Minnesota Sports Forum

I agree with everything that Q, Abe and Monster states. Also would like to add it was good for Kat to go through this knowing how he was going to be guarded in the playoffs.

Also a little but in my opinion significant note. The Payne trade is officially over now. We are now allowed to trade any pick we want. If we missed end playoff we would not of been able to trade 2019 and 2020 1st round picks

Playoffs. Wiggins and Towns now know how much more physical it gets in the playoffs. I'd rather they now have the opportunity to bulk up and get ready before next year than have yet another summer not understanding what's going to come and potentially lose a more winnable first round series next year because they still lack that experience. We still have a first round pick so it was a good year to lose our pick and finally end that deal. Do your homework and you can still get a contributor in the 20's.

Hoping for losing was part of our 14 year losing mentality. Hoping for the 14th pick instead of the 21st over winning is moronic.

khans2k5 wrote:Playoffs. Wiggins and Towns now know how much more physical it gets in the playoffs. I'd rather they now have the opportunity to bulk up and get ready before next year than have yet another summer not understanding what's going to come and potentially lose a more winnable first round series next year because they still lack that experience. We still have a first round pick so it was a good year to lose our pick and finally end that deal. Do your homework and you can still get a contributor in the 20's.

Kahns -- Good job making the case. I agree we should be able to get a contributor at #21.

thedoper wrote:Hoping for losing was part of our 14 year losing mentality. Hoping for the 14th pick instead of the 21st over winning is moronic.

I agree hoping for the 14th pick instead of the 21st over winning is moronic, doper...but that's really not close to the choices I teed up. My choice is the 14th plus the 21st, but more importantly also the relacement of our head coach who many of us here (and in the media) think is holding us back. I still think that outcome would have been better lomg-term for this franchise than a 4-1 first round exit. If we can get (as Khans suggests) a good player in the 20s, just think what we could add at 14. And we repeatedly heard the TBS analysts call us the "dumbest" team in the league. We have to ask ourselves: did Thibs assemble an entire roster full of dummies, or is it our antiquated coaching style that makes us play dumb. That's the question, and I think the board is quite divided on that one.

longstrangetrip wrote:

thedoper wrote:Hoping for losing was part of our 14 year losing mentality. Hoping for the 14th pick instead of the 21st over winning is moronic.

I agree hoping for the 14th pick instead of the 21st over winning is moronic, doper...but that's really not close to the choices I teed up. My choice is the 14th plus the 21st, but more importantly also the relacement of our head coach who many of us here (and in the media) think is holding us back. I still think that outcome would have been better lomg-term for this franchise than a 4-1 first round exit. If we can get (as Khans suggests) a good player in the 20s, just think what we could add at 14. And we repeatedly heard the TBS analysts call us the "dumbest" team in the league. We have to ask ourselves: did Thibs assemble an entire roster full of dummies, or is it our antiquated coaching style that makes us play dumb. That's the question, and I think the board is quite divided on that one.

I think anytime we wish for losing we're in trouble. If the discussion here is how could we have gotten into the 5-7 seed with the Butler injury I'm there. But I'm tired of the future assets and the development angle of the last 16 years. Our play with this core was to see how good Towns and Wiggins really can be. Thibs made the right move in trying to put those 2 in the playoffs and test their resolve. It is dissapointing that neither of them rose to the occasion. But it's a good point for evaluation.


It was funny to hear us being called dumb because it highlighted Thibs lack of adaptablity on the fly, which is a criticism that I think has merit. But because the TNT crew is calling Thibs dumb is not convincing me. If we would have upped the pace opting for quick offense against Houston every quarter would have been 50 points for the Rockets. I think you coach to the makeup of your roster and Thibs did a decent ( but not great) job with our lineup. I think everyone would like to see some shooters added to this roster but when was the last time Minnesota had those?

If we really want to lose at this point we should maybe just admit that Towns is never going to be Anthony Davis and just trade all of our assets and tank. Myself, I'd be relevant now than maybe being relevant in 2 or 3 years.

longstrangetrip wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:One of the blowouts in option 1 was the Wolves blowing out the top team in the NBA as the 8th seed. Nobody wants to see that? Ok.

I had a blast at the Denver game and at game 3 for our one win against the Rockets. But as I reflect soberly right now, I'm still on the fence as to whether we would have been better off missing the playoffs. LST is taking the long view. And I agree with him that it's in the long-term best interest of this franchise to replace Thibodeau. Making the playoffs has postponed replacing him and I think that will be detrimental to the long-term best interest of the Wolves. Of course I could be wrong and hope I am.

I worry about Thibodeau as our head coach and, as Q suggested, there's reason to be concerned about now he performs this summer as our PBO. We have no cap room and only a portion of our MLE is usable because of our cap situation. The Dieng and Teague contracts are not realistically tradeable for decent value in my view. Most troubling of all for Thibodeau is that he's running out of former Bulls to sign. :)

Correct, I am taking the long view, Lip. I'm convinced that Khyri at 14 and a new younger coach improves this team at least 10 wins, and that trumps one playoff win in my estimation. Granted, I missed Game 3, but I suspect it would have been fun...but hollow. A friend of mine stopped by my seats at halftime of game 4 and guaranteed a victory. My girlfriend retorted that Harden was just going through the motions and would get serious in the second half and blow us out...alas, we were gone before the end of the 3rd quarter, and the joy of the first half was gone.

I hear the argument that the "playoff experience" is good for our young guys, but I don't know if that is any more than a cliché. I'm watching some young players without any playoff experience lighting it up this spring, and it seems to negate this narrative.

Now, if Glen fires Thibs anyway (and his language this past week can't make Thibs happy), I'll change my vote above.

Am I reading this correctly... 57 wins?

:o

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:One of the blowouts in option 1 was the Wolves blowing out the top team in the NBA as the 8th seed. Nobody wants to see that? Ok.

I had a blast at the Denver game and at game 3 for our one win against the Rockets. But as I reflect soberly right now, I'm still on the fence as to whether we would have been better off missing the playoffs. LST is taking the long view. And I agree with him that it's in the long-term best interest of this franchise to replace Thibodeau. Making the playoffs has postponed replacing him and I think that will be detrimental to the long-term best interest of the Wolves. Of course I could be wrong and hope I am.

I worry about Thibodeau as our head coach and, as Q suggested, there's reason to be concerned about now he performs this summer as our PBO. We have no cap room and only a portion of our MLE is usable because of our cap situation. The Dieng and Teague contracts are not realistically tradeable for decent value in my view. Most troubling of all for Thibodeau is that he's running out of former Bulls to sign. :)

Correct, I am taking the long view, Lip. I'm convinced that Khyri at 14 and a new younger coach improves this team at least 10 wins, and that trumps one playoff win in my estimation. Granted, I missed Game 3, but I suspect it would have been fun...but hollow. A friend of mine stopped by my seats at halftime of game 4 and guaranteed a victory. My girlfriend retorted that Harden was just going through the motions and would get serious in the second half and blow us out...alas, we were gone before the end of the 3rd quarter, and the joy of the first half was gone.

I hear the argument that the "playoff experience" is good for our young guys, but I don't know if that is any more than a cliché. I'm watching some young players without any playoff experience lighting it up this spring, and it seems to negate this narrative.

Now, if Glen fires Thibs anyway (and his language this past week can't make Thibs happy), I'll change my vote above.

Am I reading this correctly... 57 wins?

:o

If we were no longer "the dumbest team in the league" and could add an NBA-ready physical wing in the draft at 14, I think a 10-game improvement would not at all be out of the question. Adding a wing that could actually guard somebody off the bench would have been a huge boon to this team (maybe we can still find someone at 21 or through free agency). And I believe replacing a dinosaur with a young motivating coach could really jumpstart the defensive careers of two former #1 picks who projected to be plus defenders in the pros, while also emphasizing a defense designed to prevent threes and layups rather than the thibs approach to stopping open 2's. We already have two starters with superb defensive reputations...find a coach who could develop Wig and KAT defensively, and it's not difficult to imagine us going from one of the worst defenses in the league to one that is at least above average. Boston won 55 games this year. Does anyone really think our roster is much worse than theirs, or might there be another more important factor involved here.

Here is the other thing about Boston. Of their top 6 guys getting minutes in the playoffs, two are rookies (Ojeleye and Tatum); one is a 2nd year player (Brown); and one is a 3rd year player (Rozier). And off to the second round they go.....

KAT and Wiggins would be considered grizzled vets on this squad, yet some still think of them as NBA neophytes. They certainly played like neophytes at times this past season!

Q12543 wrote:Here is the other thing about Boston. Of their top 6 guys getting minutes in the playoffs, two are rookies (Ojeleye and Tatum); one is a 2nd year player (Brown); and one is a 3rd year player (Rozier). And off to the second round they go.....

KAT and Wiggins would be considered grizzled vets on this squad, yet some still think of them as NBA neophytes. They certainly played like neophytes at times this past season!

I'm a big fan of Brad Stevens. The Wolves roster is certainly more experienced and, I would argue, more talented than the Celtics. I wonder how the two teams would have finished this season if we had swapped coaches in October.