Five games over .500...

[BloopOracle]

#firethibs

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

#firethibs

Yes. Or...maybe try to make him better, so this team can realize its huge potential. Glen has been vocal recently about Thibs not playing his bench, and in our back to back wins against two West rivals chasing us in the standings, he has actually played his bench MORE than the other team, and we have been dominant in both 4th quarters! Coincidence? Try to make that case if you will. But the pattern has been too consistent over the past season and a half to ignore. When our starters are given some normal rest and we are fresher than our opponent in the final quarter, our superior talent prevails. But when he puts 5 dead-legged starters out there for the 4th quarter, you might as well turn the TV off, because the result is just too predictable...another 10-point lead lost.

I know from first hand knowledge that Glen ordered Thibs to clean up his language on the side line (Glen is a bit of a boy scout, and he was concerned fans were as offended as he was by Thibs' demeanor), and anyone sitting within earshot of Thibs this season will tell you he has largely complied. I don't have any first hand knowledge about this, but might Thibs also be listening to Glen about minutes?

[kekgeek]

#firethibs

Yes. Or...maybe try to make him better, so this team can realize its huge potential. Glen has been vocal recently about Thibs not playing his bench, and in our back to back wins against two West rivals chasing us in the standings, he has actually played his bench MORE than the other team, and we have been dominant in both 4th quarters! Coincidence? Try to make that case if you will. But the pattern has been too consistent over the past season and a half to ignore. When our starters are given some normal rest and we are fresher than our opponent in the final quarter, our superior talent prevails. But when he puts 5 dead-legged starters out there for the 4th quarter, you might as well turn the TV off, because the result is just too predictable...another 10-point lead lost.

I know from first hand knowledge that Glen ordered Thibs to clean up his language on the side line (Glen is a bit of a boy scout, and he was concerned fans were as offended as he was by Thibs' demeanor), and anyone sitting within earshot of Thibs this season will tell you he has largely complied. I don't have any first hand knowledge about this, but might Thibs also be listening to Glen about minutes?

Eh, huge thing is that Crawford has played real good these last 2 games, and he got in a shooting rhythm right away and it is easy to ride Crawford when he is playing real good and Wiggins really struggling on the offensive end.

I know that we go back an forth a lot on this board (I respect you a lot and it is all in banter) but I do agree with you on a couple of things, I think Tyus should play more and Gorgui to an extent. But we are 16-5 when going in the 4th quarter with a lead.

This will be a back and forth thing all year and to some extent we are probably both right and there is some middle ground.

But I think we can both agree that 19-13 is not that bad considering where we are as an organization over the last 13 years. I mean how damn good is Jimmy Butler

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

#firethibs

Yes. Or...maybe try to make him better, so this team can realize its huge potential. Glen has been vocal recently about Thibs not playing his bench, and in our back to back wins against two West rivals chasing us in the standings, he has actually played his bench MORE than the other team, and we have been dominant in both 4th quarters! Coincidence? Try to make that case if you will. But the pattern has been too consistent over the past season and a half to ignore. When our starters are given some normal rest and we are fresher than our opponent in the final quarter, our superior talent prevails. But when he puts 5 dead-legged starters out there for the 4th quarter, you might as well turn the TV off, because the result is just too predictable...another 10-point lead lost.

I know from first hand knowledge that Glen ordered Thibs to clean up his language on the side line (Glen is a bit of a boy scout, and he was concerned fans were as offended as he was by Thibs' demeanor), and anyone sitting within earshot of Thibs this season will tell you he has largely complied. I don't have any first hand knowledge about this, but might Thibs also be listening to Glen about minutes?

Eh, huge thing is that Crawford has played real good these last 2 games, and he got in a shooting rhythm right away and it is easy to ride Crawford when he is playing real good and Wiggins really struggling on the offensive end.

I know that we go back an forth a lot on this board (I respect you a lot and it is all in banter) but I do agree with you on a couple of things, I think Tyus should play more and Gorgui to an extent. But we are 16-5 when going in the 4th quarter with a lead.

This will be a back and forth thing all year and to some extent we are probably both right and there is some middle ground.

But I think we can both agree that 19-13 is not that bad considering where we are as an organization over the last 13 years. I mean how damn good is Jimmy Butler

Butler is unbelievable...what a terrific pickup! And yes, Crawford is going to win some games for you now and then when he gets hot. But it also sounds like our defense has been uncharacteristically good in the 4th quarter of the last two games...nice to see. I'm overseas for few weeks here so I haven't been able to watch any of the games. But reviewing some twitter feeds that I respect, it sounds like we have uncharacteristically been making some key stops at the end of games. That's really important...there have been too many games where teams have scored like on 11 of their last 12 possessions, and you're not going to win many games like that. There's a lot to be encouraged about these past two games after that last Suns debacle.

[kekgeek]

#firethibs

Yes. Or...maybe try to make him better, so this team can realize its huge potential. Glen has been vocal recently about Thibs not playing his bench, and in our back to back wins against two West rivals chasing us in the standings, he has actually played his bench MORE than the other team, and we have been dominant in both 4th quarters! Coincidence? Try to make that case if you will. But the pattern has been too consistent over the past season and a half to ignore. When our starters are given some normal rest and we are fresher than our opponent in the final quarter, our superior talent prevails. But when he puts 5 dead-legged starters out there for the 4th quarter, you might as well turn the TV off, because the result is just too predictable...another 10-point lead lost.

I know from first hand knowledge that Glen ordered Thibs to clean up his language on the side line (Glen is a bit of a boy scout, and he was concerned fans were as offended as he was by Thibs' demeanor), and anyone sitting within earshot of Thibs this season will tell you he has largely complied. I don't have any first hand knowledge about this, but might Thibs also be listening to Glen about minutes?

Eh, huge thing is that Crawford has played real good these last 2 games, and he got in a shooting rhythm right away and it is easy to ride Crawford when he is playing real good and Wiggins really struggling on the offensive end.

I know that we go back an forth a lot on this board (I respect you a lot and it is all in banter) but I do agree with you on a couple of things, I think Tyus should play more and Gorgui to an extent. But we are 16-5 when going in the 4th quarter with a lead.

This will be a back and forth thing all year and to some extent we are probably both right and there is some middle ground.

But I think we can both agree that 19-13 is not that bad considering where we are as an organization over the last 13 years. I mean how damn good is Jimmy Butler

Butler is unbelievable...what a terrific pickup! And yes, Crawford is going to win some games for you now and then when he gets hot. But it also sounds like our defense has been uncharacteristically good in the 4th quarter of the last two games...nice to see. I'm overseas for few weeks here so I haven't been able to watch any of the games. But reviewing some twitter feeds that I respect, it sounds like we have uncharacteristically been making some key stops at the end of games. That's really important...there have been too many games where teams have scored like on 11 of their last 12 possessions, and you're not going to win many games like that. There's a lot to be encouraged about these past two games after that last Suns debacle.

I think the key thing we all have to remember we are not an elite team (yet) but a very good team and we are going to have let downs during the season (Phx x2, Mem, possibly Phi) and even some of the best teams of all times like the Warriors 9 loss team, lost to the Lakers and Wolves that season. So we are going to be frustrated and lose games we shouldn't

But the thing I have really enjoyed is that we are now 10-1 against teams currently seeded 5 through 10 in the west. And are 11-3 against the top 10 teams in the west. That is a very good sign that we are beating the teams that are around the same skill level as us (teams that are good but not championship level good)

[thedoper]

D has been good in the 4th since Thibs shortened the bench. Peculiar and strange. It's almost like he identified a problem, made a change, and got better results.

[MikkeMan]

Not too far ahead though....we want OKC to make the playoffs....along with us of course. I still think they ultimately pass us, especially as our schedule starts getting tougher.

Based on ESPN's strength of schedule rankings, Wolves have had easiest schedule so far among all teams with 0.474 SOS but OKC has also had below average schedule (0.494 SOS), so even tough our schedule will get tougher, OKC schedule is not getting easier. I also noticed that both Wolves main competitors Portland and Denver (both with 0.483 SOS) have had almost as easy schedule than Wolves, so it is probable that they won't pass us at least because they would have easier schedule over rest of season.

[Monster]

Not too far ahead though....we want OKC to make the playoffs....along with us of course. I still think they ultimately pass us, especially as our schedule starts getting tougher.

Based on ESPN's strength of schedule rankings, Wolves have had easiest schedule so far among all teams with 0.474 SOS but OKC has also had below average schedule (0.494 SOS), so even tough our schedule will get tougher, OKC schedule is not getting easier. I also noticed that both Wolves main competitors Portland and Denver (both with 0.483 SOS) have had almost as easy schedule than Wolves, so it is probable that they won't pass us at least because they would have easier schedule over rest of season.

Thanks for posting these SOS numbers. They are worth looking at but I find myself skeptical putting too much into them going forward. There are often too many factors going into how good or not good teams you or another team will be facing in the middle of the season. Injury a team gets hit a team turns out to suck that was looking good teams start to play young guys because their season is over trades etc. OKC is 7-3 in their last 10 but I believe their offense is still struggling they are having a tough time getting to 100 points a night. It's nice to have a cushion on them it would be nice to go on a little bit of a run ourselves even if it's a bit ugly.

[MikkeMan]

Did you read the article I posted just above, kek. It's not just the narrative that we continue to blow 4th quarter leads...it's also that we are far and away the worst plus/minus 4th quarter team in the NBA. The 4th quarter is when the money is on the line...doesn't it tell you something that we are by far the worst team at crunch time? We were also terrible in the 4th last year, and some argued that it was because of the youth of our roster (I disagreed). So Thibs goes out and gets 4 veterans (Butler, Gibson, Teague and Crawford), and we are STILL the worst 4th quarter team in the league! What does that tell you? What's the one constant between last year's team and this year's? I'm still looking for a credible answer as to why we are so awful at the end of games other than Thibs' starter-killing rotations, and nobody has provided one. I'm still waiting...

Yes, I'm happy that we are happy we are 18-13, but many expected better given the addition of Butler and the easy schedule. But after a hot start, we are only 8-8 the past 16 while playing a cake schedule. I have a difficult time mustering much excitement about the last 16 games, especially when I attend games and see the negative body language on the court that Robson and others have also noticed. It's a team going in the wrong direction.

Based on stats playing bench more wouldn't help at least currently 4th quarter collapses. Bench players have clearly worse 4th quarter net rating numbers. Starters have 4th quarter net rating between -1.7(Teague) and -8.8 (Wiggins) when bench has it between -7.4 (Jones) and -24.4 (Shabazz). So giving bench more minutes in 4th quarter wouldn't likely lead to better results.

http://stats.nba.com/players/advanced/?sort=NET_RATING&dir=-1&Season=2017-18&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&TeamID=1610612750&Period=44th quarter net ratings

BTW. Another team that has also many promising young players seems to be even worse in 4th quarter. Milwaukee has currently 4th quarter net rating -11.0 when Wolves have it -8.1.

[Monster]

Did you read the article I posted just above, kek. It's not just the narrative that we continue to blow 4th quarter leads...it's also that we are far and away the worst plus/minus 4th quarter team in the NBA. The 4th quarter is when the money is on the line...doesn't it tell you something that we are by far the worst team at crunch time? We were also terrible in the 4th last year, and some argued that it was because of the youth of our roster (I disagreed). So Thibs goes out and gets 4 veterans (Butler, Gibson, Teague and Crawford), and we are STILL the worst 4th quarter team in the league! What does that tell you? What's the one constant between last year's team and this year's? I'm still looking for a credible answer as to why we are so awful at the end of games other than Thibs' starter-killing rotations, and nobody has provided one. I'm still waiting...

Yes, I'm happy that we are happy we are 18-13, but many expected better given the addition of Butler and the easy schedule. But after a hot start, we are only 8-8 the past 16 while playing a cake schedule. I have a difficult time mustering much excitement about the last 16 games, especially when I attend games and see the negative body language on the court that Robson and others have also noticed. It's a team going in the wrong direction.

Based on stats playing bench more wouldn't help at least currently 4th quarter collapses. Bench players have clearly worse 4th quarter net rating numbers. Starters have 4th quarter net rating between -1.7(Teague) and -8.8 (Wiggins) when bench has it between -7.4 (Jones) and -24.4 (Shabazz). So giving bench more minutes in 4th quarter wouldn't likely lead to better results.

http://stats.nba.com/players/advanced/?sort=NET_RATING&dir=-1&Season=2017-18&SeasonType=Regular%20Season&TeamID=1610612750&Period=44th quarter net ratings

BTW. Another team that has also many promising young players seems to be even worse in 4th quarter. Milwaukee has currently 4th quarter net rating -11.0 when Wolves have it -8.1.

Interesting you mention the Bucks. Have you seen some of the tactics Kidd has been using lately at the end of games?