This podcast is to celebrate the coming season, and is sort of the corollary to last week's preseason analysis post, Wolves' Ball Addition Signals Renewed Focus On Transition, Pick'n'roll And Movement.

We were inspired to invite Abhinav Bethi by a very good initial Substack post analyzing the Ball addition in the Wolves sub-Reddit. Though he's in India, he was quick to respond to our entreaties and sharp in his basketball analysis by and large. While we hope to have a variety of guests discussing the Wolves this season, we're almost assured to have Abhinav back.

During the podcast we discuss LaMelo Ball's addition, his impact on the offense, and how this reduced responsibility might help Anthony Edwards. We discuss the makeup of the frontcourt and especially the "4" in the absence of Randle & Reid, and how Williams, Lyles and Kuminga bring length, quickness and athleticism that was missing from the position, and for all three, this is a bit of second bite of the apple after disappointing starts to their careers.

We also discuss how these moves might reflect the Wolves post-season struggles and specifically what kind of offensive sets this represents and how this increased efficiency will help, alongside what their main issues were in the playoffs last year defensively and how these new additions help to address that. Finally we talk about the issue of spacing, how the added ballhandling will allow the Wolves to take better advantage of it, and how the challenge will be to find a "4" that can consistently hit their threes.

We finish by discussing our takes on potential finals teams.