Treading Water - Lakers@Wolves GDT

[Coolbreeze44]

1. Rubio vs. Russell (career):

Rubio:
17.5 ppg
12.7 ast
4.2 reb
50.0% fg
38.1% 3fg
2.2 TO

Russell:
12.5 ppg
4.0 ast
2.8 reb
36.1% fg
28.6% 3fg
2.8 TO


2. KAT chasing rebounds:

Ummm... it was a bit too obvious for it not to be a bit awkward as the game went on. There were about 4 or 5 times when he and a teammate battled for a board, only for the smaller player to end up with it. Towns grew more frustrated and flailed his arms in frustration late when he failed to corral a rebound.

I know players follow stats. I know they care about them. After all, that's how they get paid. (I don't think most fans realize just how important they are to many of these guys.) I've had the suspicion that Towns has been hunting for stats previously, but last night... it was really really obvious. Again, a lot of players do their own version of this, whether it's avoiding long end-of-quarter heaves (to comical extremes) to protect the field goal percentage, padding assists, rebounds, et al.

But as noted, it's a bit uncomfortable watching from home when it's so obvious.

That's interesting about KAT, I noticed it one time when I believe Dunn grabbed a board they both could have had. It brings to mind Wiggins and his rebounding numbers. It's been proven he does a good job on contested rebounds. And he NEVER takes a rebound away from a teammate, always deferring when it's clear the team is going to get possession. I think he could easily add two more boards per game by simply taking "his turn". Frankly I think the diatribe about his poor rebound numbers is a bunch of malarkey.

2 per game?

Ummm... no. Wiggins is a poor rebounder all things considered. It is what it is.

Like I said it's been proven he does a good job on contested rebounds. If he just chose to be a little more selfish you don't think he could get one more board per half? Really wouldn't be that difficult given the amount of boards he simply doesn't go after.

[TeamRicky [enjin:6648771]]

As much as I want to believe Rubio has figured it all out the change was so sudden and so dramatic that I just can't get over feeling like it's just a mirage. At this point I would have expected pigs to fly before Rubio became even a competent shooter, much less a true threat.

Somebody pinch me.

I think it's a combination of both being hot and some legit improvement picking up where he left off last season. Go back and look at his TS% last season vs. the first few years of his career - it was a career high. I think the fact he started off the year so tentative and so cold somehow made people forget that he wasn't THAT terrible before.

Benz and Peterson keep mentioning Ricky's elbow injury as to why Ricky's shooting was sub par earlier in the year. Maybe the outlier was the early part of the season not now.

Or the first 5 years of his career.

Well, people forget how young Ricky is for a point guard and that many point guards don't hit their prime til their mid-20s. Ricky is incredibly unselfish and that has really hurt his field goal percentage in the past. I see Ricky's improved shooting numbers as sustainable as Kidd's improvement in his mid 20s. Given how he's become one of the best free throw shooters in the league now and he is taking more of the easy shots he used to always pass up, plus now that he's been relatively healthy his shooting work is paying off. We'll see, but I think Ricky's best days are ahead of him.

[fondey [enjin:6644772]]

Just a terrific game for Ricky...man, he's fun to watch these days!

I'm so happy that Thibs kept his starters in the game all the way to the final buzzer too...you never know when an opponent will stage a 16 point comeback in the final minute of a meaningless game, so you just can't be too careful.

(sorry, guys, I just couldn't resist...but you gotta admit it was a little weird!)

Just think he is playing the 5 guys that will be on the team next year for sure. Don't think he is putting any more resources into players that aren't on the team next year. It is fine as long as nobody gets hurt.

I agree that is Thibs' logic here, kekgeek. And I agree with your assessment that is why Muhammad isn't getting meaningful minutes these days. Perhaps they have already had discussions with his agent and learned that his price tag is higher than what we can afford down the line. Something has changed in the past couple weeks.

But in light of the bolded comment above, is it a good strategy by Thibs? I would argue strongly that the risk of injury greatly outweighs the value of some extra garbage-time minutes that have almost nothing to do with real basketball minutes. Put in Payne, put in Tyus, or even ask Hill to put down the bong and go in there :).

you trying to kill the guy?

[AbeVigodaLive]

1. Rubio vs. Russell (career):

Rubio:
17.5 ppg
12.7 ast
4.2 reb
50.0% fg
38.1% 3fg
2.2 TO

Russell:
12.5 ppg
4.0 ast
2.8 reb
36.1% fg
28.6% 3fg
2.8 TO


2. KAT chasing rebounds:

Ummm... it was a bit too obvious for it not to be a bit awkward as the game went on. There were about 4 or 5 times when he and a teammate battled for a board, only for the smaller player to end up with it. Towns grew more frustrated and flailed his arms in frustration late when he failed to corral a rebound.

I know players follow stats. I know they care about them. After all, that's how they get paid. (I don't think most fans realize just how important they are to many of these guys.) I've had the suspicion that Towns has been hunting for stats previously, but last night... it was really really obvious. Again, a lot of players do their own version of this, whether it's avoiding long end-of-quarter heaves (to comical extremes) to protect the field goal percentage, padding assists, rebounds, et al.

But as noted, it's a bit uncomfortable watching from home when it's so obvious.

That's interesting about KAT, I noticed it one time when I believe Dunn grabbed a board they both could have had. It brings to mind Wiggins and his rebounding numbers. It's been proven he does a good job on contested rebounds. And he NEVER takes a rebound away from a teammate, always deferring when it's clear the team is going to get possession. I think he could easily add two more boards per game by simply taking "his turn". Frankly I think the diatribe about his poor rebound numbers is a bunch of malarkey.

2 per game?

Ummm... no. Wiggins is a poor rebounder all things considered. It is what it is.

Like I said it's been proven he does a good job on contested rebounds. If he just chose to be a little more selfish you don't think he could get one more board per half? Really wouldn't be that difficult given the amount of boards he simply doesn't go after.

No.

To be fair, I have very little patience with the "He could if he wanted to" narratives. Especially when it's stuff that would actually help a perennial 50+ loss team win more games.

[Coolbreeze44]

1. Rubio vs. Russell (career):

Rubio:
17.5 ppg
12.7 ast
4.2 reb
50.0% fg
38.1% 3fg
2.2 TO

Russell:
12.5 ppg
4.0 ast
2.8 reb
36.1% fg
28.6% 3fg
2.8 TO


2. KAT chasing rebounds:

Ummm... it was a bit too obvious for it not to be a bit awkward as the game went on. There were about 4 or 5 times when he and a teammate battled for a board, only for the smaller player to end up with it. Towns grew more frustrated and flailed his arms in frustration late when he failed to corral a rebound.

I know players follow stats. I know they care about them. After all, that's how they get paid. (I don't think most fans realize just how important they are to many of these guys.) I've had the suspicion that Towns has been hunting for stats previously, but last night... it was really really obvious. Again, a lot of players do their own version of this, whether it's avoiding long end-of-quarter heaves (to comical extremes) to protect the field goal percentage, padding assists, rebounds, et al.

But as noted, it's a bit uncomfortable watching from home when it's so obvious.

That's interesting about KAT, I noticed it one time when I believe Dunn grabbed a board they both could have had. It brings to mind Wiggins and his rebounding numbers. It's been proven he does a good job on contested rebounds. And he NEVER takes a rebound away from a teammate, always deferring when it's clear the team is going to get possession. I think he could easily add two more boards per game by simply taking "his turn". Frankly I think the diatribe about his poor rebound numbers is a bunch of malarkey.

2 per game?

Ummm... no. Wiggins is a poor rebounder all things considered. It is what it is.

Like I said it's been proven he does a good job on contested rebounds. If he just chose to be a little more selfish you don't think he could get one more board per half? Really wouldn't be that difficult given the amount of boards he simply doesn't go after.

No.

To be fair, I have very little patience with the "He could if he wanted to" narratives. Especially when it's stuff that would actually help a perennial 50+ loss team win more games.

All I'm suggesting is he defers to his teammates on rebounds that aren't contested. Not saying you should like it.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Wiggins can go up and grab contested rebounds when he wants to. The key here is the "want to". He needs to want to do it more. That is the story of his career so far: Immense talent, not enough want to.

Moving him to SG makes the rebounding thing less relevant frankly. I think it's a bigger deal when he's a full-time SF.

[Coolbreeze44]

Wiggins can go up and grab contested rebounds when he wants to. The key here is the "want to". He needs to want to do it more. That is the story of his career so far: Immense talent, not enough want to.

Moving him to SG makes the rebounding thing less relevant frankly. I think it's a bigger deal when he's a full-time SF.

I would agree with that

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Wiggins can go up and grab contested rebounds when he wants to. The key here is the "want to". He needs to want to do it more. That is the story of his career so far: Immense talent, not enough want to.

Moving him to SG makes the rebounding thing less relevant frankly. I think it's a bigger deal when he's a full-time SF.

Team rebounding is all that matters. If Ricky or Dunn or Towns grab all the boards it doesn't matter that Wiggins doesn't grab 2-4 more per game. We're 7th in rebounding differential in the league so Wiggins rebounding just really isn't a problem for the team.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Wiggins can go up and grab contested rebounds when he wants to. The key here is the "want to". He needs to want to do it more. That is the story of his career so far: Immense talent, not enough want to.

Moving him to SG makes the rebounding thing less relevant frankly. I think it's a bigger deal when he's a full-time SF.

Team rebounding is all that matters. If Ricky or Dunn or Towns grab all the boards it doesn't matter that Wiggins doesn't grab 2-4 more per game. We're 7th in rebounding differential in the league so Wiggins rebounding just really isn't a problem for the team.

This triggers all sorts of thoughts, so bear with me...

- The reason we have a high rebounding differential is because we are 4th in O-Reb %. Unfortunately we are 20th in D-Reb %. I would much rather have those numbers be reversed, as sending guys to the offensive glass often leads to easier transition points going the other way when unsuccessful in getting the rebound, whereas giving up offensive rebounds on defense leads to easy putbacks and kick out 3's.

- Knowing that we are in the bottom third in defensive rebounding, let's look at that aspect of Wiggins' game. Here are the players with a better D-reb % than Wiggins: Kris Dunn, Ricky Rubio, Shabazz Muhammad, Brandon Rush, Zach LaVine, and all of our bigs. Tyus Jones is barely behind Wiggins in this category. You don't think a little more effort on the defensive glass by Wig is warranted?

- But regardless if getting an extra couple boards per game makes a big difference or not I think is beside the point. I believe the bigger issue is that his soft rebounding is emblematic of his overall inconsistent motor, which we see borne out in other facets of the game: Steals, blocks, never takes a charge, hustling in transition....All the "little things" that add up. What makes it so frustrating is that he has such immense physical gifts to work with. He could be SO impactful, yet his impact is mostly limited to his ability to score, and even that can be up and down since he isn't very efficient on most nights.

[Brooklyn_Wolves [enjin:14608167]]

We already have KAT who fights teammates for rebounds. Imagine if Wiggins and KAT developed a "beef" because of rebounds. I'd say let it be the way it is :LOL:

btw, this website has smileys that are very lame. terrible stuff.