Momma told me not to come GDT

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

https://twitter.com/adamhimmelsbach?lang=en

Check out the tweet about the Celtics knowing the Wolves were gassed in the 4th quarter...you could just sense they smelled blood in the water. My son and I could tell from section 130, great basketball mind Terry Rozier could tell. Why couldn't Thibs? And just who are the great veterans on Brad Stevens bench that he is able to turn to? Brown is 20, Rozier and Smart are 22. The only real veteran coming off the bench for Boston is future HOFer Jonas Jerebko with his 9.13 PER. Contrast that with Thibs who has Rush, Aldrich and Bjelica on his bench, veteran guys with many more years of pro ball experience than Stevens' bench. The excuses are getting way too old for me. This isn't about experience and talent...this is about coaching, and getting the most out of your roster. Stevens is doing it right now, Thibs isn't.

I do agree there's time to turn this around, but that's going to require Thibs to change his approach.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

It's going to be quite entertaining when this team starts winning consistently and Thibs hasn't changed his approach much, if at all. The main reason for the W/L change will come from the players executing on the court. Right now, they're only doing that for a half of basketball.

[Monster]

I share the disappointment and exhaustion with this team's early struggles, but they've shown enough for the hope to still be strong.

The Wolves are 12th overall in Net Rating, which is pretty impressive considering how horrendous they've been in third quarters.

They're also No. 1 overall in Net Rating in the first half -- No. 1 Offensive Rtg, No. 5 Defensive Rtg. One might argue that Thibs' game preparation would have something to do with that, and I'm sure we can all agree that this team has executed well during the first two quarters so far this season. That's the key -- execution. On the other hand, they're 30th in Net Rtg in the second half -- No. 30 ORtg, No. 30 DRtg -- which is just a killer.

To me, the Wolves being dominant in first halves is reason enough to believe that Thibs' principles, system, and overall knowledge of the game isn't the problem. He didn't suddenly become a bad head coach who can't win. He is, however, coaching a team full of players in their early 20's who are, for the most part, inconsistent and haven't shown that they know HOW to win YET. They aren't executing when they need to.

It's also why some, including myself, wanted a legitimate veteran contributor (Horford, Deng, Bazemore, etc.) added to the team instead of league journeyman like Aldrich or even Rush. Simply put, they've been awful.

As the team gets more comfortable playing for Thibs and gains familiarity with his system and adjustments, I still believe the wins are going to come this season. We just have to be patient and hope this learning period doesn't last too long.

Great post Cam. I said earlier in the game thread there was no way Mitchell got us to the highs of performance we are seeing on this team now. They have moments of brilliance. They need to learn how to handle the pressure through experience. Without a veteran winner on the court that is hard to do. It is really extreme though to go from top 5 to last in the league in a team stat from one half to another.

Thibs wanted a legit impact FA but they didn't pay the crazy money for them or in Gasol's case he picked a ready made contender. That's gonna hurt this team in the short term. This team doesn't have a vet offensive impact player that can help lead this team when things go bad in the starting unit or the 2nd unit. Not paying all that money for a guy will likely pay off down the road when the Wolves don't have cap issues or are able to sign another player.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Also, we might need to accept that Cole "Six teams in seven seasons" Aldrich and Brandon Rush just aren't that good.

[Monster]

Also, we might need to accept that Cole "Six teams in seven seasons" Aldrich and Brandon Rush just aren't that good.

They aren't going to save the season type guys but let's give them especially Rush a little more time. Of course I was never convinced Rush was a lock to be in the rotation but we will see. Thibs seems to be playing young players when he can which means Bazz is gonna play.

[Porckchop]

If we thought this season was gonna be the year they made a big jump it was important to bring in a real difference maker or two. Rush and Aldrich weren't gonna move the needle.
I also thought it was too optimistic to expect all 3 of the key pieces to makeep big jumps . They're trying to figure out their own games and at times it will be at the expense of each other's. It's gonna take more time for those guys to be great together than it is good individually

[MikkeMan]

Why are they losing? One stat that jumps out is they are dead last in defensive rebounding. They were near the bottom last year too. Fortunately they at least are really good on the offensive glass but that doesn't help their defense ending possessions. Transition D points in the paint 2nd chance points are all problems. Can they improve in these areas? I think they can.

They are actually in the upper half in defensive rebounding with 77.6 DREB%. They are dead last in total amount of defensive rebounds mainly because there is so few rebounds available in defensive end since opponent tends to score with high efficiency. Even tough Wolves opponents are not getting that many offensive boards, more troubling is that they score with really high efficiency on those rebounds. Opponents score 1.19 points per possession on putbacks which ranks 5th worst in whole league.

[MikkeMan]

I share the disappointment and exhaustion with this team's early struggles, but they've shown enough for the hope to still be strong.

The Wolves are 12th overall in Net Rating, which is pretty impressive considering how horrendous they've been in third quarters.

They're also No. 1 overall in Net Rating in the first half -- No. 1 Offensive Rtg, No. 5 Defensive Rtg. One might argue that Thibs' game preparation would have something to do with that, and I'm sure we can all agree that this team has executed well during the first two quarters so far this season. That's the key -- execution. On the other hand, they're 30th in Net Rtg in the second half -- No. 30 ORtg, No. 30 DRtg -- which is just a killer.

To me, the Wolves being dominant in first halves is reason enough to believe that Thibs' principles, system, and overall knowledge of the game isn't the problem. He didn't suddenly become a bad head coach who can't win. He is, however, coaching a team full of players in their early 20's who are, for the most part, inconsistent and haven't shown that they know HOW to win YET. They aren't executing when they need to.

It's also why some, including myself, wanted a legitimate veteran contributor (Horford, Deng, Bazemore, etc.) added to the team instead of league journeyman like Aldrich or even Rush. Simply put, they've been awful.

As the team gets more comfortable playing for Thibs and gains familiarity with his system and adjustments, I still believe the wins are going to come this season. We just have to be patient and hope this learning period doesn't last too long.

Cam, I agree with your take. I think Thibs has already had also some effect for some defensive areas as well. Wolves have had this year defensive rebounding rate 77.6% (12th). Clearly better than last years 74.7% (24th) Opponent three point shooting % has also dropped from 35.5% (17th) to 33.4% (8th).

Another thing that Thibs has improved is our player rotations. Last year our bench was killing our team. Mainly because of those hockey shift rotations Wolves bench guys like Shabazz, Bjelica, Jones and Payne had clearly worst net rating numbers of team. Bjelica was the bench of group with -5.3 and Tyus and Payne worst with -10.0 and -10.8.

This year Thibs has mixed almost always some starter with bench players and results have been much better. Wolves bench has actually been outscoring their opponents and they all have positive net rating. Jones has been best with +9.4 and even Dunn has had positive net rating with +2.3 all other bench players have had net rating between those numbers.

I still believe that it is only matter of time when this team will be able to follow Thibs guidance better also in 2nd half and then they will start winning.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

It's going to be quite entertaining when this team starts winning consistently and Thibs hasn't changed his approach much, if at all. The main reason for the W/L change will come from the players executing on the court. Right now, they're only doing that for a half of basketball.

I still think this team is too talented to not start winning consistently. Night in and night out, I compare our roster to the opponents', and I conclude that we are superior. And they are fun to watch with their great athleticism, so I agree that it's going to be quite entertaining. But I'll be surprised if the Wolves get there without Thibs changing his approach. The guy is a basketball savant and apparently spends every waking hour watching game video, so he has to see how tired our team was compared to the Celtics in the 4th quarter, and how ineffective the offense is when he neuters Ricky by hiding him in the corner...that is the definition of playing 4 on 5. And I think he's smart enough to tweak his coaching to fix these two things, and then we will start winning consistently. That Celtics loss was the last straw for me...really frustrated me to lay out a couple hundred bucks to watch them piss away yet another big second half lead. But like most here, I still tend to be optimistic...but it's not going to happen without some change.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Am I the only one surprised Jordan Hill hasn't seen the court?

2 games. 11 minutes.

I don't think he's a savior or anything, but he's been a rotation player everywhere else he's been... including on playoff teams. Then again, the Wolves don't see to be alone in their assessment of him. That contract he signed seemed way below what other bigs were getting...