longstrangetrip wrote:I like how Flip has worked his rotations this year for the most part, but keeping an ineffective Wiggins in the game at crunch time instead of a red hot Shabazz puzzles me.
With Mo, Martin, Thad and Pek on the floor Wiggins is the 5th option, but he's the best defender on the floor. I don't know how you call a guy who hardly touches the ball down the stretch in games ineffective. Did he even touch the ball in the last few minutes tonight?
Pek is a solid player at the right time and against the right matchups. He is a lousy, lousy crunch-time center. But I have no problem with Flip giving him his opportunity in that role. It won't be long until Dieng becomes the crruch-time center, or he goes small.
And it won't be long until Zach is finishing these games instead of Mo (at least until Rubio comes back).
Also Pek's help D and PnR D tonight was awful. 19 and 9 with good man D is nice, but we don't have good enough perimeter defenders where his defensive deficiencies aren't big problems.
longstrangetrip wrote:I like how Flip has worked his rotations this year for the most part, but keeping an ineffective Wiggins in the game at crunch time instead of a red hot Shabazz puzzles me.
With Mo, Martin, Thad and Pek on the floor Wiggins is the 5th option, but he's the best defender on the floor. I don't know how you call a guy who hardly touches the ball down the stretch in games ineffective. Did he even touch the ball in the last few minutes tonight?
No, and that's kind of my point. I don't think his teammates trusted him with the ball at the end. Bazz, on the other hand, scored 13 in 11 minutes.
I get that Wiggins is a better defender, but he was ineffective against Wade. That's no slam on Wiggins' defense, because nobody on our team was going to stop Wade tonight.
khans2k5 wrote:Also Pek's help D and PnR D tonight was awful. 19 and 9 with good man D is nice, but we don't have good enough perimeter defenders where his defensive deficiencies aren't big problems.
Really nice game for Shabazz, made several plays that won't show up in the box score but were big for the Wolves run. LaVine impressed me with his play, I thought he would be overwhelmed. Pek's help defense was atrocious and he should have had a better first half on offense, but the hate he is getting here is way overblown.
Martin was pretty, pretty, pretty bad on D tonight. Mo needs to step up with his scoring. Dieng needs to be more disciplined when it comes to fouling. Budinger, man Budinger.
Overall this game is closer than I thought it was going to be, especially with Rubio out. Really happy for LaVine and Shabazz
Well, they fought hard after a miserable first quarter, so I can't complain about their effort. A few other thoughts:
- Very surprised that Flip started LaVine. And while he didn't do half-bad, you noticed how conservative he was too. He really didn't create much of anything in half-court sets and instead tried to avoid mistakes. But all in all, I thought he comported himself pretty well.
- Wiggins needs to make his presence felt more in the "do shit" types of stats. Not enough rebounds, loose balls, putbacks, charges taken, steals, etc. for a guy of his athleticism.
- Shabazz is a liability when he's not scoring, but tonight he had it going. Good for him.
- Dieng's offense and rebounding has been very good this year. That being said, he still struggles defensively one-on-one. Very good team defender, poor man defender.
khans2k5 wrote:Also Pek's help D and PnR D tonight was awful. 19 and 9 with good man D is nice, but we don't have good enough perimeter defenders where his defensive deficiencies aren't big problems.
He's the opposite of Dieng, who is pretty damn good on help and PnR, but gets schooled one on one.
60 WinTim---Pek is a solid player at the right time and against the right matchups. He is a lousy, lousy crunch-time center. But I have no problem with Flip giving him his opportunity in that role. It won't be long until Dieng becomes the crruch-time center, or he goes small.
And it won't be long until Zach is finishing these games instead of Mo (at least until Rubio comes back).
Great Post
I think its a shame Ricky is out a month, because he looked to be headed to the next level. Hopefully he picks up where he left off. I am looking at this a s a blessing in disguise, for Zach's development. He will get more burn now. I hope we dispense with the marginal vets like Bud, and go with Bennett, Baz, Zach and Wiggins. As Kiwi said, they are the future. We weren't going to the playoffs anyway. Dieng will beat out Pek this year, I think and start. Someone said Pek is good in certain situations, he is a 12 m a year situational player
People are actually pissing me off when they are talking about Pek, just three days ago people were like "PEK SMASH" when he worked Lopez. Today people are like Pek sucks, he is a rotation player, situation player. Bosh is damn good player, he made some tough shots down the stretch. Yes Pek has his weaknesses, but Gorgui was getting worked by bosh as well, and he was making a lot easier baskets against him, and Gorgui was fouling a lot more.
Pek is a top 6 Center in the NBA, why can't we be happy that we have two good centers on the roster, Pek is worth every damn penny.
Is is possible the we lost to a better team, I would say yes.
