Minnesota Sports Forum

Q12543 wrote:

60WinTim wrote:I have been stuck in Texas the past two weeks, so have not caught any games recently. On paper, these last two games look just putrid. WTF is Smitch doing?

If I don't get out of here soon, I'll wind up being assimilated into the San Antonio collective!

I could think of worse places to be in the middle of winter!

Sam is an easy scapegoat - and he certainly did himself no favors tonight - but this team came out flat and stayed that way. Defense continues to be a major problem for this squad. Thibs can't get here soon enough!

Winter? It was mid 70's today!

I will say even I would like Thibs over Mitchell. There's just about a dozen guys who I think are better fits. But in typical Wolves fashion, we will end up with Thibs.

TheSP wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

60WinTim wrote:I have been stuck in Texas the past two weeks, so have not caught any games recently. On paper, these last two games look just putrid. WTF is Smitch doing?

If I don't get out of here soon, I'll wind up being assimilated into the San Antonio collective!

I could think of worse places to be in the middle of winter!

Sam is an easy scapegoat - and he certainly did himself no favors tonight - but this team came out flat and stayed that way. Defense continues to be a major problem for this squad. Thibs can't get here soon enough!

Winter? It was mid 70's today!

You must be with Tim.

Q12543 wrote:

TheSP wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

60WinTim wrote:I have been stuck in Texas the past two weeks, so have not caught any games recently. On paper, these last two games look just putrid. WTF is Smitch doing?

If I don't get out of here soon, I'll wind up being assimilated into the San Antonio collective!

I could think of worse places to be in the middle of winter!

Sam is an easy scapegoat - and he certainly did himself no favors tonight - but this team came out flat and stayed that way. Defense continues to be a major problem for this squad. Thibs can't get here soon enough!

Winter? It was mid 70's today!

You must be with Tim.

Two states west, one northwest!

Here's why Prince guarding Melo is actually worse than Wiggins guarding Melo and it has nothing to do with defense. Melo is going to beat anyone we throw at him, but when we throw Prince at him he doesn't have to play any defense because Prince is an atrocious offensive player. You start Wiggins on him and you run him into the ground until they put him on someone else. You run Wiggins around multiple screens and you put him in multiple PnR's and then Melo doesn't get to take half the game off to stay well energized for the torching on the other end. You don't beat stars by trying to shut them down because you can't. You make them work their ass off on defense so they don't have as much in the tank to torch you the whole game. We should be running everyone into the ground with our 20 year olds, not rolling out old guys to try to stop a star barely out of his prime. When we get sucked into the half court game the game is already over because we can't defend well enough to play that way. We need to run the other team out of the building if we want to win.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:I will say even I would like Thibs over Mitchell. There's just about a dozen guys who I think are better fits. But in typical Wolves fashion, we will end up with Thibs.

Can't remember the last time we hired the best head coach on the free market. That doesn't sound very Wolves-y. The Minnesota move would be to let Mitchell stay or promote someone like Sidney Lowe or Ryan Saunders. We'll probably do something in the middle like hire Vinny Del Negro or Doug Collins. That'll be a kick in the balls.

khans2k5 wrote:Here's why Prince guarding Melo is actually worse than Wiggins guarding Melo and it has nothing to do with defense. Melo is going to beat anyone we throw at him, but when we throw Prince at him he doesn't have to play any defense because Prince is an atrocious offensive player. You start Wiggins on him and you run him into the ground until they put him on someone else. You run Wiggins around multiple screens and you put him in multiple PnR's and then Melo doesn't get to take half the game off to stay well energized for the torching on the other end. You don't beat stars by trying to shut them down because you can't. You make them work their ass off on defense so they don't have as much in the tank to torch you the whole game. We should be running everyone into the ground with our 20 year olds, not rolling out old guys to try to stop a star barely out of his prime. When we get sucked into the half court game the game is already over because we can't defend well enough to play that way. We need to run the other team out of the building if we want to win.

Yeah, good points

khans2k5 wrote:Here's why Prince guarding Melo is actually worse than Wiggins guarding Melo and it has nothing to do with defense. Melo is going to beat anyone we throw at him, but when we throw Prince at him he doesn't have to play any defense because Prince is an atrocious offensive player. You start Wiggins on him and you run him into the ground until they put him on someone else. You run Wiggins around multiple screens and you put him in multiple PnR's and then Melo doesn't get to take half the game off to stay well energized for the torching on the other end. You don't beat stars by trying to shut them down because you can't. You make them work their ass off on defense so they don't have as much in the tank to torch you the whole game. We should be running everyone into the ground with our 20 year olds, not rolling out old guys to try to stop a star barely out of his prime. When we get sucked into the half court game the game is already over because we can't defend well enough to play that way. We need to run the other team out of the building if we want to win.

I agree with this. It's even worse for Sam because we just used that strategy pretty effectively against Memphis. We just ran out of steam. Part of that is because the guys haven't been playing that way all year.

Camden wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:I will say even I would like Thibs over Mitchell. There's just about a dozen guys who I think are better fits. But in typical Wolves fashion, we will end up with Thibs.

Can't remember the last time we hired the best head coach on the free market. That doesn't sound very Wolves-y. The Minnesota move would be to let Mitchell stay or promote someone like Sidney Lowe or Ryan Saunders. We'll probably do something in the middle like hire Vinny Del Negro or Doug Collins. That'll be a kick in the balls.

The Wolvesy thing to do is make the wrong choice at the most critical juncture, like hiring David Kahn or passing on Stephen Curry. I'm not going to get into the pros and cons of Thibs again. My feelings are well known, yet I can see why a lot of people would favor such a move. All I'm going to say is this hire is an extremely critical one at an extremely critical time. And based on the makeup and strengths of our team there are better options out there for us.

Cool -- Maybe you mentioned this in a prior post, but who would you favor over Thibs?