Q12543 wrote:Mixed bag last night again. Denver and New Orleans both beat their Eastern Conference opponent, which sucks, especially the Pelicans winning at Indiana. The Sixers beating Utah is big though and San Antonio (who I assume will be a top 4 seed) beating the Clippers is good. The Clippers had an easy start to their schedule. They are now starting to come back down to earth. I'm not sure what to think of OKC losing. You have to believe they get their act together at some point, no?
All in all though, it's a tough road to a playoff spot. The top 8 teams now all have winning records, with two teams below them at .500 records.
I saw on Twitter OKC had back to back 16 point quarters in that loss. That's not going to happen to them very often. All in all the start of the season is much more favorable for the Wolves than I was expecting. 7-3 and only GS and Houston above them in the standings? Sure it's not a significant margin but I thought they were going to have to be making up a little ground with a bit of a slow start.
Also Q aren't you happy Bledsoe went east!!!! The power is shifting! Lol
thedoper wrote:Thibs may be a middle of the road coach but he's looking like a stellar executive. Maybe we should groom a wiz kid behind the bench and let Thibs just run the team up top.
It sounds like a homer post but I would actually not be shocked if Ryan's Saunders is that guy.
Sure, we can put him in a tie with the warriors at 5.
LOL, good stuff Jerry. Freakin' ESPN....You can't live with it, you can't live without it. Although I have maintained my vow not to click on Ball-related articles.
Sure, we can put him in a tie with the warriors at 5.
LOL, good stuff Jerry. Freakin' ESPN....You can't live with it, you can't live without it. Although I have maintained my vow not to click on Ball-related articles.
True. And they're showing our game tonight. But the Balls will be in our face for the next 10 years:)
Q12543 wrote:So wait, Boston is #1 in the NBA in defense starting a rookie and 2nd year wing, neither of which played more than one year of pro ball. That is nuts! Aaaaaand Kyrie Irving - never known for his defense - is their starting point guard. Crazy.
I need to dig into those numbers. It's almost embarrassing if you are a coach like Thibs with his current mix of vets and elite athletes. I know we have looked better the last few games, but I just have a hard time understanding how we can still be this bad when you look at our roster on paper. And Boston with Irving and two greenhorns are #1.....
In games that Butler has played Wolves have defensive rating 106.8 (calculated from basketball-reference stats) that would put them just ahead of Golden State, which has defensive rating 107 and Golden state had 2nd best defensive rating last year.
I think there is not yet much point to look those numbers since teams have played so few games. Boston has played just three teams with winning record and out of their opponents only Cleveland has currently top10 offense. Lets check those numbers again after 20 games and if Boston still has the best defensive rating, it might mean their defensive success is legit.
Agree it's early Mikkeman, but we shouldn't fall apart like a house of cards when Butler sits. And he has not been perfect himself defensively, as I mentioned previously.
I also agree Boston probably won't end the season at #1, but on paper I would have a hard time seeing them even in the top half of the league.
I assumed that Boston would be probably around same level defensively than previous year and last year I thought they kind of underperformed in defense since previous year they had top5 defense and Horford was supposed to be also defensively upgrade for Sullinger.
This years team is certainly better in defense at PG position since Kyrie is clearly better than Isaiah Thomas was. Also one more year experience should help both Smart and Rozier. I also consider this year's big men rotation defensively better since Morris is upgrade compared to Olynyk, Theis probably upgrade for Jerebko and even tough Baynes is not as good as Amir Johnson was, he offers finally size to counter teams with really big front court. I think that will help Boston defense more than Amir helped since they are not anymore that vulnerable for teams with strong offensive rebounding.
So only their wing defense degraded and it was degraded clearly with Crowder and Bradley being replaced by rookies Tatum and Ojeleye. One more year experience for Brown helps a little and the fact that Smart is big enough to check most of the wings and Morris is mobile enough to defend those big small forwards. In Detroit Morris used to defend LeBron and other big wing scorers and Harris was typically matched against less athletic power forwards.
Q12543 wrote:So wait, Boston is #1 in the NBA in defense starting a rookie and 2nd year wing, neither of which played more than one year of pro ball. That is nuts! Aaaaaand Kyrie Irving - never known for his defense - is their starting point guard. Crazy.
I need to dig into those numbers. It's almost embarrassing if you are a coach like Thibs with his current mix of vets and elite athletes. I know we have looked better the last few games, but I just have a hard time understanding how we can still be this bad when you look at our roster on paper. And Boston with Irving and two greenhorns are #1.....
In games that Butler has played Wolves have defensive rating 106.8 (calculated from basketball-reference stats) that would put them just ahead of Golden State, which has defensive rating 107 and Golden state had 2nd best defensive rating last year.
I think there is not yet much point to look those numbers since teams have played so few games. Boston has played just three teams with winning record and out of their opponents only Cleveland has currently top10 offense. Lets check those numbers again after 20 games and if Boston still has the best defensive rating, it might mean their defensive success is legit.
Agree it's early Mikkeman, but we shouldn't fall apart like a house of cards when Butler sits. And he has not been perfect himself defensively, as I mentioned previously.
I also agree Boston probably won't end the season at #1, but on paper I would have a hard time seeing them even in the top half of the league.
I assumed that Boston would be probably around same level defensively than previous year and last year I thought they kind of underperformed in defense since previous year they had top5 defense and Horford was supposed to be also defensively upgrade for Sullinger.
This years team is certainly better in defense at PG position since Kyrie is clearly better than Isaiah Thomas was. Also one more year experience should help both Smart and Rozier. I also consider this year's big men rotation defensively better since Morris is upgrade compared to Olynyk, Theis probably upgrade for Jerebko and even tough Baynes is not as good as Amir Johnson was, he offers finally size to counter teams with really big front court. I think that will help Boston defense more than Amir helped since they are not anymore that vulnerable for teams with strong offensive rebounding.
So only their wing defense degraded and it was degraded clearly with Crowder and Bradley being replaced by rookies Tatum and Ojeleye. One more year experience for Brown helps a little and the fact that Smart is big enough to check most of the wings and Morris is mobile enough to defend those big small forwards. In Detroit Morris used to defend LeBron and other big wing scorers and Harris was typically matched against less athletic power forwards.
I watched that Boston/L.A. game last night. They were without Horford and also lost Tatum during the game. Yet they gutted out a win. It was some ugly ball offensively, but damn, they work their asses off. Rozier, Smart, Brown....these guys are bull dogs that hustle, get on the floor, and just fight for everything. I don't see that in Minnesota, sad to say. Dunn was the one guy I saw bring that attitude last year, but of course he was a train wreck on offense.
Luckily the loss last night didn't kill us too much in the standings. Phoenix and L.A., both of whom at times have been hanging around the fringes of the conference top 8 both lost, which is good. The fewer teams we have to compete for those bottom 2 or 3 playoff spots, the better.
