We all wanted the gates to burst open and the Minnesota Timberwolves to fly out of them like a bat of hell. We wanted chemistry that felt like it had been bubbling away for years. We wanted telepathic offensive actions and trust-filled defensive rotations. We wanted a team who didn’t look caked in a thick layer of rust.
Unfortunately, that’s not always how it works, and this was but the first cinderblock in the foundation. It’s going to take more than a single preseason game to iron out the kinks that present themselves for every newfangled roster. When you’re changing the entire feng shui of a squad, it often doesn’t click overnight. The Wolves limped out of the gates against a Brooklyn Nets team who possess a little bit of firepower themselves, and everything just seemed a little strange and a little clunky and a little too new.
The game ends 102-112. When you take a hearty helping of the aforementioned awkwardness and pour a generous serving of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant into the pot, things can get dangerous very quickly. They say iron sharpens iron, and the Wolves ran into some strong iron.
Minnesota worked some things out as the game wore on — the spacing improved, Towns and Gobert began to click, and the defensive scheme started to have a clearer identity — but every time they started to claw back the scoreboard, the Nets stars would do their star-like shit. Whether it was mid-range jumpers, wild 3-point makes, or using their gravity to get Brooklyn’s role players involved, Minnesota could never overcome their slow start while they had a pair of demigods to contend with.
Now, we put a bow on the final preseason outing before the real stuff begins. No more weird minute allotments and funky bench lineups. No more resting players. It’s fucking go time, and this season is going to be one to remember.
D’Angelo Russell: 7/10
It was a microcosm of Russell as a player. All the good and all the bad and all the ugly. He remains polarizing and confusing. A maddening anomaly of a basketball player.
The good is that he can make shots. He makes hard ones look smooth and buttery, having Rudy Gobert out there opened up easier ones and they looked silky, too. Sure, the shot selection sprout gray hairs, but his shot-making is going to be crucial to a team who still lacks self-creation.
The bad is that he never really found a playmaking synergy with the big bustling baguette in the pick-and-roll, but it’s so very early in their partnership and it’s a reasonable expectation to think that improvement is only around the corner.
The ugly was the turnovers. At times it felt like the ball was covered in fucking baby oil. It slipped and slid and wriggled its way out of his hands half-a-dozen times and his tentativeness stood out like dog’s balls.
In the end, it’s just a strange night. A strange night for a strange player.
Finished with 17 points (61.2% TS) and 5 assists in 27 minutes — -25.1 net rating.
Anthony Edwards: 5/10
We know he can do things with the ball in his hands that other mere mortals simply cannot. We know he can glide through defenders like a big burly basilisk and soar through the air like a fucking phoenix. We know he can hit tough shots and he has shown a consistent uptick in playmaking ability already throughout the preseason.
However, when those things aren’t there, he can find himself meandering through a night. That’s where he found himself for much of this one. For much of the game, it just wasn’t working. He threw shit after shit at the wall and none of it stuck. The rim-attacks were ferocious, but the ensuing shots were toothless. The jumper was spotty and the shot selection was wacky. He pressed and pressed but never quite found any rhythm worth writing home about.
He saved an unsavable night by blocking Kevin Durant’s unblockable shot and shackling Kyrie Irving’s unshackleable handles. A pair of highlight defensive plays that are as important as the uncountable dunks we’ve seen him throw down. In fact, while he spent the entirety of his night pissing into a tornado offensively, he simultaneously spent his night chasing, harassing, and dogging the heels of everybody in his path defensively.
The offense will come, we know the mythological shit he can do, but if that defensive attentiveness and execution remain … sheesh.
Finished with 12 points (40.3% TS), 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks in 26 minutes — -15.0 net rating.
Jaden McDaniels: 5/10
Resumed his beef with the referee’s whistles. Those fuckers just won’t leave him alone. They’re his sleep paralysis demon waiting at the end of his bed. Every time it seems like he has escaped their clutches for the foreseeable future, they sneak up behind him and stuff him in a fucking locker.
When he wasn’t being bullied by them, he spent the night having to check Kevin Durant. And even when he did a good job of that, the whistled squealed or the scoring genius buried a tough look.
Tough night.
Finished with 6 points (42.9% TS) and 4 rebounds in 21 minutes — -27.9 net rating.
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