Bring on the Heat - GDT

[Volans19]

It doesn't make it any easier that Wiggins had to play against Loul Deng, that guy has made a career out of being a pitbull on defense

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

We won, so I'm not going to go nuts about this. But if that is going to be Andrew's role in this offense, I'm not going to bother to watch. WTF? Sure he didn't look very engaged, but can you blame him? Standing in the corner all night isn't the way this should work. 8 shots in 37 minutes is ridiculous for the future cornerstone.

Exactly.. Plus Wiggins needs to start a SG and not this BS where they act like Martin is playing SF lol.

Meh. I'm just not on board with this notion that he needs to be spoon-fed shots. He needs to put on a pair of big-boy pants and make things happen out there. Part of development is learning how to impact the game without having the ball in your hands or plays run for you.

(by the way, the few opportunities they did run plays for him, he was defended extremely well or just short-armed his shot. I wish he got up as much for this kind of game as he does for Cleveland!)

I agree with Q. Wiggins needs to be more active off ball, running the floor, crashing the offensive glass from time to time. We know he can do it. There have been times when he'll make a nice tip in, or go UP for an o-board like he did tonight. And we have good passers. Read the defense, make good cuts, float to open areas outside the arc when the ball's in the post. These are ways guys score through the offense without taking the ball out of teammates hands. Shabazz is the best example. He's getting better, but tonight I would have liked much more.

Not to mention we have weapons back. And we have good passers on the team. They'll find the open guy. Key word being open.

To Andrew's aid, he did get checked by Luol Deng. That is not an easy challenge for any player let alone a 200 lb rookie.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Cam, I think a lot of us want so badly for Wiggins to develop and become "the man" that when he doesn't have a good game/see a lot of touches, we walk away disappointed, and in this case, blame the coaches.

That to me is short-sighted. Many of you have reminded me just how young he is. We don't need the guy to be our #1, #2 option, or even #3 option as a 19-year old. It was nice that he had a taste of that for a good stretch of time when everyone else was hurt, but there is also a ton he can learn by NOT having plays run for him.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

It doesn't make it any easier that Wiggins had to play against Loul Deng, that guy has made a career out of being a pitbull on defense

Yeah, Deng was good tonight. He made some tough-ass shots too. I think nearly every shot he took was contested in some way, yet they all seemed to go in.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Dieng should share the game-ball with Martin and Rubio tonight.

4th quarter:
12 minutes
6 rebounds
7 points on 2-2 from the floor and 3-3 from the line
1 assist

Plus we held the Heat to only 18 points.

Gorgui has generally been more part of the problem than the solution when it comes to our porous defense, but tonight he came up big in that 4th quarter, controlling the glass and making some big plays offensively.

[Coolbreeze44]

We won, so I'm not going to go nuts about this. But if that is going to be Andrew's role in this offense, I'm not going to bother to watch. WTF? Sure he didn't look very engaged, but can you blame him? Standing in the corner all night isn't the way this should work. 8 shots in 37 minutes is ridiculous for the future cornerstone.

Exactly.. Plus Wiggins needs to start a SG and not this BS where they act like Martin is playing SF lol.

Meh. I'm just not on board with this notion that he needs to be spoon-fed shots. He needs to put on a pair of big-boy pants and make things happen out there. Part of development is learning how to impact the game without having the ball in your hands or plays run for you.

(by the way, the few opportunities they did run plays for him, he was defended extremely well or just short-armed his shot. I wish he got up as much for this kind of game as he does for Cleveland!)

Q, he stood in the corner all night. I'm not asking he be spoon fed shots. I AM asking that he be part of the offense instead of a decoy.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I don't understand why people call it spoon feeding. When a guy is good enough to earn a role in the offense you find a way to get him touches in the flow of the offense even if it isn't designed to get him a shot. There needs to be an actual offense in place so if Martin, Pek or Thad are having off nights, the offense doesn't just become Wiggins post ups. When you have good players you get them the ball. It's as simple as that. Wiggins is not Kirilenko out there with a limited offensive game that basically requires him to be an off ball player. There's a difference between spoon feeding someone 15 shots off of screens and post ups and just including them in the offense instead of asking him to roam and figure it out himself. Wiggins can get to the bucket which Martin can't, so wouldn't it make more sense to have the sniper roam the 3 pt line and let Wiggins do the tough work getting to the basket? Martin's game is built on efficiency, so he's not going to need more than 15 shots to make his impact on a regular basis. There is no chance for Wiggins to make and impact on 8> shots a game.

Also almost every time Wiggins goes for the offensive board, there is nobody back on defense to stop the transition opportunity on a miss. I think it is a waste of a transition defender to ask Wiggins to crash the boards and try to come down with rebounds in the trees when he would be more getting back in transition to defend. LBJ has averaged only 1.2 offensive rebounds per game in his career because he is more useful getting back to defend in transition than trying to crash the glass and Lebron has a way higher likelihood of bringing down an offensive board than Wiggins' sleight frame right now. Wiggins simply doesn't have the strength nor the hands to make him going for boards on offense a worthwhile strategy. We could have kept a lot of games a lot closer this year if we stopped overcommitting on the offensive glass and actually got guys to get back in transition. You just can't commit 3 guys to the offensive glass. Defending in transition is going to contribute a lot more to us being good moving forward than being a good offensive rebounding team. The top offensive rebounding team in the league is Utah at 29%. In comparison, the Hawks are at 21% (2nd lowest in the league). A good chunk of the playoff teams this year hover at or below 25% and we are at 27.5% so we really don't need to commit any more resources in that category and should probably draw it back a little bit and use that as a chance to become a better transition team because it will be much more useful than sending an extra guy on a play you still lose 3/4 times.

[AbeVigodaLive]

And like many of you, I think we get the win tonight! This brings back memories (well, maybe not. Jaric begain the downfall of the franchise, didn't he? We traded a Cassell AND a 1st for him!):

Alan Horton ?@WolvesRadio 4h4 hours ago
MIN hasn't beaten MIA at home in over 7 years, since 1/1/08 (101-91) when Shaddy threw down 27, Jaric had 17p 8a & Big Al went for 18 & 10.

I wish the board was around back then...

I remember telling a buddy the Wolves were in trouble after Marko Jaric fought a teammate during the world championships (before he arrived here). His team really struggled and flopped... and his backup completely outplayed him.

Jaric's reaction wasn't to play better... it was to fight the guy in the locker room. That's never a good sign.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Thoroughly enjoyable game. While I would like to think we should beat a Wade-less Miami team by more than a point, Whiteside did have a freakishly good game and our best player is still on a minutes restriction. Given those two factors, I'll take the win.

Most encouraging is the fact that everyone that played at least 10 minutes played well, with the exception of Wiggins (and I'm not worried about that). Yes, and that even includes our much-maligned PF's. As Jim Pete said often last night, Rubio just makes everyone play better, and clearly harder. The schedule is really tough the rest of the month...full of Memphis, Golden St., Atlanta, etc....so wins will be difficult to get. But as Flip begins to ratchet Rubio's minutes up and his teammates get more comfortable with his unique style of play, we will at least be in most of these games.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Not to be diminished last night was Flip's brilliant management of Ricky's 20, or slightly over 20, minutes. He started him to increase our chances of a quick start, then rested him for significant portions of the game to ensure he would have him for the final half of the 4th quarter. Mo was great when we needed him, but we don't want him finishing games. Good job, Flip.