Towns vs. Dieng...who starts?

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

I wonder if Mitchell would consider going with a combination of starters and bench guys for this scrimmage just to make the competition better. Something like Rubio-LaVine-Muhammad-Garnett-Towns vs Miller-Martin-Wiggins-Bjelica-Dieng would be interesting to see.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I wonder if Mitchell would consider going with a combination of starters and bench guys for this scrimmage just to make the competition better. Something like Rubio-LaVine-Muhammad-Garnett-Towns vs Miller-Martin-Wiggins-Bjelica-Dieng would be interesting to see.

Yeah, he just might do that...that's what they did with the summer scrimmage. I'm guessing though that he thinks it's time to start building some on-court chemistry, so he'll go with his current starting lineup. And with the Wolves' improved depth, I'm not so sure that results in a mismatch. I think Miller, Martin, Bazz, Bjelica and Towns will play fairly even with Rubio, Zach, Wiggins, KG and Dieng. Swap the starters at center and SG, and I still see a fairly balanced game. This isn't like 2013-4, where we had a great starting five and nothing at all behind them.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I think this scrimmage will tell us absolutely nothing. It's a show for the players to put on for the fans. I expect a ton of offense, occasional spurts of defensive effort, but mostly open lanes for guys like LaVine and Shabazz to dunk. The pre-season games starting this Wednesday will be more telling.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I think this scrimmage will tell us absolutely nothing. It's a show for the players to put on for the fans. I expect a ton of offense, occasional spurts of defensive effort, but mostly open lanes for guys like LaVine and Shabazz to dunk. The pre-season games starting this Wednesday will be more telling.

Wow, I hope not, q...I wouldn't be going down there if I thought it was going to be Dunks After Dark II. With all the emphasis Sam has put on defense and so little time before the first preseason game, I can't imagine he wants to see a lot of open lanes...just not his style. I think he wants to see if his clear message has been received by the players, and he isn't looking for an All-Star game performance. I can't imagine he would have spent so much time working on defensive communication and PnR defense, and then tell his players to take a night off. I know I'll be disappointed if I see that. I'm certain the players are eagerly waiting to see how Sam works his lineups, and are going to be working hard to show him they have been listening to him (and KG). Many of us probably remember those early pre-season practice days in high school, and how important it was to wear the Starters Jersey...I sense it is the same thing for these guys. Guys like Muhammad who think they should be starting are going to leave it all out there on the court tonight, I think. We'll see though. If it turns out to be just another Dunkathon, I'm out of there at half time.

Edit: Here's Sam's quote in the morning StarTrib about what he wants to see tonight: " Just execute things we've been doing: Get up and down the court, play with spacing, play with flow, move the ball, make hard cuts, set good screens. The same things every coach wants to see. Let's see if they have gotten better the five days we've been practicing." Hmm...Sam spends the first couple practices 100% on defense, but when asked what he wants to see tonight, 5 of the six things are about offense? Come on, Sam...what's the identity of this team?

[Carlos Danger]

Q is correct that Dieng had a Pek/Kevin Love-like opponents field goal percentage at the rim last tear...seems to be an unfortunate characteristic of this team to always have a bottom ten guy in that stat. But we also know that defensive stats can be misleading. Andrew Wiggins had a DRtg per 100 last year of 114, while Gorgui's was much better at 108...but my eye test tells me Wiggins is the better defender. Gorgui's peripheral defensive stats (rebounding, blocks, steals, not fouling) are easier to measure, and all pretty good. Like Towns, Gorgui was a very highly regarded defender coming out of college, so who knows what kind of impact playing for a bad Wolves' team has had on his performance. That's why I'm so excited about Mitchell's emphasis on defense. Wolves players were saying they hadn't worked on basic defensive fundamentals like that since college, and it has to have a positive impact.

I'm going to the scrimmage tonight...what fun to have a full house for a scrimmage! Sam will tip his hand tonight about his thoughts regarding who are his starters at SG and C right now, but we also know that can change during the preseason. I see the battles at those two positions as being toss ups, and knowing Mitchell's style, the winner will be whoever leaves it all on the floor every night. Gorgui and Towns will probably both impress Sam in this area (I loved how Towns went to the floor a couple times in Vegas chasing loose balls), but this could be the tiebreaker in the LaVine/Martin race.

I'm with you on Defensive stats LST. In fact, let's be honest - any stats. We can make Wiggins look like a star or "a below average NBA player". It's a matter of what stats or sample you want to showcase to fit your agenda. Blaming Dieng for "anchoring the NBA worst Defense" seems to be putting an awful lot of blame on one guy. From what I saw last year, there was plenty of blame to go around including guards not stopping the ball/penetration and guys not rotating or helping when needed. It was a complete team breakdown vs. one guy killing them. That led to a lot of easy baskets at the rim and everywhere else. EVERYONE including coaches should feel shame from the defense we saw last year. Rick Pitino used the same Gorgui Dieng to anchor his very, very good defenses at Louisville. I would think those 2+ years should be a decent sample to show Dieng can be part of an effective Defense. Last year's problems were much bigger than one guy.

[Monster]

I do think that we tend to dismiss some of Dieng's development last year because of being disappointed in his defense and lower rebound rate which were both disappointing. There were some nice strides taken by him last year and while he was given opportunity it was not always one where he was put in a great situation to succeed.

FG and FT% increased making him more efficient.

Assist rate went up with his TO rate going down overall.

Foul rate went down dramatically and he still blocked shots although we all know he needs to be a lot more disaplined.

Those are some pretty significant improvements to his game especially for a big guy (lowering foul rate is a big deal) that's 25. I feel like to a certain extent there has been a narrative that Dieng didn't really improve last year but I don't think that's a fair assessment of where he is overall. I am not trying to talk him up too much but there has been some legit improvement and it will be interesting if he can build on that and especially be a more solid defensive player.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I think this scrimmage will tell us absolutely nothing. It's a show for the players to put on for the fans. I expect a ton of offense, occasional spurts of defensive effort, but mostly open lanes for guys like LaVine and Shabazz to dunk. The pre-season games starting this Wednesday will be more telling.

Wow, I hope not, q...I wouldn't be going down there if I thought it was going to be Dunks After Dark II. With all the emphasis Sam has put on defense and so little time before the first preseason game, I can't imagine he wants to see a lot of open lanes...just not his style. I think he wants to see if his clear message has been received by the players, and he isn't looking for an All-Star game performance. I can't imagine he would have spent so much time working on defensive communication and PnR defense, and then tell his players to take a night off. I know I'll be disappointed if I see that. I'm certain the players are eagerly waiting to see how Sam works his lineups, and are going to be working hard to show him they have been listening to him (and KG). Many of us probably remember those early pre-season practice days in high school, and how important it was to wear the Starters Jersey...I sense it is the same thing for these guys. Guys like Muhammad who think they should be starting are going to leave it all out there on the court tonight, I think. We'll see though. If it turns out to be just another Dunkathon, I'm out of there at half time.

Edit: Here's Sam's quote in the morning StarTrib about what he wants to see tonight: " Just execute things we've been doing: Get up and down the court, play with spacing, play with flow, move the ball, make hard cuts, set good screens. The same things every coach wants to see. Let's see if they have gotten better the five days we've been practicing." Hmm...Sam spends the first couple practices 100% on defense, but when asked what he wants to see tonight, 5 of the six things are about offense? Come on, Sam...what's the identity of this team?

LST, These guys scrimmage against each other practically every day in practice, so it's not like Sam hasn't seen these guys in action yet. The only difference is that this is a promotional tactic to help get the fans excited. The average fan (which isn't any of us) isn't going to get excited without seeing a bit of showmanship out there. I highly doubt you'll see guys diving for loose balls, taking charges, and going 110% on defense.

[bleedspeed]

I just think if Dieng is starting for you there is little hope of you having a playoff team in the West. I don't think we have our future PF on this team yet. I think we might have the present though in Bjelica.

[mjs34]

I think Dieng is a capable starting C in this league right now, mainly because there just aren't many quality C's out there. I refuse to look at Dieng's opp FG% from last season after watching Young continually bailout on post defense to go for steals which left Gorgui having to defend two guys. I think that stat is skewed heavily due to that fact alone. Gorgui definitely still struggles holding position down low (mainly due to his setup), but otherwise plays pretty solid D.

I think he is a better option to start right now, but I think the minutes will be split evenly between Towns and Gorgui, so it really only matters how each fits. Pairing Towns with KG makes more sense from a developmental standpoint. Towns definitely looks like the future, but while he has advanced skills and seems relatively intelligent, I still have a big question mark when it comes to his psyche and having him mic'd up hasn't done anything to alleviate those concerns.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I think this scrimmage will tell us absolutely nothing. It's a show for the players to put on for the fans. I expect a ton of offense, occasional spurts of defensive effort, but mostly open lanes for guys like LaVine and Shabazz to dunk. The pre-season games starting this Wednesday will be more telling.

Wow, I hope not, q...I wouldn't be going down there if I thought it was going to be Dunks After Dark II. With all the emphasis Sam has put on defense and so little time before the first preseason game, I can't imagine he wants to see a lot of open lanes...just not his style. I think he wants to see if his clear message has been received by the players, and he isn't looking for an All-Star game performance. I can't imagine he would have spent so much time working on defensive communication and PnR defense, and then tell his players to take a night off. I know I'll be disappointed if I see that. I'm certain the players are eagerly waiting to see how Sam works his lineups, and are going to be working hard to show him they have been listening to him (and KG). Many of us probably remember those early pre-season practice days in high school, and how important it was to wear the Starters Jersey...I sense it is the same thing for these guys. Guys like Muhammad who think they should be starting are going to leave it all out there on the court tonight, I think. We'll see though. If it turns out to be just another Dunkathon, I'm out of there at half time.

Edit: Here's Sam's quote in the morning StarTrib about what he wants to see tonight: " Just execute things we've been doing: Get up and down the court, play with spacing, play with flow, move the ball, make hard cuts, set good screens. The same things every coach wants to see. Let's see if they have gotten better the five days we've been practicing." Hmm...Sam spends the first couple practices 100% on defense, but when asked what he wants to see tonight, 5 of the six things are about offense? Come on, Sam...what's the identity of this team?

Be prepared to be disappointed then. This is going to look nothing like a real game. The defense will be nothing close to stingy and they're gonna try to flash as much as they can on offense to appease the crowd. It's a public team scrimmage. Nobody is gonna go hard except maybe KG because he's crazy. Getting out without injuries is the #1 priority so I doubt many players will be giving anything more than 75% effort. Think of it as a show and not a game because that's what it is.