Back To The Winning (Wolves vs. Suns)

[Coolbreeze44]

Towns was a minus 27 tonight, Teague -23. By far the two worst marks on the team. It's just not winning basketball. This game should have been a blowout. I'm really not sure what the hell is going on here.

[KiwiMatt]

Im legit worried about Kat. I don't know what to think of it. He does so much stuff that hurts the team defensively. Goes after blocks he has no shot at getting allowing a weak side rebound. Mental mistakes (like the possessions in the 1st half where we were doubling Booker PnRs but he dosen't show and allows Booker to step into a 3). The Suns attacked Kat all night on the PnR, all fucking night and he could not contain. The wolves went down 8 in the 3rd Q, took Kat out and ran the Tyus/Wig/Butler/Belly/Taj lineup and we got stops and went on a 14-2 run I believe.

Butler was also pretty bad tonight, same with Teague.

I thought Wiggins brought it tonight and Taj did Taj things. We really missed Gorgui.

But I think we have a Kat problem and a pretty big one

*Kat is super talented and I am not trying to come off as he is the only problem on the team because there are some warring signs but our weak link on defense can't be our big man, Im more scared than upset that if he never gets it, it really don't matter.

KAT has the size, the talent and some times he has the heart. What he lacks is intelligence in my opinion. He simply doesn't make the right decision especially on the defensive. You put Bellys brain in KATs head and you would have a top 5 player in the league.

While we are doctor frankensteining can we put Tyus' brain and Bazz's motor into Wiggins??? Then we would really have something.

Haha then we'd have Lebron James 2.0 Future.

[KiwiMatt]

Towns was a minus 27 tonight, Teague -23. By far the two worst marks on the team. It's just not winning basketball. This game should have been a blowout. I'm really not sure what the hell is going on here.

The +/- in the box score was very noticeable watching the game tonight. Teague had his worst game as a Wolf in my opinion, was simply ineffective for the most part and got outplayed by Tyler Ullis and Mike James.... the chemistry of our starting unit is horrible and not improving and I'm starting to think Jeff Teague is the odd man out.

Belly and Tyus were +17 and +15 respectively and both played well.

As Lip said it's hard to get behind this team. There is no identity. The franchise as a whole has been a compete disaster for the last 13 years and it seemed to be ingrained.

A loss to the lowly Phoenix Suns is unacceptable and it's losing games like this that will drop us lower down the ladder and ultimately could cost us a spot in the playoffs.

[Wolvesfan21]

I'm having a hard time liking this team. I don't like the style of play. I hate the inconsistency. I can't stand the vibe on the sideline from the head coach. I'm tired of references to the head coach's reputation while the team continues to be one of the two worst defensive teams in the NBA even after Thibs got his guys in Butler, Taj and Teague.

I wonder if Thibs is the problem here. Both Wiggins and KAT have consistently NOT defended well at all under Thibs. I can see his style of constantly yelling causing players to ZONE him out. They simply do not listen to him.

Or they are simply young and need time to get it, the Wolves did pay good D "for a while" down the stretch last year.

This loss could be a good thing, knock some sense into them that they can't just show up and beat the sisters of the poor.

Butler tried to score too much and was off quite a bit, KAT was all over the place and poor defensively.

Belly has played pretty this year, I wish he would get more minutes. We need to make more threes.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Is Thibs the problem? Yep...I'm getting more and more convinced of it. I agree with Lip...I'm so tired of people talking about Thibs' defensive reputation when it's becoming more and more clear he just can't coach defense in today's NBA. And I won't accept the "it's the players, not the coach" mantra. Butler and Gibson were considered elite defenders before they got here, and Teague was supposed to be an upgrade over Ricky in the PnR. And Wig, KAT and Gorgui were all considered terrific defenders in college, and they are now far from rookies. This should be a very good defensive team, but we're not.

My gal and I turned the game on with a couple minutes to play and the wolves up 6 or something...within 15 second she said "wow...we're ahead, but we look exhausted and the suns look fresh". I couldn't agree more. Our offense was sloppy the rest of the way and our defense was lazy and slow (the Suns outscored us by 14 points in the closing minutes). Of course I looked at the box score and was not surprised to see the Suns played their elite bench of Bender, Jackson, Len, Daniels, and James 84 minutes, while Thibs chose to play a superior bench a paltry 55 minutes! And the result was the same as it was almost 25 times last year...a double digit deficit in the 4th quarter leading to another loss. When is Thibs going to learn? NOT PLAYING YOUR BENCH IS SIMPLY NOT A WINNING STRATEGY IN TODAY'S NBA! The pace is too quick, and tired starters play like the Wolves finished last night.

What makes Thibs' pathetic rotations even worse last night is the fact that the bench was playing BETTER than the starters...+27 for the bench, -67 for the starters! I admit I didn't see the game, but the box score makes Thibs' rotations look absurd. I recognize Dieng and Aldrich were out, but Thibs needed to sit his bench down before the game and tell them he needed 20-25 minutes from each of them...and then follow through with that plan. How can Bazz only play 9 minutes (scoring a point a minute, by the way) when our bench is so short? How can Tyus only play 17 minutes when he is a plus 15 and Teague is a -23. I understand Crawford wasn't very good last night, but he is a reliable veteran and absolutely needs to play more than 9 minutes on a short-handed night. I don't fault Thibs for playing KAT 39 minutes...with his two backups out he didn't have many other options. But the rest of the minutes distribution is inexcusable.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Despite my rant about Thibs, I don't agree with the opinions above that this is a difficult team to get behind. He has underachieved so far this year, but I still maintain that Butler will be the most popular T-Wolf ever by the time he retires. Gorgui and Taj seem to be high quality guys who are easy to cheer for. Tyus plays hard and is a local guy, so I find it easy to support him. Crawford is a very likable guy who is also fun to watch. Belly works hard and is close to leading the league in 3-point percentage. Bazz can be maddening, but you can't question his effort on the court. And although aspects of their games are easy to criticize, KAT and Wig are two guys that 95% of NBA fans would love to have on their teams. Replace Thibs with Brad Stevens, and I think this team is now 10-2 with the talent that we have. Even with Thibs' poor game management, we are still 7-5 and almost as close to the top spot as we are to #9. No, I find this team very watchable. It's the coach that is holding us back. Thibs has managed to alter his sideline manner (with much "encouragement" from the owner). If he can also be convinced to use his bench like the rest of the league does, I'm convinced this can be a 52-win team. If not, we will struggle to make the playoffs.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

If Thibs is the problem every time we lose does that mean he's the solution every time we win? That would make him the solution 7 times and only the problem 5. We've beat good teams this year. A loss like this 100% is on the players for not showing up, playing selfishly and having 0 BBall IQ on the court. It's a players league and yet our coach is always responsible for losses and the players always get credit for the wins. At what point is it on Towns and Teague and Butler and Wiggins for losing a game like this? For losing like they did in Indiana and Detroit? If Thibs can't get a team to play defense and play hard who the hell is going to? I just don't see how a different coach is going to squeeze more effort out of these guys. At that point you are just brining in an offensive guy and hope you can score 130 a game because that's the only way you're gonna win. I'm not a Thibs guy, but I just don't understand how guys not playing hard is his fault. Not his players fault. His fault. He could probably do a little more like bench guys more often. If that doesn't work does he still get blamed?

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

If Thibs is the problem every time we lose does that mean he's the solution every time we win? That would make him the solution 7 times and only the problem 5. We've beat good teams this year. A loss like this 100% is on the players for not showing up, playing selfishly and having 0 BBall IQ on the court. It's a players league and yet our coach is always responsible for losses and the players always get credit for the wins. At what point is it on Towns and Teague and Butler and Wiggins for losing a game like this? For losing like they did in Indiana and Detroit? If Thibs can't get a team to play defense and play hard who the hell is going to? I just don't see how a different coach is going to squeeze more effort out of these guys. At that point you are just brining in an offensive guy and hope you can score 130 a game because that's the only way you're gonna win. I'm not a Thibs guy, but I just don't understand how guys not playing hard is his fault. Not his players fault. His fault. He could probably do a little more like bench guys more often. If that doesn't work does he still get blamed?

I know I'm hard on Thibs, Khans, but I believe we are winning games despite his coaching, not because of it. We are still playing horrible defense in most of our wins, but are so offensively talented that we overcome it. Defense is about accountability, and Thibs demands none.

[BloopOracle]

I agree that Thibs needs to hold starters more accountable but I don't think there is a coach in the league that could fix KAT's defensive woes....he needs to do it himself and I don't know if he can. Starting to get very scared, he is still delusional enough to think he's better than he really is. Can't wait for another interview where Karl talks about how he needs to trust his instincts, that's the last fucking thing he needs to do.

[Crazysauce]

Yeah and the media not dare call him out for his shitty defense. The way they talk about him you can see why he thinks hes already the greatest player of all time. Its disgusting.