Minnesota Sports Forum

Despite the doom and gloom here (me included), the Wolves remain tied for 4th place in the West...with their easiest stretch of games coming up. What's happening is that the top 3 are hot, and nobody else is...the emergence of the East helps. The Thibs factor is holding us back, but we are so talented I see us overcoming the coaching to some extent and staying in the hunt for that 4th spot. Of course, all bets are off if Butler's finger has him out for a while. Other teams can overcome injuries to their stars, but not a Thibs team.

To GM Thibs' credit though, I continue to think he dodged a bullet in not drafting Markannen. Just like last season, he started out hot and then is cooling off drastically. He is now shooting 10 percentage points lower than Kris Dunn on threes!

monsterpile wrote:Jazz 116 Wizards 69. Wow

Gobert is back. Oh oh.

But the real story of that game was the Jazz bench.

25 - 40 fg with only 4 TOs. No starter played more than 25 minutes.


[Note: And that's without Rodney Hood... who I assume will be the first guy off the bench moving forward.]

longstrangetrip wrote:Despite the doom and gloom here (me included), the Wolves remain tied for 4th place in the West...with their easiest stretch of games coming up. What's happening is that the top 3 are hot, and nobody else is...the emergence of the East helps. The Thibs factor is holding us back, but we are so talented I see us overcoming the coaching to some extent and staying in the hunt for that 4th spot. Of course, all bets are off if Butler's finger has him out for a while. Other teams can overcome injuries to their stars, but not a Thibs team.

To GM Thibs' credit though, I continue to think he dodged a bullet in not drafting Markannen. Just like last season, he started out hot and then is cooling off drastically. He is now shooting 10 percentage points lower than Kris Dunn on threes!

I agree in part. I think our talent is good enough to potentially overcome Thibs to the point of possibly competing for the 5th seed, but more likely finishing 7th or 8th. I don't see us competing for a top 4 seed as long as Thibs remains our head coach. The Warriors, Rockets, Nuggets and Spurs will all finish ahead of the Wolves -- assuming that Jokic and Millsap eventually get back on the floor for the Nuggets and Leonard gets back for the Spurs. Although interestingly, the Spurs have done fine without Leonard so far this season. Just shows how well coached that team is. I still think the Thunder will get on track and pass us in the standings.

We talked about these rookies needing to take a lap or two around the league before making any declarations. Some are only getting better while others are now being scouted and unable to adjust. Markannen is in the latter category.

longstrangetrip wrote:Despite the doom and gloom here (me included), the Wolves remain tied for 4th place in the West...with their easiest stretch of games coming up. What's happening is that the top 3 are hot, and nobody else is...the emergence of the East helps. The Thibs factor is holding us back, but we are so talented I see us overcoming the coaching to some extent and staying in the hunt for that 4th spot. Of course, all bets are off if Butler's finger has him out for a while. Other teams can overcome injuries to their stars, but not a Thibs team.

To GM Thibs' credit though, I continue to think he dodged a bullet in not drafting Markannen. Just like last season, he started out hot and then is cooling off drastically. He is now shooting 10 percentage points lower than Kris Dunn on threes!

"Other teams can overcome injuries to their stars, but not a Thibs team."

Um...really?

monsterpile wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:Despite the doom and gloom here (me included), the Wolves remain tied for 4th place in the West...with their easiest stretch of games coming up. What's happening is that the top 3 are hot, and nobody else is...the emergence of the East helps. The Thibs factor is holding us back, but we are so talented I see us overcoming the coaching to some extent and staying in the hunt for that 4th spot. Of course, all bets are off if Butler's finger has him out for a while. Other teams can overcome injuries to their stars, but not a Thibs team.

To GM Thibs' credit though, I continue to think he dodged a bullet in not drafting Markannen. Just like last season, he started out hot and then is cooling off drastically. He is now shooting 10 percentage points lower than Kris Dunn on threes!

"Other teams can overcome injuries to their stars, but not a Thibs team."

Um...really?

There's been a running theme on this board this year that we have been lucky to face teams missing their best player (or players), although sometimes those teams have still managed to overcome the loss and beat us. The first game of the year against the Spurs is an example, as is last night's game against the Griz. And there have been several other instances in between these two games.

In contrast, we completely collapsed when we lost Butler for a few games...they were our worst games of the year.

longstrangetrip wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:Despite the doom and gloom here (me included), the Wolves remain tied for 4th place in the West...with their easiest stretch of games coming up. What's happening is that the top 3 are hot, and nobody else is...the emergence of the East helps. The Thibs factor is holding us back, but we are so talented I see us overcoming the coaching to some extent and staying in the hunt for that 4th spot. Of course, all bets are off if Butler's finger has him out for a while. Other teams can overcome injuries to their stars, but not a Thibs team.

To GM Thibs' credit though, I continue to think he dodged a bullet in not drafting Markannen. Just like last season, he started out hot and then is cooling off drastically. He is now shooting 10 percentage points lower than Kris Dunn on threes!

"Other teams can overcome injuries to their stars, but not a Thibs team."

Um...really?

There's been a running theme on this board this year that we have been lucky to face teams missing their best player (or players), although sometimes those teams have still managed to overcome the loss and beat us. The first game of the year against the Spurs is an example, as is last night's game against the Griz. And there have been several other instances in between these two games.

In contrast, we completely collapsed when we lost Butler for a few games...they were our worst games of the year.

You're right, LST. Not sure about the source of Monster's confusion. :).

lipoli390 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:Despite the doom and gloom here (me included), the Wolves remain tied for 4th place in the West...with their easiest stretch of games coming up. What's happening is that the top 3 are hot, and nobody else is...the emergence of the East helps. The Thibs factor is holding us back, but we are so talented I see us overcoming the coaching to some extent and staying in the hunt for that 4th spot. Of course, all bets are off if Butler's finger has him out for a while. Other teams can overcome injuries to their stars, but not a Thibs team.

To GM Thibs' credit though, I continue to think he dodged a bullet in not drafting Markannen. Just like last season, he started out hot and then is cooling off drastically. He is now shooting 10 percentage points lower than Kris Dunn on threes!

"Other teams can overcome injuries to their stars, but not a Thibs team."

Um...really?

There's been a running theme on this board this year that we have been lucky to face teams missing their best player (or players), although sometimes those teams have still managed to overcome the loss and beat us. The first game of the year against the Spurs is an example, as is last night's game against the Griz. And there have been several other instances in between these two games.

In contrast, we completely collapsed when we lost Butler for a few games...they were our worst games of the year.

You're right, LST. Not sure about the source of Monster's confusion. :).

We're both of you in a coma during Thibs years with the Bulls or something?

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:Despite the doom and gloom here (me included), the Wolves remain tied for 4th place in the West...with their easiest stretch of games coming up. What's happening is that the top 3 are hot, and nobody else is...the emergence of the East helps. The Thibs factor is holding us back, but we are so talented I see us overcoming the coaching to some extent and staying in the hunt for that 4th spot. Of course, all bets are off if Butler's finger has him out for a while. Other teams can overcome injuries to their stars, but not a Thibs team.

To GM Thibs' credit though, I continue to think he dodged a bullet in not drafting Markannen. Just like last season, he started out hot and then is cooling off drastically. He is now shooting 10 percentage points lower than Kris Dunn on threes!

"Other teams can overcome injuries to their stars, but not a Thibs team."

Um...really?

There's been a running theme on this board this year that we have been lucky to face teams missing their best player (or players), although sometimes those teams have still managed to overcome the loss and beat us. The first game of the year against the Spurs is an example, as is last night's game against the Griz. And there have been several other instances in between these two games.

In contrast, we completely collapsed when we lost Butler for a few games...they were our worst games of the year.

You're right, LST. Not sure about the source of Monster's confusion. :).

We're both of you in a coma during Thibs years with the Bulls or something?

Lol. That's a good one, Monster. :). I enjoyed the laugh.

I can't top that, but I'll come back with this. Thibs had a team of tough, grind-it-out defenders in Noah, Butler, Gibson, etc. -- all of them with very young legs. And that was when the League and especially the Eastern Conference were much more oriented towards Thibs' type of game. But Thibs is now coaching a very different type of team in a very different League/Conference. In over a season and a quarter with the Wolves, Thibs has shown no abilty to adapt his coaching to his personnel or the League around him. So if either of his veteran grinders (Butler or Taj) goes down, the Wolves are in trouble as we already saw when Butler was out for two games.

LST and I may have been comatose years ago when Thibs was coaching the Bulls, but we're wide awake now and disgusted by what we see. I suspect you have your sleep shades on. I recommend you keep then on. The Wolves are an ugly sight right now. :)

KiwiMatt wrote:OKCs problem is they have no bench and Melo isn't a PF even in today's NBA. Offensively he can cope but defensively he cannot guard 4s. Steven Adams is continually having to rotate on to Melos man which nullifies his effectiveness as a low post defender. They play more ISO ball than we do and have just as bad floor spacing. I'm not sure there's an easy fix either other than trading George or Melo.

lipoli390 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:Despite the doom and gloom here (me included), the Wolves remain tied for 4th place in the West...with their easiest stretch of games coming up. What's happening is that the top 3 are hot, and nobody else is...the emergence of the East helps. The Thibs factor is holding us back, but we are so talented I see us overcoming the coaching to some extent and staying in the hunt for that 4th spot. Of course, all bets are off if Butler's finger has him out for a while. Other teams can overcome injuries to their stars, but not a Thibs team.

To GM Thibs' credit though, I continue to think he dodged a bullet in not drafting Markannen. Just like last season, he started out hot and then is cooling off drastically. He is now shooting 10 percentage points lower than Kris Dunn on threes!

"Other teams can overcome injuries to their stars, but not a Thibs team."

Um...really?

There's been a running theme on this board this year that we have been lucky to face teams missing their best player (or players), although sometimes those teams have still managed to overcome the loss and beat us. The first game of the year against the Spurs is an example, as is last night's game against the Griz. And there have been several other instances in between these two games.

In contrast, we completely collapsed when we lost Butler for a few games...they were our worst games of the year.

You're right, LST. Not sure about the source of Monster's confusion. :).

We're both of you in a coma during Thibs years with the Bulls or something?

Lol. That's a good one, Monster. :). I enjoyed the laugh.

I can't top that, but I'll come back with this. Thibs had a team of tough, grind-it-out defenders in Noah, Butler, Gibson, etc. -- all of them with very young legs. And that was when the League and especially the Eastern Conference were much more oriented towards Thibs' type of game. But Thibs is now coaching a very different type of team in a very different League/Conference. In over a season and a quarter with the Wolves, Thibs has shown no abilty to adapt his coaching to his personnel or the League around him. So if either of his veteran grinders (Butler or Taj) goes down, the Wolves are in trouble as we already saw when Butler was out for two games.

LST and I may have been comatose years ago when Thibs was coaching the Bulls, but we're wide awake now and disgusted by what we see. I suspect you have your sleep shades on. I recommend you keep then on. The Wolves are an ugly sight right now. :)

I'm glad you got a chuckle out of that Lip. =)

Its worth mentioning...how many of those guys played more than 70 games a season? Its ridiculous to say Thibs teams can't win without stars when he did it year after year after year and you can argue that most people thought there was really only one star on those entire rosters at the time (we learned later that may have not been the case) and his name was Derrick Rose and we know how that played out. And yes its not all about what he did 3-4 years ago (what have you done for me lately) but I think its fair to say that's a pretty legit part of his resume to just dismiss.

Look we all have our own perspectives and way of looking at things. We all have our biases and often those are based on legit factors. Sometimes that leads us to see what we want to see (or sometimes what we don't want to see lol). We always need to be wiling to question what we think we know. I think most people hear are ultimately wanting to do that even if we sometimes are all to happy to point out why we are right about something even if we aren't trying to be jerks about it. Who doesn't want to actually be right sometimes? =)

Here is where I am at. Personally I think Thibs is more flexible than people give him credit for. It's not that difficult to find ways he has adapted over the past few months. the way I look at the offense is that he actually doesn't want to build it around one player. He wants it to be an offense where anyone can make plays at any time. That is gonna take some time to make happen. OKC had problems with that for years and still does through 2 coaches and some different players. Its still a players league and as much as Thibs may want to and try to control things we all know that's not always realistic. I'm not sure he is the guy to get this thing done right but I'm wiling to give the guy more than like 110 games which include some serious roster turnover and young players that clearly haven't figured it out yet which most don't at that age.