The Wolves Just Exposed OKC’s Biggest Weakness

The Wolves Just Exposed OKC’s Biggest Weakness

A new rivalry is heating up in the west as the Thunder and Timberwolves have now both stolen the one seed from each other in head-to-head matchups you’ve got ant calling out the refs OKC’s guys mocking cat in IG comments all the good stuff they split the season series 2 to2 so

The only chance we get of another battle would be in the playoffs and I have my concerns in this most recent game the Timberwolves implemented a defensive strategy that exposed OKC’s biggest weakness and may have some postseason implications of course what I’m referring to is putting Rudy goar on

Josh giddy because Chad’s a legit three-point shooter at the five whenever Rudy’s matched up with him it’s a lot harder to protect the rim Shay’s left with space to operate one-on-one and for arguably the game’s best isolationist that usually leads to some pretty good offense so how do they counter put Jaden

McDaniels on chat a big lengthy mobile forward who can stay in front of him at all times while gobear just sits on the Block waiting for someone to disrupt in the paint here’s another example that starts with Chad trying to take McDaniels off the dribble with goar

Sitting about 20 ft off of giddy notice how when the pass is made he doesn’t even attempt to close out because they want Josh shooting that shot although he does make them pay with this one even when he has the ball look at how Rudy guards him again he makes no effort to

Close out then when cat comes to screen he drops back to the paint completely abandoning the perimeter as giddy makes them pay again next time down the floor Rudy finds himself matched up with jdub in isolation so now ant’s going to be the one to play off of giddy offering

Some aggressive help at the nail only for him to once again punish the wolves from behind the ark he he made three threes in about 6 minutes without missing a shot pretty impressive the problem though is sustainability since entering the league he’s hit just 30% of his wideopen threes

An abysmal 11th percentile with that he’s also hit about 30% of his catch and shoot threes 13th percentile we’re talking about one of the worst Shooters in the league so once that hot start comes back to Earth OKC’s got some serious problems watch Rudy he rotates

From the other side of the court to protect the rim leaving giddy on an island on the wing and when he catches Nas Reed doesn’t even care to take away that space all of a sudden that luck has run out here’s one that starts with Shay

Playing out of the post and again goar has completely abandoned giddy on the opposite Wing to shut off the paint the easy skip pass is made McDaniels prioritizes Chad in the corner and and’s left with another wideopen brick when you have a non-threat to this degree all of a sudden offense becomes

Exponentially harder Shay has no space at all to operate with the wolves are doubling him sitting in his driving lanes and even if he does find a way to break through the best rim protector of this generation is waiting for him like a catcher behind home plate late in the

Second quarter Minnesota even threw out a Zone focused on the exact same principles they’re not worried about giddy touching the ball in the middle of the floor because there’s a pretty good chance he’s not finishing over Rudy and when he’s on the perimeter once again

They’re able to just put a wall in front of Shay giddy gets the kickout pass and not only does ant not close out he turns around and follows a cutter literally daring giddy to lose his team The Possession whenever he was on the floor OKC’s shot quality was in the dirt for

For the most part the only looks they got were contested tough mid-range jumpers with enough skill you can make it work to some degree but in 2024 if that’s your primary source of half court offense good luck keeping up in quarters 2 and three giddy played just under 8

And 1/2 minutes and the team scored 12 points during that time they had an offensive rating of 69.6 If you’re not familiar with how bad that is the worst offense in the NBA Memphis has a 109 offensive rating so in other words the offense was more than

Abysmal when giddy was out there which is why he’d sit out the last 7 and 1/2 minutes of the third during the time without giddy things immediately turned around they won the rest of the quarter by 12 after being outscored by six in the first four and had an offensive rating of

178.6 now obviously that isn’t sustainable at all but just add some more perspective on what we’re talking about because giddy would return for the fourth and right away we were looking at more problems on the very first play you can once again see gobear waiting under the basket like he’s Bill Russell before

Defensive 3 seconds and when giddy gets it in the corner no scramble to recover take that shot and Miss once again the shot quality was putrid tough look after tough look end of clock offense with zero Advantage it was just bad after just 2 minutes he was done OKC was minus

9 in those two minutes yeah outscored by almost double digits in 120 seconds he only lasted 19 total minutes over the entire game which really felt like 19 too many the Thunder were -7 with an offensive rating of 94.7 in his time from the exact moment he sat in the fourth OKC’s offense

Looked significantly cleaner there’s way more space to operate which makes it easier for Shay to get to his spots and Rudy can’t just wait under the basket all night without having to worry about covering someone but unfortunately they’re fighting an uphill battle from the giddy minutes so despite looking

Much sharper offensively they ended up losing the game by six it’s not just this game I’m worried about though ALS season long my biggest concern with OKC’s translations to the playoffs despite being a top seed has been the offensive limitations of giddy he’s a below average scorer from everywhere on

The floor and against teams with the rim protection to take advantage of it like goar and the Wolves he becomes virtually unplayable it’ll be interesting to see how the Thunder approached this weakness in upcoming matchups with better defenses and if they find a way to ease some of the concerns heading into to

Playoff time if you enjoyed this breakdown make sure to drop a like subscribe and turn my post notifications on to be first on more content if you’re interested in my more in-depth research make sure to check out my website and social media profiles you can find those

Links in the description feel free to let me know down in the comments what you thought of this game as always I hope you all have a great day and I’ll catch you guys in the next one

The Timberwolves and Thunder rivalry is heating up, and in this most recent game Minnesota’s defensive strategy had some playoff implications.

► Website: https://www.hoopvenue.com/
► Twitter: https://twitter.com/hoopvenue_
► Instagram: https://instagram.com/TheHoopVenue​​
► Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/hoopvenue
► Discord Server: https://discord.gg/qQnFQchZak

► Music Credit
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Mf7_YXe83CsYBVwKf3m6Q