Towns

[Duke13]

I sure the hell hope he doesn't! Haha. I do think he's trying to develop his play making abilities by putting the ball in his hands in those late game situations. And no matter my frustration with his lack of passing in those situations, he's a talented offensive player. I think Tibs would welcome him finding an open teammate however.

I think the team moral would benefit greatly if they shared the ball more. I notice Zach standing wide open beyond the arch numerous times each game when the right play would be to kick/skip the ball to him for a wide open 3, when this doesn't happen you can see the frustration when the right play isn't made. I wouldn't say he's pouting but frustrated the pass isn't made.

Wig and Kat are the biggest culprits of this. Zach could move better without the ball I think, at times he stands in the corner too much for my liking.

I'd love for Dunn to have the ball in his hands and given the opportunity create and get open looks for these guys.

[Lipoli390]

Lip, I disagree with you a little. I saw Tibs post game interview last night as well and had the same reaction to his comment about driving the ball harder. Some of the post game comments need not be taken too literally I think. In almost all of his post games pressers he mentions passing and not holding onto the ball, swing the ball to the open guy. I really don't think Tibs telling Kat to go 1 on 3 in practice.

Yeah I was thinking Thibs probably wants Towns to stay aggressive to some extent attacking. And let's be honest some of those drives Towns makes he puts up some weak shots. Also I haven't been listening to all his stuff the last couple months seems like Thibs doesn't seem interested in calling an individual player out in public so I took that in account when I read about his response to that question.

We've probably milked this to death already, but I think this ties to what I consider Thibs' primary theme since coming here -- namely toughness. Before he coached a single game here he preached the need for this team to get tougher. I think you make a good point that Towns sometimes puts up some pretty weak shots on those drives. I actually liked what Thibs said last night. Rather than going right to the finer points of shot selection when asked about KAT missing shots under the bucket in traffic, he simply said KAT needs to go up stronger. In other words, don't overthink KAT, just suck it up and be tougher even if you could have made a smarter decision with the ball. First and foremost, Thibs has to shape the attitude of these young players. They will ultimately learn the finer points of the game and should learn how to play better together, but it starts with effort, intensity and toughness. Without those, you wont' get very far no matter how tactically smart you are as an individual player or team.

[thedoper]

His offense has regressed. He is taking way more 3s and shooting at a horrible percentage for someone of his volume. It is no longer an efficient shot for him and doesn't suit where his strengths could be. His 4th quarter shooting has been particularly poor and borders on chucker status.

For instance, KAT has attempted most of his 3s in the 4th quarter. Where he has made 22% of them. He is also shooting .393 FG% in the 4th. Unacceptable for our best player.

I agreee completely with his potential and his needed areas of improvement. Unfortunately for him he set the bar as high as you can as a rookie.