By DY_nasty Go To Postborrego was trying to use him on both sides of the pnr in his small ball fantasyEvery non-contending team trying to turn their reclamation project big with banana peels for fingers into a passing hub has been a kind of funny development this year. Like the whole reason advanced stat nerds loved Jokic as a prospect was because big men typically don't have high AST:TO ratios at any level, it's not normally something you can just develop later.
By rodeoclown Go To PostAnd for all of the complaining Denver has done about the officiating, the Wolves are just not fouling much. While they're really physical and active, it's not like they're out there hacking on every play. On the other hand, the Nuggets have been allowed to show up the refs to zero consequences so far and Ant was even given a tech for looking at an opposing player.I watched a ton of clips from last night and even in real time I thought the Wolves were just playing great defense with getting their hands on the ball without fouling. Were they physical? Hell yea, but nothing that amounted to a foul. It's not like Anthony Davis hooking Jokic every time in the post and the refs swallowing their whistle. This was clean basketball and Denver just didn't know how they kept getting mugged cleanly.
By You got 14 bricks right there? Go To PostThis is art
By rodeoclown Go To PostAnd for all of the complaining Denver has done about the officiating, the Wolves are just not fouling much. While they're really physical and active, it's not like they're out there hacking on every play. On the other hand, the Nuggets have been allowed to show up the refs to zero consequences so far and Ant was even given a tech for looking at an opposing player.
They're just big and fast everywhere and it makes it a nightmare. Don't have to foul, just wall up, go chest to chest and watch plays fall apart into bad ISOs you can pick apart.
Makes me low key kinda pissed the Blazers just threw NAW in a trade with the Wolves last year. Can never have too many players like that.
I'd normally be rooting for Denver but any year you get a team like this it's kinda hard to not cheer them on. Plus the whole Porter family thing... yuck. When was the last time the Wolves were legit good again? Gotta be at least a decade right?
NAW was not who he was prior to coming to the Wolves. He was pretty ineffective both in NOLA and Utah.
Yep, love the Wolves. Love hustle. Love unselfish basketball. Love physical defence. Absolutely hate foul baiting, flopping players (Young and Embiid are particularly egregious, but Shai, Brunson and Tatum have been incredibly guilty this post-season and I’m sick of watching Giannis get free throws when he is the aggressor in most cases) and games where every basket is a foul. Watching that Wolves possession is every bit as enjoyable to me as that Jokic touch pass vs Lakers.
By reilo Go To PostNAW was not who he was prior to coming to the Wolves. He was pretty ineffective both in NOLA and Utah.
Oh, definitely. Situation makes all the difference sometimes.
Really just wanting to see which of the young wings the Blazers have figure it out (if I was gonna guess it's Camara then Rupert most likely to do so.) Do that and draft another big, star wing or two that can shoot and the team's gonna be fine.
But it would have been nice to have that extra arrow in the quiver for sure.
By n8 dogg Go To PostYep, love the Wolves. Love hustle. Love unselfish basketball. Love physical defence. Absolutely hate foul baiting, flopping players (Young and Embiid are particularly egregious, but Shai, Brunson and Tatum have been incredibly guilty this post-season and I’m sick of watching Giannis get free throws when he is the aggressor in most cases) and games where every basket is a foul. Watching that Wolves possession is every bit as enjoyable to me as that Jokic touch pass vs Lakers.brunson is innocent.
By unknown Go To Postbrunson is innocent.
Great player. Goes contact hunting.
brunson definitely knows the game. but if he doesn't get a call two trips down in a row, he'll give up on the unethical hoops and get right back to business.
luka? that motherfucker literally took an entire half of a playoff game off just to yell at refs and flail nonstop
luka? that motherfucker literally took an entire half of a playoff game off just to yell at refs and flail nonstop
By Christberg Go To PostThey're just big and fast everywhere and it makes it a nightmare. Don't have to foul, just wall up, go chest to chest and watch plays fall apart into bad ISOs you can pick apart.the wolves were only good for a single year in their existence. one. single. year.
Makes me low key kinda pissed the Blazers just threw NAW in a trade with the Wolves last year. Can never have too many players like that.
I'd normally be rooting for Denver but any year you get a team like this it's kinda hard to not cheer them on. Plus the whole Porter family thing… yuck. When was the last time the Wolves were legit good again? Gotta be at least a decade right?
By Kibner Go To Postthe wolves were only good for a single year in their existence. one. single. year.It was a pretty cool season, though. KG won MVP, won a couple playoff series, and they they probably make the Finals if Cassell doesn't get hurt.
By reilo Go To PostI knew what they did as soon as I saw that, lol. Sort by defensive box plus minus and get rid of the guys who don't qualify due to more than 17 games of under 20 minutes (Hartenstein and Kyle Anderson) and, in order, you get: Jokic, Wemby, Sabonis.
Why is it like this: D-BPM currently thinks Jokic is the best defender in history because the way they estimate defense, while it sort of works over the whole sample, is highly problematic for individual players with particular outlier characteristics. The original idea, since it's so hard to measure defense, was that being big and high feel usually means you're good at defense (confirmed by looking at D-RAPM estimates). Rebounds probably mean you're big and assists probably mean you're high feel, so find an interaction between them and regress that to RAPM!
This resulted in Westbrook's MVP season being rated the best in histor,y, which analytics people disliked because he didn't grade out that well by RAPM and also was kind of a ballhog stat padder, so they switched it so instead of rebounds it uses a "position estimate" based on your box score data, and only gives you massive defensive credit for assists if you're big, not just if you rebound well. But passing bigs like Jokic and Sabonis kind of break that too (I would say Wemby also breaks it but he is probably actually that good defensively).
Analytics folks were slower to fix this, because they actually like Jokic and he does grade out well defensively by RAPM (though again, not that well). But they appear to recognize it's a problem and last I heard are trying to separate an offensive and defensive role so they stop giving so much defensive credit to bigs who functionally act as the team's point guard.
tl;dr someone who didn't know how the stat was computed sorted, filtered, saw Sabonis third, decided not to vote for Jokic first because that would be too galaxy brained, but figured maybe putting Sabonis third wasn't that bad. So overall they felt really good about how objective of a voter they were for recognizing the undiscovered gem that is Sabonis. I mean maybe this isn't what actually happened but I prefer it to the homer Kings voter theory.
By reilo Go To PostCavs are basura how embarrassingCeltics are playing some of their very few mediocre bench guys (Tillman and Kornet) at the same time with neither White nor Tatum on the floor, and the Cavs somehow cannot capitalize at all.
By Rob Go To PostHomer votes should have your voting rights strippedVoters are not allowed to vote for the team they cover. Unless this guy is a homer for a tan they don’t cover.
SHOOKtics love to leave shooters open
It’ll be back and forth all night
Dummies gonna lose this if they’re lazy
It’ll be back and forth all night
Dummies gonna lose this if they’re lazy
By Christberg Go To PostGood, his punishment is to continue to be guarded by Wolves guards for a couple more games.
Should have been a 1 game suspension instead but it's better than nothing.
I also don't want the team to make excesses if they get swept about him not playing a game.
By reilo Go To PostDamn, he and IHart were like the only guys Thibs wasn't playing insane minutes.
YIKES
By Kibner Go To PostVoters are not allowed to vote for the team they cover. Unless this guy is a homer for a tan they don’t cover.Worse than being a homer
They don’t even watch basketball and just did what Sharp said
By Rob Go To PostWorse than being a homerI mean they might have done something else, I just don't think there's any stat other than D-BPM that thinks Sabonis is the third best qualified defender in the NBA. It's not like on/off numbers disagree with the eye test either, by single season RAPM he was basically neutral this year which is really bad for a seven footer and certainly not anywhere near DPOY level.
They don’t even watch basketball and just did what Sharp said
By You got 14 bricks right there? Go To PostDonovan trying his best and getting no helpDon't worry, Mobley is here to go off in garbage time.
By DY_nasty Go To Postsimulate to end of series plstrolol
By unknown Go To Posttrololthats not a troll this series is going to suck
By Christberg Go To PostSilver unimaginably soft
Should have been a 1 game suspension instead but it's better than nothing.