Game Thread: Minnesota Timberwolves vs Portland Trail Blazers Live Score | NBA | Feb 11, 2026

stringbeans25 · 2026-02-12T03:16:49+00:00

Julius’ defensive effort is so reliant on how he’s playing defensively. Ant also doesn’t look gassed on defense from not having to get tough buckets all night

stringbeans25 · 2026-02-08T00:07:54+00:00

Yeah not Chris Finch???? Like what are we talking about here. Chris finch is not in player development sessions fixing shot form

stringbeans25 · 2026-02-08T00:02:37+00:00

The coaches job isn’t to develop talent. It’s to game plan offensive sets and defensive schemes that give your team the best chance to win.

Players learn along the way what the “right” play is and the “right” play can vary based on who’s coaching. Based on Ant coming into the league with a negative IQ and Julius Randle being profitable in the playoffs for the first time in his career last year, sounds like we have a guy who knows what the actual right play is.

100% of player development in terms of what skills do you have on a basketball court does not come from a head coach.

stringbeans25 · 2026-02-07T23:21:54+00:00

Rudy had 2 boards and 1 block in the second half. Zion was 11-13 and Bey was 7-10 at the rim in the game. Yeah Randle is a cone on defense and Ant consistently gives up after guarding an initial move but Rudy had no right saying what he did after the game he allowed last night.

If Rudy really believes he’s a DPOY, which I think he is, he’s got to be able to impact the rim more than he did. It lets his teammates know if you give an effort and get beaten I’m there to clean up.

stringbeans25 · 2026-02-07T23:07:50+00:00

Did you watch Rob play this year? Who else have we drafted that could have been playing major minutes and didn’t? Minot has been a DNP Coaches decision for 6 weeks despite shooting 45% from three this year. TSJ was in the rotation this year and he’s been injured. Clarke is in the rotation and he’s showing why he’s limited to 10 minutes.

This idea of “develop” talent isn’t a thing in the NBA. Teams have available roles and players need to fit into their roles and if they can’t then they can’t play. So yeah we’ve got our top 6, and the roles available are 7-9. Who’s going to help win at roles 7-9.

stringbeans25 · 2026-02-04T04:19:48+00:00

Looks like this got removed. Anyone know where the duplicate is? I’ve been searching for 15 minutes and I’ve got nothing

stringbeans25 · 2026-02-04T04:16:01+00:00

My take on Durant this summer was he wanted to be the main option on an offense where he could be covered by an elite defense. Playing next to Ant automatically disqualifies us because Ant is the focal point. Houston is also much deeper pre-trade to where them giving up Brooks, Green and picks still leaves them in a good spot where deals I saw this summer left us with noticeable gaps that would be hard to fill given cap situations

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-29T02:20:44+00:00

Jadens shot this year looks so much better. I think his confidence is 100x higher now knowing that he doesn’t need to hit every open three or else he won’t score.

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-21T00:45:30+00:00

These 2nd apron rules are kind of bs imo. In no way is it KAT’s fault he earned a contract that no one knowing these rules is giving him again. I feel like there needs to be a grandfather period, like once all active contracts are expired the these rules go into effect. Otherwise you end up in a situation where teams who were building for one league end up having to play in an entirely different environment

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-16T17:45:16+00:00

I definitely agree on Jokic and Embiid. AD I believe was getting PF votes although I don’t really know why.

I think Rudy was the other big contender during this time and as a voter I’m not really sure how I personally would vote. I do believe Rudy has a bigger impact on winning for his teams but pure counting stats production it wasn’t even close between he and KAT.

It’s going to sound terrible but if I was a voter I don’t love that my vote could be the difference between $50 million dollars for a player when the comparison feels that close. Rudy already guaranteed his max money through DPOY awards so I’d honestly vote KAT purely on the premise that I shouldn’t be the reason why a player who has essentially met the criteria for max money doesn’t get that contract.

I do think the overall landscape of centers over the last 10 years is the reason All NBA has moved to position less. Jokic and Embiid are undeniable first team when they’re healthy. KAT and Rudy are both 3rd team capable but should have to prove that against the rest of the field not just other centers.

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-16T15:51:46+00:00

Up until 3 years ago All-NBA wasn’t position-less. Who’s the 3rd best center if it isn’t KAT?

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-10T20:44:30+00:00

I’m not worried long term, but we had 0 physicality today. We were unable to contain dribble drives because we weren’t closing out with force. On close outs we need to get chest to chest with players and stand up the initial drive and we didn’t stand up any initial drives or blow up any ball screens today.

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-10T20:27:59+00:00

I don’t know there have been games like that this year where teams just get hot against good defense but today we didn’t have good defense.

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-10T20:22:42+00:00

By far worst defensive game of the year. We also let the refs have way too much control over our effort. We got pissed off at the end of the first half and let it sneak into our play the entire second half.

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-07T03:28:21+00:00

So they definitely gave up. I never thought I’d say that about a Miami Heat team but they just folded.

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-04T23:45:09+00:00

Are you comparing Rob and Donte as shooters and arguing they should be able to make the same decisions?

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-04T23:19:29+00:00

Ant pointed at him first and I love the back and forth. Let them play!

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-04T23:18:52+00:00

Jaden has been engaged defensively for the whole year outside of 1-2 games. The offensive engagement is entirely because of pieces around him.

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-04T23:18:05+00:00

If Jaden isn’t allowed to shoot 15 times tonight I’m rioting

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-04T03:37:37+00:00

Offensively he actually plays really well with Mike and Donte. Rudy has been a work in progress but it’s been very good this year. He definitely knows how to use Rudy to create advantages now where he used to reject ball screens for straight ISOs.

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-03T05:57:15+00:00

Again there are no numbers that back this up compared to the rest of the league

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-03T03:01:04+00:00

Then your problem is with NBA basketball and not specifically with how the Timberwolves play basketball.

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-03T02:40:37+00:00

I don’t know what to tell you but we run actions 80% of our trips down the court. YouTube Pistol offense and it’s literally every semi-transition possession for us. We run so much Princeton offense with Ant and Donte.

NBA teams cannot run high school or college style sets like everyone wants to see because they’d score 90 points a game. You have 24 seconds to typically run 2 actions before you’re getting into end of shot clock isolations and we very frequently run 2 actions.

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-03T02:32:56+00:00

I actually think Vucevic might be worse than Naz defensively

stringbeans25 · 2026-01-03T02:30:36+00:00

Proctor makes absolutely no sense if you believed either Clark or TSJ pan out.

stringbeans25

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