thedoper wrote:Every game we've played without Butler we give up 120+. Insane the impact the guy has had on our team D.
Not true. We gave up 118 to the Clippers and 109 to the Raptors without both Jimmy and Crawford. The two prior games with Jimmy we gave up 116 to the Rockets and 108 to the lowly Magic. In those two games we only scored 98 and 102 points respectively. Are we a better team Butler playing? Of couse we are. But it's not quite as bad as you suggested defensively without him.
I'm sorry I just stopped counting after one-hundred. I knew it was an exaggeration. Thanks for staying on that Lip.
We cant win when teague plays bad because he uses up so much of the possession. Its mindboggling how much he chooses to ignore kat in any kind of action.
When teague is good, we can beat anyone.
When teague isnt good, but not horrible, we can beat anyone.
When teague is bad, its a struggle unless we get an mj type performance from someone.
On thing I thought was interesting about this game was how the Wolves basically attacked Nurkic. I think there was one time he actually contested Teague and forced a miss but the others it was basically just Teague missing or Wiggins hitting those 5-10 shots over him like he was just in an empty gym. He was in foul trouble but I think that may have helped the Blazers. Ed Davis was better and Zachary collins had a pretty nice game and only had 1 foul!
That end of the quarter possession where Teague didn't do anything till like 3.8 seconds was AWFUL. Some of the other stuff people likely didn't like I can live with. For example he had that long pass up the floor to Wiggins for a turnover. Yes it was not a good play but I kinda don't mind the aggressiveness to actually get up the floor.
Anywho this game kinda sucked but this was a game that was gonna be tough on the road against a pretty talented team and we were missing our best player. Going 2-1 without Butler is pretty impressive especially since the teams we were playing weren't chumps.
Also Bazz had effective garbage time. He actually passed the ball back a couple times before doing his thing. I'm sure the Wolves phone lines are burning up with teams desperate to get him. Lol well the phone numbers of those calls may not start with 1...
Teague was horrible. If he had played well, the Wolves might have actually been able to pull this one out. Teague has too many games like last night's to justify his contract in my view. It's not just his relatively poor defense. It's also his ball-stalling and inabilty to make players around him better on the offensive end -- very troubling for a starting PG. I think Thibs made two mistakes as PBO last summer. One was drafting Patton instead of John Collins or Kuzma. The other was signing Teague to a 3-year guaranteed deal at $19 million per year. As part of trading Ricky, the much better move would have been signing Darren Collison. He ended up with the Pacers at around $10 million per year. He's a more consistent shooter and better 3-point shooter than Teague. He's no less a playmaker and no worse defensively. Obviously, the jury's out long term on Patton, but there's no doubt that Collins or Kuzma could have helped us a lot this season.
- Last night was another example of why creative wings have become the superstar du jour in today's NBA. We see Towns marginalized far too often by a lack of touches. Front him... and the Wolves have to do more actions to take advantage of it. Easier said than done. 9 shots isn't enough. And it's not an anomaly. He's not touching the ball for possessions at a time. You'd never see that with a wing.
- Every Portland starter shot at least 53% sans the center.
- Portland shot 55%. The Clippers shot 56%. The last 5 teams have shot a better efg% than the Wolves, dating back to the previous Portland game. And even in that one... Portland shot very well. Is the defense starting to revert to early season form?
- I know Portland was hot. But there were still a few gimmes thrown in. The bigs not getting out on the PnR in the first half and at least one play when Wiggins jabbed at a wide open Aminu and then inexplicably backed off to his man.
- Portland can win on any given night when both McColluma & Lillard are on. (21 - 37 fg... 10 - 16 3fg). Keep on eye on them. Haven't they made 2nd half surges in each of the past 2 or 3 seasons?
- Another tough one tonight. Very tough. That's fine. But the road doesn't get much easier with some weird travel + scheduling games in the next week or so. Can the Wolves overcome a "scheduled" loss or two to keep a nice distance from the #5 seed?
- 3 straight games with good intensity/aggressiveness going to the hoop from Wiggins. I hope it continues... even when Butler comes back. It makes for a pretty damn explosive big 3.
lipoli390 wrote:Teague was horrible. If he had played well, the Wolves might have actually been able to pull this one out. Teague has too many games like last night's to justify his contract in my view. It's not just his relatively poor defense. It's also his ball-stalling and inabilty to make players around him better on the offensive end -- very troubling for a starting PG. I think Thibs made two mistakes as PBO last summer. One was drafting Patton instead of John Collins or Kuzma. The other was signing Teague to a 3-year guaranteed deal at $19 million per year. As part of trading Ricky, the much better move would have been signing Darren Collison. He ended up with the Pacers at around $10 million per year. He's a more consistent shooter and better 3-point shooter than Teague. He's no less a playmaker and no worse defensively. Obviously, the jury's out long term on Patton, but there's no doubt that Collins or Kuzma could have helped us a lot this season.
A few teams probably missed the boat on Collison including the supposedly savy Utah's Jazz who traded a 1st round pick to get Rubio. Indiana was roasted this offseason but they looked to have done pretty well for themselves in a tough situation. Maybe that coach nobody seemed to think was any good Nate McMillen and his staff should get some credit also for getting more out of various players than was expected.
Something to consider about Collison and his 3 point shooting. It's even lower volume than Teague although not be a lot. Also his off court issues and lack of being able to stay healthy should be considered as well. I still think Teague is a pretty nice player and helps this team on most nights like any legit no star starter. Would I rather have Collison for about half the price for only 2 years? Yes and I would have said that going into FA as well. Did the league and others miss something on Collison that made his value be lower or were there some legit concerns that he has seemingly overcome? I don't watch enough Pacers games to know. I was curious about all this last offseason and I am still a bit curious about it now.
