Minnesota Sports Forum

Shabazz sucks at this. I think Valetine will have problems on defense, but he rebounds, shots, and passes well enough he will be a great role player.

If you listen to the closing comments by Dan Patrick, he coins a new phrase I had not heard before, and I like it!

The Minnesota Thimberwolves!

:-)

kurrdog53 wrote:I do believe winning teams pass the ball well as long as the players have a good idea on where their shots will be coming from. We still have some sorting out to do, in terms of who will get the most shots and when. The nice thing is, KAT can score without being a high-volume shooter (rebounds/put backs, free throws and jump shots), Wiggins gets to the line and LaVine is 3rd fiddle (wont be allowed to take a ton of bad shots). I think with Ricky being the PG and being a pass-first guy, the rest of the team follows his lead and is fairly unselfish. The bench will need to pass well and work together, which means that Bazz may not fit. More passing is always good!

Your point of guys being willing to pass the ball when they know when/where they are going to get their shots is a good one. There needs to be a trust level between players that at some point they will get an opportunity to make a contribution. We have all played on teams were you end up standing around while a guy or two dominate the ball and the shots. If you play on a team where you know the guys you play with will get you the ball when you are open for a good opportunity it's a lot easier to give the ball up. In addition it's a lot easier to move the ball when you know within the offense where it's supposed to go. That applies to guys that are good at doing those things as well as guys that don't naturally do these things particularly well like Bazz. There were plenty of guys that didn't make passes last year though especially early in the season. Both Bazz and Bjelica moved without the ball well and were wide open and didn't get easy baskets partly because they tended to play on that poor ball movement 2nd unit led by Lavine. Coaching can really help passing. Hopefully Thibs and whoever is on his staff can get guys knowing their spots and where to move the ball within principals and also have guys just create a culture of making good plays even if that includes going to a guy with a clear mismatch in an ISO situation of a screen etc.

monsterpile wrote:

kurrdog53 wrote:I do believe winning teams pass the ball well as long as the players have a good idea on where their shots will be coming from. We still have some sorting out to do, in terms of who will get the most shots and when. The nice thing is, KAT can score without being a high-volume shooter (rebounds/put backs, free throws and jump shots), Wiggins gets to the line and LaVine is 3rd fiddle (wont be allowed to take a ton of bad shots). I think with Ricky being the PG and being a pass-first guy, the rest of the team follows his lead and is fairly unselfish. The bench will need to pass well and work together, which means that Bazz may not fit. More passing is always good!

Your point of guys being willing to pass the ball when they know when/where they are going to get their shots is a good one. There needs to be a trust level between players that at some point they will get an opportunity to make a contribution. We have all played on teams were you end up standing around while a guy or two dominate the ball and the shots. If you play on a team where you know the guys you play with will get you the ball when you are open for a good opportunity it's a lot easier to give the ball up. In addition it's a lot easier to move the ball when you know within the offense where it's supposed to go. That applies to guys that are good at doing those things as well as guys that don't naturally do these things particularly well like Bazz. There were plenty of guys that didn't make passes last year though especially early in the season. Both Bazz and Bjelica moved without the ball well and were wide open and didn't get easy baskets partly because they tended to play on that poor ball movement 2nd unit led by Lavine. Coaching can really help passing. Hopefully Thibs and whoever is on his staff can get guys knowing their spots and where to move the ball within principals and also have guys just create a culture of making good plays even if that includes going to a guy with a clear mismatch in an ISO situation of a screen etc.

I agree with your take Monster. The 2nd unit had no PG, and the ball movement suffered. I really hope there is some thought into this in the offseason. It was impossible for our 2nd unit to get good shots because of a lack of ball movement. This unfortunately fell on Lavine who never really materialized into a point guard. I would go as for to say Lavine has a similiar need to Bazz to improve his ball movement and shot selection.