Wolves vs Blazers GDT: RUIN PORTLAND'S SEASON

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

And as usual, our late season pickups have been a total bust: Lance Stephenson comes in and ends up being hurt the entire time. Casspi comes in and has been absolutely useless - career worse in almost everything. Typical!

This happens every year. We NEVER find a diamond in the rough (or kept him out of jail).

[AbeVigodaLive]

And as usual, our late season pickups have been a total bust: Lance Stephenson comes in and ends up being hurt the entire time. Casspi comes in and has been absolutely useless - career worse in almost everything. Typical!

This happens every year. We NEVER find a diamond in the rough.

How dare you!

How quickly you've forgotten Jeff Adrien.

Shame.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

And as usual, our late season pickups have been a total bust: Lance Stephenson comes in and ends up being hurt the entire time. Casspi comes in and has been absolutely useless - career worse in almost everything. Typical!

This happens every year. We NEVER find a diamond in the rough.

How dare you!

How quickly you've forgotten Jeff Adrien.

Shame.

Indeed. I amended my statement above. Never forget....never forget.

Seriously though, his D rating of 103.4 would pretty much be tops on this current squad (other than Bjelica of all people). The dude brought some toughness.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

LST you're becoming delusional at this point, it's like you're living in a fantasy world where we have a decent bench that Thibs is too stubborn to use. They're SHIT, the bench is shit and you would realize that if you watched more games instead of staring at the box score. Our bench got killed in their first stint last night, they got killed when Towns picked up his 4th early in the 3rd, and they would have gotten killed if Thibs played them more in the 4th. Seriously your bench minutes schtick is starting to become laughable at this point.

Fair point, bloop, that my opinion isn't going to have as much value since I'm not watching games these days. But even a mere box score watcher has to wonder why we are so inept in the 4th quarter. I mean 25-11...come on! And it's close to 20 times this season this has happened. Thibs is a statistically significant outlier when it comes to using his bench, and when someone is doing something completely different than all other coaches, it begs the question...is it working? I think the Wolves overall record and 4th quarter ineptitude is strong evidence that it is not working.

And I don't but into the narrative that our bench is so much worse than others. Portland almost doubled our bench minutes last night with three guys who are far from superstars...the always underachieving Turner and two guys under the age of 25 with PERs under 12. In contrast we have guys like Muhammad and Jones with higher PERs than Portland's bench youngsters, along with guys like Rush and Aldrich who played key roles last year for good playoff teams. Plus a veteran like Casspi and a rookie that plays defense like a veteran. Nobody will be able to convince me that these guys shouldn't be getting regular minutes, and that our starters would be performing better if they weren't so fricking tired in the 4th.

Not to be argumentative but just to try to get your perspective, if exhaustion isn't the reason for our 4th quarter failure, what is the reason for the historic number of end of game disasters? I've off and on provided solid evidence that our starters play very well in the 4th quarter when they are as rested as the opponent, and that they suck when they are not given adequate rest. And this phenomenon doesn't just happen against teams with better and more experienced starters than ours (like SA and GS), as demonstrated by disastrous collapses this month against the Lakers and the Kings.

I'm having a hard time understanding why my hypothesis is laughable, when it has proven to be accurate time after time this season, and nobody has really provided an alternative hypothesis that is as supportable.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Long... We've read your "it's Thibs fault" angle before many times. To be fair, it's not without merit.

For some, however, it loses its luster after (1) so many versions of the exact same thing (2) the apparent absolution of player guilt in your premise.

I know I err on the side of it's the players fault more than most... but at the very least... I think everybody acknowledges it's a combination of problems. There have been really bad coaches throughout the annals of NBA history. The list is seemingly endless. Great players will find a way to shine through any coach and win games. That's what makes them great.

Likewise, a few years ago Rick Adelman took the fall from many for 4th quarter failures. Meh. Was he deserving? For some of it... definitely. But shitty teams are ultimately shitty for a reason. And often, it doesn't matter as much who's roaming the sidelines as much as who's one court (and what's roaming through their heads).

[Coolbreeze44]

Not to change the subject (well actually yes) but what is going on with Wiggins and his ability to play bully ball near the basket? I didn't think we would see that yet in his development. But damn, when he wants to back someone in and power to the hoop it looks impressive. He's abused some people down low lately.

[Monster]

Not to change the subject (well actually yes) but what is going on with Wiggins and his ability to play bully ball near the basket? I didn't think we would see that yet in his development. But damn, when he wants to back someone in and power to the hoop it looks impressive. He's abused some people down low lately.

Thanks for pointing that out so have seen that too.

Cool, I just listened to Wolfson's latest podcast and he talks to Sam Mitchell. Sam gets pretty cranky when Wolfson's brings up all the negatives about Wiggins and say people have no idea how lucky they are to have Towns and Wiggins on the team 2 guys that will grow to be superstars. I thought you might want to know that for once you may actually appreciate something Sam Mitchell ranted about. :)

[Coolbreeze44]

Not to change the subject (well actually yes) but what is going on with Wiggins and his ability to play bully ball near the basket? I didn't think we would see that yet in his development. But damn, when he wants to back someone in and power to the hoop it looks impressive. He's abused some people down low lately.

Thanks for pointing that out so have seen that too.

Cool, I just listened to Wolfson's latest podcast and he talks to Sam Mitchell. Sam gets pretty cranky when Wolfson's brings up all the negatives about Wiggins and say people have no idea how lucky they are to have Towns and Wiggins on the team 2 guys that will grow to be superstars. I thought you might want to know that for once you may actually appreciate something Sam Mitchell ranted about. :)

Thanks Monster. Sam was always high on Wig. And trust me, i know how fortunate we are to have him. Those that want to complain about his shortcomings are without.