Casspi Era Begins - Spurs at Wolves GDT

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I'm sure LST will declare Pop out coached Thibs. And while that may be true, you can't ignore our young players being outplayed by vet players...

don't forget Thibs needs to play our garbage bench more lol

I think both of Tim's comments are true...Pop clearly outcoached Thibs (well, to be fair, he outcoaches everyone), and our young players were outplayed by their vets. Thibs didn't go to his bench as much as Pop, but it wasn't the absurd difference he creates in most games. And I was at the game, and Wig was ridiculously tired in the last 5 minutes...tongue literally hanging out. Pop saw it and designed some plays to allow Kawhi to exploit the exhausted Wig...it was a complete mismatch at the end of the game after Wig played him really tough in the first half. But Tim is right...we probably lose last night even if the coaching was even, because the Spurs are simply a better team.

Bloop, not sure if your comment about Thibs needing to play the bench more is sincere or tongue in cheek. Last night the bench was a plus 25, and the starters were a minus 60, so I'm assuming your comment about the garbage bench is a shot at Thibs for not going to them enough, and you're right. And as I have pointed out, last night was not an aberration...our bench's +/- has been similar (or in some cases better) than our starters all season. YUgly at times, but generally effective...especially so last night.

But my biggest problem with Thibs last night was his continuing refusal to play our best plus/minus player...Tyus Jones, both last night and for the season. Tyus was a plus 10 in just 12 minutes, and was the catalyst in our terrific 2nd quarter...5 assists and 3 steals in the paltry minutes Thibs gave him. And he did this despite Thibs insisting on playing Tyus out of position...at SG rather than PG. Anybody watching the game last night could see how much better our second unit looked when Tyus was handling the ball rather than Dunn...it's just bizarre to me that Thibs gives the ball to Dunn when both of them are out there. And our entire section was screaming for Thibs to put Tyus in the game in the second half, but despite his great first half, Thibs only gave him a couple minutes in the second half. I don't get it, and neither did the crowd last night...it's like Thibs is watching a different game than the fans.

Is forcing Dunn into handling the ball, like earlier in the season when it was point Wiggins, just Thib's showing he is the smartest guy in the room? Or is he actually playing the long game (development) while soft-tanking?

Our bench has done a solid job all year "holding serve". This is not a bench designed to go out and recapture leads or break away. They are more of a defensive-oriented unit that normally doesn't make things worse.

As for Tyus, I think caution is advised. Yes, he's our top +/- guy on the season, but let's look at the Net Rating for the last 10 games:

Kris Dunn: +2.2
Tyus Jones: -4.8

Thibs used Tyus on a more of a spot basis earlier in the year, but lately he has been a regular part of the rotation. And his numbers appear to be coming back down to earth, as his offense especially has been nearly non-existent of late.

Fair points by both D'natagal and Q. Yeah, Thibs may be playing the long game by forcing Dunn to handle the ball, even though his PG game is not NBA ready. It may turn out to be a good long-term strategy, but I think Thibs doesn't understand the playoff frustration of the fan base. I'm convinced that a better move this year would have been to give Dunn 35 minutes in D-League and let Tyus back up Ricky...I think that would have both developed Dunn at PG at the pro level and given us a better chance at making the playoffs.

Q, your stats support what most of us have seen recently...Tyus has leveled off a little, and he hasn't been scoring. But Tuesday night he clearly deserved more minutes...he was distributing well on offense (although not scoring) and was incredibly disruptive on defense (he has a knack for anticipating sloppy passes, and had several deflections in addition to his three steals). I think Thibs blundered in not playing him more in the bad second half.

[Monster]

Dunn handles the ball because Tyus is out there partly because he can hit a 3. Dunn has been playing better lately. Dunn got the minutes in this game over Dunn because of his defense which was terrific.

Dieng was terrible down the stretch. I'll agree with LST Thibs shoulda played his bench...except I'm not sure Aldrich or Casspi would have ultimately been better.

It was a good game even though obviously frustrating. I thought the Wolves actually did a great job on Leonard. The problem was he got a chunk of easy buckets in transition. Bazz' defense whoever he was on was pretty good.

Good to see this team remembers how to play D.

Towns was like 4-12 at the half or something and then went on a tear the 2nd half.

Casspi was pretty good in the first half. The 2nd half he tried to do too much and bungled things up plenty. Im plenty willing to give him a pass as it was his first game with the team and for a few weeks. I'm glad we signed him. He looked short guarding Pau it was kinda amusing.