Guest of the “Dan Barreiro Show”, the president of Wolves, Tim Connelly, came back in length on the past season, the upcoming off-season and the objectives for 2023-2024. The opportunity to sweep away the rumors concerning a potential exchange involving Karl Anthony Townsunder contract until 2028, but also to take stock of the situation of Rudy Gobertauthor of his worst season since 2017-2018, and of which he expects a lot during the next exercise, which will be the second for the French in Minneapolis.
“Rudy will be the first to tell you that it hasn’t been one of his best seasons. There are a bunch of areas where we think he can improve.” said former Nuggets managerwho also mentioned EuroBasket 2022 among the elements that disrupted its proper integration. “We thought Rudy had been very good, but it’s just that we expect him to such high standards. I think a lot of the things that Rudy does are quite subtle. It’s not always easy to see, but we’re a very, very good defensive team when he’s on the pitch.”
For 2023-2024, the main objective of Wolves in the eyes of Tim Connelly will therefore be to work towards the rise of the Towns-Gobert duo, who have all the assets on paper, except perhaps a certain physical fragility, to to be among the most dominant inside pairs in the league.
“These two have very good cohesion, but it has been disrupted by injuries. I think Rudy would be the first to tell you that he was not at the level where he wanted to be and where we all know he can be.”he added.
A workforce in search of maturity
The Wolves front office will also have the task of improving the workforce by making the right adjustments. Tim Connelly indicated that Minnesota was going to look for shooters, but also character players, after having notably pointed the finger at a lack of maturity last season.
The team that conceded the most technical fouls over the season, Minnesota has displayed a certain propensity for self-punishment, such as when Jaden McDaniels broke his hand by hitting a wall, or when Rudy Gobert lost his nerves facing his teammate Kyle Anderson.
“We lost a lot of games against teams against whom, with all due respect, we thought we would win easily. We haven’t won enough to be that team. As the year went on, we understood the importance of these matches,” he first recalled. “We had so many moments when, emotionally, we weren’t focused and it cost us dearly. It hurt us on and off the pitch. It must not happen again. We need to set ourselves higher standards “.
Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
Anthony Edwards | 79 | 36.0 | 45.9 | 36.9 | 75.6 | 0.6 | 5.2 | 5.8 | 4.4 | 3.3 | 1.6 | 0.7 | 2.4 | 24.6 |
Karl Anthony Towns | 29 | 33.0 | 49.5 | 36.6 | 87.4 | 1.7 | 6.5 | 8.1 | 4.8 | 3.0 | 0.7 | 0.6 | 3.8 | 20.8 |
D’angelo Russell | 54 | 32.9 | 46.5 | 39.1 | 85.6 | 0.5 | 2.5 | 3.1 | 6.2 | 2.7 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 2.2 | 17.9 |
Mike Conley | 24 | 31.4 | 46.0 | 42.0 | 86.3 | 0.7 | 2.5 | 3.1 | 5.0 | 1.2 | 1.2 | 0.2 | 1.9 | 14.0 |
Rudy Gobert | 70 | 30.7 | 65.9 | 0.0 | 64.4 | 3.3 | 8.3 | 11.6 | 1.2 | 1.7 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 3.0 | 13.4 |
Jaden Mcdaniels | 79 | 30.6 | 51.7 | 39.8 | 73.6 | 1.2 | 2.7 | 3.9 | 1.9 | 1.4 | 0.9 | 1.0 | 3.4 | 12.1 |
Naz Reid | 68 | 18.4 | 53.7 | 34.6 | 67.7 | 1.1 | 3.8 | 4.9 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 2.6 | 11.5 |
Jaylen Nowell | 65 | 19.3 | 44.8 | 28.9 | 77.8 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 2.6 | 2.0 | 1.0 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.6 | 10.8 |
Kyle Anderson | 69 | 28.4 | 50.9 | 41.0 | 73.5 | 1.0 | 4.4 | 5.3 | 4.9 | 1.5 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 2.1 | 9.4 |
Taurean Prince | 54 | 22.1 | 46.7 | 38.1 | 84.4 | 0.3 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 1.6 | 1.3 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 2.3 | 9.1 |
Luka Garza | 28 | 8.7 | 54.3 | 35.9 | 78.8 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 2.3 | 0.6 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 6.5 |
Nickeil Alexander-Walker | 23 | 15.5 | 38.4 | 36.1 | 61.9 | 0.3 | 1.5 | 1.8 | 1.4 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 5.9 |
austin rivers | 52 | 19.5 | 43.5 | 35.0 | 76.9 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.5 | 4.9 |
Jordan McLaughlin | 43 | 15.8 | 42.1 | 30.8 | 83.3 | 0.3 | 1.1 | 1.4 | 3.4 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 3.7 |
Nathan Knight | 38 | 7.7 | 56.8 | 36.4 | 68.4 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.5 | 0.3 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 3.7 |
Bryn Forbes | 25 | 10.7 | 36.1 | 30.4 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.7 | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 3.6 |
matt ryan | 22 | 8.2 | 42.4 | 38.8 | 85.7 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.6 | 3.4 |
Josh Minott | 15 | 6.4 | 50.0 | 33.3 | 100.0 | 0.3 | 1.3 | 1.7 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 3.1 |
Aj Lawson | 1 | 1.8 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.0 |
Wendell Moore, Jr. | 29 | 5.3 | 41.9 | 11.8 | 80.0 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 1.4 |