CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Tonight Plus 1

[Yosimar]

I still do not get's Sam love for Gorgui. Maybe Dieng has incriminating pictures of him. Idk but there's just no way KAT should be sat down the entire 4th quarter again. I see people trying to make sense of it saying KAT might have been knicked up... no. It's just obvious Mitchell has a hardon for Dieng.

Then there's the Martin issue. In what world should this man be getting that many minutes? He's good for one thing, scoring and he can't even do that now and yet he's still getting waaaay too much playing time. When he took out Bazz in the 4th and brought Martin in i couldn't help but laugh. I mean what was he bringing Martin in for? His clutchness or defense? either way laughable.

Lavine with another solid game. Kid is a baller, and the minute Rubio comes back it's time Lavine replaces Martin in the starting lineup. There's really no excuse at this point where Lavine shouldn't be getting basically most if not all of his minutes although i guess he couldn't play that much. But even when Ricky does come back this kid like Wiggins needs to be getting 30 minutes a game unless it's a blowout.

Wiggy made Gay his bitch in the game. Gay tried taking him down low a couple of times and Wiggy wasn't going to let him have anything.

[Big O [enjin:13874644]]

Plain and simple Gorgui was playing well enough to rest KAT for tomorrow. With the depth we have and as early as it is in the season it is the perfect time to let the backups play longer minutes. Have to save KAT for that playoff run! As for Martin over Bazz I don't get it.

[Lipoli390]

I don't think Bazz defends better than Kmart. And similar to Prince, I trust Kmart's decision making more than Bazz. Bazz may get there eventually, and I hope he does. But it's getting tougher and tougher to be critical of Sam and his staff.

I didn't say Baz defends better than Martin. I said he's no worse defensively. But Baz definitely rebounds better and last night Baz was MUCH better than Martin offensively. Martin was 1-6 form the field and 1-4 from behind the arc last night with no free throw attempts. He had only 2 rebounds, 0 assists and 0 steals in 29 minutes. Baz had 15 points in only 16 minutes, hitting 5 of 8 field goal attempts, 3-5 from behind the arc. He was +10 while Martin was +1.

Martin a better decision-maker?? Martin's decision-making consists of deciding to take shots, usually long twos, often off-balance and typically seeking to draw a foul. Defenders are on to him and aren't fouling. Meanwhile, he's missing most of his shots.

There isn't any justification for having Martin on the floor last night over Baz. If not Baz, then I'm with LST in thinking we should have had another big on the court -- Payne or Towns.

I think Bazz is a worse defender than Kmart. KMart seems to be more aware and disciplined defender, has more steals and more defensive rebounds. Bazz has the worst plus/minus stats on the team now and KMart is actually positive.

Bazz had a good night as a scorer. My main beef with Bazz is that he doesn't do much other than scoring and perhaps offensive rebounding and if he's cold, he's worthless.

Ricky - Shabazz was anything but cold last night. He was on fire. In contrast, Martin was cold as ice - which is pretty much how he's been so far this season. If you think that "doing things other than scoring" is a reason to play Martin over anyone, even Shabazz, I suggest you lay off the weed for a while. :) Neither one offers much more than scoring although Shabazz is actually a pretty good offensive rebounder. Comparing the two, on a per minute basis, Shabazz is a better rebounder than Martin overall and the two are nearly even on the defensive boards. But again, my beef was specifically with playing Martin over Shabazz in crunch time LAST NIGHT when Shabazz's was clearly red hot and Martin ice cold. And then there's the issue of playing the guys who are more likely to be a core part of this team's future, but we don't need to go there in this instance.

[Monster]

On minutes Martin is flat out a better defender right now. I do agree in this game Bazz probably should have gotten more minutes but Martin is a better option defensively against all the players the Kings out out there. Bazz will get better defensively but his I there there yet.

Dieng is a legit young talent and if he is playing well and not have to play Towns a bunch of minutes and Dieng gets good things going that's that's good too. Like Jim Pete said Towns is gonna be just fine.

Fantastic win even without Rubio at some put I had no doubt we were going to win this one.

One guy that wasn't mentioned in the positives was Rudez. He is a smart player with more skills than people realize and while he isn't an asset as a rebounder he has some versatility out there. He is sort of a Hummel type that isn't really impressive but helps you.

No fast break points seems weird but at a few points the Wolves just played bully ball on the Kings slowed it down and crushed them and that also got some 3 point looks as well. Miller can still ball and his defense at times was very far from bad.

[TeamRicky [enjin:6648771]]

I don't think Bazz defends better than Kmart. And similar to Prince, I trust Kmart's decision making more than Bazz. Bazz may get there eventually, and I hope he does. But it's getting tougher and tougher to be critical of Sam and his staff.

I didn't say Baz defends better than Martin. I said he's no worse defensively. But Baz definitely rebounds better and last night Baz was MUCH better than Martin offensively. Martin was 1-6 form the field and 1-4 from behind the arc last night with no free throw attempts. He had only 2 rebounds, 0 assists and 0 steals in 29 minutes. Baz had 15 points in only 16 minutes, hitting 5 of 8 field goal attempts, 3-5 from behind the arc. He was +10 while Martin was +1.

Martin a better decision-maker?? Martin's decision-making consists of deciding to take shots, usually long twos, often off-balance and typically seeking to draw a foul. Defenders are on to him and aren't fouling. Meanwhile, he's missing most of his shots.

There isn't any justification for having Martin on the floor last night over Baz. If not Baz, then I'm with LST in thinking we should have had another big on the court -- Payne or Towns.

I think Bazz is a worse defender than Kmart. KMart seems to be more aware and disciplined defender, has more steals and more defensive rebounds. Bazz has the worst plus/minus stats on the team now and KMart is actually positive.

Bazz had a good night as a scorer. My main beef with Bazz is that he doesn't do much other than scoring and perhaps offensive rebounding and if he's cold, he's worthless.

Ricky - Shabazz was anything but cold last night. He was on fire. In contrast, Martin was cold as ice - which is pretty much how he's been so far this season. If you think that "doing things other than scoring" is a reason to play Martin over anyone, even Shabazz, I suggest you lay off the weed for a while. :) Neither one offers much more than scoring although Shabazz is actually a pretty good offensive rebounder. Comparing the two, on a per minute basis, Shabazz is a better rebounder than Martin overall and the two are nearly even on the defensive boards. But again, my beef was specifically with playing Martin over Shabazz in crunch time LAST NIGHT when Shabazz's was clearly red hot and Martin ice cold. And then there's the issue of playing the guys who are more likely to be a core part of this team's future, but we don't need to go there in this instance.

I don't think Bazz defends better than Kmart. And similar to Prince, I trust Kmart's decision making more than Bazz. Bazz may get there eventually, and I hope he does. But it's getting tougher and tougher to be critical of Sam and his staff.

I didn't say Baz defends better than Martin. I said he's no worse defensively. But Baz definitely rebounds better and last night Baz was MUCH better than Martin offensively. Martin was 1-6 form the field and 1-4 from behind the arc last night with no free throw attempts. He had only 2 rebounds, 0 assists and 0 steals in 29 minutes. Baz had 15 points in only 16 minutes, hitting 5 of 8 field goal attempts, 3-5 from behind the arc. He was +10 while Martin was +1.

Martin a better decision-maker?? Martin's decision-making consists of deciding to take shots, usually long twos, often off-balance and typically seeking to draw a foul. Defenders are on to him and aren't fouling. Meanwhile, he's missing most of his shots.

There isn't any justification for having Martin on the floor last night over Baz. If not Baz, then I'm with LST in thinking we should have had another big on the court -- Payne or Towns.

I think Bazz is a worse defender than Kmart. KMart seems to be more aware and disciplined defender, has more steals and more defensive rebounds. Bazz has the worst plus/minus stats on the team now and KMart is actually positive.

Bazz had a good night as a scorer. My main beef with Bazz is that he doesn't do much other than scoring and perhaps offensive rebounding and if he's cold, he's worthless.

Ricky - Shabazz was anything but cold last night. He was on fire. In contrast, Martin was cold as ice - which is pretty much how he's been so far this season. If you think that "doing things other than scoring" is a reason to play Martin over anyone, even Shabazz, I suggest you lay off the weed for a while. :) Neither one offers much more than scoring although Shabazz is actually a pretty good offensive rebounder. Comparing the two, on a per minute basis, Shabazz is a better rebounder than Martin overall and the two are nearly even on the defensive boards. But again, my beef was specifically with playing Martin over Shabazz in crunch time LAST NIGHT when Shabazz's was clearly red hot and Martin ice cold. And then there's the issue of playing the guys who are more likely to be a core part of this team's future, but we don't need to go there in this instance.

No need to make this personal. Bazz had a nice game, but I can understand why Sam doesn't give Bazz big minutes. He's the worst defender in our rotation and he hurts ball movement. Kmart is in a horrible shooting slump. I am not a big Kmart fan but I think Sam thinks he can get him going. Kmart has a higher basketball IQ than Bazz and plays better team defense. To be honest, I'd like to see less Kmart when he's cold but I'd rather those minutes go to Lavine.

[Lipoli390]

Sorry Ricky. I was just kidding. Hence the smiley face. We definitely agree on wanting more LaVine over Martin.

Hard to know what Sam is thinking. Good guess that he was trying to snap Martin out of his slump. Or maybe it was veteran savvy he wanted in the court. But when the young gun is hot, I think Sam should go with him over the older vet unless there's a big difference in other aspects of their respective games.

Alas, as long as we keep winning I'm content for now. But we do need to think longer term with this team. As an injury-prone 32 year-old one-dimensional player, Martin's horizon with this team is limited. Meantime, Shabazz is on the backside of his rookie contract. So Sam needs to test him and develop him every chance he gets.