Josh Okogie thread

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

LST, Wiggins doesn't run the floor hard enough to get a lot of fast break opportunities. But besides all of that, the best way to alienate the already aloof Wiggins and his agent is to make him come off the bench. It just isn't going to happen. And it probably won't happen with Teague either....

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

LST, Wiggins doesn't run the floor hard enough to get a lot of fast break opportunities. But besides all of that, the best way to alienate the already aloof Wiggins and his agent is to make him come off the bench. It just isn't going to happen. And it probably won't happen with Teague either....

I suspect you're probably correct, and we will have the same starting 5 as last year. I would offer though that there may be a chicken and egg thing going on with Wig. Does he not run the floor because it's not in his nature, or because he doesn't feel he will be rewarded in this pedestrian offense? I don't know, but I'd like to see if he might use his athletic ability more paired with a pass-first PG like Tyus and a push-the-pace guy like Rose.

[crazy-canuck [enjin:18955461]]

LST, Wiggins doesn't run the floor hard enough to get a lot of fast break opportunities. But besides all of that, the best way to alienate the already aloof Wiggins and his agent is to make him come off the bench. It just isn't going to happen. And it probably won't happen with Teague either....

I suspect you're probably correct, and we will have the same starting 5 as last year. I would offer though that there may be a chicken and egg thing going on with Wig. Does he not run the floor because it's not in his nature, or because he doesn't feel he will be rewarded in this pedestrian offense? I don't know, but I'd like to see if he might use his athletic ability more paired with a pass-first PG like Tyus and a push-the-pace guy like Rose.

It's not like Teague ever passed the ball up on a break. 9/10 times he seems to just get to the ft line then pull the ball back out to reset into an iso.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

LST, Wiggins doesn't run the floor hard enough to get a lot of fast break opportunities. But besides all of that, the best way to alienate the already aloof Wiggins and his agent is to make him come off the bench. It just isn't going to happen. And it probably won't happen with Teague either....

I suspect you're probably correct, and we will have the same starting 5 as last year. I would offer though that there may be a chicken and egg thing going on with Wig. Does he not run the floor because it's not in his nature, or because he doesn't feel he will be rewarded in this pedestrian offense? I don't know, but I'd like to see if he might use his athletic ability more paired with a pass-first PG like Tyus and a push-the-pace guy like Rose.

Well, Wiggins never really ran hard for Bill Self. Same story with Flip Saunders -- Saunders actually got into Wiggins' ass about this. Wiggins didn't start running hard in transition for Mitchell and the same is true under Thibodeau. It's a player issue. Always has been. There are legitimate gripes with Thibs, but this is not one of them.

[thedoper]

Wiggins led the team in transition field goal attempts. Didn't finish or get fouled at his career averages. The whole team didn't run enough. If you're singling out Wiggins for this it's silly. The only players who attempted to play transition at a high frequency were Tyus and Rose.

[Monster]

Wiggins didn't run much when he had the magical Rubio.

To me the real question is whether Thibs does some more mixing and matching of players and puts them in different roles instead of trying to keep hinsstarters intact. Year 1 he put Lavine with the bench unit which was very smart and worked well. I'm not sure Wiggins works better off the bench when Rose will be playing minutes there. I think there are so many players and ways to utilize them that if Thibs finds the right mix it could really help things take off. I don't think Thins the coach did well with this overall last year but Thibs the GM went for some different types of guys (microwave scorers) in Crawford and Bazz and while Crawford brought some Value Bazz did not. So far the additions to this team make sense with the possible exception of Rose although i think his shot creation could have value if he is playing with some catch and shoot guys. Despite his lack of 3 point shooting he likely gives you more of a player that will pass...anyway the idea of Wiggins coming off the bench is typical Rand type is stuff he writes. Interesting but probably not all that legit. That's not knocking him in general he has some fun stuff.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

LaVine was the guy that benefited from most from Rubio's "head man" passes. Now THAT guy is fast.

By the way, I recall Thibs nearly every game bellowing "Go! Go! Go!" after we got defensive rebounds. I really think he wanted to push the pace versus playing a Memphis grind it out game. The problem is too many of our defensive possessions ended with a made basket for the other team (we were 29th in opponent eFG%). It's hard to run a fast break when we our defense doesn't create many missed shots.

Here again, there is plenty of blame to go around, with Wiggins simply being an easy target because of his ridiculous physical gifts that he fails to take full advantage of.

[Monster]

LaVine was the guy that benefited from most from Rubio's "head man" passes. Now THAT guy is fast.

By the way, I recall Thibs nearly every game bellowing "Go! Go! Go!" after we got defensive rebounds. I really think he wanted to push the pace versus playing a Memphis grind it out game. The problem is too many of our defensive possessions ended with a made basket for the other team (we were 29th in opponent eFG%). It's hard to run a fast break when we our defense doesn't create many missed shots.

Here again, there is plenty of blame to go around, with Wiggins simply being an easy target because of his ridiculous physical gifts that he fails to take full advantage of.

-By the way, I recall Thibs nearly every game bellowing "Go! Go! Go!"-

Sam Mitchell did too. Cool has brought up numerous times that some of it is about coaching having guys know how to run. Like you said the blame goes around but some of the wing players including Butler are to blame. I really thought Teague (who is part of the problem) tried more at the end of the season and in the playoffs to pick up the pace more and often nobody was following. As for Wiggins being fast...I think he is he just doesn't show it. It's a bit of a gimmick but remember that ESPN sports science thing that said he actually had longer strides than Durant? Ugh it's tpugh/disappointing etc nobody has reached this guy and apparently the music he listens to to get hyped isn't enough. Maybe he needs to switch it up. Any suggestions? :)

[Monster]

Let's get back to Okogie a bit in the context of Wiggins. Ideally to some extent he is sort of the anti Wiggins. Plays his butt off defends and can hit spot up 3's. He wasn't a top recruit or draft pick. Meanwhile he has some upside as a ball handler and all that kind of stuff. If he is a compliment that's great. You know it wouldn't hurt Wiggins to have some shooting around him to throw the ball too after he drives. I know Q doesn't believe his passing has improved enough to consider an asset which is fair but regardless of who has the ball nobody was scared of the guys the Wolves had on perimeter and for stretches of the season that even included Belly. If Okogie just let's it fly and hits even 36.2% of his 3's that could help this team going forward.

[60WinTim]

And here is a little Okogie with our Summer League team. I like his dunk. But looks like a continuation of last years defense! ;-)

https://twitter.com/Timberwolves/status/1014926980171665411

[Edit: the Jared Terrell video is worth checking out on the same twitter feed! ]