Minnesota Sports Forum

Lip (or anyone else) I heard something on a podcast with Jon K recently I found interesting. It's not worthy of a thread so I will ask it here. Jon was on a podcast with Roto fantasy sports. I saw in the summary they were going to talk about Arlando Tucker and Ricky Davis so I figured it would have some amusement factor. Anyway Jon was talking about the team last year and in context of the Chicago deal in reference to Dunn he said there was some tension between Dunn and Thibs when it came to playing time especially when it was down the stretch when they didn't have much to play for. Dunn wanted more minutes to get more opportunities and Thibs wanted him to earn it. Part of me feels Dunn wanting that is kinda ridiculous because quite frankly there were stretches of the season he didn't even deserve the minutes he got and Tyus outplayed him. Anyway maybe it's not much of a big deal and Dunn is with Chicago now so it doesn't matter all that much but I would be interested to hear what people think about that.

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

Duke13 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

Duke13 wrote:Lip, I'm curious as to who asked the coaching style question. I'm good friends with a long time season ticket holder, I actually think the longest ticket holder (since the inaugural season), friends with his son actually. Sits court side right next to wolves bench. I was talking to him a couple weeks ago, he mentioned he wasn't happy with tibs deamenor on the sidelines and was going to ask him about it. He told me he's talked to Taylor about this before also.

His name's Jon. Is that guy you know?

Jim is the guy referring to, older gentlemen, sits in the corner on the floor right next to the wolves bench.

The guy who asked is Jon and he sits in Row A near the bench. I've gotten to know him. He did a great job asking the question. Very respectful. I don't like the yelling, but like Q I liked Thibs' response. Thibs is such a straight-shooter. There is absolutely no BS in that guy. He's kind of growing on me -- not like a fungus. :). I think KAT and Wiggins will adjust to Thibs style if they haven't already. Having Butler and Gibson around will help with the connection between Thibs and the other players. Ultimately, I have to believe that Thibs' hyper-competitiveness will rub off on all the players to some extent. Even players at the NBA level tend to take on the character of their head coach if he's a good one. So regardless of his flaws and my past criticisms, I have a totally open mind when it comes to Thibs as our head coach this coming season.

I think what seems to make Thibs during game stuff more liveable to me is that the rest of the time he seems very in control, thoughtful and respectful. It sure seems like him taking a step back from being crazy as far as practices both physically and all that is pretty legit. It's probably no walk in the park but it's probably a healthy improvement.

I also don't see him as a guy that's going to play mind games with guys or using the media to get at them or something. It also seems like to some extent he can turn that stuff on and off as he tends to calm down pretty quick when it matters to communicate something to his team during a time out etc. it also seems like as much as Thibs is yelling it's telling guys what to including encouraging to make a play and he also has their back working the officials.

I agree with your take, Monster. He's not a guy who plays mind-games with players. He's someone who doesn't try to be anything he's not. He tells players directly what he wants and what he thinks. No indirect crap through the media. In that sense, he's actually showing respect for his players. And I think over time players will come to respect him in return.

I wonder if the yelling would lessen if we won more games...

60WinTim wrote:I wonder if the yelling would lessen if we won more games...

Yeah it might lessen if there are guys out there that actually know what to do and actually do it. :)