Minnesota Sports Forum

60WinTim wrote:I gotta +1... Thibs first season with the Bulls started with a loss. They went on to win 62 games! :)

Both the Vikings and the Wolves got rid of that stupid undefeated talk. They will be better for it.

In all seriousness that Bulls team went 62-19 after that first loss? Not bad.

I hear you SP. Cool and I will try to do our part.

Better late than never - I just finished watching the game...

The Wolves are going to be just fine (i.e. my 60 win prediction is still on target). I figure these first 10 games is a "figuring it out" stretch for both the players and coaching staff. Fortunately, with a soft schedule the Wolves should win more than they lose while they "figure it out".

I found it interesting that Thibs mixed his starters and bench players together more so than he did in the preseason. He still used a 10 man rotation. I wonder if that gets whittled down at some point.

60WinTim wrote:Better late than never - I just finished watching the game...

The Wolves are going to be just fine (i.e. my 60 win prediction is still on target). I figure these first 10 games is a "figuring it out" stretch for both the players and coaching staff. Fortunately, with a soft schedule the Wolves should win more than they lose while they "figure it out".

I found it interesting that Thibs mixed his starters and bench players together more so than he did in the preseason. He still used a 10 man rotation. I wonder if that gets whittled down at some point.

Yeah it's too early to tell but if I had to guess I think Bazz might be the odd man out. He still hunts shots and gives us very little else other than a lot of hustle. I think Dunn is going to need more minutes and they might come at the expense of Bazz when we play smaller. But who knows, I'm trusting Thibs to figure it out.

Mstermisty wrote:

60WinTim wrote:Better late than never - I just finished watching the game...

The Wolves are going to be just fine (i.e. my 60 win prediction is still on target). I figure these first 10 games is a "figuring it out" stretch for both the players and coaching staff. Fortunately, with a soft schedule the Wolves should win more than they lose while they "figure it out".

I found it interesting that Thibs mixed his starters and bench players together more so than he did in the preseason. He still used a 10 man rotation. I wonder if that gets whittled down at some point.

Yeah it's too early to tell but if I had to guess I think Bazz might be the odd man out. He still hunts shots and gives us very little else other than a lot of hustle. I think Dunn is going to need more minutes and they might come at the expense of Bazz when we play smaller. But who knows, I'm trusting Thibs to figure it out.

I had the same feeling, misty...I sensed Thibs was frustrated with Bazz's play on both ends of the court when he yanked him out of the game. Many of us love Bazz's ability to score in a volume fashion, but I sense that Thibs may end of not being as patient with him as Sam and Flip were. I noticed Thibs put Dunn next to Ricky a couple times in the opener, something I don't remember him doing in preseason. When he does that, Rush becomes Thibs' preferred backup at SF when he goes small. Thibs has to know Bazz still has the ability to put up 10 points faster than anyone on the team, but his defensive and facilitating weaknesses may limit him to a role where Thibs uses him only in emergencies...we'll have to see.

longstrangetrip wrote:

Mstermisty wrote:

60WinTim wrote:Better late than never - I just finished watching the game...

The Wolves are going to be just fine (i.e. my 60 win prediction is still on target). I figure these first 10 games is a "figuring it out" stretch for both the players and coaching staff. Fortunately, with a soft schedule the Wolves should win more than they lose while they "figure it out".

I found it interesting that Thibs mixed his starters and bench players together more so than he did in the preseason. He still used a 10 man rotation. I wonder if that gets whittled down at some point.

Yeah it's too early to tell but if I had to guess I think Bazz might be the odd man out. He still hunts shots and gives us very little else other than a lot of hustle. I think Dunn is going to need more minutes and they might come at the expense of Bazz when we play smaller. But who knows, I'm trusting Thibs to figure it out.

I had the same feeling, misty...I sensed Thibs was frustrated with Bazz's play on both ends of the court when he yanked him out of the game. Many of us love Bazz's ability to score in a volume fashion, but I sense that Thibs may end of not being as patient with him as Sam and Flip were. I noticed Thibs put Dunn next to Ricky a couple times in the opener, something I don't remember him doing in preseason. When he does that, Rush becomes Thibs' preferred backup at SF when he goes small. Thibs has to know Bazz still has the ability to put up 10 points faster than anyone on the team, but his defensive and facilitating weaknesses may limit him to a role where Thibs uses him only in emergencies...we'll have to see.

I'm a Bazz guy but here are a couple things to consider about that game. Memphis played 3 PGs significant minutes. Andrew Harrison played the most minutes for Memphis 38 minutes! I could be wrong but I believe both teams had a short stretch where they both played a 3 guard lineup. It's been a couple days but Bazz took 6 shots.

1 three point shot which he missed.
2 shots in one possession where he took a shot near the rim and got his own rebound for his one made basket
1 of his typical post up moves but I think it ended up against a double team.
1 transition I let he uncharacteristically missed.
I don't remember the last shot but let's say it was terrible.

So Bazz took 6 shots maybe 2 were bad shots so was that really the reason he only played 13 minutes or was it because he wasn't hitting and Wiggins and Lavine were clearly having better game? Didn't we have a similar conversation about Bazz earlier last season? Did the Wolves need scoring in this game?

I watched Bazz a bit on defense in the game. I didn't see any issues. I tended to watch Dunn (duh) though so I could have easily missed something.

Also Lip Sam didn't have much patience with Bazz at all the first half of the season. Dude was hard on the guy big time.

monsterpile wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

Mstermisty wrote:

60WinTim wrote:Better late than never - I just finished watching the game...

The Wolves are going to be just fine (i.e. my 60 win prediction is still on target). I figure these first 10 games is a "figuring it out" stretch for both the players and coaching staff. Fortunately, with a soft schedule the Wolves should win more than they lose while they "figure it out".

I found it interesting that Thibs mixed his starters and bench players together more so than he did in the preseason. He still used a 10 man rotation. I wonder if that gets whittled down at some point.

Yeah it's too early to tell but if I had to guess I think Bazz might be the odd man out. He still hunts shots and gives us very little else other than a lot of hustle. I think Dunn is going to need more minutes and they might come at the expense of Bazz when we play smaller. But who knows, I'm trusting Thibs to figure it out.

I had the same feeling, misty...I sensed Thibs was frustrated with Bazz's play on both ends of the court when he yanked him out of the game. Many of us love Bazz's ability to score in a volume fashion, but I sense that Thibs may end of not being as patient with him as Sam and Flip were. I noticed Thibs put Dunn next to Ricky a couple times in the opener, something I don't remember him doing in preseason. When he does that, Rush becomes Thibs' preferred backup at SF when he goes small. Thibs has to know Bazz still has the ability to put up 10 points faster than anyone on the team, but his defensive and facilitating weaknesses may limit him to a role where Thibs uses him only in emergencies...we'll have to see.

I'm a Bazz guy but here are a couple things to consider about that game. Memphis played 3 PGs significant minutes. Andrew Harrison played the most minutes for Memphis 38 minutes! I could be wrong but I believe both teams had a short stretch where they both played a 3 guard lineup. It's been a couple days but Bazz took 6 shots.

1 three point shot which he missed.
2 shots in one possession where he took a shot near the rim and got his own rebound for his one made basket
1 of his typical post up moves but I think it ended up against a double team.
1 transition I let he uncharacteristically missed.
I don't remember the last shot but let's say it was terrible.

So Bazz took 6 shots maybe 2 were bad shots so was that really the reason he only played 13 minutes or was it because he wasn't hitting and Wiggins and Lavine were clearly having better game? Didn't we have a similar conversation about Bazz earlier last season? Did the Wolves need scoring in this game?

I watched Bazz a bit on defense in the game. I didn't see any issues. I tended to watch Dunn (duh) though so I could have easily missed something.

Also Lip Sam didn't have much patience with Bazz at all the first half of the season. Dude was hard on the guy big time.

It was actually me, not Lipoli, that suggested Thibs might not be as patient as Flip and Sam were. Monster, you said Sam was not all that patient with Bazz early in the year, and it's true that he only played him 18 minutes a game until January when Bazz's minutes increased to 26. But I would argue that Bazz is the kind of player who will make any coach pull his hair out, and Thibs doesn't have as much to lose as Flip and Sam. Bazz has only played one game under Thibs, but his 14 minutes were less than he averaged under Sam early last year. We'll have to see whether Game 1 was an indicator of how Thibs views Bazz ( I thought Bazz looked lost on defense often, by the way), but I tend to agree with Misty...that Bazz may become the odd man out in a shortened Thibs' bench.