Timberwolves

VikingDude

Is this THE year? Seems like it's coming together (as long s they're all healthy). Coming back from down 20 on the road against the defending champs in game 7 should make some believers.

estang

Amazing win last night & then to host the WCF against a #5 seed, what a break considering they lost the last two games of the season and lost-out on the #1 seed.

Outside of the Minnesota Lynx, it's been a very long time a pro sports team has won a championship - conference finals or the whole thing.

I think they can do it!

erikthredd

Congrats VikingDude (and Joe Banzai!) They definitely are for real and will be a very tough test for the Mavs and whoever comes out of the East if they make it past Dallas. These two Conference Finals should both be fun to watch.

bgr

@estang said:
Amazing win last night & then to host the WCF against a #5 seed, what a break considering they lost the last two games of the season and lost-out on the #1 seed.

Outside of the Minnesota Lynx, it's been a very long time a pro sports team has won a championship - conference finals or the whole thing.

I think they can do it!

go Loons?

JoeBanzai

Anthony Edwards appears to be the real deal!

perkdog

Huge Win coming back like they did. My buddy at work follows hoops and doesn't feel all that confident the Celts can beat them if they meet

estang

I'm hoping for a double-digit win by Minnesota tonight but as a MN sports fan, you have to expect the worst.

Luka & Kyrie were incredible in Game #1 -- I want to say they contributed to 80% of their points via directly or assists. I've never really watched Luka before - he's impressive!

Desert Moon

Hoping the Twolves make it through, time for someone new on top of the NBA and a small market team...................

estang

Well, MN blew a 17-point lead in the 2nd half.

Edwards & KAT are shooting terribly. ANT throwing the ball out-of-bound with 12.9 seconds left was inexplicable.

Give credit to Luka & Irving, they are superior stars.

VikingDude

What goes up must come down

estang

KAT got roasted by TNT on the post-game - scathing remarks on his character & play.

Spotrac shows his salary is guaranteed over next four years at these levels: $49.35M, $53.298M, $57.246M, and $61.194M.

Through three games, he's shot the 4th worst in the history of NBA conference finals at 27.8%.

erikthredd

its hard to tell if Minnesota is just not taking this Mavs series seriously or it could be that they're just gassed after the roller coaster ride that was the Denver series, I'm leaning towards the latter. Outside of Mike Conley & Kyle Anderson each having played in one Conference Finals previously, that roster has never played this deep into the season. Add the pressure to win on top of that and you can see why some of the younger stars are having a rough go of it the first time around in any type of Finals setting.

Estang you make a good point on the KAT contract and the front office will have some tough decisions to make in the near future especially with the NBA's Second Apron Tax rules and penalties kicking in fully this offseason. With the Wolves already having traded away most, if not all, of their tradable firsts they may not be too worried about those draft pick penalties if they stay above that second apron.

Trading KAT or Gobert is always an option but you lose either an elite scorer or an elite defender and neither are easily replaced. It really comes down to how long Minnesota's ownership is willing to pay into the tax to keep this roster together. If they remain a top 3-4 team in the West in the near future, and there's no reason to think they wouldn't be, then it makes more sense to bite the financial bullet and hope Ant develops enough as the go-to guy to get you over the hump. As long as the team can win a couple playoff series each season over the next few years the value of the franchise should go up and offset paying out those three huge contracts to Ant,KAT & Gobert. The only question is will Glen Taylor be willing spend the money? 🤷‍♂️

Minnesota has been waiting this long for the Wolves to contend and contract-wise their core is locked up for the foreseeable future, maybe its time to let it ride and see what happens.

perkdog

Looks like it will be Boston vs Dallas

bgr

I thought Taylor was selling the wolves.

SanctionII

If it is Boston v. Dallas the matchup of Boston players (Holiday, White, Tatum or Brown?) v. Irving and Doncic will be interesting to see.

It is surprising to me to see how well Irving and Doncic have meshed together. I credit them playing so well together in part on their supporting cast (who have played very well on both end of the floor.

This includes on offense where the supporting players are very good at moving around and positioning themselves on the perimeter, on the base line or just outside of the key patiently waiting for Irving and/or Doncic to create with the ball, drawing multiple defenders to them. This allows Irving and Doncic to pass the ball to open teammates for numerous dunks or perimeter jump shots.

Minnesota has similar abilities, but for whatever reason Minnesota has not been as effective in doing what I described above.

erikthredd

@bgr said:
I thought Taylor was selling the wolves.

I thought so too but then I read that Arod's group missed some payment deadline and they wouldn't be taking over ownership. This was months ago so I don't know if things have changed since then.

After spending most of the season in first place out West and making a WCF run the franchise likely has gone up in value over the past year and I assumed Taylor just decided to keep his stake although that could be entirely wrong.

BLUEJAYWAY

Weren't the Wolves the number one defensive team this year?

estang

FWIW, Taylor has publicly came out to say that A-Rod & his partner were to cut the roster spend starting next year after the sale went through and this is a contributing factor in why he's now not selling - primarily because he maintains the buyer breached the contract terms. It's now going through arbitration to determine who will maintain majority ownership. If A-Rod & his partner lose, they will still own ~40% of the team. And the valuation has gone way up, so worst-case, they made a good investment. Taylor only paid $94M in 1994 & he saved the franchise from moving - they were going to go to New Orleans in early 90s...

Yes, T-Wolves have the #1 defense but you couldn't tell by how they're playing. I don't understand how Gobert has won DPOY 4x in a row - not when you watch these playoffs.

Finally, I was never a proponent of the Gobert trade. They gave up too much but the argument could be made that it's paid off by getting this far. Not sure about that -- Walker Kessler's 36 minute averages on paper are very similar to Gobert (sorry, if I've repeated this above)...

erikthredd

@estang said:

Yes, T-Wolves have the #1 defense but you couldn't tell by how they're playing. I don't understand how Gobert has won DPOY 4x in a row - not when you watch these playoffs.

ESPN's jay Williams did a good job pointing out some of what Minnesota's defense has done wrong in this video. Start it at the 5:00 mark and he shows where Ant & KAT are having brain lapses late in G3. IMO, if Ant is that gassed he really shouldn't even be in the game, same with Kat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c2Af1_y2Lk&list=TLPQMjgwNTIwMjSNLMAuE1IDTw&index=2

Gobert has been the best rim protector in basketball for years as well as one of the best rebounders but when you force a switch and make him defend out on the perimeter the offensive player will always have the advantage especially two high BBIQ players like Luka & Kyrie. He's too long and doesn't have the mobility to be running around chasing smaller quicker players on offense.
When he was in Utah, the Jazz never had as many good wing defenders that the Wolves currently have and he was much less effective when opposing offenses attacked him on the pick & roll. You could switch out Gobert for Kessler right now and Walker would be getting cooked on defense just like Rudy has lately.
I do get what you're saying though about not liking that what the Wolves gave up in that deal but without that trade Minnesota would have likely been out of the playoffs in round one. Also Mike Conley has been a great veteran presence for the Wolves and he was only brought in because he's a great fit with Gobert. That team would look significantly different had they not traded for Rudy and would have probably been battling it out in the play-in tourney and not competing for the #1 seed.

galaxy27

such a strange aura surrounding this team

win two at Denver, lose the next three, win the next two including down 20 on the road in G7

then come out and lose the first three against Dallas

i think the Wolves win tomorrow and then the pivotal game is G6 back in Dallas. if they can win that game, uncle mo would overwhelmingly be on their side in the deciding game back at home

no team comes back from down 0-3, but the Timberwolves are highly-talented and inexplicable, thus if any team is going to do the unthinkable they have the composition to do so

on top of that, i just don't think Dallas is that good. they have an otherworldly backcourt and a bunch of max effort guys. huge disparity between KAT and Gobert & the Mavericks' bigs. if those two guys show up, show out and impose their will like they did last night, they can pull this off

if i was Chris Finch i'd tell Jaden McDaniels to empty the tank on Luka. if he still goes off for 25-30, make it the most taxing of his career

ElMagoStrikeZone

Mavs missed Lively's presence last night. He was the highest energy guy until getting TKO'd by KAT.

erikthredd

@galaxy27 This current Wolves team reminds me of the 2021-22 Celtics under Ime Udoka.
Each had an insane defense built around elite wings and each had their anchor near the rim in Rudy & Timelord.
Each had two elite scorers in Ant/Kat and JT/JB.
Both teams faced the defending NBA champs in R2, Mil/Bos and Min/Den, both got down 2-3 before winning games 6&7.
Boston was down to Miami in the ECF before coming back and winning a trip to the Finals where they lost.
Ultimately I'm cool seeing the Wolves comeback and win this Mavs series then lose next month's Finals. 😎

That Wolves team literally has everyone of importance locked up for the foreseeable future and for them to continue to stay on that contenders level and where they go from there falls squarely on Ant & Kat, just like it did with Tatum & Brown.

Edwards is maybe the most physically gifted player since Lebron or even Jordan but the mental side of the game still has some ways to go. Once it really starts clicking for him he's going to be truly unstoppable one on one, we're seeing the same happening with the Jays right now. I truly believe that Ant is going to get there and probably much sooner than expected.

While I feel that KAT is in the same position where he needs the game to slow down for him, what's more important is he need to fully commit to getting into real basketball condition. He's already got so much talent on offense, he needs to start doing it more on the other end. The question is will he be around Minnesota long enough for fans to see that transformation? 🤷‍♂️

While I have plenty of faith in this C's team about to host the Finals, i'm silently hoping that Dallas finishes the Wolves off so Boston gets the Mavs. That's going to be an unreal challenge trying to hold Luka & Kyrie in check while also defending the lob lanes, the C's defense definitely has their work cut out for them but I'm still confident on both sides of the ball and the Green Team wins the series.
Minnesota would have been a tremendous challenge for Boston too. I've seen what a long attacking defense looks like with that 21/22 C's team and I'll pass on facing something similar with this Wolves team in the Finals. If they put in the effort,and they've show that they will, they're just going to make life miserable for our offense. Dallas will too but not like Minnesota, imo. Then factor in that any moment now Ant may start seeing the Matrix and I'm passing on that one for now too lol.
Let Boston lock down that first Chip then schedule some heavyweight battles with Wolves in future finals.

ElMagoStrikeZone

Wither gone the wolves.

estang

Doncic put on one of the greatest quarters of basketball that I'd ever seen. Wow - this man is so talented. Him and Jokic play the game so differently given their body type and speed. The range & the passes - just amazing talent.

Plus, I read that he was trash-talking a fan in the first row near the bench that was giving him a hard time before the game started. He sure did put a zipper on that fan's mouth.

Congrats to Dallas - they were the better team.

A successful year for Minnesota - hopefully, they can build upon it. I'm still not sold on their lineup. Weird to say this but they really need another athletic leaper/inside guy. KAT is basically a perimeter shooter that drives out-of-control to the basket and seems to shrink a foot when doing it. Gobert is just bad offensively. I still think that was a bad trade when it will all be said and done as #1 picks will go to UT through the remainder of the decade.

Last, the GM - Connelly - that made the trade & gets paid a ridiculous $8M a year & A-Rod try to give him team equity - that Glenn Taylor shot down -- can leave the team this off-season. It will be interesting to see how the ownership situation works out & what happens with Connelly - I think the guy is overrated & overpaid. Anyone could have made that trade for Gobert - one of the biggest overpayments in sports history.

BTW, I picked up this original artwork as I got caught up in the hype: