G2 Playoffs Baby! Wolves vs Rockets GTD

[WildWolf2813]

It's a public shaming Towns deserves.

[Lipoli390]

We just lost a game vs. Houston by 20 with James Harden posting 12/4/7. With a second straight game of Wiggins being arguably our best player. These were both winnable games, and we should absolutely be at least 1-1 right now if either of our "Superstars" decided to show up.

Thibs has his faults, and I'm not a fan of him. Yet, a coach is far less important in-game than many here choose to believe.

No more excuses for our players.

Yes, no more excuses for our players. But no more excuses for our head coach and his iso offense or our president of basketball operations who (1) brought in 3 of our 5 starters as "his guys" on big contracts, including one of those two "superstars" you alluded to, (2) signed Jamaal Crawford as our sole rotation wing off the bench, (3) signed Gorgui to a lucrative, long-term extension as our sole rotation big off the bench, (4) failed to add any bona fide upper eschelon 3-point shooters to the roster in two full years, and (5) failed to sign any of the multiple free agents available this season for minimum salaries who are providing major contributions to playoff teams -- e.g., Belinelli, Ilyasova, Gerald Green, Corey Brewer. As for the head coach, who of course happens to be the same guy as our PBO, we all saw the color-coated chart showing that this team fails to defend the three and instead focuses on guarding mid-range jumpers. That's been all season and it has to be by design.

So yes, the players have to be held accountable for poor play. But accountability doesn't end there. And in any successful organization, accountability ultimately rests at the top. That means fans holding Glen Taylor accountable and Glen Taylor, in turn, holding his PBO and head coach accountable. Thibodeau will have another summer to supplement or modify the roster and he'll have at least part of next season to get this team to where some thought it was going this season as head coach. But if the goal is championship contention as it should be, this series so far underscores just how far this team still has to go. So let's see what happens Saturday and Monday back at Target Center. We've been a good home team and I think KAT will come alive. Get the win on Saturday and then fight like hell to win a second game on Monday. That would make us feel a lot better about Thibs and his players.

[crazy-canuck [enjin:18955461]]

IE: Thibs' offense.

I read somewhere that his offense has always been to have the pg or wing constantly attacking the rim in isos and create off of that. It worked before when he had an MVP in Rose. But now he is doing it with Teague, Crawford, Rose, Butler, and sometimes wiggins. Thibs is constantly talking about spacing, so I think he thinks having guys planted in the corner ie Kat and wiggins is creating space for his main guys to have more room to get to the rim. Problem is our best offensive player is KAT. Thibs is clearly not adapting to what he has around him. Thibs needs to play through KAt like he did with Noah.

Biggest adjustment Id like to see made is to play Tyus a little more with the starters in order to bring some post passing and defense on their guards. Then have teague run the offense more with the second unit to limit the damage that Crawford creates. I love Taj, but having him share his minutes a little more with Bjelly would help. There isnt enough draw and kick action for Bjelly with that second unit, so I think hed get more opportunities with Jimmy and wiggs driving and kicking rather than Rose and Crawford using him as a bailout option. Taj would also help stabilize the bench unit for stretches.

And lastly stagger Wiggs and Butler so at least one of them is on the floor at all times much like how DAntoni uses Harden and CP3.

[crazy-canuck [enjin:18955461]]

I also think Butler and taj are playing hurt, and this losing isnt exactly making it easy for them to fight through the pain.

[crazy-canuck [enjin:18955461]]

If wiggins performed the way towns performed on offense in the first 2 games, this board will have twice the posts calling for his head. .

Yup, nothing brings traffic to a timberwolves and basketball forums like a bad game from wiggins.

[kekgeek]

Let's be honest. Some it comes down to coaching no doubt. But Kat has averaging 7 pts per game in the playoffs on 27% shooting 33% from the line 0 2nd chance pts in the series. We have ripped Wiggins all year rightfully so. But this is towns lost and 3rd lowest outputs all season.

Yes. But it's just too easy to guard the Wolves because the ball doesn't move and neither do our players without the ball. It's beyond incredible to watch players take up position in our offense and barely move on nearly every single possession. Time and again, you see Teague fail to get the ball to guys early when they're in better position to score, especially in the case of KAT. So KAT has to literally wrestle with the opposing team's center just to get the ball and then he typically has a double team thrown at him once he gets it. Has KAT failed to take advantage of opportunities and missed shots he generally makes? Yes. But so has Butler. And how about Teague's 4 turnovers in 19 minutes tonight? Lots of blame to go around, including KAT, but also including Butler, Teague, Crawford and our head coach. I love Taj, but he hasn't exactly done much this series. We're overmatched in this series, but that's no surprise. What's worse is that I think this team would be down 2-0 to any of the other playoff teams in the West except perhaps the Spurs.

Ya lot of blame to go around. When Wiggins is the only one that has shown up we are in trouble and it's not like Wiggins has dominated.

But if you are suppose to be an all star, top 15 player in the world. The next young superstar. You can't average 7 pts on 27% shooting and 33% from the line. Who cares how you are getting guarded you are a superstar, now prove it

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

After reading all the angst in this thread about how poorly the Wolves played, I'm feeling grateful this morning that I was busy last night and didn't have to suffer through this one. So, we lost by 20...is anyone really that surprised? We lost four games by an average of 16 points this season, so it sounds like this one played out just like it should have. My position hasn't changed...I still wish the Wolves had dropped that last game to Denver and missed the playoffs. Rather than looking at a sweep (or possible 4-1 defeat), we would likely be talking about who our new coach might be and who we were going to pick with the 14th and 20th picks. I hear the argument that this team needs playoff experience, but I would argue that a "bad" experience is a negative...not a positive. I read about analysts saying this is the dumbest team in the league, and I think they are talking more about the coach than the players...I'm not aware of any of these guys being described as "dumb" before they were under the tutelage of Tom Thibodeau.

I'll skip watching Game 3 too because I just find the style of this team too painful to watch, but I'm hungry enough for a live playoff game after 14 years that I will use my tickets next Monday. But I'm not optimistic about this team, and won't be until Glen hires a coach that moves us into the 21st century.

[Lipoli390]

If wiggins performed the way towns performed on offense in the first 2 games, this board will have twice the posts calling for his head.

I think towns did well on defense tonight but he still got outplayed by capela. I trust towns and i believe he will bounce back strong. Making the playoffs and playing in these games will benefit Kat and Wig in the long run.

I agree.

I think the likely reaction to Wiggins you refer to stems from frustration over him having a lot of horrible games over the course of his career so far, his failure to improve and how far he's fallen short over time of the lofty expectations we all put on him as the #1 pick. Also, Wiggins has been in the League a year longer than KAT. I think those are the reasons we would likely have seen a higher volume of negative posts if Wiggins had been as bad as KAT last night. There's just a lower tolerance factor for Wiggins, but the tolerance factor for KAT will shrink absent improvement from him on both ends of the floor. Yet, the good news is that KAT played much better defensively last night. And the equally good news is that Wiggins played well overall last night. He was rebounding, hustling and attacking. I really appreciated the way he played last night. I still don't think he's been used in ways that optimize his strenghts and minimize his weaknesses.

Back to the bad news. The Wolves are nowhere close to a championship caliber team. More bad news is that the Wolves have no cap room and no really good trade assets. We have to depend on the MLE and vet minimum contracts to improve. Even more bad news is that last year's first round pick, Patton, has shown absolutely no sign that he'll ever be an NBA-caliber player assuming he even gets over his foot problems. Final bad news is that the same guy will remain as both head coach and PBO at least well into and probably though all of next season. There I go again, Thibodeau-bashing. :)

[AbeVigodaLive]

NEXT DAY RECAP:

- Name the last All NBA type player to post this bad of a stat line once he hit the playoffs:
5 - 18 fg... and 2 - 6 ft... over two games. I can't think of one right now. It's been HISTORICALLY bad.

But I heard last night on a podcast where Thibs was still blamed. I'm not saying the coaching staff shouldn't take heat. I've been very disappointed. But to absolve KAT for this is a terrible terrible take. He took several terrible shots. He's missing free throws. The stage looks too big.

But what scares me most is what I've harped on repeatedly this year. If KAT and Wiggins keep getting rewarded (and given excuses) while being heaped with praise without much criticism... WHY would they do what they need to do to improve? Where's the incentive? I want more than hollow "nice-speak" from KAT after this series. It's gonna be Year 4 for him. And Year 5 for Wiggins.

Talk is cheap. Show me. Your "young" card expired. Superstar players transcend bad coaching... see Mike Brown, Joe Prunty, Byron Scott, et al.

- Harden shot 2 - 18 fg in Game 2. And Houston had two of its worst shooting games of the season in this series. (Better D from the Wolves helps.) And yet the Wolves still haven't really had a chance to win. Yikes. These teams aren't remotely close to the same level.

I think we all knew that. But it's a real eye-opener to have it staring at you. The Wolves aren't nearly as close to competing as most of us thought... and the long-term outlook looks the bleakest it has since before KAT arrived.

- Gerald Green. I get the three pointers. He's open and he's going to make some. But he also had 7 rebounds in his first 9 minutes... and 12 for the game.

- Timberwolves centers shot 3 - 17 (17.6%). Houston's centers are 17 - 24 (71%) for the series. Obviously... they're not getting the same looks.

- Don't know what to write about Butler. He's been mostly absent offensively. And he really fucked up the end of Game 1. But Harden shot 2 - 18 fg and Butler played him tough yesterday. And... how much of his disappearance has to do with injury?

- FIVE. The number of times the Rockets have done the sweep through move behind the 3-point line in the first two games. Do the Wolves have 5 of those plays in franchise history?

- Officiating. Yes. It's "not fair." Yes. It's "terrible." But has anybody been watching non-Wolves games (especially in the playoffs) for the past 30 years? I hate the discrepancy, too. But I'm also an NBA fan. It's simply how it is. We can't act surprised at this point. It works financially for the league. The rub is that the Wolves were supposed to have two guys or even three who were supposed to get those "superstar" calls. Only they're not savvy enough yet... and they're not actual superstars.

That being said... I've ripped it often... the travel calls on Bjelica and Dieng over the past 3 years are so frustrating. Seriously, I give them credit for not going apeshit crazy in a game over one of them. No-name bigs and Europeans really have an uphill climb in today's NBA.

- On a team with James Harden and Chris Paul in front of the camera constantly mugging for calls... PJ Tucker is more annoying?!?! I dig the energy and heart he plays with. But my gawd does he bitch about the most obvious foul calls. He fouls a lot. That's part of his charm/talent. Honestly. But complaining after even the most egregious ones is too much for me.

- Curious how the crowd will be in Minneapolis. Because I'm not sensing any optimism surrounding this team right now. Will the 14-year layoff trump that? Or, will it cement just how shitty of an organization this has been... and how far it still has to go?

[BloopOracle]

"But what scares me most is what I've harped on repeatedly this year. If KAT and Wiggins keep getting rewarded (and given excuses) while being heaped with praise without much criticism... WHY would they do what they need to do to improve? Where's the incentive? I want more than hollow "nice-speak" from KAT after this series. It's gonna be Year 4 for him. And Year 5 for Wiggins."

This is why I am still happy making the playoffs even against Houston, Towns and Wiggins are getting consistently killed by the national media. They may very well flame out in the end anyway but at least they are FINALLY getting criticism instead of Hakeem comparisons and max contracts for empty stats.