Minnesota Sports Forum

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

thedoper wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Jon Krawczynski
?Verified account @JonKrawczynski

Saunders said he took time yesterday to meet individually with each player, talk to them about how they saw the situation and communicate about how to move forward.

Didn't Johnny Athletic break the original story?

Interestingly, I've seen A LOT more about Woj's belated quip about Hoiberg and a bunch of other side nuggets though. Apparently, Big Business is gonna promote the more established guys for obvious reasons.

Good for the local guy though. He seems to be doing well for himself.

This is two or three in a row that Jon K and the Athletic has had before ESPN. I think it's as much ESPN trying to squash the Athletic as anything else. Jon K is great, his podcast with Souhan is always good.

It's beyond just ESPN though.

For example, The Ringer hasn't mentioned The Athletic scoop either. Then again, they remain thinly tied with ESPN... and Simmons actually ripped The Athletic's business model on a recent podcast.

That's a good point. Limited market share I guess. Bullying the new kid. I'm not thrilled about their business model either, but that's more cause Im selfish and cheap but still want to read Britt Robson.

Wait...Abe, you were subscribing to Time!? I didn't even know it still existed. Let me guess....they dedicated most of their ink to criticizing Donald Trump and his administration (?)

That isn't an endorsement for our current Prez by the way by yours truly, but it just seems to be the "go to" source for content with these fledgling media platforms (Yahoo, CNN, Newsweek, etc.).

As for the Athletic, I'd love a subscription too, but dammit, like Doper, I just don't want to have yet another thing I pay a monthly bill for. I've got enough of those as it is! And once you start, it's hard to stop.

The Ringer is just the meme team. They want Freddie to come here so they can joke about how we just keep retreading Bulls players and coaches that have all failed for both orgs. I enjoy a lot of their content, but they are not plugged into orgs outside of Cali teams and usually just want the most entertaining outcome to happen for them to gossip about. HalleLuka is the pinnacle of their content so far so that's all you need to know about them. They're enjoyable, but not if you are looking for more than speculation and educated guesses.

ESPN also has no resources outside of Woj for inside scoops anymore and he isn't connected in MN at all. He just throws out logical inferrences with us. Thibs is fired. Hoiberg is looking at UCLA and has MN connections. They fired Thibs to get Hoiberg for either role before he goes to UCLA. Makes logical sense until you actually talk to Fred and talk to the organization to get the real information like Fred has no interest in a front office role.

They are putting out the only content they can when they don't actually have the connections they need to get the real scoops. The Athletic meanwhile is paying all the people who are connected to orgs that get those scoops. It's just two different business models and lazy casual fans don't care that Woj and the Ringer are speculating and making inferences when they lack the real sources.

Q12543 wrote:Wait...Abe, you were subscribing to Time!? I didn't even know it still existed. Let me guess....they dedicated most of their ink to criticizing Donald Trump and his administration (?)

That isn't an endorsement for our current Prez by the way by yours truly, but it just seems to be the "go to" source for content with these fledgling media platforms (Yahoo, CNN, Newsweek, etc.).

As for the Athletic, I'd love a subscription too, but dammit, like Doper, I just don't want to have yet another thing I pay a monthly bill for. I've got enough of those as it is! And once you start, it's hard to stop.

The Gal Pal recently asked me what the hell I was going to do with the 9,433 unread issues piled up on a shelf in the garage. Fittingly, they went out with the recycling this week.

The in-laws had been giving me that "gift" for years on Christmas. And I must have just signed on for another year at some point. All done now though!

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Wait...Abe, you were subscribing to Time!? I didn't even know it still existed. Let me guess....they dedicated most of their ink to criticizing Donald Trump and his administration (?)

That isn't an endorsement for our current Prez by the way by yours truly, but it just seems to be the "go to" source for content with these fledgling media platforms (Yahoo, CNN, Newsweek, etc.).

As for the Athletic, I'd love a subscription too, but dammit, like Doper, I just don't want to have yet another thing I pay a monthly bill for. I've got enough of those as it is! And once you start, it's hard to stop.

The Gal Pal recently asked me what the hell I was going to do with the 9,433 unread issues piled up on a shelf in the garage. Fittingly, they went out with the recycling this week.

The in-laws had been giving me that "gift" for years on Christmas. And I must have just signed on for another year at some point. All done now though!

Is too late but next time you can donate them. Some people like to read old magazines for some reason and by them at thrift stores. Some people collect them or something I suppose. Recycling was a good fate though. I have a huge stack of magazines I got free subscriptions for in the last year my wife has been bugging me about doing something with and probably need to just take them somewhere after all.

As for the Athletic. It's not perfect either. Unless you are real strapped for cash the few bucks for a year you won't miss and I do think in general they put out a lot more legit stuff than other places. I think the local people they hired are pretty legit. It's nice to read stuff and not have stupid ads for crap I don't care about or links to click on about what some celebrity is doing or...

monsterpile wrote:As for the Athletic. It's not perfect either. Unless you are real strapped for cash the few bucks for a year you won't miss and I do think in general they put out a lot more legit stuff than other places. I think the local people they hired are pretty legit. It's nice to read stuff and not have stupid ads for crap I don't care about or links to click on about what some celebrity is doing or...

I just signed up.

I used to dig me some Britt Robson. I'll just eat lunch out one less time every few months to make up the difference!

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

monsterpile wrote:As for the Athletic. It's not perfect either. Unless you are real strapped for cash the few bucks for a year you won't miss and I do think in general they put out a lot more legit stuff than other places. I think the local people they hired are pretty legit. It's nice to read stuff and not have stupid ads for crap I don't care about or links to click on about what some celebrity is doing or...

I just signed up.

I used to dig me some Britt Robson. I'll just eat lunch out one less time every few months to make up the difference!

I hope you enjoy it.

As for lunches...yesterday I packed my lunch. I was proud because I had actually made some healthier sandwiches including some spinach. Around noon I sat down for lunch excited to eat them. I bit into the first sandwich. It was just 2 slices of bread. I eventually realized that when I packed the lunch I had grabbed the bag of the remaining bread instead of the bag of sandwiches I had made. #2019FAIL.

monsterpile wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

monsterpile wrote:As for the Athletic. It's not perfect either. Unless you are real strapped for cash the few bucks for a year you won't miss and I do think in general they put out a lot more legit stuff than other places. I think the local people they hired are pretty legit. It's nice to read stuff and not have stupid ads for crap I don't care about or links to click on about what some celebrity is doing or...

I just signed up.

I used to dig me some Britt Robson. I'll just eat lunch out one less time every few months to make up the difference!

I hope you enjoy it.

As for lunches...yesterday I packed my lunch. I was proud because I had actually made some healthier sandwiches including some spinach. Around noon I sat down for lunch excited to eat them. I bit into the first sandwich. It was just 2 slices of bread. I eventually realized that when I packed the lunch I had grabbed the bag of the remaining bread instead of the bag of sandwiches I had made. #2019FAIL.

This group needs an ongoing food and beverage thread.

Well, after one game the answer to my question is a resounding "A LOT!". I thought Saunders was both smart and inspirational tonight, and might deserve a game ball along with Wig. I never liked Thibs as a game manager, but I thought almost every move Ryan made tonight was the right one. I was watching with my honey, and it seemed like every time I said "Ryan should___now", he ___'d...made me look like a genius in front of my girl, and that's tough to do!

Here are some things I noticed:
1) Every player's eyes were laser-focused on Ryan during time outs...that was rare with Thibs.
2) Ryan spent most of the game seated so he could actually confer with his assistants...who knew assistant coaches could provide value during a game? I thought they were just there to talk to Marnie after halftime and conduct grueling mid-season practices.
3) Obviously his sideline demeanor was a welcome change. He didn't whine about every call (I actually lip read him saying "he's right" on one call), but instead courted the referees rather than berating them. Did you see him joking around with one ref during a free throw? I'll tell you, when the refs actually like you, you're going to get more calls.
4) Who knew that positive reinforcement was good for a player? Ryan showed it all night. Players were positively greeted (with eye contact!) when they came back to the bench. And how about what he said to Saric? Dario had just missed yet another open corner three and was hanging his head when Ryan took him out for defensive purposes. But Jim Pete said he told him "shake it off...I'm putting you back in the game when we're on offense, and you're going to make a big 3". Dario didn't get to take another shot, but I think he would have made it if he had.
5) Speaking of taking Dario out, how about Ryan actually making offense/defense substitutions late in the game? And when RoCo and Rose come back, Ryan will have more opportunities to really do this effectively.
6) How many times have we complained about Thibs having no time outs left at the end of the game? Ryan showed tonight that he has a better understanding of the value of a TO, because he protected them closely and still had three available with 3 minutes left.
7) We took 31 threes tonight...close to the league average. While that's only about 3 more than we usually take, we had two guys who average about 10 per game on the bench tonight. I don't think it's inconceivable that we starting putting up 30-35 threes when they come back.
8) I loved Ryan exhorting Teague to push the ball up the court. In all fairness Thibs did this a lot too...just seemed like Teague listened this time.
9) I don't see all the games, so I must have missed all the games where the Wolves embraced Thibs joyously after a big win.
10) Ryan played his bench 91 minutes tonight compared to only 67 for Donavan, and also avoided the Thib-like 16 minute stretches...that almost never happened under Thibs. Tired teams don't make shots and stops in the 4th quarter, and fade in the playoffs (and...ahem...get injured more frequently).

I'm sure there are more things that were different tonight, but the morphine is kicking in after rotator cuff surgery today (just one too many pitches in my life :-( ), and I'm likely to start posting things even more preposterous than my norm! The positive coaching differences I saw tonight exceeded my wildest dreams.