Jeremy Lin breaks down Spurs vs Timberwolves
Good simple analysis. It’s always the team that generates the easier looks that wins so don’t know why players on the Wolves were making it harder on themselves
He just explained it. Teams that don’t support each other start to play selfishly. It’s a crescendo effect. Selfish play leads to more selfish play because people start feeling like they haven’t touched the ball. Once players start making the early pass to punish the help rotations the ball starts moving around because everyone’s playing like a team.
I don’t even think it’s as much as they don’t trust one another as their players are not processing fast enough to make the decisions. Wemby is a big part of that as the window for making the correct decision feels super rushed as the threat/presence of Wemby means any attack window has a slimmer than usual margin of time before you have a boogeyman that will break up your plays. Instead of a half second decision now players are trying to make quarter second decisions and the default decision is just iso it yourself.
They’re lacking a couple high level processors/decision makers. Donte probably would have been one of them. Even the players that did well yesterday for stretches felt like they were doing a lot one-on-one and relying on superior shot making to try to gut out a win and that’s just not going to do it for an entire game against an elite defense unless Ant goes super saiyan.
tony parker said during the 2012-2014 run that they had a drill where they would pass the ball at least 10 times before taking a shot and would sometimes during a game say in the huddle “let’s do the 10 pass drill”
passing the ball 10 times before taking a shot during a 24 second shot clock forces really quick decisions that the defense can’t possibly react to fast enough
Those Spurs had the luxury of having a handful of naturally elite processors AND long term familiarity with one another from having a core unit that played together for so long and system that emphasized passing.
Diaw is a prime example of just an elite processor. Came in mid-season and looked like he had been there for a decade. Someone like Splitter took time to learn the system but once he got integrated kept the rock moving and didn’t clog up the system.
idk naz reid straight up said the same thing in his press conference and I imagine Jeremy Lin understands a bit what it is like the mindset of the players on the court. it’s possible they are not processing fast enough because they lack the talent bt also possible they are not processing fast enough because they are not looking to pass.
Ultimately this is just coaching, IMO. The wolves have the ability to process the defense and have showed it in spurts. They get on a heater and start trusting each other to get their own buckets and it works incredibly well.
But when the attitude problems come up and guys start missing a lot and their body language is bad, somebody like Ant is gonna believe in his shot over giving over agency to Julius or Rudy.
And the Spurs have championships in their organization. They have active mentorship from former champions and coaches that help that growth. The Wolves don’t have that.
Yes this tracks with what Reid said and what Lin said. Is Finch overrated or mediocre coach? Know nothing about him except the willingness to target officials in press conferences.
Could be both? I think he’s widely considered a great coach around the league, strategically speaking.
Wolves fans don’t really disagree with the Xs and Os part of it.
What has been true for his entire tenure, though, is a lack of consistent discipline and accountability within the locker room. Guys are not forced to play Finch’s way or have consequences. I don’t think Greg Popovich would let 14 straight minutes of isolation, zero-passing offense fly without benching the guys doing it.
I feel like sometimes young teams that have success in postseason fall into mentality of “we can turn it on when we need to”. Comments like “we good in the west” (Ja) and “regular season a lot more boring” (Trae) are the bane of coaches and I feel like Finch has hinted at Wolves players having similar mentality during regular season after first game against Nuggets when he said they told him they would fix things that went wrong during a regular season in which they were bored.
Its really hard to maintain focus for 16+ games and practice makes perfect. Sloppy habits in regular season extend to postseason when youre tired and things aren’t working.
I think it’s ok to an extent to not give 110% during every regular season game. The issue is that the accountability needs to exist during the regular season. Don’t follow the gameplan? Cool, sit until you’re ready to do it.
I think in terms of player leadership part of that has to be on the stars/leaders that are taking the above attitude within the team. I think the players love Finch but they’re also used to him and if the team’s star/s are taking that attitude without repercussions then takes a lot of bite out of any coach’s power.
Note I am not commenting on Ant or any player in particular because I am not as in tune with the Wolves as Wolves fans are obviously. Just that if the coach is publicly acknowledging this issue then it’s probably not a fringe rotation guy setting the tone.
What has been true for his entire tenure, though, is a lack of consistent discipline and accountability within the locker room.
This is a big missing component especially for NBA players :/
How much of this processing is drilled in via practice? As /u/manuduncan6666 said, the Spurs actually ran drills like 10-pass drills which helps reduce the mental load when the game is as fast as it is today. I feel like a lot of this is also down to coaching difference.
It’s both nature (player’s own processing ability) and nurture (repetitions in similar environments like practice). Spurs beautiful game era team weren’t all basketball savants (although I would say Diaw and Manu among others probably were) and drills definitely made many players move the ball well through repetition (cogs like Green, Leonard, Splitter, etc probably were the ones that this helped). You could see it early on in Splitter’s playing career when he wouldn’t get much run because Pop couldn’t trust him to make the right reads on the floor first season or two. His first season with the Spurs Matt Bonner, DeJuan Blair, and McDyess were all playing more minutes than him despite having worse basketball ability because of lack of corporate knowledge of Spurs complicated system.
However, you also have to keep in mind that there’s aspects of that team that can’t be replicated easily by any team today- namely, TP, Manu, and TD all having a fucking decade of being used to playing with one another and Pop’s plays. There’s a reason once the Spurs legacy 3 aged out and the team became more focused around Kawhi and LaMarcus in the 2015-2017 era Pop simplified the play book a lot with less focus on ball movement. If it were so easy to replicate the ball movement a lot more teams would do it but there’s limited opportunity for teams to practice during the season and takes time to drill into muscle memory.
This is probably also why Kerr doesn’t play players like Kuminga despite the talent being there. Someone who kills the ball movement of a team focused on it will kill the rhythm so he’d rather have lesser players on the floor that will do the right passes.
When rotating the ball all it takes is a split second bad decision to reset all the advantage you’d spent 16 seconds gaining in forcing the defense to make decisions. Kerr’s offense also involves a ton of movement similar to those Spurs and players have to make the reads. Not all the players are elite processors but they have to be willing to do so.
At the end of 4 years it was just a bad marriage at that point. Kuminga was not able to integrate into Warriors offense the way Kerr wanted and Kerr was not willing to change his offense to suit Kuminga more with Curry and Draymond still playing high level basketball and that being their optimal environment. Management was probably hoping Kuminga would finally integrate and kept them together for 3-4 years, but it was just a bad marriage by the end and not necessarily the fault of any party. It can take years to learn a read-and-react offense and some just learn faster than others.
Yeah, this is better analysis than Jeremy Lin’s.
This bodes well for the Thunder.
I don’t think Randle being dumb is a trust thing I think he’s just dumb
For it to be trust issue you have to know what to do and then decide not to do it. If you have low bbiq you dont even get that far
ON GOD! I BEEN SAYING THIS FOR YEARS AND THE CONSENSUS IS THAT IM JUST A HATER
Im pretty sure there is a clip of Ant dabbing Mcdaniel while saying “i aint passing. what u talking about”
I mean, he also mostly highlighted plays by Julius Randle and Ant, neither of whom are point guards or great passers.
Meanwhile picking out passes by someone like Dylan Harper, who is a PG, feels a a little disingenuous.
Saying things like “trust” is kind of silly when it’s mostly just playstyle and position. If he wanted to point out trust, he should have pointed out the times the Wolves ignored Rudy in the dunker/roll because they don’t trust him.
Feels like half the time the Wolves passed the ball and actually forced the Spurs defense to rotate someone bobbles the ball trying to catch and move too quickly and that split second loss allowed defense to get set again and lose any advantage created. Wasn’t just Gobert doing it but he obviously is notorious for doing so. I recall some possessions by Randle and McDaniels doing the same. Have to be demoralizing to see it happen so frequently.
Yes, noted PG Wemby lol.
And having watched the game I did see Ant make lots of easy passes out of doubles. This often put our defense in the blender and lead to a wide open 3.
What we did to adjust (and how we ended up reopening the gap when they started closing it) was we drew help from where Ant couldn’t see as easily. Now if he had spotted the open man and managed to make the pass, that was a shoot around shot. He would’ve got an assist or hockey assist 80% of the time.
But Ant’s a willing passer just not a visionary one, so we managed to get away with it. Him and Shannon got a few buckets anyways cos they’re big time players, but we basically swallowed their visions.
Nah I think it’s pretty on point. Last year the ball whipped around vs the Lakers and Warriors. Even in the Nuggets series the Wolves worked the ball around more.
Assist counts plummeted vs the Thunder and Spurs. Lin did cherry pick clips from a game 6 that the Wolves more or less conceded 5 min into the game, but that’s the issue. When it gets hard, the Wolves seem to abandon the process and try to go 1 vs 3. Lots of hero ball.
I mean Ant is capable of being a great passer and Randle i capable of passing the ball. One of the examples he showed was Wemby who isn’t a pg at all. And also Fox at times, who is a pg, definitely struggles to pass it out early similar to Ant and usually has to be doubled before the pass happens. It’s a mindset thing and Lin framed it as trust but regardless it’s something any player with some kind offensive prescience is capable of
It’s 2026. Most teams don’t have traditional PGs who are pass first. Even then, the old school PG mentality of he dribles the whole clock and makes 1 pass before the shot is not good ball either. Everyone can pass the ball.
Sure you can say that, but the fact is that the wolves don’t have a reliable point guard rn and the number 1 and 2 option IS Ant and Julius. You can blame it on playstyle and position but if y’all keep relying on an old Conley or Ayo/Donte whose positions aren’t naturally PG, then you’re gonna continue to have this problem come regular season and playoff time over and over again. What excuse is there to fallback on if you continue to fall short for the same reasons over and over? They gotta learn to trust regardless of whether their play doesn’t fit that style.
because their HC fucking sucks and their assistant is the genius one. so you have these awkward lineups and mixed messaging that hasn’t helped them figure out spacing as long as finch has been there
Yeah, that’s why the Randle/Gobert offense struggled
I think in general Finch and his staff have done a great job with player development, team togetherness/commitment, and in-series strategy. Sometimes the other team is just a lot better.
Am I out-talented and Ant is hurt?
No, it’s the coach who got us to back-to-back Conference Finals who is wrong.
it’s a doc rivers/ty lue situation imo. the decisions in last game were unacceptable
Welcome to The Julius Randal Experience
Julius Scamdle
Dubious handle
Other Knick fans called him Beyblade as well
omg this is top tier nba nickname. still not better than russell westbrick though
[deleted]
Its one of his oldest nicknames around here
Dubious Handle is the most diabolical nickname ever given to a player.
I live for his breakdowns
His breakdowns really are great stuff, he has a YT and hope he does these more often
I hope a major network picks him up. I also hope it’s not ESPN
Having a dude with a mix of his basketball intelligence and general intelligence is a real asset that the NBA needs to bring into the fold.
Replace Perk and these buffooons with him.
Crazy how much Donte means to the offense in this regard. The whole vibe of our offense is horrible without him
I remember how much the fan-base hated him when KAT got traded.
Now KAT is the engine of the juggernaut that will win you the finals
With NBA teams the natural dynamic for most guys is to follow a leader. Something that Wemby isn’t lauded enough for is his leadership. He’s an amazing leader because he can communicate effectively with his teammates and inspire them to play at a higher level. Wemby is out there making selfless passes, so other guys pick up on that and do it too. I can’t articulate how great Wemby is
The most underrated part of his impact this year is probably his communication on the defensive end to make sure his team makes the right switches in order to maneuver around the opposing team’s scheme so that he can stay as the low man and protect the paint
All great althlete have spare brain capacity to think of the bigger picture. It’s always impressive no matter the sport.
One of my favorite examples of this happens in F1. Some drivers, Fernando Alonso and Max Verstappen in particular, have been known to peek at the video screens meant for the fan sections to get some race data, while in the race.
Yeah he has a great presence. You always hear his voice directing teammates, especially in transition when he gets real loud.
Even though he is no longer the Head Coach, the leader of the Spurs organization is still Pop. His legacy of ownership and working together is undeniable. The coaching staff and players and others leaning into that while evolving as a team with the roster and coaching staff they have is the key reason for the Spurs continued to success.
Everyone who is a part of the Spurs organization deserves credit for that.
Exactly. Wemby has had the chance to learn those expectations from Pop, Timmy, and everyone else in the organization. And he’s taken those lessons to heart.
Even without that Wemby has a good head on his shoulder and clearly had audited great mentors beforehand. All of that is additive. The key thing is doing that and maintaining that are two different things. Maintaining that is why Duncan is the best and most consistent Power Forward the game of Basketball ever saw.
Yeah I also noticed Wemby communicates way more than Rudy when their defensive roles are somewhat similar.
Players that say they want to win but aren’t willing to learn how to play unselfishly together are lying. That said, Wemby came into the league willing to pass and so were his young stud teammates like Vessel, Castle, and Harper (and others). Is that really trust, or natural unselfishness that comes out even in high pressure situations.
Can J. Lin replace Candace Parker or Wade on the Amazon Prime broadcast?
really love Jeremy lin’s break down, easy for me to understand.
jeremy you wanna dust off the jersey? we need someone on the court with a brain that isn’t a geriatric conley or one-and-a-half eye anderson
In terms of playstyle Lin didn’t play like he’s a great connector. I feel like people just assume his actual playstyle is more cerebral than it is because of race. He was more of an athletic combo guard chucker than he was a true point guard and I think a lot of it has to do with how quickly he processed the game which is similar issue to what Wolves players have. I think he would look closer to Ayo than CP3 (in terms of playstyle not quality of player) if put on the Wolves even in his prime.
It was kind of a two way street. People assumed he was unathletic because of his race too. His lack of offers coming out of high school with his accomplishments was due to his race.
Yeah people assumed he played smart when really he played like a himbo.
Lol himbo. Never heard that before but adding it to my vocabulary.
But he is unselfish no doubt.
I think there are players that are meaningfully selfish and looking to get their numbers and players that strive to play unselfishly but end up still playing in a way that looks selfish because they lack the court vision/processing to make the unselfish plays more often (for extreme end look at a guy like Keldon). I’m saying Lin is more of the latter when I call him him a chucker, and that’s chucker relative to his position as a point guard. TP could be the same way.
I’m only making the assumption that he’s smart enough for the wolves based off only this clip. The only Lin I watched was linsanity and the kobe games afterwards so in the first place i wasnt particularly considering him as his past as a player. hell, come as an assistant coach, whatever , just get some braincells on this team
Def a combo guard chucker. Imagine waving Kobe Bryant and hitting that shot.
Kobe was soooo salty that he asked Lin for an explanation on why he even attempted it
Trying to pinpoint a modern day equivalent to Lin in terms of playstyle and I’m thinking maybe Austin Reaves if not on the Lakers?
Bring back the beautiful game
It was with the power of friendship
Honestly pretty nice listening Jeremy breakdown the games
Love Lin’s commentary
Jeremy is basically praising the Spurs for playing like Michigan did this year. He’s right! Extra passes win games. The thinking should always be Who has the best shot?, not Can I pull off a shot?
great analysis from jeremy lin but this is why okc is going to be so tough to beat, they trust each other too and zip the ball around and have the ultimate bail out guy in SGA if possessions get sticky
there are going to be very few easy buckets to go around in that series
JLIN the fucking goat.
That’s a fantastic simple way of making an important distinction. I coach and I will use that.
i also remember a play where vic had a great look at a three but then threw it down low for someone else, then the next play down champaigne (Is that how u spell his name?) had a great look for a 3 but then threw it down to wide out wemby for a dunk.
We need to get Reggie Miller removed and Jeremy Lin put in his place on the commentary booth.
get lin on a coaching staff
As someone who actively avoid other social media, I appreciated these posts of Lin. He is very good and this is the only way I can watch his analysis
The Timberwolves look like a team playing for numbers, the Spurs look like a team playing for one statistic: a win.
Great breakdown. Just didn’t like the end when he feeds the Wemby vs Chet flames again.
Randle you are a Sacramento Kings player now!
bro saw the naz reid press conference and rushed to get a video out
“The number one reason the Spurs won is because of trust”
I’m pretty sure the number one reason they won is because of Wemby
He always makes the best analysis videos
I wish Melo trusted Lin.
Wolves play like that pick up team that has a few iso scorers and that’s all they know how to do. Only pass out when they get stuck after their “moves” get them no where. Frustrating as hell as a teammate.
Was every wolves highlight of Randle… dude does not like Randle at all
Randle was 1⁄8 for 3 points, he honestly took it easy on the guy if anything
Im a simple man. i see jeremy lin, i start drooling.
Get this man on the desk next to shaq.
I feel like this is lowkey trolling Kobe
Julius Randle aside, I think part of it is the Wolves trying to attack the rim instead of always going for 3s. When their offense is stagnant, they settle for 3s, so trying to drive and maybe draw a foul breaks that up
I assure you- it’s not because of trust. It’s cause our players are just dumb and blind. BBIQ has always been one of their Achilles heel.
Twolves really need to get rid of Randle huh?
Fuckin love the analysis I’ve been seeing from Jeremy Lin. A player who had to work as hard as him surely knows how the game works at a high level, and him sharing what he’s learned both keeps his legend alive and helps push knowledge of the game deeper.
I hope I get to see more of him talking about this stuff.
So Hero Ball loses to Team Ball. I like the way he explained it but most people already know that. Respect to JL.
Lin for the WINNNNNNNN
Lin would be a great asset on one of these studio shows. Great analysis.
This is also what Wemby was talking about with the ‘ethical’ hoops comment imo, not the foul baiting stuff people like to bring up
2019 Champion!!!
That’s some good fucking content
Shout out to Jeremy Lin
Good points but that’s not the reason spurs won lol
Having the better, healthier team doesn’t hurt either
What JLin is talking about makes them “better”
No, they were just straight up better
Wemby > everyone on Minnesota.
Castle/Fox/Harper > everyone on Minnesota not named Ant Edwards.
Having all your guys healthy > opponent’s best player being hobbled + their 2 guard being gone.
It’s clearly both these things, not mutually exclusive.
Next series both teams are deep and have good habits. Thunder make far less mistakes then the Spurs, but Spurs got an alien.
Passing out of the paint to an open shooter is one of the things Randle is known for. He’s not a bad passer. He just wasn’t getting into that part of his bag in this series. Lin’s analysis here is spot on.
If you took the Wolves back to 1982 and played the exact same basketball they did in this series, they’d blow teams out. It’s not going to work against modern switch-and-recover defense. It’s not going to work attacking Wemby in the paint unless you can get him to foul himself off the floor but even that’s not a good strategy.
Randle was clearly frustrated that he couldn’t get his shot off. He should’ve passed, to create ball movement if nothing else, but instead started foul baiting on drives. In the last 2 games finding a rhythm as a team was more important than drawing fouls, and Randle chose the latter.
I don’t think this Wolves team is that bad. Last year they gentleman-swept the Lakers, then Golden State, and made OKC work for their WCF win. They have talent, they just didn’t execute in this series. It’s a strategy issue, not a personnel issue.
peak analysis
Better than whatever rigamarole Lin is talking about
Of course. I will always trust a random redditor over a Hardvard graduate and ex professional player naturally.
Appeal to authority fallacy, nice.
Surely the Harvard education was pertinent in Lin’s analysis of “The Spurs won because they trusted each other”👍
Fucking asshat
Its better to appeal to authority than post some flith based on nothing and then start insulting people
And people wonder why our country is fucked when we have people like you in it
I’m not from your country lol
I feel ya bro. Do the wolves have issues with holding some players accountable? Yes.
But I think the 20+ times a game I see them dribble into the paint and just dribble back out cause of wemby is the real reason.
Guys, please. The Lakers played a few days ago. Can we show some respect?
Another YouTuber who thinks he knows ball. 😒
Edit: I shouldn’t need to put /s but here we go…
Uh he’s more than a YouTuber, lol he played in the nba
No shit 😂