The Wolves are Bon Jovi: ten (wild over)reactions to the Timberwolves' first pre-season game
1. Anthony Tolliver is Han Solo
I mean, that’s not even “Shoot first, ask questions later”. That’s “Shoot first, bam, now he’s dead”. Tolliver was not subtle on media day about gunning it. “If I play, threes will go up. Period.” And he meant it. Poor Greedo.
Tolliver shot 10 threes in a pre-season game. And he made half of them. All hail Anthony Tolliver.
2. Wiggins looks…..exactly the same.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me for three years, like, what the hell?
The offseason loves to trick us with videos of dudes killin’ it as they work on their game. In an empty gym. Against folding chairs. But the high key filter is dope, right?
Well, whatever stuff we saw and may have bought into about Wiggins over the last three months went right out the window about 5 minutes into this game. Wiggins started off shooting 1-4, with his three misses being a wildly failed post up on Klay Thompson and two of his patented dribble-into-a-long-two-misses.
Wiggins looks like exactly the same guy he’s been for the last 4 years. Super athletic. Doesn’t get it. He still doesn’t understand shot selection. He still can’t control his dribble. He still doesn’t make plays for his teammates (0 assists in over 20 minutes).
Yes, it was pre-season. Yes, it was 25 minutes. Yes, we’re going into this with a pre-conceived notion of what we’re going to see. That doesn’t mean what we saw wasn’t actually bad. It was bad. And now that he’s officially making a max salary, there’s no excuse for him to look this lost and uninterested.
3. Josh Okogie has nothing if not energy
I’m still a big skeptic of his shooting, but there was nothing not to like about Okogie’s game against the Warriors. The guy was a spastic hawk-bat, swooshing here and there and everywhere to make all sorts of plays. He disrupted passing lanes. He crashed the glass. He picked his scoring opportunities and made the most of them.
Again, the shooting is going to be very much a work in progress. There will be nights were Okogie won’t be able to hit the broad side of Montana. But if he brings the noise everywhere else, you can live with that for now.
4. Karl-Anthony Towns was fifth in field goal attempts
Tolliver: 14 attempts
Teague: 12 attempts
Wiggins: 11 attempts
Rose: 10 attempts
Towns: 8 attempts
Towns, by the way, shot a better percentage than all four guys ahead of him on that list. Can we seriously not do this for a second season, please? Then again, if it continues, it will become a major issue between Towns and Thibs, and Towns holds all the power in that relationship now.
5. The Wolves were losing until Tyus Jones came in
Just like last season.
Ah. It’s good to be back.
