The Wolves have two intense games in front of them as they face the Golden State Warriors on Friday night and the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night. While both will be tough contests, there are quite a few things that the Wolves have seen in their last few games that give them cause for optimism.
The biggest thing has been the aggressive play of Andrew Wiggins. Wiggins has been very intentional about getting to the hoop lately and that effort is showing up in his play.
“We like his aggression early in games, his ability to get downhill is a good thing,” said Interim Head Coach Ryan Saunders. “I think also he’s been reading defenses a little bit better. When he sees a big is in a drop, he’s able to snake it back or use his euro step, then he’s getting better in terms of the shot selection with midrange, what’s a good midrange shot, getting to the rim, but we’re really stressing him getting to the rim on things.”
His teammates see it too. They know that when Wiggins plays well they are far more likely to get a victory.
“That’s what we need out of him—we need him to be aggressive,” said Tyus Jones. “Obviously, he’s a dynamic scorer so when he’s scoring at a high clip that brings another weapon to the table for us that we need. We try to get him going early, try to get him in rhythm early, cause once he’s going, once he’s hit a few shots, he’s hard to stop."
When Wiggins gets going early, it does more for the Wolves than just provide scoring—it sets a tone for the entire night and helps spread energy to the rest of the group. There’s a lot that Wiggins’ scoring does for the team outside of just creating scoring opportunities.
“I think showing the aggression early shows everybody that we have an engaged group for the night, and that’s a big positive especially with a younger team, and that brings the energy of everybody up. Then also what that does is when he’s getting all the way to the rim that forces defenses to honor that.”
Another encouraging thing has been the play of Josh Okogie. After a bit of a down few games earlier in the month he’s rebounded well. His playmaking, in particular, has been excellent. The game is clearly slowing down for him and he’s seeing the floor very well. Distributing the ball is a great new facet of Okogie’s game.
“He goes 110 percent all the time and that’s great but coming with that is going to come a few mistakes just from getting sped up,” said Jones. “Obviously, the speed of the game is different and you’ve got to adjust, so I think he’s starting to adjust, see what’s working, what didn’t work, and that’s all you ask for—to continue to learn, grow and get better.”
Okogie attributes his success to the people around him being patient with him and helping him work through things one game at a time.
“I’m just trying to make the reads I can, and I think it’s a credit to my coaches always there for me, you know, watching film with me after the game so I can see what’s going to be there next game and see what I didn’t see the previous games and make adjustments.”
The Wolves take on the Warriors on Friday night at 7 p.m. For more info on the game check out our scouting report.