defense to either score or find open shooters gives us a secondary shot creator that KAT struggled trying to be but never really got there. A lot of vet savvy.
When he is trying defensively, he is serviceable, not great but serviceable.
Got beat a lot tonight trying to close out on Scottie Barnes poorly, who is a guy you would probably rather have just shoot the jumper anyway.

The risk is having two guys who like to pound the ball a lot gives good defenses opportunity to shut us down.
If you can force any team into ISO ball, no matter how good, you are going to win that battle far more often than not unless a guy is an absolute flamethrower that night.

Bruno Fernando is a decent big bodied defensive bench big in limited minutes and if Toronto cuts him (on an unguaranteed contract) we should cut Dozier and scoop him up.

[minimus]

Gobert really dominated today.

[Guest84]

Since Randle wasn’t available in the preseason, I would assume Finch is trying to establish a rhythm with the starters/vets first. Then from there, work in some young guys.

Politics is prob playing a role in the Ingles minutes. DDV coming on board unexpectedly changed the path for Rob, so it’s not surprising. But I’m ok with that. Get Rob in the weight room all year but maybe send him and TJ down to Iowa to get some run in.

Back to Randle, in the post season, you need multiple guys who can flat out get you a bucket. The plays don’t always work since you’re heavily scouted in the playoffs. Kat should’ve been able to do this but he either wasn’t put in a position to do so. Or he just simply didn’t have the mindset to do it consistently. We’ll see how it turns out over the course of the season though. So far so good

[dschroeder01]

[quote="Folklore"]I'm getting tired of Finch not playing the rookies. Every other team has been playing theirs but for some reason people make up excuses as to why we don't. I knew this would be a problem with him again. Joe isn't even a long term answer for the team and he's not important to a playoff run.[/quote]
Most teams don't have 8 guys who should all be playing 25+mpg. I guess I'm not too worked up about the 6 minutes that Ingles gets especially when he has 4 assists in that time.

[cmoss84]

I really like our group of players...just not in love with the minutes distribution. Hopefully this changes sooner rather than later.
Loving Randle and DD, but Naz needs more burn.
Who will the Wolves value more for a new contract:
Randle at 40+
Or
Naz and NAW at 40+

[jpatrick]

Gobert really dominated today.

He’s the most important player on our team. If we lost him for 20 games, we’d be in some trouble. I think we’d be able to deal with anyone else’s temporary absence, even Ant, but our rim protection and especially rebounding would be awful without Gobert.

[Colbinii]

I really like our group of players...just not in love with the minutes distribution. Hopefully this changes sooner rather than later.
Loving Randle and DD, but Naz needs more burn.
Who will the Wolves value more for a new contract:
Randle at 40+
Or
Naz and NAW at 40+

I think Minnesota will convince Randle to opt-in and extend.

That's the secret sauce to next off-season. Randle opting in allows us to retain Reid.

[Dewey]

Eight man rotation this early in the season? Goodbye Finch.

[Colbinii]

Eight man rotation this early in the season? Goodbye Finch.

Huh?

I think you have a deep misunderstanding of how this works.

The Timberwolves have a very clear Top 8 players--ANT, Gobert, Randle, Naz, DDV, Jaden, Conley and NAW. It's so clear because all of these players are capable, playoff caliber, rotation players. I think everyone here agrees that all 8 guys are viable player rotation caliber.

The question after these 8 is completely up in the air. You have the young guys in Shannon, Minott and Dilly. You have the 5th big type in Luka. You have the veteran Ingles who is on his last fumes as an NBA player.

But, we have to introduce not one but two new players into this Top 8 in Randle and DDV. So the time is NOW to institute a solid and consistent rotation to develop feel and experience together. After a few games of ironing out the main rotation with our best 8 players, then you can start to insert some other guys into the mix. However, until the Top of the rotation [Top 8-9] is in sync, you can't really add more variables to the cohesion.

Give it time, other players will earn minutes, but right now the Timberwolves have a clear Top 8 which they need to build cohesion and comfort with.