Taj Gibson and Thibs Interviews

[Lipoli390]

Check out the Taj Gibson and Thibs March 6 interviews on the Wolves website. Taj raves about Wiggins' talent. He mentions that Wiggins does amazing things in practice and that he only scratched the surface of his abilities. He said he loves playing with Wiggins because he's so talented.

Thibs was asked about the team's lack of ball movement the past two games (fewer assists). Thibs responded that "those were two tough teams." He went on to say that the team has no trouble scoring points. He mentioned that the Wolves scored 108 points against Utah, He said that was enough to win and that we just need to get stops. This is where I continue to believe Thibs just doesn't get it and that he's trapped in a time warp that has him in the Eastern Conference 5 years ago. Of course defense matters and the Wolves need to improve defensively. But the Western Conference today is all about scoring and the teams we're competing with for the top 6 spots (except maybe the Spurs) are all high octane scoring teams as are Houston and Golden State. It's really hard to get stops against these teams. The Wolves, especially without Jimmy, have to get the most out of their offensive talent every night. I think they have failed to do that far too often this season.

Last night, the winning Western Conference teams were Houston, Dallas, Portland, Golden State and New Orleans. Those teams scored 122, 118, 111, 114 and 121 respectively. The losing Western Conference teams last night were the Thunder, Nuggets, and Clippers. They scored 112, 107 and 116 respectively. Scoring 108 points just won't cut it for the Wolves down the stretch with Jimmy out. I agree with Thibs that the Wolves have plent of scorers on the teams and that, in his words, "we have more than enough to win." But as I've said all season, the Wolves aren't going to win very often scoring 100 or even 108 points. We need to do what the winning Western Conference all did last night, scoring 111-122 points, if we're going to win.

[Duke13]

Couldn't agree more with this post!! Very short sighted to just say "our offense is fine". It just blows my mind watching us on offense how we don't create open 3 point looks. The elite offensive teams do this with their eyes close. Driving and kicking, and making an accurate pass, the wolves consistently struggle making the accurate pass in these situation. We create few good 3 point looks on the break also.

[kekgeek]

I can see it both ways. I mean we do have the 3rd best offense in the NBA even though it is against the norm of todays traditional offense. I will also agree that our offense really bogs down in late game situations. But we are still the 3rd best offense in the whole NBA. I can see where Thibs is coming from we are 16-4 when holding teams under 100 pts. So an 80% win percentage when the defense is very good. So I can see it from both sides.

[thedoper]

Check out the Taj Gibson and Thibs March 6 interviews on the Wolves website. Taj raves about Wiggins' talent. He mentions that Wiggins does amazing things in practice and that he only scratched the surface of his abilities. He said he loves playing with Wiggins because he's so talented.

Thibs was asked about the team's lack of ball movement the past two games (fewer assists). Thibs responded that "those were two tough teams." He went on to say that the team has no trouble scoring points. He mentioned that the Wolves scored 108 points against Utah, He said that was enough to win and that we just need to get stops. This is where I continue to believe Thibs just doesn't get it and that he's trapped in a time warp that has him in the Eastern Conference 5 years ago. Of course defense matters and the Wolves need to improve defensively. But the Western Conference today is all about scoring and the teams we're competing with for the top 6 spots (except maybe the Spurs) are all high octane scoring teams as are Houston and Golden State. It's really hard to get stops against these teams. The Wolves, especially without Jimmy, have to get the most out of their offensive talent every night. I think they have failed to do that far too often this season.

Last night, the winning Western Conference teams were Houston, Dallas, Portland, Golden State and New Orleans. Those teams scored 122, 118, 111, 114 and 121 respectively. The losing Western Conference teams last night were the Thunder, Nuggets, and Clippers. They scored 112, 107 and 116 respectively. Scoring 108 points just won't cut it for the Wolves down the stretch with Jimmy out. I agree with Thibs that the Wolves have plent of scorers on the teams and that, in his words, "we have more than enough to win." But as I've said all season, the Wolves aren't going to win very often scoring 100 or even 108 points. We need to do what the winning Western Conference all did last night, scoring 111-122 points, if we're going to win.

Good post. On Wiggins, after his Dec/January mega slump in shooting he's worked his way back up to his career averages and as of today is at a career high in eFG%. The main difference is that last year he actually took more long 2s than 3s (397/288). This year long 2s/3s is 216/278. So even though his 3pt% is still below league average his shot selection has promoted more efficiency. In summary, I agree with Taj that we are just starting to scratch the surface on both sides of the ball. He is making better decisions and is playing better D.

On the offense, league average is 106 PPG, so yes 108 is not going to cut it against many teams. I still think our D is our main problem. We're continually getting killed inside. That Utah game was telling even when Towns was in there Gobert had anything he wanted that game. I think that was as much of the source of Towns' frustration as anything. Either way someone on this team has got to go to another level. We won't win with everyone being just good here on out. Someone has to be great.

[Monster]

This team has maybe 2 legit volume 3 point shooters and when everyone is healthy they come off the bench. The fact that this team does what it does on offense in this new nba is probably somewhat amazing. Could the offense be better? Sure but damn that defense is a real problem. The offense could take a step further if they can add some more 3 point shooting and just playing together in the 2nd year. I don't know what they can add to fix that defense. I think more people don't post more about that because quite frankly nobody around the league or fans can really figure out why they aren't better except the guys like JVG (and fans) that say Wiggins and Towns etc don't try hard enough which at times is certainly part of it. Maybe a better bench wing that is better at D would help quite a bit.

[Lipoli390]

This team has maybe 2 legit volume 3 point shooters and when everyone is healthy they come off the bench. The fact that this team does what it does on offense in this new nba is probably somewhat amazing. Could the offense be better? Sure but damn that defense is a real problem. The offense could take a step further if they can add some more 3 point shooting and just playing together in the 2nd year. I don't know what they can add to fix that defense. I think more people don't post more about that because quite frankly nobody around the league or fans can really figure out why they aren't better except the guys like JVG (and fans) that say Wiggins and Towns etc don't try hard enough which at times is certainly part of it. Maybe a better bench wing that is better at D would help quite a bit.

I think that better more pace along with better spacing and ball movement would increase our offensive production even more despite the lack of pure 3-point shooters. The TNT crew was raving last night about how the Pelicans were getting up the court so fast that the defense couldn't get set against them. No reason the Wolves can't do that, but they're clearly not coached to do that. Yes, our defense should be better and I agree that it's hard to know exactly why it's not. But I think our offensive approach puts more pressure on and ultimately hurts our defense. At the end of the day, this team (like it or not) has to score more to win enough for a top 4 finish in the West. I believe we have the personnel to score more even without Jimmy in our remaining regular season games. Unfortunately, I think Thibs clearly sees things differently and that troubles me.

[crazy-canuck [enjin:18955461]]

Check out the Taj Gibson and Thibs March 6 interviews on the Wolves website. Taj raves about Wiggins' talent. He mentions that Wiggins does amazing things in practice and that he only scratched the surface of his abilities. He said he loves playing with Wiggins because he's so talented.

Thibs was asked about the team's lack of ball movement the past two games (fewer assists). Thibs responded that "those were two tough teams." He went on to say that the team has no trouble scoring points. He mentioned that the Wolves scored 108 points against Utah, He said that was enough to win and that we just need to get stops. This is where I continue to believe Thibs just doesn't get it and that he's trapped in a time warp that has him in the Eastern Conference 5 years ago. Of course defense matters and the Wolves need to improve defensively. But the Western Conference today is all about scoring and the teams we're competing with for the top 6 spots (except maybe the Spurs) are all high octane scoring teams as are Houston and Golden State. It's really hard to get stops against these teams. The Wolves, especially without Jimmy, have to get the most out of their offensive talent every night. I think they have failed to do that far too often this season.

Last night, the winning Western Conference teams were Houston, Dallas, Portland, Golden State and New Orleans. Those teams scored 122, 118, 111, 114 and 121 respectively. The losing Western Conference teams last night were the Thunder, Nuggets, and Clippers. They scored 112, 107 and 116 respectively. Scoring 108 points just won't cut it for the Wolves down the stretch with Jimmy out. I agree with Thibs that the Wolves have plent of scorers on the teams and that, in his words, "we have more than enough to win." But as I've said all season, the Wolves aren't going to win very often scoring 100 or even 108 points. We need to do what the winning Western Conference all did last night, scoring 111-122 points, if we're going to win.

Guys like Crawford, Taj, butler,and teague seem to go out of their way to rave about wiggs and his abilities after seeing him in practice daily. At first, I thought that maybe they were just surprised because he rarely goes into alpha mode instead opting to just go through the motions. Then i thought, are they just talking to the media to try and motivate wiggs? But, then watching the KG interview where he talks about times in practice where he would go out of his way to make wiggs angry only to watch wiggs reply by destroying everyone in practice made me rethink again. As fans most look at his boxscores and aloof personality and think he's a bust (realgm is awseome for this, calling wiggs ceiling at derrick williams as an example). I think the team is going about it the wrong way. You dont throw praises at him, you piss him off. wiggs has been like this his entire life. For me, Wiggs always had that VC type of personality.

Offensively, we are effective, but ugly. But we have 2 issues: 4th quarters and jamal.

we bog down in the 4th because we run strictly the jimmy iso game or the crawford iso game. There will be 5 minute stretches where KAT and Wiggs wont even touch the ball. Its often give the ball to jimmy, teague, or crawford. TAJ or KAT set a screen and get out of the way and wiggs holding his hips in the corner. We are very easy to defend in the 4th.

Right now, we cant score because we are getting nothing from jamal and cant defend enough because we have to play jamal.

[crazy-canuck [enjin:18955461]]

This team has maybe 2 legit volume 3 point shooters and when everyone is healthy they come off the bench. The fact that this team does what it does on offense in this new nba is probably somewhat amazing. Could the offense be better? Sure but damn that defense is a real problem. The offense could take a step further if they can add some more 3 point shooting and just playing together in the 2nd year. I don't know what they can add to fix that defense. I think more people don't post more about that because quite frankly nobody around the league or fans can really figure out why they aren't better except the guys like JVG (and fans) that say Wiggins and Towns etc don't try hard enough which at times is certainly part of it. Maybe a better bench wing that is better at D would help quite a bit.

I think that better more pace along with better spacing and ball movement would increase our offensive production even more despite the lack of pure 3-point shooters. The TNT crew was raving last night about how the Pelicans were getting up the court so fast that the defense couldn't get set against them. No reason the Wolves can't do that, but they're clearly not coached to do that. Yes, our defense should be better and I agree that it's hard to know exactly why it's not. But I think our offensive approach puts more pressure on and ultimately hurts our defense. At the end of the day, this team (like it or not) has to score more to win enough for a top 4 finish in the West. I believe we have the personnel to score more even without Jimmy in our remaining regular season games. Unfortunately, I think Thibs clearly sees things differently and that troubles me.

we cant run fast because we dont have anyone to push the ball.

I honestly think our best fast break is when wiggs gets a rebound and decides to just take off and go with a full head of steam.

Teague is just horrible in transition. Maybe I am spoiled from watching ricky for so long, but teague is one of the worst ive ever seen. Teague is fast enough to get down the court with the ball, but he what he does with the ball is mindboggling. He sprints up the court with either wiggs or butler on the wings with kat trailing, but for no reason will stop at the 3 point line and circle to allow the defense to reset. We have the horses to run with KAt and wiggs, but simply cant because our steering wheel is broken.

[BloopOracle]

Jeff Teague can't make a fucking entry pass

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

The Jeff Teague hate around here seems way too similar to the scapegoating of Thaddeus Young several years ago. A player that has his faults, no doubt, but is consistently productive and helps the team more often than not. And when the team struggles, he's an easy target because he's not the best player on the team, he's not one of the "upcoming stars", and he's paid just under that of an All-Star player.

Jeff Teague has been, for the most part, quite good this season. He is far from the problem at hand, especially as of late where he's played like an All-Star.