Minnesota Sports Forum

khans2k5 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

TheFuture wrote:I don't understand the rim protection argument for Taj, at 54.5%. I'll add, I'm not great at sifting through the NBA.com stats as there is tons to look at. But this isn't Taj from 4 years ago we are talking about.

Talk about his close out ability, fine. Talk about his familiarity with this defense and the "magic mentor potion", fine. But this idea that he is some savant at the rim and is perfect next to KAT is quite a carried away stretch.

What is the rim protection stat you are looking at? G gave up 60% from less than 6ft to Taj's 53% when I looked it up on nbadotcom. That's a massive difference. Taj isn't Gobert, but his 53% is significantly better than Towns' 59% and G's 60%.

Better than Gorgui or the 21-year old KAT isn't the standard I'd use. Truth is, rim protection is not Gibson's strong suit and he's not fairly described as a rim-protector, especially at this point in his career. I think that's all Future was saying and I agree. That doesn't take away from Gibson's many strengths -- his toughness, his overall defense, his efficient inside scoring, his mentoring and his decent rebounding.

How can you say that first line and post how you didn't think we needed a 4 this offseason? "G and Towns aren't good defensively, but I would rather have kept them together than bring in a solid defender to shore up the frontcourt defense." G's just been in the league too long to use youth as any kind of excuse for lack of performance. He's consistently been a bottom tier rim protector since he started playing starter minutes. He just doesn't work next to KAT unless KAT magically turns into a plus defender which is too big a leap to count on in one offseason. Gibson is a great defensive compliment to both of them. I think you are way too hung up on blocks when it comes to rim protection. We need to bring the opposing team's FG% down and that's Gibson's defensive specialty. We just got 7% better at defending close to the basket. That's huge.

TheFuture wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

TheFuture wrote:I don't understand the rim protection argument for Taj, at 54.5%. I'll add, I'm not great at sifting through the NBA.com stats as there is tons to look at. But this isn't Taj from 4 years ago we are talking about.

Talk about his close out ability, fine. Talk about his familiarity with this defense and the "magic mentor potion", fine. But this idea that he is some savant at the rim and is perfect next to KAT is quite a carried away stretch.

What is the rim protection stat you are looking at? G gave up 60% from less than 6ft to Taj's 53% when I looked it up on nbadotcom. That's a massive difference. Taj isn't Gobert, but his 53% is significantly better than Towns' 59% and G's 60%.

Yeah, like I said I'm not exactly a stat guy. Especially nba.com. Basketballreference is so much easier for the regular joe to look at. I was trying to revise my comment because now I see that he is near or in the top 20. I originally thought he was closer to top 50, but half those guys on the first page are guards who see little action or guys who rarely played. That's quite comforting. He ranks ahead of the likes of Howard, McGee, A. Davis, P. gasol, and plenty more. Wow.

Disregard my previous uninformed post, but still an overpay! :dead:

longstrangetrip wrote:Robson analyzes the offseason in his inimitable fashion:

https://www.minnpost.com/sports/2017/07/nobody-should-be-surprised-way-tom-thibodeau-has-remade-timberwolves

monsterpile wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:Robson analyzes the offseason in his inimitable fashion:

https://www.minnpost.com/sports/2017/07/nobody-should-be-surprised-way-tom-thibodeau-has-remade-timberwolves

I listened to his latest podcast and the biggest thing ai took from it was this. When they were discussing The defense of the PGs Rubio and Teague and his partner said Teague couldn't guard a traffic cone etc Britt became pretty emphatic and said Teague is not a terrible defender. To be honest that's a pretty good vote of confidence coming from Britt who values defense even more than LST and seems to really have an eye for it. It seemed pretty clear Britt didn't think Teague was a worthless guy on that end and he has no issue ripping guys that are. The first time I remember reading an article years ago where he did just that spending some time breaking down why Ridnour was very poor on that end although saying he was being asked to do to much. It was harsh but well thought out.

Jim Peterson Was on ESPN 1500 and had some comments about Teague's defense. He said aspects espcially pick and roll defense was very bad last year as he was watching film. He went back and watched film from his Atlanta days and said he was much much better. He said he thought the situation in Indiana was not good for him in that area. He also said Paul George is flat out not a leader but a terrific basketball player. He also had a lot of praise for Gibson although he would have liked the fit of Patterson. He said one thing people don't realize is that Gibson is such a smart player and good offensive rebounder you have to account for him which in some ways will create some space even though he isn't a 3 point shooter. Britt actually mentioned some of the same stuff about offensive rebounding and suggested Towns may be the best offensive rebounder in the league.[/quote]

lol just in time for the league to basically abandon offensive rebounding because transition defense suffers too much when you commit to offensive rebounds.