Wolves vs Blazers GDT: RUIN PORTLAND'S SEASON

[Lipoli390]

Bill Clinton used to say "it's the economy stupid." His point was that it's the economy that drives political success or failure, not all the other issues that people and politicians often focus on. And politicians who fail to recognize the overriding importance of the economy do so at their own peril.

I have no doubt that the Wolves' terribly disappointing showing this season came be explained by the following collorary to Mr. Clinton's sage political observation: "It's the bench stupid." Yes, all our starters have flaws and yes Thibs has made coaching mistakes. But in the end, the Wolves winning around 30 games instead of 40 stems from an absolutely putrid bench. And tonight's loss was a prime example of the bench-effect on the Wolves fortunes. After leading almost the entire game, the Wolves collapsed in the 4th. Our terrible bench hurts us in two ways. First, it hurts us with poor play from the bench players themselves when they're on the court. Second, it hurts us by forcing the starters to play too many minutes and exhausting them. I think we've been seeing the results of that exhaustion lately, including tonight.

Belly is the only bench player you can honestly call good. Bazz has been very good in some stretches and terrible in others. I like his consistent effort, but overall he's been just marginally OK. I love Tyus Jones' heart and he does have some skill. But that's it. Dunn has been absolutely terrible. I know there are those, including Thibs, who are infatuated with Dunn's defense, but he can't shoot, has no NBA-caliber moves to the basket and can't finish effectively when he gets there. He's not much of a playmaker or ballhander either. Cole Aldrich is easy to like, but horrible to watch. Jordan Hill smiles as much as Wes Johnson - probably aided by some pre-game weed. I'll stop there. Suffice it to say, Thibs has his work cut out for him this summer in his role as our PBO. His #1 goal has to be significantly improving our bench without giving up any of our 5 starters - Ricky, Zach, Andrew, Gorgui and KAT or our 6th many Belly. Everyone else on this team under contract for next season should be marketed aggressively in pursuit of high quality bench players. And our cap space should be used aggressively as well for the same purpose.

[Mstermisty [enjin:6864008]]

Hilarious 4th quarter by the Wolves and a predictable game overall.

Get lead, blow lead, bench sucks, starters wear down, hero ball, a role player on the other team drains 3's, game over.

I see 6 viable players on this team right now: Towns, Wiggs, Rubio, Dieng, Belly, and Lavine. Dieng and Belly would be served coming off the bench, and Lavine maybe as well considering his injury. That leaves some big holes to fill, including, and it sickens me to say it, we need another point guard. Dunn and Tyus are end of the bench guys right now that maybe can find a bigger role at some point. Everyone else, including Bazz, should be punted. Lots of work to do this summer. Lots.

Couldn't agree more. And belly played 3 good weeks of basketball this year wouldn't count him as a lock either

Yeah agreed, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt because he had a big hand in the best stretch of basketball we played all season. He was contributing on both ends and seemed to be finally finding himself.

[WildWolf2813]

Hilarious 4th quarter by the Wolves and a predictable game overall.

Get lead, blow lead, bench sucks, starters wear down, hero ball, a role player on the other team drains 3's, game over.

I see 6 viable players on this team right now: Towns, Wiggs, Rubio, Dieng, Belly, and Lavine. Dieng and Belly would be served coming off the bench, and Lavine maybe as well considering his injury. That leaves some big holes to fill, including, and it sickens me to say it, we need another point guard. Dunn and Tyus are end of the bench guys right now that maybe can find a bigger role at some point. Everyone else, including Bazz, should be punted. Lots of work to do this summer. Lots.

and they'll sell you on the playoffs next year until they suck again and wanna reset the clock for another 3 year wait.

Yes they will sell playoffs that is what the marketing department does. But it would be so stupid to touch wiggins or towns this offseason.

No team in the nba who will make the playoffs has a top 3 player in year 3 or less. Hard to win with a young team and even more hard to win when the vets are before average

They'll still be a young team three years from now. When will their youth stop being a cop out?

Also, you hope youthful players improve over time. Who here has? Even the guys who look better on offense negate that by being pathetic on D.

[thedoper]

I think calling Belly good is a bit optimistic. He's a 8-10 man on a solid playoff team at best.

[kekgeek]

Bill Clinton used to say "it's the economy stupid." His point was that it's the economy that drives political success or failure, not all the other issues that people and politicians often focus on. And politicians who fail to recognize the overriding importance of the economy do so at their own peril.

I have no doubt that the Wolves' terribly disappointing showing this season came be explained by the following collorary to Mr. Clinton's sage political observation: "It's the bench stupid." Yes, all our starters have flaws and yes Thibs has made coaching mistakes. But in the end, the Wolves winning around 30 games instead of 40 stems from an absolutely putrid bench. And tonight's loss was a prime example of the bench-effect on the Wolves fortunes. After leading almost the entire game, the Wolves collapsed in the 4th. Our terrible bench hurts us in two ways. First, it hurts us with poor play from the bench players themselves when they're on the court. Second, it hurts us by forcing the starters to play too many minutes and exhausting them. I think we've been seeing the results of that exhaustion lately, including tonight.

Belly is the only bench player you can honestly call good. Bazz has been very good in some stretches and terrible in others. I like his consistent effort, but overall he's been just marginally OK. I love Tyus Jones' heart and he does have some skill. But that's it. Dunn has been absolutely terrible. I know there are those, including Thibs, who are infatuated with Dunn's defense, but he can't shoot, has no NBA-caliber moves to the basket and can't finish effectively when he gets there. He's not much of a playmaker or ballhander either. Cole Aldrich is easy to like, but horrible to watch. Jordan Hill smiles as much as Wes Johnson - probably aided by some pre-game weed. I'll stop there. Suffice it to say, Thibs has his work cut out for him this summer in his role as our PBO. His #1 goal has to be significantly improving our bench without giving up any of our 5 starters - Ricky, Zach, Andrew, Gorgui and KAT or our 6th many Belly. Everyone else on this team under contract for next season should be marketed aggressively in pursuit of high quality bench players. And our cap space should be used aggressively as well for the same purpose.

Could not agree with this post more. I think this is the 1st time all season I have backed off the go get Millsap train. Go get me 3 strong above average vets (chandler, tucker, Redick, Gibson, ja. Green for example). And Whoever we pick.

[kekgeek]

Hilarious 4th quarter by the Wolves and a predictable game overall.

Get lead, blow lead, bench sucks, starters wear down, hero ball, a role player on the other team drains 3's, game over.

I see 6 viable players on this team right now: Towns, Wiggs, Rubio, Dieng, Belly, and Lavine. Dieng and Belly would be served coming off the bench, and Lavine maybe as well considering his injury. That leaves some big holes to fill, including, and it sickens me to say it, we need another point guard. Dunn and Tyus are end of the bench guys right now that maybe can find a bigger role at some point. Everyone else, including Bazz, should be punted. Lots of work to do this summer. Lots.

and they'll sell you on the playoffs next year until they suck again and wanna reset the clock for another 3 year wait.

Yes they will sell playoffs that is what the marketing department does. But it would be so stupid to touch wiggins or towns this offseason.

No team in the nba who will make the playoffs has a top 3 player in year 3 or less. Hard to win with a young team and even more hard to win when the vets are before average

They'll still be a young team three years from now. When will their youth stop being a cop out?

Also, you hope youthful players improve over time. Who here has? Even the guys who look better on offense negate that by being pathetic on D.

Durant (3rd year), Westbrook (2nd year) is one of the only teams in the last 10 years that has won games with their best players being young.

It is an annoying excuse but it is a valid one

[bleedspeed]

Are we playing 3 on 5 out there?

Dieng 4 points in 39 minutes. Rush 2 points in 36 minutes. Wow

Enough said.

If we can get a starting PF and move Dieng to the bench that will make a huge difference to this team.

It seems like we are 2 pieces away at this point. Thibs needs to find those 2 pieces in the free agent or trade market. If we nail one of them in the draft that is considered a bonus.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Bill Clinton used to say "it's the economy stupid." His point was that it's the economy that drives political success or failure, not all the other issues that people and politicians often focus on. And politicians who fail to recognize the overriding importance of the economy do so at their own peril.

I have no doubt that the Wolves' terribly disappointing showing this season came be explained by the following collorary to Mr. Clinton's sage political observation: "It's the bench stupid." Yes, all our starters have flaws and yes Thibs has made coaching mistakes. But in the end, the Wolves winning around 30 games instead of 40 stems from an absolutely putrid bench. And tonight's loss was a prime example of the bench-effect on the Wolves fortunes. After leading almost the entire game, the Wolves collapsed in the 4th. Our terrible bench hurts us in two ways. First, it hurts us with poor play from the bench players themselves when they're on the court. Second, it hurts us by forcing the starters to play too many minutes and exhausting them. I think we've been seeing the results of that exhaustion lately, including tonight.

Belly is the only bench player you can honestly call good. Bazz has been very good in some stretches and terrible in others. I like his consistent effort, but overall he's been just marginally OK. I love Tyus Jones' heart and he does have some skill. But that's it. Dunn has been absolutely terrible. I know there are those, including Thibs, who are infatuated with Dunn's defense, but he can't shoot, has no NBA-caliber moves to the basket and can't finish effectively when he gets there. He's not much of a playmaker or ballhander either. Cole Aldrich is easy to like, but horrible to watch. Jordan Hill smiles as much as Wes Johnson - probably aided by some pre-game weed. I'll stop there. Suffice it to say, Thibs has his work cut out for him this summer in his role as our PBO. His #1 goal has to be significantly improving our bench without giving up any of our 5 starters - Ricky, Zach, Andrew, Gorgui and KAT or our 6th many Belly. Everyone else on this team under contract for next season should be marketed aggressively in pursuit of high quality bench players. And our cap space should be used aggressively as well for the same purpose.

I think last night there is no question the bench was the problem. But it's funny how whenever a vet comes here, they seem to always do worse with us than their prior squad.

Take Brandon Rush. He played over 1,000 minutes with Golden State last season, including starting 25 games. He ended up playing the 9th most minutes on the greatest regular season team in history. He comes to the Wolves and - voila! - his per minute numbers are down across the board.

Now lets turn to Cole Aldrich. He played for a 50+ win Clipper squad and was a key part of their big man rotation. Once again, nearly everything is down across the board with the Wolves - minutes, rebounds, blocks, steals, points....

Somehow both these guys played solid roles on winning teams last year. They come here, aren't asked to do too much, yet fall off a cliff in terms of their contributions to the team.

I guess my question is this. To what degree is the success of stay-in-your-lane vets like Rush and Aldrich a function of how good your starters are? Neither of these guys had any problem being part of big-time winning teams last year. Perhaps Rush was left more alone and given a split second more time to shoot. Perhaps players were funneled to Aldrich in a way that made it easier for him to block shots and not foul. May be he got more easy dunks because he played with pick-and-roll maestro Chris Paul.

This team needs to bolster its starting lineup first and foremost. The bench is not our biggest problem.

[bleedspeed]

I like what Portland has done with its bench. It has found some younger guys that have not worked out other places and brought them in and with low expectations and they have become solid role players. Only fault to them is they didn't have them signed long enough and some of them are now overpaid by Portland or someone else.

[AbeVigodaLive]

So Rubio is shooting well again. I keep expecting to see him fall back to earth, such a strange feeling that he hasn't.

So Rubio is shooting well again. I keep expecting to see him fall back to earth, such a strange feeling that he hasn't.

He was 9 - 34 fg (26.4%) over the previous three games. If he can stick around 39/40%... we should all be relatively happy.