Game 51: Minnesota @ Chicago

[BlacJacMac]

but the closing lineup isn't going to be different after a trade, so there isn't a meaningful change to be had at this point, unlike last year with Conley/Russell

I think it will depending on who we get. We will go with Jones/Morris/Brogdon/Bogdanovic instead of JMcD. Maybe we do trade JMcD by deadline. As bad as DLo was, I think he would be good off the bench.

Poison pill makes that very difficult.

[TimberKat]

Teams have figured us out. Just pack the paint in the 4th quarter and Ant will continually turn it over, while Finch does nothing to adjust.

Read on Twitter

Groundhog Day! For those too young to know - It was a great movie.

[MN7725]

but the closing lineup isn't going to be different after a trade, so there isn't a meaningful change to be had at this point, unlike last year with Conley/Russell

I think it will depending on who we get. We will go with Jones/Morris/Brogdon/Bogdanovic instead of JMcD. Maybe we do trade JMcD by deadline. As bad as DLo was, I think he would be good off the bench.

McDaniels has poison pill contract until summer

swapping McDaniels for any of those players won't help, they won't have the ball in crunch time (ANT will, or sometimes Conley) and are far far worse defensively

[TimberKat]

but the closing lineup isn't going to be different after a trade, so there isn't a meaningful change to be had at this point, unlike last year with Conley/Russell

I think it will depending on who we get. We will go with Jones/Morris/Brogdon/Bogdanovic instead of JMcD. Maybe we do trade JMcD by deadline. As bad as DLo was, I think he would be good off the bench.

Poison pill makes that very difficult.

Not for Portland or Detroit

[BlacJacMac]

This is really sad.

Who would’ve thought that the Wolves strength would be so resolutely nullified? By starting Andre Drummond alongside Nikola Vucevic, the Chicago Bulls completely erased a size advantage that Minnesota has lorded over smaller rosters. Both bigs overfilled the stat sheet to the tune of 24 points and six rebounds with four blocks for Vooch along with a wild 16/16/4 stat line from Drummond.

The Big Penguin (Drummond) in particular was absolutely unstoppable inside the paint. Six offensive rebounds felt like 60 as one of Gobert’s worst defensive games of the year left us in agony. Vucevic was absolutely unstoppable in the second half (who wasn’t) and made multiple 3-pointers despite being a 27% shooter from deep this year.

https://www.canishoopus.com/timberwolves-scores-results/2024/2/6/24064270/wolves-vs-bulls-final-score-recap-anthony-edwards-karl-anthony-towns-rudy-gobert

[MN7725]

but the closing lineup isn't going to be different after a trade, so there isn't a meaningful change to be had at this point, unlike last year with Conley/Russell

I think it will depending on who we get. We will go with Jones/Morris/Brogdon/Bogdanovic instead of JMcD. Maybe we do trade JMcD by deadline. As bad as DLo was, I think he would be good off the bench.

Poison pill makes that very difficult.

think its impossible
he counts as just under $4mil outgoing
$22.5 mil incoming for the other team

a guy like Okongwu or Avdija has poison pill, but his difference between outgoing/incoming is only about $6 mil

[BlacJacMac]

I think it will depending on who we get. We will go with Jones/Morris/Brogdon/Bogdanovic instead of JMcD. Maybe we do trade JMcD by deadline. As bad as DLo was, I think he would be good off the bench.

Poison pill makes that very difficult.

Not for Portland or Detroit

It still makes it very, very difficult, unless you're going to trade him for a 4M/year player.

The poison pill means Jaden counts as 3.9M in outgoing salary for us, but 22.5M incoming for the team we trade him to.

So to trade him for Brogdon, we'd have to add ~18M more in contracts to McDaniels to be able to take back Brogdon's salary.

[Calinks]

This is really sad.

Who would’ve thought that the Wolves strength would be so resolutely nullified? By starting Andre Drummond alongside Nikola Vucevic, the Chicago Bulls completely erased a size advantage that Minnesota has lorded over smaller rosters. Both bigs overfilled the stat sheet to the tune of 24 points and six rebounds with four blocks for Vooch along with a wild 16/16/4 stat line from Drummond.

The Big Penguin (Drummond) in particular was absolutely unstoppable inside the paint. Six offensive rebounds felt like 60 as one of Gobert’s worst defensive games of the year left us in agony. Vucevic was absolutely unstoppable in the second half (who wasn’t) and made multiple 3-pointers despite being a 27% shooter from deep this year.

https://www.canishoopus.com/timberwolves-scores-results/2024/2/6/24064270/wolves-vs-bulls-final-score-recap-anthony-edwards-karl-anthony-towns-rudy-gobert

Inlcuding the Magic that's the second time a team has gone big and beat us. That said, I think the real culprit is our wings/guards getting destroyed in the scoring department but the bigs were massive tonight with the boards and easy buckets so they did play a huge role.

[Calinks]

Also really annoying because we lookmed dominat in both this game and the Magic game to start. Hell add Charlotte to the list. We were killing them but all three found some way to come back and miraculously beat us. That should be 3 wins for sure the way we were balling on them. Go look at those game threads early on, all of those teams were talking about how much better we are and how we were smoking them. Then we fold like chumps. Clearly we have the talent but something goes wrong.

If we had those three wins we would have some major separation as the top seed right now.

[Klomp]

Also really annoying because we lookmed dominat in both this game and the Magic game to start. Hell add Charlotte to the list. We were killing them but all three found some way to come back and miraculously beat us. That should be 3 wins for sure the way we were balling on them. Go look at those game threads early on, all of those teams were talking about how much better we are and how we were smoking them. Then we fold like chumps. Clearly we have the talent but something goes wrong.

If we had those three wins we would have some major separation as the top seed right now.

It's funny though, it's almost always against the East teams. They usually keep focused when playing the West. Sure they will still lose at times, but not in as much of a meltdown fashion.

[TwolvesFanRome]

We continue to give the impression of not knowing how to manage the advantages and above all of not knowing how to manage the last minutes.

Explain to me why, in the final minutes, we stop playing as a team and start playing as if it were a 3vs3 on the street with the ball to Ant.

In my opinion the ball must still be managed by Mike who has the experience and vision to control those situations unlike Ant who is still immature and makes a mess (to force yet another hero ball he didn't give the ball to Conley in the corner for an open 3 during the last minutes/seconds).

I am tired to see the same mistake. If we don't fix these aspects we won't get anywhere at the OPs.

[winforlose]

Kyle Anderson is like a poison that Chris Finch cannot help but keep injecting at every opportunity. It’s not like Finch even uses Kyle correctly. Kyle is essentially a less energetic V8. He should never camp in the corner. He should be in constant motion, on ball, or in the dunker. Kyle in the corner is an excuse to clog the paint. This leads to passing around and often turning the ball over. With actual shooters in the corners the opponents have to commit. If Kyle had been sick tonight and TBJ filled his minutes, I think we win by double digits. If he is the price of bringing in Tyus, then Finch should buy an MP3 player and listen to “Breaking the Habit,” by Linkin Park, until he gets over his Kyle addiction.

[Guest84]

So I dozed off while up 20 something. Stirred to see a Coby white layup for the lead. Then next I know, I’m waking up to see an OT loss. What in the world…get to the break already.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

We continue to give the impression of not knowing how to manage the advantages and above all of not knowing how to manage the last minutes.

Explain to me why, in the final minutes, we stop playing as a team and start playing as if it were a 3vs3 on the street with the ball to Ant.

In my opinion the ball must still be managed by Mike who has the experience and vision to control those situations unlike Ant who is still immature and makes a mess (to force yet another hero ball he didn't give the ball to Conley in the corner for an open 3 during the last minutes/seconds).

I am tired to see the same mistake. If we don't fix these aspects we won't get anywhere at the OPs.

+1, Each last 5 min of 4th quarter, Mike take the ball, give it to ANT and go in the corner where he can look his phone, nothing will happen. Tonight, 2 times ANT get players totally open ( KAT AND MIKE) and he make the wrong decision....

[thinktank]

That Ant pass that got stolen in crunch time should never be thrown. Never. That’s like throwing across your body in football.

Just now IQ all over the place from Ant and McDaniels.

Hard to win that way.

[KGdaBom]

OKC lost also. They just didn't do it as ugly as we did.

Would have made the win all the better. Blowing great opportunities left and right. I'm happy we didn't blow it for the coaches at all-star.

It sure would have. A win is a win. I wish we had gotten one in a game we led by 22 at the half. Freaking losing sucks.

[KGdaBom]

Also really annoying because we lookmed dominat in both this game and the Magic game to start. Hell add Charlotte to the list. We were killing them but all three found some way to come back and miraculously beat us. That should be 3 wins for sure the way we were balling on them. Go look at those game threads early on, all of those teams were talking about how much better we are and how we were smoking them. Then we fold like chumps. Clearly we have the talent but something goes wrong.

If we had those three wins we would have some major separation as the top seed right now.

Yep those are three horrific losses add the spurs to those. Losses suck.

[BlacJacMac]

The Timberwolves have had a 4th quarter lead in each of their last 7 losses

This is why "a win is a win and a loss is a loss" completely ignores the bigger picture.

How you win and how you lose absolutely bleeds into other games. If you're doing things that let you scrape by bad teams, those same things will get you beat by good teams (and, as we've seen, also by bad teams...).

“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

[KGdaBom]

The Timberwolves have had a 4th quarter lead in each of their last 7 losses

This is why "a win is a win and a loss is a loss" completely ignores the bigger picture.

How you win and how you lose absolutely bleeds into other games. If you're doing things that let you scrape by bad teams, those same things will get you beat by good teams (and, as we've seen, also by bad teams...).

“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

That is exactly why a win is a win and a loss is a loss is a fact. We win those games we're running away with the west. We lose them and we're tied for the lead in the west. We of course can't hold every 4th quarter lead, but hold 5 of those 7 and we are 5 games up. Huge.

[BlacJacMac]

The Timberwolves have had a 4th quarter lead in each of their last 7 losses

This is why "a win is a win and a loss is a loss" completely ignores the bigger picture.

How you win and how you lose absolutely bleeds into other games. If you're doing things that let you scrape by bad teams, those same things will get you beat by good teams (and, as we've seen, also by bad teams...).

“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

That is exactly why a win is a win and a loss is a loss is a fact. We win those games we're running away with the west. We lose them and we're tied for the lead in the west.

No one is saying wins and losses aren't facts.

Just that some people understand there is a lot more nuance than the final score.