Minnesota Sports Forum

CoolBreeze44 wrote:I think Towns is simply not strong enough to check most 5's in the league. He's picking up a lot of fouls as it is. I know some think I'm crazy, but I believe he has a better chance checking 3's than 5's. I can't think of a small forward that he couldn't reasonably defend. No one can check Lebron, but Towns could do as good of a job as most.

I don't know about SF but I get where you are going and I think we agree. Like I've said a few times now who are you gonna have guard these new NBA generation bigs like Towns Porzingis etc? I'd bet on Towns. If the Wolves end up with a guy that's better or equal at doing that and Towns can play center that's probably an option also but we don't have that right now. idealy he becomes a good defender no matter where you put him.

thedoper wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:I think Towns is simply not strong enough to check most 5's in the league. He's picking up a lot of fouls as it is. I know some think I'm crazy, but I believe he has a better chance checking 3's than 5's. I can't think of a small forward that he couldn't reasonably defend. No one can check Lebron, but Towns could do as good of a job as most.

Yeah but can Gorgui? We're already sacrificing wins. I'd like to see him get more reps there because eventually he's our 5.

KAT is taller and weighs more than Gorgui. He also fouls less and is a better defensive rebounder - and that's as our 4 where he is often out on the perimeter defensively. Both these guys are 'tweeners in terms of weight/strength, but KAT is the bigger of the two.

My guess is that Thibs philolophy in having KAT at the 4 is two-fold: 1) He's protecting him somewhat from fouling more, since Centers are going to have to challenge more shots at the rim than PFs, and 2) he feels he can guard stretch 4's better than Gorgui.

On both counts, Thibs might be right. But I'm not sure that's the best long-term strategy for our team.

Q12543 wrote:

thedoper wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:I think Towns is simply not strong enough to check most 5's in the league. He's picking up a lot of fouls as it is. I know some think I'm crazy, but I believe he has a better chance checking 3's than 5's. I can't think of a small forward that he couldn't reasonably defend. No one can check Lebron, but Towns could do as good of a job as most.

Yeah but can Gorgui? We're already sacrificing wins. I'd like to see him get more reps there because eventually he's our 5.

KAT is taller and weighs more than Gorgui. He also fouls less and is a better defensive rebounder - and that's as our 4 where he is often out on the perimeter defensively. Both these guys are 'tweeners in terms of weight/strength, but KAT is the bigger of the two.

My guess is that Thibs philolophy in having KAT at the 4 is two-fold: 1) He's protecting him somewhat from fouling more, since Centers are going to have to challenge more shots at the rim than PFs, and 2) he feels he can guard stretch 4's better than Gorgui.

On both counts, Thibs might be right. But I'm not sure that's the best long-term strategy for our team.

I agree with what you're saying here, but just because Towns might be a better 5 option relative to Gorgui, it doesn't mean he's a good fit there. And perhaps G fouls more because he's the one having to guard the bigger, stronger player. That foul differential might reverse itself if you switch the two.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

thedoper wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:I think Towns is simply not strong enough to check most 5's in the league. He's picking up a lot of fouls as it is. I know some think I'm crazy, but I believe he has a better chance checking 3's than 5's. I can't think of a small forward that he couldn't reasonably defend. No one can check Lebron, but Towns could do as good of a job as most.

Yeah but can Gorgui? We're already sacrificing wins. I'd like to see him get more reps there because eventually he's our 5.

KAT is taller and weighs more than Gorgui. He also fouls less and is a better defensive rebounder - and that's as our 4 where he is often out on the perimeter defensively. Both these guys are 'tweeners in terms of weight/strength, but KAT is the bigger of the two.

My guess is that Thibs philolophy in having KAT at the 4 is two-fold: 1) He's protecting him somewhat from fouling more, since Centers are going to have to challenge more shots at the rim than PFs, and 2) he feels he can guard stretch 4's better than Gorgui.

On both counts, Thibs might be right. But I'm not sure that's the best long-term strategy for our team.

I agree with what you're saying here, but just because Towns might be a better 5 option relative to Gorgui, it doesn't mean he's a good fit there. And perhaps G fouls more because he's the one having to guard the bigger, stronger player. That foul differential might reverse itself if you switch the two.

I agree that KAT would get more fouls, but part of me doesn't care at this point. Defense is such a huge problem for us and perhaps this switch would help....or may be not. It seems like these are the sorts of things Thibs should tinker with.

Another idea is to have Bjelly replace Dieng in the starting lineup. That means KAT has to play Center on defense AND offense. Now we can truly do some 5-out and 4-out sets where we can draw the opposing team's Center out of the paint (right now they stick that person on Dieng, who only stretches the floor out to about 18 feet or so).