Minnesota Sports Forum

Hicks123 wrote:Does anyone believe that these games would have been winnable with Rubio? I really wish he would have been around so we could have assessed our true potential. Personally, while we certainly would have been a bit more competitive over the past few games, I think these teams we played are simply much better teams, and win handily with or without Rubio.

Expectations of this team coming into the season seemed substantially inflated IMO. While I think the longer-term prognosis for this team is strong, they will struggle to win games over the next couple years.

Hicks, I think Ricky's presence makes all three games winnable, but we likely would have gone 1-2 (after winning the Orlando game). I think Houston, NO and Dallas are all better than we are right now, but Ricky's presence kept us in the game against Memphis and Chicago, so I think we would have stolen one of the last three games. In my opinion, losing Ricky has cost us two wins so far. It will cost us a lot more before he is back.

longstrangetrip wrote:

Hicks123 wrote:Does anyone believe that these games would have been winnable with Rubio? I really wish he would have been around so we could have assessed our true potential. Personally, while we certainly would have been a bit more competitive over the past few games, I think these teams we played are simply much better teams, and win handily with or without Rubio.

Expectations of this team coming into the season seemed substantially inflated IMO. While I think the longer-term prognosis for this team is strong, they will struggle to win games over the next couple years.

Hicks, I think Ricky's presence makes all three games winnable, but we likely would have gone 1-2 (after winning the Orlando game). I think Houston, NO and Dallas are all better than we are right now, but Ricky's presence kept us in the game against Memphis and Chicago, so I think we would have stolen one of the last three games. In my opinion, losing Ricky has cost us two wins so far. It will cost us a lot more before he is back.

Wolves have lost by about 3 million points the past two games. Ricky isn't Magic Johnson now come on

alexftbl8181 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

Hicks123 wrote:Does anyone believe that these games would have been winnable with Rubio? I really wish he would have been around so we could have assessed our true potential. Personally, while we certainly would have been a bit more competitive over the past few games, I think these teams we played are simply much better teams, and win handily with or without Rubio.

Expectations of this team coming into the season seemed substantially inflated IMO. While I think the longer-term prognosis for this team is strong, they will struggle to win games over the next couple years.

Hicks, I think Ricky's presence makes all three games winnable, but we likely would have gone 1-2 (after winning the Orlando game). I think Houston, NO and Dallas are all better than we are right now, but Ricky's presence kept us in the game against Memphis and Chicago, so I think we would have stolen one of the last three games. In my opinion, losing Ricky has cost us two wins so far. It will cost us a lot more before he is back.

Wolves have lost by about 3 million points the past two games. Ricky isn't Magic Johnson now come on

Take a look at his on/off stats this year while he was healthy, and you'll see what I'm saying, alex...he had a 27 point impact on the game this year. And you think you can replace that with Zach LaVine? No Ricky is not Magic, but the impact of losing him is similar, or perhaps even more dire. Losing Ricky is the reason we only lost to Memphis on their court by 1, but lost by 50 to New Orleans. The dropoff on offense and defense in replacing Ricky with a 19-year-old kid who may not ever be a PG is a loss that no coach could deal with.

longstrangetrip wrote:

alexftbl8181 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

Hicks123 wrote:Does anyone believe that these games would have been winnable with Rubio? I really wish he would have been around so we could have assessed our true potential. Personally, while we certainly would have been a bit more competitive over the past few games, I think these teams we played are simply much better teams, and win handily with or without Rubio.

Expectations of this team coming into the season seemed substantially inflated IMO. While I think the longer-term prognosis for this team is strong, they will struggle to win games over the next couple years.

Hicks, I think Ricky's presence makes all three games winnable, but we likely would have gone 1-2 (after winning the Orlando game). I think Houston, NO and Dallas are all better than we are right now, but Ricky's presence kept us in the game against Memphis and Chicago, so I think we would have stolen one of the last three games. In my opinion, losing Ricky has cost us two wins so far. It will cost us a lot more before he is back.

Wolves have lost by about 3 million points the past two games. Ricky isn't Magic Johnson now come on

Take a look at his on/off stats this year while he was healthy, and you'll see what I'm saying, alex...he had a 27 point impact on the game this year. And you think you can replace that with Zach LaVine? No Ricky is not Magic, but the impact of losing him is similar, or perhaps even more dire. Losing Ricky is the reason we only lost to Memphis on their court by 1, but lost by 50 to New Orleans. The dropoff on offense and defense in replacing Ricky with a 19-year-old kid who may not ever be a PG is a loss that no coach could deal with.

Were talking about a 5 game sample size. Most of those stats were way above his career mark. You can't possibly say he wasn't due to slip off a +27 pace can you?

We've been without our two best players these last two games: Ricky Rubio and Thaddeus Young. We've gotten our ass whooped by two playoff caliber teams. It hurts, but it only counts as two L's. We need a good week upcoming.

I am not sure why Pek played at all. Watch the tape and you will see him hobbling right from the tip off. He should not have played a minute last night. We need to cut Turiaf, and get a healthy big to backup Dieng.

This team needs to simplify their D, by switching on all PnR's. We are being eaten alive, and I would prefer to just take our chances on getting mismatched rather than giving up open looks and layups.

I'm no defensive wizard but Mo has looked pretty awful on D this year. He seemed to ramp it up on JJ, but alot of the time it seems like guys can go past him whenever. I wasn't expecting him to be good on that end, but man he has looked bad at times. I know some of the time its been partly due to poor team defense, but yeah. At least he found his shot some tonight.

Wiggins struggled on offense against a team that gets hands on balls. He was building some nice momentum but I'm not gonna freak out him having a bit of a stinker in this game.

Q remember its not just Ricky out its been Thad out these last 2 games and Martin and Williams couldn't hit shots. I'm not saying Thad would have saved things the past 2 games, but I bet he woudl have helped. I think Thad and Rubio are the guys that make the defensive schemes Flip wants to run work and without BOTH guys wow its gonna get ugly fast.

Martin. It wasn't just he was on fire scoring he was playing good D especially early on. Ellis was actually a decent matchup for him since Ellis isn't bigger and stronger etc. I don't think his D was as good after that ankle tweaked but Martin was still at least giving effort.

Brewer continues to show why you want him on the team.

Pek ugh it sucks the guy can't stay healthy, but well I guess at this point rest him until he is healthy even if that means playing Hummel or some other dude at C. Its not like we are gonna win games for a while anyway just roll with what we have. Turiaf I told people he was an injury issue and its come up again. Too bad I like him but he just can't stay healthy. I won't be surprised if Pek stays healthy enough to play 602 games and put up his usual numbers.

Dieng. Lets put it this way Chandler put on a clinic of how to play as a big in this game. He looked like the player that he was that year the mavs won the title. Having said all that and Dieng got exposed alot the talent is there. His offense is flat out amazing nobody here expected what he has shown. Sure chandler came back and blocked that drive Dieng had but what a move to get to that point. Dieng I think has a legit chance to improve, but I think people will discount soem of his game on the offensive end becasue he just looks awkward. If he can get his footwork smoothed out so he doeskin travel...he may be a real offensive weapon.

Bazz Good grief that guy is impressive within reason. Dude gets out there and scores and tonight he got a couple assists and was passing (must have heard you guys ripping on him for that LOL) and that last pass was too unselfish he might not have had that offensive foul if he would have just looked to score. I'm sure he isnt' playing awesome D but who the hell is? He should be out there getting minutes.

I'm glad Bud got some minutes and he looked better once again. If this season starts really going poorly (who am I kidding? lol) maybe we can move him for a 2nd rounder or someone if he can get on track. I hate to say move Martin too becasue I'd like to see him stay and help us win next year, but if you can get something back for him maybe it would be fair to him to move him to a winner. Someone has to step up to deserve getting minutes though.

Hummel didn't hit shots and was undersized, but good grief the guy gets in the right spots on D. Maybe he can teach Bazz how to play D. Oddly that might actually be amazing.

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