Eight matches, a balance sheet, two sluggish victories against the Thunder and defeats against the Jazz and the Spurs (twice). After two weeks in this new season, it does not seem unreasonable to admit that the face displayed by the Wolves is clearly not the most reassuring.
After a successful 2021/22 fiscal year, followed by a noisy summer that foreshadowed continued progress, the Minnesota squad is indeed not yet at the expected level at the start of this 2022/23 season.
In the radius of disappointments, there is in the first place the five major of Wolves. A quintet jostled by the arrival of Rudy Gobert in its midst this season, and which has displayed for two weeks all the trouble in the world to reach its optimal level. Latest example: the game lost against the Suns last night, during which it was the substitutes who offered the best passages. The five incumbents all ending with a negative “+/-”…
Holders who do not yet know how to play together
« I would just say that we haven’t been able to see any progress from this group yet. said Chris Finch flatly. ” If we summarize, we are in difficulty when [les titulaires] are on the pitch, and we have a better chance of winning when the substitutes play recognized for his part Anthony Edwards, solid against the Suns with 24 points and 6 rebounds, despite a “+/-” of -12.
In the boxscore of the match against the Suns, one line sums up the difficulties of the five majors to find the right note on the collective level: that of Rudy Gobert, who took… only one shot. The French pivot is obviously not the first option in attack, but his average shots per game have exceeded 8 units since the start of the season. His starving involvement in the offensive phases of his team against the Suns then clearly reflects a lack of coherence and cohesion between the holders.
« They share the leather, they don’t care who marks then remarked “Ant”, about the replacements. The back of the Wolves also highlighted another problem, more structural: the lack of “spacing” inherent in the “tall ball” association between Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert.
On a personal level, this requires him to recalibrate his game, as he already mentioned at the very beginning of the season, because he no longer has as much space to operate. ” As soon as I enter, I have no chance to go up to the circle » adds young Wolves star, who has actually still not recorded the slightest dunk this season. ” Everyone is in the paint, so I have to improvise to put my lay-up. I can’t jump over everyone, I’m not giant like Giannis [Antetokounmpo]. »
After the changes made to the workforce during the summer, the automatisms acquired by the five majors last season seem to be lost.
No miracle solution: incumbents must do better
Like their conductor D’Angelo Russell, in distress at the start of the season (14 points at 39.4% and 27.4% at 3-pts, 5.8 assists for 3.1 ball losses), the holders of the Wolves are collectively disrupted.
The good news is that the season is still very long, and that Chris Finch does not intend to shake things up, for the time being. As against the Suns, even if it proved unsuccessful, the technician indeed confirms that he will continue to finish the matches with his holders, who will have to find solutions to their ills.
« Listen, these guys are the incumbents, I’m going to call on them again. I’m not going to sit on my bench, questioning whether every substitution in the last five minutes is the right one. he asserted. ” The major five, we’ll get through it. All five in negative, it’s madness, seriously… I don’t like it, we’ll find the solution “Concludes Anthony Edwards, who joins his coach on the obligation for holders to find solutions.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | MJ | Min | Shots | 3pts | LF | Off | Def | Until | Pd | Bp | Int | Ct | Fte | Pts |
| Anthony Edwards | 7 | 36.4 | 45.9 | 34.5 | 64.3 | 0.6 | 5.6 | 6.1 | 4.4 | 3.1 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 3.0 | 23.0 |
| Karl-anthony Towns | 7 | 35.3 | 46.8 | 34.1 | 88.6 | 1.6 | 6.4 | 8.0 | 5.3 | 3.3 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 3.3 | 21.3 |
| D’angelo Russell | 7 | 31.3 | 40.6 | 27.5 | 78.3 | 0.9 | 3.3 | 4.1 | 6.0 | 3.0 | 1.9 | 0.9 | 1.9 | 15.3 |
| Rudy Gobert | 7 | 32.5 | 60.6 | 0.0 | 55.9 | 4.9 | 9.9 | 14.7 | 1.0 | 1.6 | 0.6 | 1.7 | 2.4 | 14.1 |
| Jaylen Nowell | 7 | 19.9 | 41.1 | 26.5 | 75.0 | 1.1 | 3.0 | 4.1 | 2.1 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.4 | 12.7 |
| Jaden Mcdaniels | 7 | 32.1 | 52.8 | 30.0 | 83.3 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 3.0 | 1.1 | 1.1 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 3.1 | 11.0 |
| Taurean Prince | 7 | 18.8 | 62.9 | 57.1 | 50.0 | 0.4 | 2.6 | 3.0 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 2.6 | 8.1 |
| Naz Reid | 5 | 9.8 | 56.0 | 37.5 | 50.0 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 2.2 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 6.6 |
| Jordan Mclaughlin | 5 | 16.6 | 41.2 | 12.5 | 100.0 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 2.2 | 3.4 | 0.8 | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 3.4 |
| Bryn Forbes | 6 | 10.0 | 22.2 | 12.5 | 100.0 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 2.2 |
| Kyle Anderson | 3 | 11.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 100.0 | 1.0 | 2.3 | 3.3 | 1.7 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.0 | 1.3 |
| Nathan Knight | 2 | 1.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.0 |
| Austin Rivers | 4 | 6.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Wendell Moore, Jr. | 1 | 2.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
