Minnesota Sports Forum

Was at the game today in great seats straight across from the Wolves bench, so I'll give a few observations:

1) Sellout crowd, strangely enough early arriving crowd (looked full at tip), and a completely dead crowd. By far the loudest cheer was for the officer who was honored, followed by the free t-shirt tosses. While the game was enjoyable throughout, you can just feel the apathy in the air for this team--it's as thick as Hill's post game blunt.

2) Belly: don't be fooled if you didn't see the game, he was absolutely horrendous up until garbage time when he went on a heater. I never thought I'd say this, but he appears to be Shved 2.0. Probably the single most disappointing player on the team.

3) Q beat me to this by a minute, as I just noticed the new thread, but yes I agree 100% it is time for Dunn to go to the D-League. Whatever mojo he had going during that little burst of solid games is completely gone. The guy needs to play minutes and be allowed to be the aggressive player that made him so good in college. He looks tentative on everything. Thibs affect? Not sure. But with Jones playing better anyway, this is the right time to let him play 40 minutes a game in the D-league for 5 to 10 games, then bring him back up for the final stretch and let him hit the reset button.

4) Thibs. I watched him a lot tonight as he was right across from me. They hype is real, I've never seen a coach get so pent up so much of a game that was a blowout from the jump. Honestly, I don't know what to think. But every bad play we make, which are many, especially on the defensive end, he reacts like someone just pissed in his cheerios. Just a ton of negative energy so often. At the end of the day, he gets a pass from me until next season, when he can tweek the roster the way he sees fit. But my god, the guy is relentlessly upset. Combine that with all this losing and it has to be wearing on these young guys. I just don't see the team having much fun out there, even in a blowout like today. Also, you gotta seriously wonder if the man is going to have a heart attack soon. What he is doing to himself on the sideline--always looks beet red and his hand is shaking, along with carrying a lot of weight, just can't be healthy.

5) Overall it was a good effort but a meaningless one. This game would have meant something if it had come on the heels of closing out big leads against the Grizz and Pels, and maybe finishing off the Miami comeback. But they lost all 3. So ok now they took care of business, but it's a dollar short and a day late. That said, a big win against Cleveland would peak my interest again. At least until the next stupid loss after that.

Nice write-up Mstermisty, glad you caught a good one. A few thoughts on your observations....

- I suspect the large crowd was there for two reasons: 1) It's the dead of winter, football is over, and there just isn't much else to do, and 2), Chicago was in town and there are some loyal Bulls fans in the Twin Cities area.

- Yeah, Bjelly makes 2 3's when it means absolutely nothing. Where are those effing shots when it matters!?

- Yup, agree with you on the D-league thing as you mentioned. Dunn needs a confidence boost. Right now he's headed to being a poor man's Tony Allen.

- Agree again on your observations about Thibs. You would think a guy that took a year off to get a bigger picture perspective of both the NBA and life in general would have come back with a bit more cerebral approach. Jeebus, he's going to get himself killed.....and if not by a heart attack, then by his players!

I think the manic Thibs energy can go either way with a team. If you have a physical, winning team, like the Bulls he coached before, the team can draw on that intensity and be pushed to play even better. With our young team, prone to mental errors, and often getting outmuscled, you just wonder if they would have clicked better with a coach who was more likely to give a guy a pat on the butt after a mistake instead of screaming at him from close range at the first timeout. Or a guy that would be much more hands off during the game and let these athletes freewheel a little more.

Again, I give Thibs a pass until next year. At that point he needs to start getting the best out these guys, or we have to find someone who will. For now, the jury is out.

Some good observations by Q and misty in this thread. I would add one thought to the reason for the full house...there just aren't that many matinees during the season (1 or 2), so families with strict bedtimes for their young ones always go to them. They often end up being sellouts.

Cool asked a good question about Stephenson. I echoed kekgeek's post that there's almost no chance Thibs doesn't offer him a rest-of-season contract based on the way he has been playing defense. But other GMs are going to notice, and there actually may end up being a bidding war. I still think Thibs signs him, because he'll want him, and we'll have more cap space than other teams.

TheSP wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:Rubio being ELITE

Do you think this is a corner or just a curve that eventually leads back to the beginning?

Well Rubio's 3 point success is trending more towards to his career average so...it's some of all that. I'll say this: the way Rubio is playing right now I would want something pretty decent for Rubio right now. Wouldn't it be kinda funny if Thibs was the guy that gets Rubio to be a much more aggressive scorer? Lol

I'd sign Lance for the rest of the year just so Dunn has an idea of how his game could end up offensively. I could see Dunn having a lot of the game Lance has shown so far. To be honest Lance has looked better than I was expecting his handle is pretty good he looks more like a PG out there.

Is it just me or does MCW look longer than I remember. Dude looks like a Wing maybe he has grown since the draft. He has always had plenty of length but he looked even more so. If he can play D he could be a nice bench player for a team playing all 3 perimeter spots.