The #1 Seed Minnesota Timberwolves will NOT get better THIS SEASON by trading one of their bigs.
National Media still saying this doesn’t work and they need a trade to get better this season clearly do not watch the team.
Rudy trade startin to look a lil better now ain’t it. He’s the only one in the playoffs who locked Jokic down to below 50% shooting. They even said T Wolves were the toughest team they faced. This team is dangerous
“they” as in one person on the Nuggets and that person didn’t even say Rudy was the one who gave them problems lol
Just needed some time to gel. KAT’s injury last year fucked everything up, and we still made a tiny bit of noise in the playoffs even with our starters playing like 15 games together
For me the biggest indicator of this team’s success is their defense. Even with their offense at 15th, we know they can be better than that. Just look at what Ant did last playoffs. I’m a nuggets fan, and honestly he was the scariest player (other than Devin Booker) that we saw.
Yeah they said themselves they want to make defense their identity this year, and you can tell everyone has bought in. Offense will find their flow like you said. I’m really excited for the rest of the season. Doing way better so far than I imagined. Hope we meet you guys in the playoffs again with two fully healthy squads
It would be an exciting series, especially cuz the timberwolves are really putting it together. And I will be dreading Ant lol
The success of Tim Connelly’s 2 bigs plan for the Tinberwolves can only work with KAT’s buy-in with the Wolves defensive identity AND with KAT’s sustained threat as an inside-outside scorer.
Rudy anchors the defense and Ant steers the offense with KAT going inbetween creating a dynamic 1-2 punch on both ends of the court.
Not to forget the supporting cast Connelly placed around the big 3 of Ant/KAT/Rudy to help buoy the defense and offense together through the addition of Mike Conely, Slomo and NAW.
And with how everyone dislike KAT for all the dumb things he does, I believe vets like Rudy and Mike Conely will help suppress his dumb-assery. Elston Turner has also been added to the coaching staff, he is a defensive coach who likes to dress down players involved in defensive breakdowns during the half-time break, and hopefully instill that grit & grind mindset from the Grizzlies, where he previously coached Mike Conely.
So in conclusion, whatever success the Wolves achieve this season, its all because of KAT.
Two bigs is the new way forward of the NBA with all the shooting bigs. Teams were exploiting your only big by pulling him out by using the opposing big man as the screener and then having good driving and cutting lanes because the rim protection was gone. (Curry cooking Gobert comes to mind, my God that was fun).
Now if you do that you can pull the first big out but the second big just replaces them in the paint. Forces you to finish over rim protection and you can play much more aggressively on the perimeter because if you get beat they have to settle for low value midrange shots or finish over traffic.
Offensively it works if you have one of your bigs able to shoot the 3 because they are just another wing at that poknt