Seven Year Itch - Wolves @ Mavs GDT

[Coolbreeze44]

I don't mind some amount of Point Wiggins offensive sets or Point LaVine sets. I think it's important for an offense to diversify the number of guys that can make plays with the ball in their hands. Heaven forbid what would happen in Houston if Harden were to go down. Or OKC if Westbrook got hurt.

I guess it's just a matter of how much is too much. Certainly it's working today, but the fact LaVine and Wiggins have combined to average 5.5 assists per game this season tells us about all we need to know about how advanced they are as play makers. Hopefully they keep getting better and I guess that's part of the goal.

Q, how about the fact we only went to it 4 times in the half? I don't see anything wrong with that. You have participated in discussions where the common theme is that the ball is taken out of Ricky's hands constantly. I've seen that in some 4th quarters but never during an entire game.

First off, I wasn't even complaining or whining about "point Wiggins" in this game. I believe one of my first comments was complaining about Rubio's crappy first quarter!

And correct, earlier in the season, Thibs didn't completely take the ball out of Rubio's hands, but anyone who has watched the last few games can see he has been given a much larger percentage of opportunities to run pick and roll.

This isn't about today, or about me vs you. Multiple posters have relentlessly come with this rhetoric for over a month now. I'm not including you in that group.

This is about measuring the effectiveness of the tactic going forward so we really know how well it does or doesn't do.

I'm all for collecting detailed data, but hopefully you are willing to do this over many games! Otherwise, assists per game and scoring efficiency are pretty good proxies over time. Plus I believe there is some good stuff in the NBA Player Tracking metrics that can get at this stuff even more specifically (but never as well as actually tracking every possession of course).

By the way, the best thing that could happen to this team offensively is that Wiggins becomes a monster at running the pick and roll.

This all about when Wiggins initiates the offense near the top of the key. I'll keep up with it until we come to a consensus as to whether it's effective or not. Assists per game is not an accurate reflection of what i'm trying to do here.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

The starters haven't been very good today, but it's the bench that's letting this game get away.

Am I the only one who thinks the Wolves are lacking energy in this game?

Yes and yes, although I think Dieng had a hell of a game in terms of energy and obviously getting his shot to go down.

Other than Bjelly, the bench went 0-12 between Bazz, Jones, Dunn, and Rush. That hurt us big time on an afternoon where Dallas was hitting their outside shots.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Woof.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Very disappointing effort. Bench was a train-wreck. I texted someone midway through the 3rd and said Thibs needs to go with Tyus this half. I was happy to see he did bring in Tyus, the problem was Dunn was out there too. Then to make things worse Thibs stuck with that lineup until almost halfway through the 4th, by which time we were down 14 I believe and the game was out of reach. Reminded me of the crazy lineups Mitchell threw out there last season.

Frustrating, but I'm not surprised. Two steps forward, one step back. And now most likely 2 more losses coming on this road trip. Arg.

Yup, this one hurt. I think Rubio's early misses and turnovers hurt and then the non-Bjelly bench going 0-12 really killed us.

[Lipoli390]

This was a bad loss. If this team is going to really turn the corner this season and finish on a high note, they need to win games like this on the road against teams like the Mavs after good wins like the last three at home. Our defense could have and should have been better, but this team is built to win when we hold opponents to 98 points. Yes, Ricky had some early misses and turnovers. And yes, none of our core three stepped up with a big game for us. Wiggins and Towns have to be more aggressive and draw more fouls, although in fairness to KAT he's not getting a fair shake from the officials generally and didn't get a fair shake today. Wiggins has to stop fading away when he has good position in the paint.

But the obvious problem for the Wolves today was the bench. In spite of Belly's good shooting, our bench was 4-19 from the field with zero three-pointers and all 4 field goals coming from one guy. That was the difference and it's unacceptable. In addition, Dunn was terrible running the offense and made a lot of mistakes defensively in the short time he was in. Our starters weren't particularly good, but they played well enough to win a game against a team like the Mavs. I see shoring up our bench as this organization's primary upcoming off-season challenge - whether it's free agency, trades or some combination of the two. In the meantime, KAT, Wiggins and LaVine have to continue to improve and bring intensity to every game they play.

[thedoper]

We couldn't guard their 3 guard sets. Carlise knows we have 2 defenders who are bad on the ball on the perimeter.

[Lipoli390]

We couldn't guard their 3 guard sets. Carlise knows we have 2 defenders who are bad on the ball on the perimeter.

You're right. But this is a team that should win holding mediocre or bad teams like the Mavs under 100 points. We should have scored at least 100 points against the Mavs today.

[Duke13]

Ricky was terrible today. I'm gonna refrain for saying what we need to do going forward on a game to game basis. Changes every game on here. It's a roller coaster boys.

[Lipoli390]

Ricky was terrible today. I'm gonna refrain for saying what we need to do going forward on a game to game basis. Changes every game on here. It's a roller coaster boys.

Yep, Duke, you're right. It's always something different game to game. I'd like to say there's a definite pattern to our losses, but as you indicated, there isn't. The rollover coaster ride continues.

[Wile E Coyote [enjin:17432808]]

Bad defense, stagnant offense, low effort, and poor bench production were the causes for defeat IMO. Same causes as we've seen for almost all the other losses too.

I don't know if having Zach back contributed to any of these, or if it was just an unfortunate coincidence. I really like Zach and want the "Big 3" to work. But I wonder if they struggle getting all 3 guys enough touches, freeze out the rest of the team, and everyone pouts on D a bit.

In Miami they struggled with that with much, much older and more experienced players in Wade, LeBron, and Bosh. Eventually LeBron became the #1 option and handled the ball a lot because he was the best player, Wade was the #2 option and was #1 when the bench came in, and Bosh got scraps. Bosh is a very smart and mature dude and handled it OK despite not enjoying it.

I feel like for the Wolves to move forward they may need to establish a similar pecking order. Towns is option #1, but only if he is working hard to get good post position and not just launching bad 3s. Wiggins is #2, with the similar caveat that they are good shots (open 3s off ball movement, cutting to the hoop, post ups with good low position). LaVine is #3 but is kept in with the bench and gets to be option #1 with them.

If the Wolves keep these 3 long term and want to go deep in the playoffs, I think Dieng and Rubio are not ideal complements. They work great from a chemistry perspective, but not from a basketball perspective IMO. It is not realistic to expect 2 more All-Star level players in the starting lineup, because the Wolves won't be able to pay them all. So it would need to be more limited guys that really fill their role. A defensive PG who can make open 3s like PBev or DFish (back in the day). A defensive PF who can hit some outside shots (don't have to be 3s), like a better version of Luc Mbah a Moute.