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Tag: Tyus Jones

Parish: Desmond Bane Is “Absolutely Key for the Grizzlies”

Ja Morant, just 22, has been incredible through the series’ first two games, but will he get more help on the offensive end (@JaMorant/Instagram)?

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With the Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors tied through two games of an intense Western Conference semifinal series, we’re joined by Keith Parish, host of Grind City Media‘s Fastbreak Breakfast and Grits and Grinds podcasts, who provides insight from the Grizzlies’ perspective.

3:47-4:17: “These Ja Morant highlights, 140 million people saw them, and that’s by far the most of any NBA player. So he’s becoming an absolute superstar. What he did in Game 2 was a little bit different. … The Warriors are probably kicking themselves with the way they covered him. They didn’t seem to understand that he wants to drive left every time. They didn’t seem to understand that the Grizzlies were really, really short-handed and had not their normal closing lineup out there, but they didn’t force the ball out of his hands.”

12:32-14:11: “A healthy [Desmond] Bane I think could do incredibly against Klay Thompson. I’m not that confident in Klay Thompson’s ability to defend, and the Warriors keep playing these lineups where if [Jordan] Poole and Thompson are both out there, those are two things that the Grizzlies can attack if Bane is healthy. Continue reading

Bill Bohl: “Everything Makes More Sense When [Jimmy Butler’s] on the Court”

Under coach Tom Thibodeau again, Jimmy Butler is leading the league in minutes per game in his first season with the Timberwolves (Catherine Salaun/Creative Commons).

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A little more than six months after our latest Timberwolves-themed episode, things are looking pretty good for the team currently fourth in the West. Aaron checked in with Billy Bohl, writer for ESPN True Hoop’s A Wolf Among Wolves to discuss a slew of topics, including but not limited to coach Tom Thibodeau’s minutes allocation, 22-year-old phenoms Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins, and Jimmy Butler’s multifaceted impact on the organization’s success. Feel free to wolf down some highlighted sections below:

10:00-10:51: “I think it [the third seed] is preferable [to the fourth seed]. But again, you don’t want to look too far ahead…I wouldn’t want to face Russell Westbrook in a playoff series. Right now if they were the third seed, the Thunder would be the sixth seed. No disrespect to them obviously [but] I would much rather face Portland in the first round. It’s hard to decipher just which route you’d want to take. To be perfectly frank, I don’t think they’d have a chance against Houston either. I think they’d be in big trouble in the second round no matter which of those two teams [Houston or Golden State] they faced.”

15:05-15:56: “The Wolves aren’t terribly deep, especially on the wing, and they need Karl-Anthony Towns to be on court when Jimmy Butler is sitting. So they have to stagger those minutes, and that ends up driving up Karl’s minutes a bunch. I don’t worry about it too much as far as Wiggins or Towns is concerned. The part that troubles me a little: I try to be as optimistic as I can, but Jimmy Butler has already had a couple little tweaks to his knee this season. Continue reading

Patrick Fenelon: “There’s Nothing Wrong With (the Timberwolves’) Offense Right Now”

Through seven games, the 21-year-old forward is shooting north of 63 percent from 3-point range (Erik Drost/Creative Commons).

Through seven games, 21-year-old Canadian Andrew Wiggins is shooting north of 63 percent from 3-point range (Erik Drost/Creative Commons).

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The 2-5 Minnesota Timberwolves may be on the cusp of something very promising, but they’re awfully young. Under new head coach and president Tom Thibodeau, that inexperience has likely already contributed to three losses by a combined 10 points. Close losses notwithstanding, the offense, led by Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine and Karl-Anthony Towns, all 21 years old or younger, has been electric, as has the 3-point shooting in particular. Timberwolves expert Patrick Fenelon was gracious enough to join the show to discuss these three phenoms, the prospect of Minnesota improving its team defense, rookie point guard Kris Dunn’s strengths and weaknesses, and a whole lot more. Get teased with some excerpts below:

2:53 – 3:21: Fenelon begins by explaining what has been causing the Timberwolves to blow leads in the third quarter of games: “You wonder if it’s just a weird quirk of youth thinking that they can just sit back and play prevent defense. It’s just a layup line really is what happens in that third quarter. If you look at shot charts, you’ll see that one guy is coming in there and getting layups over and over again. They just stop playing defense. And then turnovers happen.”  Continue reading

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