We lost to who? (Part II)
Alright, clearly this was not a post I was hoping to write a sequel to. Somebody asked me why we kept losing to these god-awful teams. The only explanation I could come up with was to say that both of these games came on the ass-end of a back-to-back. Still, we are talking about the Bulls and the Vince-less Raptors (although who's to say that Vince's absence doesn't make them a better team). If the Wolves want get home court advantage in the playoffs again, they need to find a way to win these games.
The effects of fatigue were never more clear than in the 4th quarter of this game. The Wolves were outscored 25-16 and went more than 6 minutes at one time without a field goal after staying in control for most of the game. It was a painful thing to watch. It just looked like we weren't even trying to get good shots. The Wolves just would routinely settle for long, semi-contested jumpers. When KG finally did try and take it to the basket, he was grabbed by the arms and hurled to the ground by Matt Bonner.
I know the Timberwolves announcers try not to be too partial, but Jim Peterson went a little overboard by saying it really wasn't that bad a foul. Not that bad? He grabbed the league's MVP by the arms and threw him down. Since when is that "not that bad"?
The other thing that Peterson just went off on was that Kandi's performance lately hasn't been that bad lately and that people need to start cutting him some slack. He pointed out that after you've been down on somebody for a while, it's easy to continue to be harsh on them and not let up. He definitely has a valid point, but I'm not really sure it applies here. Last night he had one of his more solid performances of the season, scoring 8 points and collecting 7 rebounds.
Now if Kandi could routinely have 8/7 nights, I wouldn't have too much of a problem with him. It may not be what we had in mind when we signed him, but it's a solid line for an NBA role-playing center--yes-- my stock in him has dropped that much. Of course, it took him 10 shots to get those 7 points and in the meantime, he committed 4 personal fouls (a hobby of his).
WhatI do have a problem with that is when he starts taking minutes that could be used to play my boy Eddie G. In the same game that Kandi was playing quite well, Eddie G had an off-night, scoring 7 points and collecting 7 boards (on only 8 shots with only 1 foul). When you put their numbers side-by-side, there's really no comparison.
As you can clearly see. Eddie is the shit and Kandi is mediocre at best. He plays 35% more minutes, but out-scores Kandi by 130%, out-rebounds him by 56%, out-blocks him by 100% and commits fewer fouls in more minutes. Not to mention the fact that Eddie G has spent 100% fewer nights in jail this season.
Yet, in the past few games Kandi has been coming in before Eddie and his minutes have been creeping up.
It feels like Flip is overly committed to Kandi. The only real thing that Kandi has going for him at this point is that he is (potentially) the best low-post presence the Wolves have. To be honest, the best low-post player they probably have right now is Sam Cassell, and they obviously can't use him on any sort of a regular basis at the post. KG can do a low post, but is generally more comfortable doing a high post where he can face up the defender. I haven't seen much of Eddie's low post game, but what I've seen has been rather lackluster.
Other than this, I'd say that Eddie is superior in every way.
I'd like to see Kandi turn into one of those Rasho types of centers. You know the ones I'm talking about. They start the game, get a few points and a few post-up plays, then are taken out after 10 minutes and don't play for the rest of the game.
The effects of fatigue were never more clear than in the 4th quarter of this game. The Wolves were outscored 25-16 and went more than 6 minutes at one time without a field goal after staying in control for most of the game. It was a painful thing to watch. It just looked like we weren't even trying to get good shots. The Wolves just would routinely settle for long, semi-contested jumpers. When KG finally did try and take it to the basket, he was grabbed by the arms and hurled to the ground by Matt Bonner.
I know the Timberwolves announcers try not to be too partial, but Jim Peterson went a little overboard by saying it really wasn't that bad a foul. Not that bad? He grabbed the league's MVP by the arms and threw him down. Since when is that "not that bad"?
The other thing that Peterson just went off on was that Kandi's performance lately hasn't been that bad lately and that people need to start cutting him some slack. He pointed out that after you've been down on somebody for a while, it's easy to continue to be harsh on them and not let up. He definitely has a valid point, but I'm not really sure it applies here. Last night he had one of his more solid performances of the season, scoring 8 points and collecting 7 rebounds.
Now if Kandi could routinely have 8/7 nights, I wouldn't have too much of a problem with him. It may not be what we had in mind when we signed him, but it's a solid line for an NBA role-playing center--yes-- my stock in him has dropped that much. Of course, it took him 10 shots to get those 7 points and in the meantime, he committed 4 personal fouls (a hobby of his).
WhatI do have a problem with that is when he starts taking minutes that could be used to play my boy Eddie G. In the same game that Kandi was playing quite well, Eddie G had an off-night, scoring 7 points and collecting 7 boards (on only 8 shots with only 1 foul). When you put their numbers side-by-side, there's really no comparison.
|
| PPG | RPG | BPG | Min | PF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EG | 11.3 | 7.2 | 1.4 | 23.5 | 2.0 |
| Kandi | 4.9 | 4.6 | 0.7 | 17.3 | 2.7 |
As you can clearly see. Eddie is the shit and Kandi is mediocre at best. He plays 35% more minutes, but out-scores Kandi by 130%, out-rebounds him by 56%, out-blocks him by 100% and commits fewer fouls in more minutes. Not to mention the fact that Eddie G has spent 100% fewer nights in jail this season.
Yet, in the past few games Kandi has been coming in before Eddie and his minutes have been creeping up.
It feels like Flip is overly committed to Kandi. The only real thing that Kandi has going for him at this point is that he is (potentially) the best low-post presence the Wolves have. To be honest, the best low-post player they probably have right now is Sam Cassell, and they obviously can't use him on any sort of a regular basis at the post. KG can do a low post, but is generally more comfortable doing a high post where he can face up the defender. I haven't seen much of Eddie's low post game, but what I've seen has been rather lackluster.
Other than this, I'd say that Eddie is superior in every way.
I'd like to see Kandi turn into one of those Rasho types of centers. You know the ones I'm talking about. They start the game, get a few points and a few post-up plays, then are taken out after 10 minutes and don't play for the rest of the game.
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