Cavs spot us the 1st quarter - Cavs at Wolves GDT

[Coolbreeze44]

It's an absolute crime Jones doesn't play more regularly. I have been reluctant to be too critical of Thibs this year, mainly because it's not going to do any good. But playing the guy he drafted over a clearly better basketball player simply sucks in my opinion. I can't say Dunn is a bust at this point, that wouldn't be fair. But I can say he shouldn't be playing ahead of Tyus right now.

[bleedspeed]

I think we can all say Dunn is the most disappointing top 10 pick we have had since Felton Spencer.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I think we can all say Dunn is the most disappointing top 10 pick we have had since Felton Spencer.

Towns
Derrick Williams
Wesley Johnson
Rubio
Jonny Flynn
Corey Brewer
Love
Foye
Szczerbiak
Marbury
Garnett
Longley
Marshall
Laettner
Rider

He's had the worst rookie season...

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Dunn can defend. That is a big deal in my book and it's why I am willing to be patient. Even if he ends up being a Tony Allen 2.0 bench shooting guard, I'll take it. We need a guy that can flat out man up on people, fight over screens, and make plays defensively. He's only going to get better at this. It's the offense that is a disaster right now.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Really fun night at TC last night. And we played the world champions almost dead even...mostly our inability to make open threes at the end with the game on the line cost us a chance in this one.

Wig was terrific, KAT and G played hard and tough all game (with the usual defensive lapses alas), and Ricky played loose with 16 assists (albeit a poor shooting game). But nobody was able to stop LBJ from penetrating, and he was nothing short of terrific all night.

Yes, Dunn was awful on offense, but his defense was stellar again...he's really fun to watch on the defensive side of the ball, as is Lance Stephenson (let's hope his injury isn't too serious). But despite my admiration for Dunn's athleticism and toughness, his not-ready-yet offensive skills make it apparent to almost everyone in the building except the head coach that Tyus should be getting the backup PG minutes (I even think Dunn knows it, and it shows up in his tentativeness on offense). With Tyus in there instead of Dunn's -9 in 9 minutes, we have a better chance of winning this game.

Q is right that the horrible defense in the second quarter was difficult to watch. But the starters looked dog tired in the final 5 minutes and did more reaching than moving their feet...and the result was no key stops again. It's LST broken record time again...how do we expect out starters to match up well with the opponent at crunch time when Thibs plays his bench a paltry 47 minutes and Liu plays his 70? You could just see the Cavs licking their chops down the stretch as they evaluated a tired opponent, and the results were predictable. I would argue that our missed threes at the end of the game was also a result of tiredness, and way too repetitive to me. Belly did not have a good game, but his toughness resulted in decent plus minus. He, Muhammad and Aldrich all needed more minutes, and Tyus needed 16 minutes in place to Dunn and Ricky. Do that, and I'm convinced we have a chance to win this game.

But I'm largely positive about this game...we gave the world champs a run for their money, our stars put on a nice offensive show, the crowd was into it, and I got to smooch my lovely Valentine on the kiss cam! Nothing wrong with any of that!

[bleedspeed]

LST - Good follow on to the Dunn downers like me. He looks like a backup SG that has a chance to be an ace defender and nothing more. If LaVine couldn't play PG I don't see Dunn being able to do it after playing 3 years in college that should have prepped him a little more.

[Monster]

Wiggins defense is improving. It's easy to lump him in with the rest and say he sucks at defense. But his game is improving on that end and mostly because of increased effort. Towns? He just doesn't try on defense, and really doesn't seem to care. Big difference between those two right now.

Yep Wiggins has been playing pretty well on that end. Offensively he has been terrific. Towns has been locked in offensively and on the boards. Defensively...he leads the team in looks from teammates saying WTF?!

[Monster]

Really fun night at TC last night. And we played the world champions almost dead even...mostly our inability to make open threes at the end with the game on the line cost us a chance in this one.

Wig was terrific, KAT and G played hard and tough all game (with the usual defensive lapses alas), and Ricky played loose with 16 assists (albeit a poor shooting game). But nobody was able to stop LBJ from penetrating, and he was nothing short of terrific all night.

Yes, Dunn was awful on offense, but his defense was stellar again...he's really fun to watch on the defensive side of the ball, as is Lance Stephenson (let's hope his injury isn't too serious). But despite my admiration for Dunn's athleticism and toughness, his not-ready-yet offensive skills make it apparent to almost everyone in the building except the head coach that Tyus should be getting the backup PG minutes (I even think Dunn knows it, and it shows up in his tentativeness on offense). With Tyus in there instead of Dunn's -9 in 9 minutes, we have a better chance of winning this game.

Q is right that the horrible defense in the second quarter was difficult to watch. But the starters looked dog tired in the final 5 minutes and did more reaching than moving their feet...and the result was no key stops again. It's LST broken record time again...how do we expect out starters to match up well with the opponent at crunch time when Thibs plays his bench a paltry 47 minutes and Liu plays his 70? You could just see the Cavs licking their chops down the stretch as they evaluated a tired opponent, and the results were predictable. I would argue that our missed threes at the end of the game was also a result of tiredness, and way too repetitive to me. Belly did not have a good game, but his toughness resulted in decent plus minus. He, Muhammad and Aldrich all needed more minutes, and Tyus needed 16 minutes in place to Dunn and Ricky. Do that, and I'm convinced we have a chance to win this game.

But I'm largely positive about this game...we gave the world champs a run for their money, our stars put on a nice offensive show, the crowd was into it, and I got to smooch my lovely Valentine on the kiss cam! Nothing wrong with any of that!

Fun report LST. I finally got around to watching this game last night. Like you I saw a lot more positive than negative it was a fun game.

[TeamRicky [enjin:6648771]]

I think we can all say Dunn is the most disappointing top 10 pick we have had since Felton Spencer.

Wes and Flynn were much worse picks considering who was available when we picked them and both were obvious reaches and in fact I was certain in both cases that we made a huge mistake. Dunn could at least be useful given that he is already advanced defensively.

[Monster]

LST - Good follow on to the Dunn downers like me. He looks like a backup SG that has a chance to be an ace defender and nothing more. If LaVine couldn't play PG I don't see Dunn being able to do it after playing 3 years in college that should have prepped him a little more.

Interesting take comparing Dunn and Lavine as PGs. I see Dunn having more passing instincts but of course he is older. Again the reason I didn't reallly want Dunn was I didn't see the upside a ton of others saw. We are seeing his flaws that I saw right now. There are some flashes here and there though like that crossover for an easy midrange jumper than looks easy. Of course the real value for Dunn is his defense. I think that's been better at times than I would have imagined. One benefit of him sucking this year if he figures it out down the road is it helped us get a higher draft pick. He has been disappointing but I believe in him being a worthwhile player still.