Minnesota Sports Forum

We are 9 games into the Thibs era. Lets see things play out for a while longer on the defensive end.

Small tweaks would be replacing Lucas, Hill, Pek (after buyout) or Payne (though I'd rather keep Payne over the aforementioned guys, based on his glimpses of solid role play)
Medium size tweak would be trading Bazz, Tyus
Big Tweak would be trading Dunn
Huge Tweak would be trading Lavine

I'm for a small or medium tweak (if its trading Bazz), and I'd even consider sending Dunn to Philly along with Bazz if we could get a nice package like Noel (if we can resign him without impacting the ability to resign our core guys), Covington or Luwawu and a future unprotected first. That might seem like a lot for Philly to give up, but Noel will be a restricted free agent and might not have a lot of trade value (given how hard he's rumored to have been shopped) and if they expect to lose him in free agency, they might opt for it. They were rumored to be offering Noel and two first rounders (which turned out to be Luwawu and Korkmaz) for Dunn and Noel's value continues to diminish as he remains injured and inches closer to free agency.

Dunn and Bazz for Noel, Luwawu and unprotected first
or
Dunn and Bazz for Noel, Covington and a top 5 protected first or (worst of Lakers and Sixers pick during year they receive Lakers pick)

Can we afford to resign Noel, though, without making greater sacrifices down the road?

fondey wrote:Can we afford to resign Noel, though, without making greater sacrifices down the road?

Signing Dieng it seems unlikely we could afford Noel...unless he signs a bargain contract for some odd reason.

If you're into trading Dunn AND LaVine then might as well go after Jimmy Butler.
Noel is a punk scrub.

LIP--
I'll offer my observation on last night's 3rd quarter collapse. It looked to me like our guys came out flat and tentative. They seemed afraid to shoot and would pass up shots in favor of terrible ill-advised passes. He always preaches the "extra pass." I believe he has these guys thinking way to much and totally disconnected from their instincts. I think it shows itself mainly in the 3rd quarter after he gets on them at half time. He probably yells at them at half time about taking bad shots and not making the extra pass. So they come out in the 3rd and pass up shots that were working in the 1st half in favor of dumb passes.

Beyond what I see as Thibs' 3rd quarter effect, I'll offer a few other observations.

1. KAT has clearly regressed. There's definitely something wrong with his game. My guess is that he's affected more than some others by Thibs constant barking. KAT looks tight and totally out of touch with his instincts.

Question: When does this play become Thib's problem? Other than LST , everyone still seems thrilled he's here. I thought there were better matches for this squad than Thibs, someone more along the line of Brad Stevens or Dave Jeager?

Oh well, too late. But this play, especially the tentative third quarters, are apparently after the team getting reamed by Thibs. Maybe he is the one that needs to figure it out. How to get the best out of this young group has clearly eluded him so far. The constant yelling is at times embarassing to watch. Anyone see Pop doing that?

papalrep wrote:LIP--
I'll offer my observation on last night's 3rd quarter collapse. It looked to me like our guys came out flat and tentative. They seemed afraid to shoot and would pass up shots in favor of terrible ill-advised passes. He always preaches the "extra pass." I believe he has these guys thinking way to much and totally disconnected from their instincts. I think it shows itself mainly in the 3rd quarter after he gets on them at half time. He probably yells at them at half time about taking bad shots and not making the extra pass. So they come out in the 3rd and pass up shots that were working in the 1st half in favor of dumb passes.

Beyond what I see as Thibs' 3rd quarter effect, I'll offer a few other observations.

1. KAT has clearly regressed. There's definitely something wrong with his game. My guess is that he's affected more than some others by Thibs constant barking. KAT looks tight and totally out of touch with his instincts.

Question: When does this play become Thib's problem? Other than LST , everyone still seems thrilled he's here. I thought there were better matches for this squad than Thibs, someone more along the line of Brad Stevens or Dave Jeager?

Oh well, too late. But this play, especially the tentative third quarters, are apparently after the team getting reamed by Thibs. Maybe he is the one that needs to figure it out. How to get the best out of this young group has clearly eluded him so far. The constant yelling is at times embarassing to watch. Anyone see Pop doing that?

It's not just Thibs being here. His coaching staff has some top guys on it too. Ed Pinckney and Andy Greer are highly respected assistants that were guys teams wanted to keep. The reality is not every coach is going to be best for every player. It doesn't work that way. What makes those top coaches great is they have good people working for them and they have a great system that allows a variety of players to be successful. We are 10 games in. It sounds like Thibs is getting a little frustrated now too. I still feel confident they are going to figure it out.

How does Dunn get brought up in trade ideas 10 games into his carear in part becuz he can't shoot. But Ricky remains the same player he was 6 years ago when drafted and "his" teams keep losing at an alarming rate. Surely you see and accept your homerism?

PorkChop wrote:How does Dunn get brought up in trade ideas 10 games into his carear in part becuz he can't shoot. But Ricky remains the same player he was 6 years ago when drafted and "his" teams keep losing at an alarming rate. Surely you see and accept your homerism?

Dunn isn't going anywhere but I think a part of it is there is still an assumption Dunn would bring significantly more in a trade than Rubio. At this point they need to keep all the PGs till we find out which one is the guy going forward. And yes there are plenty of advanced stats from this season that have Tyus as the most effective PG on the roster. ;)