March 20, 2025 • 25 mins
Minnesota Tim discusses the Minnesota Vikings' handling of the Aaron Rodgers situation and its implications for quarterback J.J. McCarthy. He argues that the Vikings' decisions have unfairly painted McCarthy in a negative light, creating unrealistic expectations among fans. The conversation then shifts to the Minnesota Timberwolves, analyzing their recent struggles and Anthony Edwards' performance, particularly his focus on three-point shooting at the expense of his ability to score at the rim.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome into the show today. Thank you for making this
podcast a part of your day. If you're watching for
the first time or the one thousandth time, hit that
subscribe button so this podcast will show up in your
feed Monday through Saturday. This podcast is one hundred percent honest,
one hundred percent of the time, with a touch of sarcasm,
(00:28):
regardless of how you feel. And we're still talking about
the Aaron Rodgers saga and how it impacts the Vikings
organization because yesterday the news broke that the Vikings would
not currently sign Aaron Rodgers. Now, it did not rule
(00:52):
out the possibility of the Vikings revisiting this conversation at
a later time if they feel Jajee McCarthy is not
ready yet or is still recovering from injury, and if
Aaron Rodgers has not yet signed with these Steelers or Giants.
So as of right now, the conversation is on hold,
(01:17):
but it might not necessarily be over yet. And yesterday
I went on my show and I said that the
Vikings handled this situation very poorly, and I stand by
that take because now McCarthy is going to go against
(01:43):
the ghost of Aaron Rodgers and what I mean by
that is, if McCarthy struggles at any point next season
and the Vikings failed to win football games, every single
Vikings fan is going to point to this point of
(02:07):
this offseason and say, we could have had Aaron Rodgers.
I know he's a little disastrous and distracting. I know
he can be egotistical and a difficult guy to deal with,
but he's Aaron Rodgers. He's a Hall of Fame forty
one year old quarterback who still managed to put up
(02:29):
twenty eight touchdowns and eleven interceptions last season for the
worst NFL organization, the Jets. He still found a way
to put up good numbers. And I think the Vikings
(02:49):
handled their quarterback off season drama and speculation very poorly.
And I believe that without necessarily doing it on purpose,
the Minnesota Vikings have painted Jajon McCarthy in a bad
(03:15):
light because they offered Donald a contract, they offered Daniel
Jones a contract, They were in discussions for at least
a week about signing Aaron Rodgers and putting him in
(03:37):
the Vikings quarterback room. Why do you have these conversations,
Why would you ever discuss bringing in Sam Darnald on
a one year, fifteen million dollar deal. He was never
gonna take that, But why did you offer it? Why
(03:57):
did you discuss Aaron Rodgers potentially being a member of
the Vikings organization? Why did you offer Daniel Jones a
contract to come back to Minnesota. Now the Vikings are
speaking on top of rioftops and saying that McCarthy's our guy.
(04:18):
We always believed in him, We had no doubts about
him moving forward. But if that's true, then why did
you do your due diligence on Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones,
and Aaron Rodgers. Why were these discussions ever taking place
(04:43):
if you felt one one hundred percent certain that McCarthy
was the guy, Because if that was the case, you
could have easily signed Joe Flacco, or you could have
signed Gardner Minshew or mac Jones and ended this whole
ordeal of us. He's in speculation. But they didn't. And
(05:04):
the Vikings are very conscious of how they are being perceived.
They have people in the building that the Vikings perception
is their job. They got to make sure it looks
good and right now, what the Vikings are trying to
(05:25):
do is have the perception be we love McCarthy. We
always believed in McCarthy. That's why we're not bringing in Rogers.
We're not doing it because McCarthy's our guy and we
believe in him. But the truth of the matter is this.
The Vikings offered Darnold, they offered Daniel Jones, and they
(05:46):
had a week long conversation and discussion about the benefits
and the cons of bringing in Aaron Rodgers to be one.
And what you see now is everyone's back in the Vikings.
I saw a couple of other people posts from different shows.
(06:08):
The Vikings believe in McCarthy. He's their guy, and that's
exactly what the Vikings want everybody to believe. But Kyle
Brandt on Good Morning Football, I'm not gonna steal this
dat and pretend it's my own said this this morning
about quarterbacks in the same situation as McCarthy, meaning they
(06:33):
sat their first year, they went into their second year
and became the starter. There's been eleven of them recently.
Only one of those quarterbacks that were in McCarthy's situation.
Only one of the eleven made the playoffs his first season,
(06:57):
starting in his second NFL season, So the odds are
not good and that quarterback that did it was actually
Dante Culpepper, but Drew Brees did it. There's other quarterbacks
that took the same route that year, a backup didn't
play your first year, came into second year or QB
(07:19):
one and the amount of times that that quarterback made
the playoffs was once one time out of eleven. And
the Vikings the division is not getting any easier. And
I bring this all up because right now, the perception
(07:40):
is we love McCarthy, we always stood by McCarthy and
there's really no other option besides McCarthy, when the truth
is completely different. The truth was, we consider bringing Donald back,
we consider bringing Daniel Jones back, and we considered bringing
in Aaron Rodgers. But from the stand from the standpoint
(08:04):
of Vikings fans, now, you think that you love JAJ McCarthy,
You think that you know that he's the guy, but
you don't love JJ McCarthy. You love the hope of McCarthy.
You would turn on McCarthy so fast if he stinks
(08:25):
next season that you would blame the Vikings organization for
not signing Aaron Rodgers, which if he signed right now
you have threatened to stop being a Vikings fan. That's
how the fan mindset works. You think that you know
(08:47):
that McCarthy is going to be good and that he's
going to lead the Vikings of the playoffs with the Bears,
Packers and Lions, but you don't know anything. You are
living and believing the hope that McCarthy will step in
with a Super Bowl roster ready to win, and you
(09:11):
think that that's going to be enough, and you think
he's gonna step in seamlessly because of the hope of McCarthy.
But facts come into play here. The Bears are good,
the Packers are good, the Lions are good. On only
one time out of eleven have guys in McCarthy's situation
(09:38):
made the playoffs. And if he stinks next season, wow,
you are going to criticize McCarthy so fast and you're
gonna say stuff like, oh, yeah, he was never asked
to do much of Michigan. What were the Vikings thinking?
This guy sucks. It's gonna take a one bad game,
one bad game, and the Vikings fan base is gonna
(10:00):
hammer the Vikings quarterback and Vikings organization for not bringing
in a guy like Aaron Rodgers when he was available.
It's gonna happen. I know what's gonna happen, because I
know the way the fan mind works. Your fans. Right now,
(10:26):
you think that McCarthy's gonna be the guy. You have
much hope for McCarthy, But as soon as he steps
on the football field, and if he plays poorly in
the first few weeks of the season, you are going
to immediately start questioning what the Vikings organization was thinking.
(10:47):
And you're gonna go back to this time period of
the NFL offseason and you are going to remember that
the Vikings offered Sam Darnold, they offered Daniel Jones, and
they considered offering Aaron Rodgers a contract, and you're gonna
point to it and be like, oh, we should have
(11:07):
signed those guys because McCarthy's not ready. We have the
best wide receiver corp in the NFL five, we have
a top five offensive line and a top five defensive line.
Yet McCarthy is the one player holding the Vikings back
from being a Super Bowl roster and being a Super
(11:32):
Bowl contender. So what I believe is that the Vikings
have put so much unfair pressure and their treatment of
McCarthy this offseason may have been a little unfair because
(11:54):
the fan base is going to come back to this
timeline and say, you could have had somebody else if
McCarthy stinks. If McCarthy stinks, the finger pointing is going
to come back to mid March when you could have
had Aaron Rodgers, or it's gonna come back to early
(12:14):
March when he could have signed Sam Donald. So I
just think you gotta be very, very careful right now
because the Vikings are setting this perception of we love McCarthy.
But the truth is, they discussed thoroughly the possibility of
having three other quarterbacks in the building that would compete
(12:38):
with McCarthy for the number one spot. Sure, their takeaway
was McCarthy's the guy, but they offered Donald, they offered
Daniel Jones, and they thought for a long time about
signing Aaron Rodgers. So I don't think it's as easy
as yeah, the Vikings believed in McCarthy. I don't think
(13:01):
it's that easy, and I don't think it's that obvious.
I don't think it's as clear and simple as McCarthy's
our guy. We believed in him. Because there are a
lot of moving parts in this whole ordeal, and based
on the Vikings decision making based on how long they
waited to end the Aaron Rodgers saga points to a
(13:25):
lot of different things, like it shows a lot about
the Vikings belief and McCarthy that they dragged this Aaron
Rodgers speculation on for two weeks. It's all we've been
talking about. So that's my take on McCarthy and the
Vikings belief and future of McCarthy. The Timberwolves lost again
(13:50):
last night. They lose to the Pacers when they're not
playing their best players, and then they lose to oo
the New Orleans Pelicans, who also stink this season. The
Pelicans are nineteen and fifty one, the Timberwolves forty to
(14:14):
thirty one right now, one game out of the sixth seed.
Currently the eighth seed tied with the LA Clippers. These
were two really, really bad losses because the Vikings were
riding Vikings The Timberwolves were riding an eight game win
streak going into these two games, and there were two
(14:39):
clutch time games. They overlook opponents because here's what the
Timberwolves do, and they do this all the time, and
now they're trying starting to show their true colors again
because you look at their eight wins. They beat Phoenix,
they suck Philadelphia, they suck Charlotte, dastink, Miami is no good.
(15:01):
San Antonio they're awful. Denver goodwin, Orlando, they suck Utah.
They suck seven of their eight wins. During this eight
game win streak, we're against krabby teams. And then you
read the postgame comments by the players and it's all
the same stuff. We're starting to believe in each other,
we're getting used to playing with one another, we're just
getting familiar with each other's tendencies, and we're just starting
(15:23):
to soar. But you look at the schedule and who
did you beat? You beat one good team out of eight?
You mean nobody. You are who we thought you were.
And then they start getting cocky and confident, we're just
gonna roll through the rest of the league because we
won eight in row, and we know each other's tendencies,
(15:43):
and they start to fall for these lives that you're
so good that we're just gonna roll through the rest
of the league. Then they play a hungry Indiana bench
and lose in overtime, and then they get owned by
Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans. I lose one
to nineteen to one fifteen. Anthony Edwards five of nineteen,
(16:07):
four for ten from the free three point line twenty
nine points, Julius Randalls seventeen points, Gobar ten points, Mike
Conley sixteen points. Nasrid was terrible three for eleven two
vercent from the three point line. I was listening to
Pa coming home from Bible study this morning and he
(16:30):
shared this fascinating statistic this morning on KFAN nine to noon.
Jose Alvarado c J McCollum, and he mentioned two other
guards as well, or at least one other guard. He
combined four players from the Pelicans roster, and he combined
(16:58):
the biggest players go Bear, Randall, McDaniels, and Noz Red
on the Timberwolves roster, and he came away with the
conclusion in fact, that the four guards on the Pelicans
roster had more combined rebounds than the big players on
(17:25):
the Timberwolves roster. Jose Alvarado had three rebounds, Ceja mccoum
had six rebounds, Jeremiah Robinson Earl had seven rebounds, and
Bruce Brown had seven rebounds. Jordan Hawkins had six rebounds.
Jaden McDaniels zero rebounds, Julius Randall three rebounds, nos Reed
(17:48):
had seven rebounds, and Gobart had nine. Those players combined
for nineteen rebounds, and the players on the Pelicans roster, Yeah,
six plus three is nine, plus seven is seventeen sixteen
(18:14):
and plus six is twenty two. The Pelicans guards combined
for twenty two rebounds, and the Viking Timberwolves back court
combined for nineteen. Jaden McDaniels had five points. A complete
no show. How does someone as tall as McDaniels, How
(18:39):
does a rebound not just somehow fall into his lap? Accidentally?
He played twenty four minutes and at zero offensive or
defensive rebounds. And another point has been brought to my
attention about the Timberwl situation, and it's Anthony Edwards who
(19:05):
is obsessed with how many threes he can make this season.
He's oh cocky about Oh, I've got sobody threes like
he shoot the three point BALLID look at me to
make the three at a career higher rate than at
an excellent level. And when four to ten last night,
it's forty percent. And of course you look at forty
percent and you're gonna break miss six threes, it's six
(19:27):
empty possessions, twenty nine points, fifteen first seventeen from the
free throw line. Anthony Edwards this season is forty seventh
out of fifty one NBA players with at least two
hundred and thirty attempts inside the restricted area this year.
Because Edwards is so obsessed with making threes, his ability
(19:54):
to finish shots near the rim has completely gone to inefficiency.
Anthony Edwards finished oh of seven at the rim in
the half court and a loss to the Pelicans. His
(20:15):
sixty one percent field goal percentage at the rim this
season is the lowest mark of his career since his
fifty nine point six percent rookie season. Anthony Edwards has
gone from a guy that's one of the best attackers
and finishers at the rim to a cocky three point
(20:37):
shooter that loves to close out games because he wants
to make a draining of three, and now he can't
finish at the rim. His greatest skill set, getting to
the rim, dunking on guys and finishing has gone completely
out the window because he's fallen for the idea that
(21:01):
you've got to be a three point shooter to win
NBA games. To be the best player in the league.
And sure having a three point shot is important for
every NBA player and your ability to be different and
(21:22):
have different areas of the floor that you can score.
But my go to player that I'm gonna look at
here is Shay Gilgis Alexander, the MVP of the NBA
this year. He attempts five point eighty three point attempts
per game and makes two of them. He is a
(21:42):
thirty seven three point shooter, which is good enough. It's
good enough to be dangerous. He makes two threes a game.
He averages thirty three points a game, which tells me
that his damage comes from the free throw line and
(22:02):
the mid range game. Shaye Gilgis Alexander has brought back
the mid range game to the NBA, and everyone wants
to follow the recipe of Steph Curry. Oh look what
Steph Curry can do. I'm gonna mimic my game after
(22:23):
Steph Curry because of the way he can make threes.
The problem is you can't shoot the ball like Steph Curry.
Steph Curry is the most legendary NBA shooter of all time.
So the fact that you're going to try to mimic
your game after Steph Curry makes no sense. And Anthony
Edwards has fallen for this three point trap idea where
(22:49):
he's so obsessed with making and taking threes that his
ability to attack and score at the rim has suffered,
and it's got out the window because now his ability
to do that is terrible. Forty seven out of fifty
(23:09):
one players with two hundred and thirty attempts inside the
restricted area this season. That is awful. And that's why
you see the Timberwols struggling late in games because instead
of going to the rim and trying to get fouled
or dunking over somebody or finishing with a layup at
the rim, Edwards wants to make a game winning three.
(23:34):
And I think this goes all the way back to childhoods.
When you're a child and you're in the gym or
you're playing outside and you do five four three two one.
Nobody pictures in their head going to the rim and
making a layup or dunking on someone. You picture making
(23:56):
a jump shot from the three point line or from
the mid range game. And every game the Timberwolves get
into a clutch time situation, there's Antie Edwards shooting another
contested three. There's Anti Edwards trying to rely on his
jump shot to win them games. And here's the problem.
(24:16):
When you get into clutch time, when you get into
high pressure moments, that's when your talent takes over and
your skills take over. And Edwards, sure, he can make
a bunch of threes in a game, but his greatest
skill is not shooting the three. His greatest skill is
(24:37):
getting to the rim and scoring, and he wants to
shoot the three. And when you get into those high pressure,
stake moments, then he struggles because he's trying to rely
on something that he's not good at. He's trying to
prove that, hey, I'm gonna jump shoot it too, look
(24:58):
at me. That's not your game, that's not your strength.
He's trying to prove to the rest of the NBA
that he can score from the three point line on
an elite level. And the truth of the matter is
when he tries to do that, it actually hinders the
Timberwol's ability to win games late because he wants to
(25:22):
play hero ball. He wants to show everybody he's the
man by making a three and not attacking the lane
and using his greatest strength to score the ball and
win games. So that's the Timberwolves problem right now. That's
why they can't close games, and that's why they're going
to be stuck in a playing situation and might miss
(25:44):
the playoffs completely. So it's very clear and obvious what's
going on, all right, everyone, Thank you for watching and
making this podcast. For everybody, hit that subscribe button. This
podcast is one honest, one percent time. Have a good day.
Welcome into the show today. Thank you for making this
podcast a part of your day. If you're watching for
the first time or the one thousandth time, hit that
subscribe button so this podcast will show up in your
feed Monday through Saturday. This podcast is one hundred percent honest,
one hundred percent of the time, with a touch of sarcasm,
(00:28):
regardless of how you feel. And we're still talking about
the Aaron Rodgers saga and how it impacts the Vikings
organization because yesterday the news broke that the Vikings would
not currently sign Aaron Rodgers. Now, it did not rule
(00:52):
out the possibility of the Vikings revisiting this conversation at
a later time if they feel Jajee McCarthy is not
ready yet or is still recovering from injury, and if
Aaron Rodgers has not yet signed with these Steelers or Giants.
So as of right now, the conversation is on hold,
(01:17):
but it might not necessarily be over yet. And yesterday
I went on my show and I said that the
Vikings handled this situation very poorly, and I stand by
that take because now McCarthy is going to go against
(01:43):
the ghost of Aaron Rodgers and what I mean by
that is, if McCarthy struggles at any point next season
and the Vikings failed to win football games, every single
Vikings fan is going to point to this point of
(02:07):
this offseason and say, we could have had Aaron Rodgers.
I know he's a little disastrous and distracting. I know
he can be egotistical and a difficult guy to deal with,
but he's Aaron Rodgers. He's a Hall of Fame forty
one year old quarterback who still managed to put up
(02:29):
twenty eight touchdowns and eleven interceptions last season for the
worst NFL organization, the Jets. He still found a way
to put up good numbers. And I think the Vikings
(02:49):
handled their quarterback off season drama and speculation very poorly.
And I believe that without necessarily doing it on purpose,
the Minnesota Vikings have painted Jajon McCarthy in a bad
(03:15):
light because they offered Donald a contract, they offered Daniel
Jones a contract, They were in discussions for at least
a week about signing Aaron Rodgers and putting him in
(03:37):
the Vikings quarterback room. Why do you have these conversations,
Why would you ever discuss bringing in Sam Darnald on
a one year, fifteen million dollar deal. He was never
gonna take that, But why did you offer it? Why
(03:57):
did you discuss Aaron Rodgers potentially being a member of
the Vikings organization? Why did you offer Daniel Jones a
contract to come back to Minnesota. Now the Vikings are
speaking on top of rioftops and saying that McCarthy's our guy.
(04:18):
We always believed in him, We had no doubts about
him moving forward. But if that's true, then why did
you do your due diligence on Sam Darnold, Daniel Jones,
and Aaron Rodgers. Why were these discussions ever taking place
(04:43):
if you felt one one hundred percent certain that McCarthy
was the guy, Because if that was the case, you
could have easily signed Joe Flacco, or you could have
signed Gardner Minshew or mac Jones and ended this whole
ordeal of us. He's in speculation. But they didn't. And
(05:04):
the Vikings are very conscious of how they are being perceived.
They have people in the building that the Vikings perception
is their job. They got to make sure it looks
good and right now, what the Vikings are trying to
(05:25):
do is have the perception be we love McCarthy. We
always believed in McCarthy. That's why we're not bringing in Rogers.
We're not doing it because McCarthy's our guy and we
believe in him. But the truth of the matter is this.
The Vikings offered Darnold, they offered Daniel Jones, and they
(05:46):
had a week long conversation and discussion about the benefits
and the cons of bringing in Aaron Rodgers to be one.
And what you see now is everyone's back in the Vikings.
I saw a couple of other people posts from different shows.
(06:08):
The Vikings believe in McCarthy. He's their guy, and that's
exactly what the Vikings want everybody to believe. But Kyle
Brandt on Good Morning Football, I'm not gonna steal this
dat and pretend it's my own said this this morning
about quarterbacks in the same situation as McCarthy, meaning they
(06:33):
sat their first year, they went into their second year
and became the starter. There's been eleven of them recently.
Only one of those quarterbacks that were in McCarthy's situation.
Only one of the eleven made the playoffs his first season,
(06:57):
starting in his second NFL season, So the odds are
not good and that quarterback that did it was actually
Dante Culpepper, but Drew Brees did it. There's other quarterbacks
that took the same route that year, a backup didn't
play your first year, came into second year or QB
(07:19):
one and the amount of times that that quarterback made
the playoffs was once one time out of eleven. And
the Vikings the division is not getting any easier. And
I bring this all up because right now, the perception
(07:40):
is we love McCarthy, we always stood by McCarthy and
there's really no other option besides McCarthy, when the truth
is completely different. The truth was, we consider bringing Donald back,
we consider bringing Daniel Jones back, and we considered bringing
in Aaron Rodgers. But from the stand from the standpoint
(08:04):
of Vikings fans, now, you think that you love JAJ McCarthy,
You think that you know that he's the guy, but
you don't love JJ McCarthy. You love the hope of McCarthy.
You would turn on McCarthy so fast if he stinks
(08:25):
next season that you would blame the Vikings organization for
not signing Aaron Rodgers, which if he signed right now
you have threatened to stop being a Vikings fan. That's
how the fan mindset works. You think that you know
(08:47):
that McCarthy is going to be good and that he's
going to lead the Vikings of the playoffs with the Bears,
Packers and Lions, but you don't know anything. You are
living and believing the hope that McCarthy will step in
with a Super Bowl roster ready to win, and you
(09:11):
think that that's going to be enough, and you think
he's gonna step in seamlessly because of the hope of McCarthy.
But facts come into play here. The Bears are good,
the Packers are good, the Lions are good. On only
one time out of eleven have guys in McCarthy's situation
(09:38):
made the playoffs. And if he stinks next season, wow,
you are going to criticize McCarthy so fast and you're
gonna say stuff like, oh, yeah, he was never asked
to do much of Michigan. What were the Vikings thinking?
This guy sucks. It's gonna take a one bad game,
one bad game, and the Vikings fan base is gonna
(10:00):
hammer the Vikings quarterback and Vikings organization for not bringing
in a guy like Aaron Rodgers when he was available.
It's gonna happen. I know what's gonna happen, because I
know the way the fan mind works. Your fans. Right now,
(10:26):
you think that McCarthy's gonna be the guy. You have
much hope for McCarthy, But as soon as he steps
on the football field, and if he plays poorly in
the first few weeks of the season, you are going
to immediately start questioning what the Vikings organization was thinking.
(10:47):
And you're gonna go back to this time period of
the NFL offseason and you are going to remember that
the Vikings offered Sam Darnold, they offered Daniel Jones, and
they considered offering Aaron Rodgers a contract, and you're gonna
point to it and be like, oh, we should have
(11:07):
signed those guys because McCarthy's not ready. We have the
best wide receiver corp in the NFL five, we have
a top five offensive line and a top five defensive line.
Yet McCarthy is the one player holding the Vikings back
from being a Super Bowl roster and being a Super
(11:32):
Bowl contender. So what I believe is that the Vikings
have put so much unfair pressure and their treatment of
McCarthy this offseason may have been a little unfair because
(11:54):
the fan base is going to come back to this
timeline and say, you could have had somebody else if
McCarthy stinks. If McCarthy stinks, the finger pointing is going
to come back to mid March when you could have
had Aaron Rodgers, or it's gonna come back to early
(12:14):
March when he could have signed Sam Donald. So I
just think you gotta be very, very careful right now
because the Vikings are setting this perception of we love McCarthy.
But the truth is, they discussed thoroughly the possibility of
having three other quarterbacks in the building that would compete
(12:38):
with McCarthy for the number one spot. Sure, their takeaway
was McCarthy's the guy, but they offered Donald, they offered
Daniel Jones, and they thought for a long time about
signing Aaron Rodgers. So I don't think it's as easy
as yeah, the Vikings believed in McCarthy. I don't think
(13:01):
it's that easy, and I don't think it's that obvious.
I don't think it's as clear and simple as McCarthy's
our guy. We believed in him. Because there are a
lot of moving parts in this whole ordeal, and based
on the Vikings decision making based on how long they
waited to end the Aaron Rodgers saga points to a
(13:25):
lot of different things, like it shows a lot about
the Vikings belief and McCarthy that they dragged this Aaron
Rodgers speculation on for two weeks. It's all we've been
talking about. So that's my take on McCarthy and the
Vikings belief and future of McCarthy. The Timberwolves lost again
(13:50):
last night. They lose to the Pacers when they're not
playing their best players, and then they lose to oo
the New Orleans Pelicans, who also stink this season. The
Pelicans are nineteen and fifty one, the Timberwolves forty to
(14:14):
thirty one right now, one game out of the sixth seed.
Currently the eighth seed tied with the LA Clippers. These
were two really, really bad losses because the Vikings were
riding Vikings The Timberwolves were riding an eight game win
streak going into these two games, and there were two
(14:39):
clutch time games. They overlook opponents because here's what the
Timberwolves do, and they do this all the time, and
now they're trying starting to show their true colors again
because you look at their eight wins. They beat Phoenix,
they suck Philadelphia, they suck Charlotte, dastink, Miami is no good.
(15:01):
San Antonio they're awful. Denver goodwin, Orlando, they suck Utah.
They suck seven of their eight wins. During this eight
game win streak, we're against krabby teams. And then you
read the postgame comments by the players and it's all
the same stuff. We're starting to believe in each other,
we're getting used to playing with one another, we're just
getting familiar with each other's tendencies, and we're just starting
(15:23):
to soar. But you look at the schedule and who
did you beat? You beat one good team out of eight?
You mean nobody. You are who we thought you were.
And then they start getting cocky and confident, we're just
gonna roll through the rest of the league because we
won eight in row, and we know each other's tendencies,
(15:43):
and they start to fall for these lives that you're
so good that we're just gonna roll through the rest
of the league. Then they play a hungry Indiana bench
and lose in overtime, and then they get owned by
Zion Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans. I lose one
to nineteen to one fifteen. Anthony Edwards five of nineteen,
(16:07):
four for ten from the free three point line twenty
nine points, Julius Randalls seventeen points, Gobar ten points, Mike
Conley sixteen points. Nasrid was terrible three for eleven two
vercent from the three point line. I was listening to
Pa coming home from Bible study this morning and he
(16:30):
shared this fascinating statistic this morning on KFAN nine to noon.
Jose Alvarado c J McCollum, and he mentioned two other
guards as well, or at least one other guard. He
combined four players from the Pelicans roster, and he combined
(16:58):
the biggest players go Bear, Randall, McDaniels, and Noz Red
on the Timberwolves roster, and he came away with the
conclusion in fact, that the four guards on the Pelicans
roster had more combined rebounds than the big players on
(17:25):
the Timberwolves roster. Jose Alvarado had three rebounds, Ceja mccoum
had six rebounds, Jeremiah Robinson Earl had seven rebounds, and
Bruce Brown had seven rebounds. Jordan Hawkins had six rebounds.
Jaden McDaniels zero rebounds, Julius Randall three rebounds, nos Reed
(17:48):
had seven rebounds, and Gobart had nine. Those players combined
for nineteen rebounds, and the players on the Pelicans roster, Yeah,
six plus three is nine, plus seven is seventeen sixteen
(18:14):
and plus six is twenty two. The Pelicans guards combined
for twenty two rebounds, and the Viking Timberwolves back court
combined for nineteen. Jaden McDaniels had five points. A complete
no show. How does someone as tall as McDaniels, How
(18:39):
does a rebound not just somehow fall into his lap? Accidentally?
He played twenty four minutes and at zero offensive or
defensive rebounds. And another point has been brought to my
attention about the Timberwl situation, and it's Anthony Edwards who
(19:05):
is obsessed with how many threes he can make this season.
He's oh cocky about Oh, I've got sobody threes like
he shoot the three point BALLID look at me to
make the three at a career higher rate than at
an excellent level. And when four to ten last night,
it's forty percent. And of course you look at forty
percent and you're gonna break miss six threes, it's six
(19:27):
empty possessions, twenty nine points, fifteen first seventeen from the
free throw line. Anthony Edwards this season is forty seventh
out of fifty one NBA players with at least two
hundred and thirty attempts inside the restricted area this year.
Because Edwards is so obsessed with making threes, his ability
(19:54):
to finish shots near the rim has completely gone to inefficiency.
Anthony Edwards finished oh of seven at the rim in
the half court and a loss to the Pelicans. His
(20:15):
sixty one percent field goal percentage at the rim this
season is the lowest mark of his career since his
fifty nine point six percent rookie season. Anthony Edwards has
gone from a guy that's one of the best attackers
and finishers at the rim to a cocky three point
(20:37):
shooter that loves to close out games because he wants
to make a draining of three, and now he can't
finish at the rim. His greatest skill set, getting to
the rim, dunking on guys and finishing has gone completely
out the window because he's fallen for the idea that
(21:01):
you've got to be a three point shooter to win
NBA games. To be the best player in the league.
And sure having a three point shot is important for
every NBA player and your ability to be different and
(21:22):
have different areas of the floor that you can score.
But my go to player that I'm gonna look at
here is Shay Gilgis Alexander, the MVP of the NBA
this year. He attempts five point eighty three point attempts
per game and makes two of them. He is a
(21:42):
thirty seven three point shooter, which is good enough. It's
good enough to be dangerous. He makes two threes a game.
He averages thirty three points a game, which tells me
that his damage comes from the free throw line and
(22:02):
the mid range game. Shaye Gilgis Alexander has brought back
the mid range game to the NBA, and everyone wants
to follow the recipe of Steph Curry. Oh look what
Steph Curry can do. I'm gonna mimic my game after
(22:23):
Steph Curry because of the way he can make threes.
The problem is you can't shoot the ball like Steph Curry.
Steph Curry is the most legendary NBA shooter of all time.
So the fact that you're going to try to mimic
your game after Steph Curry makes no sense. And Anthony
Edwards has fallen for this three point trap idea where
(22:49):
he's so obsessed with making and taking threes that his
ability to attack and score at the rim has suffered,
and it's got out the window because now his ability
to do that is terrible. Forty seven out of fifty
(23:09):
one players with two hundred and thirty attempts inside the
restricted area this season. That is awful. And that's why
you see the Timberwols struggling late in games because instead
of going to the rim and trying to get fouled
or dunking over somebody or finishing with a layup at
the rim, Edwards wants to make a game winning three.
(23:34):
And I think this goes all the way back to childhoods.
When you're a child and you're in the gym or
you're playing outside and you do five four three two one.
Nobody pictures in their head going to the rim and
making a layup or dunking on someone. You picture making
(23:56):
a jump shot from the three point line or from
the mid range game. And every game the Timberwolves get
into a clutch time situation, there's Antie Edwards shooting another
contested three. There's Anti Edwards trying to rely on his
jump shot to win them games. And here's the problem.
(24:16):
When you get into clutch time, when you get into
high pressure moments, that's when your talent takes over and
your skills take over. And Edwards, sure, he can make
a bunch of threes in a game, but his greatest
skill is not shooting the three. His greatest skill is
(24:37):
getting to the rim and scoring, and he wants to
shoot the three. And when you get into those high pressure,
stake moments, then he struggles because he's trying to rely
on something that he's not good at. He's trying to
prove that, hey, I'm gonna jump shoot it too, look
(24:58):
at me. That's not your game, that's not your strength.
He's trying to prove to the rest of the NBA
that he can score from the three point line on
an elite level. And the truth of the matter is
when he tries to do that, it actually hinders the
Timberwol's ability to win games late because he wants to
(25:22):
play hero ball. He wants to show everybody he's the
man by making a three and not attacking the lane
and using his greatest strength to score the ball and
win games. So that's the Timberwolves problem right now. That's
why they can't close games, and that's why they're going
to be stuck in a playing situation and might miss
(25:44):
the playoffs completely. So it's very clear and obvious what's
going on, all right, everyone, Thank you for watching and
making this podcast. For everybody, hit that subscribe button. This
podcast is one honest, one percent time. Have a good day.
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