Better than I thought

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Definitely happy with 4-4 and the fact they stayed in the game last night. It was at least a moral victory, something us Minnesota fans are very familiar with since there are very few real victories in our history.

I am concerned about Rubio. The injury-prone/fragile label is actually starting to ring true. Now it's not just the one-time freak incidents, but nagging type things cropping up. First in pre-season, now in the regular season.

Towns will eventually overtake him within the next year or two, but it's obvious that Ricky is still the best player on the team and we have very little chance of winning without him. 0-2 now when he's not playing.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

...the other thing about Rubio is that he was playing way fewer minutes than one would expect from your best player, yet he STILL gets an issue that is keeping him out of multiple games.

[AbeVigodaLive]

As for last night's game...

The game was never in doubt. It's the NBA so every team makes a run or two. But the Warriors were winning that game easily any way you slice it... even on the back-end of a road back-to-back. It was telling when TNT went to the huddle audio and Walton very matter-of-factly stated the Wolves didn't know what to do and that Golden State had any open shot they wanted... because it looked like that on tv (and I imagined it looked like that for my buddies in Row 3!!!!! DAMMMNNN IT!!!)

In any event, the Wolves lost a home game that was never closer than 5 points and never a toss-up to a very good team. To me, it seemed like GSW could have "turned it on and put it away" whenever it wanted to. No moral victories for me in this one. Just a typical NBA game between a very very good team and a young one.

[Monster]

...the other thing about Rubio is that he was playing way fewer minutes than one would expect from your best player, yet he STILL gets an issue that is keeping him out of multiple games.

Yeah it's a little concerning. I will say this though Rubio has looked in fantastic condition the games he has played in. I was expecting him to look more gimpy somehow.

This team does have depth of players that in theory it wouldn't be all bad to have them play. Miller turned back the clock last night and had a nice game. Lavine starting gives him an opportunity also. Tyus has gotten his feet wet. If they are being cautious with Rubio there is some guys getting opportunities that have some sort of merit.

Rubio hasn't played big minutes and he has a sore hammy. So maybe that's the answer for why Mitchell was playing him fewer minutes. I know a lot of wolves fans were very frustrated with Adelman for playing some vet guys big minutes and rightly so to a certain extent. Flip played guys big minutes last year too although he limited guys like Pek to no avail. Sam seems to be taking a different approach playing guys fewer minutes and trusting bench guys to do some work out here and it keeps guys fresh. We saw that starting 5 of a couple years ago running out of gas late in the game at times. Last night GS kept their bench out there longer than seemed reasonable and then the starters came in and finished it off. It was interesting.

I am not suggesting Sam is a genius but I see some merit in what he is doing. So far overall this team has been a pleasant surprise. We will see.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Monster, I don't have a problem with Sam's conservative minutes allocation given the stage we're in as a team and this early in the season. My concern is that Rubio is running into these issues despite the conservative minutes management. That's troubling to me.

[Coolbreeze44]

As for last night's game...

The game was never in doubt. It's the NBA so every team makes a run or two. But the Warriors were winning that game easily any way you slice it... even on the back-end of a road back-to-back. It was telling when TNT went to the huddle audio and Walton very matter-of-factly stated the Wolves didn't know what to do and that Golden State had any open shot they wanted... because it looked like that on tv (and I imagined it looked like that for my buddies in Row 3!!!!! DAMMMNNN IT!!!)

In any event, the Wolves lost a home game that was never closer than 5 points and never a toss-up to a very good team. To me, it seemed like GSW could have "turned it on and put it away" whenever it wanted to. No moral victories for me in this one. Just a typical NBA game between a very very good team and a young one.

This is kind of how I saw it. The Warriors stepped on the gas whenever they felt like it and there wasn't anything we could do to stop it. When my teams are playing an overmatched team and the game is out of hand, I institute a 3 pass minimum rule on offensive possessions. This is kind of what it felt like to me last night.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Monster, I don't have a problem with Sam's conservative minutes allocation given the stage we're in as a team and this early in the season. My concern is that Rubio is running into these issues despite the conservative minutes management. That's troubling to me.

Nagging injuries happen. I get worried when a player ends up on the longer end of the recovery spectrum for all those injuries.

By comparison, look at a guy like Russell Westbrook. Broken face. Busted knee. Whatever it is, we end up wondering "He's back playing already?"

With Rubio, it's been more like "He's still out with that?"

[Brooklyn_Wolves [enjin:14608167]]

Monster, I don't have a problem with Sam's conservative minutes allocation given the stage we're in as a team and this early in the season. My concern is that Rubio is running into these issues despite the conservative minutes management. That's troubling to me.

Or maybe he's on restricted minutes because our training stuff believes that he's not ready for heavy minutes and can have muscle issues if he plays too much and surprise surprise hamstring problems flare up. His body wasn't ready to the season, he even sat out pre-season. It was all predictable but fans start to whine regardless. You don't play through injured quad/hamstrings. Arnie knows it, that's why he sits Rubio out. I don't even think it's up to Sam to decide.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

So if we're just developing players then let Rubio play only home games. He and KG can just stay at tc.

If we're trying to win, then Rubio should have played last night, we could have won.

What.are we doing?

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Monster, I don't have a problem with Sam's conservative minutes allocation given the stage we're in as a team and this early in the season. My concern is that Rubio is running into these issues despite the conservative minutes management. That's troubling to me.

Or maybe he's on restricted minutes because our training stuff believes that he's not ready for heavy minutes and can have muscle issues if he plays too much and surprise surprise hamstring problems flare up. His body wasn't ready to the season, he even sat out pre-season. It was all predictable but fans start to whine regardless. You don't play through injured quad/hamstrings. Arnie knows it, that's why he sits Rubio out. I don't even think it's up to Sam to decide.

I don't think so. Look at the minutes of all the other guys. Only Wiggins is averaging more minutes than Rubio at about 32 per game. So this conservative stance is being applied to everyone, otherwise I suspect we'd see youngsters like Wiggins and Towns playing 35 minutes +.

Also, we can rationalize all we want about why Rubio is experiencing these issues, but it is what it is. He's missing games and costing us wins. At some point, the "injury-prone" label applies.

Now I'm going all Porky on this board!