May 13, 2026 • 43 mins
Our friend Sam Mitchell joins for his reaction with to the Wolves Game 5 loss to the Spurs: what went wrong, what to do with the lineup and why he thinks they can win Game 6.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Carboni's Pizzeria has your Game six playoff party covered. Visit
(00:03):
one of the over thirty locations. Score big on great Pizza.
Enjoy Game six Friday night. Find Carbons at Carbonesepizza dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Tomorrow's official NFL schedule release day. As most of you
know by now, you can't possibly not know it. And
it looks like we're going international again, right, that's been
confirmed by the Purple Yeah, we are playing the San
Francisco forty nine ers in Mexico City in week eleven.
That's going to be a Sunday night game on in
(00:39):
the C Now, it's worth noting. Sure I can find
it here. A couple of media outlets are reporting that
on Thanksgiving, the Lions will host the Bears. No, which
means our guy bone Saw Yeah, who acted as if
he had the entire Viking schedule two days early, is
(01:04):
inaccurate because he had the Vikings being the opposing team
on Thanksgiving in Detroit against the Lions. That credibility bon
Saw a beating right there. There's no question. Oh, I
think he did have us playing the Niners on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Night football in Mexico City, though, No, he didn't have
picture right, I did take a picture.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Let me go. You'll have to go back to check
it and see what the how specific he got on
that where's the bone Saw text?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I know that everybody affiliated with the Vikings was very
thrilled with how the international stuff win a year ago,
media included, So I'm sure they're all fired up to
get down to Mexico City.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I think, so take on the Niners. Uh, let's see,
let's look at Vikes. No, he's got Vikings Niners at
San Francisco week fifteen. That's not week eleven in Mexico City.
He didn't have that as a national game either, So
Bonesaw's over two. We'll see.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I don't think it's going to help his care. You know,
he had a chance, That's the thing. I mean, we
would have We would have hailed him forever if he'd
gotten Now, maybe he'll get some of the other ones.
Right Yet, I'm not sure. Uh is any anything else
on the Vikings leaked? I don't think so. And aren't
we I thought we agreed to an international. Didn't we
(02:21):
do two games last year back to back? Yes? I
thought that that are in return? What we were getting
was an assurance that we were not going to have
any international games this year? Yeah? Does that mean we
wanted this or was this forced upon us? I would
assume forced upon us. That's a road game. That's the
good news is because you know, so you're not losing, Uh,
you're not you don't have to play in San Francisco
(02:43):
and you're not losing a home game as a result
of this. Correct. Correct.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
And the other way it's being soft pedaled is right now,
I mean it's international, but it's Mexico City. Yeah, right, yeah,
right now? Weren't out ahead of Mexico City in terms
of time?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, somebody, they don't.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Have to worry about a sleep doctor, they don't have
to worry about all this different stuff. They could probably
treat it as a regular road game. I don't know
what the obligations are, but they could probably just pop
down the day before like they usually do.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I don't know if that's what they'll do or not.
In fact, somebody I think wrote that the distance between
Minnesota and San Francisco is the exactly is basically the
same as Minnesota to Mexico City. So it's not like
you're adding a burden they in terms of the length
of trip that's that's very true. M Turico made sure
(03:34):
to point out the Wolves are not a very deep
team several times last night. Obviously we can't afford to
bench Johnny Ranald with this bunk supporting cast that's from
Flim Flam aka B Highland, s mo J baron Jay's
shared burner. Yeah, we haven't seen any of them, have
we except in the garbagehow not really? Yeah, not really,
(03:57):
I guess and B Highland, I think he's zero for
nine in the series, or for six. He's not been
very effective. I still thought there might be a chance
you throw somebody to throw him out there. Now he
from a side standpoint might have gotten eaten up a
little bit there. They've got these big rangye. They do wings,
there's no question about that. But part of what is
(04:18):
ailing the club right now when it goes badly is
the offense right right. It's just it's it's it's there
are sections of the game in which it ceases to exist.
And I'm not saying, you know, yeah, you're giving up
maybe something on the other end of the court if
you play guys who are defensive liabilities. But we're having
(04:39):
these long stretches where we're just not scoring at all,
and that that in of itself is catching up with us.
I think my prediction is no starting lineup change. The
last time Finchy made a dramatic lineup, it wasn't necessarily
a lineup change. I think it was a benching in
the fourth quarter? Was he when he benched de Lo
(05:02):
Game six? That was against Memphis right a game late?
He needed to bench him in pivotal Game five? He didn't.
Didn't he didn't start. Uh, who's the guard? I'm forgetting
that we had here? Who was the guy he got
with the beard j? He didn't start him, did he?
Just in the fourth quarter went with Jmack rather than
d So And that is another way to go. You
(05:25):
can have the same starting lineup, but say within the game, Julius,
you're out right, we're done, We're we're not bringing you
back in the fourth quarter. That's another way to do
it where it's it's I don't know, maybe it stands
out even more when you do that. I'm not sure,
but I do think there has to be a willingness
by it from a coach because I said earlier, well,
(05:45):
you know, maybe he feels like he's got one game
in him, and I got to keep throwing him out there,
But that doesn't mean you have to keep him out
there if you see he's on the same path he's
been on that I think that when you get down
to a single quarter and I've seen nothing from that
player the first three, then to me, it's easier to
say I'm sitting him the rest of the game as
(06:07):
opposed to benching him from the start of the game,
because maybe that is the game where he's got something.
But if there's no Jews through three quarters, he's gonna
you know, suddenly put on the Superman the Cape after that.
I don't think that's very likely, is it. I have
lost faith in it. Whatever faith I had, it's dwindling.
(06:27):
I miss cat. He's in the Eastern Conference finals's been brilliant.
They're running everything through ut Yeah, he's a good player.
They finally, as I said, figured out that you have
to include him. You don't even have to. It's not
even just like you got to worry about him scoring forty.
Just get him the ball, let him feel he's a
part of it, rather than Jalen Brunson just going, you know,
(06:50):
isolation mode. And once they figure that out, they have
become I don't know, Well, they're not the team to
beat in the league. They are clearly easily the team
to beat in the East. Now they've become almost unstoppable,
and that since they decided to let's take advantage of
(07:11):
you know, it's not difficult to know. We saw this.
He is capable on his own of shrinking or losing
interest if he doesn't get the ball. The old deal
he's issue big mass Wills have demanded, Well, he's not
a demander. So if he's gonna be on your team,
it's incumbent upon the coach and the teammates, the players
(07:33):
to say, no, we're not gonna get mad at him
for not being involved. If we're not getting him involved,
then a lot of that is on us. And if
we reap the benefits of him being more active because
he feels like I'm part of this thing, they're running
half the offense through me. Now, sometimes I'll score, sometimes
(07:54):
I'll say the stat I saw. He already has like
one hundred and ten percent double plus assists already through
the first two rounds of the playoffs compared to the
entire playoff run. And they got just as far they
got to the conference finals last year. Yeah, it's been
impressive because he's had the ball. Somebody asked what if
(08:15):
I was if I was watching the game with Tibbs
last night from that first segment. I don't know if
he thinks that Tibbs would influence me in that direction.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I think Tibbs watches games by himself, and I think
that's why I think he's like you. He doesn't want
to be distracted. You got to pay attention the fandomig
deck dot com. I want to give you a shot
to win bonus box. That is our national cash contest.
The four o'clock keyword is media. Go to kfan dot
com and enter the keyword media. De Barrera, the radio
(08:44):
home of Minnesota Sports, is also on YouTube. You can
check out the KFA and YouTube channel for exclusive videos
in depth takes, initials and password games, as well as
behind the scenes content. Search kfan on YouTube and hit subscribe.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Today, I'm not getting much of a competent vibe from
(09:21):
the State of Hockey community here via the bratcheaw, Brian
Caffe and text line.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Have you given up the ghost as a result of
a very disappointing game for performance in which the head
coach alleged that the team, his team, your players, consciously
deviated from the game plan that helped them win game three.
(09:50):
Maybe they are as beaten down as anybody because of that,
because of what the head coach said, I'm not sure winning.
Let me let me get this out of the way
for you, just in case somebody was ready to text it.
You can't worry or think about winning three games. Interesting.
(10:10):
You have to win this one tonight. That's all you
can think about. Interesting. If you start putting it together,
it does become too overwhelming, and then you'll be you'll
be You'll be buried by midway through the second period.
So don't think about game six, don't give a thought
to game seven. Beyond your wildest dreams is Jane Gene
(10:32):
Hackman said in Hoosiers the key moment Hoosiers about putt
you know, fantasizing about getting to the state state state
finals in the Adam in high school.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
You're kind to pull that up while you're talking to
Sam Mitchell. Yeah, you've just put me onto Hoosiers. You
just you just all you're thinking about is winning tonight.
You know what you do? What's that you do? What
you just said. You know you worry about winning game
What game is this?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Five? Yes? Five?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And then you think about game six. You can't think
about six until you win game five. You win game five,
and then you know why you think about game six
because you're back home. There might be an outdoor party again,
which was awesome the other night. Everybody's going to be
fired up. You hopefully play with some intentionality, and then
you take your chances in game seven. It's a very
(11:16):
clear playbook. But you can't win three games at once.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
You can't. You can only win one. If they expect
to be true championship contenders, or Edwards is their best player,
the second best player must be significantly better than Towns
Randall McDaniels, and it's nearly impossible to have significantly better
number two with a player as limited as go Beery
eating up such a large percentage of the salary cap.
There's a lot to chew on there. I have come
(11:41):
to believe that Towns can be the second best player
on a championship team. Wow, yeah, I think you're The
Knicks are a threat. They I don't know that they
can beat Oklahoma City. I don't even know if they
could beat San Antonio, but they're easily the best team
in the in the East. Now. But we're back to
(12:01):
that question. Has the league evolved in a way where
we we got to stop thinking about two superstars anyway?
And that that that would you know, like the idea
of Giannis coming here or now there's you know, rumors
about Brown, you know that the that the Celtics might
break up there they're they're brilliant backcourt because there's ongoing
(12:22):
there might be a schism there is the league changed
enough where you say, no, you've got to have numbers,
you got to have you just got to have a
lot of good to very good role players that all
know their role and our almost interchangeable parts, and they
(12:43):
and several of them have to clearly be well above average.
I don't know what the right answer is, but I'm
not sure the old model works. I've been on the
record for a while, even early through this this this
run in saying that, regardless of that question, Randal can't
be your second best player. I've been convinced to that,
(13:06):
really was convinced of that last year when the postseason
ended the way it did. I just don't think now
if Randall's your third player. Maybe, then again, I don't
know if he would accept that role. And then it
depends on how everybody else fits together. And I look,
I'm not going to rewrite history. I endorsed the trade
because I thought, okay, you're getting two pieces. And let's
(13:29):
face it, part of the reason that deal maybe had
to be done were all the financial implications of it.
To me, because they had so much so little flexibility.
That's a main reason, and that can't be left out.
But if you're asking me, I mean, I think we
all knew this. On the front end. The best player
in that deal was Karl Anthony Towns period end of story.
As far as I'm concerned, it was can you afford
(13:52):
to keep them? And I do think though some of
the people who were always on him probably have come
to appreciate a little bit more what he does offer,
even if you know he has sometimes he's got these
silly voices and he says stuff with you, what is he?
What's he doing right? And too much? He still does
(14:14):
that issue. That's true. He doesn't flop. He didn't. I
don't know if he falls as much. Did you see
the New York Post story I retweeted it. They charted
the number of falls for Joel Embiid in the three
games which you play. Geez, I bet that took a while.
It did take a while. I think the final number
in three games was twenty two times he fell for
(14:39):
one reason or another on the court. You can't be
doing that. I don't think that's very healthy, is it? No,
not going to keep you healthy.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
There has been, though, a lot of revisionist history on
the town's trade, and just play it out. Think about
they are even with the trade which was made to
stay out of the second aprin and I think even
the first which they're out of now. They already lost
this year's most improved player in the NBA, Nikhil Alexander Walker,
who was a big piece. Right, Yes, they already lost him.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
They probably would have lost Nas.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
They might not have even been able to do the
five years.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
It sounds cool. Well they got and they got Baron
Jay that draft. Now, again, we don't know what he's
gonna be, but I think there's some promising signs that
he could end up being. What's the one thing we
haven't done a really good job of developing young talent here,
and that's that does have to get better. Now maybe
maybe we're seeing some signs on that of but that
(15:34):
that Shannon can represent that finally, Yeah, but that's maybe
what Baron Jay can be because if you're gonna play
with some of these other teams, that's sort of what
you got to do. You got a home grow some
of them because how many names Okay, see, nobody even
heard of three years ago, and now there's people who
still haven't heard of. Guys who are who are are
(15:55):
playing like they're the second best player on a championship
team now.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
And they are going to have another However, many draft
picks to do whatever the hell they want and find
the next versions of those guys. So if all of
a sudden they can't pay Dirt or they can't pay Caruso, right,
they'll they think they're going to replenish, or they have
the ability to give themselves the best chance to replenish.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
For sure, I'm curious.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I am curious what the next move is going to
be if things go pear shaped here at the end,
which it kind of looks like they are. Even though
again I still think they're going to win Game six.
I still think they're going to play well and probably
force a game seven. I could be completely delusional about that,
but they've clearly committed to Anthony. Makes sense, they've clearly
committed to Jaden less. So with knas right, I think
(16:43):
he had a a three year deal.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Julius was as well.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
So because there's a lot of guys like even with
the Rudy restructure, like that has an end date of
twenty twenty eight, you know, so you're you're not even
if you wrote it out with Rudy, you're only talking
about two more years.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Well, and it's going to be twenty six at that time.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, Like the most important thing to me is almost
what does the next iteration looks look like for ant
because prime An, Oklahoma City and San Antonio are still
going to be there. So yeah, you would have liked
to have beaten them now before they kind of roll
in and get hot. But the most important decisions are,
I think, are probably the next two to three years
for what the rest of the run is going to
(17:23):
look like.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
All right, let's get a pause in. Let's get Sam
Mitchell's view of game number five last night. Where the
Wolves go from here. I don't want to do too
much post morteming yet because they're not out. But we
may touch a little bit on where Sam thinks this
thing might be going, if it is indeed about to
end for this season. And if you have questions for Sam,
(17:45):
hit the certainly on other NBA matters six four, six
eighty six. That's the Bradshaw and Bryant Cafe and text
line back in just minutes, Bumper to bumper with Dan
Burrero on the fan. All right, we are in need back.
I don't forget Russo Radio will join from Denver Wild
(18:07):
have a game five tonight and uh, they gotta win
or this series is over. Wolves have to win Friday
night or the series is over. And six. Sam Mitchell
kind of enough to join us via the Connecticot Water
Systems hotline. Let me see if this will work. There
we go, Sam, how are you?
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Man? What's up?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Dan?
Speaker 3 (18:29):
You're not talking a lot now? Then I call you
the other night doing the game.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
You called me last night and you were on fire.
It's the best kind of saying.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
You can't talk about No, I.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Won't give it details. I'll just say you were, you were,
you were hot, and it was good. It was it
was the best. It's the best. Sam Mitchell. When you're
you know, like worked up good or bad, that's the best,
Sam Mitchell.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Well, Dan, look I was watching that game, and look,
you and I talked about this Wolves team. It's kind
of weird, man, that they'll do some things out there
on the court that just doesn't look like an NBA team,
Like what are they doing that second quarter when when
san Antonio took control of that game, it just looked
like the Wolves are just gonna fold. And then all
(19:17):
of a sudden they just keep fighting and scratching and
clawing their way back, and then they'll get back in
the game and then they'll turn around to play the
same way they did to get back into a hole.
But you and I both kind of said the thing
about this team though, for whatever reason, I would not
count them out Friday night, because it's something about their psyche,
their mentality that they figure out how to get it done,
(19:40):
and this call it like it is. These are some
tough dudes, man. I like the mental makeup of the team.
I just don't like how they play sometimes.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Great point, that's the central contradiction about this club. You're you're, you're,
you're one hundred percent right. I want to go deeper
into that, but I want to go back a bit
because I'm I'm second guessing myself for the position I
took after Wemby got tossed, because I at the time
I said, obviously the right call it was. It defined
(20:12):
a flagrant too, But that okay, don't have a history.
He should be fined, but he doesn't really need to
be necessarily suspended because he's got no record. I look
back on that now and I say, wrong, you're too easy.
The league needed to suspend him a game. That's the
kind of hit. I don't care what generation of players
(20:34):
merited another game, as much as the TV people didn't
want it, as much as you know, it takes away
the competition. Do you think he should have been suspended
another game?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Dan, I think it's You could make an argument for it.
Just think of it from this standpoint. If he hit
the player in his faith, there's gonna be some teeth laws, Yeah,
they're gonna be some some broken balls, And then what
does this do for Minnesota and that chance? Right? And
so part of being a pro is learning how to
control your emotions. And I understand Victor, he's on the
(21:10):
floor lot, but he's on the floor lot because he's
seven for five and way under bound. Right, So again,
you can't get mad at teams for trying to be
physical with him because of his side, and he has
to understand that. And if his way of fighting back
is this store to start throwing vicious elbows, then then
then you got it. I'm shot they didn't find him.
(21:31):
I'm shocked they didn't suspend him. He got off really
really like, considering how vicious that elbow that he threw at.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Not let me let me try this theory on one
of your partners. Well, I think you've worked with him
from time to time at Serious XM NBA channel, I
heard Antonio Daniels earlier today say that if you're the Wolves,
strategically speaking, what probably was a mistake in his mind
(22:04):
was not when the act happened, when he get when
he hitting out of the elbow, not escalating it, his
point being that if there had been an escalation, if
it had gotten turned into an into a melee, that
it might have been harder for the league to not
suspend them, but that in a sense, the Wolves reacted
(22:27):
so professionally that it may have made it easier for
the league to say Okay, that's enough. He got thrown
out and then we're gonna move on. Because it didn't
turn into any kind of a scene.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
I kind of like him. I agree if a fight
would have broke out, there would have been mass suspensions
because you know this thing about the NBA, what is
the biggest thing. Yes, they do not want to see fight,
right they they do not want to see fifth throw.
So if that would have escalated, guys would have been
suspended for that next game. Big probably would have been suspended.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yeah. I thought it was an interesting point, and that's
you know, and it's too late now obviously, And for
me it sounds like a Homer take, But I think
there's actually some truth to it. Now, what did you
see last night? In terms of the approach the Wolves took.
I didn't agree with Draymond that the answer to the
(23:19):
next game is to throw an elbow at him, because
you're gonna lose in that equation the next day. But
I do wonder in the old NBA, the NBA you
played in, would there have been a little bit more
delivering of contact, do you think than the Wolves did?
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Oh? Yeah, Dan, you knew me. If somebody to it,
their boy like that to me and were playing them again.
Oh I'm getting it. I'm getting somebody right, absolutely, yeah,
somebody getting hit upside the head without a doubt. What
because I gotta let you know. Look, man, when I
first came in the league, Tyroon Korba said to me,
(23:57):
no boys allowed in the NBA, right, they would chase
you out this league if you're not mentally or physically tough.
And so yes. Look, the surprising thing when you look
at the Wolves players, you would think they would be
more apt to want to get into it a little
bit more right, especially, you gotta dirty this game up
(24:17):
against san Antonio. Bit man, Santonio is running, they're playing
free easy, they're playing with slow. You gotta change his
up and look, you and I talked about this if
I was Chris Finch, and again I would think about it.
I would think about starting Nasried in this game. You
gotta occupy victim right now. All Victor during is playing
(24:39):
center fields. All he's doing he think about this Dad.
No matter where the shot comes from, he's contesting it.
And the reason he's been able to do that is
because he's not occupied guarding this guy. You gotta put
somebody on the floor that he has to guard and
to drive a minimum. All of this dribbling the ball
(25:02):
is signet. All it does is makes San Antonio better.
It gives them a better chance to defend you. You
gotta be quicker decisions. And if I was coach Finch
other than Anthony Edward, and I may even do this
with Anthony too. Driven minimum in two dribbles. I have
a shoot a pass, but you got two dribbles.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah, yeah, I can't argue with that. I mean that.
And that goes back to the maddening nature of their
offense ceasing to exist at times. And you played this
game a long time. So I'm gonna ask you a
tough question here that goes beyond this series. I've reached
(25:42):
a point where I agree with the central sort of
you know, yin and yang of this team is that
there is no arguing with the tenacity and toughness they
can show every time they're counted out. It's undeniable. On
the other hand, I'm not sure there are people will
get on Finchy and say, well, it's his team, man,
(26:02):
and they just don't play smart often enough. Here's my
question to you, can you coach basketball IQ into a
player who doesn't have it, or in the end, does
it have to be more about you got to change
the mix of players. They kind of in terms of IQ,
they kind of are who they are. To me, it's
(26:22):
a really crucial question moving forward. What do you think.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
It's a tough one day. Can players get better mentally
and physically? Yes, But this is the thing. Normally, when
the game starts and you get caught up in the game,
you tend to do what You tend to stop thinking
and john start reacting.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Right, yep.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
The great players are the ones that can think and
react at the same time. Most players just go play.
It's bout feel. They react to what's in front of them.
The great players can can manipulate the action. Does that
make sense? Yes, Like they can dictate the pace, the
flow where they want the defense to go. So they
(27:02):
are able to use their mind and think and play
at the same time. To answer your question nicely, it'll
be hard for these guys to change how they play
because most of these guys play with instincts. Yes, they
just play on instincts. And to me, look you that's
why you got to give them some rules and substructure
Julius rather and Knives gets in trouble when they get
(27:25):
past that third dribble. They just do on watching the day,
they just do and san Antonio is seizing on that moment.
And let me tell you, as soon as one of
those guys spend, they send a double yep and it
makes it impossible for you to make a good pass.
You look at some of the bad passes they made.
(27:47):
And then Anthony, I know he's trying to be aggressive
and split the double team. But then I used to
tell my players this, if I trap you five times
and you split us successfully one time and score, I
take one for four, I'll take all day long. I'll
take twenty all day long.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
So what do you do with Randall? I mean, because
I know there are people texting bench him. You can't
count on him. It's it's over. There's a lot of frustration.
He has been dreadful in this series. He was not
that good for much of the last series, except in
(28:27):
a couple of the plus minus categories if you care
about that. But my theory is Finchy, deep down might
know it. But Finchy's going you know who am I
going to turn to? And he is a guy I
might he might have won twenty five and fifteen game
in him. So I got to keep throwing him out there.
I'm well aware that he's not playing responsibly. What's the
(28:49):
answer on Julius has.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Sit down close to do it, have a grown man
conversation with him. Hey, just tell him you see how
you're playing. You're not playing smart basketball. You're over dribbling.
You're drivening to the point where you get yourself in trouble.
And guess what, Julius, that guy is seven five in
coo Blox shots. So what you got to do when
you go to attack winby You got to go with
(29:14):
the thought process of making your teammates better. But you
got to make him commit first, right, you got to
make him commit to you. So I like Julius being aggressive,
but I would just won't limit it to two dribbles.
Two dribbles that because because think of it like this, Dan.
The reason they're taking all those dribbles, they're catching the
(29:34):
ball too far from the basket to where they could
do something with it. So if you got to take
five or six dribbles to get into your range to
where you're comfortable and feel comfortable enough to score, then
that's too much. You need to catch the ball closer
so that you can get where you gotta go in
one to two dribbles.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
So in general, do they start the offense out too
far on the perimeter? Is that part of the issue.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Here, Dad, I watched today's NBA. They don't call plays
like we did. It's all read and reaction. It's all
breaking your man down. And that's why you see all
this over dribbling. And this is another thing, guys. If
you can't break your man down in two three dribbles,
you can't break him down because once you start going
east to west, the defender now has control of you.
(30:22):
Only time you have control of the defenders when you
going north and south. Right now, Noahs and Julius going
east to west and they're just dribbling the ball out
the basketball and then guess what happens. Anthony stands there
and sees that, and guess what happens when he gets
the ball, he tries to make him play. Then the
next guy, and all of a sudden, you're playing bad basketball.
(30:43):
You got it. Look, this is about the playoffs. This
is about matchups, and there sometimes sometimes the playoff basketball,
there are teams that don't you don't match up well with,
and right now for Ruter, this is just not a
good matchup for Ruter. I know, I know Julius is
playing bad, but to your point, who you going to
(31:03):
replace him with? And who can do the things coming
off the bitch that Julius random can do. And just
when we know him to count Julia's out, he comes
back with a twenty five or fifteen games.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Yeah, that's that's I think that's the reality. Sam Mitchell
is joining us RUSSOL to chat with us at the
top of the hour. All right, here's the age old
regular season question, because I think what and it's funny.
Finchy had a great quote about this after the Wolves
(31:35):
kind of turned the Denver series because they lose Game
one and play kind of the way they played all season,
in and out, up and down. And the word is
and Finchy said it, he goes I read he read
them the Riot Act basically said, you guys said to me,
we're going to be able to flick the switch once
the season starts, and it didn't happen after Game one
(31:55):
and I said to him, you lied to me, And
it seemed to get the attention that it was the
right message to deliver. But here's my larger question. Are
we seeing again where regular season does matter? The stuff
you're talking about, the habits that then you can count
on in the postseason. Are you doomed if you keep thinking, well,
(32:18):
we got we got to the final. You know, we
got to the conference finals last two years. Doing it
this way, we'll be fine. The chances are you're never
gonna get to that next level if you do not
fashion and develop those habits in the regular season.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Then you do that because when the game gets tough,
you stay within your system. Look at San Antonio, when
the game gets tough, they don't deviate, no, they play
within their system. They do the same thing offensive and defensiity.
Look at Minnesota. You got dude, I know navsk and school,
and I love nas you know that. But some of
(32:54):
the dribbling and some of the moves that he's trying
to make, some of the shots that are being taken,
it's just those not good basketball plays. And when you
take those kind of plays and you make those bad
plays and decisions, it just termeates throughout your team. And
now you're doing it. Now another guy doing it and
before you know it, you got three or four guys
playing that way and you're done. The Timberwolves gotta get
(33:16):
back and understand, they gotta run, they got to rebound,
they gotta defend. But yet they got to occupy Windy.
They gotta make him defend on the ball. Right now,
he's playing center field and he's contesting everybody's shot because
nobody's taking the ball at him, making him commit and
then making that play for the teammates to make them better.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Here's the rub though, what you're saying about this not
being a rooty series is it cannot be debated. But
here's what complicates things. I think for Finshy Randall gets
in foul trouble, Jaden gets in foul trouble. He doesn't
have that many other numbers, so that I think has
(34:00):
made it harder even if he wants to sit in
more and he has some that enters into it, which
gets back to discipline when it comes to committing dumb files.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Thank you, Dan, I don't understand that. Like last night,
Jaydon got a file last night just pushing with me,
Like what I mean? I would put together a tape
of all the bad files that these guys have made
and I would tell them, you gotta do better. You
can't get caught up in the emotions of the game
and just commitified because you frustrated because the referee them
(34:32):
both with on the other end and Dan. This is
what's sad about this. The Timberwolves are the veteran team exactly.
San Antonio is a young team. That's why I don't
buy into this veteran stuff. They're too young to win.
Look at if you looked at these two teams right now,
who is the team that's playing with the most composing
now further and their team a young first and second
(34:56):
and third year players. The Timberwolves got rooted, they got Julius,
they got veterans all over the place, But yet they're
the ones playing like their young team, and they're the
ones that's playing and making young mistates.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
How much of a mitigating factor or mitigating factors are
anthis clearly still out one hundred percent. And the Vincenzo,
a wing player who probably would be helpful against a
team that has some really good wing activity uh is
not available.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Then I would love to see this series play with
Anthony it was being completely healthy and decent Cenzo playing
look as was just playing out staying in basketball on
two bad needs right now. Think about it. If he
was healthy, he has to pace himself, he has to
pick and choose his spot, and that's just hard man.
(35:52):
And the fact that they've gotten two games and got
a chance to send this series back to Santonio for
a seven game series with the help with his health
issues is amazing to me. I would love and I
think it would be different if Anthony was healthy, even
though they lost Dante. I think this could be you
can make the argument that this would be a different
(36:12):
series if Anthony was healthy.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Yeah, you know who was I talking to about this
the other day? That you know, the the great love
that was lost here in Minnesota was the hope that,
of course KG and Marborie could be the perfect inside
out combination. And of course that didn't, as you know,
materialized for various reasons, and we've we've that's ancient history.
(36:35):
I don't want to go over that, but I think
I project how much I think that KG would appreciate
playing with another gamer who wants to play as you
know all the time, like Anthony. I mean, you know
KG as well, maybe better than anybody. I gotta believe
he would have. KG would have loved playing with Anthony Edwards.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
And I would the love have been on that team
with them too. You're talking about a crazy locker room
with those two. Oh my god, it would have been
so much fun to be in the locker room with
KG and Anthony Edwards because his press conferences are to
die for, and the way KG was and the way
as fiery as KG was, and the way Anthony is,
(37:19):
Oh my god, can you and the thing about it,
both of them from the South, so you wouldn't understand
five words that they're saying. It would have been so
much fun. Dad, Oh my god, it would have been.
But I tell you what, we would have saw some
incredible basketball and we would have two guys on the
floor on the same team that as competitive as if
(37:40):
I've never seen before. Man, it would have been ready
to see them two together because they have the same
mentality and they just both believe that they're better than everybody, and.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
That's a big part of it. Lastly, what's fascinating about
this discussion for me is you're not going to be
surprised if the Wolves win Game six and no that.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Leads to as bad as they play, as all the
crazy stuff they did, this team, it was if it
was any other team that lost, I would say the
series was, oh not this team.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yeah, so let's play this out. Let's say they do
do that. What's the formula? How do you how do
you give yourself a chance to change it and truly
then shock the world at that point and get game seven?
Is it impossible? Is there a different formula that can
be used at this late date? What would they have
(38:38):
to do to completely change it up.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
I think you gotta tweak Carlina. Either you got to
take rude out really really early, or you start knaves
and let San Antonio know that we're gonna spread the
full when we drive the basket, we're gonna swing that ball,
and you got to make them exert themselves on defense
by chasing that ball. And then when you get an
open look, you got to step up and knock it down.
(39:03):
The Wolves look, that was stretches of the game where
they got some great looks at the basket. Yes, with
Victor on the floor, so they know the former. They
just get frustrated at times. They get too impatient, and
you have to understand if you take the ball in
there at Victor, he's gonna block it or change. So
when you take the ball in him again, and I
(39:24):
will say it for the fifty ath times, you've got
to drive to the basket with the thought of making
your teammates better.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Or you an occasionally take a mid range shot, right.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Dude, hallelujah, somebody mentioned mid ray. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
That happened often. But lastly, Sam are the knicks, I
mean the whole Cat revolution. I know you know this
because you've been been preaching it for quite quite a
long time, but the revolution in New York. He's such
an easy kid to root for. I set you a
(40:00):
story that's been written about this relationship he's developed with
the mother of a former high school classway he didn't
it wasn't a classmate, but someone a veteran who was
killed serving active duty in Afghanistan. He's such to me
an easy guy to root for and to see him
blossom where they are making him such an important part
(40:22):
of the offense. There's Cat's still got a lot of
fans here. I think this has been one of the
great developing stories in the playoffs this time around.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
Yeah, well, Dan, he's such a good young man. First
of all, he just cares about people. And you know,
we saw that in Minnesota, Cat and it was hard
to listen to people take shots at and because they
don't know him. But the fact that he cares so much,
and all the criticism he took about his defense, Wow,
(40:54):
isn't it funny how his defense is not the cut
of the team. He is not the guy holding him
because he's defended. Look, Kat, right now, I picked the
Knicks to go to the finals. I think they're the
best team in the ease. I know Detroit and Cleveland are
still playing. I don't think they can beat the Knicks,
not this version of the Knicks. And I think the
(41:15):
big reason that is because Carl at the town is
making everybody on that team better.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
No question, they're running so much of it through him.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
He does.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
There's nights where he does not even scoring that much,
but he's getting ten assists.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
So what does that tell you, Dad? If you give
the I can been saying that if you give a
guy the ball, he's not gonna take bad shots of
jump shot. He only take bad shots when you don't
let him touch the ball. That's how he became. Look,
he's an NBA All Star because of what he can
score the ball right and rebound. Why would you not
(41:51):
let put the ball in his hand and make him
as effective as he can beat And by trusting him,
Carl will not let you down. He makes the right play. Yeah,
he's a score by nature. But when teams vade up
on him, I try to double him. He's gonna find
his teammate. And if you watch these games, he's made
some incredible passes throughout this yeries.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Yeah, he's he's a He's a really skilled big man passer.
Great to catch up. As always, we definitely want to
talk like you know whenever it.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Don't be surprised if I call you Friday night when
you wat I called you because I knew you was watching.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
You want to call me anytime?
Speaker 3 (42:30):
You know that.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
I love it, especially on game Guy. It's perfect, It's outstanding.
Thanks man, be good man, all right, Thanks Sam sam
Mitchell helping us out as only he, of course can do.
We go from one legend to another. How about hockey conversation.
Russo Radio is going to file a live report from Denver, Colorado.
(42:54):
Can the Wild bring this series back to Minnesota for
a Game six we'll find out next. You're listening to
Berrero on the Fan from the one eight hundred
Carboni's Pizzeria has your Game six playoff party covered. Visit
(00:03):
one of the over thirty locations. Score big on great Pizza.
Enjoy Game six Friday night. Find Carbons at Carbonesepizza dot com.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Tomorrow's official NFL schedule release day. As most of you
know by now, you can't possibly not know it. And
it looks like we're going international again, right, that's been
confirmed by the Purple Yeah, we are playing the San
Francisco forty nine ers in Mexico City in week eleven.
That's going to be a Sunday night game on in
(00:39):
the C Now, it's worth noting. Sure I can find
it here. A couple of media outlets are reporting that
on Thanksgiving, the Lions will host the Bears. No, which
means our guy bone Saw Yeah, who acted as if
he had the entire Viking schedule two days early, is
(01:04):
inaccurate because he had the Vikings being the opposing team
on Thanksgiving in Detroit against the Lions. That credibility bon
Saw a beating right there. There's no question. Oh, I
think he did have us playing the Niners on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Night football in Mexico City, though, No, he didn't have
picture right, I did take a picture.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Let me go. You'll have to go back to check
it and see what the how specific he got on
that where's the bone Saw text?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I know that everybody affiliated with the Vikings was very
thrilled with how the international stuff win a year ago,
media included, So I'm sure they're all fired up to
get down to Mexico City.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
I think, so take on the Niners. Uh, let's see,
let's look at Vikes. No, he's got Vikings Niners at
San Francisco week fifteen. That's not week eleven in Mexico City.
He didn't have that as a national game either, So
Bonesaw's over two. We'll see.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
I don't think it's going to help his care. You know,
he had a chance, That's the thing. I mean, we
would have We would have hailed him forever if he'd
gotten Now, maybe he'll get some of the other ones.
Right Yet, I'm not sure. Uh is any anything else
on the Vikings leaked? I don't think so. And aren't
we I thought we agreed to an international. Didn't we
(02:21):
do two games last year back to back? Yes? I
thought that that are in return? What we were getting
was an assurance that we were not going to have
any international games this year? Yeah? Does that mean we
wanted this or was this forced upon us? I would
assume forced upon us. That's a road game. That's the
good news is because you know, so you're not losing, Uh,
you're not you don't have to play in San Francisco
(02:43):
and you're not losing a home game as a result
of this. Correct. Correct.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
And the other way it's being soft pedaled is right now,
I mean it's international, but it's Mexico City. Yeah, right, yeah,
right now? Weren't out ahead of Mexico City in terms
of time?
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Well, somebody, they don't.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Have to worry about a sleep doctor, they don't have
to worry about all this different stuff. They could probably
treat it as a regular road game. I don't know
what the obligations are, but they could probably just pop
down the day before like they usually do.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
I don't know if that's what they'll do or not.
In fact, somebody I think wrote that the distance between
Minnesota and San Francisco is the exactly is basically the
same as Minnesota to Mexico City. So it's not like
you're adding a burden they in terms of the length
of trip that's that's very true. M Turico made sure
(03:34):
to point out the Wolves are not a very deep
team several times last night. Obviously we can't afford to
bench Johnny Ranald with this bunk supporting cast that's from
Flim Flam aka B Highland, s mo J baron Jay's
shared burner. Yeah, we haven't seen any of them, have
we except in the garbagehow not really? Yeah, not really,
(03:57):
I guess and B Highland, I think he's zero for
nine in the series, or for six. He's not been
very effective. I still thought there might be a chance
you throw somebody to throw him out there. Now he
from a side standpoint might have gotten eaten up a
little bit there. They've got these big rangye. They do wings,
there's no question about that. But part of what is
(04:18):
ailing the club right now when it goes badly is
the offense right right. It's just it's it's it's there
are sections of the game in which it ceases to exist.
And I'm not saying, you know, yeah, you're giving up
maybe something on the other end of the court if
you play guys who are defensive liabilities. But we're having
(04:39):
these long stretches where we're just not scoring at all,
and that that in of itself is catching up with us.
I think my prediction is no starting lineup change. The
last time Finchy made a dramatic lineup, it wasn't necessarily
a lineup change. I think it was a benching in
the fourth quarter? Was he when he benched de Lo
(05:02):
Game six? That was against Memphis right a game late?
He needed to bench him in pivotal Game five? He didn't.
Didn't he didn't start. Uh, who's the guard? I'm forgetting
that we had here? Who was the guy he got
with the beard j? He didn't start him, did he?
Just in the fourth quarter went with Jmack rather than
d So And that is another way to go. You
(05:25):
can have the same starting lineup, but say within the game, Julius,
you're out right, we're done, We're we're not bringing you
back in the fourth quarter. That's another way to do
it where it's it's I don't know, maybe it stands
out even more when you do that. I'm not sure,
but I do think there has to be a willingness
by it from a coach because I said earlier, well,
(05:45):
you know, maybe he feels like he's got one game
in him, and I got to keep throwing him out there,
But that doesn't mean you have to keep him out
there if you see he's on the same path he's
been on that I think that when you get down
to a single quarter and I've seen nothing from that
player the first three, then to me, it's easier to
say I'm sitting him the rest of the game as
(06:07):
opposed to benching him from the start of the game,
because maybe that is the game where he's got something.
But if there's no Jews through three quarters, he's gonna
you know, suddenly put on the Superman the Cape after that.
I don't think that's very likely, is it. I have
lost faith in it. Whatever faith I had, it's dwindling.
(06:27):
I miss cat. He's in the Eastern Conference finals's been brilliant.
They're running everything through ut Yeah, he's a good player.
They finally, as I said, figured out that you have
to include him. You don't even have to. It's not
even just like you got to worry about him scoring forty.
Just get him the ball, let him feel he's a
part of it, rather than Jalen Brunson just going, you know,
(06:50):
isolation mode. And once they figure that out, they have
become I don't know, Well, they're not the team to
beat in the league. They are clearly easily the team
to beat in the East. Now they've become almost unstoppable,
and that since they decided to let's take advantage of
(07:11):
you know, it's not difficult to know. We saw this.
He is capable on his own of shrinking or losing
interest if he doesn't get the ball. The old deal
he's issue big mass Wills have demanded, Well, he's not
a demander. So if he's gonna be on your team,
it's incumbent upon the coach and the teammates, the players
(07:33):
to say, no, we're not gonna get mad at him
for not being involved. If we're not getting him involved,
then a lot of that is on us. And if
we reap the benefits of him being more active because
he feels like I'm part of this thing, they're running
half the offense through me. Now, sometimes I'll score, sometimes
(07:54):
I'll say the stat I saw. He already has like
one hundred and ten percent double plus assists already through
the first two rounds of the playoffs compared to the
entire playoff run. And they got just as far they
got to the conference finals last year. Yeah, it's been
impressive because he's had the ball. Somebody asked what if
(08:15):
I was if I was watching the game with Tibbs
last night from that first segment. I don't know if
he thinks that Tibbs would influence me in that direction.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I think Tibbs watches games by himself, and I think
that's why I think he's like you. He doesn't want
to be distracted. You got to pay attention the fandomig
deck dot com. I want to give you a shot
to win bonus box. That is our national cash contest.
The four o'clock keyword is media. Go to kfan dot
com and enter the keyword media. De Barrera, the radio
(08:44):
home of Minnesota Sports, is also on YouTube. You can
check out the KFA and YouTube channel for exclusive videos
in depth takes, initials and password games, as well as
behind the scenes content. Search kfan on YouTube and hit subscribe.
Speaker 4 (08:56):
Today, I'm not getting much of a competent vibe from
(09:21):
the State of Hockey community here via the bratcheaw, Brian
Caffe and text line.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
Have you given up the ghost as a result of
a very disappointing game for performance in which the head
coach alleged that the team, his team, your players, consciously
deviated from the game plan that helped them win game three.
(09:50):
Maybe they are as beaten down as anybody because of that,
because of what the head coach said, I'm not sure winning.
Let me let me get this out of the way
for you, just in case somebody was ready to text it.
You can't worry or think about winning three games. Interesting.
(10:10):
You have to win this one tonight. That's all you
can think about. Interesting. If you start putting it together,
it does become too overwhelming, and then you'll be you'll
be You'll be buried by midway through the second period.
So don't think about game six, don't give a thought
to game seven. Beyond your wildest dreams is Jane Gene
(10:32):
Hackman said in Hoosiers the key moment Hoosiers about putt
you know, fantasizing about getting to the state state state
finals in the Adam in high school.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
You're kind to pull that up while you're talking to
Sam Mitchell. Yeah, you've just put me onto Hoosiers. You
just you just all you're thinking about is winning tonight.
You know what you do? What's that you do? What
you just said. You know you worry about winning game
What game is this?
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Five? Yes? Five?
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And then you think about game six. You can't think
about six until you win game five. You win game five,
and then you know why you think about game six
because you're back home. There might be an outdoor party again,
which was awesome the other night. Everybody's going to be
fired up. You hopefully play with some intentionality, and then
you take your chances in game seven. It's a very
(11:16):
clear playbook. But you can't win three games at once.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
You can't. You can only win one. If they expect
to be true championship contenders, or Edwards is their best player,
the second best player must be significantly better than Towns
Randall McDaniels, and it's nearly impossible to have significantly better
number two with a player as limited as go Beery
eating up such a large percentage of the salary cap.
There's a lot to chew on there. I have come
(11:41):
to believe that Towns can be the second best player
on a championship team. Wow, yeah, I think you're The
Knicks are a threat. They I don't know that they
can beat Oklahoma City. I don't even know if they
could beat San Antonio, but they're easily the best team
in the in the East. Now. But we're back to
(12:01):
that question. Has the league evolved in a way where
we we got to stop thinking about two superstars anyway?
And that that that would you know, like the idea
of Giannis coming here or now there's you know, rumors
about Brown, you know that the that the Celtics might
break up there they're they're brilliant backcourt because there's ongoing
(12:22):
there might be a schism there is the league changed
enough where you say, no, you've got to have numbers,
you got to have you just got to have a
lot of good to very good role players that all
know their role and our almost interchangeable parts, and they
(12:43):
and several of them have to clearly be well above average.
I don't know what the right answer is, but I'm
not sure the old model works. I've been on the
record for a while, even early through this this this
run in saying that, regardless of that question, Randal can't
be your second best player. I've been convinced to that,
(13:06):
really was convinced of that last year when the postseason
ended the way it did. I just don't think now
if Randall's your third player. Maybe, then again, I don't
know if he would accept that role. And then it
depends on how everybody else fits together. And I look,
I'm not going to rewrite history. I endorsed the trade
because I thought, okay, you're getting two pieces. And let's
(13:29):
face it, part of the reason that deal maybe had
to be done were all the financial implications of it.
To me, because they had so much so little flexibility.
That's a main reason, and that can't be left out.
But if you're asking me, I mean, I think we
all knew this. On the front end. The best player
in that deal was Karl Anthony Towns period end of story.
As far as I'm concerned, it was can you afford
(13:52):
to keep them? And I do think though some of
the people who were always on him probably have come
to appreciate a little bit more what he does offer,
even if you know he has sometimes he's got these
silly voices and he says stuff with you, what is he?
What's he doing right? And too much? He still does
(14:14):
that issue. That's true. He doesn't flop. He didn't. I
don't know if he falls as much. Did you see
the New York Post story I retweeted it. They charted
the number of falls for Joel Embiid in the three
games which you play. Geez, I bet that took a while.
It did take a while. I think the final number
in three games was twenty two times he fell for
(14:39):
one reason or another on the court. You can't be
doing that. I don't think that's very healthy, is it? No,
not going to keep you healthy.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
There has been, though, a lot of revisionist history on
the town's trade, and just play it out. Think about
they are even with the trade which was made to
stay out of the second aprin and I think even
the first which they're out of now. They already lost
this year's most improved player in the NBA, Nikhil Alexander Walker,
who was a big piece. Right, Yes, they already lost him.
Speaker 2 (15:07):
They probably would have lost Nas.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
They might not have even been able to do the
five years.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
It sounds cool. Well they got and they got Baron
Jay that draft. Now, again, we don't know what he's
gonna be, but I think there's some promising signs that
he could end up being. What's the one thing we
haven't done a really good job of developing young talent here,
and that's that does have to get better. Now maybe
maybe we're seeing some signs on that of but that
(15:34):
that Shannon can represent that finally, Yeah, but that's maybe
what Baron Jay can be because if you're gonna play
with some of these other teams, that's sort of what
you got to do. You got a home grow some
of them because how many names Okay, see, nobody even
heard of three years ago, and now there's people who
still haven't heard of. Guys who are who are are
(15:55):
playing like they're the second best player on a championship
team now.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
And they are going to have another However, many draft
picks to do whatever the hell they want and find
the next versions of those guys. So if all of
a sudden they can't pay Dirt or they can't pay Caruso, right,
they'll they think they're going to replenish, or they have
the ability to give themselves the best chance to replenish.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
For sure, I'm curious.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
I am curious what the next move is going to
be if things go pear shaped here at the end,
which it kind of looks like they are. Even though
again I still think they're going to win Game six.
I still think they're going to play well and probably
force a game seven. I could be completely delusional about that,
but they've clearly committed to Anthony. Makes sense, they've clearly
committed to Jaden less. So with knas right, I think
(16:43):
he had a a three year deal.
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Julius was as well.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
So because there's a lot of guys like even with
the Rudy restructure, like that has an end date of
twenty twenty eight, you know, so you're you're not even
if you wrote it out with Rudy, you're only talking
about two more years.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Well, and it's going to be twenty six at that time.
Speaker 1 (17:01):
Yeah, Like the most important thing to me is almost
what does the next iteration looks look like for ant
because prime An, Oklahoma City and San Antonio are still
going to be there. So yeah, you would have liked
to have beaten them now before they kind of roll
in and get hot. But the most important decisions are,
I think, are probably the next two to three years
for what the rest of the run is going to
(17:23):
look like.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
All right, let's get a pause in. Let's get Sam
Mitchell's view of game number five last night. Where the
Wolves go from here. I don't want to do too
much post morteming yet because they're not out. But we
may touch a little bit on where Sam thinks this
thing might be going, if it is indeed about to
end for this season. And if you have questions for Sam,
(17:45):
hit the certainly on other NBA matters six four, six
eighty six. That's the Bradshaw and Bryant Cafe and text
line back in just minutes, Bumper to bumper with Dan
Burrero on the fan. All right, we are in need back.
I don't forget Russo Radio will join from Denver Wild
(18:07):
have a game five tonight and uh, they gotta win
or this series is over. Wolves have to win Friday
night or the series is over. And six. Sam Mitchell
kind of enough to join us via the Connecticot Water
Systems hotline. Let me see if this will work. There
we go, Sam, how are you?
Speaker 3 (18:26):
Man? What's up?
Speaker 2 (18:28):
Dan?
Speaker 3 (18:29):
You're not talking a lot now? Then I call you
the other night doing the game.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
You called me last night and you were on fire.
It's the best kind of saying.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
You can't talk about No, I.
Speaker 2 (18:41):
Won't give it details. I'll just say you were, you were,
you were hot, and it was good. It was it
was the best. It's the best. Sam Mitchell. When you're
you know, like worked up good or bad, that's the best,
Sam Mitchell.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Well, Dan, look I was watching that game, and look,
you and I talked about this Wolves team. It's kind
of weird, man, that they'll do some things out there
on the court that just doesn't look like an NBA team,
Like what are they doing that second quarter when when
san Antonio took control of that game, it just looked
like the Wolves are just gonna fold. And then all
(19:17):
of a sudden they just keep fighting and scratching and
clawing their way back, and then they'll get back in
the game and then they'll turn around to play the
same way they did to get back into a hole.
But you and I both kind of said the thing
about this team though, for whatever reason, I would not
count them out Friday night, because it's something about their psyche,
their mentality that they figure out how to get it done,
(19:40):
and this call it like it is. These are some
tough dudes, man. I like the mental makeup of the team.
I just don't like how they play sometimes.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Great point, that's the central contradiction about this club. You're you're, you're,
you're one hundred percent right. I want to go deeper
into that, but I want to go back a bit
because I'm I'm second guessing myself for the position I
took after Wemby got tossed, because I at the time
I said, obviously the right call it was. It defined
(20:12):
a flagrant too, But that okay, don't have a history.
He should be fined, but he doesn't really need to
be necessarily suspended because he's got no record. I look
back on that now and I say, wrong, you're too easy.
The league needed to suspend him a game. That's the
kind of hit. I don't care what generation of players
(20:34):
merited another game, as much as the TV people didn't
want it, as much as you know, it takes away
the competition. Do you think he should have been suspended
another game?
Speaker 3 (20:48):
Dan, I think it's You could make an argument for it.
Just think of it from this standpoint. If he hit
the player in his faith, there's gonna be some teeth laws, Yeah,
they're gonna be some some broken balls, And then what
does this do for Minnesota and that chance? Right? And
so part of being a pro is learning how to
control your emotions. And I understand Victor, he's on the
(21:10):
floor lot, but he's on the floor lot because he's
seven for five and way under bound. Right, So again,
you can't get mad at teams for trying to be
physical with him because of his side, and he has
to understand that. And if his way of fighting back
is this store to start throwing vicious elbows, then then
then you got it. I'm shot they didn't find him.
(21:31):
I'm shocked they didn't suspend him. He got off really
really like, considering how vicious that elbow that he threw at.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Not let me let me try this theory on one
of your partners. Well, I think you've worked with him
from time to time at Serious XM NBA channel, I
heard Antonio Daniels earlier today say that if you're the Wolves,
strategically speaking, what probably was a mistake in his mind
(22:04):
was not when the act happened, when he get when
he hitting out of the elbow, not escalating it, his
point being that if there had been an escalation, if
it had gotten turned into an into a melee, that
it might have been harder for the league to not
suspend them, but that in a sense, the Wolves reacted
(22:27):
so professionally that it may have made it easier for
the league to say Okay, that's enough. He got thrown
out and then we're gonna move on. Because it didn't
turn into any kind of a scene.
Speaker 3 (22:36):
I kind of like him. I agree if a fight
would have broke out, there would have been mass suspensions
because you know this thing about the NBA, what is
the biggest thing. Yes, they do not want to see fight,
right they they do not want to see fifth throw.
So if that would have escalated, guys would have been
suspended for that next game. Big probably would have been suspended.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
Yeah. I thought it was an interesting point, and that's
you know, and it's too late now obviously, And for
me it sounds like a Homer take, But I think
there's actually some truth to it. Now, what did you
see last night? In terms of the approach the Wolves took.
I didn't agree with Draymond that the answer to the
(23:19):
next game is to throw an elbow at him, because
you're gonna lose in that equation the next day. But
I do wonder in the old NBA, the NBA you
played in, would there have been a little bit more
delivering of contact, do you think than the Wolves did?
Speaker 3 (23:36):
Oh? Yeah, Dan, you knew me. If somebody to it,
their boy like that to me and were playing them again.
Oh I'm getting it. I'm getting somebody right, absolutely, yeah,
somebody getting hit upside the head without a doubt. What
because I gotta let you know. Look, man, when I
first came in the league, Tyroon Korba said to me,
(23:57):
no boys allowed in the NBA, right, they would chase
you out this league if you're not mentally or physically tough.
And so yes. Look, the surprising thing when you look
at the Wolves players, you would think they would be
more apt to want to get into it a little
bit more right, especially, you gotta dirty this game up
(24:17):
against san Antonio. Bit man, Santonio is running, they're playing
free easy, they're playing with slow. You gotta change his
up and look, you and I talked about this if
I was Chris Finch, and again I would think about it.
I would think about starting Nasried in this game. You
gotta occupy victim right now. All Victor during is playing
(24:39):
center fields. All he's doing he think about this Dad.
No matter where the shot comes from, he's contesting it.
And the reason he's been able to do that is
because he's not occupied guarding this guy. You gotta put
somebody on the floor that he has to guard and
to drive a minimum. All of this dribbling the ball
(25:02):
is signet. All it does is makes San Antonio better.
It gives them a better chance to defend you. You
gotta be quicker decisions. And if I was coach Finch
other than Anthony Edward, and I may even do this
with Anthony too. Driven minimum in two dribbles. I have
a shoot a pass, but you got two dribbles.
Speaker 2 (25:21):
Yeah, yeah, I can't argue with that. I mean that.
And that goes back to the maddening nature of their
offense ceasing to exist at times. And you played this
game a long time. So I'm gonna ask you a
tough question here that goes beyond this series. I've reached
(25:42):
a point where I agree with the central sort of
you know, yin and yang of this team is that
there is no arguing with the tenacity and toughness they
can show every time they're counted out. It's undeniable. On
the other hand, I'm not sure there are people will
get on Finchy and say, well, it's his team, man,
(26:02):
and they just don't play smart often enough. Here's my
question to you, can you coach basketball IQ into a
player who doesn't have it, or in the end, does
it have to be more about you got to change
the mix of players. They kind of in terms of IQ,
they kind of are who they are. To me, it's
(26:22):
a really crucial question moving forward. What do you think.
Speaker 3 (26:26):
It's a tough one day. Can players get better mentally
and physically? Yes, But this is the thing. Normally, when
the game starts and you get caught up in the game,
you tend to do what You tend to stop thinking
and john start reacting.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Right, yep.
Speaker 3 (26:41):
The great players are the ones that can think and
react at the same time. Most players just go play.
It's bout feel. They react to what's in front of them.
The great players can can manipulate the action. Does that
make sense? Yes, Like they can dictate the pace, the
flow where they want the defense to go. So they
(27:02):
are able to use their mind and think and play
at the same time. To answer your question nicely, it'll
be hard for these guys to change how they play
because most of these guys play with instincts. Yes, they
just play on instincts. And to me, look you that's
why you got to give them some rules and substructure
Julius rather and Knives gets in trouble when they get
(27:25):
past that third dribble. They just do on watching the day,
they just do and san Antonio is seizing on that moment.
And let me tell you, as soon as one of
those guys spend, they send a double yep and it
makes it impossible for you to make a good pass.
You look at some of the bad passes they made.
(27:47):
And then Anthony, I know he's trying to be aggressive
and split the double team. But then I used to
tell my players this, if I trap you five times
and you split us successfully one time and score, I
take one for four, I'll take all day long. I'll
take twenty all day long.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
So what do you do with Randall? I mean, because
I know there are people texting bench him. You can't
count on him. It's it's over. There's a lot of frustration.
He has been dreadful in this series. He was not
that good for much of the last series, except in
(28:27):
a couple of the plus minus categories if you care
about that. But my theory is Finchy, deep down might
know it. But Finchy's going you know who am I
going to turn to? And he is a guy I
might he might have won twenty five and fifteen game
in him. So I got to keep throwing him out there.
I'm well aware that he's not playing responsibly. What's the
(28:49):
answer on Julius has.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Sit down close to do it, have a grown man
conversation with him. Hey, just tell him you see how
you're playing. You're not playing smart basketball. You're over dribbling.
You're drivening to the point where you get yourself in trouble.
And guess what, Julius, that guy is seven five in
coo Blox shots. So what you got to do when
you go to attack winby You got to go with
(29:14):
the thought process of making your teammates better. But you
got to make him commit first, right, you got to
make him commit to you. So I like Julius being aggressive,
but I would just won't limit it to two dribbles.
Two dribbles that because because think of it like this, Dan.
The reason they're taking all those dribbles, they're catching the
(29:34):
ball too far from the basket to where they could
do something with it. So if you got to take
five or six dribbles to get into your range to
where you're comfortable and feel comfortable enough to score, then
that's too much. You need to catch the ball closer
so that you can get where you gotta go in
one to two dribbles.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
So in general, do they start the offense out too
far on the perimeter? Is that part of the issue.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Here, Dad, I watched today's NBA. They don't call plays
like we did. It's all read and reaction. It's all
breaking your man down. And that's why you see all
this over dribbling. And this is another thing, guys. If
you can't break your man down in two three dribbles,
you can't break him down because once you start going
east to west, the defender now has control of you.
(30:22):
Only time you have control of the defenders when you
going north and south. Right now, Noahs and Julius going
east to west and they're just dribbling the ball out
the basketball and then guess what happens. Anthony stands there
and sees that, and guess what happens when he gets
the ball, he tries to make him play. Then the
next guy, and all of a sudden, you're playing bad basketball.
(30:43):
You got it. Look, this is about the playoffs. This
is about matchups, and there sometimes sometimes the playoff basketball,
there are teams that don't you don't match up well with,
and right now for Ruter, this is just not a
good matchup for Ruter. I know, I know Julius is
playing bad, but to your point, who you going to
(31:03):
replace him with? And who can do the things coming
off the bitch that Julius random can do. And just
when we know him to count Julia's out, he comes
back with a twenty five or fifteen games.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Yeah, that's that's I think that's the reality. Sam Mitchell
is joining us RUSSOL to chat with us at the
top of the hour. All right, here's the age old
regular season question, because I think what and it's funny.
Finchy had a great quote about this after the Wolves
(31:35):
kind of turned the Denver series because they lose Game
one and play kind of the way they played all season,
in and out, up and down. And the word is
and Finchy said it, he goes I read he read
them the Riot Act basically said, you guys said to me,
we're going to be able to flick the switch once
the season starts, and it didn't happen after Game one
(31:55):
and I said to him, you lied to me, And
it seemed to get the attention that it was the
right message to deliver. But here's my larger question. Are
we seeing again where regular season does matter? The stuff
you're talking about, the habits that then you can count
on in the postseason. Are you doomed if you keep thinking, well,
(32:18):
we got we got to the final. You know, we
got to the conference finals last two years. Doing it
this way, we'll be fine. The chances are you're never
gonna get to that next level if you do not
fashion and develop those habits in the regular season.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
Then you do that because when the game gets tough,
you stay within your system. Look at San Antonio, when
the game gets tough, they don't deviate, no, they play
within their system. They do the same thing offensive and defensiity.
Look at Minnesota. You got dude, I know navsk and school,
and I love nas you know that. But some of
(32:54):
the dribbling and some of the moves that he's trying
to make, some of the shots that are being taken,
it's just those not good basketball plays. And when you
take those kind of plays and you make those bad
plays and decisions, it just termeates throughout your team. And
now you're doing it. Now another guy doing it and
before you know it, you got three or four guys
playing that way and you're done. The Timberwolves gotta get
(33:16):
back and understand, they gotta run, they got to rebound,
they gotta defend. But yet they got to occupy Windy.
They gotta make him defend on the ball. Right now,
he's playing center field and he's contesting everybody's shot because
nobody's taking the ball at him, making him commit and
then making that play for the teammates to make them better.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Here's the rub though, what you're saying about this not
being a rooty series is it cannot be debated. But
here's what complicates things. I think for Finshy Randall gets
in foul trouble, Jaden gets in foul trouble. He doesn't
have that many other numbers, so that I think has
(34:00):
made it harder even if he wants to sit in
more and he has some that enters into it, which
gets back to discipline when it comes to committing dumb files.
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Thank you, Dan, I don't understand that. Like last night,
Jaydon got a file last night just pushing with me,
Like what I mean? I would put together a tape
of all the bad files that these guys have made
and I would tell them, you gotta do better. You
can't get caught up in the emotions of the game
and just commitified because you frustrated because the referee them
(34:32):
both with on the other end and Dan. This is
what's sad about this. The Timberwolves are the veteran team exactly.
San Antonio is a young team. That's why I don't
buy into this veteran stuff. They're too young to win.
Look at if you looked at these two teams right now,
who is the team that's playing with the most composing
now further and their team a young first and second
(34:56):
and third year players. The Timberwolves got rooted, they got Julius,
they got veterans all over the place, But yet they're
the ones playing like their young team, and they're the
ones that's playing and making young mistates.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
How much of a mitigating factor or mitigating factors are
anthis clearly still out one hundred percent. And the Vincenzo,
a wing player who probably would be helpful against a
team that has some really good wing activity uh is
not available.
Speaker 3 (35:30):
Then I would love to see this series play with
Anthony it was being completely healthy and decent Cenzo playing
look as was just playing out staying in basketball on
two bad needs right now. Think about it. If he
was healthy, he has to pace himself, he has to
pick and choose his spot, and that's just hard man.
(35:52):
And the fact that they've gotten two games and got
a chance to send this series back to Santonio for
a seven game series with the help with his health
issues is amazing to me. I would love and I
think it would be different if Anthony was healthy, even
though they lost Dante. I think this could be you
can make the argument that this would be a different
(36:12):
series if Anthony was healthy.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Yeah, you know who was I talking to about this
the other day? That you know, the the great love
that was lost here in Minnesota was the hope that,
of course KG and Marborie could be the perfect inside
out combination. And of course that didn't, as you know,
materialized for various reasons, and we've we've that's ancient history.
(36:35):
I don't want to go over that, but I think
I project how much I think that KG would appreciate
playing with another gamer who wants to play as you
know all the time, like Anthony. I mean, you know
KG as well, maybe better than anybody. I gotta believe
he would have. KG would have loved playing with Anthony Edwards.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
And I would the love have been on that team
with them too. You're talking about a crazy locker room
with those two. Oh my god, it would have been
so much fun to be in the locker room with
KG and Anthony Edwards because his press conferences are to
die for, and the way KG was and the way
as fiery as KG was, and the way Anthony is,
(37:19):
Oh my god, can you and the thing about it,
both of them from the South, so you wouldn't understand
five words that they're saying. It would have been so
much fun. Dad, Oh my god, it would have been.
But I tell you what, we would have saw some
incredible basketball and we would have two guys on the
floor on the same team that as competitive as if
(37:40):
I've never seen before. Man, it would have been ready
to see them two together because they have the same
mentality and they just both believe that they're better than everybody, and.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
That's a big part of it. Lastly, what's fascinating about
this discussion for me is you're not going to be
surprised if the Wolves win Game six and no that.
Speaker 3 (38:04):
Leads to as bad as they play, as all the
crazy stuff they did, this team, it was if it
was any other team that lost, I would say the
series was, oh not this team.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
Yeah, so let's play this out. Let's say they do
do that. What's the formula? How do you how do
you give yourself a chance to change it and truly
then shock the world at that point and get game seven?
Is it impossible? Is there a different formula that can
be used at this late date? What would they have
(38:38):
to do to completely change it up.
Speaker 3 (38:41):
I think you gotta tweak Carlina. Either you got to
take rude out really really early, or you start knaves
and let San Antonio know that we're gonna spread the
full when we drive the basket, we're gonna swing that ball,
and you got to make them exert themselves on defense
by chasing that ball. And then when you get an
open look, you got to step up and knock it down.
(39:03):
The Wolves look, that was stretches of the game where
they got some great looks at the basket. Yes, with
Victor on the floor, so they know the former. They
just get frustrated at times. They get too impatient, and
you have to understand if you take the ball in
there at Victor, he's gonna block it or change. So
when you take the ball in him again, and I
(39:24):
will say it for the fifty ath times, you've got
to drive to the basket with the thought of making
your teammates better.
Speaker 2 (39:31):
Or you an occasionally take a mid range shot, right.
Speaker 3 (39:35):
Dude, hallelujah, somebody mentioned mid ray. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (39:39):
That happened often. But lastly, Sam are the knicks, I
mean the whole Cat revolution. I know you know this
because you've been been preaching it for quite quite a
long time, but the revolution in New York. He's such
an easy kid to root for. I set you a
(40:00):
story that's been written about this relationship he's developed with
the mother of a former high school classway he didn't
it wasn't a classmate, but someone a veteran who was
killed serving active duty in Afghanistan. He's such to me
an easy guy to root for and to see him
blossom where they are making him such an important part
(40:22):
of the offense. There's Cat's still got a lot of
fans here. I think this has been one of the
great developing stories in the playoffs this time around.
Speaker 3 (40:32):
Yeah, well, Dan, he's such a good young man. First
of all, he just cares about people. And you know,
we saw that in Minnesota, Cat and it was hard
to listen to people take shots at and because they
don't know him. But the fact that he cares so much,
and all the criticism he took about his defense, Wow,
(40:54):
isn't it funny how his defense is not the cut
of the team. He is not the guy holding him
because he's defended. Look, Kat, right now, I picked the
Knicks to go to the finals. I think they're the
best team in the ease. I know Detroit and Cleveland are
still playing. I don't think they can beat the Knicks,
not this version of the Knicks. And I think the
(41:15):
big reason that is because Carl at the town is
making everybody on that team better.
Speaker 2 (41:23):
No question, they're running so much of it through him.
Speaker 1 (41:25):
He does.
Speaker 2 (41:26):
There's nights where he does not even scoring that much,
but he's getting ten assists.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
So what does that tell you, Dad? If you give
the I can been saying that if you give a
guy the ball, he's not gonna take bad shots of
jump shot. He only take bad shots when you don't
let him touch the ball. That's how he became. Look,
he's an NBA All Star because of what he can
score the ball right and rebound. Why would you not
(41:51):
let put the ball in his hand and make him
as effective as he can beat And by trusting him,
Carl will not let you down. He makes the right play. Yeah,
he's a score by nature. But when teams vade up
on him, I try to double him. He's gonna find
his teammate. And if you watch these games, he's made
some incredible passes throughout this yeries.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
Yeah, he's he's a He's a really skilled big man passer.
Great to catch up. As always, we definitely want to
talk like you know whenever it.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Don't be surprised if I call you Friday night when
you wat I called you because I knew you was watching.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
You want to call me anytime?
Speaker 3 (42:30):
You know that.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
I love it, especially on game Guy. It's perfect, It's outstanding.
Thanks man, be good man, all right, Thanks Sam sam
Mitchell helping us out as only he, of course can do.
We go from one legend to another. How about hockey conversation.
Russo Radio is going to file a live report from Denver, Colorado.
(42:54):
Can the Wild bring this series back to Minnesota for
a Game six we'll find out next. You're listening to
Berrero on the Fan from the one eight hundred
Popular Podcasts
Hey Jonas!
Hey Jonas! The official Jonas Brothers podcast. Hosted by Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas. It’s the Jonas Brothers you know... musicians, actors, and well, yes, brothers. Now, they’re sharing another side of themselves in the playful, intimate, and irreverent way only they can. Spend time with the Jonas Brothers here and stay a little bit longer for deep conversations like never before.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.