bleedspeed177 wrote:I had a chance to go to the game and passed it up. Oddly I didn't think I would ever say this and was not a huge Rubio fan, but losing him has lost my connection to the team. He was a player I could pull for and watching the game last night made me think how much better this team would be if he was still here. I doubt we would be talking about how the offense is out of sync. Rubio looks like he finally had that healthy offseason he always needed when he was here.
It will be interesting to see if I find any connection to this current group.
I think the offense would be just as problematic with Ricky. We are still seeing what no spacing does to a team. But, we have also played two of the 5 best rim protecting teams in the league so Teague and Butler haven't been able to get to the rim and finish like normal which opens up their ability to kick out to the 3pt line. You can see every time they would drive they would hesitate and pull up or take a runner rather than finish most of the time. Wiggins has been the only one going up to the rim to finish frequently so far and he has much better tools to do it that Teague and Butler against these bigger frontlines.
Ricky against two top 5 defenses just isn't gonna result in anything significantly better. They'd just do what they always did and play off him and jam everyone else up. Go ahead and drive right into LA and Gobert and see what you can do. We've seen it. Let's stop acting like everything would be rosy with Ricky. It wasn't and that's why he's gone.
Its going to be hard to keep all of our starters playing at the end of games. While Wiggins is clearly very important to our future success, I'm not so sure he should have come into the game when he did with the way the unit of Teague, Crawford, Butler, Belly, and Towns were playing together.
khans2k5 wrote: Let's stop acting like everything would be rosy with Ricky. It wasn't and that's why he's gone.
Never said it was, but the guy is an easy player to be a fan of. It might take time, but no current Wolve has that. I would have said LaVine was the other guy that was easy to pull for and I think a lot of us will be hoping he does good things for the Bulls.
I believe KAT and Tyus are also have easy to like personalities but I agree the two guys with the most likeable personalities were traded and that does make a difference for me. Playing better and winning will make all of the difference but right now it isn't "fun" to watch these guys.
khans2k5 wrote: Let's stop acting like everything would be rosy with Ricky. It wasn't and that's why he's gone.
Never said it was, but the guy is an easy player to be a fan of. It might take time, but no current Wolve has that. I would have said LaVine was the other guy that was easy to pull for and I think a lot of us will be hoping he does good things for the Bulls.
Kahns -- No one's saying everything would be rosy with Ricky here. But it's reasonable to say, as several have, that we'd be better -- at least so far this season. So far Teague has been terrible at running our offense. Ricky happens to be extremely good in that area. Thus far, our offense has been stagnant with one player or another playing isolation ball. I can tell you it looks worse when you see it live. No one is moving without the ball, the PG (Teague) is not moving the ball looking for teammates, but instead probes solely for his own layup or floater, etc. The offensive does look better with Tyus in the game. Unlike Ricky, Teague doesn't rebound the ball and doesn't step in and take charges. Ricky is bigger and far more intense. I'd love to see the combined intensity of Ricky and Butler on the floor for the Wolves. If Teague can start knocking down threes with some regularity that will help close the gap between the two. And I can see where it could take some time for Teague to get comfortable with a his new teammates and coach. But so far this season (only 2 regular season games and 3 preseason) there should be no question we'd be much better with Ricky.
How Ricky missing layups would have helped us last night is beyond me. Ricky would have missed those open 3s just like Teague did last night. Plus he would have gotten burned one on one in the most pivotal sequence at the end of the game because his one on one D is garbage. Teague played well when it mattered and contributed to the win. Ricky played well when it didn't matter and almost lost the ball on their team's most important possession.
Lip, I get that there is a lot of emotion involved with losing a player like Rubio. But man it's been two games. And to try and hammer that point after two games is a bit irrational. And we don't need to declare Wiggins a great player or not a great player after every game. Khans you continue to be the most rational and on point poster on the board.
Lip, I agree with your Rubio comments, especially that it would be fun to see the "combined intensity of Ricky and Butler on the floor for the Wolves." I don't think that we've seen the benefits of losing Rubio and adding Teague, at least not yet. But I have a memory of a period in the 4th quarter last night when it seemed like Ricky had a couple of turnovers in a row... and I thought to myself, that's why Thibs gave up on Ricky. I think Thibs knows the positives that Ricky brings, but couldn't live with the uncertainties, like a coach going with a QB that won't lose a game by the way he plays, over one that might win it.
I see some of us are already in midseason form of complaining about our wins if it doesn't fit their narrative. I'm happy our bench guys got us the win, it's a team effort.
I simply can't take too much away from these first two games. I realize analyzing this team is what we do, but we're all really shooting in the dark at this point. I will say this: Once we get into a groove and roles begin to be established, I hope we don't have to rely on the heroics of a 37 year old combo guard to beat the Jazz at home. I mean, I hope we are going to be better than that. It is nice to have Crawford on our side though.
