What Timberwolves must CHANGE with Ant Edwards & Rudy Gobert matchups vs. Mavericks | Draymond Green

Welcome to the brand new Draymond Green Show YouTube channel. Hit subscribe so you don't miss out on any of our content. I had the honor of working the game last night with my TNT family, which is always a great time. Had an opportunity to have Kyrie at the desk, which was fun, which we'll talk about. But the T-Wolves fall at home in game 1 to the Mavericks, 108 to 105. Uh, Mavs are up 1-0. Luka had 33, 8, and 6 on 12 for 26 shooting, but only 3 for 10 from 3. Now we'll pay attention to that. Kyrie, 30 points, 4 assists, 5 rebounds, 12 for 23 from the field, 0 for 3 from 3. Ant-Man had 19 points, 8 of 6, 11 rebounds on 6 for 16 shooting, 5 for 12 from 3. Focus. Only, only took 4 2-point attempts. Now that is an indicator of something which we'll get in. But anyway, stay focused. Me too. I'm talking to you, but I'm talking to myself as well. Cat, 16 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 6 for 20 from the field, 2 for 9 from 3. What am I getting at here? Keep telling you to stay focused. Well, the Timberwolves made 18 threes. They were 18 for 49 from 3. Dallas were 5 for 24 from 3. And I'm sorry, they were 6 for 25 from 3. Now, why is that interesting? Because we've talked all about Dallas spreading the floor, Dallas guys needing to shoot the 3 well. We need Derrick Jones Jr. to play like he had been playing in the last series. We need PJ Washington to play like he's been playing the last series. We need Josh Green to step up and hit some shots. We need Tim Hardaway Jr. to step up and hit some shots. That's been a discussion. And I think we're all in agreeance there. And the reason that that's been a discussion is because— Yeah. Minnesota, there's no surprise. They play two bigs. They play Rudy and KAT together. And even once one of those guys go out, they play Nas Reid. And so they're more of the traditional big lineup that you've seen historically in the NBA. And Dallas is, PJ Washington's at the floor. PJ Washington shooting the ball well. PJ Washington getting, putting the ball on the floor, getting to the rim, putting the ball on the floor, getting to floaters. PJ Washington is doing all that. And in turn it puts bigs in uncomfortable positions to where they have to guard where they don't like to guard, which is out on the floor. They're guarding closeouts, right? Like you're closing out PJ Washington shooting the ball. So you gotta close out to the body. And if he's a step faster, then they break the defense down, right? Now you got Rudy Gobert gotta step up, lob, like, and not just lob from PJ Washington, but that is the overarching theme, right? Like you— Yeah. You got these guys getting downhill, whether that's off a drive kick, whether that's off a drive kick swing, whether that's off of Kyrie or Luka getting past their guy and now they're downhill at that big and they're putting a lot of pressure on the rim. Again, don't lose focus. So where I was going with that was this, Luka and Kyrie combined 3 for 13 from 3. Ant-Man and KAT, combined 5, excuse me, 7 for 21 from 3. Now, the problem with that is those 2 alone took 21 threes, but 49 threes to 25. With the bigger team, the team that has more size, they rely on that size way more. Taking the most, the more of the threes. And when we were on the show yesterday, Chuck's biggest thing was these guys are gonna take a lot of threes and they need to knock those threes down. And Minnesota, he said it, KAT needs to take advantage of his size. No post, nah. KAT really posted up against Phoenix. He really posted up. Against the Clippers. Excuse me, not the Clippers. He really posted up last series against the Nuggets and that's when he was his most dominant. He had times in that, even in, especially in that game 7 where nobody else could get anything going and he was the only one to continue to carry that team, to continue to keep them afloat. And then obviously they got it going, they got stops, they put the cuffs on Denver and they were able to take the lead. And in large part, yeah, their offense got going, but it was in large part them turning defense into offense. And that's where it gets interesting because we've seen this Timberwolves team all year continue to grow, but, and they figured some things out, but the reality is, You do have Rudy Gobert who spends most of his time at the rim in the paint. And you have KAT who's on the wing, but you got Ant-Man who wanna get downhill. And when Rudy's in the dunker, if you have a big like Lively, if you have a big like Gafford that don't have to step up in order to affect a shot, that can play back at the rim because if you try to come all the way to the rim, they're athletic enough to block. And what I mean by step up, if you remember a play yesterday from the broadcast, or if you just, you know, remember it from the top of your mind, Luka drove, he had, can't remember who exactly was on him, but he drove, may have been Kyle Anderson possibly, but he drove and Jaden McDaniels stepped up off the guy in the dunker. The guy in the dunker is the guy that's like right near the rim outside the paint. There's a little line right there that's called the dunker spot. And you got the guy in the dunker, And I always talk to you all about the guy in the dunker being a lob threat is it does the same thing for your spacing as if you have a 3-point shooter. Obviously not as much space because there's less ground to cover, but you can't leave the bodies like Klay Thompson on the wing. You leave the body, it's over for you. You can't leave the body of a lob threat. And Jayden McDaniels, who's uncomfortable being in that position, stepped up and Lively got the dunk. Luka dropped it right underneath. Lively got the dunk.

Yeah.

Well, Gafford and Lively don't have to do that when the Timberwolves drive because they're big enough to stay back. They're more comfortable in that position and you don't want to give up the lob. We saw how many lobs Minnesota gave up last night and that's a recipe for disaster because it's such a high percentage play. Like Gafford and Lively lobs are probably in 75, 80% play for them. If not higher. And so when you're giving that up consistently, what it's doing to your defense is brutal. Like, because now you got guys that's gonna overreact or not, right? And I don't think they ever overreacted to it, which was a problem because they just kept getting dunks. The only time they stopped getting dunks was when towards the end of the game, Minnesota finally came up to the level of the screen and start trapping it. And once they start trapping it, obviously that's a long way for that big to roll. They weren't getting the lobs anymore. But to trap like that all game, I'm not sure that that's a very sustainable coverage. Like we've seen that for years. We've seen teams try to trap Steph all game. And if like you just put counters in, if you put, you know, different outlets in and different things like that, till the trap is dead and you're always a man down.

And—

Derrick Lively is very underrated in the pocket. Like that kid, I've watched him over and over and over again make the right play in the pocket. And I've said at times, you know, I think he's not aggressive enough, but he's seemed to get more aggressive. He's now yurong in the pocket. He's looking to go finish and he's still making that kick out. And when you're, so if your adjustment is gonna be to trap, you're always a man down. For a team that has kind of built themselves on the defensive side of the basketball, to just have to trap and be a man down every play is troublesome. That's bothersome. That's a problem. But their standard pick and roll coverage is a drop. And when you, it's funny, it was funny, or not funny, but just very interesting. And playing with CP this year because CP, he would always talk about the drop coverage and like, you know, CP throughout the course of his career has seen drops all the time. I haven't seen many teams play drop coverage because no one's dropping versus Steph. And if you drop versus Steph, then I'll just nail your guy on the screen and he's gonna come off wide open and who wants that? And so everybody's always up at the levels of the screen with Steph, trapping Steph. So I haven't seen many drop coverages live because that's just never— However, if you watch Chris Paul play throughout the course of his career, he's lived in the mid-range and in part because bigs would always be in the drop. And CP would talk to me just about how bad the drop coverage was. And like, he's like, I could get any shot I want versus a drop every time. And that's the thing, when you're playing against great guards in which Dallas has two great guards. And when you're playing that drop coverage the whole game, number one, these guys coming off every play knowing you in the drop, it's too much of a steady diet. You give any great guard in this league a steady diet of anything, they're gonna eat it up. And that's what Luka and Kyrie, they had, they picked their poison, they had their way. In the pick and roll. So what, what, what is your adjustment? Well, you could say, oh, they gotta come up to the level of the screen. And that's not really Rudy's strength. However, I think Rudy has been a lot better this year with being up at the level of the screen and not just getting his eye dotted from guards that's coming off the screen because he's in the drop. I think he's done a lot better this year moving his feet when he gets out on the perimeter. Even if it's a switch, he's been pressing up. He's not just letting the guy rhythm, rhythm to death. Like he's forcing guys to make the next action. And even if that next action is forcing this guy to blow by me, now I'm running back into the play, essentially going weak side. I can get a rebound, I could possibly catch up and get a weak side block if there's a drop off, blah, blah, blah. But the drop coverage, the drop coverage against great guards, it's a recipe for disaster. And especially like I said, great guards like—

Draymond Green.

Like we have great guards in this league, their mid-range isn't great. Kyrie and Luka mid-range is stellar. And so if you're gonna give them that every time, it's too, like, it's too easy for them. And even once you panic and decided to, ah, maybe I'm gonna take the shot away, all it takes is a half a second for that roll guy to get an inch behind you. And if they're athletic, that like Derrick Lively, like Daniel Gafford, even if you're 7'3" like Rudy Gobert, it's just impossible to catch up. Because once your weight go a little bit this way and that guy is rolling this way, it's impossible for you to then get back up in the air with a guy who's diving full speed, athletic as hell. And you take one step this way because, oh, I'm a little worried about Luka Dončić with this basketball and right in the middle of the paint. Mm-hmm. I am scared shitless of Kyrie Irving with this basketball right in the middle of the paint because I know the damage that they've done. They, they got mid-range and floaters to death. Again, 33 points and 30 points. Kyrie didn't hit a single 3 and Luka hit 3. So it wasn't the 3 that was killing them. They actually got to the paint. 62 points in the paint Dallas had. Yeah. Versus 38 points versus the Wolves. Oh, excuse me, for the Wolves. And again, what we've emphasized is the Wolves being the team with the most size. However, they don't necessarily always score off that size. Like even with the size, you're not really throwing the ball in Rudy Gobert. They threw it into him a few times last night and I'm not sure, a lot of teams go now by, points per possession, right? Like our PPP. What was our points per possession when Rudy caught the ball in the pocket? What was our points per possession if Rudy caught the ball and he had to make a move? I'd imagine the points per possession for them was probably 0.8 something when Rudy caught the ball. And for those of you that don't understand these, well, I'm like pointing like, what the hell is he talking about? So— Yeah. Say if my points per possession is 0.87, what that means is every 100 possessions with like, you're scoring 87 points over the course of 100 possessions. That's less, obviously 0.87 is less than a point per possession. That's not gonna get the job done. And so they've gotta figure out. Yeah. A, how to get Ant-Man downhill. And Dallas has been the best defensive team pretty much last quarter of the season. And through the playoffs they've been incredible. They've, they're hanging their hat on the defensive side of basketball, which is why they could win a game like last night on the road. Kyrie played well. Luka played well in stretches. I thought Luka started off great. Luka hit a big law. Luka came back and, and did what Luka does and closed them out. Well, the problem with that is Kyrie not gonna keep going 0 for 3 from 3. Dallas not gonna keep going 6 for 25 from 3. And Minnesota shot a very respectable 18 for 49. So what can Minnesota do? Mm-hmm. To get Ant-Man downhill because Ant-Man spent a lot of time on the perimeter. Now what I will say is this, we look at the last two games of Ant, they're not his best displays of basketball. And you start to ask yourself the question, is fatigue setting in? Because this is their first time going through a run like this. And you know, you had a very tough series versus Denver. Where you had to pull out everything that you had in order to just get over the finish line. And I heard something that those guys were saying last night, and again, I hinted at this on the broadcast, was I heard Ant-Man say, "I'm tired, I was tired." And I said right there during the broadcast, like, listen, I have, I've been very, very, very big on Ant-Man's interviews after these games. And the reason being is because I know what those interviews mean. Like when you're in a playoff series, I know what that means. Number one, I'm looking for any little edge I can get. So if that mean watching one of your interviews to get an edge, damn it, I'm watching. And what can that edge be? That edge can be one of many things, but most importantly, one thing that can come from watching an interview is you spot weakness.

Yeah.

And I thought the great young leader that Ant-Man is and blossoming into, and I think he's gonna be one of the best. I thought he showed weakness in the interview last night for the first time. And I said it on the broadcast. I'm like, yo, he said he's tired. You know, he said this, he said that. I don't like that from Ant-Man because the Ant-Man we've saw playoffs long, And all his career, the bravado is, nah, I messed this up, I did this, we gotta be better. Not, I was tired, we tired, and we couldn't get up, we didn't have enough. Like, nah, that's showing a little bit of weakness. And guess what? KAT, Rudy, they're not known as the toughest guys. No disrespect to either one of them, it's just not what their MO is. And what Ant-Man, I think, has done for them is he's given them a sense of purpose. He's given them a sense of confidence. He's given them like some dog. He's given them that. And that's what a great leader does. But guess what? The moment a great leader shows weakness, what does Cat follow up? Yeah. What does KAT follow up with in his press conference? Ah, we was tired. And as a leader, that's where you have to be careful because you start to give guys an out. Ant-Man would never look for an out, but that don't mean nobody else on his team would. And so you start to give guys an out. You don't wanna give guys an out because guess what? If I'm the Dallas Mavericks, I'm watching that and I'm like, oh, they tired. Get greedy. Come back in game 2 greedy. We're coming back in game 2 for blood. We're coming back for blood because if we can win game 2, then the idea is, oh, we can go home and close this out. It's never that easy. I'm not sitting here saying the Timberwolves are about to get swept, but that's gotta be the mindset. And that will be the mindset. So stay focused, Draymond. So now if you're the Dallas Mavericks and you like, yo, we shot 24% from 3, making 6 threes, and we just won this game on the road. You gotta feel like if you Dallas, we're gonna shoot better than that. We're gonna even play offensively better than we did because the only guys that really played well offensively was Kyrie, Luka in spurts, Lively and Gafford getting dunks, lobs. That's it versus the drop coverage. So it'll be interesting to see what Minnesota's adjustment will be. I think KAT was incredible last series. He did a great job of guarding Joker. He was the reason that they were able to win that series because Rudy was having a tough time with Joker. And I think we all have tough times with different matchups. And that was a tough-ass matchup for Joker, as I mean for Rudy, as Joker is for most people. But KAT did an incredible job. Now one of the things KAT didn't really have to guard versus the Denver Nuggets though was the pick and roll. You like, oh yeah, right. Joker and Murray pick and roll. They didn't guard it that way though. What they did was they stayed body tight for the most part to Joker coming off the screen or rotated the guy to take him away and force the skip pass. But what they did a lot of times was just let Jamal Murray turn the corner with very minimal help from Joker's guy, the cat stand body tight. And when they was getting the help from the bottom side, Aaron Gordon and the dunker, Well, guess what? That guy in the dunker isn't a big setting a screen and Aaron Gordon anymore. It's guard, guard, screen with Lively in the dunker. But it's not even really Lively or Gafford in the dunker. It's them setting a screen and rolling. Which means now your pick and roll coverage matter. And I don't think KAT is as strong in pick and roll coverage. Yeah. As he was in guarding Joker on the post, as he was when he, you know, he didn't have to help on Jamal Murray's pick and rolls because you had Aaron Gordon in the dunker and they were getting the help from there. And so now it's a different series. Now you got, and by the way, Jamal Murray is great, but he is, Jamal Murray is very good player in this league, but he's not Kyrie Irving and he's not Luka Dončić. Yeah. And so that's a different beast now. And the objective with these screens now is totally different than what the objective was for the Denver Nuggets, right? Like the objective for the Denver Nuggets could be to actually hit Joker in the pocket, right? Like, well, Dallas is hitting the pocket, but they're hitting the pocket because that's the next right play. Not because they're trying to get Lively the ball in the pocket.

Right.

Or trying to get Gafford the ball in the pocket. That's just the next play. Excuse me. So totally different series. I think Minnesota's adjustment is gonna have to be this. More Kyle Anderson. I said before the game, this has to be a big Kyle Anderson series. I still believe that. Kyle Anderson comes out, gets 11 points in the first half. Didn't do much in the second half, but I also don't think he played as much in the second half. And so here's what you have to process. You probably look at it like, why didn't Kyle Anderson get more minutes? He had 11. Well, here's the thing. Kyle Anderson had 2, averaged 2 points and 2 rebounds the first 2 series. So when those coaches are making their lineups for the games for this series, They're like, man, Kyle's been struggling. He's only averaging 2 and 2. And so you slide him in to play more minutes in the first half 'cause you want to give your guys more of a breather in the first half than the second half because second half you may have to run your dogs. So they got him slotted to play some minutes in the first half. He doesn't play a ton in the second half. But why is that? Well, why that is is because he's been struggling. And so if you're that coach and you're making the lineup, You like, ah, we'll get Kyle some going in the first half to buy some minutes, but not in the second half. And this happens often. And the reason it happens often is because again, coaches, you see, you may see coaches, not the head coaches, you may see coaches on the bench with a sheet of paper or an iPad. And what's on that iPad or that sheet of paper is their rotations. Draymond Green's playing from the start of the first quarter to the 7-minute mark. He's coming out to the 2-minute mark. He's back from 2. To the 8 or 7-minute mark. He's out to the 4 or 5-minute mark, and then he closes the half. And that's what be on these papers, like the substitution patterns. A lot of coaches struggle to scrap that substitution pattern. And in a game where I thought they could have used Kyle Anderson more, you don't have Kyle Anderson slotted to play those minutes. And it's hard for these coaches to look at that paper and say, nah, Kyle playing well, scrap this. Yeah. Because then it can adjust, it can throw off your rotation somewhere else, right? Like you got analytics that go into these things. You got coaches like, oh, we need to get to this 5-man lineup because it's been our strongest 5 lineup. Well, if we do it this way, then we don't get this up. Like there's more that goes into it than just who's playing well. But I also feel like at times, like you have to be able to make that adjustment. Like this guy is helping us. And so I said all of that to say, one of the adjustments that I think needs to happen is Kyle Anderson need to play more. And that may even mean Rudy Gobert coming off the bench. Now I know what you're gonna say. Rudy Gobert had the highest plus-minus on the team last night or close to it. It wasn't Rudy Gobert's fault. And I'm not saying it is Rudy Gobert's fault. What I'm saying is, they have a matchup issue. So do you take KAT to the bench or do you take Rudy to the bench? Well, I'm gonna say Rudy because even if KAT's struggling defensively, what he can give you offensively is totally different. And now if you got KAT as the only big, KAT can pick and roll, KAT can pick and pop, it opens the floor up more. But less about Rudy and more about why I think this adjustment should happen. Obviously Rudy was in the drop, he gave up lots, we talked about that. But that's not actually why I think the adjustment needs to happen. I think the adjustment needs to happen because you gotta get Ant-Man off Kyrie. No, not because Kyrie had 30 and had a great night. No, not because Ant-Man can't guard him, although I don't think anybody can guard Kyrie if I'm honest. But because, did you see Ant-Man towards the end of the game? He was cooked. He could barely get up and down the floor. He was gasping for air. And I get it, just play a tough 7-game series, and then you come out 2 nights later chasing old Kyrie Irving around, Uncle Drew. Well, guess what? That is disaster. 'Cause Kyrie never stops moving. And when he get the ball, it's downhill at you every time. I'm attacking, looking for an angle. Go this way, you cut me off, I'm still trying to get downhill that way. And I can get there. And Kyrie was aggressive from the start last night. And it took a toll on Ant-Man. I don't think Ant-Man had much, like even the threes he made, it looked like he was pushing them there. Like it looked like he was doing all he could to get him there. And like I said, he put no pressure on the rim. So in turn, they finished with 38 points in the paint versus a small Dallas Mavericks team. So the reason the adjustment needs to be made is because I think you need to get him off of Kyrie. And so the adjustment that would be made is then Kyle Anderson would be on Luka. Mm-hmm. Jaden McDaniels would go to Kyrie. What that does is you put more size on Luka. No, I don't. And by the way, the thinking is I need to save Ant-Man's legs for the other side. And I know you wanna play two-way, but right now we trying to win a championship. So this ain't about your pride or anything like that. This is about the adjustments that we need to make to win a championship. If you do that, now you got Luka being guarded by Kyle and you got Draymond Green guarding Kyrie. I don't think anyone, either one of those guys are gonna stop Luka or Kyrie. But guess what? I don't think Ant-Man gonna stop Kyrie. I don't think anybody's gonna stop Kyrie and I don't think anybody's gonna stop Luka. They may have a bad game or two, but this is a 7-game series. But my point is you have very respectable defenders. Jaden McDaniels, all defense team, congrats to him on that, well deserved. That's gonna hold his own. Again, he ain't gonna stop Kyrie, but he gonna hold his own. Kyle Anderson ain't stopping Luka by any stretch of the imagination, but he gonna hold his own.— he gonna make Luka work. And guess what? That's all you can ask for. You wanna make these guys work. You wanna tire them out a little bit. And so I got two guys that can make these guys work. Now we can get our defense settled in. Now we can get Ant on the other end doing what he needs to do. But if chasing around Kyrie the whole series, that's gonna take a toll. And they don't have enough scoring, enough shot creation elsewhere outside of Ant-Man for him to not have the legs to do that. And so that's why I think the adjustment needs to be made. Less about, although I don't like the drop coverage, but less about Rudy in the drop, less about any of that stuff and more about their matchups on the other end. So that's kind of what I got there, but—

Yeah.

If you're the Timberwolves, you leave that game not feeling great. And you can say, oh, KAT didn't shoot well, Ant didn't shoot well. That's fine. But neither did they. And they won this game still on the road. So you don't feel great coming away if you're the Timberwolves. And if I'm Dallas, I feel immaculate because we just came and took one that we shouldn't probably have won with the way We play collectively, but the defense was great and the stars made plays when they had to make them, when they needed the most.

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