Lakers VS Timberwolves: The Kobe & Rubio Show

This was a great game to watch as we saw tons of potential from both teams. It was nice to see the Minnesota Timberwolves get a win after their head coach, Flip Saunders, recently passed away. Let's take a look at the game and how the Minnesota Timberwolves came to win this game by 1 point.

Rubio Can Shoot
No, I'm not lying. The first points of the game were a 3 pointer by Rubio. He looked great. He had a very great jumper and shot with lots of confidence. He shot 10-17 in the game, most of those being mid-range jumpers, as well as shooting 2-4 from the 3-point line. He also finished strong at the rim, something that Rubio has also struggled with in his career. His shot looks really good and it really helped Rubio find open players when the Lakers had to really guard him. He has 14 assists to go along with his 28 points. Rubio said after the game "Yeah, well, it was a tough year for me last year, sitting almost the whole year, so I was working on that shot. I've been working (the) whole summer on that shot, and um a, it is something that if I want to keep being in this league, I got to knock them out, knock them down, and today, they, they did." Well, if they do continue to fall for Rubio, he will be a big key to success for this team.

Kobe Still Has The Skills
Well, if there was any doubt that Kobe wasn't going to be the best player on the Lakers, those doubts can be put to rest. Kobe Bryant is still the Lakers main man. He probably should have shot that last shot. He had 24 points on the night, and he is still shooting as much points as he always has. Last night, Kobe shot just 3-13 from deep and only shot 8-24 from the field. However, it sure didn't seem like it because Kobe was dropping amazing shots last night. He crossed up Tayshaun Prince a couple of times, and really had a great performance in terms of increasing peoples expectations.

Julius Randle and Karl-Anthony Towns
These big men have got some talent, and they were showing it off last night. Julius Randle really controlled the boards and did pretty good on the inside. However, he only shot 5-13 from the field. Towns lead all players in rebounding with 12 and had a nice inside game. He also showed us a step-back jumper in the game. Randle ended the game with 15 points and Towns ended it with 14. Both of these players have lots of potential and have lots of intelligence.

The 6th men
Louis Williams and Kevin Martin looked really well coming off the bench. Williams only shot 2-7 from three and Kevin Martin shot 0-5 from deep, but both of these players got to the line at a very high rate. Williams shot 7-7 from the line and K-Mart shot 11-12. Both of these teams are going to need this production from both of these guys through-out the season.

Other Points

• Roy Hibbert really didn't look all too great except for the fact that he had 10 rebounds and went 10-10 from the free throw line. He also had 2 blocks.
• Other than Towns and KG, the Timberwolves didn't rebound well. They lost the rebounding battle 39-51
• Nick Young had 14 points, including a near half-court buzzer-beater shot. Swaggy P was in the house last night and the crowd obviously loved him.
• Tayshaun Prince guarded Kobe most of the game, but I was really impressed with how well Andrew Wiggins was able to guard him. He really did a good job defending Kobe's shot. It should be noted that Tayshaun Prince seemed like he struggled with that.
• D'Angelo Russell didn't look too great in the Lakers opener. He shot just 2-7 from the field and 0-3 from deep to go along with only 4 points and 2 assists. He also had 3 turnovers in that game.

It was really nice to see these young talented teams play the other night and I'm excited to see them play this season.

Karl-Anthony Towns Is a Skilled Big Man

"Karl-Anthony Towns 2015" by Dennis Adair from Gainesville-StPetersburg, FL - Karl-Anthony Towns. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons.

The Big KAT had lots of people that questioned him going into this upcoming season. I really hope that all of those questions have been put to rest. Last night, the Minnesota Timberwolves had a preseason win over the Milwaukee Bucks. They have Karl-Anthony Towns to thank for that W. He played great on both the offensive and defensive end of the floor and had shown off his great post game. He was anything but a disappointment last night.

Karl started off the night with a nice basket underneath the hoop right after the opening tip. He made a nice pivot move to get up the shot. Then he showed us a nice kind of fade-away bank shot over Greg Monroe. Then he gave a nice hesitation move with a hook shot. Later, he would give us a pump-fake and a nice finger-role layup. My favorite post move he gave us though, was the little shimmy shake fade-away that he nailed over Greg Monroe. It is clear that Towns has his post game down.

His defense really struck me though. He was really able to contain a big man in Greg Monroe in the post and he really started to bother Monroe. When the Wolves went against the Bucks the 1st time this preseason, we didn't see that because Towns got into foul trouble early on. But in this game, Towns was able to defend at the 4 and the 5.

While Towns is a center, he proved the ability to play at the 4 spot. At the end of the game, Gorgui Dieng was put in with Towns. Gorgui played the 5 spot while Towns was placed at PF. It worked and the Wolves played pretty well with the both of them in there. You could see that the Wolves played a lot of high post action and PNR with both of them in the game, and you know Ricky Rubio will find you if you make a nice roll to the basket off a pick.

Towns played well at the defensive end and the offensive end. His rebounding is what put the cherry on top though. He ended the game with 12 rebounds, and he fought for each one of them. It really wasn't Towns that surprised me with the boards though, it was the whole Minnesota team. They really fought for each possession and grabbed as many boards as they could. While they did loose the rebounding batter, they definitely won the hustle battle. This is a young team that clearly wanted to win.

We new Towns would have these attributes, we might have thought they would have been that refined, but we knew he could play defense and rebound as well as post up. What you might not have known about him is that he can run the fast break and pass the ball really well. Towns fits so well with this Timberwolves team because he can run. Just take a look at the dunk and the alley-oop he had in transition. His passing abilities looked good in the summer league and they look pretty good now too. He had a nice around-the-back pass to Tayshaun Prince for a 3 pointer in the game.

In the end, Towns played really well, and I expect him to have a great season. It will be fun to see him, Wiggins, Muhammad, and LaVine running with Rubio throwing some oops.

Do You Remember The Klay and Love Trade Talks?

Do you remember the Klay Thompson and Kevin Love trade talks. Back when Kevin Love wanted to be traded from Minnesota and Minnesota was offering Kevin Love for Klay Thompson. But in the end, the Warriors said no and the Wolves ended up trading him off to the Cavs. Let's take a look at how it would affect the 4 teams.

"Kevin Love (15847116411)" by Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA - Kevin Love. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kevin_Love_(15847116411).jpg#/media/File:Kevin_Love_(15847116411).jpg

"Klay Thompson in 2015" by Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA - Klay Thompson. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Klay_Thompson_in_2015.jpg#/media/File:Klay_Thompson_in_2015.jpg

Cavaliers: If Love was traded to the Warriors, the Cavs would have Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett, unless they found another team to trade them off to. But they wanted Love. Who else would be willing to trade off a franchise PF for these 2 first picks in the NBA draft two consecutive years. I'll tell you who. The 76ers. Of course this team would trade off Thaddeus Young, K.J. McDaniels, and draft picks for Wiggy and Bennett. They would be more than willing to do that. So you would probably see Thaddeus Young on this team and I honestly think that he would fit better for that role in Cleveland than Love. K.J. McDaniels would be a solid role player for the team. Now, I could go and breakdown how this would affect the Nets and all of that, but I'm not going to.

76ers: The 76ers would have Wiggins and Bennett (most likely). They would start both of them and they wouldn't have Mbah a Moute. It would be Carter-Williams, Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett, Nerleans Noel, and most likely Freeland. Carter-Williams wouldn't be traded off since they have all the talent they want as it will be a great starting 5 when Embiid comes back. This would be a team how the Timberwolves are except with even more potential. This would be a dominating future team.

Timberwolves: This would be a playoff team. They would have David Lee and Klay Thompson starting along with Rubio, Pekovic, and Brewer. Along with LaVine, Budinger, Mo Williams, Shabazz Muhammad, and Dieng off the bench. Great roster. I would actually expect this team to make the playoffs. Klay Thompson would work so well with Rubio and Klay would become an all-star. Brewer wouldn't be traded. Neither would Mo Williams. This would be a content team and they really wouldn't be the future team that you would think. The big thing though, K.G. might not come back to the Wolves. I honestly think that Kevin Garnett wouldn't come back to the Wolves unless the Wolves were to trade off David Lee for him. There would be no Wiggins on this team. That just wouldn't be there. It would be a totally different team with Klay Thompson as the face of it.

Warriors: The Warriors would take a big effect. They would have Curry passing to Love off great pick and pops with Kevin Martin coming off of weak side screens. That would be amazing. I honestly thought at the time that if the Warriors made this trade, they would be the best team in the NBA. I honestly thought they made a big mistake. And I still do. I think that if they took the trade, you would have so much better of a team. I know Klay is great. I know that. But Klay Thompson and a David Lee who has rarely played at all this season for Kevin Love and Kevin Martin who are both averaged over 15 PPG this season. I'd say that it would be worth it. That would be a great team. Not only that but you would have Draymond Green coming off the bench. A great player coming off the bench. So your bench would have a lot of strength. This team would have been unstoppable. And they are right now to.

So as you can see, it's very complicated. And I just did those 4 teams. As you can see, the Warriors and the Cavs would still be great, but the Wolves and the 76ers would have big changes.