Duke13 wrote:I hate to break it to you LST, Okogie needs to be a key contributor this year and next for this team to be successful, especially in the coming years. We don't have the resources to go sign rotation quality wings, Okogie needs to be given the freedom to play and make mistakes, that's how most players improve With RoCo out, he's gonna need to play, even with him healthy he should be in the rotation.
I wish RoCo was healthy because I'd love to see if Ryan would show the flexibly to play Kat at center and play him with more spacing around him, Saric, RoCo and Tolliver at the 4. Tibs never did this, he had Belly but failed to utilize him insisting to play Gorgui next to Kat.
You may be right about Josh, Duke, but I also have my concerns. I really want him to succeed because he seems to provide at least one jaw-dropping moment each time he plays, but he is so bad on the offensive end. Maybe Josh can coach him up better than Thibs did, and get Josh to focus on what he really does well while he develops his offensive game in practice. I agree that we need a productive Okogie to get to the next level.
I don't see Okogie as the disaster you suggest he is on the offensive end. He misses too many shots, but he otherwise does a lot of good things on that end. He's a good passer who generally makes good decisions with the ball. He doesn't turn the ball over too much. He gets to the line at a pretty good rate and generally hits his free throws. He has a nice 3-pointer when he gets his feet set. I know he has a long way to go offensively, but that's precisely why Duke is right. The only way Okogie will get better is to play. I actually think giving Okogie more minutes on a consistent basis will enhance the Wolves' chances of making the playoffs this season. But even if not, we need to look beyond this season and Okogie has to be a big part of this team's long-term plans.
Okogie is gonna play legit minutes for a few games while Covington is out so we can find out more about how deserving he is of minutes when/if the team is healthy. At that point we also may know where this team's season is headed... I think the other question about Okogie is whether or not Ryan adjusts the offense to better utilize Okogie. It feels like to me Okogie is either looking to attack with little plan or is just supposed to be a guy out there spacing. I'm not saying runnthe offense through him or anything but maybe actually run some stuff that gets him more involved.
This reminds me of how we had conversations about how Thibs handled Tyus might be the answer to what we thought of Thibs. Thibs did keep Tyus as a backup PG even when he struggled early on. I think there were times Thibs could have gave him the starting nod over Rose but at least one of those actually made sense to start Rose. I think Thibs showed some confidence in Tyus even with Rose going bonkers but the last stretch when Tyus was playing better it feels like Thibs may have been able to have even more faith in Tyus. Regardless Thibs wasn't getting the most out of him for the first 20 or whatever games. That's not a positive. In a different way Tyus May be a sort of litmus test for the team in that he struggled early and came on but the body of work is not good enough to save Thibs job. I can make an arguement in support of Thibs but it's not one that makes him out to be more than average-ish which...matches up well with the team so far this season.
No idea about Saunders the coach. Can't even make an educated guess at this point.
But I'd assume if he wants to keep the job... he's going to want to align himself with the most important person in the organization -- Karl-Anthony Towns.
Likewise, it would be super ballsy (in a good or bad way?) if a 32-year-old without much pedigree comes in as a hard ass benching $150M players for poor play. I don't know the inner-workings of the Wolves. But if Thibs was indeed the ogre toward players many believe, wouldn't Saunders want to push a different vibe? (That's not to say I wouldn't like to see guys benched for poor effort... only that it would be one helluva ballsy move.)
Say what you want about all of Thibs' flaws, but he seemed to pretty strident about giving his star players leeway and sticking to the script with them, even if that meant heavy minutes or keeping them in late to stat pad. I've read/heard that many NBA players really enjoy knowing what's expected of them and knowing their roles... even down to when they're subbed in and out of games.
Most of all... I'll enjoy hearing a lot less "ICE? ICE!!!" being bellowed from the sidelines.
I'm also eager to hear Jim Peterson on the topic over the next few games. Obviously, he's around the team a lot. And on the broadcasts, it seems (to me) that it's become more difficult for him to hide his disdain for some of the things Thibs does/did. We could be in for some juicy nuggets on the telecasts soon.
AbeVigodaLive wrote:No idea about Saunders the coach. Can't even make an educated guess at this point.
But I'd assume if he wants to keep the job... he's going to want to align himself with the most important person in the organization -- Karl-Anthony Towns.
Likewise, it would be super ballsy (in a good or bad way?) if a 32-year-old without much pedigree comes in as a hard ass benching $150M players for poor play. I don't know the inner-workings of the Wolves. But if Thibs was indeed the ogre toward players many believe, wouldn't Saunders want to push a different vibe? (That's not to say I wouldn't like to see guys benched for poor effort... only that it would be one helluva ballsy move.)
Say what you want about all of Thibs' flaws, but he seemed to pretty strident about giving his star players leeway and sticking to the script with them, even if that meant heavy minutes or keeping them in late to stat pad. I've read/heard that many NBA players really enjoy knowing what's expected of them and knowing their roles... even down to when they're subbed in and out of games.
Most of all... I'll enjoy hearing a lot less "ICE? ICE!!!" being bellowed from the sidelines.
I'm also eager to hear Jim Peterson on the topic over the next few games. Obviously, he's around the team a lot. And on the broadcasts, it seems (to me) that it's become more difficult for him to hide his disdain for some of the things Thibs does/did. We could be in for some juicy nuggets on the telecasts soon.
I don't know for sure, but my sense is that Thibs was a players' coach when it came to not yanking them out for bad decisions (except for Gorgui occasionally) and some other aspects, but not a players' coach when it came to in-season practices and positive reinforcement. I think Ryan will be a huge upgrade in the latter area.
AbeVigodaLive wrote:No idea about Saunders the coach. Can't even make an educated guess at this point.
But I'd assume if he wants to keep the job... he's going to want to align himself with the most important person in the organization -- Karl-Anthony Towns.
Likewise, it would be super ballsy (in a good or bad way?) if a 32-year-old without much pedigree comes in as a hard ass benching $150M players for poor play. I don't know the inner-workings of the Wolves. But if Thibs was indeed the ogre toward players many believe, wouldn't Saunders want to push a different vibe? (That's not to say I wouldn't like to see guys benched for poor effort... only that it would be one helluva ballsy move.)
Say what you want about all of Thibs' flaws, but he seemed to pretty strident about giving his star players leeway and sticking to the script with them, even if that meant heavy minutes or keeping them in late to stat pad. I've read/heard that many NBA players really enjoy knowing what's expected of them and knowing their roles... even down to when they're subbed in and out of games.
Most of all... I'll enjoy hearing a lot less "ICE? ICE!!!" being bellowed from the sidelines.
I'm also eager to hear Jim Peterson on the topic over the next few games. Obviously, he's around the team a lot. And on the broadcasts, it seems (to me) that it's become more difficult for him to hide his disdain for some of the things Thibs does/did. We could be in for some juicy nuggets on the telecasts soon.
I don't know for sure, but my sense is that Thibs was a players' coach when it came to not yanking them out for bad decisions (except for Gorgui occasionally) and some other aspects, but not a players' coach when it came to in-season practices and positive reinforcement. I think Ryan will be a huge upgrade in the latter area.
Sure. I can see that.
It would be pretty amusing actually to see how a guy like Thibs interacted with his players about random stuff.
AbeVigodaLive wrote:No idea about Saunders the coach. Can't even make an educated guess at this point.
But I'd assume if he wants to keep the job... he's going to want to align himself with the most important person in the organization -- Karl-Anthony Towns.
Likewise, it would be super ballsy (in a good or bad way?) if a 32-year-old without much pedigree comes in as a hard ass benching $150M players for poor play. I don't know the inner-workings of the Wolves. But if Thibs was indeed the ogre toward players many believe, wouldn't Saunders want to push a different vibe? (That's not to say I wouldn't like to see guys benched for poor effort... only that it would be one helluva ballsy move.)
Say what you want about all of Thibs' flaws, but he seemed to pretty strident about giving his star players leeway and sticking to the script with them, even if that meant heavy minutes or keeping them in late to stat pad. I've read/heard that many NBA players really enjoy knowing what's expected of them and knowing their roles... even down to when they're subbed in and out of games.
Most of all... I'll enjoy hearing a lot less "ICE? ICE!!!" being bellowed from the sidelines.
I'm also eager to hear Jim Peterson on the topic over the next few games. Obviously, he's around the team a lot. And on the broadcasts, it seems (to me) that it's become more difficult for him to hide his disdain for some of the things Thibs does/did. We could be in for some juicy nuggets on the telecasts soon.
I don't know for sure, but my sense is that Thibs was a players' coach when it came to not yanking them out for bad decisions (except for Gorgui occasionally) and some other aspects, but not a players' coach when it came to in-season practices and positive reinforcement. I think Ryan will be a huge upgrade in the latter area.
Sure. I can see that.
It would be pretty amusing actually to see how a guy like Thibs interacted with his players about random stuff.
I actually heard he was quite well-liked by his players off the court. He'd go to dinner and movies with them. Souhan's article in the Strib this morning sums up how I feel about Thibs (and maybe how his players felt about him)...basically a good guy who some didn't think was a good enough coach.
AbeVigodaLive wrote:No idea about Saunders the coach. Can't even make an educated guess at this point.
But I'd assume if he wants to keep the job... he's going to want to align himself with the most important person in the organization -- Karl-Anthony Towns.
Likewise, it would be super ballsy (in a good or bad way?) if a 32-year-old without much pedigree comes in as a hard ass benching $150M players for poor play. I don't know the inner-workings of the Wolves. But if Thibs was indeed the ogre toward players many believe, wouldn't Saunders want to push a different vibe? (That's not to say I wouldn't like to see guys benched for poor effort... only that it would be one helluva ballsy move.)
Say what you want about all of Thibs' flaws, but he seemed to pretty strident about giving his star players leeway and sticking to the script with them, even if that meant heavy minutes or keeping them in late to stat pad. I've read/heard that many NBA players really enjoy knowing what's expected of them and knowing their roles... even down to when they're subbed in and out of games.
Most of all... I'll enjoy hearing a lot less "ICE? ICE!!!" being bellowed from the sidelines.
I'm also eager to hear Jim Peterson on the topic over the next few games. Obviously, he's around the team a lot. And on the broadcasts, it seems (to me) that it's become more difficult for him to hide his disdain for some of the things Thibs does/did. We could be in for some juicy nuggets on the telecasts soon.
I don't know for sure, but my sense is that Thibs was a players' coach when it came to not yanking them out for bad decisions (except for Gorgui occasionally) and some other aspects, but not a players' coach when it came to in-season practices and positive reinforcement. I think Ryan will be a huge upgrade in the latter area.
Sure. I can see that.
It would be pretty amusing actually to see how a guy like Thibs interacted with his players about random stuff.
I actually heard he was quite well-liked by his players off the court. He'd go to dinner and movies with them. Souhan's article in the Strib this morning sums up how I feel about Thibs (and maybe how his players felt about him)...basically a good guy who some didn't think was a good enough coach.
Which is pretty ironic... compared to what the narrative was when he was hired...
- He was a coaching genius who basically only cared about hoops.
