Minnesota Sports Forum

Camden wrote:LaVine needs to start receiving Brewer's minutes. There's five huge reasons why.

1. He's capable of handling the basketball and/or making plays for others. No body else on the second unit can do that. The more the merrier.

2. He's a much better shooter. Can come flying off a down screen and stop, plant and connect on a jumper. Also better in spot up opps.

3. LaVine might actually play better defense than Brewer, even as a rookie. He's much better laterally than him and he plays with better fundamentals. Won't leave his man to peruse for steals. Doesn't reach often either.

4. LaVine needs as much meaningful burn as he can get. Needs to develop his skills and mental game. Only way to do that is with real in-game reps. High ceiling guy, get him some damn minutes.

5. Brewer hasn't played well in any game so far. In fact, I think he's hurt the team more than he's helped them. I hate to say that because I really like Corey. His fumbling of the ball, blowing layups, over handling of the ball and careless defense have irritated me five games in.

#FreeLaVine #ZachAttack

I don't know, cam...I agree with every one of your points 1-5, but I'm not yet on board with the conclusion. I trust Flip's opinion, and think he will get Zach into the game when he thinks he is ready. I suspect that Flip wants to get Zach some minutes in games that aren't so close, but all four games so far have been nailbiters. I think we have a chance to blow Orlando out, and if so, Flip can get Zach some floor time then.

I'm guessing that Flip is still in "win now" and (gasp) "playoffs" mode right now, and is probably more worried about getting minutes for Bazz and Bud than Zach and GR3. Zach's time will come.

BTW, I don't know exactly where you are in the Sunshine State, but do you plan to hit either of the games this weekend? Wildwolf got us a big win last night, and we need an in-person correspondent. I'm looking for a Mexico City volunteer too!

One comment I would make is that many were touting Wiggins as being an "elite" defender. While he is clearly an elite athlete, Joe Johnson absolutely abused him by backing him down and shooting right over/through him. He is simply too weak and light to be a great defender at this point. This should change as his body matures, but right now, he will be taken advantage of fairly often from what I have seen.

Hicks123 wrote:One comment I would make is that many were touting Wiggins as being an "elite" defender. While he is clearly an elite athlete, Joe Johnson absolutely abused him by backing him down and shooting right over/through him. He is simply too weak and light to be a great defender at this point. This should change as his body matures, but right now, he will be taken advantage of fairly often from what I have seen.

Meh. Other than one time when Johnson bullied him under the rim and scored the layup, Wiggins made him work hard for everything. Put Jimmy Butler on Johnson there and it likely wouldn't have mattered. Sometimes you just gotta tip your cap to the scorer. Good defense being beaten by better offense. The good news is that Wiggins is 19 years old with a decent frame. He can add some weight and some bulk, but hopefully not too much as his lateral ability and explosiveness are right where they should be.

I wish I could have watched. YYYEEEEAAAHHHHH!!!!!!! What a road win, I had to follow along again on the BSPN gamecast.
And once again a lot of "missed layup-Pekovic" lines scroll across. I wish that guy would go up and bowl somebody over for a hard dunk. Is that not happening?

I also agree about getting Lavine some backup SG minutes. Maybe that's the eventual plan for the 2nd half of the season.

Couple thoughts.

Bazz looked nice and active. Liked his hustle a lot last night.

That second unit wasn't getting the job done, but they were working hard in the first half, hustling for blocks, rebounds, and offensive rebounds, Dieng and Bazz in particular. I didn't like a couple of those shots Bennett took either. He needs to learn how to draw the foul instead of settling for jumpers or taking wild shots. The bench sucked tonight, but I liked their hustle.

Our offense as a whole looked bad for stretches, and the key is we need to unlock the ball movement more. Even with the starters, we weren't moving the ball much, and there were some times when it looked like guys were standing around watching the guy with the ball, unsure of where to go. This was especially bad with the bench players watching Mo handle the ball and unsure of what to do, but the starters also need to develop a flow of ball movement and passing. It's early, but I hope they're watching tape of the Spurs as they figure out their offense. Even if Rubio gets 12 assists a game, it's no good if nobody else is moving the ball. Some nice flashes, but no real flow yet. I hope that's coming, and if it does, this team could be much more dangerous.

Wiggins was fun to watch tonight. Offensively, I particularly liked that he took it to the rack a couple times tonight. He was hitting his jumpers, which was nice, but I'd still like to see him keep attacking the basket. He's capable of averaging 6-7 FTs a game, and I'd love to see him go for that instead of relying on that step back jumper.

Defensively, let's be honest, Wiggins looked like a rookie, especially in crunch time. There was another moment like the Chicago game where he bit bad on a fake and jumped out of the gym, giving the other team easy FTs. Mostly though, he got completely schooled by Joe Johnson down the stretch. Joe scored one on one over Wiggins 5 times out of 6 possessions in crunch time. Wiggins wasn't bodying him up, he was trying to defend with his hands, he wasn't playing physical, and he was reacting to Joe rather than asserting his position defensively. Joe's a stud, and had a size advantage, but it definitely suggested to me that Wiggins still has a ways to go before he becomes the defensive standout we have assumed he would be from the start. The kid had a good game offensively, but tonight made me more wary that we can expect him to play great defense already as a rookie.

Rubio had a good night (although Williams showed why he's not as good an on the ball defender as he is off the ball), good night for Pek, and I like Young's effort, especially defensively. That guy is quickly becoming one of my favorite Wolves.

Nice win. Fun game even if the ball movement still needs work and our shots weren't falling. It was nice to get a win even if we weren't shooting the ball well.

Also, did anybody else notice when Dieng kicked the ball up to himself with his feet and bounced it around on his feet for a bit like he was Neymar or something? I only caught a glimpse of it, but it was impressive.

If you guys know anything about Joe Johnson, he's actually probably the best 4th quarter player in the NBA. Guy is clutch as hell

and please let's stop with the "this guy needs to go, this guy needs to play BS" after every game. People want to get rid of Pek when he struggled and Dieng looked good. Tonight it was the opposite. Young is going to look shitty, Wiggins is going to look shitty, everybody will look shitty at some point. That's when you need backup plans like Brewer and Bud who can keep things rolling. As I said before, don't change a thing.

One thing of note was Bennett. Guy looks really bad posting up. Has zero moves. I'm really worried how he'll adjust once teams start taking away that long two he's been hitting

alexftbl8181 wrote:and please let's stop with the "this guy needs to go, this guy needs to play BS" after every game. People want to get rid of Pek when he struggled and Dieng looked good. Tonight it was the opposite. Young is going to look shitty, Wiggins is going to look shitty, everybody will look shitty at some point. That's when you need backup plans like Brewer and Bud who can keep things rolling. As I said before, don't change a thing.

One thing of note was Bennett. Guy looks really bad posting up. Has zero moves. I'm really worried how he'll adjust once teams start taking away that long two he's been hitting

Having a backup plan is fine, but so far it doesn't seem like Bud is involved in that plan at all. He already seems to be behind Bazz on the bench and maybe even Hummel.

alexftbl8181 wrote:If you guys know anything about Joe Johnson, he's actually probably the best 4th quarter player in the NBA. Guy is clutch as hell

Yep, he's always had that rep. I thought the Johnson/Wiggins battle last night was a joy to watch. And even though JJ won the overall battle, it wasn't by much, and it was clear that Wiggins wore him out which eventually led to a couple end-of-game misses. Very good night for the kid.