49 comments

1. Impossible to overstate how much shittier the vibes are from last year.

2. Felt like we were fighting an uphill battle the entire game. I know it feels bad, but when they’re shooting so well it is super tough to win. Turnovers were ridiculous and defense was sloppy.
   Not a lot to take away from the game, at least Naz and Jaden stepped up.

3. RIP NBA Cup 2024

4. RIP In-Season Tournament

   Don’t worry guys, we’ll change nothing and do it all again tomorrow night. This 6-5 team is too elite to find minutes for more than 8 players.

   Who would have guessed that only playing 8 players in this 5 games in 7 nights stretch would affect this team’s effort.

   Also the turnovers just never end. We just gift teams easy points because we can’t make basic passes or because we drive into no man’s land. I don’t even know how you begin to fix this issue because we refuse to run plays to give our players easy reads. This free flow offense is beautiful when it works but it actively works against us most of the time.

5. Vibes are not good

6. I feel them 2022-2023 vibes so hard rn

7. Oh, the Wolves have an 8-man rotation to start the year. They must be off to a hot start, right?

8. The clumsiness is contagious

9. Randle standing around is not defense. Like he’s a liability outside of the paint.

10. Thanks for caring Naz & Naw. Ex-Knicks looked rough as hell. Nothing much positive to say.

11. This is a .500 team again. First time going to the WCF in 20 years and you blow it up…

12. I said it before the game tipped: if the Wolves thought they were going to waltz into Portland and get an easy win, they were going to be sorely mistaken because NBA teams that get lit up by their coach like they did always come out with way more energy. And surprise surprise — they did.

13. 7th seed here we come.

14. Lost at every facet of the game, even if they shoot normally from 3 just seemed out of reach. Need better effort but that’s been a problem all season so how do you get them to care more? I’m not sure. And to cap it all off we wasted a 28 point Naz Reid night

15. 

16. Straight up not having a good time

17. I’m done pretending to enjoy watching this team this year. I defended KAT and Gobert fervently begging people to give the pairing time and still had to spend the last 2 years listening to people hate on Gobert without giving him time, and then all of last year blaming KAT despite his best year defensively and arguably overall of his career. Told people to give it time and we made it to the WCF for the first time in 20 years and still people wanted KAT gone.

    Now KAT’s gone and there is so much patience for Randle but y’all got what you wanted. An inefficient scorer who doesn’t put any effort into defense, he can’t rebound the fucking basketball, he turns the ball over, he doesn’t get back on defense, he ruins team chemistry, and has horrible body language. Now on nights like this and last game we see him for what he has always been. Fucking worthless if he isn’t scoring. I’m so tired of watching Julius Randle on this team only ever function when his offensive game is on. He’s checked out on defense all game and actively makes defense harder for the rest of the players on the floor because he’s completely lost off ball, and doesn’t give any effort. Even against Charlotte, like 2 minutes into the game Julius Randle is running with Brandon Miller on a breakaway and just stops under the basket and doesn’t even contest when he literally had no fouls. There was no reason not to contest.

    Now KAT is nearly inarguably having the best season of his career with the Knicks and we’re stuck with two players who each have one half of his skillset. All cause people thought KAT was bad in the playoffs, stupid fouls, and that he was a whiner. But, oh wait, Julius Randle has significantly worse body language, is an even bigger whiner, fouls are just as stupid and is an infinitely worse playoff dropper than KAT has ever been. Get this fucking clown off of the Wolves.

18. This was a game

19. We need our defensive culture back. Slomo and KAT really made this difference

20. I am sorry but every bad thing you heard about Randle has showed up in the past 2 games. The dude might be the laziest player I have ever seen.

21. I think Ant needs to take some serious blame for that one. He should be setting the tone with his effort but it was non existent on both ends.

22. We could trade Randle and I wouldn’t lose any sleep. Mike should run the 2nd unit, start DDV and Naz. And give some minutes to your rookies. Who tf cares about in-season tourny?

23. Straight up got outplayed in every facet. Embarrassing loss. Maybe this will be the kick in the pants Finch needs to change things up.

    There’s a lot of season left for us to improve, but it’s pretty clear we are not as good as we were last season.

24. Conley was +7

25. I really want to give Randle a chance and like him but I just don’t. In fact I think his laziness on defense and attitude are contagious to everyone else and he is a detriment to the team…

26. This team ain’t it, man. I’m sad.

27. Putrid

28. This team has some major issues and I don’t think Finch knows how to fix them.

29. Not a serious team right now

30. Finch is pushing all the wrong buttons this year imo.

    The Wolves are 6-5 despite good health and an insanely easy schedule. And the starters are playing too many minutes while the deeper bench (which he will inevitably need) is getting zero reps so when someone does go down they’ll be thrown into the fire.

31. I’ll take the boneheaded KAT fouls and frustrating ref whining back if we can get back the immaculate vibes and feel good energy of last season.

32. I don’t believe a coach can or should be fired for one bad performance but this felt like every problem with how this team is coached all in one game. Lazy, who gives a shit attitude from your players. Turnovers upon turnovers. A stubbornly small rotation. No set plays and no intensity on defense. Just players running around doing random crap and hoping for the best.

    There will be postgame interviews talking about the problems and how they all have to be better and then we’re gonna watch the same shit again. Sometimes the talent will be enough to get us some decent wins but there is some pretty fundamental problems that nobody seems interested in addressing.

    Apologies for the vent I had a rough day and was really hoping for a win tonight

33. finch’s usage of donte in his bench minutes has been nothing short of terrible – like he’s not utilizing him even at the surface level of his potential. just another guy “spacing the floor” standing around the entire game.

    not even going to get into randle since there are still people here who genuinely believe he’s suddenly going to be a different player than he’s been the last 10 years of his career.

34. Did Finch play Minott a minute just to say he didn’t run an 8 man rotation lol

35. The defense is night and day compared to last season.

36. I’d say start exploring inserting Dillingham (for playmaking purposes) and someone else (for energy and rebounding purposes) in the rotation. Finch needs to consider benching Conley because he is largely ineffective turning the ball over, passing up open floaters, and missing wide open 3s. I honestly wouldn’t mind starting NAW at the 1.

37. It was always gonna be a rough start because of the roster turnover. And a lost of identity no longer being the tower lineup. But Finch ain’t even trying to find the right lineups. Stubborn on this 8 man lineup despite 3 of them being super inconsistent. Mike and DDV have had a rough start. Both should lose minutes to your fucking lotto pick. And i dont wanna hear about defensive liability because the defense has been ass with those two anyways.

    The synergy is gone. The comradery is gone. They don’t even look like they like playing with each other.

38. Finch needs to get Randle to play some defense, and maybe having someone take some of his minutes would light a fire under his ass.

39. Average team. They will need to make changes. Ain’t shit to say

40. When we are done by a 10 point lead with decent amount of time left, why do we just chuck up 3s… the worst part is it’s usually on good defensive plays.

41. Ownership capitalized on a WCF team by taking all our money, then ruining the team right before the season started.

42. All Julius is missing is a loading screen.

43. pretty sure finch said something like the next the 5-10 games will help establish the tone?? the tone has been set…let’s make some changes

44. It just feels like the team is going through the motions and has no identity. Getting blown out by a bottom 5 team without their two best players is pathetic.

45. And my brother said we won’t miss Slo-Mo. 😂

46. The starting 5 does not fit well together. KAT was the perfect frontcourt partner for Rudy, and that is not the case with Randle. Not only is Randle non-existent on defense, but his clumsiness combined with his need to clog the paint makes it harder for Rudy to get open for lobs.

    Rudy’s lack of offensive versatility also makes life difficult for Randle and McDaniels because they have to shoot more 3s to create effective spacing even though neither of them are consistent 3 point shooters. They can make 3s occasionally, but you want Randle driving to the rim and McDaniels shooting high percentage free throw middies.

    The Timberwolves need a 3&D power forward like Cam Johnson to better complement Gobert, who they just extended. Maybe then, our defense would be good enough to carry us to the playoffs. Right now, this team isn’t good enough on either side of the ball to establish any sort of identity. The two big lineup with Rudy and/or KAT always on the floor was our identity, now that’s gone.

    I’m not trying to be a doomer, but this team needs a retool to become playoff contenders again. Right now, the Timberwolves are paper tigers. You’ve got a bunch of solid players who do not complement each other in a way that contributes to winning basketball.

47. Finch needs to step up and prove he can make legit improvements.

48. If this team wanted Divincenzo so bad, why is he only getting 3 shots in a game?

    Conley obviously sucks right now.

    Ant getting 0 rebounds and only 3 assists is really pathetic.

    We can’t get blown out like this in games when Jaden is actually shooting and scoring.

    Our starting center only taking 3 shots is laughable.

49. I don’t like making judgments on this team especially if we haven’t played 20 games yet but Conley needs to be benched and i would also bench randle but that will never happen