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Contact Mark Ellis at mark.ls at hbi.com and let's talk about how we can grow your business together. I've been in Minnesota in probably 20 years. Right. Welcome to Fleeghren Howles on Minnesota's typical lifestyle podcast.
It's funny, just to bring our off-mic conversation to the show, like literally right before we hit record, we're trying to figure out, okay, we're definitely going to talk about the link because I was just an epic, like classic Minnesota sports moment that they don't usually deliver to us. We'll get to that random of the week. And I said, hey, I got some Julius Randall thoughts played in that preseason last night. And Kyle says, are you ready to train them already?
I am not at all ready to trade Julius Randall. And first of all, they're all trying to figure it out. They're all playing together for the first time. You've got like different agendas.
You got Julius Randall trying to just play basketball for the first time in months. But then you got Stephen Chenzo and Anthony Edwards trying to hit the new apparent Tim Rolff's three-point attempt quota that they've set. I don't know if it's official, but they launched 29 combined threes. And then you guys trying to make the roster, Josh Minett, you know, get playing time.
So should we start with some Julius Randall? Are you ready to trade him? No, I would have won game. I have a stat related to three-point shooting, but I think we should talk about Julius Randall first.
I'm going to talk about the links, again, behind the scenes. My parents are in town all week, so we're doing a bunch of stuff next week. Better office studio. So I'm taking the YouTube audience.
Oh, we're going to put pictures on the wall or what's the big bookcase coming in? And I got my sign, Kobe Bryant ball. I have a sign calling at the time. But I got a bunch of stuff.
So this will look less like a prison cell a week from now. But let's go back to Julius Randall because, yes, he made his Tim Rolff's debut last night right away, minus one for him because he was wearing a shirt under his jersey. Really against that. I couldn't tell was it like a shoulder, like a shoulder rapper?
Was it just like a... Oh, I might be an a hoe for calling that out. I just don't like when people wear shirts under jerseys. Nause has done it.
I've told that to Nause. Was it a t-shirt or was it like the underarm? It's like the underarm works. Yeah.
But if it's for a shoulder, I take it back, cancel me. But what did you think? What did you think of his first 30 or so 24 minutes in a Tim Rolff's uniform? I reserved the right to change my opinion on this in like five games or the first game.
I kind of like watching him play. He's got a totally different style than Carl Anthony towns and he can definitely be sticky with the basketball where it's like, all right, it's Julius Randall time here. But I was even going through just some of the, like some of his career trends and stats. I will say this cat is no doubt cat who by the way was at a concert last night in New York and Billy Eilish and Jordan Woods took a video of cat cat had like his next hat on and he's like up there in some sweet and Jordan Woods, his girlfriend, takes a video of him during the Billy Eilish concert watching the Tim Rolff's bull's preseason game on his phone.
Sad cat. Sad cat or who among us, right? Because I've been at some events with my wife or my family and it's just like me on my phone like an astronaut and Italian food and what's like watching a wolf's preseason game. So if you're one of the people that still hasn't emotionally gotten over the trade, that doesn't help because it does sound like Carl still has his heart in Minnesota.
Still thinking about his own. Still thinking about his own. Yeah. But a couple of things like cat is decisively definitively a better shooter analytically with just like his efficiency.
I think analytics love cat because he pours in threes. He has one of the best effective field goal percentages of any seven footer that's shooting from that depth. So that's just going to be a thing that Julius Randall is going to clank more jumpers than cat and we're going to have to get used to that. But even just watching the first preseason game and like Randall, I think it's a better, more decisive passer.
I think you're going to see Randall, I don't know if he lived up to this as much last night, but he loves to drive to the hoop a lot more than cat. I even dug deep into the NBA stat database where you can like, you can look up like how often a guy bends over to tie his shoe per 40 minutes on NBA's website. So he averages five more drives to the hoop per game than cat, which I mean, that's just the style he loves to go one on one loves to dribble drive. And I found this really interesting and you saw this a few times last night.
Julius Randall passes on almost half of his dribble drives cat passes on less than 20% of his when cat decides to drive. He's either getting to the hoop, getting fouled, steam rolling into somebody for an offensive foul or the ball bounces off his side like it's, there's four different things, but passing is not usually one of them for Carl. So you saw some of the dribble drive stuff from Julius Randall last night. I don't, a lot of people hate it because they just don't like his style of play.
I kind of love it. I think he's a dog. He can pass. He can rebound.
He can get you a bucket and he's still trying to figure out some of the kinks here because he hasn't played basketball in a long, long time and he has a bunch of new teammates. So I'm in. I mean, I'm in on Julius Randall. I buried the lead actually as my brain decompresses.
The timels are back. Like we're back. The season's upon us now because I did see this morning when I checked Twitter people upset that they lost to the Bulls in the preseason. And that's when you know you're back, right?
Like people are like, I don't know. It's a long season, man. They couldn't beat the Bulls in the Bulls with bad. So the Randall thing actually will lead into my, my step that I want to bring up.
But basically I think the Wolves played 14 guys yesterday. Jalen Clark, I think did check in, didn't register for a minute. But of everyone that played 14 guys over a minute, only two people didn't take a three point attempt. Rudy and Julius Randall.
So that was like one thing. Randall did finish. He played 26 minutes first time since you know, he's injured ever 15.6 rebounds. The five assists that you mentioned.
I'm kind of with you. I think they're going to give up. Julius Randall is never probably going to take eight threes in a single game. That's just not his game.
He should. The percentages don't really align like all that stuff. So I'm with you on that. It is weird to have a front court duo that's just not taken threes.
And it was concerning to me. And that was up today. I was on the stats website too. Phil, last season, the regular season, the Timberwolves ranked 23rd in the league in three points attempted in three points attempted per game.
That was 32 and a half per game. They took 32 and a half threes per game last regular season. So four preseason games this year, the Wolves ranked second in the league taking 46.8. Three is per game.
So they are taking a big, you're basically combining being a bully and being a nerd, which is like a superpower, but they're taking 16. No math, 14 more threes per game in this preseason than they did last regular season. And that's after trading the best three points. You're on the team all time.
And I think and now I'm kind of trying to tie these two together. It's not going to matter as much if Randall doesn't take a ton of threes. He's going to have to at some point keep the defense honest. But back to your point, I mean, yeah, even Chenzo and aunt combined for 29 threes last night.
I think to me, Carl Rudy, even Chenzo or Randall, all this stuff, the number one storyline coming out of this preseason that wraps up tonight at home against the Nuggets is that this offense is going to be one of those offenses now that just is top 10 in the league in threes. And that's what Finch talked about immediate day, right? He's like, yeah, we were second in the league last year in percentage, but we didn't take enough volume. So who cares if you're shooting 60% if you only take three of them?
Like let's shoot 50% 40% and shoot 30 of them. You know what I mean? So I think that's going to be the biggest offensive switch we see this next season. Yes.
Yeah. This is probably my favorite trend to keep an eye on here because preseason, sometimes guys are just working on it's like, like I used to cover baseball for a few years and would go down and literally live in Fort Myers, Florida and cover Minnesota Twins Spring training games. And I'd watch for any twins fans that are overlapping as flag and house fans and I would watch Nick Blackburn would be out there for the twins throwing bullpen sessions. But these guys would get out there, these pitchers in spring training and they might give up like five runs in three innings and the assembled media would go down and boy, what happened out there?
Well, you got rocked in a preseason game and what was going wrong? And then they would explain, oh, I mean, yeah, definitely not ideal, but I was working on my two, my two-seam fastball today because it's spring training. And last night, maybe some of it was Chris Finch in the front office saying, hey, the math equation, we need to shoot 10 more threes per game. Boston and Minnesota last year had the same three point make percentage.
They both made like 39% of their three point. Boston took 10 more threes per game. And that's a huge reason why they average like seven more points per game offensively and why they were one of the top offensive teams in the Wolzer. So we can sit here and we can break down any intricate thing, any sort of offensive step.
But sometimes math is the reason why teams are ranked 17th in offensive net rating and other teams are ranked first or second. But last night, I was wondering, I was thinking back to the baseball stuff from my early career, were Ant and Devin Chenzo just like taking a night to work on their three-point stroke? Are they legitimately hunting for 25 to 33 point attempts per game going into the regular season? You know who's number one this preseason on three pointers attempted?
The Boston Celtics. So they took to your pointer earlier, they took what they were doing last year, won a title, and then said, what if we just shoot even more? What if we just try to keep it even more? I do get a little concerned with Ant when it's like three for 16, again, preseason game, who cares?
But that if you're, I mean, shooter shoot, and that's what he is at his core, but like, yeah, if you're three for 10, do you try to find other ways to impact a game? I also, because other teams have done this and you watch it on lead pass. Those teams that are taking 45 threes a game, if it's a cold night, that's how you lose to anyone. That's how you lose to the balls, because now it is just a free flowing game with the balls.
I mean, the wolf shot. They lost by two and they shot 32% from three, 17 and 52. If they go 18 or 52, I know it's not that simple. They win by the other.
Well, no, I'm saying if they make one more three and go 18 or 52, they win by one. Yeah. And if they're hot, they win by 15 or 20. So you're jumping on a more volatile high variance style of play, but it is going to be interesting.
And real quick, sorry, they traded cat who's, like you said, the greatest shooting seven footer in the history of the game and the best percentage three points to run the team and conning, conning, the other guy, a percent of the cat. And cat took five threes a game. And a lot of us would sit there, rightfully so, like, dude, can we, can we get it to like eight or nine or like, if he could shoot nine or 10 a game, and even if he dips to like 37 or 38%, but it's, it's easier to say that than it is to put into practice a seven foot kind of plotting player to even find nine or 10 great looks per night. Some nights they're there, but a guy like even Shenzo who's flying around, he's a little smaller, he's quicker and he can fly off screens and he's just, he's just going to find different ways in the half court that cat physically can't to get threes off.
I think that's part of the reason why they made the trade too. Like cats are really good three points. When he has an open look or when he can get the shot off, but he hasn't proven capable of getting nine or 10 of them off per game. Even Chenzo has.
I honestly think it's this. I was just pulled up my calculator on my phone. I think Chris Finch is one of his main things that he wanted his roster and Tim Connolly, his organization to change this year. It's not all cat by the way, but I think a lot of guys do kind of hear these numbers and they have so many reports and they're spoon fed so much analytics now that they kind of are thinking this, but 40% of five is two.
Right. 35% of eight is 2.8. So again, just who cares what your percentages are. We're probably leaning a little too much into efficiency and field of percentages and all those stats.
Volume matters. And I think that to put a bow on it is what you're seeing now through four preseason games. I don't know what you expect tonight because I don't know who I expect to play. You don't have to be there.
I don't think I'm going to be there for about 10 minutes just to get my credential for the season. Probably nine more. Okay. I think that's nine more minutes than an answer probably going to play.
Although Josh might not might be worth sticking around for. We can put a pin in that and circle back. Well, what's wrong? Randall thing?
He really came off as just happy to be here in a sense of when you're coming back from injury, just getting your feet wet. There is no shape like basketball shape in terms of actually playing and getting the minutes. So I'd be shocked if he played tonight, probably no not as a read who was out last night seems according to Chris Hine who was on the beat. Super cautionary.
Everyone seems like they're going to enter next Tuesday in LA. Healthy. But I actually did want to maybe talk about one or two more things from that game last night. Do you want to do the mine on thing?
I saw that dude. I didn't watch the whole game. I ducked it out like in the links were playing. Yeah, which we'll talk about that too.
But this dude is hitting step back hand in face contested threes now. He could barely hit the broads. He could barely hit the side of the backboard on wide open corner threes a year or two ago. And he's he was cooking defenders and all of that wrapped into like the high energy transition hands and passing lanes.
I don't know. Is it possible that Josh Minot is just taking any minutes that Jo Ingles was maybe penciled in for plus another few minutes? Is this for real going into the regular season? I can see why you be cynical because it's the preseason and Josh cop to this too, both at media and then just kind of talking to him that summer league was not a good performance from him.
I've learned more and more about summer league as I just kind of go to it and talk to people. But sometimes too, if you're not playing around a bunch of other NBA guys, it's harder. Like Josh, despite his confidence growing nose that when he's out there on the court, he's usually the fifth best player on his team. But that's so much different than being in summer league and maybe being the first with the best player on the team, right?
Like it's just different. You don't have the same level of guard play and cohesion and all that stuff. How do you not how do you not enter tonight or the regular season and think it's real at this point? I think he's going to have more of a force to cristvinch to play him.
But you said, is he going to come and steal Joe Ingalls minutes? He plays such a very different position. But you know who's minutes? I think he stole last night?
Rob Dillingham played six minutes. And he had two different positions. But I think with the combination of Mike and Ant and I bring him to even Chenzo and Nikhil, you're probably going to have more of natural four guard, you know, and then like Josh and sliding behind Jaden, he can play the four, like if Nause is out, Josh can come in. I just wonder if in a weird way Josh is going to step over Rob at least early on in the regular season because again, last night preseason game you would think unless there was some injury or something we just didn't know like Rob Dillingham, the eighth overall pick in his last draft played six minutes last night.
And I think that's kind of noteworthy. Well, okay, on the Dillingham front. And I do think long term once he sort of figures out how to navigate, I am buying stock on Rob Dillingham. But the landscape of this team has changed so much since they drafted him because when they drafted him, we were all thinking, who live?
They finally found someone maybe they could be like a secondary scorer to Anthony Edwards on nights where Cat just doesn't have it. Just somebody else that can ball handle. And obviously since they made that draft pick, Terence Shannon Jr. played his ass off in Summer League and showed, oh, yeah, he definitely deserves, I don't know, 10 minutes a night.
They make the trade for Dante D'Vincenzo Julius Randall. So they get deeper. They trade one rotation player for two. And then Josh Minut comes out of nowhere and starts hitting three.
So it's like you added offense in D'Vincenzo. You added offense in Julius Randall. You added a rotation player in Josh Minut and Terence Shannon Jr. looks NBA ready.
So it's like those four things did not really exist in your equation when you moved up to draft Rob Dillingham. So it kind of felt like boy, when they drafted Dillingham, you're going to need that dude from day one to play 15, 20 minutes and fingers crossed that he can score some points. I don't know that you go into LA next week desperate to play him. That's not like a knock on him, right?
I'm not saying he's a boss. I just, you got a really deep team. You got like 10 guys that probably sit in front of him that you would trust to be part of your rotation right now. Yeah, again, I echo what you say.
Please, we are both bullish and pro Rob Dillingham long term. I don't want to have to issue an apology. I know he has a very passionate fan base. We like Rob on this show.
So don't pro Rob. Pro Rob. We're just going to do like the Jordan Love Aaron Rodgers thing. He's just going to kind of sit for a little bit.
He's going to soak it in. Pro Rob. Just want to put that out there. I don't have time.
I don't know if he's going to go down to Iowa or whatever, but I think just marinating a little bit isn't going to be the worst thing for him. He's in a completely different situation and expectations for him despite being a lottery pick are just going to be lower than every other lottery pick that was drafted around him. But he is very likely going to have much higher expectations sooner than any of those guys because at some point he is going to be given the keys alongside Anthony Edwards and David Shenzo in kind of a, I mean, a year from now, God willing, we don't really know, but like Mike Conley might not be here. Nicki Alexander might not be here.
And also you're looking at a brand new back court of like I said Rob and David Shenzo. So that was just something I wanted to mention because you're watching that game last night. 103 pointers attempting all this stuff. You're like, where's Rob?
He might just despite what Tim Conley said because when they drafted him to your point, that was a completely different roster than it is now. Yes, you swap out bigs, but the Divin Shenzo piece, I mean, again, I, we're going to have to do that top 100 update before the end of the year. I know we do it now. I didn't, I didn't even change.
I'm going to pull it up right now. Everything we can touch on this last week, but okay, right now, here's, here's my top 100. You've seen him in two more preseason games. KG Anthony Edwards, Carl Anthony Talon's top three players in franchise history.
Rudy, one of the great defensive players. Number four, San Cassel five, Kevin Love six, Jimmy Butler seven, Torel Brandon, and I'm eight Tom Gubliata nine while he's RBX 10. If he hits five three pointers against the Lakers on Tuesday, I'm putting him ahead of while he's RBX. I was going to say, I was going to say, if you're the best player in franchise history, if Divin Shenzo pulls up to the third game in some lamb chop shorts and a J.
Scraft hoodie, he moves across Jimmy Butler for me. We haven't done a pod since the next game. Everything in that game about him made me, I just, that, that is, you know, we were friends. Like that is just me, like just talking bleep to people being fearless.
He was shot out at Tibs. He shot out at Brunson's dad like get the dad off the corporate and also Rick runs it like looking at my guy. Okay. But you know, it's not big.
So get him out of there, but he was just going at it and then to have Knicks fans. I mean, the Knicks or some of the Knicks fans, New York fans are some of the most ruthless. They're like embracing a guy that's an opponent. I mean, that's just everything about Divin Shenzo and also too is kind of weird because you still do have like an old guard with Ingles and Rudy and Mike, right?
That I think they all kind of know we got to sacrifice financially usage, whatever because this is our best chance to win a title, even though there's Utah teams are really good. The young guys, I throw Nause in there too, right? Like they're all still figuring it out and Jaden all the young pups. Divin Shenzo is like the only guy on the roster that you could really make a case is just entering his prime.
And I don't think we talk about that enough too. Like I was talking to Jake painting who does House and Growles. Like there are nights where there are moments where he's down to Divin Shenzo, the second best player on the team. And that's what we talk about the trade, right?
It's like he the actual asset and all of this stuff. You're getting this clay Thompson light guard that is on a very, very cost controlled contract. So I think we're going to talk about Divin Shenzo, D.D.V. of the diamond cutter for the whole season.
But I just had to bring his name up because every time I watch him play basketball, he makes me very happy. It's yeah. I've interacted with enough Knicks fans, just social media, a couple in my friend group who follow the Knicks and all of them are ranging from either being devastated that Divin Shenzo is gone or they'll be like, hey, we got the best player in the trade. We love cat and I'll spare them my whole cat rant and just wish them the best with cat.
But then they'll always say, man, you guys, I think you guys are going to like Divin Shenzo, all of them. So to gain the respect of that fan base, the wolves just of all the things we talked about the wolves needing more of, right? Another scorer or just maybe another backup point guard. The thing that we probably didn't talk about enough was they just need another dog or two on that team that wants to rip the opposing teams, throw it out and finish them.
And Divin Shenzo was that guy, man. Chris Enke did a good article about Divin Shenzo and internally, I practiced on stuff talking to people that he's shown a lot more of that than I think maybe he's shown. I think that Knicks game was a glimpse of what he's like on a daily basis. He is fearless.
He also has a pretty incredible resume. You know what I mean? Like go back to Villanova and those titles, he's won a title in the NBA. So it's not like he's just a guy kind of fighting to belong.
Like he is in his mind, one of those dudes. So I just think when Ant and him get even more comfortable together or just bringing some of that New York mentality, that East Coast mentality to this number of team, it goes back to what we're talking at the top. They're just going to transition more into being a nerdy team that takes a lot of threes and embraces math, but a nerd that also bullies people that beats people up and they're going to be really, really physical and their defense is going to lock in. I don't super care that they lost to a bull's team and give up a bunch of threes.
I think once the thing starts in LA, they're going to really, that's going to be what they kind of hang their head on. So I can't, I just want to get through tonight's game because again, back to back in the preseason is so lame, but it's rightfully so because the links should get to control the schedule this week. But when I'm headed to LA for the opener, I can't wait to watch these guys because I think this is going to be somehow more fun of a season than we had last year and last year was the most fun I've ever had. I get to other things just to overreact to off that preseason game last night.
I said, I love it. We could probably do an hour just on that preseason game and then we'll get to some links and then a random wolf of the week. But I love that there was video from people in the crowd. Mike Conley was essentially just mentoring Rob Dillingham the entire night when they were on the bench together or they'd be there to be something happening, either the game would be going on or whatever.
And Conley, they weren't like small talking and getting to know each other. It was Conley was like teaching Dillingham what was happening on the court and Dillingham was just soaking it in going to school. So just, I don't know where their lockers are. I don't know if you've been in the wolves locker room in the preseason.
I might pop in there tonight. But like those guys spending as much time together as possible could be a great thing for Dillingham. And then the other thing on my list, so last season, Jade McDangles had 46 games in which he tallied zero or one assists. He had five last night.
Would that ball move around? There's some nights even like in the preseason where he just is a wallflower and disappears. But then there's other nights. Last night was one of them where he's scoring from every level.
He's dishing. He's rebounding. In fact, we should go about how many it's a preseason game. I get it.
But in 23 minutes, he dished out five assists and had four rebounds. How many games in his career has he had four rebounds or more on the same night that he had four or five assists or more? I'll bet you it's less than a handful. So just a preseason game against the Bulls.
But if we're going to get like distributing playmaking, Jade and Daniels, sign me up. Is this to the listeners comment on YouTube? Is this what it feels like when your kid comes home with an A? Not like the first spelling does.
Because I mean, when he ran that high pick and roll with Rudy kind of coming off the baseline and he took one hard dribble back into the paint and then Rudy just rolled and Jane just knew the perfect lob to Rudy. I mean, it gets smaller. I kind of cried a little bit. I was just like, oh my God, like that is just an element of all of this that maybe was there in year one through four, but never really was tapped into.
I've been his staunchest defender and biggest fan, but I also think too that, you know, when you get a 500% pay increase or whatever, like you do need to start to untap some more of that stuff. So I think the defense overall, what you just said everything up and down this preseason, I think the defense once the lights of the brightest is going to be really, really good. And they'll have to figure out, you know, Randall and Rudy will have to figure out communication and signals and trying to make sure that they switch properly and all that stuff. But the offensive side of the ball, which I think we both agree is what doomed them in the Maverick series, the offensive side of the ball is going to be much, much, much better this year.
And if they can get like you said from 17th and kind of just offense to ninth or 10th, back to our efficiency versus volume thing, it's probably okay if the defense slips to fourth or fifth because if it's just again, if you're top 10 in defense and top 10 in offense, you're almost guaranteed to be a good team barring any injury. And I think that's probably Finch and Micah and everyone's philosophy of what's dialed down the defense just a little bit. That's our identity. But offensively, man, if we're if we got guys like Jane McDaniel's average and five assists a game and even Chenzo can can throw lobs and Rob's coming in here and had up until this week, the highest assist to turnover ratio in the preseason in the league, like it's going to be really, really fun.
Boy, if you came to this podcast hoping for 30 minutes, two dudes gushing about a lost of voices in the bowl, then you you are in business. Maybe maybe you're looking to stay downtown, maybe you're coming in from out of town or you just want to spend a fun night downtown with Wolf's Season starting element hotel downtown Minneapolis just steps away from target center and target field. It's a Mary at Bonvoy Hotel to for points purposes right on the light rail, super walkable to some of downtown Minneapolis's finest and most popular bars and restaurants. And there's garage parking to super affordable, just a great spot.
City views, bright natural lighting and the rooms are perfect if you're flying solo or maybe you're bringing the whole crew along family friends and furry friends are also allowed at element hotel just down the street from target center and target field to score North dot com slash element to find out more score North dot com slash element also a shout out to nickel a law the exclusive personal injury law firm of score North podcast. Nick LaNoseau and you are loved when gets injured ordinary life can come to a stop. Things can get complicated. And that's where Nick LaN comes in Russell, Nick Laa, fear the flannel deep breath.
He's got you covered with his great team Minnesota's local award winning injury lawyers get nickel a law dot com or give them a call at one eight five five nickel a random wolf of the week coming up here. But boy, that was a stomach turning loss by the links last night up by 15 point. This series has been crazy by the way, big leads on both sides evaporating and man a logo three I guess if like if you were going to say, logo three pointer, take it or leave it defensively, I think you'd say good luck. And yeah, so now the links have their backs against the wall home game on Friday night game four.
It's a must win to send it back to New York, but crazy series. The links there was a game against the sparks like eight years ago in the finals. I remember where they got diggered, but like they don't usually give you the classic Minnesota sports dagger to the heart. They did last night.
I think that was I will say I was just this probably the most violently I've ever pushed back against you. Given up the logo three and target centers, not actually a thing we should do anymore because Luca now Sabrina incredible shot making. I don't really know what else you could have done as a defender there. But it was I you know, I went at three when in I was texting you.
That's what I thought too is like the links we always talk about how many start to have any titles and we just constantly look overlook maybe the biggest WNBA dynasty of all time in the links and they want all these titles, but they were always kind of the barometer and the gold standard and like we're just better than that. And they did I don't know who got them, but they just got pulled into the Minnesota sports mess last night of just absolute heartbreak down the stretch. They just kind of played with their food a little too much. They were like 14 of 40 in the paint.
Yeah, and good looks for the most part, but they just missed it. And then just again, you know, this team has basically proven every single person wrong. They just have the mentality and identity of their coach who is just always kind of saying us against the world. But when you when you have to say they play with their food, but when you let a team back in it and I think you know, his fee is so underrated, but Sabrina is equally as star, you know, potential star power, you just there's not much you can do when the other team has one of those types of shop makers and she hit.
I mean, that's I think Ryan Ruko was on the call. I mean, he was like he was just in his call was like screaming into the TV. So Ryan Ruko and I've been around a few times in person like one of the nicest dudes in national broadcasting, but you have a native like hard on your sleeve New York guy calling the series and then Rebecca Lobo who played for the Liberty was one of the great players in Liberty history. And you can you can kind of hear it when the Liberty are making a run or when they hit a big shot.
There's a little extra sauce on the call and I hate being that guy. But we kind of talked about this. I think last week it'd be like putting like Lindsey Wayland and Marnie Gelner or something on the call. Yeah, there'd be a little extra sauce on it.
Also, Brianna Stewart is a ridiculous basketball player. Yeah, to knock down all those free throws to pretty much score from every level. There's just crazy talent in this league right now. And yeah, I mean, the links are it's funny because everyone talks about obviously Caitlyn Clark and Indiana's going to be there for a long time and the teams that Vegas and New York have put together.
But the links are going away. They kind of put this roster together and if he's a collier is in the middle of a prime right now. So it's going to be I do think they force a game five and then we'll see what happens in New York. But it's going to be a fun like three to five year stretch with all the talents coming up this week.
These have been fun. I'm with you too. Our friend, our colleague, Darren Wilson did a back and forth today with Caitlyn McBride that he tweeted out. I would go listen to that and kind of that same energy of like, hey, it's the first of three, right?
Like I know we said we didn't want to go back to New York. We want to take care of this at our home. But that sports happened. So I would also expect them to come out.
But do you did have that? A lot of Smith told him that she's for sure playing tomorrow night and I think that to me is kind of my coin flip. Like if she plays, I think they win because they are tough. If she doesn't play, I do think it lowers their chances a lot just because she's such a vital part of what they're trying to do.
She was a plus 20 in 20 minutes. I know. And just that. Yeah.
It's just again, they had it and that's probably going to mentally kill them. You got to kind of see on it for a day or so. But they had that game kind of wrapped up. But you just don't want to give the Sabrina's of the world.
This is what the wolves did too. You don't want to give those Lucas of the world that opportunity in that moment to make that shot. I think that's the first spot going left to right on your screen. But yeah, I think again, that's where the Timberwolves and Nuggets got moved up to tonight at Target Center is because tomorrow night on a Friday, if you still believe in this links team, I think you and I very much still do, that might be the hottest ticket in town.
So go check out the links. So by the way, I think set in game three, a attendance record with like 19,000, which is really tough because I did, I know we tell young, the young people listening into this trying to get into this, not to read the comments. But I did see someone that's like, oh, no one who the links or the Liberty? Well, game one had 1.1 million viewers, which was the most watched game one of WNBA finals ever.
And in last night, the links had their highest attendance record ever. So I don't know who the links are, but they're clearly pretty popular. The league is on fire. WNBA is, by the way, it always takes even the men's leagues.
It takes like 25 or 30 years from when you start the league, you have to go through like a generation or two and then kids have to grow up and start at a three or five year old going to games and it being, it's hard to be like 30 years old and then a team emerges in your city. You're not like emotionally attached to it. Same thing have the NBA was what the mid 1940s or late 1940s and it took until like 1979, 1980 with magic and bird and them not not taping the NBA finals like they did for 30 years. So this is definitely an inflection point for the league and it's cool that the links are right in the thick of it as the league explodes in the popular.
So I know I know we got to bring Ross in and we got a little bit of time crunch, but I just want to also add this because the last time we talked was maybe before the game down in Iowa. You already talked about this on flagrenhals another time. Michael Grady announces me in games games. He is the Anthony Edwards of the broadcasting.
He deserves it all. He's still going to call it some of those games, probably not as many. I think he'll probably fill in with Marnie who has elite chemistry, I think with Jim, but I'm just throwing this out there. If they need another person, give Alan Horton a shot.
I think he and Jim would be fantastic. They'd call games on the radio together. I think he would be, he was kind of calling that Des Moines, Iowa games through the stream. So it was like his radio broadcast paired with a video and I thought Alan Horton who has the toughest job in all this.
He's by himself, he's all these boards, but give Alan Horton a shot if you need some games called this year because if you haven't listened to a radio call, maybe do that tonight, maybe tune into K fan or something, Alan Horton is as good at what he does as Grady and Jim and what they do. So give him a chance. Yeah. And it's cool.
I think Grady is going to do 18 ESPN NBA games and there might be some crossover where he actually does a Wolves game or two, but yeah, he totally deserves it. And much like Kevin Harlan was doing some national stuff and football and calling Wolves, but most of these guys keep local jobs and then do the national stuff. I mean, Mike Breen is the voice of the NBA finals and he calls Nick's games for MSG. Mark Jones, who's like the secondary or third NBA play by play guy in ESPN, he calls Sacramento Kings games.
So I know we kind of joke about it. Like we're going to lose Grady at some point, but like usually you, unless you're packed to the gills with national, if you're Kevin Harlan, you're doing NBA NFL and it's all national work, generally you get to keep your local job and just kind of double dip. So we might get the best of both worlds where Michael Grady stays on Tim Roles for a few years and also is a conduit for the national game. So let's bring our guy, Ross Brandeley, here producer extraordinaire and the keeper of the random wolf of the week.
You know, who else is good at their job? This guy who's got two thumbs and a random wolf of the week. That guy. Right.
Yeah. Yeah. I finally got rid of all the acne and shave the face and now there's another one coming back. So another beer coming back.
Both at this point. Both at this point. So here's another dermatologist out there. By the way, our teams are open.
Here's our random wolf works Kyle with 21 career victories. I have 12 Ross will throw out a series of clues that lead us to a random wolf of the week. We get up to three incorrect guesses each plus a heat chat guest after the first clue. If one of us hits the third strike, the other one wins automatically.
I'm on a two game one, extreme here for the first time in like five months. The last handful of random wolves Reggie Slater, Will Avery, Doug West, LaTrell Sreewell and Jordan McLaughlin. You guys ready to rock and roll here? That's a good starting five right there.
Yeah. Oh, hey, is it? You can win 15 games with that. Was your center there?
I guess Reggie Slater, right? Right. I guess LaTrell Sreewell playing the stretch four and then your back court of Will Avery and Jordan McLaughlin barely six feet tall and then Doug West as your small forward. That's your swing man.
Here we go boys. Clue number one for you. This a random wolf of the week was born during one of the George Bush administrations. Stick to sports.
I'm running in my notes. I'm running in my notes born in 1990 or like 2004. Heat check time boys. Oh boy.
Real shot in the dark here. It's pretty young either way. Wesley Johnson. That's a good one.
No, Kyle, but that's Wesley Johnson is formerly Phil's Will Avery for you, isn't it? Yep, 100%. It's a smile. I'm going to go Rashad McCants.
Oh, it is not Rashad McCants. So we are on to clue number two. It has been reported that this random wolf of the week received strong interest to play basketball at the University of Kentucky. I will add he did not end up at Kentucky, but he was, of course, highly recruited.
This random wolf of the week played high school basketball at the same high school as former NBA player Donnie Marshall, not Don Yell Donnie Marshall. Even I had to double check and make sure they weren't the same person. Well, that clue does much for me. This random wolf of the week played college basketball in the technically still alive, but basically defunct Pac-12.
Must have been packed full of school, but they're bringing teams back. Yeah, well, we got I think Washington State and Oregon State couldn't find a taker. So they stayed and now we're getting like Fresno State and some other random data. That's like a package.
And I can talk about that for me. Yeah, it's getting a little bit. Also, they're making they're making the basketball only basketball only because I just lost about two conference games since 1999. St.
Mary's is the one that might be them in both those guys. If you guys see, and I think it's Barstool, maybe John Boy, they're doing the weekly Pac-12 power rankings where they're just basically rotating between Oregon State and Washington State. Is it a close battle? Are they neck and neck?
Truth be told, I don't know if it's ever changed. I think they're just putting the two teams up. So anywho, go search that if you'd like this random wolf of the week has been named to the NBA all defensive second team once in his career. So named to the NBA all defensive second team once in his career.
I mean, that's like, I mean, wait, I got the game. Wow, he's back in the win column. Wow, dude. Wow.
I mean, the second George Bush administration. I didn't get that clue at all. I just wrote down George Bush on my note card. But I was like an early 90s still.
I didn't think Ross was going to go current players. It was. Still would have gotten my guy that would have been disgusting and I would have felt so bad about it. But yeah, I think Ross is wearing purple for the YouTube audience.
I mean, thinking Huskies in Pac-12. But did he mean also to how many other wolves have made all defense? That's the only reason I thought it. Like I was.
Ross almost gave me the most recent clue, but he must have gone. So Donnie Marshall went to it. Ross is it federal way federal way high school, which is an incredibly cool name. Yeah.
Yeah. Okay. There is like Seattle is a hotbed for like table J. Jalen Noel is a Seattle guy.
Jake McDaniel's. Zach Levine, Jamal Crawford. They have a group chat to like Seattle basketball. Once they get the sonic spec, that's going to be awesome.
But yeah, Phil, do you have that quick? I mean, I don't even know who else would have been. Okay. This is outdated on NBA.com because it doesn't include the last year.
Okay. But there's two. So one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, there's been nine other years where wolves player has been all defense, but only two players besides David McDaniel's. Can you guess the two?
All the internet. Cori, we're not eight times. No, Cory Brewer. I'm not bad guess.
The only other one did it once post KG era. I was boy. I was actually going to guess Al Jefferson because he used to get a lot of rebounds, but he was a great defensive. No, he was he was a sieve.
Ross, you might have finished last in the. He was one of the players in the history of the NBA. But he got rebounds. Yeah, I would say Robert Covington, but he wouldn't have played enough games.
Oh, you're a butler. There you go. I was going to snive it around it. They were traded for each other.
Did I make that too easy on you, Kyle? I tried to make it difficult. I didn't think you would get that quick. I think it's tough.
I'll just speak for myself because I lost here, but I don't ever think current active players, but that is part of the game. It is it's not random former player who was a wolf. It's just random wolf of the week. So like, look at Garza could be next week.
You wouldn't know. Let's come out of nowhere. And then you might be up to 20 wins. Who would you cut though?
I mean, and if you could somehow acquire the right style Jefferson, you might have the best of the game in the world. I never said he was good. He's just a mean that came to mind. Good stuff.
Cheapers. All right, dudes. Congratulations to Kyle on his hard-fought victory here at Random Wolf of the Week. Appreciate you guys clicking the subscribe button and the like button on the scoring with YouTube channel and over on the flagrant howl's audio feed.
So Apple and Spotify, it helps when you give us a five-star rating and a positive review. This is a Tim Rolves lifestyle podcast.