Game Day: Timberwolves (25-21) @ Suns (24-21), Wed 1/29/25

[TOO]

It's perfectly fine to be frustrated with this team. They've been frustrating for a year and a half. They tease with flashes of solid basketball, they mostly beat the bad teams but then they seemingly give up when games get tough. There's enough talent on this team to win 50 games but they don't play hard or smart for 48 minutes.

It's the teams 2 stars who cause this. Durant runs when the going gets tough and Booker just plays like dog shit when the going gets tough. They fall into the same bad habits game after game

[Mori Chu]

IMO our recent 8-2 span was fool's gold, a mirage. We beat up on several low lottery teams and had some flukey wins. I don't think we really had a lot of gritty / impressive wins, outside of maybe LAC.

Sure, by some definition this MIN game was winnable; we were in it until late, maybe if we had played harder at the end or played tighter defense or not blown the 3rd quarter so badly, we take this one. Maybe you think Jimmy Butler gives us that.

But do you really see this team, even with Jimmy Butler, beating OKC in a series? Or really even giving them a tough challenge? Or Minny in a series? Or maybe Dallas even? Or Boston? Cleveland? NYK?

In one of the other threads we're talking about the history of James Jones and his draft picks. He's pretty good at finding good rotation players in the draft. Isn't Ryan Dunn the singular best thing about this season? Don't you want more Ryan Dunns, more Osos? Why just trade away the picks we would use to find guys like that? I think I just want us to keep our draft picks and let JJ find us some good players with them. I don't want to throw away 3 more draft picks continuing to go "all in" on this losing hand.

IMO we're well short of being a contender and don't have any path to get there. So we should cut bait; at minimum, trade KD, and then talk to Book about whether he wants to stay or go. If he wants to go, unload Book for a boatload of picks and youngs.

I also worry that we may be about 1-2 months away from a brutal OGW visit, like a KD injury, that completely seals this team's fate. If KD gets hurt, not only are we screwed for this year and maybe next, but also we won't be able to trade him to start a retool / rebuild. Then our future will be truly depressing for many years to come.

[ShelC]

Genuinely don't think Book would ask out if we traded KD with a plan in place. He might not stick it out 3-4-5 years if we're consistently tanking/in the lottery but he'd give it 2 seasons.

[ShelC]

Also, going back to last night's game - Bud says Dunn is healthy but still only plays him 9 minutes? We were playing our best basketball with him starting and he's a guy who can switch 1-4 but Royce gets the start and plays 32 minutes?

[In2ition]

IMO our recent 8-2 span was fool's gold, a mirage. We beat up on several low lottery teams and had some flukey wins. I don't think we really had a lot of gritty / impressive wins, outside of maybe LAC.

Sure, by some definition this MIN game was winnable; we were in it until late, maybe if we had played harder at the end or played tighter defense or not blown the 3rd quarter so badly, we take this one. Maybe you think Jimmy Butler gives us that.

But do you really see this team, even with Jimmy Butler, beating OKC in a series? Or really even giving them a tough challenge? Or Minny in a series? Or maybe Dallas even? Or Boston? Cleveland? NYK?

In one of the other threads we're talking about the history of James Jones and his draft picks. He's pretty good at finding good rotation players in the draft. Isn't Ryan Dunn the singular best thing about this season? Don't you want more Ryan Dunns, more Osos? Why just trade away the picks we would use to find guys like that? I think I just want us to keep our draft picks and let JJ find us some good players with them. I don't want to throw away 3 more draft picks continuing to go "all in" on this losing hand.

IMO we're well short of being a contender and don't have any path to get there. So we should cut bait; at minimum, trade KD, and then talk to Book about whether he wants to stay or go. If he wants to go, unload Book for a boatload of picks and youngs.

I also worry that we may be about 1-2 months away from a brutal OGW visit, like a KD injury, that completely seals this team's fate. If KD gets hurt, not only are we screwed for this year and maybe next, but also we won't be able to trade him to start a retool / rebuild. Then our future will be truly depressing for many years to come.

That 3rd quarter was a real kick in the nuts. The Wolves came out with much greater intensity, and instead of matching it and hitting back, the Suns folded and fled. It didn't help matters that Bud allowed Mason to be a big part of Minnesota's run, and had maybe the weakest defensive 5 on the floor at the same time (Jones, Book, Allen, O'Neal, and Plumlee).

[Superbone]

This team is soft and lazy and shitty. They can't hang with big teams, strong teams, young teams, athletic teams, teams with great shooters, teams with great bigs, teams with great wings.

Our defense sucks. We leave the other team's best 3pt shooters open over and over. We let teams waltz to the basket. If they happen to miss we have soft ass rebounders and give them the ball back for another attempt.

Our offense sucks. We force everything through point Book and KD who can't run an offense and constantly turn the ball over. We make everything seem hard despite having great scorers.

I'm just so beyond sick of this shitty ass fucking team.

Other than that, things are great!

[Superbone]

Agree this team is too soft, mentally and physically. Once the turnovers and missed shots happen the team folds. No mental fortitude to play hard thru bad stretches and work for good shots. The body language is telling. We don't play good enough defense, it feels like out leads are because the other team is cold, not because of our defense. We've padded our record against mostly bad teams lately and gotten away with letting them back into games. Won't happen against the better teams.

Bud doesn't have a lot of options to go bigger but I might've tried Oso at the 4 in a bigger lineup just to see if he could slow down Randle. Probably wouldn't have done much because we're generally not a physical team. Trade Nurk and a 1st for Beef Stew. He might be crazy but at least he hits first.

I was kind of pissed at the Wolves for their over-celebrations but on the other hand, maybe it might help wake up this team. As soon as the Wolves hit them in the mouth, they folded and got stomped on.

[Superbone]

Beef Stew id be cool with if it's for Nurk and not Allen. I'm not giving a first up for beef stew though


This team is absolutely way too soft.


And I'm so over trying to match Royce up with 4's. He is not Jae. He is small, not savvy and is consistently lost on D

Yep, we have to have a player that can contend with the Julius Randles of the NBA. We showed last night that there was nothing we could do.

[Superbone]

Sorry for my angry ass post last night. This team just has me down in the dumps. I wanted so much more. Or, if we were going to be this mediocre, I just wanted to mostly keep our old home-grown team and our future intact. It's hard knowing that we are not only "meh" now, but likely to be bad for many years to come. That is really depressing to me as a fan. I don't even mind being bad and rebuilding if we just have picks and assets and a future, but we may not even have that.

There is nothing wrong with that angry ass post, and there was no need to apologize for it.

I do think the Minnesota over-celebrating contributed to our anger. They haven't done shit.

[Superbone]

I still don't understand why Bud sees that when the team isn't playing well with Plumlee on the floor that he just continues to allow the team to spiral. He needs to take Plumlee out and try something different, possibly Oso?

And apparently refuses to play Nurkic. We could have used his size last night.

[Superbone]

It's perfectly fine to be frustrated with this team. They've been frustrating for a year and a half. They tease with flashes of solid basketball, they mostly beat the bad teams but then they seemingly give up when games get tough. There's enough talent on this team to win 50 games but they don't play hard or smart for 48 minutes.

Yep, and we've seen flashes of it so we know it's possible. They just can't muster to do it more often and before they're desperate. That unbothered label is going to be tough from them to shed.

[Superbone]

That 3rd quarter was a real kick in the nuts. The Wolves came out with much greater intensity, and instead of matching it and hitting back, the Suns folded and fled. It didn't help matters that Bud allowed Mason to be a big part of Minnesota's run, and had maybe the weakest defensive 5 on the floor at the same time (Jones, Book, Allen, O'Neal, and Plumlee).

This.

[Superbone]

And you got to give it up to the Wolves coach. His getting thrown out was the play of the game and spurred his team to victory and overcelebration.

[Superbone]

McDaniels and Booker had a finger gun battle:

Watch: Did McDaniels, Booker exchange finger gun taunts before ejection?
Before McDaniels poked Booker in the head, the two exchanged taunts on back-to-back possessions.
https://www.si.com/nba/timberwolves/min ... jjtrpqszh6

[TOO]

McDaniels and Booker had a finger gun battle:

Watch: Did McDaniels, Booker exchange finger gun taunts before ejection?
Before McDaniels poked Booker in the head, the two exchanged taunts on back-to-back possessions.
https://www.si.com/nba/timberwolves/min ... jjtrpqszh6

NBA stupidity knows no bounds.

[Mori Chu]

There's no one reason we lost, but, I do think it has been a mistake to banish Nurk entirely from the rotation. I like Plumlee more in many cases, certainly in terms of effort, attitude, etc. But Nurkic is generally a better player, and there are clearly matchups (this may have been one of them) where we should have given Nurk more minutes at C.

[In2ition]

I still don't understand why Bud sees that when the team isn't playing well with Plumlee on the floor that he just continues to allow the team to spiral. He needs to take Plumlee out and try something different, possibly Oso?

And apparently refuses to play Nurkic. We could have used his size last night.

We could have used his size vs Zubac and the Clippers too.

[Split T]

Can’t trust Nurk at this point…he’s made it clear he’s not part of the team.

[Superbone]

I still don't understand why Bud sees that when the team isn't playing well with Plumlee on the floor that he just continues to allow the team to spiral. He needs to take Plumlee out and try something different, possibly Oso?

And apparently refuses to play Nurkic. We could have used his size last night.

We could have used his size vs Zubac and the Clippers too.

Yup, I said that at the time too.

[Cap]

Nine in a row, SB! Is that a record? (No, Cubby doesn't count.)

Thanks to In2, we actually have ten straight mugs of coffee. Don't think I'm sleeping any time soon.