Minnesota Sports Forum

kekgeek1 wrote:

SameOldNudityDrew wrote:Have we talked about how Thibs seems to be mixing his lineups more and more lately? Unless I haven't been paying attention, I feel like I'm seeing combinations out there I'm not used to seeing that often and I appreciate that he's trying out new lineups. Seems like he's trying to get Gorgui and KAT more burn together, and sometimes putting KAT or Butler or Wiggins out there with the backups and really running the offense through one of those three.

I like it. It may cost us a bit of chemistry here and there, maybe even a game if we have a bad combination at the wrong time, but if it helps to discover more potent combinations *gulp* in case we need them for the playoffs, I'm all for it!

To go on that, Thibs in the post game press conference mentioned Tyus and Teague playing together, it was the first time all season where he seemed like it might happen this season.

I have to give Thibs a ton of credit for this turn around, I didn't expect this to happen this season, But hopes of possibly winning 2 playoff series are in my mind and not saying it is going to happen but the thought of it is not impossible to me like I thought it was at the beginning of the year.

lipoli390 wrote:

Camden wrote:Agreed on all accounts except I wasn't as thrilled with the bench production as you were, Lip. I was pleased with Bjelica's play, watching him chase his man off screens from baseline to baseline, grabbing five boards, and drilling a three-pointer. Thought he was the best of the bunch, actually.

Besides him, it was kind of meh on that front. Tyus was good in the 12 minutes he played (4 pts, 2 ast, 2 stl), but half of those minutes were when the game was already decided.

Dieng played 20 minutes, grabbed five rebounds and added two blocked shots. That's not a bad outing by any means with those numbers -- also not worth $15M annually, but I digress. What the box score doesn't specifically map out is how he continued his "guide the ballhandler to the rim and THEN try to block the shot against the glass" routine. He got one of them, but was burned a handful of times from just that. Very frustrating to watch despite all the other good things happening in the game. I believe his defense came up short tonight and that led to his -3 plus/minus in a game where everyone that played 10 minutes or more was a positive... except for him.

Lastly, Crawford just couldn't get much to go down tonight. He finished with 10 points in 20 minutes, but it was highly inefficient offense. 3-9 from the floor, 2-7 from three. To be fair, he's been hitting quite often the past month, but I can't consider that a good outing.

Luckily, our entire starting five played a hell of a game. Every starter was in double digits -- three 20+ scorers -- and all shot better than 50% from the floor. And it's worth mentioning that they did their damage in less minutes than usual, noticeably Teague, Gibson, and Wiggins playing 31 or less minutes. They straight up pulverized Portland and I expect Orlando to get smashed in similar fashion.

I generally agree with you on Gorgui's play last night. I saw him as the weakest link in the second unit. I'm not a big fan of plus minus, but that stat supports your take on Gorgui.

I disagree with your take on Tyus. He actually got the vast majority of his minutes in the 2nd quarter, which was the Wolves best quarter defensively. He was key in turning things around after a pretty poor 1st quarter front the Wolves, especially defensively. As usual, he did a terrific job of running the offense and he was a disruptive force on the defensive end. His plus/minus was positive, but it would be even better if he hadn't also played a few minutes at the end with the scrubs when we went from a 24-point lead to a 17-point win.

Crawford's shot was off last night and I'd say the plus/minus overstates his contribution. Yet, he played well defensively and brought his usual great energy while also hitting some big shots.

I agree that Belly was the best of the second unit last night. He's finally starting to look like the Belly we saw before his injury earlier this season. That's really encouraging because he's critical to this team with his shooting, ballhandling and rebounding off the bench.

thedoper wrote:Thibs has been great. Even when we had a winning record he made some bold changes to try and diagnose the shortcomings of the roster. The first move was pairing down the roster to what he knew would work, then slowly adding minutes to other players where he could. The turn on our defensive stats goes all the way back to benching Bazz and only playing 8 players. Having a 3rd big who can contribute is huge for us. Even when Belly was off in his first few games, Thibs trusts his contributions and it has kept everyone fresh. I do think we need to pick up one more player for insurance if we are going to continue competing for a top 4 seed this year.

monsterpile wrote:

thedoper wrote:Thibs has been great. Even when we had a winning record he made some bold changes to try and diagnose the shortcomings of the roster. The first move was pairing down the roster to what he knew would work, then slowly adding minutes to other players where he could. The turn on our defensive stats goes all the way back to benching Bazz and only playing 8 players. Having a 3rd big who can contribute is huge for us. Even when Belly was off in his first few games, Thibs trusts his contributions and it has kept everyone fresh. I do think we need to pick up one more player for insurance if we are going to continue competing for a top 4 seed this year.

Thins makes slow changes and sometimes they are out of nowhere. On the other hand you have coaches that change the lineups all the time. Both approaches can be bad. Thins seems to take his time making changes often but he will make them. He may like working those guys in practice in a new role or something. Whatever he is doing is certainly working right now.