[Dane Moore] My experience with Rudy Gobert last year was that when he’s frustrated about a game or something they’re not doing, you can tell. He usually tells us. Which is why I thought it was noteworthy today when I asked a random question about the defense that he seemed genuinely excited about:
by Slim-Ticket
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Tweet continued:
>Very much gave I’m-not-worried-about-it-vibes.
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>*Transition D was an issue but what can make this a very good halfcourt defense team?*
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>”Our size. You can’t teach size. People can say whatever they want, but at the end of the day, size is really, really important in basketball. Length is really, really important in basketball. And I think we have guys that are competitors, guys that have pride. We take every matchup personally. And it’s about being able to translate that into team defense, and translate that into a five-man defense. It’s exciting. We lost the game, but playing not great offense, and we lost the game by three against a team that was the number one team in attacking the paint. That’s why I think there were some bad things in that game, but there were also some great things and great signs. I think last year same timeframe we probably lose that game by 20. So it’s lots of positive things, I’m really excited about the next couple of months.”
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>And there is reason to be excited about the Wolves defensively if they can minimize the transition D problems.
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>- The best halfcourt defensive team last year was Memphis, with a D-rating of 93.6
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>- **With Gobert on the floor last season the Wolves had a halfcourt D-rating of 91.9**
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>- In the opener against Toronto, **the Wolves halfcourt defensive rating was 72.0** (Got scorched in transition, but was otherwise good.)
Holy shit a rating of 72.0.
“You guys are making a bigger deal out of getting torched in transition than it is.”