Minnesota Sports Forum

CoolBreeze44 wrote:Q, you saw it too? What did you think of Andrew? It looked like he wasn't a rookie anymore to me. It seemed like we were watching the Wiggins circa 2017.

Indeed I did. I liked how Wiggins contributed in multiple areas: Rebounding, assisting, and also shutting down Singler. The Wolves also exploited that matchup on the other end and Wiggins went back to going aggressive to the hoop as opposed to settling for mid-range jumpers and tough turnarounds in the post (although he still took a few of these and missed nearly every one). He's at his best when using his long strides and superior athleticism going to the hoop.

In fact, this is probably what Flip had envisioned at the beginning of the season. Wiggins isn't being asked to be THE guy, with all the pressure on his shoulders, yet still gets opportunities to exploit a poor matchup. On nights Luol Deng is guarding him, he won't get quite as many looks. But on nights Singler is guarding him, he gets a lot more touches.

All of that being said, I still think Wiggins could do more to get himself easier baskets. Nothing bugs me more than when I see Thad Young out-hustling Wiggins down the floor in transition while Andrew lopes along in 3rd gear. My God, he comes from a bloodline of professional athletes. Run!!!

Q12543 wrote:

Meh. Keep in mind that Flip was forced to play Thad and Mo some big minutes and Mo especially was starting to get pretty beat up. Martin has always been a flake about defense. Thad's Mom died and he was playing next to Dieng and had a 19-year old rookie SG play the PG.

I don't know. In theory, I sympathize with the "there is no excuse!" sentiment, but practically speaking, I can also understand why these guys would struggle to get up for games. Human nature affects all walks of life, even the rich and famous.

I just would have liked to have seen a few more games where the vets really led the rookies. Mo of all of them can say that he won us a few games. Ultimately they are all second rate vets, there is no way around it. I guess it is the best we can do with our situation. But you look back at the 1st half of the year and Wiggins and Dieng (and occasionally Mo) were our leaders. Now all of the sudden Thad comes on because of the influence of other players. I guess my main problem is how heavy the guy came in talking leadership, I can't see how he has lead with his play when we needed him most.

Yes, Thad let us down, but I'm not going to put 100% of that on him. Flip made a monumental mistake by not finding a way to get a real PG to go along with Williams (until he finally signed LoBro). LaVine would basically bring the ball up, do a half-hearted pick and pop with Thad, and then Thad was forced to create from there. It just didn't work and it didn't put Thad in a position to succeed.