Pinch Hitter

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Wolves need to take a run at Mathews next off season. Would be a perfect fit on this team. I was pretty impressed with the way they played tonight. Take away the five "ridiculous" points they made on bank shots, and the wolves were right in the game all the way. Thought the officiating got a little stupid inside late in the game. They let a lot of stuff go early on, and then starting making some phantom calls.

Not sure why Bennett didn't play more. Thought he looked really good defensively early on, and except for two non calls against Kaman and Lopez, he seemed aggressive inside on the offensive end as well. I am not seeing the love for Young that Flip exhibits. Young as a nice running left layup, but other than doesn't seem to do much. Bennett is likely our best interior defender. He seems to be the only one that understands how to cover the PnR effectively.

Shabazz is definitely a scorer in this league. That was the one thing Flip seemed sure about after drafting him, and he is being proven right. If he can start consistently using his right hand, it will be impossible to stop him. Not as worried about his D, because I think our biggest problem is playing too much zone, and guys just don't seem to understand the spacing needed. We need to go back to more man D, and use the zone in short stints. Using it against a team like Portland was just foolish.

Shabazz did two things I never saw before. First, he turned to his left shoulder and put up a righty push shot, which was mentioned above. Second, he turned to his left shoulder (again) and put up a more conventional turnaround jumper, using his left hand this time. Either way, it's massive progress for him to start developing a reliable counter to that lefty push shot he likes where he turns baseline. I think the next step for him is to start pump-faking on that shot and see if he can get defenders up in the air. He could turn into a real free-throw generating machine.

[Carlos Danger]

The elephant in the room is the defense. Good teams make them look silly at times. Examples would be when our guys run out to cover and the other team calmly pump fakes and then dribbles in for an easy/uncontested shot. Or when they dribble in on us, our guys all collapse leaving someone wide open/uncontested for three. And our rebounding on defense hasn't been good either. The effort seems to be there on defense, but the results are not. Flip needs to get that straightened out as his #1 priority. We have enough talent - it shouldn't be that bad on defense.

[Coolbreeze44]

The elephant in the room is the defense. Good teams make them look silly at times. Examples would be when our guys run out to cover and the other team calmly pump fakes and then dribbles in for an easy/uncontested shot. Or when they dribble in on us, our guys all collapse leaving someone wide open/uncontested for three. And our rebounding on defense hasn't been good either. The effort seems to be there on defense, but the results are not. Flip needs to get that straightened out as his #1 priority. We have enough talent - it shouldn't be that bad on defense.

The real culprit is dribble penetration. Everything breaks down as a result of that.

[Carlos Danger]

The real culprit is dribble penetration. Everything breaks down as a result of that.

It's everything on defense. Right now, (per Basketball Reference) they have the worst defensive rating in 25 year Timberwolves history.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Wow, worst in 25 years? This is obviously not just about Ricky's injury. That is a complete breakdown from the coaching staff on down through every player. I agree that the effort is generally there. It's amazing that we can be this bad defensively while actually trying hard. Flip's use of the zone does only one thing well: It forces the opposing team to eat more of the shotclock before they make their open shot. When we play man-on-man, the open shot generally happens much earlier!

[Carlos Danger]

Wow, worst in 25 years? This is obviously not just about Ricky's injury. That is a complete breakdown from the coaching staff on down through every player. I agree that the effort is generally there. It's amazing that we can be this bad defensively while actually trying hard. Flip's use of the zone does only one thing well: It forces the opposing team to eat more of the shotclock before they make their open shot. When we play man-on-man, the open shot generally happens much earlier!

Yep. I just went to the Franchise Index page and sorted by Drating:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/MIN/

It's worse than the Jimmy Rogers era. I just don't understand why? We have talented/athletic guys. They look like they are trying to play defense. But...it's sort of like they are all Corey Brewers (very active, but not really effective). They over pursue or try to do too much (like jump when they should just stand tall). No matter how hard they try, it seems like the other team ends up with a wide open/uncontested shot. I like Flip, but I feel most of this falls on him to fix. It shouldn't be this bad. I'm sure he's well aware and trying.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Agree, it seems to be discipline more than anything. Stay down on pump fakes, don't ball-watch, keep arms straight up and avoid the tick-tack foul, etc. Let's just hope this is a maturity issue. The fastest way for us to get better is to play better defense. I bet if we had Thibs, Skiles, or Joerger as coach, we would instantly see a change for the better.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

We have little to no perimeter defense on this team and Dieng isn't a good enough backstop yet. Pretty much anybody can get to the paint at will and since we don't have enough shot blocking on the court we have to help on every drive. So the offensive outcomes are pretty much 1) open look at the rim when we don't help 2) open look as a result of a pass to the open player the help defender left, and 3) free throws from fouling. We just can't stop anything reasonably well so everything is an available offensive weapon and the other team just has to pick which option is open on any given play for an open look. Until we take away the drive all together, the shot at the hoop as a result of the drive or we stay home on everybody we have no chance.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

Our bad defense definitely stands out, and pretty much everybody is to blame. As athletic and long as we are, we can't guard guys on the perimeter or intimidate shooters down low. I haven't checked the stats, but it seems like we get a lot of steals, and with Young, Brewer, and hopefully Wiggins coming along and Rubio getting back, we should get even more. We can't keep bigs out of the paint is a big problem. We actually give up weight at most positions most games. We are a skinny, skinny team. That's part of why our guards are not very good at fighting through picks, so the pick and roll game hurts us. Adrien should help us get some size (and Pek and Turiaf when they get back), but we're getting beat for rebounds and guys are getting backed down way too easily, and their bigs (and wings) are getting post position too easily. And it doesn't seem like we're communicating very well on defense. The teams that move the ball really start to break us down. When teams try to go one on one, usually we are ok there, Young and Wiggins in particular depending on the matchup. Some games, like last night, Lilliard just blew past Williams and LaVine at will though (where it would be nice to have a Lowry type bulldog defensive guard). But it's really the passing that is neutralizing our length and athleticism. And in a way, using it against us. We have off-the ball stealers who all like to gamble on passes. If they don't get the steal, the smart opponents realize one defender is out of position and start passing the ball, when the help comes, they just pass it to the next open guy and eventually somebody has an open shot. That seems to be what's killing us the most. It would be better if our guys sat down a little bit, tried to play defense with their bodies more then their hands, and if guys started getting much more vocal about calling out picks.