thedoper wrote:I think Ricky's joy started to diminish when he realized that he couldn't just walk on a NBA court and dominate. Teams have caught on as of a while ago yet every season he's failed to get stronger or work on his shot. Eventually these practices catch up to you. For someone that gets a reputation of maximum effort it puzzled me how that doesn't translate to the weight room or off-season shooting.
What about the fact that his team isn't and generally hasn't won?
Camden wrote:The only person I think it would bother is Wiggins because he has always seemed on the softer side to me.
LaVine not only has a father who played NFL football and has pushed him pretty hard (videos of their workouts hint towards this), but he seems to feed off the aggressively-mannered Thibs and has a good relationship with him already. Would anyone disagree with that?
Towns excelled in his freshman year at Kentucky and a big reason why was Coach Calipari. Have you ever watched a Wildcat game? He's pretty tough on his guys and tends to force them to play his way. Examples of this are containing Anthony Davis', Julius Randle's, and Towns' perimeter games and making them operate in the post. He also made Devin Booker and Jamal Murray work off-ball even though one could argue that they're more dangerous with the rock. I'm pretty sure Towns can handle a coach that forces him to play a certain way.
Can we please stop acting like our players can't handle Thibs' attitude and aggressiveness. It sounds soft and it makes our players sound even softer.
Yeah, I agree that Zach is the best match for a coach like Thibs...and the stats support this as Zach is the only player who has improved this year under Thibs.
As for your last paragraph, I'll give my observation based on the games I have been to this year. I don't see it as a question of the players being soft in responding to Thibs' sideline demeanor...it's more that they are distracted by his barking. I see it mostly with KAT, who often seems to miss a play because he is looking over his shoulder to try to hear what Thibs is screaming. The player whom I see second most affected in a negative way by Thibs' micromanagement is Rubio. I view Ricky as a guy who is at his best when he is playing instinctively and with joy...there have only been a few times when I have seen the old Ricky this year, and I think that as a big factor in his downturn this year.
LST - I see the exact same thing and have reached the same conclusion that KAT and Ricky are most impacted by Thibs' micromanagement. And as you were trying to make clear, it's not the impact of Thibs' harsh tone, it's his micromanagement that appears to be affecting KAT and Ricky. So it has nothing to do with our players being "soft." Rather, it's a matter of the players being distracted.
Interesting that people couldn't help but focus on your reference to Ricky playing with joy. The key point you made was Ricky being at his best when playing on instinct and Thibs' controlling style doesn't lend itself to that sort of player. I'm not sure why Zach is flourishing under Thibs while KAT, Ricky and Andrew are not. It might be more related to the fact that Thibs' offense has Zach, but not Ricky or Andrew, in roles tailored to their talents. Ricky spotting up for long jumpers and Andrew running the offense strikes me as setting both up to fail. As Britt suggests, Thibs may be trying to develop or at least evaluate these two players in roles he'd like to see them play over the long run.
I'll mention here FWIW Ricky is shooting what would be career highs at 45% on 2 point shots and eFG% 43.5%. That's after a hot shooting month of January where he is shooting 50% overall. It's always a bit interesting to see what his percentages are even though I don't have much hope of significant improvement from him it doesn't seem like everything is bad with him this season...at this point.
monsterpile wrote:I'll mention here FWIW Ricky is shooting what would be career highs at 45% on 2 point shots and eFG% 43.5%. That's after a hot shooting month of January where he is shooting 50% overall. It's always a bit interesting to see what his percentages are even though I don't have much hope of significant improvement from him it doesn't seem like everything is bad with him this season...at this point.
monsterpile wrote:I'll mention here FWIW Ricky is shooting what would be career highs at 45% on 2 point shots and eFG% 43.5%. That's after a hot shooting month of January where he is shooting 50% overall. It's always a bit interesting to see what his percentages are even though I don't have much hope of significant improvement from him it doesn't seem like everything is bad with him this season...at this point.
monsterpile wrote:I'll mention here FWIW Ricky is shooting what would be career highs at 45% on 2 point shots and eFG% 43.5%. That's after a hot shooting month of January where he is shooting 50% overall. It's always a bit interesting to see what his percentages are even though I don't have much hope of significant improvement from him it doesn't seem like everything is bad with him this season...at this point.
monsterpile wrote:I'll mention here FWIW Ricky is shooting what would be career highs at 45% on 2 point shots and eFG% 43.5%. That's after a hot shooting month of January where he is shooting 50% overall. It's always a bit interesting to see what his percentages are even though I don't have much hope of significant improvement from him it doesn't seem like everything is bad with him this season...at this point.
Interesting stats. Thanks for posting.
I think the explanation for the better 2-point shooting is that the only shots he takes are ridiculously wide open ones, whether they be layups or short jumpers. Otherwise, he seems to avoid shooting at almost all costs or simply doesn't get the opportunity to shoot because he's not involved much on offense.
His usage is at a career low of 12.5%. Dunn and Jones are both at around 14%. All three of those figures are ridiculously low for a point guard and it further reinforces Thibs' insistence that the offense runs through Wiggins and LaVine (remember that neither of these guys are ever on the bench together. He subs in for LaVine early and then brings him back for Wiggins later).
Yet between Wiggins and Lavine, they are averaging a paltry 5.5 assists per game combined. For how often these two handle the ball, it feels like they should be much better than this.
monsterpile wrote:I'll mention here FWIW Ricky is shooting what would be career highs at 45% on 2 point shots and eFG% 43.5%. That's after a hot shooting month of January where he is shooting 50% overall. It's always a bit interesting to see what his percentages are even though I don't have much hope of significant improvement from him it doesn't seem like everything is bad with him this season...at this point.
monsterpile wrote:I'll mention here FWIW Ricky is shooting what would be career highs at 45% on 2 point shots and eFG% 43.5%. That's after a hot shooting month of January where he is shooting 50% overall. It's always a bit interesting to see what his percentages are even though I don't have much hope of significant improvement from him it doesn't seem like everything is bad with him this season...at this point.
Interesting stats. Thanks for posting.
I think the explanation for the better 2-point shooting is that the only shots he takes are ridiculously wide open ones, whether they be layups or short jumpers. Otherwise, he seems to avoid shooting at almost all costs or simply doesn't get the opportunity to shoot because he's not involved much on offense.
His usage is at a career low of 12.5%. Dunn and Jones are both at around 14%. All three of those figures are ridiculously low for a point guard and it further reinforces Thibs' insistence that the offense runs through Wiggins and LaVine (remember that neither of these guys are ever on the bench together. He subs in for LaVine early and then brings him back for Wiggins later).
Yet between Wiggins and Lavine, they are averaging a paltry 5.5 assists per game combined. For how often these two handle the ball, it feels like they should be much better than this.
Good thoughts Q. Its hard to really glean too much from a player with such a small sample size of shots in any given game. It seems like the last handful of game he has found some more spots to take some mid-ranginsh 2's that for him are actually somewhat successful all things considered. It would be really nice to see that 3 point percentage to be at least 30%
Zach works the best under Thibs because his game and what he's asked to do align very well. He doesn't have to run a ton of offense. He has the green light to shoot when he's open and we run a lot of screen action to get him looks. He occasionally tries to drive and he generally moves the ball. Towns hangs around the perimeter too much for a big and doesn't play in the same spots Thibs bigs traditionally play in (low and high post). Wiggins is running a lot of PnR which he isn't well equipped to do. If you get a real PG to run a proper PnR I think Wiggins falls into a better alignment with his skill set as more of a spot up shooter and post up guy and hopefully Towns ends up in some better spots after setting picks that actually pressure the defense. Wiggins and Towns still don't play great offense from an efficiency standpoint. Zach pretty much does outside of some of his contested long 2's, but in general he is making the right plays with the ball. That's why he looks the best right now. He's staying in his lane and it works with what Thibs wants to do.
