Skinny vs Strong Wolves/Spurs GDT

[Brooklyn_Wolves [enjin:14608167]]

The Spurs just clamped down, my God those guys can play defense. There was no space out there.

Spurs did it because they have Leonard. Wiggins should have been parked in the weakside corner 3, further away from the action so KL stayed uninvolved the defense. And run Rubio/Tyus with KAT 2 man game. Play more Bazz if they wanted more scoring. But Wolves did the complete opposite and scored 35 points in 2 quarters plus OT. Thibs= bad head coach.

That's what we did the last time we played them and we got blown out. We just needed Wig to play better. It didn't happen and we lost. On to the next game.

Whaaaaat??? Excuse me Cool. But that some bs lies you just posted. I got to call that out.

Last time we didn't get blown out. http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201701170SAS.html

We didn't play any defense but we scored 114 on the Spurs while Wiggins only took 8 shots. Complete contrast to this game. So yeah, I'd rather Wiggins stays away from scoring inefficient point. But our HC has other point of view.

Yeah, maybe I don't recall that game as well as I thought, but if you look at the play by play the game was never in doubt from about the 9 minute mark of the 4th quarter. So not a blowout, but suffice to say it wasn't very competitive in the 4th quarter either.

The point is, using Andrew as a decoy isn't putting forth our best effort. We need him to be efficient for sure, but hiding him isn't going to be an effective strategy.

That game was pretty competitive, only down 2 after 3 Qs. It didn't come close to almost winning but wolves couldn't defend a chair that game. We locked them up this time but Thibs went Wiggins vs Leonard in the second half, got 28 points total !!!! and lost the game. I see that you and Thibs are totally fine losing as long as your boy Wiggy gets his shots. But I'm not. And I'm sure a guy like KAT is thrilled either plus the rest of the players. The whole team played inspired defense and worked hard. KAT got 20 in the first half. Wolves needed this game to try to stay in the race. Expecting Wiggins to beat Leonard is naive stupidity. It = tanking. It was proven multiple times. This game was so close and Thibs dropped the ball. The loss is on him and his postgame presser for bullshit.

[Coolbreeze44]

The Spurs just clamped down, my God those guys can play defense. There was no space out there.

Spurs did it because they have Leonard. Wiggins should have been parked in the weakside corner 3, further away from the action so KL stayed uninvolved the defense. And run Rubio/Tyus with KAT 2 man game. Play more Bazz if they wanted more scoring. But Wolves did the complete opposite and scored 35 points in 2 quarters plus OT. Thibs= bad head coach.

That's what we did the last time we played them and we got blown out. We just needed Wig to play better. It didn't happen and we lost. On to the next game.

Whaaaaat??? Excuse me Cool. But that some bs lies you just posted. I got to call that out.

Last time we didn't get blown out. http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201701170SAS.html

We didn't play any defense but we scored 114 on the Spurs while Wiggins only took 8 shots. Complete contrast to this game. So yeah, I'd rather Wiggins stays away from scoring inefficient point. But our HC has other point of view.

Yeah, maybe I don't recall that game as well as I thought, but if you look at the play by play the game was never in doubt from about the 9 minute mark of the 4th quarter. So not a blowout, but suffice to say it wasn't very competitive in the 4th quarter either.

The point is, using Andrew as a decoy isn't putting forth our best effort. We need him to be efficient for sure, but hiding him isn't going to be an effective strategy.

That game was pretty competitive, only down 2 after 3 Qs. It didn't come close to almost winning but wolves couldn't defend a chair that game. We locked them up this time but Thibs went Wiggins vs Leonard in the second half, got 28 points total !!!! and lost the game. I see that you and Thibs are totally fine losing as long as your boy Wiggy gets his shots. But I'm not. And I'm sure a guy like KAT is thrilled either plus the rest of the players. The whole team played inspired defense and worked hard. KAT got 20 in the first half. Wolves needed this game to try to stay in the race. Expecting Wiggins to beat Leonard is naive stupidity. It = tanking. It was proven multiple times. This game was so close and Thibs dropped the ball. The loss is on him and his postgame presser for bullshit.

My "boy" contributes as much to our wins as anyone. You need to deal with that.

[Brooklyn_Wolves [enjin:14608167]]

I enjoyed Wiggins and his run lately and don't hate the guy at a lot. But this game wasn't the right occasion to make him look good and shine. I don't have a problem with Wiggins. I have a problem with Thibs.

I also have a problem with this

I'd rather lose with Wiggins than try to win without him. Over the long haul you're going to be much better off.

It's not Minnesota Wiggins.

[Coolbreeze44]

I enjoyed Wiggins and his run lately and don't hate the guy at a lot. But this game wasn't the right occasion to make him look good and shine. I don't have a problem with Wiggins. I have a problem with Thibs.

I also have a problem with this

I'd rather lose with Wiggins than try to win without him. Over the long haul you're going to be much better off.

It's not Minnesota Wiggins.

BW, you're not the brightest bulb in the tanning bed are you?

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Thanks for the rebuttal, monster and kekgeek...I'm going to defer to your observation because you guys saw the game and I didn't, so I can't conclude on whether our 4th quarter and OT collapse was due to fatigue or other factors. I'm lucky to have a bunch of games coming up in the next couple weeks that I get to see in person (I was thinking we would be in a playoff race when I selected my games, so I loaded up on end of season games), so my observations will have more validity.

A couple things I think we all agree on: this is an upset we could have had, and it sure is more fun when we can play teams like the Spurs even.

[Brooklyn_Wolves [enjin:14608167]]

I enjoyed Wiggins and his run lately and don't hate the guy at a lot. But this game wasn't the right occasion to make him look good and shine. I don't have a problem with Wiggins. I have a problem with Thibs.

I also have a problem with this

I'd rather lose with Wiggins than try to win without him. Over the long haul you're going to be much better off.

It's not Minnesota Wiggins.

BW, you're not the brightest bulb in the tanning bed are you?

Huh? just fuck off then if you want to play the insults game. I guess anything that comes in the way of your crazy Wiggins love gets your really upset.

[Coolbreeze44]

I enjoyed Wiggins and his run lately and don't hate the guy at a lot. But this game wasn't the right occasion to make him look good and shine. I don't have a problem with Wiggins. I have a problem with Thibs.

I also have a problem with this

I'd rather lose with Wiggins than try to win without him. Over the long haul you're going to be much better off.

It's not Minnesota Wiggins.

BW, you're not the brightest bulb in the tanning bed are you?

Huh? just fuck off then if you want to play the insults game. I guess anything that comes in the way of your crazy Wiggins love gets your really upset.

You instigated this petty exchange, not me.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

A few other thoughts on the game....


- If anything, Thibs is consistent. He loves using the "point Wiggins" approach in crunch time, but it failed miserably last night. The thing I don't understand is why the hell we didn't go for a 2-for-1 when there was like 40 seconds left and we had the ball with a tied game.

- I kind of wonder if Thibs is partially taking a long view, force-feeding the ball to Wiggins even when he knows the odds are against him like last night. My guess is he's hoping that all these reps in crunch time against elite defenders will eventually pay dividends in the years ahead.

- I've mentioned this before but Wiggins needs to spend this summer working on his pick and roll ball handling and passing skills. There is so much room for improvement in a) learning how to set up the screen appropriately, b) reading how the defense reacts to the screen, and c) finding open guys off the bounce. This means instead of hours working with Drew Hanlen on iso-moves and shot making, he needs to get into a more dynamic, multi-player environment where they can replicate screen and roll defenses.

- KAT and Dieng need to learn how to stay down defensively. KAT especially bites so damn often on close outs and gets himself totally out of position. One of the things I've always noticed about San Antonio bigs like Duncan and now Aldridge and Gasol is that they let their size and length do the work for them and almost never leave their feet. It helps so much with defensive positioning and ensuring you don't allow your man a clear path to the hoop or uncontested jumper.

- Only San Antonio finds a guy like Dewayne Dedmon and turns him into a legit defensive starting Center. I realize he doesn't play a ton of minutes, but he's very productive while he's on the floor. Costs less $3M per season. Meanwhile, we sign Cole Aldrich for the same amount and he averages about 2 minutes per game.

- Tyus Jones is starting to show some limitations. While I'm fine with him being in the regular rotation, we saw last night how he just isn't a match against a top notch playoff team in crunch time. He had a tough time of it out there.

Well, 'nuff said about this tilt. We played them tough.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Preview of what it will be like with Rubio in a playoff series.

So being up 3 points with 4 to play. I like it

BOOM!

Rubio hasn't been great, but he's been a big part of the defensive effort. The problem with Duke is he only comes 'round here when Rubio struggles or he needs someone to post an Insider article. Otherwise, we rarely get an original thought from him.

He's just pissed that he's gone full Porkchop and isn't allowed back on the bandwagon. ;)

Trolling (noun): 1) dragging a lure or other form of bait behind a boat in an attempt to catch fish, 2) posting an absurd negative post on a message board about a player who has just posted a triple double with three steals against the best defensive team in the NBA.

[Monster]

A few other thoughts on the game....


- If anything, Thibs is consistent. He loves using the "point Wiggins" approach in crunch time, but it failed miserably last night. The thing I don't understand is why the hell we didn't go for a 2-for-1 when there was like 40 seconds left and we had the ball with a tied game.

- I kind of wonder if Thibs is partially taking a long view, force-feeding the ball to Wiggins even when he knows the odds are against him like last night. My guess is he's hoping that all these reps in crunch time against elite defenders will eventually pay dividends in the years ahead.

- I've mentioned this before but Wiggins needs to spend this summer working on his pick and roll ball handling and passing skills. There is so much room for improvement in a) learning how to set up the screen appropriately, b) reading how the defense reacts to the screen, and c) finding open guys off the bounce. This means instead of hours working with Drew Hanlen on iso-moves and shot making, he needs to get into a more dynamic, multi-player environment where they can replicate screen and roll defenses.

- KAT and Dieng need to learn how to stay down defensively. KAT especially bites so damn often on close outs and gets himself totally out of position. One of the things I've always noticed about San Antonio bigs like Duncan and now Aldridge and Gasol is that they let their size and length do the work for them and almost never leave their feet. It helps so much with defensive positioning and ensuring you don't allow your man a clear path to the hoop or uncontested jumper.

- Only San Antonio finds a guy like Dewayne Dedmon and turns him into a legit defensive starting Center. I realize he doesn't play a ton of minutes, but he's very productive while he's on the floor. Costs less $3M per season. Meanwhile, we sign Cole Aldrich for the same amount and he averages about 2 minutes per game.

- Tyus Jones is starting to show some limitations. While I'm fine with him being in the regular rotation, we saw last night how he just isn't a match against a top notch playoff team in crunch time. He had a tough time of it out there.

Well, 'nuff said about this tilt. We played them tough.

Good thoughts Q.

Q Drew Hansen seems to have a very pragmatic approach (which is very Wiggins like). I don't remember if he said (when I heard him interviewed last offseason) what they have planned for this offseason but he has a plan for Wiggins and they have pretty much stick to it. I think wiggins made some nice progress last offseason in 2 of his weakest aspects offensively shooting and handling the ball. Pretty impressive actually.

Despite biting a few times on pump fakes the Wolves still did a pretty good job on Aldridge. Towns especially does need to do a better job on staying down all over the court. Belly has really improved this season in how he closes out on the perimeter.

The thing with Dedmon is why the heck did nobody else sign the guy cheap? I watched him play in Orlando a decent chunk. Look up the guy's per 36 numbers. The Spurs system obviously makes a lot of guys better but Dedmon is basically doing a lot of what he was doing in Orlando. Let's remember we are only months into Thibs system and he has already gotten Bazz to play defense Rubio to look for his shot and be somewhat successful and after a poor start to the year having pretty much a career year. Aldrich is in a tough spot because Towns and Dieng start and are both more centers than PF so that keeps Cole off the floor and Belly is the more versatile player. I think Cole can still have value but it's more of a numbers thing than him not succeeding here. As for other cheap players that could be useful in this system...I think Payne's illness is a bad deal for a number of reasons but I'm somewhat convinced they see something in the guy as a cheap deeper bench player. He was getting minutes over Jordon Hill earlier in the year and I wonder if he was available over the past few weeks if he would have gotten a rotation over Cole in a couple matchups. He has the theoretical skills and some nice physical gifts to be somewhat versatile off the bench. He plays with a bit of a streak which is kinda nice too with these nice guys that don't dish it out a lot of the time. That's my speculation they value him somewhat but I saw in the box score of the Spurs game he didn't travel with them. Hopefully the guy can get healthy regardless of basketball.

If that's a limited or bad game from Tyus against a really good team like the Spurs...I'll take it. :)