Minnesota Sports Forum

thedoper wrote:

Duke13 wrote:Wiggins was a flop this series.

Only Wiggins? Pick your poison. We were outmatched at every position.

It's kind of weird we won more quarters than the rockets but if you go position by position we lost PG, SG, Center and PF for sure. Wiggins probably tied Ariza (Wiggins needs to win that matchup), only thing I think we for sure won was Drose as 6th man (i'm shocked)

lipoli390 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

crazysauce wrote:We just seem so unconfident and unsure of ourselves. Act like we belong here and quit pussyfooting around

That's why playoff experience is so important. It's a different game than the regular season.

The Sixers seem to be doing just fine with no playoff experience. Or how about the Pelicans? Yes, I see the value in playoff experience, but the bad things we're seeing in this series are the same bad things we saw in the regular season. There's just a smaller margin for error against a great team in the playoffs. To borrow a phrase from Mike Ditka, the Wolves are who we thought they were.

The Sixers aren't playing the freaking Rockets. Realize the competition man. We're playing the best team in the league and outplaying them for large stretches of games. The Sixers got a well coached Miami team that doesn't have half the high end talent they have. The Pelicans made the playoffs 2 years ago and AD destroyed the Warriors, but had no help and now they have Playoff Rondo who has a title. We played the worst matchup we could have drawn against the best team in the league and played well for most of the series. I really don't understand why you expect even more in that scenario.

The context was the comment about the Wolves not playing with confidence. I wasn't suggesting the Wolves should replicate the Sixers' winning the series in 5 games, man. Lol. By the way, Butler, Taj Gibson, Jeff Teague, Derrick Rose and Jamaal Crawford all have playoff experience. I think that's more playoff experience than you'll find on the Pelicans. It's probably more playoff experience than you'll find on the Jazz. And it's definitely a lot more playoff experience than the Sixers. Maybe if we had more playoff experience we would have defeated the Suns and Wizards at home, beat the Hawks on the road and not lost twice to the Grizzlies. I'll ascribe some of what we're seeing on lack of playoff experience, but not much. We're playing a better team, but in my view we're not playing as well as we should given our talent. And had we played to the level of our talent in the regular season, we wouldn't have been an 8th seed facing the second best team in the West. (I say second best, because I think the Warriors are better and will end up in the NBA finals.).

What do you think helps confidence and decision making at this level? Experience. Towns was utter trash for 2 games and never dominated this series the way he should. He pretty much swapped good defense for good offense as the series went on and we got killed the last 2 games due in large to his poor rim protection. Wiggins started strong and then got worse as the series went on. Both of them got pushed around and weren't doing the pushing themselves that top players do in the playoffs. They're 2 of our 3 most important players so playoff experience mattered in this one. At the end of the day your playoff success is on your top players. Not your 4-9 guys. Westbrook and George just won a game taking 65 of their team's 89 shots. There's a reason former players go after Towns and Wiggins and not guys like Teague and Gibson. They know who decides these games and Houston's top players just outplayed ours. New Orleans top players just outplayed Portland's. Same with the Warriors. At the end of the day this series and the 1 win is on Jimmy, Towns and Wiggins. Blame Thibs and the role players all you want. You won't see any of these other franchises giving their top guys a pass in a series loss. That's just part of the losing culture here. It's everyone else's fault except the guys who actually decide the series.

kekgeek1 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

worldK wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:

mrhockey89 wrote:My quick fix to the Wolves: Trade Dieng for cap space (sign a 3 point shooter or a true rim defender); offer Wiggins and anything not named Towns or Butler to SA and hope the Spurs don't get a better offer, draft a pure shooter ala Buddy Hield type, then pray Justin Patton is the truth.

I'd also consider dropping Thibs, but only if it's not a deal breaker for Butler.

Going to be hard to trade gorgui for a washing machine

Your being generous. An oven toaster would be hard to get for him and his 16m

Trading Dieng for appliances is more like having to take back a grain truck load or 2 of of tube TV's that you have to pay to get recycled. No team is just going to give up cap space for just taking on Dieng. The penalty of the salary floor is...paying all the players on your team the difference. There is basically no penalty. The good news? Dieng actually looked like a worthwhile basketball player in this series when I thought he would honestly get played off the floor in this matchup.

I do agree dieng was very solid this series but the thing that sucks is even when dieng plays his best he is nowhere near 15 mil a year.

Yeah he won't be worth that contract but if he can play like a 7 million guy (that's actually pretty good considering how tight money will be this offseason) that will help. He just wasn't as good this season in a smaller role. Maybe this worthwhile 5 game playoff stretch will give him some confidence to play that type of role next season. Maybe it will sucker some team into taking him on in a deal. Don't hold your breath though. Lol

kekgeek1 wrote:

thedoper wrote:

Duke13 wrote:Wiggins was a flop this series.

Only Wiggins? Pick your poison. We were outmatched at every position.

It's kind of weird we won more quarters than the rockets but if you go position by position we lost PG, SG, Center and PF for sure. Wiggins probably tied Ariza (Wiggins needs to win that matchup), only thing I think we for sure won was Drose as 6th man (i'm shocked)

We can always hunt stats to show off almost anything. Bottom line...

The Wolves played one good game. And weren't even competitive (18, 19, 20 points) in 3 of the losses.

I think Houston could have picked the score at times. They were the far superior team on offense and defense. It wasn't just a bad stretch here or there. The Wolves were thoroughly outplayed against a team that didn't play its best.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:

thedoper wrote:

Duke13 wrote:Wiggins was a flop this series.

Only Wiggins? Pick your poison. We were outmatched at every position.

It's kind of weird we won more quarters than the rockets but if you go position by position we lost PG, SG, Center and PF for sure. Wiggins probably tied Ariza (Wiggins needs to win that matchup), only thing I think we for sure won was Drose as 6th man (i'm shocked)

We can always hunt stats to show off almost anything. Bottom line...

The Wolves played one good game. And weren't even competitive (18, 19, 20 points) in 3 of the losses.

I think Houston could have picked the score at times. They were the far superior team on offense and defense. It wasn't just a bad stretch here or there. The Wolves were thoroughly outplayed against a team that didn't play its best.

Don't disagree. I do think the Wolves get some credit for making it hard on the Rockets. But at the end of the day, the series were a win by the wolves easily and we lost a toss up game. Then got blown out in the others.

kekgeek1 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:

thedoper wrote:

Duke13 wrote:Wiggins was a flop this series.

Only Wiggins? Pick your poison. We were outmatched at every position.

It's kind of weird we won more quarters than the rockets but if you go position by position we lost PG, SG, Center and PF for sure. Wiggins probably tied Ariza (Wiggins needs to win that matchup), only thing I think we for sure won was Drose as 6th man (i'm shocked)

We can always hunt stats to show off almost anything. Bottom line...

The Wolves played one good game. And weren't even competitive (18, 19, 20 points) in 3 of the losses.

I think Houston could have picked the score at times. They were the far superior team on offense and defense. It wasn't just a bad stretch here or there. The Wolves were thoroughly outplayed against a team that didn't play its best.

Don't disagree. I do think the Wolves get some credit for making it hard on the Rockets. But at the end of the day, the series were a win by the wolves easily and we lost a toss up game. Then got blown out in the others.

To be fair, I never really thought the Wolves were winning in Game 1. Did others?

But it doesn't really matter. The point was to get some playoff experience and to find out what it takes, and what changes have to happen, to improve on this season next year.

The drought is over. Now, it's time for more.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:

thedoper wrote:

Duke13 wrote:Wiggins was a flop this series.

Only Wiggins? Pick your poison. We were outmatched at every position.

It's kind of weird we won more quarters than the rockets but if you go position by position we lost PG, SG, Center and PF for sure. Wiggins probably tied Ariza (Wiggins needs to win that matchup), only thing I think we for sure won was Drose as 6th man (i'm shocked)

We can always hunt stats to show off almost anything. Bottom line...

The Wolves played one good game. And weren't even competitive (18, 19, 20 points) in 3 of the losses.

I think Houston could have picked the score at times. They were the far superior team on offense and defense. It wasn't just a bad stretch here or there. The Wolves were thoroughly outplayed against a team that didn't play its best.

Don't disagree. I do think the Wolves get some credit for making it hard on the Rockets. But at the end of the day, the series were a win by the wolves easily and we lost a toss up game. Then got blown out in the others.

To be fair, I never really thought the Wolves were winning in Game 1. Did others?

But it doesn't really matter. The point was to get some playoff experience and to find out what it takes, and what changes have to happen, to improve on this season next year.

The drought is over. Now, it's time for more.

Didn't feel like we were going to win game 1 but when you get a shot to tie the game at the buzzer it has to be a toss up.

The rest I agree with 100%. In my opinion successful season but if this is the result next year it is a failure.