Minnesota Sports Forum

Great, gritty win. Apparently Wiggins had a stiff back today. So I'll cut him some slack on his performance tonight.

Wiggins aside, tonight's game further confirmed two things in my mind:

1. There's no earthly reason for Prince getting more than spot minutes in very limited situations.

2. We really need to dramatically improve our rebounding. To do that I think we need a high caliber rebounder at PF behind KG. I just don't see Dieng, Bjelica or Payne emerging as that guy. Fortunately Bjelica and Dieng bring other skills to the table: Belly can handle the ball, pass and shoot while Dieng can block and alter shots. Maybe one of those guys can improve as a rebounder. That plus better rebounding from the other positions and more box outs might close the rebounding gap enough.

One more cautionary lesson from watching the Lakers success with the full court pressure in the 4th quarter. We need a second ball handler on the court with Ricky. That's one thing Flip said we need if this team is going to take the next step and develop into a contending team. And that's why Zach is so important to this team's future. Wiggins isn't a true second ball-handler and I don't see him developing into one even if he does improve that aspect of his game. Right now I see Martin as a placeholder in the starting lineup until Zach is ready. Martin's not a particularly good ballhandler (not nearly as good as LaVine), but he can creat off the dribble in a number of ways.

SameOldNudityDrew wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:I just look at Payne as a wasted roster spot more then cost of his contract. We will have another lottery pick next year and Payne will be taking up space where we could have had a productive player.

(Jeff Adrien is available)

I love Jeff Adrien! Watching Randle against us inside tonight really made me miss him again.

It's time to see if some team will give us a second rounder for Payne. The next move should be signing Mr. Adrien.

Why not Adrien in place of Rudez instead? Payne at least has the physical tools so we might as well keep him around for now. He also wasn't that bad tonight.

That game was emotionally draining

Pretty humorous reading through this thread. Bitch and moan, bitch and moan, then YEA!

These first few games are all about building chemistry. It's nice to get that, and get a win at the same time.

60WinTim wrote:Pretty humorous reading through this thread. Bitch and moan, bitch and moan, then YEA!

These first few games are all about building chemistry. It's nice to get that, and get a win at the same time.

Thanks for the levity. We are all learning to cope with trauma. Mitchell is a genius. I with you on the positivity train.

I went to bed shortly after the Lakers drained a half court to close out the 1st quarter. I hit "record" on the DVR...but of course this a.m. I didn't have enough self control to just watch the game and instead went straight to the laptop to see what happened. Nice win! Let's be honest - the Lakers probably are going to stink again this year. But a win is a win - especially on the road. Certainly some things that still need to be tightened up i.e. Defense. But a lot of young guys still learning to play....I think that's normal. Get me 30+ wins this year and this team will have taken a step in the right direction.

TheGrey08 wrote:Why not Adrien in place of Rudez instead? Payne at least has the physical tools so we might as well keep him around for now. He also wasn't that bad tonight.

I am fine with that also. I just don't like the idea of Payne here past this year. Hopefully we draft a monster PF this year that just eats up boards off the rim/glass.

Anyway great to see we won and I got a great nights sleep to boot.

One take away I had this morning was the talk about this team needing to play up tempo basketball. Rubio pushed the pace big time. Bjelica got it up a few times himself. Lavine slowed things down in that regard but he also had a few times he attacked. Martin buys into getting the ball up the floor no doubt. All this and the Wolves had 8 TOs which is pretty impressive even if the Lakers are far from a defensive juggernaut.

bleedspeed177 wrote:

TheGrey08 wrote:Why not Adrien in place of Rudez instead? Payne at least has the physical tools so we might as well keep him around for now. He also wasn't that bad tonight.

I am fine with that also. I just don't like the idea of Payne here past this year. Hopefully we draft a monster PF this year that just eats up boards off the rim/glass.

Anyway great to see we won and I got a great nights sleep to boot.

If 20 or so games from now if Pek can't play long term this year and somehow the Wolves are competitive maybe the Wolves do make a move for a bruiser type like Adrian. I stay cautiously optimistic about Pek but I do have some optimism about him being able to play limited minutes off the bench and filling the role of helping with the void of girth and rebounding.