Minnesota Sports Forum

The play that really drives me insane is the botched inbounds pass to Wiggins. Why

Yeah, the good news is we are a competitive team that stays in games. It's been very rare to see any team run us out of the building. We even forced the Golden State starters to play in the 4th quarter! Moral victories, hooray!

Or not. These four home games (with one more to go tomorrow night) were supposed to give us some real separation with the bottom tier of the West and perhaps even strengthen our position as a lower seeded playoff team. How exciting would that have been? Instead, we're headed in the wrong direction.

I can't really point fingers at any one player or the coach. It's a collective disappointment and probably speaks more to the losing culture that has permeated this franchise for so many years. Whatever guts and poise this team showed earlier in the year with those impressive road wins has gone dormant for the winter.

fondey wrote:The play that really drives me insane is the botched inbounds pass to Wiggins. Why

Yeah, that was bad. LaVine screwed up by not getting it to KG. But even with that mistake, Wiggins has to secure that ball. Of all the things I nit-pick Wiggins about, his lack of ability to get 50/50 balls is one of the things that drives me the craziest. Contested ally-oop? He'll fumble it. Contested rebound? It will squirt out of his hands. Loose ball on the floor? The other guy will get it.

That's the little stuff that doesn't show up in a box score but can add up over the course of a game.

longstrangetrip wrote:Nobody has mentioned Ricky yet, and maybe that's because his performance was so mixed. The good? His superb defense against Chris Paul. I thought Ricky totally took Paul out of his game, and it resulted in one of Paul's worst statistical nights. He is truly special on the defensive end of the court. But offensively it was another matter. At times, I preferred Zach at the point last night over Ricky, and that shouldn't be with Zach still learning how to play the point. Ricky was too careless last night, and his 6 TOs really hurt us.

I know most fans want to see more Ricky, Zach pairings and Sam seems to like that at the end of games too, but I don't like it. And last night they just didn't play well together. We were up four when Sam substituted Ricky in for Bazz with 5 minutes left, and we ended up losing by 4. Ricky and Zach are both ball-dominant guys and the offensive flow just wasn't there the final 5 minutes. I agree that Ricky needed to be on Paul the last 5 minutes, but I think I would have kept Bazz in the game.

LST Sam talked after the game about how the gam plan on Jordan was to stay at home and he said Towns was doing what h has done for his whole short career helping and then it gave up easy looks for Jordan. I think there were times when he got the best of Towns physically but I agree with Sam that Some of those plays were Towns doing too much. Sam didn't seem really critical of Towns more saying he was acting on instincts but they weren't the right ones in this game.

Rubio's passing hasn't been as on point as we are used to some of the last couple games. Is it rust from not being able to play and practice? I would guess so. Other than that he was damn good his defense was very good and his intensity is so fun to watch. The problem with Rubio and Lavine is that Wiggins is also a guy that in those last situations seems more like a guy just looking to get the ball and score on somebody. Who really spaces the floor if Lavine has the ball? To me tonight there was more flow on offense in this game even though it's still far from what we may want to see. In crunch time it's a different animal and this team has a long way to go to get into flow on that end regardless of the combinations.

Wiggins struggled offensively because of some good D by the Clippers but he did slot of other good things for his team out there. Like a lot of wolves tonight he was very active he was really going after the ball getting deflections he had a block and a steal and 7 rebounds. Going 1-5 from the FT line really sucked. It's sorta funny when your weakest link of FTs is a 73% FT shooting wing player. Lol

Bjelica finally fired up some damn shots like he is a scorer or something. It's exciting to see him and Towns have a green light to shoot 3 pointers.

Martin just can't buy a bucket. Bazz got minutes over him and that was the right move as he easily played his best all around game of his career but Martin was doing everything else you can ask of him getting after it on the defensive end and he doesnt seem to just be looking for his he seems to be playing a more vet role. He had a nice assist to a cutting big. If this team goes on a run to the playoffs Martin needs to find his game or Bazz needs to look like he did last night. We need another bigtime scorer going off most nights.

longstrangetrip wrote:Nobody has mentioned Ricky yet, and maybe that's because his performance was so mixed. The good? His superb defense against Chris Paul. I thought Ricky totally took Paul out of his game, and it resulted in one of Paul's worst statistical nights. He is truly special on the defensive end of the court. But offensively it was another matter. At times, I preferred Zach at the point last night over Ricky, and that shouldn't be with Zach still learning how to play the point. Ricky was too careless last night, and his 6 TOs really hurt us.

I know most fans want to see more Ricky, Zach pairings and Sam seems to like that at the end of games too, but I don't like it. And last night they just didn't play well together. We were up four when Sam substituted Ricky in for Bazz with 5 minutes left, and we ended up losing by 4. Ricky and Zach are both ball-dominant guys and the offensive flow just wasn't there the final 5 minutes. I agree that Ricky needed to be on Paul the last 5 minutes, but I think I would have kept Bazz in the game.

Ricky definitely made some careless turnovers. Sometimes a TO attributed to the PG is really the recipients fault for not going to the right spot on the floor, but in last night's case, Rubio just flat out made a number ill-advised passes.

As you mentioned, I feel like Sam is putting out there what most fans have been calling for: Rubio at PG, LaVine at SG, Wiggins at SF, Towns at C, and [fill in the blank] at PF. Isn't this "the future" configuration we all want to see for years to come? They are going to need to learn to play together at some point.

Q12543 wrote:

fondey wrote:The play that really drives me insane is the botched inbounds pass to Wiggins. Why

Yeah, that was bad. LaVine screwed up by not getting it to KG. But even with that mistake, Wiggins has to secure that ball. Of all the things I nit-pick Wiggins about, his lack of ability to get 50/50 balls is one of the things that drives me the craziest. Contested ally-oop? He'll fumble it. Contested rebound? It will squirt out of his hands. Loose ball on the floor? The other guy will get it.

That's the little stuff that doesn't show up in a box score but can add up over the course of a game.

This young team doesn't really always understand how to get open on those plays either. I didn't see that Lavine missed KG. Sam said the other day guys need to execute better on their screens or waiting for the play to develop having some patience and then they get open. Zach doesn't always have great vision but he is learning. Like Sam yesterday they are playing a lot of close games and that gives guys a real chance to learn and get better and also gives the team a real look at evaluating guys compared to last year not really competing at the end.

A few have noted the Wolves' team chemistry.

I wish that translated to how they played together on the court. It's still a selfish team. Part of that is because it's still a young team with guys trying to prove themselves in this league. It's bound to happen. That's the NBA.

monsterpile wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

fondey wrote:The play that really drives me insane is the botched inbounds pass to Wiggins. Why

Yeah, that was bad. LaVine screwed up by not getting it to KG. But even with that mistake, Wiggins has to secure that ball. Of all the things I nit-pick Wiggins about, his lack of ability to get 50/50 balls is one of the things that drives me the craziest. Contested ally-oop? He'll fumble it. Contested rebound? It will squirt out of his hands. Loose ball on the floor? The other guy will get it.

That's the little stuff that doesn't show up in a box score but can add up over the course of a game.

This young team doesn't really always understand how to get open on those plays either. I didn't see that Lavine missed KG. Sam said the other day guys need to execute better on their screens or waiting for the play to develop having some patience and then they get open. Zach doesn't always have great vision but he is learning. Like Sam yesterday they are playing a lot of close games and that gives guys a real chance to learn and get better and also gives the team a real look at evaluating guys compared to last year not really competing at the end.

He had KG wide open just beyond the 3-point line. It would have been the easiest pass. Keep in mind that there were 25 seconds left, so there was plenty of time to set-up something for Wiggins, whether he got it initially on the in bounds pass or later.

But here is another problem with that in bounds play where Mitchell deserves blame. If you go back and look at it, the reason why KG was open is because guess who was guarding him and kept his ass firmly planted in the paint? DeAndre Jordan. He wasn't worried about KG taking a long jumper. So even if Wiggins would have secured the ball and spun baseline, Jordan was already in great position to defend the shot.

Now, what if we had Towns and Bjelica out there on that possession instead of KG? Now DeAndre can't allow one of those guys to get a wide open look beyond the arc, as both were shooting it well in this game. That totally opens up the paint for Wiggins (had he secured the ball).

Again, this is all hypothetical, but it's a classic case of offensive/defensive substitution patterns. Mitchell should have had Bjelica and Towns out there on that in bounds play.

Q12543 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

fondey wrote:The play that really drives me insane is the botched inbounds pass to Wiggins. Why

Yeah, that was bad. LaVine screwed up by not getting it to KG. But even with that mistake, Wiggins has to secure that ball. Of all the things I nit-pick Wiggins about, his lack of ability to get 50/50 balls is one of the things that drives me the craziest. Contested ally-oop? He'll fumble it. Contested rebound? It will squirt out of his hands. Loose ball on the floor? The other guy will get it.

That's the little stuff that doesn't show up in a box score but can add up over the course of a game.

This young team doesn't really always understand how to get open on those plays either. I didn't see that Lavine missed KG. Sam said the other day guys need to execute better on their screens or waiting for the play to develop having some patience and then they get open. Zach doesn't always have great vision but he is learning. Like Sam yesterday they are playing a lot of close games and that gives guys a real chance to learn and get better and also gives the team a real look at evaluating guys compared to last year not really competing at the end.

He had KG wide open just beyond the 3-point line. It would have been the easiest pass. Keep in mind that there were 25 seconds left, so there was plenty of time to set-up something for Wiggins, whether he got it initially on the in bounds pass or later.

But here is another problem with that in bounds play where Mitchell deserves blame. If you go back and look at it, the reason why KG was open is because guess who was guarding him and kept his ass firmly planted in the paint? DeAndre Jordan. He wasn't worried about KG taking a long jumper. So even if Wiggins would have secured the ball and spun baseline, Jordan was already in great position to defend the shot.

Now, what if we had Towns and Bjelica out there on that possession instead of KG? Now DeAndre can't allow one of those guys to get a wide open look beyond the arc, as both were shooting it well in this game. That totally opens up the paint for Wiggins (had he secured the ball).

Again, this is all hypothetical, but it's a classic case of offensive/defensive substitution patterns. Mitchell should have had Bjelica and Towns out there on that in bounds play.

Or even Dieng since he might also be able to make a 3. I'd rather see him jack up a wide open 3 than Wiggins take a contested one. In fairness to KG and Sam KG had played Blake well defensively also but not putting Dieng back in was a real head scratcher.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:A few have noted the Wolves' team chemistry.

I wish that translated to how they played together on the court. It's still a selfish team. Part of that is because it's still a young team with guys trying to prove themselves in this league. It's bound to happen. That's the NBA.

Yes Abe and the lack of focus on offense doesn't help. In addition to some guys being too selfish looking for their shots sometimes the problem is compounded by guys being to unselfish making an extra pass when they should shoot the damn ball and that forces some guy to go one on one because they have to just get up a shot.