TWolvesRise

Rob Dillingham hoopin

Think I’ve mentioned this on the show before, but this is my only Al Horford story. The Celtics were in town a day early for a game against the Wolves so they practiced at Target Center and had a media availability after. So I went because it’s pretty rare you get to cover a practice of a team that you don’t cover daily. Anyway we get to go in to the end of Celtics practice, and this is a real young group at the time, and they got music goin, and everyone on the team is dancing and playing lightning. Like multiple games of lightning and dancing. Everyone on the team except Al Horford. Horford was just sitting there knees wrapped in ice playing chess on his phone. Just felt fitting.

So, I obviously disagree with the TNT guys: I think KAT should be taking more 3s -- in this series, last series, series before that and all regular season. And really back to four years ago when the volume started to really drop (for some reason). This Wolves team was below-average on offense this whole season. You don't need any per possession stats to know that. It was plain as day if you watched the Wolves to any degree more than Ant highlights on IG. And until KAT's 3-point percentage drops well below 40, more of it equals better offense. And it is kinda that simple because it's not exactly hard to generate a somewhat open 3 for KAT. What happened to the pick and pop game? That was great back at the beginning of the season. They actually busted Draymond and the Warriors ass with that back in November. But that was November -- and outside of a Charlotte game here (his 62-point game) and a Bulls game there, where have the high volume pick and pop games been? What happened to the stepback 3? Why did that have to go away once Rudy came and KAT moved to the 4? Is it easier to get to a stepback when a 5 is guarding you, sure. But he's got the tools to get to that -- work on it, get faster with it, uncork it against forwards. We're not taking a pick and pop or stepback 3 over a KAT pump-and-go drive against a loaded up defense? (He's missing all those in this series, too -- 12 of 32 from 2 through 3 games.) But I really think the biggest thing is the Chucks and Shaqs of the world got to him. The way KAT's games has evolved since 2019-20 (when his 3-point *volume* was 144% what it was this season) has long suggested outside influence. The cool factor. Giannis was on the come up back then, and KAT's game undeniably shifted more toward that mold -- powerful but lumbering attacks from the perimeter that take up the majority of the floor but go in at a pretty good rate. Still effective, but definitely hurt spacing and lead to more offensive fouls and turnovers. To me, that became KAT's priority -- finding another way to be good other than shooting 3s. Which is like 1 degree off what the priority needed/needs to be -- find another way be to good IN ADDITION TO shooting 3s. The thing is I think KAT could be such a cool player. It just has to come in his own way. Like Luka, like Harden, like Jokic, like Giannis -- uniquely produced but profitable and repeatable. Back when KAT started evolving his game away from the thing he does best, guys like Luka were realizing what made them dominant and leaned into further and further. They said, 'stop me, then I'll do something else'. That version of KAT exists -- like Dirk but from beyond the arc, where the defense is doin whacky stuff just to make sure you don't even get a window to catch or shoot. Be something more like Steph than Giannis. But to do that, KAT has to let go of external pressure and realize what we all have to realize: the coolest versions of ourselves are the ones where we're the most ourself

Anthony Edwards: “Big Ru hit the turnaround on they ass. That’s when I thought we had em.”

Chris Finch: “We said to ourselves all series, our best is better than their best.”