Game 34: Knicks @ Timberwolves, 8 pm

[Calinks]

Hopefully, this covid situation has given a lot of these role guys some confidence. If we can get some high-level play from them we will be much stronger. Jaden has been really good in these last few games. Nowell has some nice moments. We need more consistency and maybe this will bring some of that.

Let's also pray that Beasley and Dlo get on track with better shooting ASAP.

[Nick K]

We need to stop taking 3's early in the clock! Basta.

[_AIJ_]

Beasley is so dumb man

[moss_is_1]

Beasley is trash. I'd rather Nowell eat his minutes.

[_AIJ_]

I cant wait until Beasley is gone

[life_saver]

Knicks shot 16/40 from 3 whereas Wolves shot 7/38 from 3...just hard to overcome such huge difference in shooting percentages...defense still looked good without starters but man the offense is just hard to come by. Even Pat Bev had a horrific shooting night, he was 0/8 from field. Good effort though on a back-to-back..just not enough talent on there offensively with all the key offensive players missing

[life_saver]

Jaden did a really good job defensively on Randle today

[Neeva]

Jaden has been great in Ant and Kat’s absence and very steady also. can’t say the same for the overpaid Beasley, he’s a bum and needs to go asap.

[_AIJ_]

Jaden owned Randle tonight. That was so fun to watch

[moss_is_1]

Jaden has been great in Ant and Kat’s absence and very steady also. can’t say the same for the overpaid Beasley, he’s a bum and needs to go asap.

Would be awesome if he keeps up his aggressive play offensively once they come back.

Also I've been liking Layman. He moves well without the ball, good cutting to the hoop and tries hard on the boards and defense. It's too bad we have so many wings and he isn't a more consistent shooter.

[TheProdigy]

Finch has a tough decision to make on Beasley. I just looked at his game logs for this year, and for every good game he has, he has about 4 duds. Most of the time with shooters, you gotta just let them shoot themselves out of slumps. With Beasley though, I can't help but wonder if all the off court drama has taken his focus off basketball.

If Beasley offered some other skills besides shooting, it would be easier to endure his cold streak, but he offers nothing else. He played 40 minutes last night and only had 1 assist.

[shrink]

With Beasley though, I can't help but wonder if all the off court drama has taken his focus off basketball.

People have looked for Beasley to fail ever since the incident. All last year, Malik never gave it to them,

Beasley was locked in from Day One and shot 40% on 20 PPG last year, when the uncertainty of the legal issues would have been far more stressful. I was very surprised, but he was a total professional on the court, and other Wolves said he was a great teammate, and no distraction. I doubt we can dismiss that entire season, and say he has now lost focus.

If people want to find a way to blame the legal issues, a better course would be to say that he came in out of shape. Perhaps when he was in prison, he was unable to maintain NBA-level fitness. Last summer, he was one of the most fit players starting the season - very professional.

EDIT: I went back to check his monthly performance. In December, his 3P% is up to 35.8%, which is above league average. Beasley’s scoring is dependent on minutes, but it’s up too.

OCT. 22.4 MIN, 8.8 PPG
NOV. 26.5 MIN, 10.8 PPG
DEC. 30.8 MIN, 16.2 PPG

[TheProdigy]

With Beasley though, I can't help but wonder if all the off court drama has taken his focus off basketball.

People have looked for Beasley to fail ever since the incident.

However, Beasley was locked in last year and shot 40% on 20 PPG last year, when the uncertainty of the legal issues would have been far more stressful. I was very surprised, but he was a total professional on the court. I doubt we can dismiss that entire season, and say he has now lost focus.

If people want to find a way to blame the legal issues, a better course would be to say that he came in out of shape. Perhaps when he was in prison, he was unable to maintain NBA-level fitness. Last summer, he was one of the most fit players starting the season - very professional.

I'm not dismissing his entire year last year. To start the season, he played great, legal issues and all. However, he only played 37 games last year which were in the early part of the season and missed the majority of the 2nd half due to suspension and injuries. It was during the 2nd half of the year that all of the family drama came to light in the news.

I can't say for certain that's why he is playing poorly this year, but I do know many people struggle with their work when there are problems at home. NBA players have to put in countless hours to hone their skills, and maybe Beasley isn't putting up as many shots in his spare time if his heart isn't in it.

You're right, maybe his conditioning wasn't up to par only having 6 weeks between release from jail and start of training camp. I've also heard people suggest that he's struggling with the new ball and/or he doesn't have playmakers feeding him open shots like last year when we had Rubio. Whatever the reason is, we're almost halfway through the season and he's only shooting .375 fg% and .341 3p% as a high volume shooter who offers little else. He's costing us games and needs to snap out of it ASAP if he wants to be a rotation player.

[FinnTheHuman]

With Beasley though, I can't help but wonder if all the off court drama has taken his focus off basketball.

People have looked for Beasley to fail ever since the incident.

However, Beasley was locked in last year and shot 40% on 20 PPG last year, when the uncertainty of the legal issues would have been far more stressful. I was very surprised, but he was a total professional on the court. I doubt we can dismiss that entire season, and say he has now lost focus.

If people want to find a way to blame the legal issues, a better course would be to say that he came in out of shape. Perhaps when he was in prison, he was unable to maintain NBA-level fitness. Last summer, he was one of the most fit players starting the season - very professional.

I'm not dismissing his entire year last year. To start the season, he played great, legal issues and all. However, he only played 37 games last year which were in the early part of the season and missed the majority of the 2nd half due to suspension and injuries. It was during the 2nd half of the year that all of the family drama came to light in the news.

I can't say for certain that's why he is playing poorly this year, but I do know many people struggle with their work when there are problems at home. NBA players have to put in countless hours to hone their skills, and maybe Beasley isn't putting up as many shots in his spare time if his heart isn't in it.

You're right, maybe his conditioning wasn't up to par only having 6 weeks between release from jail and start of training camp. I've also heard people suggest that he's struggling with the new ball and/or he doesn't have playmakers feeding him open shots like last year when we had Rubio. Whatever the reason is, we're almost halfway through the season and he's only shooting .375 fg% and .341 3p% as a high volume shooter who offers little else. He's costing us games and needs to snap out of it ASAP if he wants to be a rotation player.

He offers other things. He has enough size/strength that defensively you can switch with him on 1-3 and he won't get bullied nor blown by. People don't understand how hard it is to be an average defender in the NBA, around half the guys aren't average in that category, so it's definitely another thing Beasley offers. It's like people forget how good it is for your defense when your guard isn't Ridnour/Barea/Teague/Lavine level defender, suddenly you don't have the opponent just taking a crap on your weak-ass guard. Lavine's improved now, but still.

[TheProdigy]

People have looked for Beasley to fail ever since the incident.

However, Beasley was locked in last year and shot 40% on 20 PPG last year, when the uncertainty of the legal issues would have been far more stressful. I was very surprised, but he was a total professional on the court. I doubt we can dismiss that entire season, and say he has now lost focus.

If people want to find a way to blame the legal issues, a better course would be to say that he came in out of shape. Perhaps when he was in prison, he was unable to maintain NBA-level fitness. Last summer, he was one of the most fit players starting the season - very professional.

I'm not dismissing his entire year last year. To start the season, he played great, legal issues and all. However, he only played 37 games last year which were in the early part of the season and missed the majority of the 2nd half due to suspension and injuries. It was during the 2nd half of the year that all of the family drama came to light in the news.

I can't say for certain that's why he is playing poorly this year, but I do know many people struggle with their work when there are problems at home. NBA players have to put in countless hours to hone their skills, and maybe Beasley isn't putting up as many shots in his spare time if his heart isn't in it.

You're right, maybe his conditioning wasn't up to par only having 6 weeks between release from jail and start of training camp. I've also heard people suggest that he's struggling with the new ball and/or he doesn't have playmakers feeding him open shots like last year when we had Rubio. Whatever the reason is, we're almost halfway through the season and he's only shooting .375 fg% and .341 3p% as a high volume shooter who offers little else. He's costing us games and needs to snap out of it ASAP if he wants to be a rotation player.

He offers other things. He has enough size/strength that defensively you can switch with him on 1-3 and he won't get bullied nor blown by. People don't understand how hard it is to be an average defender in the NBA, around half the guys aren't average in that category, so it's definitely another thing Beasley offers. It's like people forget how good it is for your defense when your guard isn't Ridnour/Barea/Teague/Lavine level defender, suddenly you don't have the opponent just taking a crap on your weak-ass guard. Lavine's improved now, but still.

Beasley is on the smaller size for 2 guard standards, and I have seen him get bullied by some of the stronger 2's and 3's, so not sure I agree with your switchability claim. You're right he has pretty good feet to stay in front of his man, but where he really struggles is when the defense breaks down and he's forced to make quick decisions on which player to defend. It's more of an IQ issue than athleticism limitation IMO. It's what makes Ricky Rubio a pretty good defender, even though he's not as athletic as Beasley.

[shrink]

I’ve been giving Beasley a lot of thought lately.

With their impressive Net Rtg, I don’t think Finch would touch the starting rotation. But I’m not sure if Beasley is even automatically our 6th man. Right now, I feel Finch tries to get a feel for the game, particularly in the second half, and our first guard off the bench will be based on what the current matchup need is:

Three point shooting? Beasley
Shot Creation? Nowell
Defense? Okogie (McDaniels backing up SF and PF)

As I watched Nowell continue to produce whenever he gets minutes, I started thinking about how to trade Malik to get Jaylen more court time. However, I don’t think it’s that simple. If the team’s style is to lead the league in three point attempts, we need three point shooters. Nowell is shooting 40.2% 3P after going 6-for-9 in the wonderful BOS game, but he is a career 32% 3P shooter. As Dane pointed out, he’s more of an Ant-lite than a Beasley. And that gives Finch options.

Right now, Malik gets blamed a lot in these threads for team losses, and I understand that when his biggest weapon isn’t working (his three point shooting), he doesn’t bring a lot to the table. But it looks to me that his shot is coming back, and our team needs it. It wouldn’t stun me to see him traded, but the salary matching piece if likely Prince, not Beasley. I also think trading Beasley now would be selling low - we need to find him minutes and hope he continues to return to his career averages here, in the highly volatile 3P% stat.

[life_saver]

I’ve been giving Beasley a lot of thought lately.

With their impressive Net Rtg, I don’t think Finch would touch the starting rotation. But I’m not sure if Beasley is even automatically our 6th man. Right now, I feel Finch tries to get a feel for the game, particularly in the second half, and our first guard off the bench will be based on what the current matchup need is:

Three point shooting? Beasley
Shot Creation? Nowell
Defense? Okogie (McDaniels backing up SF and PF)

As I watched Nowell continue to produce whenever he gets minutes, I started thinking about how to trade Malik to get Jaylen more court time. However, I don’t think it’s that simple. If the team’s style is to lead the league in three point attempts, we need three point shooters. Nowell is shooting 40.2% 3P after going 6-for-9 in the wonderful BOS game, but he is a career 32% 3P shooter. As Dane pointed out, he’s more of an Ant-lite than a Beasley. And that gives Finch options.

Right now, Malik gets blamed a lot in these threads for team losses, and I understand that when his biggest weapon isn’t working (his three point shooting), he doesn’t bring a lot to the table. But it looks to me that his shot is coming back, and our team needs it. It wouldn’t stun me to see him traded, but the salary matching piece if likely Prince, not Beasley. I also think trading Beasley now would be selling low - we need to find him minutes and hope he continues to return to his career averages here, in the highly volatile 3P% stat.

Agree...I am willing to be patient with Beasley...lot of good shooters around the league have also seen dip in their shooting percentages this season and it's not like Beasley just had a fluke shooting year last season...he has been a good 3 point shooter last 4 years. It's likely that his shooting % go up as the season progresses