Basement Battle - Mavs @ Wolves GDT

[Porckchop]

Paul is elite at all facets, our pgs are merely good to average at what they do best. Not elite at any one thing. Their parts do not equal the sum that is Paul , it's not even close really. Imo

[Lipoli390]

I'll forgo a separate game report and just offer my observations on why we won tonight:

1. The Mavs are a really bad team. Yes, the Mavs are truly bad and the Wolves were clearly the more talented team on the floor -- not even close.

2. KAT was great. KAT was a beast tonight with tremendous, efficient offensive productivity along with his typically excellent rebounding and 3 blocks.

3. Ricky was Ricky. Ricky looked like his former self tonight. He was great on both ends of the court doing what he does -- facilitating scoring by his teammates, drawing fouls and hitting his foul shots, being a disruptive force on the defensive end and bringing terrific energy and leadership to the team. Importantly, Thibs seemed more content tonight to put the offense in Ricky's hands throughout the game. Thibs used Wiggins far less that he has recently in the point forward role and the few times Thibs did use him in that role he was predictably bad. I sure hope the Wiggins as point forward experiment is ramping down for the season.

3. None of our core three had a terrible game. KAT was great while neither Wiggins nor Zach had a bad game. KAT was the member of our core three who stepped up tonight. But tonight was different from other recent games where one member of the core three had a terrific game, but at least one other core three player laid a horrible rotten egg. Wiggins wasn't great, but he scored a decent 13 points on 5-11 shooting from the field. I know he had only 4 boards and 0 assists, but he didn't hurt us with horrific high volume shooting but instead really helped us with some nice buckets and solid defense. Just wish he'd done better than 50% shooting from the free throw line. Zach wasn't scoring much or shooting particularly well tonight, but he did what Thibs has been preaching -- he stepped up in other areas finishing with 6 rebounds and 5 assists in only 29 minutes before he was hurt. It's this team's formula for success. Ricky runs the offense and facilitates while being a disruptive force defensively and rebounding effectively. At the same time, one of the core three has a really good game while the other two contribute reasonably well with neither one having a horrific game.

4. Gorgui played his glue-guy role well with a very efficient 12 points on 5-8 shooting while pulling down 5 boards and playing some fairly solid defense.

5. The bench contributed -- particularly Bazz and Tyus. Bazz can drive you nuts with his tunnel vision with the ball, but I absolutely love the all-out effort he brings every second of every game on both ends of the court. Then there was Tyus. Before Thibs put him in, I shouted at Thibs several times telling him to put in Tyus. So Tyus getting into the game must have been because of me. :). But seriously, Dunn was terrible tonight so I would have brought in Tyus earlier. But kudos to Thibs for getting Tyus in there as soon as Zach went down. I continue to believe Tyus is underrated and undervalued by fans and pundits. I get his physical limitations, but he has the high basketball IQ, mental toughness and the "it" factor to be a really good #2 PG on this League. Unless Dunn dramatically improves his shooting and decision-making, I'd rather see Tyus than Dunn as our lead backup PG right now even though I like Dunn's defense. Perhaps the two can play together as they did for a short time tonight and have in the past. Point is, I'd take Tyus over Dunn easily to run the second unit's offense.

6. Belly's late game defense on Barnes. Belly wasn't much on offense tonight, but he played some nice D on Barnes late in the game.

Good to get a win tonight even it was against a far inferior team. Tonight's game was further evidence that the Wolves are more talented than their current record suggests. I liked our defense tonight. The last two games, I've noticed that our young guys are fighting harder to get through picks and are more tenacious in attempting to stay close to the guy their defending -- things Thibs has said he wants these guys to do defensively.

We have two much tougher games coming up at Target Center this week. I sure hope Zach can come back for both because I think we have a chance to win both if he's healthy and playing. I can't help but believe this team is close to turning the corner and getting on a nice run as we enter the second half of the season. It's late and I could be delusional, but I remain hopeful.

[kekgeek]

I have a super cynical thought. Do you think someone up top is telling thibs not to play tyus consistently the reason I say that every time tyus is put in thibs plays him and plays him for long stretches in 4th and have him close out games. Tyus is the one guy off the bench thibs has played late in games, I just think it is weird thibs trusts him late in games but not in the regular rotation

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Kekgeek, Since Thibs is the man "up top", I'm not sure who else would be giving him orders! I don't think Glen is a micromanaging owner (ala Jerry Jones), so I highly doubt that's where it's coming from.

Thibs actually addressed Tyus's play (or lack thereof) after the game. He was highly complimentary of Tyus and says he's an important part of the team, but that if he chose to play Tyus, there would be some other tradeoff that would cut into someone else's time that also deserves minutes. I think he's a big believer in an extremely consistent and steady rotation.

[Duke13]

Tibs is stuck in a tough spot with Tyus, you have an established vet in Ricky and a high draft pick in Dunn. We could debate and have debated Ricky and Dunn's roles/playing time on this team. Ricky gives us the best shot to win now and Dunn is the high draft pick with the highest upside of all three, simple as that I think.

My views on what should be done are we'll known. I will disagree with Lip, I think a lot of people on this board having been asking for Tibs to find some consistent minutes for Tyus, and are intrigued with his ability to stabilize things on the court.

[Monster]

All I will say is that its nice to have some depth of talent at the PG position with Tyus as the 3rd guy after having some years in the past where Telfair was the best guy we had and Luke Ridnour was like a drastic improvement. Maybe none of the current Wolves PGs end up being any better than just an ok starter, but there is some promise there.

As for why Thibs trusts Tyus in the 4th quarter a lot of that has had to do with situations. The last game the Mavs went small. Rush would have had to guard Devin Harris and Tyus may not be a good defender, but I would rather see him match up with another combo guard. in addition he gives you the rough skills of Lavine as a ball handler shooter and scorer while obviously not as good, but way more diverse than Rush. In other games he has played well and deserved to be out there. He tends to make good decisions and come up with plays why not put him out there? On one hand Thibs has kept a tight rotation not moving away from it, but he has given some guys a shot at times and absolutely has a next man up mentality and guys have done a decent job when they have gotten their shot. Tyus is fun to watch.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Paul is elite at all facets, our pgs are merely good to average at what they do best. Not elite at any one thing. Their parts do not equal the sum that is Paul , it's not even close really. Imo

Ricky has elite court vision and playmaking ability, Dunn is an elite defender and Tyus runs an offense like Paul. The only thing that doesn't match up is Paul's shooting and that could just be Tyus not getting enough run to show that he can shoot otherwise that's one area that they wouldn't combine to make CP3 big deal. You don't give our guys nearly enough credit for what they are good at.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Paul is elite at all facets, our pgs are merely good to average at what they do best. Not elite at any one thing. Their parts do not equal the sum that is Paul , it's not even close really. Imo

Ricky has elite court vision and playmaking ability, Dunn is an elite defender and Tyus runs an offense like Paul. The only thing that doesn't match up is Paul's shooting and that could just be Tyus not getting enough run to show that he can shoot otherwise that's one area that they wouldn't combine to make CP3 big deal. You don't give our guys nearly enough credit for what they are good at.

In bold... no. NO. NO!!!

I dig Tyus Jones. But Chris Paul is one of the greatest PGs and facilitators in NBA history.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Paul is elite at all facets, our pgs are merely good to average at what they do best. Not elite at any one thing. Their parts do not equal the sum that is Paul , it's not even close really. Imo

Ricky has elite court vision and playmaking ability, Dunn is an elite defender and Tyus runs an offense like Paul. The only thing that doesn't match up is Paul's shooting and that could just be Tyus not getting enough run to show that he can shoot otherwise that's one area that they wouldn't combine to make CP3 big deal. You don't give our guys nearly enough credit for what they are good at.

In bold... no. NO. NO!!!

I dig Tyus Jones. But Chris Paul is one of the greatest PGs and facilitators in NBA history.

So Tyus isn't a PnR PG who protects the ball, tries to facilitate for others and picks his spots when to take over the offensive load? Sure thing. The talent and production don't match but saying their play styles aren't similar is just wrong. Their play styles are virtually the same with the same priorities. That doesn't mean Tyus is CP3. That just means he plays PG the same way just at a different level.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Paul is elite at all facets, our pgs are merely good to average at what they do best. Not elite at any one thing. Their parts do not equal the sum that is Paul , it's not even close really. Imo

Ricky has elite court vision and playmaking ability, Dunn is an elite defender and Tyus runs an offense like Paul. The only thing that doesn't match up is Paul's shooting and that could just be Tyus not getting enough run to show that he can shoot otherwise that's one area that they wouldn't combine to make CP3 big deal. You don't give our guys nearly enough credit for what they are good at.

In bold... no. NO. NO!!!

I dig Tyus Jones. But Chris Paul is one of the greatest PGs and facilitators in NBA history.

So Tyus isn't a PnR PG who protects the ball, tries to facilitate for others and picks his spots when to take over the offensive load? Sure thing. The talent and production don't match but saying their play styles aren't similar is just wrong. Their play styles are virtually the same with the same priorities. That doesn't mean Tyus is CP3. That just means he plays PG the same way just at a different level.

Oh. Gotcha. Fair enough.

I thought you were insinuating that Jones does those things at a comparable level as Paul does.