lipoli390 wrote:monsterpile wrote:thedoper wrote:monsterpile wrote:My thoughts on this game:
Wiggins was fantastic. He was everywhere at times getting steals deflections blocks and doing all the Q score stuff.
Bazz this was his best game. That deep post up he had where he got all the way into the paint and flipped a pass to a Towns for an easy look...Bazz might actually have figured out how to pass. Nifty. He hit a couple3's and attacked when it was advantageous for his game and passed in a transition possession too. Defense...not sure Jim pointed out one time where Ellington was wide open and he though Bazz made the correct rotation. I was thinking they should have brought in Brown (or MGH) as a shooter just to see what he could do but Bazz played well and actually hit 3's.
Tyus played well. He filled up the stat sheet and was aggressive looking for his shot. Brooks was just out there.
Dieng has a solid showing and Taj was good as usual.
Butler and Towns struggled and that's tough to win when those guys aren't playing well. It felt like a Towns got fouled a lot with no calls but that wasn't the difference in this game and you gotta play through it.
Most of the game I actually though the Wolves defense was ok. The effort was there most possessions as well. Miami made some tough baskets and got some breaks. The Wolves offense was not great at times but they also missed some easy buckets. It felt like most of the game the Wolves could have come roaring back at any point but it never came and a lot of credit goes to Miami. The Wolves were missing 2 very key players in this game. Really good teams overcome that but not every night. They didn't done it in this game but Miami is a solid deep team that is very well coached.
I had a similar view of the game. My biggest frustration was that the ball was going to KAT in the wrong time and space. No way should we not be able to rotate to him when Winslow was fronting him. I thought the nuances were the cost of losing Teague last minute. Winslow was on KAT a good portion of the game but the entry passes were really bad. I think we win that game with Teague. We're clearly still at a place where depth is a huge issue for us.
By the eye test Towns has just not been as dominate as a post scorer this year. Previously he was even eating up doubles at times and now it seems like some guys are able to frustrate him. People keep saying get Towns more touches and yes they probably should but for whatever reason (there are a number of factors) that has not seemed simple so far this season.
Monster -- Not getting KAT more touches looks like it's by design. When you're at the games you see multiple opportunities to get him the ball out high, but those opportunities are ignored. And that's true regardless of who the PG is. Then you see KAT being repeatedly posting up inside against big centers who effectively front him and deny him the ball. Yet, the Wolves continue to do the same thing without any adjustments. The offense should be designed around our best offensive player - which happens to be KAT. It's crystal clear watching these games that Thibs has no interest in doing that. I've noticed it and so have the guys sitting around me at games. It's painfully obvious. Our offense looks strikingly similar to the Bulls' office under Thibs years ago.
Lip thanks for your observations. I think what a lot of people haven't realized is what Thibs want to do is have an offense that's not centered around any one player. The idea is having multiple players on the floor at any time than can attack and play various roles at any time (heck Teague has a post game) which is exactly what GS does. That sounds good in theory and I think it's something most of us would like to see. How that comes to fruition and how it's being implemented and how effective that is...up for debate but I think that's the idea. The lack of shooting at this point hurts and also some of the Wolves lack of skills/experience playing this way hurts as well. Wiggins being able to be a more reliable 3 point shooter is a real key to any hope of this team being a pretty good offense. I keep feeling optimistic about Wiggins shooting though. They need to find/draft/develop some 3 point shooting for this team to really take off. Let's remember we are still early in year 2. These things take time.
Thinking through that lens it's easy to see why the Wolves struggle. They are often stuck between playing offense 3 different ways.
Running set plays
ISO
Moving the ball sharing etc the way everyone loves to watch the game and loves to see it. When this is clicking I think it tends to lead to guys getting the ball up the floor and getting quick baskets because they aren't thinking about what play or what iso to utilize.
We only have what we see on the floor. We don't know what Thibs and his staff have been and are working in practices on. What is he asking guys to do both as a team and individually? What is his end game at this point of the season or even just this season? He is very process driven which has its merits but at times can lead to lack of flow. You have to have some sort of process though. I see stretches where they utilize all of these ways to score and it looks pretty good regardless of whether they score a bucket or not. It would be nice if they could find/develop another glue type perimeter player that could do a little of everything like Taj does. I could see Tyus being part of the answer there but he needs to be able to score more and be able to hit 3's. He may be a year or more away from really being that guy consistently.
We want this team to arrive now but it's probably going to just be a pretty good playoff team this year before they really take another step and adding another player or 2 to the roster plus some more development may take it to that next level. Coaching is certainly part of that. I'm not ready to say Thibs can't get it done because he hasn't unlocked this team yet. It hasn't been encouraging but it's still early.
