60WinTim wrote:Abe does have a point -- our inability to win a game with Wiggins and LaVine seemingly playing well still bugs me. Yeah, there are a ton of excuses, but they still couldn't do it.
So, I am only cautiously opTIMistic going into the offseason...
What Tim didn't tell anyone here is that he handed his rose-colored glasses over to LST a few weeks ago. He first offered them to Alex, but he threatened to smash them with the heel of his boot, so Tim moved on....
I think we all get caught up in Wiggins and LaVine's offensive improvements throughout the year, but forget about the other side of the ball. We gave up 112 points per game in April, so clearly the team gave up defensively, and that includes these two players. They were simply following their coach/GM's lead by tanking. It was a sloppy and unfortunate ending to a season that could have ended on a good note.
It didn't help that we were suiting up 8 players a night, 4 of which should have probably been in the d-league.
60WinTim wrote:Abe does have a point -- our inability to win a game with Wiggins and LaVine seemingly playing well still bugs me. Yeah, there are a ton of excuses, but they still couldn't do it.
So, I am only cautiously opTIMistic going into the offseason...
What Tim didn't tell anyone here is that he handed his rose-colored glasses over to LST a few weeks ago. He first offered them to Alex, but he threatened to smash them with the heel of his boot, so Tim moved on....
I think we all get caught up in Wiggins and LaVine's offensive improvements throughout the year, but forget about the other side of the ball. We gave up 112 points per game in April, so clearly the team gave up defensively, and that includes these two players. They were simply following their coach/GM's lead by tanking. It was a sloppy and unfortunate ending to a season that could have ended on a good note.
It didn't help that we were suiting up 8 players a night, 4 of which should have probably been in the d-league.
But the Wolves weren't the only team trying to lose. Several teams were trying to lose. And more than one of them with some truly terrible rosters. Tim Hardaway was the Knicks best player? Yet ALL of those teams finished better than the Wolves.
The Wolves had Wiggins and LaVine. Dieng. Et al. And they even traded a 1st round pick for a rookie PF because they thought so highly of him.
CoolBreeze44 wrote:Zach and Andrew were flat out exhausted at the end of the year. I won't draw too many conclusions one way or the other from that time frame.
I'll give you Wiggins. That guy played some serious minutes... and then some. But LaVine? He sat for a huge chunk of the season. I don't know if I buy the exhaustion angle for him.
CoolBreeze44 wrote:Zach and Andrew were flat out exhausted at the end of the year. I won't draw too many conclusions one way or the other from that time frame.
I'll give you Wiggins. That guy played some serious minutes... and then some. But LaVine? He sat for a huge chunk of the season. I don't know if I buy the exhaustion angle for him.
Don't you recall the broadcast where The announcers were quoting Flip on his in-game conversation with Zach? Flip told them that Zach said something during a game that he had never heard from a player before. At a timeout late in one particular game, Zach looked up at Flip and said "I am exhausted".
CoolBreeze44 wrote:Zach and Andrew were flat out exhausted at the end of the year. I won't draw too many conclusions one way or the other from that time frame.
I'll give you Wiggins. That guy played some serious minutes... and then some. But LaVine? He sat for a huge chunk of the season. I don't know if I buy the exhaustion angle for him.
Don't you recall the broadcast where The announcers were quoting Flip on his in-game conversation with Zach? Flip told them that Zach said something during a game that he had never heard from a player before. At a timeout late in one particular game, Zach looked up at Flip and said "I am exhausted".
Did not hear that.
I put that on LaVine. Chalk it up to a learning experience that he needs to be in better game shape.
60WinTim wrote:Abe does have a point -- our inability to win a game with Wiggins and LaVine seemingly playing well still bugs me. Yeah, there are a ton of excuses, but they still couldn't do it.
So, I am only cautiously opTIMistic going into the offseason...
What Tim didn't tell anyone here is that he handed his rose-colored glasses over to LST a few weeks ago. He first offered them to Alex, but he threatened to smash them with the heel of his boot, so Tim moved on....
I think we all get caught up in Wiggins and LaVine's offensive improvements throughout the year, but forget about the other side of the ball. We gave up 112 points per game in April, so clearly the team gave up defensively, and that includes these two players. They were simply following their coach/GM's lead by tanking. It was a sloppy and unfortunate ending to a season that could have ended on a good note.
It didn't help that we were suiting up 8 players a night, 4 of which should have probably been in the d-league.
But the Wolves weren't the only team trying to lose. Several teams were trying to lose. And more than one of them with some truly terrible rosters. Tim Hardaway was the Knicks best player? Yet ALL of those teams finished better than the Wolves.
The Wolves had Wiggins and LaVine. Dieng. Et al. And they even traded a 1st round pick for a rookie PF because they thought so highly of him.
That just means we were the only team who tanked correctly. I see the closing weeks of the year as evidence Lavine and Wiggins can carry the scoring load when given the responsibility. That's what was most important to me because when we lost Love we lost our guy who dropped 26 a night. I think Lavine and Wiggins showed the potential to be 20 PPG scorers themselves as they refine their games moving forward. It looks like we now have 2 guys who can go off on any night which is important moving forward as we push for the playoffs. We just need them to refine their games so the off nights aren't as bad. That's normal for rookies but good players figure out how to minimize the impact of bad games and minimize the amount of bad games.
Also, 2 perimeter guys aren't going to be able to do much from a defensive standpoint. You still need an overall defensive system and some help behind them to be a successful defense which we didn't appear to have either last year so unless they literally held their man in front of them at all times we were going to get scored on. I blame a lot of that on the lack of practices down the stretch because we didn't have enough healthy guys to practice. It's tough to learn and utilize your coaches' defensive system and principles on the fly without getting to practice it. On a team as young as we were last year, not being able to practice for a good chunk of the season really hurt this team. Young guys need as much practice as they can get and instead they had to figure it out during actual game time. I think everyone will look a lot more competent this year with a full off season and training camp to get the system down. Then we'll know if our struggles are due to bad players, a bad coach, or a bad system, but it won't be because guys are looking lost out there.
CoolBreeze44 wrote:Zach and Andrew were flat out exhausted at the end of the year. I won't draw too many conclusions one way or the other from that time frame.
I'll give you Wiggins. That guy played some serious minutes... and then some. But LaVine? He sat for a huge chunk of the season. I don't know if I buy the exhaustion angle for him.
Don't you recall the broadcast where The announcers were quoting Flip on his in-game conversation with Zach? Flip told them that Zach said something during a game that he had never heard from a player before. At a timeout late in one particular game, Zach looked up at Flip and said "I am exhausted".
Did not hear that.
I put that on LaVine. Chalk it up to a learning experience that he needs to be in better game shape.
He was playing 39 minutes a night at 20 years old never having played more than half that amount of games before. That's why there's a rookie wall. They never play that many games in that tight a window in their life and they never play that many minutes at any level. Guys aren't supposed to be able to play 40 MPG's a night at the NBA level and be fine. That's too many minutes for anyone.
