CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Tonight Plus 1

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I find it interesting sometimes the arguments khans make go against some of his others. Saying LaVine's play didn't help the team at all, and then advocates for Bennett to play more minutes? Or ignoring that after Rubio, Thad had the highest +/- of the team this season. We played better when he was on the floor.

You've argued for development time for Bennett. What's the difference in arguing more time for LaVine, if we go by your arguments.

Lavine got his shot at big minutes when Rubio went down. Bennett hasn't gotten a shot yet and don't come here with the 16 MPG bullshit. That's not a shot. Anyone with eyes saw last night that Bennett came out with great energy. You don't think that had anything to do with him getting the start and not getting pulled immediately after some of the mistakes he made? He was starting to get mad at his mistakes and trying even harder and that's when he went down going for the loose ball. Lavine has 23 starts this year averaging 29 MPG's in those starts. Bennett has 3 starts averaging 22 MPG's. That's why I advocated for Bennett getting more run.

So much anger in your posts today. We won last night didn't we?

Isn't that just the pot calling the kettle black?

[TheGrey08]

So then we have 3 PF's and 3 centers, however you slice it, that's a lot of money for bigs. Payne and AB make about 5 I think, Towns will get that much too, KG will get 3-4 (hopefully no more than that). He's gonna have to cut someone. If AB makes some small improvements, then I'd like to keep him.

Payne is making under 2 mill this year. He was drafted 15 and the pay scale drops off rather sharply in the top 6 or so picks.

I agree the guys do and I don't care if we play the last 10 minutes to win, but if a young guy is out there giving effort and playing with intensity I don't see why they can't get close to 20 minutes a night on a losing team. I think we all know that Wiggins, Zach, and Shabazz are part of the future core. Lets give them the minutes they earn through effort and let them play through mistakes.

Agreed. It was the first game after the break though so I won't get on Flip's case yet. I expect the young guys to start getting solid minutes.

[Coolbreeze44]

I find it interesting sometimes the arguments khans make go against some of his others. Saying LaVine's play didn't help the team at all, and then advocates for Bennett to play more minutes? Or ignoring that after Rubio, Thad had the highest +/- of the team this season. We played better when he was on the floor.

You've argued for development time for Bennett. What's the difference in arguing more time for LaVine, if we go by your arguments.

Lavine got his shot at big minutes when Rubio went down. Bennett hasn't gotten a shot yet and don't come here with the 16 MPG bullshit. That's not a shot. Anyone with eyes saw last night that Bennett came out with great energy. You don't think that had anything to do with him getting the start and not getting pulled immediately after some of the mistakes he made? He was starting to get mad at his mistakes and trying even harder and that's when he went down going for the loose ball. Lavine has 23 starts this year averaging 29 MPG's in those starts. Bennett has 3 starts averaging 22 MPG's. That's why I advocated for Bennett getting more run.

So much anger in your posts today. We won last night didn't we?

Isn't that just the pot calling the kettle black?

You know what? Let's just settle this right now. You know three times as much about basketball as me, and twice as much as anyone else on the board. I shouldn't ever question your opinions because it's just silly given your superiority in this area. I'm fully intimidated by you, and will try to avoid further conflict.

[TheGrey08]

He played fine individually, but the team played bad with him on the court. He was a -12 in 11 minutes in a win with the next closest being Bazz at a -6. The team doesn't play well with him on the court. At the end of the day this is a team game and there was a 26 point swing between him and Ricky at the PG position. We don't need to be developing empty stat guys. We need guys who can help the team win and Zach's play last night did nothing to help the team win.

Are you doing okay this morning? Settle down a little bit. Teams in the NBA go on runs during a game. When you only play 10 minutes you shouldn't use +/- as a stat for your argument. Of course Ricky is going to have a more positive impact on the game from the PG position. And of course Zach has not been a net positive over the year. This isn't a revelation. But for the same reasons that have been argued on here since the season started, he should get more PT.

Good point Cool, teams go on runs, players play better during some stretches than others, etc.

Even if we're going to look at Lavine's +/- during his 10 min, the lets ignore Rubio's stats in the 2nd half when Lavine wasn't playing at all. The Wolves as a whole were playing better in the 2nd half, not simply b/c Lavine wasn't on the floor.

Besides.. Lavine never played PG before starting in the NBA. That is the most important fact of the situation. Overall he hasn't played PG terribly and given the previous fact plus him having some flashes here & there, makes it slightly impressive.

[TheGrey08]

I find it interesting sometimes the arguments khans make go against some of his others. Saying LaVine's play didn't help the team at all, and then advocates for Bennett to play more minutes? Or ignoring that after Rubio, Thad had the highest +/- of the team this season. We played better when he was on the floor.

You've argued for development time for Bennett. What's the difference in arguing more time for LaVine, if we go by your arguments.

Lavine got his shot at big minutes when Rubio went down. Bennett hasn't gotten a shot yet and don't come here with the 16 MPG bullshit. That's not a shot. Anyone with eyes saw last night that Bennett came out with great energy. You don't think that had anything to do with him getting the start and not getting pulled immediately after some of the mistakes he made? He was starting to get mad at his mistakes and trying even harder and that's when he went down going for the loose ball. Lavine has 23 starts this year averaging 29 MPG's in those starts. Bennett has 3 starts averaging 22 MPG's. That's why I advocated for Bennett getting more run. To be honest neither have played well this year, but why does Lavine get a pass and requires more PT and Bennett not when Lavine has been given the opportunity this year and done less? AB should at least get the same shot Lavine got. It's been a total double standard of Lavine needing time, but AB doesn't when AB is only 21 himself.

Well I've advocated for BOTH of them to get 20+ min a game. Yes Lavine started, and Bennett only has had 16 mpg, but the fact is neither of them have had enough time playing alongside our best players. Most importantly Rubio. Lavine needs some good run at SG next to Rubio.

[Coolbreeze44]

I find it interesting sometimes the arguments khans make go against some of his others. Saying LaVine's play didn't help the team at all, and then advocates for Bennett to play more minutes? Or ignoring that after Rubio, Thad had the highest +/- of the team this season. We played better when he was on the floor.

You've argued for development time for Bennett. What's the difference in arguing more time for LaVine, if we go by your arguments.

Lavine got his shot at big minutes when Rubio went down. Bennett hasn't gotten a shot yet and don't come here with the 16 MPG bullshit. That's not a shot. Anyone with eyes saw last night that Bennett came out with great energy. You don't think that had anything to do with him getting the start and not getting pulled immediately after some of the mistakes he made? He was starting to get mad at his mistakes and trying even harder and that's when he went down going for the loose ball. Lavine has 23 starts this year averaging 29 MPG's in those starts. Bennett has 3 starts averaging 22 MPG's. That's why I advocated for Bennett getting more run. To be honest neither have played well this year, but why does Lavine get a pass and requires more PT and Bennett not when Lavine has been given the opportunity this year and done less? AB should at least get the same shot Lavine got. It's been a total double standard of Lavine needing time, but AB doesn't when AB is only 21 himself.

Well I've advocated for BOTH of them to get 20+ min a game. Yes Lavine started, and Bennett only has had 16 mpg, but the fact is neither of them have had enough time playing alongside our best players. Most importantly Rubio. Lavine needs some good run at SG next to Rubio.

I agree, I just don't see how he's going to get it.

[TheGrey08]

Well I've advocated for BOTH of them to get 20+ min a game. Yes Lavine started, and Bennett only has had 16 mpg, but the fact is neither of them have had enough time playing alongside our best players. Most importantly Rubio. Lavine needs some good run at SG next to Rubio.

I agree, I just don't see how he's going to get it.

He won't unless Martin's minutes are limited and Wiggins pretty much only plays SF.

[bleedspeed]

Well I've advocated for BOTH of them to get 20+ min a game. Yes Lavine started, and Bennett only has had 16 mpg, but the fact is neither of them have had enough time playing alongside our best players. Most importantly Rubio. Lavine needs some good run at SG next to Rubio.

I think that this is very important. Lavine needs to get minutes at SG next to Rubio and Wiggins. It just needs to be done. I would like to see it with KG on the court.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Cool scolding LST for being too negative?!? My, oh my, oh my! ;-)

Yep, I'm a regular Debby Downer!

Cool, Zach's plus/minus reflected what I saw last night. On offense, he was mostly cautious and didn't hurt us too bad. But it was defensively that things really broke down when he replaced Rubio. It seems like we got a stop about 5% of the possessions. I'm still on the Zach bandwagon long-term, but the difference between the way we played last night depending on which PG was in was like night and day.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Didn't really care if we won this game.

I would like to see more Zach and Shabazz. They should get 20 a night. I would like to see us limit Pek's minutes and keep him healthy so he might have trade value. Also we have enough bigs now that it makes no sense to play him over 30 minutes a night. The same with Rubio and Martin. Keep them closer to 30 minutes a night. I would love to see some minutes with Zach playing SG next to Rubio. We need to start working that lineup with Rubio/LaVine/Wiggins/KG/Pek or Dieng for 10+ minutes a night.

Your first paragraph is my usual sentiment, bleed, but somehow this year it's different. I'm invested in the team winning half their games the rest of the year, and I would have been unhappy if they had lost last night.

Having said that, I agree that it's important for guys like Zach and Bazz to get minutes, so Flip has to continue to balance the need to win and the need to develop. Bazz clearly needs 20-25 a night, but you could tell his hand was bothering him last night (update: he's not making the trip to Houston). A couple times they cut to him on the bench and he was looking at his hand.

I also agree with you that Pek's minutes should be limited. The problem is AB is out fro a few weeks, and KG isn't playing Monday, and that leaves us with only 3 bigs needing to play 30 minutes apiece. I'm still hoping Flip and KG change their minds, and KG plays Monday...there's no reason he shouldn't.