Q12543 wrote:Mikkeman wrote:For all of us that expected Thibs to have a big effect immediately for Wolves defense, it should be relief that two other coaches that also have reputation as being good in defensive end Vogel and Joerger won't seem to been any better than Thibs so far. Sacramento has had defensive rating 106.7 (106.3 last year) and Orlando 109 (104.2). Both coaches have had their previous team several times among top defenses but won't seem to be able to do right away same for their current teams.
May be it's a "time on task" thing where it just takes time and reps to get rid of the bad habits of yesterday and consistently engage in the good habits going forward.
What is the metric we are going by? It's not super amazing all things considered but the Wolves are 20th in defensive efficiency right now on NBA.com last year they finished 27th. Remember though that includes what a decent early chunk of games where they were one of the better defensive teams statistically so...down the stretch they were probabably worse than 27th. This was a bad defensive team that was promising that last chunk of games. They added a rookie defensive PG and a vet big guy in Aldrich and and a vet wing in Rush. The subtracted Prince who was a pretty effective defender. I think there is some personnel improvements overall including guys having another year of experience etc but it's not like there was some vast upgrade on that end...at least it doesn't look that way. In addition the Wolves have played all. It 2 games without one of their best defenders in Rubio. So them being where they are is a bit disappointing because Thibs is the coach and we expect to at least be more like the middle of the pack defensively. They aren't super far from that statistically and like Q said it could take some time and Thibs is big in guys playing as a group if one guy screws up...well it's not good. I've seen some good things early on but they haven't got it yet. I feel confident Thibs will get them going on that end to some level of success as the season goes on. He has some work to do though which shouldn't be a surprise espcially with a guy like Rubio out and 2 guys with less than a season's worth of games manning the PG position in his absence.