Only Timberwolves in the league have two players with a total contract of more than $0.2 billion, and both players are insiders. In the era of the ball, the Timberwolves did not choose to conform, but gambled that the twin towers were against the Times.
On the morning of October 15, Beijing time, the twin towers finally ushered in the first show, and the Forest Wolf lost to basketable nets with 102-112. Downs scored 12 shots of 4 in 33 minutes (1 out of 6 shots in 3 points, 7 out of 6 free throws) and scored 15 points and 9 rebounds. Gobel scored 16 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals in 6 shots for 30 minutes.
Looking at the data, the performance of the Twin Towers seems to be OK, and the two also have sporadic connection cooperation. Considering that Downs didn’t practice much in the training camp because of illness before, they didn’t really practice together until yesterday, and this result can also be accepted. However, as far as the details of attack and defense are concerned, the 0.4 billion towers of the Forest Wolf are obviously a long distance away from arbitrary behavior.
Last season, Timberwolves won 46 and ranked 7th in the West, and finally returned to the playoffs with a play-in. During the off-season, the forest wolves will think that they will enter the new season with the original players, and at most sign minor repairs with free players through draft picks. Unexpectedly, the original Nuggets executive Connelly decided to play a big one after taking office as the president of Timberwolves.
Before the draft conference, Timberwolves began to contact jazz to discuss the Gobel deal. In addition, Timberwolves also fought for the introduction of Miles Turner and Clint Capella. After comprehensive consideration, Timberwolves think that the Jazz deal with the team to be dismantled is the most reasonable.
The price of jazz in the transaction negotiation was extremely high, and the negotiation between the two sides was stuck in jeden-McDaniels. The Jazz insisted on asking for Mike Daniels, but the Timberwolves refused to let go. Finally, the jazz compromised and agreed that the Timberwolves would use more picks as compensation. The two sides reached a big deal of 10 for 1, and the Timberwolves sent out five players, four first-round signatures and one first-round swap right.
The deal shocked the alliance. Many executives were upset that Timberwolves destroyed the market, and many insiders questioned that Timberwolves formed two towers against the trend. However, the management of Timberwolves was very satisfied with the deal because they did not send out the core stars in the deal.
Connelly said: “There are only so many top stars and the number is limited. When you have the opportunity to exchange a star that can have a great influence on the pattern without sending out the same level of stars, you have to seize the opportunity. Anyway, I don’t remember this kind of transaction for a long time.”
Mark Raul, the new boss of Timberwolves, also supports this view: “It is very rare that you don’t need to send out the star to get a star of the level of Gobel.”
No matter how anti-trend it is to build the twin towers, it is logical for the Timberwolves to make this deal.
Last season, Downs appeared in the fifth place in large numbers. Defense was not his strong point. He needed to fight with his opponents and foul crises were frequent. With Gobel, the pressure of Downs on the defensive side will be much less.
The two towers have the foundation to realize complementation. Downs has developed a top-level three-point projection ability. He can work outside the line. The Timberwolves two towers feel a bit like Horford with Robert Williams.
Gobel is the top shield of the league. Last season, he scored 1.32 points per round under the shield and split, and he sent 6.3 shield assists per game (teammates scored directly by his cover of receive the ball), the average field cover assists teammates scored 15.3 points, and the last two data are the first in the league. With Gobel’s cover, Russell and Edwards have more chances to attack.
Last season, in order to relieve the pressure of the inner-line Downs, Timberwolves used a set of extremely risky defensive strategies. They put pressure on the external line crazily, making the second place in the League of opponents with error rate. But at the same time, this strategy led to the same high foul rate of Timberwolves ranking second in the league, and their defensive rebound rate was second to the bottom. With Gobel protecting the basket, Timberwolves can adopt less radical outside defense strategies to reduce fouls and protect the backboard.
Timberwolves are not worried about the defense problem of the two towers facing the small-sized lineup. Coach Finch believes that Anthony Edwards can become the flank defense gate, and Mike Daniels can do a good job of defending under the basket when Gobel’s defensive position moves out, this is a luxury configuration that Gobel could not enjoy in jazz before.
The Timberwolves were not afraid of the opponent playing a small team when Downs was present. Finch believed that Downs could punish dislocation with strong attack ability.
The logic of Timberwolves is no problem, but the competition is not on paper, but dynamic development. As soon as the game started, Timberwolves found that there were problems everywhere, and many contents did not match their logic.
The first is the problem of offensive space. Downs can indeed open space outside the line, but Gobel and Mike Daniels, who hit 31.7 percent of the three points last season, are both non-space points, no modern basketball team can afford it. There are two non-space points on the court. When Gobel left restricted area near the basket, there was no threat. Durant would release him and shrink to the inside defense when Mike Daniels stood at the bottom corner.
As a result, the breakthrough resistance of Edwards and Russell is very large, and they often fall into the encirclement ring to hit the iron or make mistakes. When Downs rushed to the inside line receive the ball, the space environment he faced was even worse, because Russell shot a three-point hit rate of 34.4% in receive the ball last season, and his opponent would not be very tight with him. Downs took advantage of his strong personal ability to eat several times, each time it was very difficult.
Secondly, Gobel’s lack of independent offensive ability led to the unsmooth attack of blocking and dismantling. Edwards and Russell used basketable nets when looking for Gobel to remove relieve a garrison. At this time, although there was a chance of dislocation after Gobel shunted, Durant had already released McDaniels to assist in defense. Edwards and Russell had no good passing route in the face of Claxton, and finally they could only form singles.
The third is position defense and counterattack defense. In the presence of the Twin Towers, the Timberwolves did adopt a less radical defensive strategy. The inside line was delayed by after shrinkage, and the defender pursued the defense. However, when it comes to teams with strong projection ability of basketable nets, this contraction is easy to be shot through by shooting. In the end of the second section, Cam Thomas hit three points against Gobel. In addition, when the twin towers were present, once the attack could not enter, their defense speed was extremely slow. Before Simmons was sent off, the Timberwolves were beaten several times by his legend to fight back.
After the First Battle of the twin towers, they left several after-class questions for the Timberwolves. They need to find out how they should solve the space problem after sending off the shooters such as Beverly and Malik Beasley? In terms of feeding the ball to Gobel, it is difficult to create opportunities with simple block and split. How to make Gobel come to an end like the round at 2 minutes 35 seconds before the end of the second section? In terms of defense, when Gobel contracts, can downs be more radical, such as jumping out three points or even participating in the attack on the ball holder?
There are still many problems to be solved. Fortunately, this is only the first match of the twin towers. The forest wolves are not short of time, and the schedule is extremely beneficial to them. In the first seven games of the season, Timberwolves’s opponents were Thunder (twice), jazz, Spurs (three times), and Lakers. There were 6 games to play the reconstruction team, they can solve the problem by running in and out. By November, Timberwolves may become a very different team than they are now.