December 29, 2025 • 42 mins
Common Man Progrum HOUR 2 --NFL--Wild n Wolves -- Britt
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Man, I'm watching you sit again. Don't think that I'm not.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
What O seven on a Monday afternoon, Dave sinecon and
for the common Man today with you till three o'clock.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Alec Lewis.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Joins at three and will host the Bumper to Bumper
program for one hour. Vikings Rewind follows at four o'clock,
and then the World Juniors USA versus Slovakia on the
fan with Zach Halverson on the call.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
That's at five o'clock.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
We'll have first half or so of Monday Night football
Rams Falcons and then Wild against the Vegas Golden Knights
at nine o'clock and we will chat maybe a little
next segment about the Wolves and Wild in action. Tonight,
I want to continue our NFL conversation and what we
saw in week seventeen and what looks like the big
matchups four week eighteen. We know the final game on
(01:19):
the docket will be the AFC North battle between the
Ravens and Steelers. All Pittsburgh had to do was go
in to Cleveland and win and they would have won
the AFC North, but that didn't happen. They fell to
Cleveland thirteen to six. Aaron Rodgers did not get sacked
by Miles Garrett, so the sack record is still in play.
It's funny how the Browns complained afterwards that they cared
(01:41):
more about preventing Miles from getting the record than winning
the football game. Well, basically, Cleveland has one player, so
if you don't think they're going to focus on just
making sure that Garrett doesn't erect the game, that seemed
a little sour creepy to me. But bottom line is
that paves the way for one of the great rivalries
of last twenty years, Steelers Ravens in what could be
(02:02):
Aaron Rodgers' final game. I think a lot of us
would love to see Baltimore go into Pittsburgh and end
things once and for all. I don't really see a
scenario where Aaron Rodgers comes back next season, do you, Brett?
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Unless I think he's done. Unless the Vikings come.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Calling and say, you know, we thought about it, we
ended up going to another direction. But you know, JJ
loves you and we'd love to have you for you know,
a Swans moan. But no, I think he's done.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I think once we saw him injured with his hand
in his broken nose, all bandage on the sideline in
the freezing cold. After I saw that picture, I'm like,
he's got to be done, and he said it's probably
going to be it. After that, I would be stunned
if he came back.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, I would as well. Think about this. The Pittsburgh
Steelers have a chance to reach the playoffs. Yet in
the last five games they've played against a team that
is eight or more games under five hundred, they're four
and one, that ties for the longest streak in NFL history,
(03:03):
and that's a team that might be in the postseason.
I mean, it's one thing to not get up for
bad teams, but to go oh, four and one against
teams that are at least eight games below five hundred,
that's the dregs of the league. That is the Browns.
I didn't look at the teams that that comprises, necessarily,
but that's not.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
A team that is going to do anything in the postseason.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
You shouldn't have to look at it, No, I really shouldn't.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Whereas you know, whoever is going to be the five
seed in the AFC, whether it's the Chargers or the Texans,
I think most likely top of my head, if they
have the choice of going into Pittsburgh or going into
Baltimore for their wild card round. No one's raising their
hand and saying I'll go into Baltimore right now. Green
Bay certainly made Baltimore look a little better than they
(03:50):
are on Saturday night because they have not looked good.
They blew a game the week before to New England.
Kudos to them, they were one and five and they're
on the doorstep of the playoffs. But Aaron Rodgers, you
know whose top two receivers were he was thrown to
yesterday MVS and Adam Theelen.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Those no offense to those guys.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
But this is a team fighting for a division championship
and their top two wide receivers on the depth chart
are Mark Weiz Valdez Scantling and Adam Thielen.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Like trying to win an NFC North in twenty eighteen,
it's about it, basically.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, if we could move back the clock and even still,
I mean MBS has always been kind of a borderline
NFL player, But that'll be a great scene at what
was it now Assurance Field in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
It's always hint.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
It's always the big ketchup bottle to me, Baltimore is
a three point favorite at Pittsburgh. And if you know
anything about betting on the NFL, one of the great
sayings is when Pittsburgh and Baltimore meet, you take the
underdog and you just don't even think about it. No
one's going to back the Steelers, right. Everyone that bets
(04:57):
on football is going to be on Baltimore for this game.
And when Mike Toimelin's in that spot where no one
believes in his team, he always figures out a way.
So I'm not going to just assume that Baltimore is
going to go into Pittsburgh and take care of business.
I think the Steelers beat them early in the season,
and again, these teams tend to split more often than not. Well,
(05:20):
I'm not one that just believes Baltimore is going to
roll in on Sunday night and be coorinated just because
they look great against Green Bay.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
We talked about cliches and old sayings. We have a
handful of them on the text line that we're good.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Or yeah, we're going to get to some of those.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I think this is a dusty you can use the
same time you want. When these two teams get together,
you can throw the record book out the window, and
it's just one of those rivalries where it just feels
like you'd never know what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
I mean, that's a great cliche, but it's not necessarily
a saying I live by, Like, I don't wake up
in the morning with that to get me going. But
you're right, that is a great NFL cliche, there's no
question about that. The other huge it was several really
big games this week. We haven't talked about the Saturday
night primetime game which will determine the number one seed
to the NFC. Seattle in San Francisco, short week. I
(06:10):
don't know why they play Saturday games the final week
of this I do know why. Obviously, it's for money.
It's for TV money on Saturday night. I get it.
There's nothing else. There's not gonna be any college football
on Saturday, so why wouldn't the NFL take that stage?
But it just doesn't seem really fair. As it turned out,
Seattle played yesterday, correct, Yeah, Seattle played yesterday. The Niners
(06:30):
played yesterday, so nobody has extra rest. But it is
a short week, and for the Niners it'll be their
third game in thirteen days. So maybe a little bit
for them feeling it. They've sort of loved to have
had that extra day to play on Sunday. But there's
a game to determine the NFC's top seed. The Seattle Seahawks,
(06:50):
who have really ridden a great defense, and Sam Darnold
has kind of come down to earth in the last
three or four weeks, but he accomplished something it's never
been done in the National Football League. He's the first
quarterback to lead his team to thirteen plus win seasons
back to back for two different teams. Again, we talk
about if you would have told me, you know, imagine
(07:12):
telling somebody two years ago that Donald would hold that record.
Right again, do you know football at all?
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Right?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
From the Jets, Yeah, Jets slashed the guy saw ghosts slashed,
the guy who went to Carolina in San Francisco and
couldn't get on the field. That guy is going to
win thirteen games to two different teams.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Back to back.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Okay, Okay, but I mean, you know, it's pretty impressive
if you think about it, because he he kind of
gets a lot of the credit, maybe more so than
Donald maybe last year for what happened here that come
a great system great coaching. Look what Donald can become.
Well he goes to Seattle. They don't have a great
offensive coaching staff. They just hired a new coordinator.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
They don't.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
You know, Yes, JSN has blossomed into a top five receiver,
but their passing attack is beyond him, is nothing. Their
running game is so so that's That's got a really
good defense and that's gonna get you some wins for sure.
But Sam has looked a little bit closer to the
guy that finished down the stretch in Minnesota the last
(08:11):
few weeks, even yesterday. I mean, if you didn't watch
the game, twenty seven to ten, they blew out the
Panthers on the road. I don't think any team has
been better around the road than Seattle. They're certainly one
of the best. But I'm pretty sure that game was
three to three at halftime, like they they got nothing
done in that first half. I look at me like
I'm speaking Japanese all about Well.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I just made a startling discovery as we're approaching late
for a break. But have you seen the spread for
the Border Battle six and a half vikings for.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Why are you surprised by that? I mean, I know
Green Bay was terrible. But well, Green Bay is not
going to play anybody. That's that's what that's all about.
Has nothing to do with it. Well might have something
to Okay, I know, but I don't know that Green
Bay is gonna play most of their offensive linemen or
Jacobs or Watson or Dobbs. Oh my, no, I'm not
at all surprised by that. I don't expect this game
(09:02):
to be very competitive. Maybe I'll be surprised.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
No.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I thought I thought it'd be more closer, just to
toss up of whoever's backups can be. I mean, there
were all unknown so when you lost, JJ's playing, which
he may he may.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
As Kevin O'Connell just said in his press conference, when
you're looking at the last couple weeks of the season,
motivation is what you look at.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Number one.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
And we talked about going into the Saturday game between
the Ravens and Packers, the Ravens season was on the line,
like they lose their dead. Green Bay had already had
their ticket punch two days ago, and that's just just
a natural letdown, like, oh okay, yeah we can lose. Yeah, sure,
we'd love to get the two or three seed and
win the North. I we'd like to think that means
a lot of these guys, but I think naturally guys
(09:44):
let up and same thing on Sunday. Green Bay is
going to roll in here just trying not to get hurt.
Just you know, they lost five more players for the
season Saturday night.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I mean, it's just crazy.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
So no, I'm not saying it's gonna be a blood bath,
because I think whoever plays for Green Bay, we'll have
some capable guys out there. You can't bench your entire
there's not enough players. You can't betch all your starters.
But no, I'm not at all surprised the Vikings are
near touchdown favorites. It feels to me as we sit
here on Monday, like a seventeen to ten game, Vikings
(10:16):
like just not a lot of offense. I think Green
Bay's defense will try to rebound a little bit, and
obviously Vikings offense, I don't care who quarterbacks the team.
With the state of the offensive line, it's not going
to scare anybody. So I think points are going to
be at a premium on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
I just with how the offense played last week, where
Brosmer was negative passing yards for But then again, we
just mentioned that they don't even need to pass, they
can just run against a green bay d I don't know.
It was just a little startled by it. I didn't
see the line until just now. But you're making a
lot of Nothing you're saying is wrong. If you I
was just like, whoa right now? If you want the
Packers and the points, I'll bank that for you. Just
(10:54):
come to Papa. I'll take it.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Let's I'm I'm sure there are. By the way, I'm
a little bitter. I should have gone three and oh
with my underdog picks and a late meaningless field goal
cost me my three.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
And I'll tell you about that when we come back.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And let's preview briefly the Wild and Wolves games tonight
before we welcome Britt Robson at about one thirty five
to chat all things Wolves. After a demoralizing, embarrassing almost
as bad as the Packers' performance by the Wolves on
Saturday night against Brooklyn, that's all coming up. It's the
common Man program.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I'm the fans, teachers go above and beyond. Now it's
your turn. Do you not make your favorite teacher for
thank it? Teacher? Powered by donors choose think of it
in five thousand dollars for classroom supplies. I don't now.
iHeartRadio dot com slash teachers. iHeartRadio dot com slash teachers.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
By the way, mister Blake Moore, let me know if
you want live updates on the GLA B Birmingham Bowl,
which is now being played.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I'm guessing.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I'm guesses in Birmingham, Alabama, between the Georgia Southern and
Appalachian State. Georgia Southern has a seven zero lead. Somebody
had just mentioned there's a bowl game on now. I
had no idea. I don't even know if the Gophers
won at this point, and you're just locked in on.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
The rose Ball.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I'm so locked in on the college football playoffs. But
the Gopher game was entertaining. I look, it was the
rare bowl game now where you had two teams that
actually had most of their players playing.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
You know, coaching staffs that care about it. Obviously.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
PJ is now unbeaten at seven and zero, and Jason Eck,
the first year coaching New Mexico, turned that program around
from a three win operation, and they cared and it showed.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
It was an entertaining game.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
It was a game that the Gophers lead fourteen to six,
take the lead to go up eight, and they immediately
let a kickoff return Gopher a touchdown and a two
point version, and now it's tied, and now we're going
to overtime, and uh, you know, is it Jalen Smith,
the wide receiver who scored both touchdowns. Both were beautiful catches,
the second one spectacular to win that game in overtime,
(13:13):
it was It's it's very fashionable to go.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
These games mean nothing.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
And for the most part, it's true because if you're
not playing in the college football Playoff, most of your
either draft eligible players or soon to be transferring players
are not going to play in the games, and so
most of these games are not watchable. I'm just going
to go out on a limb and say the j
L A B Birmingham Bull is going to be an
unwatchable game. Now, maybe these are two teams that do
(13:39):
care and their players aren't leaving and it's going to
be competitive, but yeah, I had no I just switched
it from ESPN too, which I didn't realize I was
on to ESPN because well, because football.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
It's a game, exactly, and I'm sitting here till three o'clock.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
So while I'm watching the World Juniors from grank Cino
Arena right now, Sweden's put it on Germany? Are they
over in St?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Paul? What? What network is carrying.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
That NHL network?
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Very good, which you were flabbergast at a couple weeks
ago you didn't even know existed.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I was surprised an NHL network. It's a regional network, correct,
is it just like for the Midwest?
Speaker 3 (14:11):
And then you get it on most cable service and
you know, yeah, they probably probably have it on you.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
I'm sure I do.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
They probably pay you to include it so they can
just add the subscription list and make it a more
August list.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
A kid, A kid.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Speaking of the NHL, you're while they're back in action
tonight in Las Vegas to take on the Golden Knights,
fresh off a thrilling overtime win over the Winnipeg Jets.
We chatted a bit about that over the weekend.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
That was, you know, I.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Gave you a little something to feel good about after
watching your favorite football team on Saturday night. But give
us an update on your favorite squad as they head
down to a Sin City tonight.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
That was a very good consolation prize. No, they're they're
playing well. I did read from La Panta the play
by play vox.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I'm aware on Anthony Sports.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Marqu Sorry, I had to talk down to you after
the first hour.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Fair enough. What's a power play again? Hockey?
Speaker 3 (15:07):
That is hockey. There's a penalty box hooking, slashing, real
Lapanthera said, it looks like eure Off is getting moved
back up to the top line to play with caprice
Off and Zucarello. Two thumbs up from the producer on
that one. Okay, but I like the way that they're playing.
The win in Winnipeg was just such a rousing. It
was the exact opposite of what we saw with our football.
It was a rousing. It got you up. Just a
(15:31):
stupid penalty from Winnipeg, just cross checking Eric Snack nowhere
near not even the same zip code. I mean he
was in Alberta from the puck, and you get the
power play. Quin Hughes gets the assist, Zucarella gets the
goal to tie it with like twenty some seconds left,
and then tick tech toe caprice Off to Hughes to
Boldie for the winner. I mean that's what you envisioned
(15:52):
when you trade for a guy like Hughes. He's got
he's a point of game. Since he's been on the Wild,
he plays like damn near half the game and things
like twenty seven minutes of Ice Seinberg game. So I
love the way they're playing. I love the way they're rolling.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
I'm still on tic tac toe? Is that a hockey thing?
I liked that. I've never heard of that before.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
You never heard no, Yeah, a little three passing play?
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Yeah, it's fun. It's a fun time.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Can we use that in basketball? It's more of the
triangle offense? I think, yeah, yeah, that's all. I like
the tic tac toe? All right, So Wild v. The
Golden Knights tonight nine o'clock. You'll hear it on the fan.
If you want to listen to the Timberwolves, you can
do that too on the free iHeartRadio app. Just find
the Timberwolves channel and you will hear Wolves and Bulls
as Minnesota heads out on a.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Three game road trip.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
They'll close out the calendar year in Chicago tonight and
at Atlanta on New Year's eve Day. It's I have
to take a two o'clock start, and I caught the
very end of PA's show. I was sitting next to
Nordo and he was talking about, you know, Kobe White
for the Bulls is a point guard who you know
a lot of Wolves fans are kind of rubbing their hands, thinking, oh,
(17:00):
would that be a nice solution to the point guard problem.
The problem is he's a free agent after the season.
He wants to get paid. I don't know that he's
a likely trade partner because it would be a rental
player unless you knew you could sign him long term.
And I don't know that they have the money or
the interest to do that. But that's the kind of player.
If they are looking to upgrade a point guard, I
would love to see them get And if you don't
(17:22):
see Kobe White play a lot, because why would you
watch the Bulls play. Tonight's game, which you can also
watch on the fan, Duel Sports Network will give you
a look at him and Josh Gidey a really talented backcourt.
We'll see if the Wolves defense can improve at least
one notch over what they showed against Brooklyn, which was
(17:42):
horrendous and allowed them to do whatever they wanted. Sixty
six points in the paint. Forty six points in the
paint in the first half just a miserable effort. For me,
watching that effort and the Packers' effort in the same
night was just a double gut punch. It was ugly.
Speaking of point guards, that Wolves will head to Atlanta
(18:02):
on Wednesday to face the Hawks, who just today I
saw some reports that there now open to looking at
dealing Tray Young. Now you have my attention, and you've
got Trent Tucker's attention, because that's yes, that's the guy
Trent's been thinking about for a couple of years for
this team. He he just dreams about an aunt Trey
Young backcourt. You know, people don't maybe see a lot
(18:22):
of Trey Young. He led the league and assists a
couple of years ago. He would be, to me an
ideal a backcourt partner to Anthony Edwards. And although Anthony's
been pretty much unlocked already offensively, that would do even
more to take those ball handling responsibilities away from Anthony Edwards.
And there is some you know, worry with Trey Young.
(18:43):
You know, he's not been a winner, he's been injury prone.
Not sure how great a leader he is, But I
don't know in this environment how great of a leader
he would have to be. And I don't know what
you'd have to give up for Trey Young, And I
haven't looked at his contract situation. He makes a lot
of money. You're gonna have to give up, you know,
whether it's you know, Randall, Reid, McDaniels, one of those guys.
(19:03):
And I don't want it to be Jayden, but salary
has to follow salary. They got a match or me close.
So that's still pipe dream stuff. But if you are
dreaming about a point guard, the wolves next two opponents
both have point guards that are likely going to be
in different places next season. This is a big couple
games for Minnesota just because the way the last two
games went. You know, they beat the Knicks earlier last week,
(19:25):
they're sitting there and I think twenty and ten and
you know, feeling really good about taking down the Knicks,
even though they didn't have Jalen Brunson, the Wolves didn't
have Jayden, you know, beating the thunder not that you know,
a couple of days earlier, things were looking really good
and then there's no harm or you know, shame and
losing at Denver that's a really good team. But man,
you go up nine points to start overtime, you'd like
(19:46):
to think you can hang on there, and djok Yokis did,
but Yokic does and took over that game.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
But then they followed it up.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
It's just such a putrid home performance that you just
saw coming from a mile away. You know, Brooklyn has
a tear rible records, not going to get the Wolves attention,
but they've been the best defensive team in the league
in December.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
They've been winning games in December.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
They seem to have figured things out, and the Wolves
didn't take them seriously, and that's been a problem for
this team for a long long time. And yes, they
beat up on a lot of those teams early in
the season, but they're starting to fall back into some
old bad habits. And taking care of the Bulls and
Hawks on the road to close out the calendar year,
(20:28):
I think would be really important as they look ahead
to what they face ahead of them in the Western Conference.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Let's chat more Wolves.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Let's bring in one of my favorite chroniclers of the Timberwolves,
Ritt Robson, who's long time covered this team for various outlets,
currently writing for Minpost dot com. Britt joins us next
to talk Wolves and all things NBA on The common
Man program.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I'm the Fans, Join the Fans, Corey Cove tonight Willie
McCoy's Ramsey. Of course, like hockey night job by starting
at seven pm to catch Minnesota take on Vegas ice
Cold corse LFE specials. Play trivia for your chance to
win great prizes, including sweet tickets to a game in January.
Full details now kafan dot com. He recount.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Hilo back one thirty seven on a Monday afternoon. Dave
sinnecon in for The common Man on this Monday. About
halfway through, Alex Lewis takes over at three for a
truncated one hour version of the Bumper to Bumper Show,
before we go to Wild Vikings Rewind, then USA versus
Slovakia World Juniors on the Fan at five o'clock, Wild
Hockey later tonight at nine. With all that hockey coming up,
(21:41):
it feels like we need to talk some hoops, which
I love to do and I always love to chat with.
Our next guest, Britt Robson kind enough to join us.
He covers the Wolves now for Minpost dot com. Happy holidays,
A early happy New Year, Brick. Glad to have you
on today.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Yeah, same to you.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
So the last we watched the timber Walls. First, for me,
I saw very little of it because I watched my
other favorite team completely implode at lambeau Field wasn't much
better at Target Center. I refuse to be surprised by
what this team puts on the floor night after night,
because you never really know what you're going to get.
But in light of they were coming off a really tough,
(22:18):
long overtime game in Denver, do you give them pass
at all for stumbling or are you just disgusted by
the effort you saw against the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday night.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
I'm somewhere in between. I'm not disgusted because it's a
long season. You know, they're twenty and twelve. They're ten
and five in their last fifteen. They have played a
lackluster schedule for the first two thirds of that, but
their schedule has bit about the same in terms of
one lost record going against much tougher competition. They still
(22:50):
have a tendency to overestimate themselves. I think even more
than underresting estimating the opposition. I just think that if
you throw out that wild Christmas Night game against Denver,
which for some reason, when they go to ball Arena
in Denver, there's crazy games that have in there, whether
(23:12):
it's Game seven or you know, anyway, there's just been
a lot going on there. But the last three that
they've played that they've lost have been at home against Phoenix, Memphis,
and Brooklyn. And what those three teams have in common
is they really get after you on defense. They were
playing well coming into that game, and they don't have
(23:35):
any stars. They play a very keeam oriented style of play.
Triple J for Memphis and Booker for Phoenix, I guess
could be regarded as stars. But the way that they're
coached and the way they approach the game, all three
of those teams they share the ball, they're very disciplined,
and they put a lot of pressure on you. And
(23:57):
the Wolves weren't prepared really mentally to play any one
of those three teams. And so discuss it is probably
too harsh of a word, because you know, every NBA
team males in games on occasion, and it's a long season,
and sometimes they play really well and lose, sometimes they
(24:18):
play really badly and win.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
But one of the.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
Things I have noticed about this Wolves team is that
they think they can come back and beat anybody. And
one of the reasons they think that is because they've
come back a lot. They've come back in the fourth quarter.
They had the best fourth quarter defense by a country
mile over the previous like ten or twelve games heading
into these last couple and so they think that they're
(24:41):
going to be able to roar back. They overestimate themselves.
Is this the mark a veteran team that you know
fronts its continuity as a virtue? No, it's not. And
that is something that Chris Finch and Anthony Edwards and
Julius Randall and the rest of the team that is
really kind of guiding the force and identity of this franchise.
(25:04):
They're going to have to address it because it won't
pass muster once they start to get into the crucible
of you know, early spring games and then the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
What is the biggest issue for you for this team
right now? Because the defense when Rudy's not on the
floor is atrocious. The point guard play is a rumor oftentimes,
though Mike Conley has certainly shown flashes of looking like
thirty three year old Mike Conley of late. But you
can't do that night after night. If there was one
thing you'd like to cure more than anything else for
(25:35):
this team right now, what would it be?
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Quite frankly, it would be attitude. It would be the
idea that they took everybody seriously, they walk their talk.
I mean, what makes us so annoying? I'm much more
annoyed than I am discussing now.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
I like that discussed.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
It means you know, you're you know, you're finished with
these guys, and you know, having covered the team for
thirty odd years, I'm never going to be finished with
this team. But I am very much annoyed with their personality.
I'm annoyed with the idea that they look at a
Brooklyn Nets team that had gone seven to three in
their previous ten. The Wolves had gone six and four,
(26:14):
and they clearly underestimated this team. Brooklyn got forty six
points in the paint in the first half against them.
I mean, that's a ninety two point in the paint pace.
And yeah, they'd battened down in the second half and
they only gave up twenty, but it was too late
by then, and by the way, by then, Brooklyn had been,
you know, a bunch of frisky kids learning how to
play the opposite of the Wolves attitude. You know, they're
(26:37):
just dying to get on the court and play as
a team and do exactly what they're good young coaches
telling them to do. And they you know, they outscore
the Wolves by like almost twenty points in the second half,
so even with the getting only twenty points of the paint.
So that's an attitude thing. The Memphis game was an
attitude thing. The Phoenix game was an attitude thing. On
(26:57):
the flip side, beating Oklahoma City is an attitude thing.
Beating the Knicks, albeit shorthanded with og Anobi and Brunson
both out, but that was an attitude game. When they
lock in, they're a very good basketball team, and they're
obviously a very talented basketball team. Now, when you talk
about point guard, I would agree that some of this
(27:19):
attitude and poise or whatever, Conley, when he was the
unquestioned alpha playmaker on the team clearly was able to
set that tone in terms of attitude and composure a
lot better than anybody else right now. But I would
also say that, you know, they're a titular starting point
guard Dante DiVincenzo. You know, seventy one assists and sixteen
(27:41):
turnovers in the last fifteen games. That's pretty good point
guard play from that slot. The problem is that they
run most of their offense through two shot centric ISO
heavy players who also are expected to be playing makers,
and Julius Randall and Anthony Edwards, and that can expose
(28:05):
things in the offense. I mean ANT right now. In
the last fifteen games in which the team has gone
ten and five, they've been outscored by twenty two points
when An's been on the floor. Their overall net on
that is plus thirty nine, so they have outscored opposition
by sixty one points when Ann is on the bench.
(28:28):
Jade McDaniels and Ant have played about the exact same
number of minutes over those fifteen games. It might surprise
you to think that Jade McDaniels has one fewer assists
than ANT in that period of time, in three less
minutes played and eighteen fewer turnovers. So Jade McDaniels could
(28:49):
arguably be a much better playmaker in that stretch of
time than Anthony Edwards. And yet Anthony Edwards, we know
because he's encountering double teams, and part of their system
is to bring the double against Julius and Ant and
have Ant and Julius capably play out of that. And
that's one of the reasons the Wolves offense can hum
(29:10):
on occasion. So, yeah, point guard would be nice, but
then it gets down to if you're going to get
a quality point guard, what are you giving up?
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Right, Yeah, and your guys are going to have to
give up something if you're looking to bring in a
real player that's going to make a difference. We're talking
with Britt Robson, he covers the Wolves at Minpost dot com.
You mentioned the points in the paint that the Wolves
gave up to the Nets on Saturday night. They also
got I think doubled up in bench production by the
Brooklyn Nets. I think that's been one of the more
(29:39):
head scratching and surprising things for me for this team
through thirty games or so, Britt, is the lack of production,
the lack of consistency from the bench and some of
the players. You know, Finci's kind of been all over
the board. It seems like he's been very adamant about
trying to loosen up that rotation to see nine, ten,
eleven guys who he's got. We know, come a in May,
(30:01):
that rotation is going to be a tight eight man rotation.
I don't know right now he knows who those eight
guys are going to be. But where are you with
how the bench has played? And I guess for me,
I can't get enough Jalen Clark, and I've been a
little surprised at his lack of minutes of late. So
where do you stand on the guys on the bench.
And if you're looking at an eight man rotation as
(30:22):
this team is currently constructed come playoff time, who are
the eight guys you trust?
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Well, unfortunately it won't be Terren Shannon Junior, who was
going to be. I mean, everybody knows the story here.
They do have an iron seven, and they had an
iron eight last year. And the seventh or eighth man,
depending on how you want to calibrate it was Nikhil
Alexander Walker, who they had to let go for salary reasons.
(30:48):
If they wanted to resign nas reed, and they did
and also re up Julius Randall, And they missed naw
because he was a glue guy in many ways, he
could be a quasi point guard. He could be a
quasi combo guard. He was a great defender on ball, defender,
also really good in switch zone types, could break through
(31:13):
screens really well. They thought that Terren Shannon would take
up the majority of what Nod did on the court,
that he could be somewhat of a playmaker, somewhat of
a good defender, and also be the kind of guy
who could get to the rim off the bounce and
hit the occasional three the way Nod did. That has
failed spectacularly thus far. Shannon's had a welter of minor injuries,
(31:39):
but that does not explain the almost comical net rating
that he has. I mean, it's the kind of it's
over in minus net twenty, you know, it's the kind
of thing that people usually rack up when they've played
a very small amount of minutes, and his minutes have
begun the mount. And he's one of the worst offensive
players on the team, one of the worst defensive players
(32:00):
on the team. Statistically, the eye test isn't that much better.
This is a guy who you know, obviously showed out
a couple of games of the playoffs, especially a memorable
performance against OKC. Had a fantastic summer league, had a
fantastic preseason and almost has actually played pretty well. I'm
(32:22):
the home opener, I mean, the season opener in Portland,
and then after that it just has been very, very
few spotty games. And you can tell by the way
that the team keeps on trying to jam him back
in at the first sign of a resuscitation that they
want him to succeed and fill that role, and he
(32:42):
just not has has not been able to do it.
So what you've got Jalen Clark was fantastic on defense
for a while. Lately, I know you didn't see the
Brooklyn game, Cam Thomas beat him for two and ones
in the single quarter of play, which is just you
didn't see. I think they may have been the first
(33:03):
two we've seen Jalen Clark give up. His defense has
slipped a little bit. I don't know if that has
something to do with his irregular minutes, but his performance
and efficacy lately has not been great. And then the
third guy of what Finch called the youth Corps, Rob Dillingham,
(33:24):
shows flashes, has a great first step, has a good shot,
his skill set and what Finch wants out of the
position are not a good match. He's been supplanted in
the rotation by Bones Island, who, although he's kicked around
quite a bit, is not that old. He's twenty five
years old. He's two weeks older than Jane McDaniels and
(33:45):
is getting minutes off the bench, and contrary to my
curmudgeonly take on him early, has proved me wrong by
playing very well off the bench and actually being somewhat
of an elixir in terms of somebody who can move
the ball along and make some playmaking happen. His defense
is statistically really good, but the eye test shows it
(34:05):
to be pretty spotty. But he has supplanted any of
the three young corps and now sits alongside Nasried and
Mike Conley as the eight players that I would guess
Finch would go with if the playoffs would start tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Yeah, that is a surprise, for sure.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
I've kind of admired in bad things after the last
couple of games. There's been some positives. As you said,
they're twenty and twelve. Let's to you maybe has been
the most pleasant surprise or maybe one of the most
positive developments for this team that maybe you didn't necessarily
expect when the season started.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
I actually think that their offensive capability when they play
the right way, their ball movement, which has enabled Jade
McDaniels to play extremely well. I guess I would say,
if you're asking me to signal out a person, McDaniels
getting the room to show his versatility has been fantastic,
(35:03):
and that's kind of been one of the problems lately
with this kind of double ISO ball with Randalin and
it doesn't give McDaniels as much of a chance. I'd
like to see him get a little bit more second
unit minutes where he's one of the primary playmakers on
the floor, and then I would say that after Fitsen
(35:25):
stops start. Rudy Gobert has been fantastic over the last
dozen games or so. His rebounding has really solidified the
team's defense, especially in the second half of games. He
is occasionally he still remains somebody who runs very hot
and cold on offense, depending on whether or not he
gets a couple of easy looks and they look to
(35:48):
get him off and get scoring and get comfortable. He
seems very much to be a headset oriented player in
terms of if he feels like he's being fed and
being paid attention to early, he gets a lot more
of his game going, but his defense has remained rock solid.
As you mentioned. One of the problems, of course, has
been how completely they fall apart on defense when he's
(36:11):
off the floor. But he remains a stalwart. And it's
easy to underestimating because defense is a vague thing and
you never really know who's at fault and who's the credit.
A lot of times in the NBA he does a
lot of what they call never minds, when people try
to drive to the rim and then move out of it.
(36:31):
And they've been moving him around on defense a little
bit more, not strictly drop coverage, and he's been effective
there and still getting rebounds. He's always great on screen assists.
He is fantastic at freeing out people that way. So
I would say Rudy Gobert and Jade McDaniels individually have
been the pleasant surprises. And I would say the Wolves
(36:54):
capacity I believe to be a top five offense when
the ball is moving, when and Randall playing the right way,
and when this team decides it wants to lock in mentally,
those are all things that are good things to look
forward to. Is the season, bozarkt I'll.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Move off the walls for our last minute or two together.
It wasn't that long ago. A couple of weeks we
were talking about the Oklahoma City Thunder looking like a
team that might break the Warriors record for most wins
in the regular season. Then the San Antonio Spurs came
along and knock them off, not once but twice last week,
first doing it at home and then go into Okacee
on Christmas Day and dominating them again. The rise of
(37:32):
the Spurs. You know, we looked at the heading into
the season. You know, the Thunder, the Rockets, and the
Nuggets are the teams we got to make sure we
take care of. The Spurs are ahead of schedule. I'm
curious how impressed you are watching this team that has
been doing it without really a fully healthy victor woman
Yamaho until I think last night maybe coming off the bench,
what do you see when you watch the Spurs play?
Speaker 1 (37:53):
And are they going to own this league?
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Is it gonna be the Thunder and Spurs and the
rest is You're on your own at this point.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Well, it's kind of comical. I considered myself a wise
man at the beginning of the year, when people I
was on a podcast and somebody was saying, you know
what you're you know out of the box prediction this year,
and my out of the boxing prediction was that the
San Antonio Spurs would avoid the play and be one
of the top six teams in the Western Conference, and
(38:21):
I was considered a really bold prediction. Now, I was
kind of really proud of myself. And now here we're
arguing about whether or not they'll be the top seed
or order the eventual NBA champion or not. They clearly
are way ahead of schedule. They have a template that
is looking to me to be a template for over
achievement in the NBA, which is that you get a
(38:43):
young team and a young coach and they get drilled
into a certain way of playing. They eagerly adopt that system.
They play unselfishly. There's no star system. You have people
like Wemby and Fox obviously who are the stars. But
their last two draft picks that they've hit on, actually,
if you come Wemby, their last three draft picks that
(39:04):
they've hit on. But Castle and Harper have both been
fantastic two way guards, guys who can play make and
defend at a really high level. They've got a veteran,
you know, over from Dallas a long time ago, Harrison Barnes,
who fits in perfectly. Is kind of a fifth cog.
That's just the team that is more than the sum
(39:26):
of its parts, like Okac, and one of the things
we've learned about Okac is size bothers them Wemby. The
Wolves have played the Thunder tough twice this season. Ok
See is zero to three now against San Antonio, so
that's four of their five losses this season. I've come
(39:47):
to teams that have, you know, big front courts, mobile
front courts, and so yeah, I do think that for
the foreseeable future, you never want to get too permanent
addictions in the NBA because things can rapidly change. We
could be a year ago, I'm sure we were praising
the Celtics to High Heaven as a potential dynasty or something.
(40:08):
But right now I would have to say that the
Thunder and the Spurs are definitely ahead of schedule. Not
only that they have youth on their side and they
have draft capital on their side, they have really capable
front offices in Sam Presty and rk Rl Burnett. I
believe it is in San Antonio. They have good young coaches,
(40:29):
and the Wolves are going to have to do something
if they think they're going to be running along those
two teams in the next five years.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Chicago and Atlanta to close out the calendar year. I mean,
they're just December games in a long season, but these
feel really important in light of what's gone down the
last couple games.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
Do you agree, Well, certainly the Bulls game is a template.
It's a team that is playing well recently that with
a possible exception of Josh Giddy, you know, which I
wouldn't really place as a star caliber player. Vossevich has
always been a one dimensional player. But they have a
lot of frisky young guys who are listening to their
(41:07):
coach lately, and they present exactly the kind of challenge
that Brooklyn and Memphis and Phoenix had presented previously. So
I'm kind of curious to see how the Wolves respond
after three losses to that type of team. As for
(41:28):
the Hawks, it seems that it's a weird thing to
say and probably bad news for Rob Dillingham, whose comp
is probably Trey Young as much as anybody in the league.
But when the Hawks have Trey Young, they don't play well.
And when they I mean when they do have Trey Young,
they don't play well. And when they don't, they do
when Trey Young is healthy. And I'm not sure that's
good news for the Hawks, but yeah, I think the
(41:49):
Bulls game is important, obviously if they lose to the Bulls. Atlanta, Miami,
Washington all on the road have different levels of expertise.
But as you started up this conversation saying, you never
know what you're gonna get with these wolves.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Hit the court.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
They keep you guessing. I guess that's one of the
positive things you could say.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Brett.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
It's always a blast chatting with you. Keep up the
great work at minpost dot com. We'll continue to read
you and I'll look forward to having you on next
time I'm sitting in one of these chairs.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Thanks, my man, Sure it sounds good.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Happy New Year. Britt Robson kind enough to spend some
time with us. And if you've never read his stuff, man,
he has a way with words unlike many. We're very
very fortunate between him and Krasinski and Heine and Frederick,
oh my, there's so many great guys. Covering that basketball team,
and Britt does a great job. Well pause here top
of the hour. Two hours down and one hour to go.
(42:39):
We'll zoom the NFL conversation for the two o'clock hours.
Sinnicon and Blake Moore in for Common on a Monday
on the Fan
Man, I'm watching you sit again. Don't think that I'm not.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
What O seven on a Monday afternoon, Dave sinecon and
for the common Man today with you till three o'clock.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Alec Lewis.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Joins at three and will host the Bumper to Bumper
program for one hour. Vikings Rewind follows at four o'clock,
and then the World Juniors USA versus Slovakia on the
fan with Zach Halverson on the call.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
That's at five o'clock.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
We'll have first half or so of Monday Night football
Rams Falcons and then Wild against the Vegas Golden Knights
at nine o'clock and we will chat maybe a little
next segment about the Wolves and Wild in action. Tonight,
I want to continue our NFL conversation and what we
saw in week seventeen and what looks like the big
matchups four week eighteen. We know the final game on
(01:19):
the docket will be the AFC North battle between the
Ravens and Steelers. All Pittsburgh had to do was go
in to Cleveland and win and they would have won
the AFC North, but that didn't happen. They fell to
Cleveland thirteen to six. Aaron Rodgers did not get sacked
by Miles Garrett, so the sack record is still in play.
It's funny how the Browns complained afterwards that they cared
(01:41):
more about preventing Miles from getting the record than winning
the football game. Well, basically, Cleveland has one player, so
if you don't think they're going to focus on just
making sure that Garrett doesn't erect the game, that seemed
a little sour creepy to me. But bottom line is
that paves the way for one of the great rivalries
of last twenty years, Steelers Ravens in what could be
(02:02):
Aaron Rodgers' final game. I think a lot of us
would love to see Baltimore go into Pittsburgh and end
things once and for all. I don't really see a
scenario where Aaron Rodgers comes back next season, do you, Brett?
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Unless I think he's done. Unless the Vikings come.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
Calling and say, you know, we thought about it, we
ended up going to another direction. But you know, JJ
loves you and we'd love to have you for you know,
a Swans moan. But no, I think he's done.
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I think once we saw him injured with his hand
in his broken nose, all bandage on the sideline in
the freezing cold. After I saw that picture, I'm like,
he's got to be done, and he said it's probably
going to be it. After that, I would be stunned
if he came back.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, I would as well. Think about this. The Pittsburgh
Steelers have a chance to reach the playoffs. Yet in
the last five games they've played against a team that
is eight or more games under five hundred, they're four
and one, that ties for the longest streak in NFL history,
(03:03):
and that's a team that might be in the postseason.
I mean, it's one thing to not get up for
bad teams, but to go oh, four and one against
teams that are at least eight games below five hundred,
that's the dregs of the league. That is the Browns.
I didn't look at the teams that that comprises, necessarily,
but that's not.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
A team that is going to do anything in the postseason.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
You shouldn't have to look at it, No, I really shouldn't.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Whereas you know, whoever is going to be the five
seed in the AFC, whether it's the Chargers or the Texans,
I think most likely top of my head, if they
have the choice of going into Pittsburgh or going into
Baltimore for their wild card round. No one's raising their
hand and saying I'll go into Baltimore right now. Green
Bay certainly made Baltimore look a little better than they
(03:50):
are on Saturday night because they have not looked good.
They blew a game the week before to New England.
Kudos to them, they were one and five and they're
on the doorstep of the playoffs. But Aaron Rodgers, you
know whose top two receivers were he was thrown to
yesterday MVS and Adam Theelen.
Speaker 1 (04:08):
Those no offense to those guys.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
But this is a team fighting for a division championship
and their top two wide receivers on the depth chart
are Mark Weiz Valdez Scantling and Adam Thielen.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Like trying to win an NFC North in twenty eighteen,
it's about it, basically.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Yeah, if we could move back the clock and even still,
I mean MBS has always been kind of a borderline
NFL player, But that'll be a great scene at what
was it now Assurance Field in Pittsburgh.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
It's always hint.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
It's always the big ketchup bottle to me, Baltimore is
a three point favorite at Pittsburgh. And if you know
anything about betting on the NFL, one of the great
sayings is when Pittsburgh and Baltimore meet, you take the
underdog and you just don't even think about it. No
one's going to back the Steelers, right. Everyone that bets
(04:57):
on football is going to be on Baltimore for this game.
And when Mike Toimelin's in that spot where no one
believes in his team, he always figures out a way.
So I'm not going to just assume that Baltimore is
going to go into Pittsburgh and take care of business.
I think the Steelers beat them early in the season,
and again, these teams tend to split more often than not. Well,
(05:20):
I'm not one that just believes Baltimore is going to
roll in on Sunday night and be coorinated just because
they look great against Green Bay.
Speaker 3 (05:27):
We talked about cliches and old sayings. We have a
handful of them on the text line that we're good.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Or yeah, we're going to get to some of those.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
I think this is a dusty you can use the
same time you want. When these two teams get together,
you can throw the record book out the window, and
it's just one of those rivalries where it just feels
like you'd never know what's going to happen.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
I mean, that's a great cliche, but it's not necessarily
a saying I live by, Like, I don't wake up
in the morning with that to get me going. But
you're right, that is a great NFL cliche, there's no
question about that. The other huge it was several really
big games this week. We haven't talked about the Saturday
night primetime game which will determine the number one seed
to the NFC. Seattle in San Francisco, short week. I
(06:10):
don't know why they play Saturday games the final week
of this I do know why. Obviously, it's for money.
It's for TV money on Saturday night. I get it.
There's nothing else. There's not gonna be any college football
on Saturday, so why wouldn't the NFL take that stage?
But it just doesn't seem really fair. As it turned out,
Seattle played yesterday, correct, Yeah, Seattle played yesterday. The Niners
(06:30):
played yesterday, so nobody has extra rest. But it is
a short week, and for the Niners it'll be their
third game in thirteen days. So maybe a little bit
for them feeling it. They've sort of loved to have
had that extra day to play on Sunday. But there's
a game to determine the NFC's top seed. The Seattle Seahawks,
(06:50):
who have really ridden a great defense, and Sam Darnold
has kind of come down to earth in the last
three or four weeks, but he accomplished something it's never
been done in the National Football League. He's the first
quarterback to lead his team to thirteen plus win seasons
back to back for two different teams. Again, we talk
about if you would have told me, you know, imagine
(07:12):
telling somebody two years ago that Donald would hold that record.
Right again, do you know football at all?
Speaker 4 (07:20):
Right?
Speaker 2 (07:20):
From the Jets, Yeah, Jets slashed the guy saw ghosts slashed,
the guy who went to Carolina in San Francisco and
couldn't get on the field. That guy is going to
win thirteen games to two different teams.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
Back to back.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Okay, Okay, but I mean, you know, it's pretty impressive
if you think about it, because he he kind of
gets a lot of the credit, maybe more so than
Donald maybe last year for what happened here that come
a great system great coaching. Look what Donald can become.
Well he goes to Seattle. They don't have a great
offensive coaching staff. They just hired a new coordinator.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
They don't.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
You know, Yes, JSN has blossomed into a top five receiver,
but their passing attack is beyond him, is nothing. Their
running game is so so that's That's got a really
good defense and that's gonna get you some wins for sure.
But Sam has looked a little bit closer to the
guy that finished down the stretch in Minnesota the last
(08:11):
few weeks, even yesterday. I mean, if you didn't watch
the game, twenty seven to ten, they blew out the
Panthers on the road. I don't think any team has
been better around the road than Seattle. They're certainly one
of the best. But I'm pretty sure that game was
three to three at halftime, like they they got nothing
done in that first half. I look at me like
I'm speaking Japanese all about Well.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
I just made a startling discovery as we're approaching late
for a break. But have you seen the spread for
the Border Battle six and a half vikings for.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
Why are you surprised by that? I mean, I know
Green Bay was terrible. But well, Green Bay is not
going to play anybody. That's that's what that's all about.
Has nothing to do with it. Well might have something
to Okay, I know, but I don't know that Green
Bay is gonna play most of their offensive linemen or
Jacobs or Watson or Dobbs. Oh my, no, I'm not
at all surprised by that. I don't expect this game
(09:02):
to be very competitive. Maybe I'll be surprised.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
No.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
I thought I thought it'd be more closer, just to
toss up of whoever's backups can be. I mean, there
were all unknown so when you lost, JJ's playing, which
he may he may.
Speaker 2 (09:14):
As Kevin O'Connell just said in his press conference, when
you're looking at the last couple weeks of the season,
motivation is what you look at.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Number one.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
And we talked about going into the Saturday game between
the Ravens and Packers, the Ravens season was on the line,
like they lose their dead. Green Bay had already had
their ticket punch two days ago, and that's just just
a natural letdown, like, oh okay, yeah we can lose. Yeah, sure,
we'd love to get the two or three seed and
win the North. I we'd like to think that means
a lot of these guys, but I think naturally guys
(09:44):
let up and same thing on Sunday. Green Bay is
going to roll in here just trying not to get hurt.
Just you know, they lost five more players for the
season Saturday night.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
I mean, it's just crazy.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
So no, I'm not saying it's gonna be a blood bath,
because I think whoever plays for Green Bay, we'll have
some capable guys out there. You can't bench your entire
there's not enough players. You can't betch all your starters.
But no, I'm not at all surprised the Vikings are
near touchdown favorites. It feels to me as we sit
here on Monday, like a seventeen to ten game, Vikings
(10:16):
like just not a lot of offense. I think Green
Bay's defense will try to rebound a little bit, and
obviously Vikings offense, I don't care who quarterbacks the team.
With the state of the offensive line, it's not going
to scare anybody. So I think points are going to
be at a premium on Sunday.
Speaker 3 (10:32):
I just with how the offense played last week, where
Brosmer was negative passing yards for But then again, we
just mentioned that they don't even need to pass, they
can just run against a green bay d I don't know.
It was just a little startled by it. I didn't
see the line until just now. But you're making a
lot of Nothing you're saying is wrong. If you I
was just like, whoa right now? If you want the
Packers and the points, I'll bank that for you. Just
(10:54):
come to Papa. I'll take it.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
Let's I'm I'm sure there are. By the way, I'm
a little bitter. I should have gone three and oh
with my underdog picks and a late meaningless field goal
cost me my three.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
And I'll tell you about that when we come back.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
And let's preview briefly the Wild and Wolves games tonight
before we welcome Britt Robson at about one thirty five
to chat all things Wolves. After a demoralizing, embarrassing almost
as bad as the Packers' performance by the Wolves on
Saturday night against Brooklyn, that's all coming up. It's the
common Man program.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
I'm the fans, teachers go above and beyond. Now it's
your turn. Do you not make your favorite teacher for
thank it? Teacher? Powered by donors choose think of it
in five thousand dollars for classroom supplies. I don't now.
iHeartRadio dot com slash teachers. iHeartRadio dot com slash teachers.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
By the way, mister Blake Moore, let me know if
you want live updates on the GLA B Birmingham Bowl,
which is now being played.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
I'm guessing.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
I'm guesses in Birmingham, Alabama, between the Georgia Southern and
Appalachian State. Georgia Southern has a seven zero lead. Somebody
had just mentioned there's a bowl game on now. I
had no idea. I don't even know if the Gophers
won at this point, and you're just locked in on.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
The rose Ball.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I'm so locked in on the college football playoffs. But
the Gopher game was entertaining. I look, it was the
rare bowl game now where you had two teams that
actually had most of their players playing.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
You know, coaching staffs that care about it. Obviously.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
PJ is now unbeaten at seven and zero, and Jason Eck,
the first year coaching New Mexico, turned that program around
from a three win operation, and they cared and it showed.
Speaker 1 (12:51):
It was an entertaining game.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
It was a game that the Gophers lead fourteen to six,
take the lead to go up eight, and they immediately
let a kickoff return Gopher a touchdown and a two
point version, and now it's tied, and now we're going
to overtime, and uh, you know, is it Jalen Smith,
the wide receiver who scored both touchdowns. Both were beautiful catches,
the second one spectacular to win that game in overtime,
(13:13):
it was It's it's very fashionable to go.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
These games mean nothing.
Speaker 2 (13:16):
And for the most part, it's true because if you're
not playing in the college football Playoff, most of your
either draft eligible players or soon to be transferring players
are not going to play in the games, and so
most of these games are not watchable. I'm just going
to go out on a limb and say the j
L A B Birmingham Bull is going to be an
unwatchable game. Now, maybe these are two teams that do
(13:39):
care and their players aren't leaving and it's going to
be competitive, but yeah, I had no I just switched
it from ESPN too, which I didn't realize I was
on to ESPN because well, because football.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
It's a game, exactly, and I'm sitting here till three o'clock.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
So while I'm watching the World Juniors from grank Cino
Arena right now, Sweden's put it on Germany? Are they
over in St?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Paul? What? What network is carrying.
Speaker 3 (14:01):
That NHL network?
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Very good, which you were flabbergast at a couple weeks
ago you didn't even know existed.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
I was surprised an NHL network. It's a regional network, correct,
is it just like for the Midwest?
Speaker 3 (14:11):
And then you get it on most cable service and
you know, yeah, they probably probably have it on you.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
I'm sure I do.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
They probably pay you to include it so they can
just add the subscription list and make it a more
August list.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
A kid, A kid.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
Speaking of the NHL, you're while they're back in action
tonight in Las Vegas to take on the Golden Knights,
fresh off a thrilling overtime win over the Winnipeg Jets.
We chatted a bit about that over the weekend.
Speaker 1 (14:37):
That was, you know, I.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
Gave you a little something to feel good about after
watching your favorite football team on Saturday night. But give
us an update on your favorite squad as they head
down to a Sin City tonight.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
That was a very good consolation prize. No, they're they're
playing well. I did read from La Panta the play
by play vox.
Speaker 1 (14:56):
I'm aware on Anthony Sports.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
Marqu Sorry, I had to talk down to you after
the first hour.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Fair enough. What's a power play again? Hockey?
Speaker 3 (15:07):
That is hockey. There's a penalty box hooking, slashing, real
Lapanthera said, it looks like eure Off is getting moved
back up to the top line to play with caprice
Off and Zucarello. Two thumbs up from the producer on
that one. Okay, but I like the way that they're playing.
The win in Winnipeg was just such a rousing. It
was the exact opposite of what we saw with our football.
It was a rousing. It got you up. Just a
(15:31):
stupid penalty from Winnipeg, just cross checking Eric Snack nowhere
near not even the same zip code. I mean he
was in Alberta from the puck, and you get the
power play. Quin Hughes gets the assist, Zucarella gets the
goal to tie it with like twenty some seconds left,
and then tick tech toe caprice Off to Hughes to
Boldie for the winner. I mean that's what you envisioned
(15:52):
when you trade for a guy like Hughes. He's got
he's a point of game. Since he's been on the Wild,
he plays like damn near half the game and things
like twenty seven minutes of Ice Seinberg game. So I
love the way they're playing. I love the way they're rolling.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
I'm still on tic tac toe? Is that a hockey thing?
I liked that. I've never heard of that before.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
You never heard no, Yeah, a little three passing play?
Speaker 4 (16:12):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (16:12):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
Yeah, it's fun. It's a fun time.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Can we use that in basketball? It's more of the
triangle offense? I think, yeah, yeah, that's all. I like
the tic tac toe? All right, So Wild v. The
Golden Knights tonight nine o'clock. You'll hear it on the fan.
If you want to listen to the Timberwolves, you can
do that too on the free iHeartRadio app. Just find
the Timberwolves channel and you will hear Wolves and Bulls
as Minnesota heads out on a.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Three game road trip.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
They'll close out the calendar year in Chicago tonight and
at Atlanta on New Year's eve Day. It's I have
to take a two o'clock start, and I caught the
very end of PA's show. I was sitting next to
Nordo and he was talking about, you know, Kobe White
for the Bulls is a point guard who you know
a lot of Wolves fans are kind of rubbing their hands, thinking, oh,
(17:00):
would that be a nice solution to the point guard problem.
The problem is he's a free agent after the season.
He wants to get paid. I don't know that he's
a likely trade partner because it would be a rental
player unless you knew you could sign him long term.
And I don't know that they have the money or
the interest to do that. But that's the kind of player.
If they are looking to upgrade a point guard, I
would love to see them get And if you don't
(17:22):
see Kobe White play a lot, because why would you
watch the Bulls play. Tonight's game, which you can also
watch on the fan, Duel Sports Network will give you
a look at him and Josh Gidey a really talented backcourt.
We'll see if the Wolves defense can improve at least
one notch over what they showed against Brooklyn, which was
(17:42):
horrendous and allowed them to do whatever they wanted. Sixty
six points in the paint. Forty six points in the
paint in the first half just a miserable effort. For me,
watching that effort and the Packers' effort in the same
night was just a double gut punch. It was ugly.
Speaking of point guards, that Wolves will head to Atlanta
(18:02):
on Wednesday to face the Hawks, who just today I
saw some reports that there now open to looking at
dealing Tray Young. Now you have my attention, and you've
got Trent Tucker's attention, because that's yes, that's the guy
Trent's been thinking about for a couple of years for
this team. He he just dreams about an aunt Trey
Young backcourt. You know, people don't maybe see a lot
(18:22):
of Trey Young. He led the league and assists a
couple of years ago. He would be, to me an
ideal a backcourt partner to Anthony Edwards. And although Anthony's
been pretty much unlocked already offensively, that would do even
more to take those ball handling responsibilities away from Anthony Edwards.
And there is some you know, worry with Trey Young.
(18:43):
You know, he's not been a winner, he's been injury prone.
Not sure how great a leader he is, But I
don't know in this environment how great of a leader
he would have to be. And I don't know what
you'd have to give up for Trey Young, And I
haven't looked at his contract situation. He makes a lot
of money. You're gonna have to give up, you know,
whether it's you know, Randall, Reid, McDaniels, one of those guys.
(19:03):
And I don't want it to be Jayden, but salary
has to follow salary. They got a match or me close.
So that's still pipe dream stuff. But if you are
dreaming about a point guard, the wolves next two opponents
both have point guards that are likely going to be
in different places next season. This is a big couple
games for Minnesota just because the way the last two
games went. You know, they beat the Knicks earlier last week,
(19:25):
they're sitting there and I think twenty and ten and
you know, feeling really good about taking down the Knicks,
even though they didn't have Jalen Brunson, the Wolves didn't
have Jayden, you know, beating the thunder not that you know,
a couple of days earlier, things were looking really good
and then there's no harm or you know, shame and
losing at Denver that's a really good team. But man,
you go up nine points to start overtime, you'd like
(19:46):
to think you can hang on there, and djok Yokis did,
but Yokic does and took over that game.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
But then they followed it up.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
It's just such a putrid home performance that you just
saw coming from a mile away. You know, Brooklyn has
a tear rible records, not going to get the Wolves attention,
but they've been the best defensive team in the league
in December.
Speaker 1 (20:05):
They've been winning games in December.
Speaker 2 (20:07):
They seem to have figured things out, and the Wolves
didn't take them seriously, and that's been a problem for
this team for a long long time. And yes, they
beat up on a lot of those teams early in
the season, but they're starting to fall back into some
old bad habits. And taking care of the Bulls and
Hawks on the road to close out the calendar year,
(20:28):
I think would be really important as they look ahead
to what they face ahead of them in the Western Conference.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Let's chat more Wolves.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Let's bring in one of my favorite chroniclers of the Timberwolves,
Ritt Robson, who's long time covered this team for various outlets,
currently writing for Minpost dot com. Britt joins us next
to talk Wolves and all things NBA on The common
Man program.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I'm the Fans, Join the Fans, Corey Cove tonight Willie
McCoy's Ramsey. Of course, like hockey night job by starting
at seven pm to catch Minnesota take on Vegas ice
Cold corse LFE specials. Play trivia for your chance to
win great prizes, including sweet tickets to a game in January.
Full details now kafan dot com. He recount.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Hilo back one thirty seven on a Monday afternoon. Dave
sinnecon in for The common Man on this Monday. About
halfway through, Alex Lewis takes over at three for a
truncated one hour version of the Bumper to Bumper Show,
before we go to Wild Vikings Rewind, then USA versus
Slovakia World Juniors on the Fan at five o'clock, Wild
Hockey later tonight at nine. With all that hockey coming up,
(21:41):
it feels like we need to talk some hoops, which
I love to do and I always love to chat with.
Our next guest, Britt Robson kind enough to join us.
He covers the Wolves now for Minpost dot com. Happy holidays,
A early happy New Year, Brick. Glad to have you
on today.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Yeah, same to you.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
So the last we watched the timber Walls. First, for me,
I saw very little of it because I watched my
other favorite team completely implode at lambeau Field wasn't much
better at Target Center. I refuse to be surprised by
what this team puts on the floor night after night,
because you never really know what you're going to get.
But in light of they were coming off a really tough,
(22:18):
long overtime game in Denver, do you give them pass
at all for stumbling or are you just disgusted by
the effort you saw against the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday night.
Speaker 4 (22:28):
I'm somewhere in between. I'm not disgusted because it's a
long season. You know, they're twenty and twelve. They're ten
and five in their last fifteen. They have played a
lackluster schedule for the first two thirds of that, but
their schedule has bit about the same in terms of
one lost record going against much tougher competition. They still
(22:50):
have a tendency to overestimate themselves. I think even more
than underresting estimating the opposition. I just think that if
you throw out that wild Christmas Night game against Denver,
which for some reason, when they go to ball Arena
in Denver, there's crazy games that have in there, whether
(23:12):
it's Game seven or you know, anyway, there's just been
a lot going on there. But the last three that
they've played that they've lost have been at home against Phoenix, Memphis,
and Brooklyn. And what those three teams have in common
is they really get after you on defense. They were
playing well coming into that game, and they don't have
(23:35):
any stars. They play a very keeam oriented style of play.
Triple J for Memphis and Booker for Phoenix, I guess
could be regarded as stars. But the way that they're
coached and the way they approach the game, all three
of those teams they share the ball, they're very disciplined,
and they put a lot of pressure on you. And
(23:57):
the Wolves weren't prepared really mentally to play any one
of those three teams. And so discuss it is probably
too harsh of a word, because you know, every NBA
team males in games on occasion, and it's a long season,
and sometimes they play really well and lose, sometimes they
(24:18):
play really badly and win.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
But one of the.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
Things I have noticed about this Wolves team is that
they think they can come back and beat anybody. And
one of the reasons they think that is because they've
come back a lot. They've come back in the fourth quarter.
They had the best fourth quarter defense by a country
mile over the previous like ten or twelve games heading
into these last couple and so they think that they're
(24:41):
going to be able to roar back. They overestimate themselves.
Is this the mark a veteran team that you know
fronts its continuity as a virtue? No, it's not. And
that is something that Chris Finch and Anthony Edwards and
Julius Randall and the rest of the team that is
really kind of guiding the force and identity of this franchise.
(25:04):
They're going to have to address it because it won't
pass muster once they start to get into the crucible
of you know, early spring games and then the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
What is the biggest issue for you for this team
right now? Because the defense when Rudy's not on the
floor is atrocious. The point guard play is a rumor oftentimes,
though Mike Conley has certainly shown flashes of looking like
thirty three year old Mike Conley of late. But you
can't do that night after night. If there was one
thing you'd like to cure more than anything else for
(25:35):
this team right now, what would it be?
Speaker 4 (25:38):
Quite frankly, it would be attitude. It would be the
idea that they took everybody seriously, they walk their talk.
I mean, what makes us so annoying? I'm much more
annoyed than I am discussing now.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
I like that discussed.
Speaker 4 (25:52):
It means you know, you're you know, you're finished with
these guys, and you know, having covered the team for
thirty odd years, I'm never going to be finished with
this team. But I am very much annoyed with their personality.
I'm annoyed with the idea that they look at a
Brooklyn Nets team that had gone seven to three in
their previous ten. The Wolves had gone six and four,
(26:14):
and they clearly underestimated this team. Brooklyn got forty six
points in the paint in the first half against them.
I mean, that's a ninety two point in the paint pace.
And yeah, they'd battened down in the second half and
they only gave up twenty, but it was too late
by then, and by the way, by then, Brooklyn had been,
you know, a bunch of frisky kids learning how to
play the opposite of the Wolves attitude. You know, they're
(26:37):
just dying to get on the court and play as
a team and do exactly what they're good young coaches
telling them to do. And they you know, they outscore
the Wolves by like almost twenty points in the second half,
so even with the getting only twenty points of the paint.
So that's an attitude thing. The Memphis game was an
attitude thing. The Phoenix game was an attitude thing. On
(26:57):
the flip side, beating Oklahoma City is an attitude thing.
Beating the Knicks, albeit shorthanded with og Anobi and Brunson
both out, but that was an attitude game. When they
lock in, they're a very good basketball team, and they're
obviously a very talented basketball team. Now, when you talk
about point guard, I would agree that some of this
(27:19):
attitude and poise or whatever, Conley, when he was the
unquestioned alpha playmaker on the team clearly was able to
set that tone in terms of attitude and composure a
lot better than anybody else right now. But I would
also say that, you know, they're a titular starting point
guard Dante DiVincenzo. You know, seventy one assists and sixteen
(27:41):
turnovers in the last fifteen games. That's pretty good point
guard play from that slot. The problem is that they
run most of their offense through two shot centric ISO
heavy players who also are expected to be playing makers,
and Julius Randall and Anthony Edwards, and that can expose
(28:05):
things in the offense. I mean ANT right now. In
the last fifteen games in which the team has gone
ten and five, they've been outscored by twenty two points
when An's been on the floor. Their overall net on
that is plus thirty nine, so they have outscored opposition
by sixty one points when Ann is on the bench.
(28:28):
Jade McDaniels and Ant have played about the exact same
number of minutes over those fifteen games. It might surprise
you to think that Jade McDaniels has one fewer assists
than ANT in that period of time, in three less
minutes played and eighteen fewer turnovers. So Jade McDaniels could
(28:49):
arguably be a much better playmaker in that stretch of
time than Anthony Edwards. And yet Anthony Edwards, we know
because he's encountering double teams, and part of their system
is to bring the double against Julius and Ant and
have Ant and Julius capably play out of that. And
that's one of the reasons the Wolves offense can hum
(29:10):
on occasion. So, yeah, point guard would be nice, but
then it gets down to if you're going to get
a quality point guard, what are you giving up?
Speaker 2 (29:18):
Right, Yeah, and your guys are going to have to
give up something if you're looking to bring in a
real player that's going to make a difference. We're talking
with Britt Robson, he covers the Wolves at Minpost dot com.
You mentioned the points in the paint that the Wolves
gave up to the Nets on Saturday night. They also
got I think doubled up in bench production by the
Brooklyn Nets. I think that's been one of the more
(29:39):
head scratching and surprising things for me for this team
through thirty games or so, Britt, is the lack of production,
the lack of consistency from the bench and some of
the players. You know, Finci's kind of been all over
the board. It seems like he's been very adamant about
trying to loosen up that rotation to see nine, ten,
eleven guys who he's got. We know, come a in May,
(30:01):
that rotation is going to be a tight eight man rotation.
I don't know right now he knows who those eight
guys are going to be. But where are you with
how the bench has played? And I guess for me,
I can't get enough Jalen Clark, and I've been a
little surprised at his lack of minutes of late. So
where do you stand on the guys on the bench.
And if you're looking at an eight man rotation as
(30:22):
this team is currently constructed come playoff time, who are
the eight guys you trust?
Speaker 4 (30:28):
Well, unfortunately it won't be Terren Shannon Junior, who was
going to be. I mean, everybody knows the story here.
They do have an iron seven, and they had an
iron eight last year. And the seventh or eighth man,
depending on how you want to calibrate it was Nikhil
Alexander Walker, who they had to let go for salary reasons.
(30:48):
If they wanted to resign nas reed, and they did
and also re up Julius Randall, And they missed naw
because he was a glue guy in many ways, he
could be a quasi point guard. He could be a
quasi combo guard. He was a great defender on ball, defender,
also really good in switch zone types, could break through
(31:13):
screens really well. They thought that Terren Shannon would take
up the majority of what Nod did on the court,
that he could be somewhat of a playmaker, somewhat of
a good defender, and also be the kind of guy
who could get to the rim off the bounce and
hit the occasional three the way Nod did. That has
failed spectacularly thus far. Shannon's had a welter of minor injuries,
(31:39):
but that does not explain the almost comical net rating
that he has. I mean, it's the kind of it's
over in minus net twenty, you know, it's the kind
of thing that people usually rack up when they've played
a very small amount of minutes, and his minutes have
begun the mount. And he's one of the worst offensive
players on the team, one of the worst defensive players
(32:00):
on the team. Statistically, the eye test isn't that much better.
This is a guy who you know, obviously showed out
a couple of games of the playoffs, especially a memorable
performance against OKC. Had a fantastic summer league, had a
fantastic preseason and almost has actually played pretty well. I'm
(32:22):
the home opener, I mean, the season opener in Portland,
and then after that it just has been very, very
few spotty games. And you can tell by the way
that the team keeps on trying to jam him back
in at the first sign of a resuscitation that they
want him to succeed and fill that role, and he
(32:42):
just not has has not been able to do it.
So what you've got Jalen Clark was fantastic on defense
for a while. Lately, I know you didn't see the
Brooklyn game, Cam Thomas beat him for two and ones
in the single quarter of play, which is just you
didn't see. I think they may have been the first
(33:03):
two we've seen Jalen Clark give up. His defense has
slipped a little bit. I don't know if that has
something to do with his irregular minutes, but his performance
and efficacy lately has not been great. And then the
third guy of what Finch called the youth Corps, Rob Dillingham,
(33:24):
shows flashes, has a great first step, has a good shot,
his skill set and what Finch wants out of the
position are not a good match. He's been supplanted in
the rotation by Bones Island, who, although he's kicked around
quite a bit, is not that old. He's twenty five
years old. He's two weeks older than Jane McDaniels and
(33:45):
is getting minutes off the bench, and contrary to my
curmudgeonly take on him early, has proved me wrong by
playing very well off the bench and actually being somewhat
of an elixir in terms of somebody who can move
the ball along and make some playmaking happen. His defense
is statistically really good, but the eye test shows it
(34:05):
to be pretty spotty. But he has supplanted any of
the three young corps and now sits alongside Nasried and
Mike Conley as the eight players that I would guess
Finch would go with if the playoffs would start tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
Yeah, that is a surprise, for sure.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
I've kind of admired in bad things after the last
couple of games. There's been some positives. As you said,
they're twenty and twelve. Let's to you maybe has been
the most pleasant surprise or maybe one of the most
positive developments for this team that maybe you didn't necessarily
expect when the season started.
Speaker 4 (34:41):
I actually think that their offensive capability when they play
the right way, their ball movement, which has enabled Jade
McDaniels to play extremely well. I guess I would say,
if you're asking me to signal out a person, McDaniels
getting the room to show his versatility has been fantastic,
(35:03):
and that's kind of been one of the problems lately
with this kind of double ISO ball with Randalin and
it doesn't give McDaniels as much of a chance. I'd
like to see him get a little bit more second
unit minutes where he's one of the primary playmakers on
the floor, and then I would say that after Fitsen
(35:25):
stops start. Rudy Gobert has been fantastic over the last
dozen games or so. His rebounding has really solidified the
team's defense, especially in the second half of games. He
is occasionally he still remains somebody who runs very hot
and cold on offense, depending on whether or not he
gets a couple of easy looks and they look to
(35:48):
get him off and get scoring and get comfortable. He
seems very much to be a headset oriented player in
terms of if he feels like he's being fed and
being paid attention to early, he gets a lot more
of his game going, but his defense has remained rock solid.
As you mentioned. One of the problems, of course, has
been how completely they fall apart on defense when he's
(36:11):
off the floor. But he remains a stalwart. And it's
easy to underestimating because defense is a vague thing and
you never really know who's at fault and who's the credit.
A lot of times in the NBA he does a
lot of what they call never minds, when people try
to drive to the rim and then move out of it.
(36:31):
And they've been moving him around on defense a little
bit more, not strictly drop coverage, and he's been effective
there and still getting rebounds. He's always great on screen assists.
He is fantastic at freeing out people that way. So
I would say Rudy Gobert and Jade McDaniels individually have
been the pleasant surprises. And I would say the Wolves
(36:54):
capacity I believe to be a top five offense when
the ball is moving, when and Randall playing the right way,
and when this team decides it wants to lock in mentally,
those are all things that are good things to look
forward to. Is the season, bozarkt I'll.
Speaker 2 (37:09):
Move off the walls for our last minute or two together.
It wasn't that long ago. A couple of weeks we
were talking about the Oklahoma City Thunder looking like a
team that might break the Warriors record for most wins
in the regular season. Then the San Antonio Spurs came
along and knock them off, not once but twice last week,
first doing it at home and then go into Okacee
on Christmas Day and dominating them again. The rise of
(37:32):
the Spurs. You know, we looked at the heading into
the season. You know, the Thunder, the Rockets, and the
Nuggets are the teams we got to make sure we
take care of. The Spurs are ahead of schedule. I'm
curious how impressed you are watching this team that has
been doing it without really a fully healthy victor woman
Yamaho until I think last night maybe coming off the bench,
what do you see when you watch the Spurs play?
Speaker 1 (37:53):
And are they going to own this league?
Speaker 2 (37:55):
Is it gonna be the Thunder and Spurs and the
rest is You're on your own at this point.
Speaker 4 (38:00):
Well, it's kind of comical. I considered myself a wise
man at the beginning of the year, when people I
was on a podcast and somebody was saying, you know
what you're you know out of the box prediction this year,
and my out of the boxing prediction was that the
San Antonio Spurs would avoid the play and be one
of the top six teams in the Western Conference, and
(38:21):
I was considered a really bold prediction. Now, I was
kind of really proud of myself. And now here we're
arguing about whether or not they'll be the top seed
or order the eventual NBA champion or not. They clearly
are way ahead of schedule. They have a template that
is looking to me to be a template for over
achievement in the NBA, which is that you get a
(38:43):
young team and a young coach and they get drilled
into a certain way of playing. They eagerly adopt that system.
They play unselfishly. There's no star system. You have people
like Wemby and Fox obviously who are the stars. But
their last two draft picks that they've hit on, actually,
if you come Wemby, their last three draft picks that
(39:04):
they've hit on. But Castle and Harper have both been
fantastic two way guards, guys who can play make and
defend at a really high level. They've got a veteran,
you know, over from Dallas a long time ago, Harrison Barnes,
who fits in perfectly. Is kind of a fifth cog.
That's just the team that is more than the sum
(39:26):
of its parts, like Okac, and one of the things
we've learned about Okac is size bothers them Wemby. The
Wolves have played the Thunder tough twice this season. Ok
See is zero to three now against San Antonio, so
that's four of their five losses this season. I've come
(39:47):
to teams that have, you know, big front courts, mobile
front courts, and so yeah, I do think that for
the foreseeable future, you never want to get too permanent
addictions in the NBA because things can rapidly change. We
could be a year ago, I'm sure we were praising
the Celtics to High Heaven as a potential dynasty or something.
(40:08):
But right now I would have to say that the
Thunder and the Spurs are definitely ahead of schedule. Not
only that they have youth on their side and they
have draft capital on their side, they have really capable
front offices in Sam Presty and rk Rl Burnett. I
believe it is in San Antonio. They have good young coaches,
(40:29):
and the Wolves are going to have to do something
if they think they're going to be running along those
two teams in the next five years.
Speaker 2 (40:37):
Chicago and Atlanta to close out the calendar year. I mean,
they're just December games in a long season, but these
feel really important in light of what's gone down the
last couple games.
Speaker 4 (40:47):
Do you agree, Well, certainly the Bulls game is a template.
It's a team that is playing well recently that with
a possible exception of Josh Giddy, you know, which I
wouldn't really place as a star caliber player. Vossevich has
always been a one dimensional player. But they have a
lot of frisky young guys who are listening to their
(41:07):
coach lately, and they present exactly the kind of challenge
that Brooklyn and Memphis and Phoenix had presented previously. So
I'm kind of curious to see how the Wolves respond
after three losses to that type of team. As for
(41:28):
the Hawks, it seems that it's a weird thing to
say and probably bad news for Rob Dillingham, whose comp
is probably Trey Young as much as anybody in the league.
But when the Hawks have Trey Young, they don't play well.
And when they I mean when they do have Trey Young,
they don't play well. And when they don't, they do
when Trey Young is healthy. And I'm not sure that's
good news for the Hawks, but yeah, I think the
(41:49):
Bulls game is important, obviously if they lose to the Bulls. Atlanta, Miami,
Washington all on the road have different levels of expertise.
But as you started up this conversation saying, you never
know what you're gonna get with these wolves.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Hit the court.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
They keep you guessing. I guess that's one of the
positive things you could say.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Brett.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
It's always a blast chatting with you. Keep up the
great work at minpost dot com. We'll continue to read
you and I'll look forward to having you on next
time I'm sitting in one of these chairs.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Thanks, my man, Sure it sounds good.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
Happy New Year. Britt Robson kind enough to spend some
time with us. And if you've never read his stuff, man,
he has a way with words unlike many. We're very
very fortunate between him and Krasinski and Heine and Frederick,
oh my, there's so many great guys. Covering that basketball team,
and Britt does a great job. Well pause here top
of the hour. Two hours down and one hour to go.
(42:39):
We'll zoom the NFL conversation for the two o'clock hours.
Sinnicon and Blake Moore in for Common on a Monday
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