The MOST Underrated Team in the NBA…

The MOST Underrated Team in the NBA…

The Minnesota Timberwolves are the most underrated team in the NBA right now. They’ve now won five straight games. They’re a game out of second place in the bloodbath that is the Western Conference. But people want to say they have a predefined ceiling because Julius Randle is your second option. Julius Randle has been playing elite basketball this year. They’ve won their last two games with Ant essentially being a nonfactor because the other team took him out of the game because he’d been averaging 40. And then Jade McDaniels is in the midst of a breakout year. You also have Nas Reed, a ton of other guys. Dant Venenzo could even be thrown in there. And if the young core develops a little bit, man, look out for this Wolves team. And I think Chris Finch has done a phenomenal job this year. Some people are opposed to Chris Finch. Some of the Wolves fans in my comments from the last couple videos, but he was cooking. I mean, right here we get Devincenzo into a DHO followed by a flare screen and Ant throws it to him. Now he’s attacking Zubots downhill. Right here is Chris Dunn tries to fight through the screen. It doesn’t matter because Devenzo has a head start and he’s going to blow right past the Zubots. And then they do the same thing right here. They do it over and over in this game. This time finding Nas Reed with Mc or Rob Dillingham, excuse me, coming off the Nas Reed screen and then throwing the flare to him as Chris Dunn tries to recover which he can’t. Now he’s trailing Nas Reed who’s got a solid 6 in on him. gets downhill and finishes over Ivaka Zubots. And then this one right here was pure genius. You’ve been throwing the little horns cross action at him all game long. And then you get into it again, horns cross, except this time you turn it into a zoom screen on the back screen, clearing out Anthony Edwards, which takes Chris Dunn with him. And then they get the screen on John Collins to let McDaniels go one-on-one at Zubots, and it works like a charm. Then the inverted pick and roll with Julius Randle. These are some of the things you can do. You could also do it with Nas Reed, but coming off the Nas Reed screen, they see Brook Lopez on the court and they just lick their chops, right? They make the correct read, find Nas Reed for the three ball, and it’s that simple. As for Anthony Edwards, like I said in the intro, he really hasn’t had much of an impact on the last couple of games scoring wise. He had 15.6 rebounds, four assist, was three of 11 from the field. Really was just getting to the free throw line and scoring. He did have a couple of buckets like this one right here with the step back, but he was involved passing the ball and did have a solid defensive game right here. As you can see, he draws three guys, kicks to Naz Reed, who attacks to close out and then finds Dante Deenzo for the wide open three. And Ant so far is only averaging four assists per game while seeing more doubles. Uh whereas he averaged 4.6 last year, but he’s still very unselfish finding Naz Reed here for the go-ahead bucket with 13 seconds left. And like I said, he’s been seeing doubles like it’s nobody’s business. And that’s because from November the 21st to December the 2nd, he was going nuclear. 38 points per game on 56% shooting from the field and 48% from three. However, he’s kind of slowed it down over his last couple where he’s only shooting 35% from the field. But we’re not worried. The Wolves showing they can win without Ant going out and dropping 40 just proves how good they really are and how deep they really are because they got three or four other guys that can take over a game when necessary. The first being Julius Randall and I mean last night against the Clippers with them going no help off Ant. It became the Julius Randall show. Just getting the ball get out of the way and he’s going to go get buckets. 24 points, six assists, three rebounds, two turnovers in 33 minutes. And he was just isoing everybody, right? Iso Julius Randle Hoops in the big 2025. And it’s working. Going right at Chris Dawn, then going right at Bogdon Bogdanovich. Couple spins, couple pivots, gets the fade away to go. And this is perfect because when they take away Ant, you can’t take away both. You got to pick a poison right here. This is a nice little entry for Chris Finch drawing this one up here as Joyce Randle just goes right right to the wide open spot. Dillingham feeds him, clears out, and it’s just a quick spin and a dunk. It’s that easy. And then against Kawhi Leonard, he’s just going to size him up and knock down the three ball over the top of him. Getting downhill, finding Nas Reed in the inverted pick and roll. Like we looked at earlier, Joyce Randall is playing the best basketball of his career right now and is not particularly close. As for Jaden McDaniels, the same could be said after a 27point performance with two boards and two assists on 10 of 13 shooting from the field was three of three from beyond the arc and he was aggressive last night which was the big difference from his other games this year and then last night where he goes out and drops nearly 30 get that was a really tough finish right there. And then coming off the pick, James Harden doesn’t go over so he’s just going to knock it down. Remember he is 6’11 with a 7 foot wingspan. So when he decides to be a scoreer, he’s very tough to stop. Going right at Kawhi Leonard right here, pivoting in the lane. Gets the fade away to go. That’s a tough bucket. And then out on transition, running with Julius Randle and gets the dunk to go. He’s averaging a career-high 16 points per game this year. Threw about 22 games, 4.7 rebounds, two and a half assists, shooting 54% from the field and 49% from three. It is a career year in pretty much every scoring category, including field goal percentage and three-point percentage. I mean, just pulling up on the break. Since when does Jade McDaniels do that? But is shooting 49% from three, so I’m cool with it on 3.4 attempts. Last year, he shot 33% from three on 3.7 attempts. But the Wolves this year are 10 and three when he scores 14 or more points, and they’re nine and three when he hits two or more threes. That is the X factor. When Jade McDaniels plays good, the Wolves win. When he doesn’t, it gets a little dicey. If you made it this far in the video, hit the like button. Hit that subscribe button. As you can see here, 93% of the people that watch these videos are not subscribed. And now, let’s go ahead and get into the Nas Reed section of this video because this man is so unique. There’s not many guys you can run flare screens for, getting him downhill, and then also post him up. But he’s averaging 14-6 with 2.4 four assists, two stocks in 26 minutes a game so far this year while shooting 47% from the field and 39% from three. Getting into a little DHO here and Zubots is just way too far down on the paint. Nas Reed can take full advantage of this as instead of attacking Zubots, Randall sets the screen on Batum and frees up Reed for the wide open three ball. And he got hot last night in the fourth quarter, knocks down this one to make it a six-point game and then gets down into the paint against John Collins. Little pump fake spin move makes it a nine-point game. The Clippers fall back though and then Nas Reed put the nail in the coffin with about 14 seconds left. He finished with 19 points, nine rebounds, three assists, 7-Eleven from the field, five of eight from beyond the arc. And like I said, none bigger than this one right here. And then Jaylen Clark was playing really good basketball last night as well. The hustle guy here, the glue guy, if you will. kind of taking over the Alexander Walker minutes, but he’s been better than both Rob Dillingham and Terence Sheney Jr., who had much more draft capital invested into both of them, especially Rob Dillingham. And that is not looking like it’s working out right now, unfortunately. But still early on, Jaylen Clark had eight points, three rebounds, and an or a steal, excuse me, on three of five shooting from the field. Makes a smart cut right here. Gets right to the rim and finishes. And then on the deciding play of the game, they’ve got Jaylen Clark on James Harden instead of Jaden McDaniels, who is an all world defender. That shows you how much trust Chris Finch and company have in Jaylen Clark as a defender. He’s their number one guy now. That’s what that tells me. Uh they did have McDaniels on Kawaii, so take that for what you want. But hey, Jaylen Clark was guarding James Harden at the end of the buzzer. Dante Deenzo, you see the numbers he’s having a big time year for the Wolves. 39% shooting from three, eight attempts, really good numbers, extremely efficient, like I said, knocking it down from the three ball there. And then you got Terence Shannon Jr. as well. I was really hoping for a big time year from him. He kind of heated up after the injury, but then he’s cooled back down. Only played five minutes last night. Mike Connley, still a very important piece to this team. And then you also have Rudy Goar as well, still a centerpiece of this team’s defense at that center spot. But as for the Wolves, like I said, they’ve got five straight wins, which is huge. Two of those coming without a big time Anthony Edwards performance. And when you look at the West right now, they are a game out of second, a game out of third, half a game out of four. They are right there in the hunt to finish with the highest seed. And you don’t want to be in a playin. You want to at least be top six in this Western Conference. With that being said, that’s going to be it for today’s video. Thank you so much for watching. Make sure to like button, hit that subscribe button, and leave me a comment down below. And with that being said, thank you so much for watching today’s video.

This video looks at the Minnesota Timberwolves and how they are the most underrated team in the league right now behind Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle
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