I’ve been hearing national media regularly point to the loss of Kyle Anderson as a reason why we’ll regress. I wish people remembered anything besides the Mavericks series because other than that series, Kyle was VERY ineffective on the wolves last year with by far the worst net rating and this matched the eye test in my opinion. Now I think he can be a solid even great role player in the right system (see 2022-23 or Memphis run) and he may have been hampered by the eye injury but the fact is he was BAD all year long.
Now I’m not super optimistic about our bevy of 1st and 2nd year guys or the corpse of Joe Ingles being even net positives next year but the bar is so low for them compared to what Kyle brought us last year that we don’t need much to end up in the same place.
If national guys had a clue about how poorly Kyle played on the two big roster last year, they wouldn’t worry as much about us replacing him.
by dogfosterparent
7 Comments
All I am getting from this chart is Luka Garza is our best player
SloMo was great in the Dallas series
Slomo still catching strays
Analytics don’t work on him btw
This is the playoff net rating, and Kyle Anderson also had a +5.1 net rating in the regular season. You do have to play well in the regular season before you can make the playoffs, and having a high seed increases your odds of a deep play off run.
It also isn’t just “national media” people who don’t have a “clue” about the wolves talking about the impact of losing Anderson. The wolves success was primarily about their phenomenal defense and Anderson was a big part of their bench unit’s defense. He was a versatile defender who could fill in for multiple roles on the defensive end. None of the players that would be replacing him can do that. The team made a bet that they could lose some of defense and gain more in offense. It might work, but as you said it is relying on an old Joe Ingles and some rookies or other young players to step in right away. It is not unreasonable to think the wolves as a whole will take a step back from losing Anderson, even if it is a small one. At the very least, it will probably take time for the new guys to adjust to playing for the Wolves.
If you off of a single statistic, then we can also glean from this chart that Naz Reid is our 2nd worst player and KAT and NAW are only marginal difference makers.
Kyle is an elite defender. That stats play that out whether it’s LEBRON or RAPTOR or defensive BPM or whatever you wanna choose, and he always has been. He’s a smart defender that can generate blocks, steals, and deflections at a high level while also being very reliable on-ball and able to guard multiple positions.
He’s also an elite playmaker for his position and role.
He was 14th in the league in assist to turnover ratio and was 60th in the league overall in APG, the third most assist per game on the team despite being an off-ball forward playing 8th most minutes a game. And these aren’t just empty assists to guys in the weak side corner. He’s willing and able to actually run the offense and deliberately looks to set up good looks for teammates.
No, he’s not a good jump shooter. And that I think is where a lot of people get hung up and get hyper fixated on that aspect of his game. You talk about replacing him like all they need to do is find a warm body who can shoot. Yes shooting is extremely valuable but the reality is that he is one of the most uniquely valuable role players in the league that it doesn’t even matter that he can’t shoot.
There’s a reason that a coach as smart as Finch relentless continued to play him despite the shooting woes. He’s an extremely high level defending forward who can guard multiple positions and who also can run the offense like a lead point guard. I don’t understand how people don’t get how valuable that is, even if he’s got a dogshit J. Tbh it tells me how little you’re watching him actually play or your willingness to parse the data on him as a player.
He’s a big loss off the bench. They’ve still got a stable of good PoA defenders in NAW, Jaden, and Ant. But he was an extremely important part of that defensive rotation. Now you’ve lost maybe your smartest defender and the one reliably good big wing defender you’ve got. Meanwhile, you lose the only other legitimately good playmaker and orchestrator of the offense other than a 36 year old Mike Conley, which I think is where his absence will be felt the most. This team already struggled with playmaking last year and now you’re losing the second best playmaker on the team.
Jaden needs to stop picking up bullshit calls so he can play more than 29 minutes. That solves the problem better than anything.
Kyle Anderson slander won’t be tolerated. The dude can play ball.