Minnesota Sports Forum

Duke13 wrote:Death, taxes, me trying to trade Rubio and Cool coming to Wig's defense.

Only when things get totally carried away and folks are treating him like a scrub.

Duke13 wrote:Death, taxes, me trying to trade Rubio and Cool coming to Wig's defense.

Lol. Funny stuff, Duke! I nominate this for post of the month.

crazysauce wrote:There is one big flag with wiggins defense and that is his effort. Damn guy is the most athletic guy on the floor and its a shame cause wiggins aint busting his ass at all on defense. These guys want to take the next stop then both towns and wiggins need to step it up on defense. I feel butler has an edge to him amd is probably our best chance to get these guys to play the way your suppose to on that end of the floor. Jimmy is an alpha and he will say what needs to be said and get into them. Hopefully these kids figure it out.

I agree. But I also think some of it with Wiggins and especially Towns is mental - namely the failure to grasp team defensive concepts. Both have the physical talent to be good or even great defenders. They need both the drive and the mental focus to reach their defensive potential. Hopefully, Butler's presence will help.

Cool I would be interested to hear if you thought my post on individual defense had any merit. I wasnt trying to really crap on Wiggins or Towns as much as looking for ways to see if they had made or are making some improvements going forward while also pointing out ways some young players might not get it. I'm moderately fascinated by how players at that level improve their defense. Also Thibs said on the last radio spot how Butler built his game from defense and worked his way into becoming a good offensive player. I don't remember the context perfectly but he seemed to be making the case that a guy like Wiggins was building the other direction. Offense first and defense as he went.

I have no doubt that Thibs hopes Jimmy rubs off on Wiggs. No better position player (other than Klay or K. Leonard) to learn from.

I don't care what the stats say... or what we see on the court... or what others around the league say... I say that Wiggins is good on defense.

I will not be convinced of any other scenario.

In other news, we're about to find out just how smart of a basketball player Zach LaVine is in Chicago. And Ricky Rubio will challenge Steph Curry as the best three point shooting PG in the league.

Only Shabazz one an award here. He was part of the all-bad defensive team. I think that is a reach though.

PG: Isaiah Thomas
SG: Ben McLemore
SF: Shabazz Muhammad
PF: Kevin Love
C: Enes Kanter

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/06/nba-awards-2017-worst-players/amp

I wonder how a defended shot is defined. The stat is damning regardless, but, just in terms of this stat, I wonder if Wiggins' half-assed effort to recover hurts him worse than just giving up. Is it that his man scored or that he was within a certain proximity? If he defended 200-300 less shots he'd be within a pack of other bad defenders instead of the elite worst defender.

foye2smith wrote:I wonder how a defended shot is defined. The stat is damning regardless, but, just in terms of this stat, I wonder if Wiggins' half-assed effort to recover hurts him worse than just giving up. Is it that his man scored or that he was within a certain proximity? If he defended 200-300 less shots he'd be within a pack of other bad defenders instead of the elite worst defender.

Hey, at least he's an elite bad defender!

In all seriousness, yes, Wiggins is a bad defender. We all knew that (well, almost all). These stats are not the first confirmation, and unless he turns things around, they won't be the last.

Part of it is effort, no doubt. He really seems to only have one gear. Some of it is mental. He ball watches and loses his man a ton. His reaction times are surprisingly slow for a guy with such quick twitch muscles when he does start moving.

But a lot of it is also technique. He gets off his feet way too much. He defends with his hands rather than his body too much. He is really bad at boxing out for defensive rebounds, which also goes back to absent-mindedness and effort.

Sigh. I'm praying for a change from him and I think he can improve his techniques, but I think the bigger change that needs to happen is between the ears, and that's very rare for a player to change his mentality.

bleedspeed177 wrote:Only Shabazz one an award here. He was part of the all-bad defensive team. I think that is a reach though.

PG: Isaiah Thomas
SG: Ben McLemore
SF: Shabazz Muhammad
PF: Kevin Love
C: Enes Kanter

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/06/nba-awards-2017-worst-players/amp

I honestly think that writer just picked out guys he didn't like in one form or another and put down some titles that said they sucked. I'm sorry I clicked I was hoping for more.