Minnesota Sports Forum

22-3

That is GS' record for the season under Kerr. They have been without David Lee for the whole season, and Bogut since the game against us. Somehow they still continue to win, and as Q pointed out, are a very good defensive team.

Houston seemed to have swung for the fences and missed in FA losing Parsons, Linn, and Asik, and only getting Ariza back in their place. DH has been out for a significant amount of games as well, but they are 19-7 sitting fourth in the WC. OKC lost both Durant and Westbrook for over a month and still are still in contention for the PO's.

I think the wolves have two problems, and unfortunately they both fall on the same person. While Flip has done pretty well to this point in the draft, and the Love trade as well, the roster he has put together is extremely flawed. Going into the season knowing Pek and Turiaf were nursing injuries, makes our lack of a true PF an even bigger mistake.

Of our 3 current PF's only Bennett has the size and strength to truly defend, but apparently even he isn't fully healthy. That leaves us with Dieng, Young, and Hummel (who shouldn't even be considered a PF imo). None of these 3 have the strength required at their positions. Rather than signing Mo Williams and then later buying out JJ, we should have been spending that money on a true PF/C backup player for this team.

Our other issue is that of coaching, and it extends to both ends of the floor. Offensively, Flip uses a similar system to Adelman which usually results in long 2's being the shot of choice. I would guess a third of our possessions end up with a big man holdng the ball with his back to the basket 20 feet away, waiting for a wing to come out and take a handoff. This usually results in a turnover, or step back jumper. Unlike other offenses, we rarely take advantage of a down screen or pick to create space, and almost always execute moving away from the basket.

Defense is where this team is giving away games. Our Achilles heel is the PnR defense, which is the staple of almost every offense in the league. We suck at this not due to personnel, but because we apparently have no understanding of how to truly contain it. The odd thing is that two new acquisitions were the best at guarding this effectively. Both Bennett and Dieng were doing a good job of stopping penetration, and clogging the passing lane.

That was until recently, which I have to assume is due to coaching. Over the last week to ten days, I have watched Dieng and Bennett becoming less aggressive to the point that they are now anchored in the paint similar to how Pek would defend, allowing the ball handler to turn the corner and breakdown the defense. This just doesn't work in the NBA, where players are just too well rounded to give them this many options.

I continually hear Flip and Ryan stating the wing has to fight through the pick harder, but unless you have a utility belt with a time-slip function, you will never get back into a good defensive position without help from the big. Apparently Flip even stated to Dave Benz that because John Wall was so fast, they had to go under the pick. Flip's statement leads me to believe that Flip doesn't understand how to defend it.

It's like sending our defense with a knife into a gun fight!

Good breakdown SJM. I will watch for how we handle pick and roll tonight and see how the bigs handle it. One of the things I've noticed is how half-heartedly our bigs set picks on offense. How often have we seen opposing guards easily get "through" one the picks set by us? Too often.

The other issue at PF is the lack of defensive rebounding. We're nearly last in that category as well as a team, which in turn leads to a lot of easy putbacks. If I were Flip, I would seriously consider starting Adrien next to Dieng in order to give us some more size and rebounding. With Shabazz in the starting lineup, I feel like we can afford to have Young come off the bench for some offensive punch.

Q12543 wrote:54.7% - That's my number.

It's the effective field goal percentage of our opponents this year. We're dead last in this category in the league and it's the biggest reason we have only won 5 games. For some perspective, it was 51.8% last season. For some really scary perspective, the Golden State Warriors are posting a number of 45.3%, which leads the league.

If you were to peel that back and look at from what distances we get torched on, it's nearly everywhere. We are dead last in opponent FG% from less than 5 feet. We are also dead last in opponent FG% from 5-9 feet. So basically anything from 9 feet in we suck at. We're 26th in opponent 3-pt %. So it's a total and complete breakdown, all over the floor.

That's helpful Q. I knew our defense was bad, but that's a pretty crucial measure of how bad it is. The question the Wolves must be asking themselves is why is that so bad, and what can we do about it?

I think your observation Q about needing another big is right on. We picked up Adrien, who gives us some needed toughness, but other than Dieng, we still don't have anybody with length. And we don't have anybody over 6'8" who can actually body up well against guys down low (at least until Pek gets back, which seems to be a total mystery at this point). I don't get why they picked up an SG for Brewer instead of a legit big. Do we have the roster space to pick one up or would that mean letting go of Adrien?

But what else can we do to stop opponents from hitting such a high percentage of long-range shots too? Any suggestions? If we got another big who could intimidate the drive a little bit, that might help our guys stay home on the perimeter a bit more. Practicing hard to get our "bigs" to "show strong" (is that the phrase?) on pick and roll defense to cut down on easy kickouts, like Q mentioned? Practicing ball denial? Running guys off the line? Why are we so bad at this, and how do we get better?

Q12543 wrote:Good breakdown SJM. I will watch for how we handle pick and roll tonight and see how the bigs handle it. One of the things I've noticed is how half-heartedly our bigs set picks on offense. How often have we seen opposing guards easily get "through" one the picks set by us? Too often.

The other issue at PF is the lack of defensive rebounding. We're nearly last in that category as well as a team, which in turn leads to a lot of easy putbacks. If I were Flip, I would seriously consider starting Adrien next to Dieng in order to give us some more size and rebounding. With Shabazz in the starting lineup, I feel like we can afford to have Young come off the bench for some offensive punch.

We don't understand how to box out. As soon as the ball goes up our guys are looking at the hoop. If we practiced D, I would throw up a shot and make guys run a lap every time they looked up before finding their man (hell any man) for a box out. Do that for an hour and you improve the defensive rebounding significantly.

I like the idea of starting Adrien, but Flip will never do it because like Adelman, he thinks only in offensive terms. You are right that having Shabazz in there should make up for the drop off from Young. Hell, with Young's efficiency lately, there might not be a drop off.