Wolves get mauled by the Grizzlies GDT

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I didn't see the game, but reading this thread and looking at the box score, it's the same old s#*t...when is Glen going to realize that Thibs can't coach this team?

It's maddening to me when I read comments from a bunch of guys here whom I respect who say there was not enough ball movement and only ISO ball at the end, while Thibs says the ball movement was fine and we just missed our shots...guess who I'm going to believe. I agree with what someone said earlier...this coach is delusional.

And I'm not surprised that Q said we looked gassed again at the end. When I see that Thibs' played just three guys on his bench 57 minutes while an interim coach played 5 guys 88 minutes, I don't need to know anything else to determine who won the game. The only difference this time is that we were playing a team with G League talent...if we were playing a team with normal NBA talent, this would have been another 4th quarter bloodbath like we have seen so many times before with Thibs.

Thibs' refusal to play his bench is bordering on pathological. Bickerstaff gave normal minutes to a bunch of guys named Martin, Ennis, Davis, Chalmers and Harrison...not a lottery pick in the entire bunch. And yet Thibs can't give minutes to a bench with 6 first round picks (including a few lottery picks) that other coaches have found success with. It's maddening...fire this nitwit right now!

[AbeVigodaLive]

Taj Gibson has never averaged 27 minutes per game in his decade-long career.
His past 8 games:

37, 40, 36, 38, 41, 37, 37, 40

More numbers... Jamal Crawford genuinely seems like a decent guy. It seems like everybody loves him in real life. But I just don't know why he'd be any fun to play with on the court.

He's averaging the most attempts on the team Per 36 minutes. He took 10 shots in 20 minutes last night. Hit 2 of them. And they're almost all "bad" shots. It's no wonder his percentage is down below 40%.

[Wolvesfan21]

Taj Gibson has never averaged 27 minutes per game in his decade-long career.
His past 8 games:

37, 40, 36, 38, 41, 37, 37, 40

More numbers... Jamal Crawford genuinely seems like a decent guy. It seems like everybody loves him in real life. But I just don't know why he'd be any fun to play with on the court.

He's averaging the most attempts on the team Per 36 minutes. He took 10 shots in 20 minutes last night. Hit 2 of them. And they're almost all "bad" shots. It's no wonder his percentage is down below 40%.

And his DEF RTG on NBA is 112 something. He should do more playmaking instead of chucking. He might have never played good defense so I guess we have to let that be.

It sucks watching this offense down the 4th quarter though. I can only think that they are just tired because they play the most minutes in the league. Either Teague, Wiggins or Butler dribble out most of the clock then take a desperation shot every time as the other 4 sit around the 3 point line. All Iso BS.

[Lipoli390]

I didn't see the game, but reading this thread and looking at the box score, it's the same old s#*t...when is Glen going to realize that Thibs can't coach this team?

It's maddening to me when I read comments from a bunch of guys here whom I respect who say there was not enough ball movement and only ISO ball at the end, while Thibs says the ball movement was fine and we just missed our shots...guess who I'm going to believe. I agree with what someone said earlier...this coach is delusional.

And I'm not surprised that Q said we looked gassed again at the end. When I see that Thibs' played just three guys on his bench 57 minutes while an interim coach played 5 guys 88 minutes, I don't need to know anything else to determine who won the game. The only difference this time is that we were playing a team with G League talent...if we were playing a team with normal NBA talent, this would have been another 4th quarter bloodbath like we have seen so many times before with Thibs.

Thibs' refusal to play his bench is bordering on pathological. Bickerstaff gave normal minutes to a bunch of guys named Martin, Ennis, Davis, Chalmers and Harrison...not a lottery pick in the entire bunch. And yet Thibs can't give minutes to a bench with 6 first round picks (including a few lottery picks) that other coaches have found success with. It's maddening...fire this nitwit right now!

LST -- A long-time friend of mine who lives in Connecticut (a Celtics fan) texted me the other day about the NBA, Celtics and Wolves. He's a big hoops fan and really smart basketball mind. Here's an exact quote from his text in reference to the Wolves: "I look at the [Wolves] box score every game -- the minutes are psychotic!"

[TAFKASP]

How 'bout them Vikings!

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I didn't see the game, but reading this thread and looking at the box score, it's the same old s#*t...when is Glen going to realize that Thibs can't coach this team?

It's maddening to me when I read comments from a bunch of guys here whom I respect who say there was not enough ball movement and only ISO ball at the end, while Thibs says the ball movement was fine and we just missed our shots...guess who I'm going to believe. I agree with what someone said earlier...this coach is delusional.

And I'm not surprised that Q said we looked gassed again at the end. When I see that Thibs' played just three guys on his bench 57 minutes while an interim coach played 5 guys 88 minutes, I don't need to know anything else to determine who won the game. The only difference this time is that we were playing a team with G League talent...if we were playing a team with normal NBA talent, this would have been another 4th quarter bloodbath like we have seen so many times before with Thibs.

Thibs' refusal to play his bench is bordering on pathological. Bickerstaff gave normal minutes to a bunch of guys named Martin, Ennis, Davis, Chalmers and Harrison...not a lottery pick in the entire bunch. And yet Thibs can't give minutes to a bench with 6 first round picks (including a few lottery picks) that other coaches have found success with. It's maddening...fire this nitwit right now!

LST -- A long-time friend of mine who lives in Connecticut (a Celtics fan) texted me the other day about the NBA, Celtics and Wolves. He's a big hoops fan and really smart basketball mind. Here's an exact quote from his text in reference to the Wolves: "I look at the [Wolves] box score every game -- the minutes are psychotic!"

Your friend is very perceptive it seems. Even the Thibs supporters here can't deny that Thibs is an enormous outlier in how he employs his starters. It's up for discussion, maybe, whether he is right and the rest of the league is wrong. But I think the underperformance of this team answers that question fairly clearly.

Then there's this from Jon K's tweet last night in response to another writer's tweet about KAT's body language: "Body language has been an issue on this team for two years now. Trite? Maybe, maybe not." And that's from Jon K, a guy who is both very connected, perceptive and not prone to criticism.

There is too much evidence that Thibs is destroying this team in so many ways. I have moved from "he's doing a bad job, but let's give him a chance" to "this guy needs to be fired right now!". Glen needs to get the message.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I mused the other day about changing the lineup combinations and didn't think there was a change that could be made to the starting unit. I've changed my mind....

I'd start Tyus in place of Teague. This is NOT because I think Tyus is better than Teague. The reason is that the second unit needs another scorer/shot creator on it. Crawford is trying to do too much, Bazz was a total failure and can't dribble, and Bjelly is trying to grow a new foot. Tyus is not a natural scorer, but he can blend in with our starters as a game manager. Teague on the other hand can be our first option as a 6th man PG and still be part of our "finishing" unit at the end of games. So yes, he'd still play the majority of minutes at PG.

I know Thibs would never do this, but it's the only thing I can think of to balance things out better.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I mused the other day about changing the lineup combinations and didn't think there was a change that could be made to the starting unit. I've changed my mind....

I'd start Tyus in place of Teague. This is NOT because I think Tyus is better than Teague. The reason is that the second unit needs another scorer/shot creator on it. Crawford is trying to do too much, Bazz was a total failure and can't dribble, and Bjelly is trying to grow a new foot. Tyus is not a natural scorer, but he can blend in with our starters as a game manager. Teague on the other hand can be our first option as a 6th man PG and still be part of our "finishing" unit at the end of games. So yes, he'd still play the majority of minutes at PG.

I know Thibs would never do this, but it's the only thing I can think of to balance things out better.

Or Thibs could do what most other coaches figure out and find a way to stager his starters so the bench doesn't play as a unit and get crushed every night. As a group Tyus/Crawford/Bazz/Belly/G are terrible. Start playing some Belly/Tyus with the starters more and let Towns and Teague get more run with the second unit and all of a sudden they probably look like they can play a role on the team like they are an actual role player. Just keep bad pairings off the court like Bazz/Wiggins and G/Towns.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I mused the other day about changing the lineup combinations and didn't think there was a change that could be made to the starting unit. I've changed my mind....

I'd start Tyus in place of Teague. This is NOT because I think Tyus is better than Teague. The reason is that the second unit needs another scorer/shot creator on it. Crawford is trying to do too much, Bazz was a total failure and can't dribble, and Bjelly is trying to grow a new foot. Tyus is not a natural scorer, but he can blend in with our starters as a game manager. Teague on the other hand can be our first option as a 6th man PG and still be part of our "finishing" unit at the end of games. So yes, he'd still play the majority of minutes at PG.

I know Thibs would never do this, but it's the only thing I can think of to balance things out better.

Sadly, another reason why this wouldn't work... Teague wouldn't accept it. I think this team is by and large selfish.

To be fair, I think most young NBA players are selfish... and some older veterans too. It takes the right kind of player(s), organization and situation (and even timing) for a team-first culture to develop.

Some success helps too.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I mused the other day about changing the lineup combinations and didn't think there was a change that could be made to the starting unit. I've changed my mind....

I'd start Tyus in place of Teague. This is NOT because I think Tyus is better than Teague. The reason is that the second unit needs another scorer/shot creator on it. Crawford is trying to do too much, Bazz was a total failure and can't dribble, and Bjelly is trying to grow a new foot. Tyus is not a natural scorer, but he can blend in with our starters as a game manager. Teague on the other hand can be our first option as a 6th man PG and still be part of our "finishing" unit at the end of games. So yes, he'd still play the majority of minutes at PG.

I know Thibs would never do this, but it's the only thing I can think of to balance things out better.

Or Thibs could do what most other coaches figure out and find a way to stager his starters so the bench doesn't play as a unit and get crushed every night. As a group Tyus/Crawford/Bazz/Belly/G are terrible. Start playing some Belly/Tyus with the starters more and let Towns and Teague get more run with the second unit and all of a sudden they probably look like they can play a role on the team like they are an actual role player. Just keep bad pairings off the court like Bazz/Wiggins and G/Towns.

He has started doing that Khans (not sure if you have watched the last few games). He's shortened the rotation to 8 guys so by definition he has two starters on the floor at all times. But yes, prior to when Bjelly got hurt and he benched Bazz, he could have done a much better job staggering guys.