The Minnesota Timberwolves Can’t Snap Out of The Fourth Quarter Tailspins | The MN Basketball Party

The Minnesota Timberwolves Can’t Snap Out of The Fourth Quarter Tailspins | The MN Basketball Party

Welcome to the party I’m Sam xram of lockon sports Minnesota and I’m this close to using the fword with the Timberwolves frauds this is locked on Sports Minnesota podcast it’s endless Minnesota Timberwolves talk with the diverse voices of your local experts it’s time for the Minnesota basketball

Party on the locked on podcast Network your team every day the Wolves blew another gigantic lead last night and I am fired up today it’s Wolves talk every Wednesday on the Minnesota basketball party on lockdown Sports Minnesota thanks for watching us on the YouTube channel please subscribe to lockedown sports Minnesota and catch

Us on the 247 YouTube live stream with all your favorite shows hear us on the lock on wolves audio feed where Ben Beacon posts daily wolves podcast and lets us tag along there on his coattails but let’s meet the crew on today’s show uh Ron kick us off yeah I’m Ron Johnson

Uh former gopher NFL wide receiver and uh I want to talk about the fact that the Gophers are doing stuff that the Timberwolves should be doing Reggie Wilson Sports director car 11 and I’m not trying to go as far as Sam calling the Wolves the f word but I

Think I we do owe Sam a little bit of an apology because he might have nailed a take a couple weeks ago about the Wolves I’m Jack foran editor-in chief of canis suus uh co-host of the the lockon wolves postcast with my man Luke Inman

Um and I’m going to talk about why we we might just have to temper some of our uh some of our expectations come come playoff time until further notice I’m B Beacon host of The Daily lockdown wolves podcast and uh I’m going to coign um I guess what a couple of

These guys said take kind of a middle of the road here right the sky not falling but you know maybe this isn’t a 65 win team as we might have thought six weeks ago plus we’re going to talk trade deadline and uh you know that’s that’s

Tomorrow I I don’t know that the wolves do anything but you know who knows after this Bulls game can’t wait to get into it Today’s Show first of all is brought to you by Game Time download the game time act uh app create an account use code locked on

For $2 off your first purchase at game time so the Wolves losing overtime last night uh 12923 the final score they led by 23 points in the second half and 12 points in the fourth quarter uh went to OT wolves had a shot to win it at the end

Carl Anthony towns kind of like the Nets game about a week ago ends up taking a 28-footer no good and the Wolves lose in overtime in a game that was just an avalanche for Kobe White and the Chicago Bulls and vich was hitting shots and I I don’t know what the the shooting

Percentage was for the Bulls in the second half but they couldn’t miss kind of like the Charlotte game a couple weeks ago like all these games just resemble each other now the Wolves I think have lost four double digit leads in the fourth quarter in the past 10

Games they are no longer number one in the west and and I am ready to to just accept well they’re a four seed now I mean the nuggets and Clippers and Thunder They’re all playing better basketball it seems like the Wolves aren’t going to hang on to this Western

Conference lead they’ve already lost it uh this just could be a four seed team that you know has a good battle with the five seed in the first round and and Bows out that’s where I’m at right now with this team because they do over and

Over and over and over again Ron I’m panicking are you panicking um I’m I’m not panicking but I’m just concerned uh when you go into a game I don’t care what game it is and and I don’t know if you guys have seen the video of them making fun of CJ

Gardner Johnson waving to the uh faithful talking about like it’s time to go uh but there’s a there’s a guy that does some social media videos and he kind of did that and I feel like I don’t know if the Timberwolves do that but I

Do know when you have a 20 plus point lead sometimes it just gets in your head and you’re just like oh man we gonna cruise to Victory where the other team’s thinking one shot two shot three shot four like that’s all you got to do just keep making shots and eventually if they

Get tight we got them and that’s what happened like the Timberwolves started doing dumb stuff again um and I bring up the Gophers because I don’t know I watched the Gophers last night on peacock uh NBC our partner and uh they played Michigan State and Michigan state

Is not great they’re 14 I think and eight at the time goers came into this game 14- s Gophers win uh at the end they they battled back they were down 12 uh nobody thought they could do it and they battle back and one now neither team looks great but the Gophers found

Ways to get the points they needed and they did what they had to do against a giant like they started playing physical they start you know bumping and elbowing guys you start see and that’s what I wonder about the Timberwolves is like where where or when does that switch get

Flipped like are they just waiting for the playoffs for them to have that killer instinct uh because this is going to be the problem if they are the onec playing the eight there’s going to be a lot of games like this where they going to have time up

22 and do we think they can sweep and win in four hopefully but if they have one of these games call it the first game like the Nuggets had that with the Lakers LeBron got the first game off the nuggets the Nuggets never look back they’re like man stop playing get this

Mosquito off of us I don’t know if the Timberwolves have that in them and that’s why you know when we talked about this yesterday Sam uh that I think the nuggets are one of the tougher teams in the west that are like down the stretch

They are going to be tough to handle um and so yeah that’s that’s kind of where I go with it I’m I’m not concerned or sorry I’m not like thinking they’re frauds but I’m concerned a little bit about these leads they’re losing yeah rege so bowmani Jones has a term that he

Coined that is affectionately known as lemon booty and that is exactly what is going on with the wolves and Sam look we were ragging on you we were ragging on you a couple weeks ago because you were like look this team they just don’t know how to close games down they’re these fourth

Quarter blown leads are are concerning and we were all like Sam calm down calm just calm down bro you’re doing too much maybe you aren’t doing too much maybe maybe there’s something to that because for some reason the lemon booty is very strong in that fourth quarter uh With The Wolves I mean

The the lemon booty was strong in the second half uh outscored by 28 points in that second half and O in overtime and it just seemed to go like downhill from there and you know it’s interesting because like there were a couple things the Kyle Anderson Tech when he

Wasn’t even in the club he wasn’t even in the club he was out outside of the club and he got a tech that Loom large and then if c ends up making the three that he missed near the end of the buzzer like yeah we’re still talking about how we’re concerned

Because they blew the lead in the fourth quarter but all of a sudden a win looks a whole lot better than how ugly that that loss ended up in Chicago last night and so there are very very concerning things happening with the wolves the Kyle Anderson Tech in the fourth was

Not necessarily the only thing that had fans just done with I saw some people saying that they will drive slowmo to the airport after his play last night and you know I know we’re going to talk about the the trade deadline and what maybe they should or even would do but

Something is just not right with this team right now and you I’m not in the position where you are Sam where you’re ready to Panic or where you already are panicking I am I am definitely look I ain’t there yet but what I will say is there is some smoke

In the air and I’m hoping that it doesn’t lead to fire like you said where they just go into the the playoffs and then their first round exit again like they have been the last couple years so they got they got some things to fix and they have to do some things differently

If they want a different result because what they’re doing right now is the very definition of insanity the their options just shrivel up in the second half of games it’s like it ant ant drive into traffic throw it away you know cat contested three they they stop sharing the ball and it’s

Probably a lot of teams they go to their stars in the second half I get it that’s how it works but there’s just no one like even Conley like Conley is kind of supposed to be the one to pull them out of these things but he’s also very

Reliant on like spot up 3es which might come and go he’s not really a guy that can get to the rim I like to see Nas more involved sometimes in these moments when they can’t get a shot but they already have two big men on the floor so

He’s not playing like they need someone to pull them out and they just don’t have it right now uh Jack your cold open suggests to me that you might be coming around a little bit on on my level of concern where are you at

Uh I I am I am not I I I’ve not broken the glass case that the panic button is in uh I have not opened it I’ve not thought about opening it all I’m saying is that I I I felt pretty strongly that the Timberwolves were going to win a

First round playoff series and now I’m a little bit more uncertain um you know this is a shout out to my guy Alan Horton the radio voice of the Timberwolves this is the fourth game fourth time in the last 10 games the timber roles have lost game when leading

By at least 10 in the fourth quarter it is the fifth loss in the last 10 if you extend that to eight points um and all of them have been against pretty meh teams um you know Oklahoma City obviously was the big one but then Charlotte San Antonio Orlando who they

Crushed earlier in the season in Chicago who has been you know pretty mediocre all season long um so that’s certainly concerning uh but you know everybody has been wanting to blame Chris Finch you know a lot in the last two three weeks and and I just don’t really think this

One is on Chris Finch I think the Timberwolves ball movement has actually improved quite a bit in the fourth quarter as well as their player movement they ran a lot more uh you know structured actions and sets last night but Anthony Edwards just made a lot of

Really uh you know poor reads I thought that you know he initiated too many of the actions where I thought that Mike connley initiating a little bit more um and having ant be more of a play finisher rather than a play starter and a play finisher probably would have been

A little bit more helpful um and you know know he did a great job of drawing the defense in and and creating you know open pass opportunities to Shooters on the wing and just missed Shooters um made some passes that got deflected um just miss reads uh whether it be

Shooters on the wing or bigs rolling into the paint um and he only had eight points in the final 20 minutes uh of of game time after he scored 30 in the first 30 minutes or so um and and for a guy like Anthony Edwards obviously you

Have to remember that he’s only 22 years old right and that you know a lot of this stuff is still fairly new to him in terms of being the guy that everybody’s looking at in the fourth quarter and expecting him to to make stuff happen um but until they’re able until he’s able

To kind of get back up to speed a little bit with uh you know with some of the the intricacies of of drawing defenses in and const or consistently making them pay for uh bringing two to the ball or playing in the gaps or those sorts of

Things um I just don’t think that you can trust that they’ll win a playoff series especially when you consider um you know what’s been in the Timberwolves mental makeup uh in the last uh two seasons right I mean they absolutely should have won that playoff series against Memphis two seasons ago and just

Completely uh froze when the lights got right and they got up big and and we’ve seen that happen consistently over the last two seasons and you know I I think it was was I forget if it was uh might have been you Sam who said that you know

They’re just a four seed now but um you know if they do end up playing the four seed they could very well play Sacramento Phoenix or Dallas uh in the playoffs Sacramento had the last year’s clutch Player of the Year and dearen fox who was incredible all year long in the

Clutch and was incredible in the playoffs Phoenix who has Kevin Durant kin Booker and bradleyville or Dallas who has two of the you know most clutch players in the history of basketball in LCA donic and Kyrie Irving so you know it’s you know I think a lot of these

Things can be somewhat excusable if they can get back to that two line or on line and they could play play a team that you know doesn’t have those types of players on their team but I think when you start to think further ahead um you know down

Potentially to the playoffs it’s tough and when you look at the trade deadline right who are the guys that we’ll talk about backup point guards Shooters scorers Off the Bench are those guys going to be playing in the last eight minutes of the game no they won’t it’s

Going to be the same five guys who have been on the floor and who have been struggling to figure it out um and while I get yes that they had they didn’t blow a lead of 10 plus in the fourth quarter in the first uh you know 41 games of the

Season uh it it certainly is concerning that it’s becoming a trend even though I guess you could look at some positives of better ball movement better play movement uh you know more structured offense but in the macro it’s it’s tough it’s tough right now yeah this team needs the All-Star break like yesterday

Uh Ben Ben what you what do you got yeah in terms of this game specifically I mean yeah the the Bulls just in the first half it was it was actually like weirdly one of the best first Hales the wolves have played all season it really

Was I mean ant and Cat played off each other perfectly um ant you know got hot late first quarter and and just kind of was rolling but then also was was I actually had made a note like his passing in the first early in the game was actually really good like he was

Intentionally drawing the defense sucking the defense down closer to the paint and then kicking it out to cat for the the three at the top of the circle where he loves to shoot the ball like it was actually on point early in the game but then in the second half the Bulls

Just said all right well we’re just going to load up on Ant because we don’t think he’ll make the right decision and they were right and and like Jack said the tibl actually did run a lot more set plays which is something we’ve talked about a lot on this show and I’ve talked

About in lock down wolves like in in in crunch time run actual actions where there’s multiple options there’s movement there’s guys that are going to pop open for a shot if you make the right read but you still have to make the right read and ant just did not do

That it’s almost as though the Bulls knew when he saw more white jerseys he was going to shoot more difficult shots he was going to drive directly into them and in like yeah that the close to this game and and then it’s snowball like nobody else played well either in terms

Of the role players like ant took on so much of that burden that when he did make the right pass which was rare or when there was an offensive rebound and a kick out like Conley missed at least one if not two open threes in the fourth

Quarter uh jadeen McDaniels was a wide open Corner three cat did hit the game time three-pointer which I you know we should point out like that was a huge shot too but then he missed a potential gamewinner like nobody else Rudy didn’t play particularly well in general in

This game uh no one else came to the party either and it it started with ant just kind of you know running into a brick wall over and over and and not being able to break through um you know in the more the macro the the bigger

Picture you know the flip side of Jack’s point that they’re blowing these late leads against mediocre teams the flip side is that they’ve played really well against good competition which I know we spent all last year saying um but I mean like think of the close games that

They’ve lost like they haven’t really been blown out by a good team other than the one Kings game I guess one Sixers game Suns yeah the yeah the Suns on a back toback early in the year but for the most part like you think of both

Boston games uh you know two or three of the OKC games uh the the one where cat hit the gamewinner against the Pelicans the two games they won in Golden State I know golden state is what they are now but at the time like I mean like the

Clippers game like they’ve beaten good teams and they have won some of these Clos slate situations so part of this um if you just want to look at the math of it like eventually they were going to lose some close games it just sucks that it’s happening against teams that they should

Be beating now that it doesn’t both can be true right it doesn’t mean that the fourth quarter collapses aren’t concerning and things don’t need to be fixed um you know generally it’s ball movement in this case it was also ball movement but more specifically with ant

Um I think all of the above can be true and it doesn’t necessarily mean like yeah this team may end up as a two three or four seed uh but they’re still a good team they probably were never going to be a 60 to 65 win team like they were

Playing they’re also not a 500 team right they’re they’re somewhere in the middle which was probably always the most likely scenario I know that’s not the the most exciting hot takey take but um that’s that’s kind of where We’ve Ended up I think at least two-thirds of the way through the

Year yeah and it’s a bummer too that Finch kind of shot his shot he had the big come to Jesus film session with the team and it seemed to work against Houston and then one game later they’re right back where they started um so like how how many different cards can you

Play to get this team right it’s not like there’s a big injury they’re waiting to resolve everybody’s healthy this is the best alleged version of the team um do they add to it though at the trade deadline which is Thursday at 2m we’ll get into that in just a moment on

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As they stay on the road for the next three games uh but first we’re going to talk about the trade deadline February 88th that is tomorrow as we record this 2 pm and the wolves have a decision to make now they’ve been linked tus Jones that’s our guy that’s Ron’s guy Ron’s

Been talking about tus for a while apparently the Wizards want a first round pick wolves are saying no please take our second round picks instead Washington um that would obviously be the C that would be the Cuda gr that would be the big acquisition that would not only excite the fan base

Considerably but I think it’ be the perfect fit for that backup ball handler but Reggie trade deadlined a little over 24 hours from now what are the Wolves doing it’s just so funny it’s just so funny because Tyrus was a Minnesota Timberwolf like that was he was already here and

It’s so crazy like hearing all the excitement about possibly having him come back home and it’s like well he was here before already and I you know like what changed did did people not really want CU I wasn’t here when he was here so did people not really want him to go

In the first place or did people start seeing them cook in Memphis especially in the series against the Wolves a couple seasons ago as Jack talked about that they should have won um was it like oh we like this this version of tus yeah bring him back um I just think that the

Asking price is too high I think Washington is funny man because you know they they trade Brad Beal they they got a team you know with some unserious players like czz and and pool party and then they’re like yeah yeah yeah but we’re legitimate though so you know

We’re not going to give a guy away for nothing so we wanton a first round pick and it’s just like well I don’t know that that asking price is really you know but I think in terms of what they should probably do they I think they

Need and this this is crazy to say especially after the time that he has been here but just from what we’ve seen this season I think they need some type of a an upgrade at their like sixthman position where slowmo um occupies I mean I guess maybe

Nas is the sixth man but you know what I mean I think they need they need another guy who comes in gives you instant defense some ball handling and and just some better shot making than slow-mo does because I feel like the the things that you really enjoyed him for um

During his time on the team I feel like it’s just pretty much fizzled now and fans are just up to their limit with this guy so and you’re not really getting much from from shake and you know you brought him in to help I think think you’re you’re doing well with n

He’s doing pretty much what you expected him to do but they need a little bit more help um alongside of him as well when you talk about the depth of this team I think they just need to improve the depth where they go I I I just don’t

Know because I feel like the options are are kind of limited because of you know draft capital and and just the the people that you have on the team right now like as far as value goes for them so they’re in an interesting spot I do

Think that they need to make some type of a move I just don’t know how it gets done Jack yeah the wolves are in an interesting spot just because they they’ve got about $2.3 million in in luxury tax space but something that that people aren’t talking about really is

That Mike Conley has an unlikely incentive of $1.5 million that will uh that he will earn if he plays in at least 60% of the team’s playoff games and the Timberwolves certainly have to uh you know you know kind of go on at this trade deadline you know acting as if

He’s going to get that so really they only have uh you know if you want to look at it that way you know they’ve really only got about $835,000 below the tax line so uh if they also want to sign a buyout guy they’re going to need to have about

$760,000 in space beneath a luxury tax my point being is that if you want the Timberwolves to be able to sign a bio guy you you can only take back about $76,000 more in in salary than the temps currently have which which makes this trade deadline uh a little bit tough and

It’s also why you’re starting to hear one Del more Junior’s name floated I saw that uh Mike Scot at hoopsy said that the three guys the Wolves were were talking about in in trade talks were Shake Milton Troy Brown Jr and W Del Moore Jr and the reason for that is

Because let’s say you know I I think that Timberwolves are going to go the backup point guard route at the deadline I think they’ll probably try to go after Monte Morris just because he’s got familiarity with uh with Tim Conelly he’s a pretty known commodity at this

Point um but let’s say you do try to trade for you know Monty Morris who’s got $9.8 million if you aggregate Shake Milton and TR Brown Jr that’s $9 million so if you want that route just as it is with those three players involved you wouldn’t then be able to go turn around

And sign sign a b guy if you wanted to stay under um the luxury tax assuming the wolves made the playoffs and kindly played in you know at least 60% of those games so then you’d have to find a third party to take one Elmore Jr so I think doing

Something where you could send uh shake shake Milton and Troy Brown Jr to the Trailblazers um have matis thel as the returning option go to the Pistons as a guy in the wing that that could help fortify their defense a little bit and be a salary that they could move long

Term and then sending Wendel Moore Jr to the Wizards for a guy like Anthony Gil uh who makes $500,000 less than than W delore Jr does so that he would still you know at least open up the uh the opportunity for um you know the Timberwolves to at least then you know

Play around with a buyout guy um or at least allow them you know allow them to wait um at least a week or two weeks or something like that to free up a little bit more luxury tax space um or you could you could try to trade you know

Wend Delmore Jr take back no player um and just have the the Wizards send you cash or something like that and then um and then you the the picks thing would be interesting then right because you know Washington would probably want to pick but some rules only have you know

Three or four second round picks that they’re able to play with so um it’ll it’ll be tricky to figure out but I think that they’re gonna they’re going to try to trade for for Monte Morris um is as a backup point guard that can kind

Of help take some of the wear and tear off of off of Mike Conley down the stretch of the Season conveniently Kyle Anderson’s salary $9 million just saying well and that’s the other thing too is that Johnny K said that he does not anticipate that that Kyle Anderson will

Be moved but after last night I mean that’s exactly that’s exactly what a smart leak would say keep that value High Ben yeah I I mean it’s so crazy the week of the trade deadline and also just the um I I guess the league in general like before

Yesterday I think I even on Tuesday’s podcast I said on lock wolves I said that I didn’t think the Wolves would make a move I know everybody seemed to think they would I was I don’t think I put a percentage on it but I was probably 7030 6040 they weren’t going to

Make a move uh just for all the reasons we’ve already cited about how challenging it would be and I just didn’t think there was any way they trade Kyle Anderson um because we know he’s Chris Finch’s security blanket and yes he’s had a bad year I mean you could

Argue last year was the best year of his career and this year’s the worst I mean that’s a legitimate argument you could you could have um now I’m probably actually flipped as crazy as that is over 80 2 games to overreact from one but I still don’t think they’ll trade

Kyle Anderson I want to be clear about that but I think they will try and do something I think they will um I this is maybe a weird analogy but Shuffle the deck chairs that is the the bench Titanic for the wolves um like to Jack’s point I think last segment I mean

Whoever you’re acquiring isn’t playing at the end of a close game anyway so now there’s also been games that they’ve lost because the bench has struggled and there isn’t enough scoring Etc and then there’s also the layer and this is why I think they’ll ultimately do something

You want somebody that you can say okay let’s give Mike Conley a night off and you know not force it to be nil Alexander Walker or Kyle Anderson and 12 minutes of Jordan mcgoffin running the offense instead have somebody who’s a pro starting point guard like Amonte

Morris uh who’s also my favorite Target for a lot of reasons but I think he’s probably the best of of all the different like dlon Wright’s been thrown out there um bones Highland would be a poor option I I think Monte Morris is the best choice and I think he’s the

Most likely guy that they acquire um Jack already walked through like how that would work logistically I think um I think it’s likely they do something mostly just because like they’ve got a ton of back-to-backs upcoming I think they played the least or the second least back-to-backs in the

League so far now the schedule itself in terms of competition gets a little bit easier but that lately hasn’t mattered um but they’re going to need to to grab some minutes you know you know play guys a little bit less now nil Alexander Walker barely played not bar not

Actually but he played like what 16 18 minutes last night um his minutes have come way down he’s obviously not a pure point guard but they went into the season seeming to think that nikil Alexander Walker Shake Milton then Kyle Anderson could play backup point guard

And and are they ready to pull the plug I think probably and and realize that like hey we need another adult in terms of a point guard that could run the offense I think it’s a minor move I don’t think slowo gets straighted um I you know I think that’s probably the

Most likely scenario is they find one of these backup guys I don’t think it’s tus I don’t think SLO is out I think it’s Amonte Morris or somebody like that um as a as a backup guard Ron I’m still holding out hope for tus yeah and and another name that was

Thrown out there other than tyus could be Trey Jones if you think about the Spurs and another point guard option I mean if it’s not tus let’s take his little brother uh he’s younger um he’s not as like like tus was a pure like distributor killer Trey is more of an

Athlete can bounce and so that’s another option that could give you some minutes off the bench could be a a starting point guard I mean has been the starting point guard so he could be the starter if you know like you said these back Tob backs and then again this could be the

Future if Mike connley like when it’s time for him to walk away maybe it is the Trey Jones Show here in Minnesota he’s from Apple Valley as well we forget about that um I like the Monte Morris like the Pistons suck it sound like they were trying to get rid of either Morris

Or Burks so they’re gonna move one sounds like they want to keep Alec Burke a little bit more than they do Monte Morris so that could be an option as well um but but again I I I like the you know Kyle Lowry with the Hornets I know

I was on him before I thought like oh they could have got him but the asking price was too high now when I’m looking at this like Kyle lry just looks tired so I’m not too sure like that’s the answer either because you’re just bringing another old tired guard in here

Whereas a Trey Jones uh I know the name Dennis Smith Jr was floated out there as well with the Nets uh but I do like the Trey Jones one like I really like that one just from the youthful movement the excitement of of a homegrown kid coming

Back to play um and I know there’s some after the trade deadline guys they probably can get to they could have buyouts so on and so forth but that those numbers and all that stuff and that analytics that’s way like out there and again like I think you said any

Buyout guy is probably not a guy that’s going to be starting and getting key minutes it’s going to be more of these hey they need a spark or they need somebody to come in a pure score um and right now like it is it’s lacking like a

Lot of guys aren’t joining the party late pure scorer sounds to me like Alec Burks I’d be a big fan I don’t think I mean the defensive numbers are bad but also the Pistons are really bad so take that into account too um Burks is he’s

The Malik Beasley like he could come in and light it up from long range and do some like boneheaded things occasionally but also he might score 27 like that’s the kind of player that he would be the instant offense shooter that they lack and what do we keep saying the

Timberwolves offense is what’s holding them back well that’s because they don’t shoot that many threes relative to the rest of the NBA get an instant shooter like that and maybe that would change a little bit I’d be a fan again he makes like $1 million so you would have to

Compile you know nine10 million or trade slow-mo so um there is a little bit of a a cost there but um I’d be a fan of Alec Burks coming up we are going to discuss the Wolves Bucks game as well following the trade deadline and uh maybe get into

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Off download game time today last win of tickets lowest price guaranteed uh it’d be more compelling if the Wolves had not blown two of the last three games but still compelling the wolves go and play the bucks on the road Thursday night Giannis for the first

Time this year and then they get him at home I think about 15 days later after the All-Star break but we’ll start with Ben Beacon Ben what uh what do you expect from wolves bucks and maybe along with that just kind of weigh in on on that that curious Milwaukee coaching

Move That You Don’t See a lot a team that had just hired a coach they’re like 30 and 13 or whatever at the time of the of the uh of the move and they bring in Doc Rivers to take over that team kind of interesting yeah I I think the doc thing

Is pretty interesting um mostly because there was the whole offseason back and forth on the players you know well players specifically Giannis being more interested in hiring somebody like an Adrien Griffin and the oders you know everybody thought Nick nurse was going to go there and then in season obviously

Things it’s funny because the Bucks like it’s not like they’ve been bad they just haven’t been what people wanted them to be and there was a lot more behind the scenes than than certainly I know about but um it really is more just you know Giannis is Giannis so if Giannis wants

Whatever want Giannis wants is what Giannis is GNA get and and the Wolves don’t exactly have a Giannis at this point maybe an eventually but until he wins a title wins an MVP um Giannis has done all of that that he’s agreed to St Milwaukee multiple times and so he you

Know clearly I mean he handpicked the coach that got fired right and so then I think you know he goes back to ownership or whatever and says look hey um you guys were right let’s make this change um you know I don’t think until the Wolves make a serious run at a

Championship and or have an actual MVP caliber player yes ant’s a superstar yes cat’s a star but those guys aren’t to that level not even close um I don’t know that that’s something that we’ll have to deal with as much in Minnesota although the market size thing and and

You know that piece of it if the Wolves you know say they do win a like the crazy thing is like they won a title recently and that coach got fired so like there’s so many other layers to this and that’s just that’s just the NBA I guess in terms of the Milwaukee

Matchup specifically um I’m curious to see how they defend Giannis I mean they could try playing some Zone um although the Bucks are a good three-point shooting team and so I don’t know that that’s necessarily they the Ws have overall played more Zone recently um and uh so I

I could see that being mixed in somewhat ironically given the last conversation last two segments um Kyle Anderson Assuming he’s still on the roster could be an option in terms of somebody that’s bigger and um can hopefully use a combination of length and uh and Savvy

To stay in front of use up some fouls on Giannis um obviously Giannis is going to get to the line that’s just kind of what he does um so it’s a fascinating matchup overall you know I think the Wolves actually match up okay with the Bucks the Bucks Don’t Force hardly any

Turnovers I think they’re last in the NBA in forcing turnovers defensively the Wolves as we know turn it over more than anybody so that works in the Wolves favor like if you turn it over against the Bucks you’re just going to turn it over all the time um so they that works

In the Wolves favor um they don’t get a ton of offensive rebounds that occasionally is an issue for the Wolves especially if you’re playing zone is allowing Second Chance opportunities um so given those things you know and coming off this loss to the Bulls I actually don’t feel all that bad about

The Bucks game the one thing that would make me nervous um is Milwaukee’s I think one and four one and five under Doc Rivers they lost again last night so they’re going to be motivated to you know break out of this to to prove that you know their new coach is the right

Coach and whatever comes with that like and they’re obviously still a good team you’re on the road so um you know this is almost kind of a tossup in my mind there’s a lot of factors on both sides of it and of course the trade deadline whatever happens Thursday afternoon for

Either team um could impact you know those those uh the mindset going into the game for both of them so I think it’s a really interesting matchup um I don’t I didn’t look and see what the line was on this one but I’d imagine the Bucks are favored by a couple points

Would be my guess uh but it’ll be uh it’ll be an interesting one I can try to get that for you right now and I’m not sure it’s actually posted because that is tomorrow’s game so I don’t know yet there may not be a line uh Ron what do

You think well I mean the one thing about Doc Rivers and what he’s trying to do with this team is you know defensively there was question marks there of like the effort of some of these stars and these older guys Doc Rivers scheme quote unquote is he likes

To create those uptp one-on-one matchups he wants to discourage the pick and drive he wants to discourage some of that with how he kind of puts guys in position well then in turn when you run down the floor you wasted a lot of energy trying to cut off the middle of

The court so one let’s just hope Giannis is just not used to this system he’s used to like a lot of man-to-man defense all hell breaks loose let’s score 140 to 136 and we’re happy that’s not what Doc Rivers wants and I think that’s why the Bucks are struggling because they’re

Trying to to figure out what their deal is so in stopping Giannis honestly I say you put some agitators on him too like when you get when he gets frustrated and he gets like he’s he’s not Carling the towns but he does go through those phases of like just forcing it and

Trying to do stuff he’s not good at like calling out his his uh the things he can’t do well which is shoot the three so I would I would do a combo I would I would have ND Reed on them jadeen McDaniels and I would even let cat get

To him a little bit just cuz when you know he’s in the post like you know he’s going to go down to the post and try to play bully ball that’s what he does but if you can keep him up top he’s not as comfortable up there I mean he’s been

Working on it shooting the jumper and so on and so forth but I would get some agitators on him I would I would let Jaden MCD and Nas Reed just agitate the crap out of him so that he he starts to force it a little bit more because what

You notice now is when he’s really frustrated he just lets go of the ball and lets Dame take over and that’s I think one of the reasons why he was so excited to have a Dame uh because nothing against the previous guard like he was more of a defensive guard uh in

Drew holiday you know Drew holiday wasn’t going to take over a game and shoot a step back logo three that’s where Dame comes in and I think that’s the thing if you can agitate Giannis enough he’ll kind of just defer to Dame for a little bit of the game and see

What happens and and I think that’s going to be the way to do it but you got to agitate him you gotta you gotta like I’ve been watching old clips of the Pistons bull stuff I’m not saying elbow people in the head but you got to agitate them a little bit r

So the Doc Rivers thing is always so funny to me because like I’ve never seen a dude just ride one Championship to so much in my life like they gave him $40 million and like it seemed like he had finally like fizzled out and everybody was just like all right all right okay

Enough enough already like enough didn’t work with the Clippers didn’t work in Philly enough that’s it goes to ESPN they they rebuild their whole broadcast team with him involved and then the Bucks are like uh you know what we need an experienced coach for this experienced team let’s go hire Doc

Rivers and let’s just give him a bag you know how about we’re gonna pay three different coaches right now how about that let’s do that that sounds smart right and it it hasn’t been a great start but you know Doc is going to Coast the All-Star game that’s just such a

Weird that’s such a weird deal with the whole thing like what is going on he say he’s gonna give Adrien Griffin his All-Star bonus and all like what what is going on I I do think that they gave up on Adrien Griffin like way too soon and

I think maybe the logic was just like hey let’s cut our losses before things get too far down the road and we are too far gone but you know it it it’s similar not the same but kind of reminds me of like the whole like David blat thing it

Was just like yeah they they hired this coach this team was gonna be something and then LeBron’s like yeah I’m coming home and you’re like oh shoot like the coach can’t grow with the team now like they need somebody who’s going to be able to understand LeBron and help him

And help them win now because the team is a little bit different than when we hir David blat and I think the same thing like I feel like Adrien Griffin didn’t get a full shot like didn’t get a real chance to put his stamp on it to

Make his mistakes to grow because this team is is Win now and so you hire doc who hasn’t won really anything meaningful since his days in uh in Boston with the one ring that he won the one ring and I think it’s just it’s it’s interesting because Doc is known for you

Know the the Timberwolves you think the Timberwolves or something the collapses that Doc Rivers has been behind has been epic I mean epic stuff and so you know you look back at at his tenure in the league as a head coach and you’re just

Like all right I mean if if you like it I love it you know that being said I think because the the Bucks are still kind of figuring it out underd and he’s still trying to figure out even the the assistants that are there like which

Ones will stay and which ones will go and if if he’s going to replenish some of those guys because those are eight you know some of them are Adrienne’s Griffin Adrien Griffin’s guys still I think with that being the case I think this presents a good opportunity for the

Wolves to kind of jump on them and and battle and and get a win after an ugly loss in Chicago it be a good way to reel us back in if they could beat the Bucks that’s for sure Jack what do you think yeah I think the the Giannis match up

Specifically will be pretty interesting um you know I think it’ll be interesting to see which way the the Bucks go in the starting lineup because Chris Middleton got hurt last night and left the arena in a blocking Boot and on crutches uh so I think it’s safe to assume that he will

Not play uh tomorrow in Milwaukee um and so I think you could probably put Mike Conley on on uh Malik Beasley as kind of that chase a shooter round which he’s done uh Ant could probably guard whoever starts for Middleton you’d put Jaden on Dame obvious viously and then I think

They’ll probably put Carl Anthony towns and Brook Lopez as just kind of a matching stretch bigs and then have Rudy play off of Giannis and just let Giannis take whatever shot he wants to uh honestly I mean when you look at who guarded uh who guarded Giannis last year

Nas Reed actually spent the most amount of time guarding Giannis in terms of like total summed possessions that he spent guarding Giannis Kyle Anderson was number two and jayen mcz was number three uh Ry goar spent overwhelmingly the most time in the one game that goar

Did play and he had the best success holding um holding Giannis to three of eight shooting uh in that stretch Carl held Giannis to to two of six shooting uh which is also also pretty good so I think no matter which way they go on Giannis uh know they’ll have a lot of

Options I think it was R said or Ron just said throw a bunch of different guys at him I totally agree with that um I mean the biggest thing is is keeping Giannis off the free throw line I mean Giannis Giannis shot 41 free throws in the two games against the timber wolves

Last season um 21 and 20 in the two games so you have to keep him off the line but but man I mean this this Bucks team has been has been pretty bad uh under under Doc Rivers I think with just trying to uh you

Know get used to playing in a in a little bit of a new system here on the fly all those games have been on the road uh which obviously has been tough to have a five-game road trip to kind of start your tenure as the head coach of a

Team when you’re trying to you know tear down some things that that didn’t didn’t really work uh as well as you’d hoped under Adrien Griffin so um it it certainly is a game that you know looks pretty daunting on the schedule I think when people think about the bucks but

Really is a game that I think the Timberwolves should win um you know especially if the Bucks try to trade Bobby poris which is something they’re thinking about doing and he’s an important piece for them so they they certainly may be out may be without him um tomorrow so be interesting to see

What happens yeah you might have said this too Jack poor listening on my part but Lillard didn’t play last night either so no potentially no Middleton or Lillard um that could be lot of Malik Beasley my got yeah that that seemed maybe like a one game thing for Dame we’ll see um

But yeah I I hope Dame plays just because he’s he’s fun to watch so no that would be fun that would be fun and he hasn’t quite brought them the success they expected but um you know the like see with with the with a team like the

Bucks and and Giannis I tend to think they’ll like they’ll kind of figure it out I guess by like when by the time it matters because they have that cred and they have Giannis and the Wolves just don’t have that cred yet and I just

Don’t have the belief uh that I do with a more uh seasoned team but in our closing minutes we always do this we predict the week wolves are on the road for three games bucks Clippers Blazers Ron Johnson predict the week it’s three games right I I in my

Mind right now again I’m not I don’t want to be like just recent biased but I’m going to be recent biased I think one and two I I do I just I just don’t know if they’re gonna get three wins out of this week I think one and two

Reie I think uh three and 0 I think three and 0 I I think that they could get this uh this Bucks team and then I maybe the Trailblazers like surprise me I don’t know but I think in a backto back well it’s not really a back toback

It’s just kind of like too straight but um I think they can get them that’s not a a great basketball team even though they are playing some better basketball of late so I think there’ll be two dog fights but yeah I think I think they can

Uh they can get them so three and but you did skip over the Clippers though Clippers on Monday because they do have that weird back toback with the Blazers Clippers are lodged in there on M day so that change your number okay yeah two and one all right Clippers are an

Absolute wagon right now Jack yep I have two in one as well with the loss against the Clippers um I mean they’ve been they’ve been incredible they’re nine in one since the Wolves beat him in Minneapolis despite not having their starting center uh I mean PG Harden Powell all playing A+ roles behind

Kawhai who’s just been a superum the last 10 games um and they’ve been they’ve argued they’ve arguably been the best team in the league since the the turn of the new year so two and one for me Ben I’ll go two in one as well I think they’ll split the Milwaukee

Clippers game uh they’ll lose if they lose against Milwaukee I think they’ll pull it together they’ll beat the Clippers although that is the front end of a back-to-back headed to Portland so um I think they go two and one oh and some quick uh quick breaking news they

Just announced the skills challenge for all-star weekend and Sham or at least sham Shania did and ant will be in the skills competition with Pao banero and Victor wanyama so we have a a topic for next week’s show to discuss nice it’s not the dunk contest it’s not the

Three-Point Contest it’s the third sexiest one but that that’ll still be fun we’ll take it it still counts count so you know it’s it’s something um that’s the show for this week wolves talk every Wednesday in the Minnesota basketball party watch us on lockdown Sports Minnesota listen to us on the

Lockton wolves audio feed and check out Ron Johnson he’s on the Ron Johnson show on Tuesdays and a bunch of our programming here here on the network Reggie Wilson Carol Lan Jack Borman kis hoopus and Ben beacon on locked on wolves thanks a lot talk to you next week

The Minnesota Timberwolves’ repeated fourth quarter collapses have some of our guys panicking on the show. Can they right the ship with a smart trade deadline move? And how will they fare against the struggling Milwaukee Bucks? That’s all discussed on the latest Minnesota Basketball Party.

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