Minnesota Sports Forum

AbeVigodaLive wrote:Maybe Thad Young wants out now?

The guy as stuck in Philadelphia last year. Now this? Maybe he's trying to force Flip's hand. After all, with the writing on the wall that this is a possible 60-loss season, trades will happen.

I don't see Thad doing that, but I wouldn't be against trading him for the right return. He would be a great backup for a contender.

bleedspeed177 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:Maybe Thad Young wants out now?

The guy as stuck in Philadelphia last year. Now this? Maybe he's trying to force Flip's hand. After all, with the writing on the wall that this is a possible 60-loss season, trades will happen.

I don't see Thad doing that, but I wouldn't be against trading him for the right return. He would be a great backup for a contender.

Why not?

Did you see him mailing in performances this early in the season?



[Note: I am a bit surprised by that, actually. It's a contract year, right? There's a lot of money on the table.]

Everyone is putting way too much weight on these blowout losses to championship/playoff contenders.

We are out our 3 best players for a big chunk of the start of the season after just trading a top 10 player in the NBA which only got us close to .500 in the win/loss column.

We are currently relying on 5 players to play big minutes and take on drastically altered roles than we and flip anticipated coming into the year. Those players are Wiggins, Bennett, LaVine, Dieng, and Shabazz who COMBINED have less than 4 years experience in the NBA. That's less than Blake Griffen alone! 2 of These players didn't even have half a season to get acclimated to the big league before being heavily relied on.

This is a time to watch for improvement and confidence growth. Not a time to call for our coaches head, the first real coach we've had since, well, since he was the coach. Its also not a time to downplay the fight our young players are showing when they all know there is zero chance to win these games. I look forward with anticipation of great things, especially with another top 3 pick likely being added. Towns, Oka for, or mudiay sound great with our bunch.

Master, I agree with your post...I am seeing the same things you are as we watch our young players develop, and don't expect wins at least until Rubio returns. Despite the losses, I find something every night that gets me excited, such as:

1) Muhammad's non-stop motor and relentless desire to score. And last night he even added four assists!

2) I expect our 5 rookies and second year players to be up and down, but every night one of them seems to have a game that tells us just how special he can be...fun to watch. Last night it was Wiggins getting to the line 9 times, even though he was still dragging from his virus. I'm convinced he is going to be a consistent 10 FTA guy once he develops his NBA game...he's close already.

3) the continuing emergence of Dieng as a playmaker. His scoring ability has fallen since that three-game stretch a couple weeks ago when he stunned me with his versatility, but his vision and passing continues to evolve and looks like the real deal.

But it's also fair to speak up when we see something that disappoints us, and last night it was Thad. I was curious about his second half defense after Robson called him out on twitter, so I just finished watching a replay. My god...it was worse than I expected. Kevin Love 2.0! The camera crew kept cutting to Flip after an especially poor defensive series, and he looked like he had bitten into a sour lemon. Finally, he yanked Thad and kept him out for the final 20 minutes. As I said before, maybe he was hurt or ill. If not, there is no excuse for his lack of effort on the defensive end. Thad is one of the guys our rookies look to as a role model, and he wasn't a good example last night.

I think Love's defense is getting the easy, cursory bad rap. Especially when compared to Thad Young. Even when Young was "trying", he was as bad or worse than Love in many ways.

Love's defense made great strides last season overall, despite some obvious flaws.

As for watching and hoping for the young guys... Donyell Marshall, Gerald Glass, Steph Marbury, Will Avery, Ndudi Ebi, Louis Bullock, Paul Grant, Felton Spencer, et al...

That's where the apathy comes in for many. They've been down this road before. Again and again.

Wolves D at the rim is worse the last year. How does that happen even though we lost the black holes in Love and Pek and replaced them with the next Bill Russel in Dieng and Thad who everybody thought was way better then Love at defense?

alexftbl8181 wrote:Wolves D at the rim is worse the last year. How does that happen even though we lost the black holes in Love and Pek and replaced them with the next Bill Russel in Dieng and Thad who everybody thought was way better then Love at defense?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought I read that Thad Young gave up a higher percentage at the rim than Kevin Love last season.

And that was when he was trying.

Just to throw this out there...Thad's mom did pass very recently, and he is still grieving...I would expect his intensity and drive to lag a little for awhile.

Here's my take....young team, new coach/system, many new players, three starters out....I'm ok with them losing to obviously better teams. I just want to make sure they play hard and don't quit. I also just want to start seeing some baby steps towards improving. Specifically - the defense should be much better. And the young guys need to start showing some consistency vs. 28 points one night and 2 the next. I'm not ready to go into "The sky is falling" mode yet. Now if we give Philly their first win tomorrow....it will be tough to not feel shame at this squad. This team has talent. We shouldn't be the worst team out there - even with the injuries. The next game will tell me something about how the rest of this year will go.

Well put CD