Minnesota Sports Forum

While the KAT/Wiggs angle gets most of the attention, perhaps, Butler doesn't like Thibs or doesn't like playing for him. Before his second stint with Thibs started, he described their relationship as "love/hate". Instead of using "love", respect, he added "hate" into it. Now it appears like Thibs is acting like a jilted lover who can't accept that Jimmy has moved on from him. Weird relationship at least. Anyway whether its KAT, Wiggs and or Thibs, Jimmy is trying to be diplomatic when he says its just contractual or he wants to win. Its personal for Jimmy.

Duke13 wrote:There is no question Jimmy and Tibs look bad in this and rightfully so, but I half don't blame Jimmy for not taking the team plane back home. If he had any sort of beef with Wig and Kat before that series, which at this point I don't think there is any question there was, watching Kat and Wig those games must of pushed him over the top.

If he had watched Wig he might have learned something in that series. Did you even watch it?

Wiggins was solid/good in two out of the five playoff games. His Game 3 showing seems to be what you remember and his Game 2, Game 4, and Game 5 disappointments have been mysteriously forgotten. Are your expectations so low for the guy where that's acceptable for a player with his talent?

That's besides the overall point and I acknowledge that. But it's a bit wild to call Wiggins' play in the playoffs as anything positive in the big picture.

Camden wrote:Wiggins was solid/good in two out of the five playoff games. His Game 3 showing seems to be what you remember and his Game 2, Game 4, and Game 5 disappointments have been mysteriously forgotten. Are your expectations so low for the guy where that's acceptable for a player with his talent?

That's besides the overall point and I acknowledge that. But it's a bit wild to call Wiggins' play in the playoffs as anything positive in the big picture.

Wiggins didn't play up to the level of a max player in the playoffs. I'll agree with that. But he did play well. And let's not forget that Butler sucked in the playoffs. Not only should Butler have been on that plane as a teammate (forget as a so-called leader), but he should have apologized to the entire team for missing 23 games and doing little to help the team in the playoffs.

Wiggins per game playoff numbers:
PPG - 15.8
FG% - 44%
3PT% - 33%
FT% - 60%
TS% - 51.4%
RPG - 5.2
APG - 2.0
SPG - .4
BPG - .4
TOPG - 1.8
WS/48 - -.012
PER - 11.7

I don't know, seems like the same inefficient, anemic player to me. His game 5 was especially egregious. I think he was stripped of the ball nearly every time he drove to the hoop.

I really don't want to have the same conversations about Andrew Wiggins anymore.

But it's hard to ignore ignore the crazy dichotomy between those who praise the guy and those who look at the actual numbers.

You guys know where I fall...

I agree, I don't really want to have to same conversation either. I'll admit, I have a negative filter when it comes to Wig, but generally the stats support my view. I think the motion tracking cited it Zach Lowe's article does also. Wowza!!

To say he had a good series is insane!

His numbers were grossly skewed due to that 5th game. I realize in a statistical sense all games count. But my point wasn't to indicate how great Wiggins was in the series, but he was better than the guy who didn't take the team plane home.

And Duke, if you don't want to have this same conversation, simly don't start it.

It is sad that with his mediocre stats in the playoffs Wiggins was our best player. As usual we lost as a team. Wiggins played the best D of any our players in the series. But again, team game, team loss. Which is why this Jimmy stuff is so sad. Great talent, but clearly a bad teammate.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:His numbers were grossly skewed due to that 5th game. I realize in a statistical sense all games count. But my point wasn't to indicate how great Wiggins was in the series, but he was better than the guy who didn't take the team plane home.

And Duke, if you don't want to have this same conversation, simly don't start it.

He literally had one good game in the playoffs. In fact, his Game 4 was almost as bad as his game 5. If anything, his one good game skewed him from awfulness to just plain mediocre.

As for Butler, he wasn't great either, but he outplayed Wiggins.