Minnesota Sports Forum

Q12543 wrote:

BloopOracle wrote:Watching the clip of Monta missing that final shot last night you can see Thibs pump his fist, high five Ricky and literally hug him! Maybe he's playing his way off Thibs trading block?

A well-deserved hug too, as Rubio sealed the game on both ends. AP Jon K has mentioned before how Rubio eventually wins over once skeptical coaches.

We'll see what happens this offseason, but my guess is that neither side (Rubio and his agent and the Wolves front office) will shy away from trade options. I'd love to see him stay, but I think he's fed up with the losing and semi-annual trade rumors.

longstrangetrip wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

BloopOracle wrote:Watching the clip of Monta missing that final shot last night you can see Thibs pump his fist, high five Ricky and literally hug him! Maybe he's playing his way off Thibs trading block?

A well-deserved hug too, as Rubio sealed the game on both ends. AP Jon K has mentioned before how Rubio eventually wins over once skeptical coaches.

We'll see what happens this offseason, but my guess is that neither side (Rubio and his agent and the Wolves front office) will shy away from trade options. I'd love to see him stay, but I think he's fed up with the losing and semi-annual trade rumors.

When this horribly disappointing season is over, I will tee up several reasons why I think this year's failure is mostly on Thibodoeau (doesn't mean I don't like him long term here...with some modification)...and his handling of Rubio the first half of this year will be one of the main themes. I think Ricky's late season resurgence has a lot to do with Thibs too, but I see that more as a reason to criticize his early season coaching than to praise him now.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

BloopOracle wrote:Watching the clip of Monta missing that final shot last night you can see Thibs pump his fist, high five Ricky and literally hug him! Maybe he's playing his way off Thibs trading block?

A well-deserved hug too, as Rubio sealed the game on both ends. AP Jon K has mentioned before how Rubio eventually wins over once skeptical coaches.

We'll see what happens this offseason, but my guess is that neither side (Rubio and his agent and the Wolves front office) will shy away from trade options. I'd love to see him stay, but I think he's fed up with the losing and semi-annual trade rumors.

When this horribly disappointing season is over, I will tee up several reasons why I think this year's failure is mostly on Thibodoeau (doesn't mean I don't like him long term here...with some modification)...and his handling of Rubio the first half of this year will be one of the main themes. I think Ricky's late season resurgence has a lot to do with Thibs too, but I see that more as a reason to criticize his early season coaching than to praise him now.

To be fair, I think we've already read them.

Multiple times.

Q12543 wrote:

Brooklyn_Wolves wrote:Btw, Q. I saw some interesting breakdown of Rubio's season online.

Rubio Divided in thirds:
10/1/2016-12/14/2016 (First 25 games)
Touches: 75.5
Time of possession: 6.0
Avg. Dribbles per Touch: 4.86
Drives: 4.8
ORTG with him on the floor: 108.9

12/14/2016-2/4/2017 (Next 25 games / up to Lavine injury):
Touches: 81.6
Time of possession: 7.2
Avg. Dribbles per Touch: 5.12
Drives: 5.8
ORTG with him on the floor: 111.1

From 2/4/2017 up to now (20 games/since Lavine Injury)
Touches: 89.3
Time of possession: 8.5
Avg. Dribbles per Touch: 5.69
Drives: 6.8
ORTG with him on the floor: 114.8

Great stats BW. This bears out what was plain as day to some of us early in the season, which is that Thibs wasn't utilizing Rubio as much and was trying to get Wig and LaVine to take on more of the play making responsibilities. The results were predictable, as neither of those guys are very good passers yet.

longstrangetrip wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

BloopOracle wrote:Watching the clip of Monta missing that final shot last night you can see Thibs pump his fist, high five Ricky and literally hug him! Maybe he's playing his way off Thibs trading block?

A well-deserved hug too, as Rubio sealed the game on both ends. AP Jon K has mentioned before how Rubio eventually wins over once skeptical coaches.

We'll see what happens this offseason, but my guess is that neither side (Rubio and his agent and the Wolves front office) will shy away from trade options. I'd love to see him stay, but I think he's fed up with the losing and semi-annual trade rumors.

When this horribly disappointing season is over, I will tee up several reasons why I think this year's failure is mostly on Thibodoeau (doesn't mean I don't like him long term here...with some modification)...and his handling of Rubio the first half of this year will be one of the main themes. I think Ricky's late season resurgence has a lot to do with Thibs too, but I see that more as a reason to criticize his early season coaching than to praise him now.

To be fair, I think we've already read them.

Multiple times.

Um...not all of them, and not all in one post for discussion purposes. This team is set to win somewhere about 32 games this season, a paltry 3 game improvement over last year despite adding a top 3 pick, 3 free agents who all had some success with better teams last year, and another year of maturity for our young studs. I don't think anyone here is satisfied with such a low winning percentage this year, and a post-mortem has never been more in order...I anticipate a lively discussion, with a lot of thoughts about what has to happen next year to avoid another lost season. Some will blame our "youth" for this year's disaster, but I'm tired of that excuse. And when the younger Lakers outplayed us at the end of last week's game to steal another win from us, it shot holes in that argument. This board needs to hold Thibs accountable for the failure of this season.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

BloopOracle wrote:Watching the clip of Monta missing that final shot last night you can see Thibs pump his fist, high five Ricky and literally hug him! Maybe he's playing his way off Thibs trading block?

A well-deserved hug too, as Rubio sealed the game on both ends. AP Jon K has mentioned before how Rubio eventually wins over once skeptical coaches.

We'll see what happens this offseason, but my guess is that neither side (Rubio and his agent and the Wolves front office) will shy away from trade options. I'd love to see him stay, but I think he's fed up with the losing and semi-annual trade rumors.

When this horribly disappointing season is over, I will tee up several reasons why I think this year's failure is mostly on Thibodoeau (doesn't mean I don't like him long term here...with some modification)...and his handling of Rubio the first half of this year will be one of the main themes. I think Ricky's late season resurgence has a lot to do with Thibs too, but I see that more as a reason to criticize his early season coaching than to praise him now.

To be fair, I think we've already read them.

Multiple times.

Um...not all of them, and not all in one post for discussion purposes. This team is set to win somewhere about 32 games this season, a paltry 3 game improvement over last year despite adding a top 3 pick, 3 free agents who all had some success with better teams last year, and another year of maturity for our young studs. I don't think anyone here is satisfied with such a low winning percentage this year, and a post-mortem has never been more in order...I anticipate a lively discussion, with a lot of thoughts about what has to happen next year to avoid another lost season. Some will blame our "youth" for this year's disaster, but I'm tired of that excuse. And when the younger Lakers outplayed us at the end of last week's game to steal another win from us, it shot holes in that argument. This board needs to hold Thibs accountable for the failure of this season.

Fair enough. I probably won't participate though because the same tired tropes over and over again just wore on me...

I'm sure there will be some good points in there. And I'm sorry for the critique. I'm well aware that my stuff isn't above criticism either.

longstrangetrip wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

BloopOracle wrote:Watching the clip of Monta missing that final shot last night you can see Thibs pump his fist, high five Ricky and literally hug him! Maybe he's playing his way off Thibs trading block?

A well-deserved hug too, as Rubio sealed the game on both ends. AP Jon K has mentioned before how Rubio eventually wins over once skeptical coaches.

We'll see what happens this offseason, but my guess is that neither side (Rubio and his agent and the Wolves front office) will shy away from trade options. I'd love to see him stay, but I think he's fed up with the losing and semi-annual trade rumors.

When this horribly disappointing season is over, I will tee up several reasons why I think this year's failure is mostly on Thibodoeau (doesn't mean I don't like him long term here...with some modification)...and his handling of Rubio the first half of this year will be one of the main themes. I think Ricky's late season resurgence has a lot to do with Thibs too, but I see that more as a reason to criticize his early season coaching than to praise him now.

To be fair, I think we've already read them.

Multiple times.

Um...not all of them, and not all in one post for discussion purposes. This team is set to win somewhere about 32 games this season, a paltry 3 game improvement over last year despite adding a top 3 pick, 3 free agents who all had some success with better teams last year, and another year of maturity for our young studs. I don't think anyone here is satisfied with such a low winning percentage this year, and a post-mortem has never been more in order...I anticipate a lively discussion, with a lot of thoughts about what has to happen next year to avoid another lost season. Some will blame our "youth" for this year's disaster, but I'm tired of that excuse. And when the younger Lakers outplayed us at the end of last week's game to steal another win from us, it shot holes in that argument. This board needs to hold Thibs accountable for the failure of this season.

Can we just avoid the "Thibs plays the starters to much and they're too tired at the end" mantra in that thread?

Please. And not because I don't think it might have some merit...

Fair enough. I probably won't participate though because the same tired tropes over and over again just wore on me...

I'm sure there will be some good points in there. And I'm sorry for the critique. I'm well aware that my stuff isn't above criticism either.

I hope you do participate, abe. We all share a common interest here...the turnaround of one of the most woeful franchises in pro sports, and one we are all cursed to follow passionately. In a season where factors other than injuries (the team actually had a better winning percentage after Zach and Belly went down than before) led to a bunch of smart basketball minds missing badly on a prediction of season wins, a discussion of what went wrong has never seemed more appropriate. Followed by a discussion of what has to change to finally meet our expectations. Yes, many of the thoughts will have already been presented, but that is true in so many threads here...and I think it will be good to memorialize a "what went wrong" thread right after the season gratefully ends. All here know that I will pin most of this year's shortcomings on the coaching, but I'm open to persuasive reasons other than coaching for the lack of real improvement this season. I hope it's a lively discussion.

monsterpile wrote:Jon K keeps saying over and over and over again Rubio likes it here and wants to win here and actually likes the fans. I think we have seen enough reports that you could make the deduction that what Rubio prefers/likes and what some of the folks in his camp wants...may. It be the same things. If Rubio keeps playing like he has the rest of the season what the hell do you trade him for? It better be at least an average starter at another position. Let's stop this carousel of moving players and actually build something. Look at what the Wolves have done playing all these guards lately. If the best overall player available when the Wolves pick in a few weeks is a PG pick them and figure it out later. Another dynamic scorer with the ball in his hands sounds pretty good even if there are other issues. A trade down makes some sense as well.

As for this game I had seen Rubio hit the FTs to win it before I watched it so yeah but it was a good win. Dieng played much better and that Dunn guy is gonna be one of the best defensive players in the entire league.