“Well good luck, sonny. Hate to tell you but the only time ‘real’ comes into it is when they’re shooting at you. In practice, ‘real’ means dead—-anything else, there’s always room for some conversation.”
—Shadow Ticket, Thomas Pynchon
And we’re off.
The feelings combination of eager excitement after a long offseason, and impulsive judgment of what amounts to a tiny fraction of the full NBA season can lead to overreaction and, simply put, bad takes.
The Timberwolves are 1-1 after winning close at Portland and losing big at LA.
We saw defensive performance that, if it were to hold for 82 games, would keep them out of the playoffs entirely. We saw a version of Naz Reid that wouldn’t be able to remain in Finch’s regular rotation whether it goes 8 deep, or 10. We saw Mike Conley look every bit of his 38 years of life in his lack of explosiveness, but without detectable instances of sage veteran savvy that needs to offset the miles. We saw Donte DiVincenzo announced as being “awarded” starting point guard duty, shortly before opening night opening tip, and then we saw him turn the ball over 6 times in 20 minutes of action. And, what we did not see – specifically, a single meaningful second of Rob Dillingham Playing Time – could likewise represent the first clear blunder of the Tim Connelly POBOship in Minnesota.
We saw good things, too. Big things, even. If you told me before the opener that Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle would each look sharp and productive in the first two games, I’d be thrilled and I’d also assume we hadn’t lost a game yet. The offensive-side chemistry of action based on the team’s best players is an area for improvement. If they get that part right, it would seem as if the rest should fall into place with so many talented defenders and role players filling out the roster. A reliable pecking order tends to exist on great teams. Can that continue here with Ant and Julius? In the second game, both Wolves stars held the ball a little bit longer – in Randle’s case, this was especially true when he was aggressively double teamed – than they did in the first. But overall, Ant and Randle looked like All-Stars, and in Edwards’ case, a potential MVP candidate. That is huge, if true and real.
What else?
There is always going to be a little bit of added trauma when Luka goes off against the Wolves. The ’24 WCF was both the franchise’s historical apex and also an extremely disappointing outcome. In this past week’s Lakers game, Luka was getting just about any shot he wanted, and it kinda seemed like Finch’s schemes were partly to blame for that. Jaden was more frustrated than he should’ve had to have been. Maybe if it was a playoff series and Luka was a little dinged up, then challenging him to keep making shot after shot could pay some second-half-of-the-game dividends, but that sure wasn’t the case in Game 2 of the season. Hopefully there are adjustments in order for future Luka matchups, and probably just future matchups in general. The Wolves looked completely helpless on the side of the floor where the roster’s talent is mostly good or even elite.
Terrence Shannon Junior. Finch spoke him into regular-minutes existence in the preseason, and in his first game he filled up the stat sheet nicely. His second game, however, was a dud. I have some concerns with TSJ’s future prospects, for two main reasons: (1) his on-ball perimeter defense seems suspect, if not outright bad; and (2) he has absolutely no use for his off-hand; in his case, that’s his right. Being one-handed as a skill perimeter player puts a ceiling on things, to state the obvious. Shannon often finds himself contorting his body or just getting his layup stuffed not because he’s in bad or compromised position, but because his footwork has him needing use of his right hand, but he knows he can’t do it. It led to misses and mistakes in both of the first two games. I’ve got a little bit of a bias against one-handed players, so just expect me to be a little bit insufferable on this point. He should watch his fellow lefty Mike Conley sometime, one of the most ambidextrous players in the league who actually prefers to use his off hand for floaters. To be clear, and to be fair, the “real” with TSJ might still be quite good. He seems able to knock down an open three-point shot, and his transition game is freight-train stuff, barreling down toward the hoop, ready to throw down on anything in his way. He should have a role. But the conversation here is about upside and potential, and whether he’s a future “core piece.” The jury’s out on that.
We’re all in a race to be ahead of the curve on Jaylen Clark’s progression. How far are you willing to go? I’ll drop this one right here:
If we do not have a point guard on the floor, Clark might be the best option for “fifth player” next to the Ant-Jaden-Julius-Rudy core quartet. No, he can’t do much de facto point guard stuff, but if the 2 thru 4 are dribbling the ball up the floor anyway, they’d probably benefit from siccing the Jaylen Clark Pitbull on as many opposing scorers for as many minutes as possible. I think his six-foul limit would conspire with drained energy to keep him under 30 minutes per game, but playing him for 20-25 would not seem crazy at all to me right now.
Wolves face the Pacers tonight (writing this Sunday) as huge favorites, presumably due to Pacers injury and lack of rest. Things always get real eventually – for now, the conversation continues and we seek our first win of the season on the Target Center floor.
Go Wolves.
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