The winning DOES NOT start tonight - Wolves at Jazz GDT

[mjs34]

Thad gets 0.9 more RPG in twice the amount of playing time. Bennett is no Love, but he's the best rebounding 4 on our team and that is a huge weakness for us.

I never said Thad was a great rebounder. But let's cool the talk that Bennett's so much better that he'll make a sizeable difference on the glass. That's while he stands on the perimeter on offense as shots go up. And while he's lost on defense.

"Great rebounder"! Thad is a horseshit rebounder, and defender, and Bennett already knows more about playing D than Thad does. Have you watched Thad's effort at guarding a PnR? He's more lost on D than our rookies. Bennett out rebounds him by over 60% on a per minute basis. That is a sizable difference.

[Lipoli390]

Some good points there, sjm. The one point I disagree with you on is Flip closing the game out with Mo instead of Zach. While Mo is not a good defender, Zach isn't either (yet), and Mo is clearly the better offensive PG. Flip is still playing to win, and I agree with him that Mo is our best option at PG to close out games.

Damn, I wish Rubio would hurry back...

Actually, Long, Zach is a significantly better,bed fender than Mo. That says more about Mo than it does Zach, but it's the reality. Unless Mo is on fire from the perimeter he's a huge liability for the Wolves. Having Zach rather than Mo on the court improves our defense and our offensive flow. .

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Some good points there, sjm. The one point I disagree with you on is Flip closing the game out with Mo instead of Zach. While Mo is not a good defender, Zach isn't either (yet), and Mo is clearly the better offensive PG. Flip is still playing to win, and I agree with him that Mo is our best option at PG to close out games.

Damn, I wish Rubio would hurry back...

Actually, Long, Zach is a significantly better,bed fender than Mo. That says more about Mo than it does Zach, but it's the reality. Unless Mo is on fire from the perimeter he's a huge liability for the Wolves. Having Zach rather than Mo on the court improves our defense and our offensive flow. .

I don't particularly like either one defensively, lip, or offensively for that matter. But it's preposterous to suggest that Zach gives us a better chance to win at the end of games...and Flip is well aware of this. I'm not giving up on Zach, not at all, but he's an exceptionally raw rookie, and can't be expected to understand yet the complexities of NBA offense and defense, and this is reflected in his absurdly horrible stats. Plus/minus is admittedly not the cleanest stat, but it does give a good indication of how a team is performing while that player is on the floor. And Zach's RPM of -6.61 is the worst in the league, and considerably worse than Mo.

http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/page/2/sort/RPM/position/1

If Zach improves our defense and offensive flow, how can you explain his terrible +/-, especially considering he usually plays with starters and Mo with reserves? Zach wins on potential, to be sure, but I can't find ant statistical evidence to suggest he gives us a better chance of winning than Mo.