Duke13 wrote:The Dieng and Gibson combo isn't going to work well I'm afraid. I don't see a lineup with two bigs working against the top teams. I think personally Gibson is the better player then Gorgi but that's very debateable. That's why I was in favor of trading Gorgi this offseason. He's going to end up getting squeezed for minutes. It was painful watch he and Gibson try to play the stretch 4 role last night.
Duke I would have liked to see Dieng play more minutes against LA last night. He has more length than Gibson and has that sorta guard ability to deny and knock the ball away from guys. LA had it going so maybe it wouldn't have mattered but yeah. Gibson didn't make any 3's but he looks pretty comfortable shooting them. We will see how the season unfolds. Amusingly these guys struggled again one of the teams that actually plays big at the beginning of the game. Towns sucked defensively too.
Duke13 wrote:The Dieng and Gibson combo isn't going to work well I'm afraid. I don't see a lineup with two bigs working against the top teams. I think personally Gibson is the better player then Gorgi but that's very debateable. That's why I was in favor of trading Gorgi this offseason. He's going to end up getting squeezed for minutes. It was painful watch he and Gibson try to play the stretch 4 role last night.
Duke I would have liked to see Dieng play more minutes against LA last night. He has more length than Gibson and has that sorta guard ability to deny and knock the ball away from guys. LA had it going so maybe it wouldn't have mattered but yeah. Gibson didn't make any 3's but he looks pretty comfortable shooting them. We will see how the season unfolds. Amusingly these guys struggled again one of the teams that actually plays big at the beginning of the game. Towns sucked defensively too.
I agree with Duke's take that G/Taj is a bad combination to have on the court at the same time. But I have no issue with KAT/Taj and G/Belly. I was surprised that Thibs had G and Taj playing together so much last night (or at least that was my perception...does anyone have the numbers?) when it is so easy to avoid. Whenever possible, I would substitute our bigs as a tandem to avoid the G/Taj pairing.
I am not going to go overboard considering this is only the fourth game these guys have played together.
I thought Teague lacked intensity on the defensive end, and was slow to get around screens (contrary to what Monster's article points out). I thought the bigger issue was an intangible that Ricky brought, which was a calming effect and control over our offense. I think we will really miss that going forward.
I thought Wig looked terrible in the first quarter, but continually improved throughout the game, and I was very happy with his defensive effort overall. I really liked watching him trying to takeover in the second half. I think I am starting to see in him what Thibs has been speaking about. Does need to be better at the line, but I am not worried that somehow he forgot how to shoot FT's.
Towns looked like a guy that spent the off season reading stories about himself. He really needs to add some size and unfortunately looks like he lost some weight. He still doesn't fight for positioning to rebound, and seems content to get his numbers stealing boards from teammates. He was clearly off offensively, and never seemed to get into any kind of a rhythm. I like him a lot better when he plays like a big, and doesn't try getting cute driving the ball or making foolish passes.
Butler was very active, but I am not sure that translated to anything productive. Maybe that will take time with his teammates. I will say that Wig looked incredibly more talented last night.
Overall the bench played very hard, and was nice to see a more balanced substitution pattern. Wig only played around 30 minutes, which is a drastic improvement over last season. Tyus looked really good in spurts, but I think Thibs needs to limit his minutes to a change of pace PG.
I agree with comments suggesting Belly and G are a much better pairing, and that Taj and G just don't make any sense together. I am sure Thibs is just experimenting, and will continue to do so for the next week or so.
FIrst game I have ever watched against the Spurs without coming away thinking we got jobbed by the officials. Was a fun game to watch overall, and hope to see more of that throughout the season. Thibs seemed a lot quieter as well.
sjm34 wrote:I am not going to go overboard considering this is only the fourth game these guys have played together.
I thought Teague lacked intensity on the defensive end, and was slow to get around screens (contrary to what Monster's article points out). I thought the bigger issue was an intangible that Ricky brought, which was a calming effect and control over our offense. I think we will really miss that going forward.
I thought Wig looked terrible in the first quarter, but continually improved throughout the game, and I was very happy with his defensive effort overall. I really liked watching him trying to takeover in the second half. I think I am starting to see in him what Thibs has been speaking about. Does need to be better at the line, but I am not worried that somehow he forgot how to shoot FT's.
Towns looked like a guy that spent the off season reading stories about himself. He really needs to add some size and unfortunately looks like he lost some weight. He still doesn't fight for positioning to rebound, and seems content to get his numbers stealing boards from teammates. He was clearly off offensively, and never seemed to get into any kind of a rhythm. I like him a lot better when he plays like a big, and doesn't try getting cute driving the ball or making foolish passes.
Butler was very active, but I am not sure that translated to anything productive. Maybe that will take time with his teammates. I will say that Wig looked incredibly more talented last night.
Overall the bench played very hard, and was nice to see a more balanced substitution pattern. Wig only played around 30 minutes, which is a drastic improvement over last season. Tyus looked really good in spurts, but I think Thibs needs to limit his minutes to a change of pace PG.
I agree with comments suggesting Belly and G are a much better pairing, and that Taj and G just don't make any sense together. I am sure Thibs is just experimenting, and will continue to do so for the next week or so.
FIrst game I have ever watched against the Spurs without coming away thinking we got jobbed by the officials. Was a fun game to watch overall, and hope to see more of that throughout the season. Thibs seemed a lot quieter as well.
I agree with this 100%. Especially about Butler. He was over compensating from what I could see, and blanked on more than a number of defensive coverages despite being all over the floor. I think he's clearly a winning player and is going to bring a lot to this team, but he didn't look in control from what I could see. I think he was probably super jacked up for the first game.
sjm34 wrote:I am not going to go overboard considering this is only the fourth game these guys have played together.
I thought Teague lacked intensity on the defensive end, and was slow to get around screens (contrary to what Monster's article points out). I thought the bigger issue was an intangible that Ricky brought, which was a calming effect and control over our offense. I think we will really miss that going forward.
I thought Wig looked terrible in the first quarter, but continually improved throughout the game, and I was very happy with his defensive effort overall. I really liked watching him trying to takeover in the second half. I think I am starting to see in him what Thibs has been speaking about. Does need to be better at the line, but I am not worried that somehow he forgot how to shoot FT's.
Towns looked like a guy that spent the off season reading stories about himself. He really needs to add some size and unfortunately looks like he lost some weight. He still doesn't fight for positioning to rebound, and seems content to get his numbers stealing boards from teammates. He was clearly off offensively, and never seemed to get into any kind of a rhythm. I like him a lot better when he plays like a big, and doesn't try getting cute driving the ball or making foolish passes.
Butler was very active, but I am not sure that translated to anything productive. Maybe that will take time with his teammates. I will say that Wig looked incredibly more talented last night.
Overall the bench played very hard, and was nice to see a more balanced substitution pattern. Wig only played around 30 minutes, which is a drastic improvement over last season. Tyus looked really good in spurts, but I think Thibs needs to limit his minutes to a change of pace PG.
I agree with comments suggesting Belly and G are a much better pairing, and that Taj and G just don't make any sense together. I am sure Thibs is just experimenting, and will continue to do so for the next week or so.
FIrst game I have ever watched against the Spurs without coming away thinking we got jobbed by the officials. Was a fun game to watch overall, and hope to see more of that throughout the season. Thibs seemed a lot quieter as well.
Yeah good stuff here SJM. The first game of the year really doesn't mean anything especially when you consider what our preseason consisted of. Only 3 games and we were on the road for 18 days. Couple that with the fact we have so many new parts and last night's sometimes disjointed effort makes a lot of sense.
Kat will come around. He might be the type of guy who needs a few games to settle down and let the flow of the game come to him. Butler plays more methodically than I would have thought. I hope he's not the type who's never at fault and grates on his teammates because of it. We've all played with this type of guy and it's a form of poor leadership. I'm not saying that's him, I just saw some signs that made me wonder. He also has to realize he's far from the best offensive option on this team.
My guess is that Thibs has these guys in the film room all day today.
Again, we have 4 guys that were #1 or #2 options last year on offense. That is a blessing and somewhat of a curse. Funny enough, Wiggins seemed like the most adept at finding his spots versus becoming a wallflower (which can be his tendency at times. Loved, loved, loved that basket cut he made in Q1 for the easy dish and dunk from Butler). The others were perhaps a bit out of sorts.....
CoolBreeze44 wrote:
Yeah good stuff here SJM. The first game of the year really doesn't mean anything especially when you consider what our preseason consisted of. Only 3 games and we were on the road for 18 days. Couple that with the fact we have so many new parts and last night's sometimes disjointed effort makes a lot of sense.
Kat will come around. He might be the type of guy who needs a few games to settle down and let the flow of the game come to him. Butler plays more methodically than I would have thought. I hope he's not the type who's never at fault and grates on his teammates because of it. We've all played with this type of guy and it's a form of poor leadership. I'm not saying that's him, I just saw some signs that made me wonder. He also has to realize he's far from the best offensive option on this team.
I saw the same thing with Butler. Q pointed to the basket cut Wig made early on, and Butler made a nice pass to him. Maybe plays like that will help WIg to get going, and in the process also help with the chemistry between the two of them. I am not in favor of just throwing the ball to either of them to play iso ball, as I don't think that creates winning BB, but I would definitely like to see more stunts run by both of them to create easier shots.
I really liked Wig's energy in the second half, particularly when he attacks the rim using his spin move. It creates a lot of fouls, and also builds his confidence. He has nice form on his pull up jumper as well, but he needs to learn to use it at ten feet instead of twenty.
Teague was better in this game getting over Screens than Rubio was for the first 10 or so games of last year and in general Rubio was pretty bad for around a quarter of the season before having a career year. Just sayin. It's one game.
Rubio was never very good at getting over screens, that is indeed true. It was everything else on defense that he was pretty damn good at and why he was consistently ranked one of the top defensive PGs in the league.
Kris Dunn was probably the best player we had in YEARS at getting over screens. I loved his tenacity.
The only advanced defensive stat Rubio was better than Teague last year was DRPM, ESPNs elusive stat. In that Rubio was 11th amongst PGs (hardly elite). Last year Rubio was at best statistically an average to really bad defender.
