Minnesota Sports Forum

papalrep wrote:CrazySauce--Thibs needs to be gone. The game has passed him by clearly. He has made none of his players better

I agree with the obvious. I know it's WAY early, but Thibs seems to have lost this team. Dispirited and uninspired play. If you think POP and his staff had this team, they would be playing this way?

Was it LST who suggested Kevin Ollie?

TheSP wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

TheSP wrote:This team goes no place good until such time as it's two "best" young players learn how to, and willingly play defense.

#FreeJimmyButler

Yes. But I'll add that I don't see this team ever becoming a good defensive team with its current personnel. As Q pointed out, we haven't even been very good defensively with Butler playing. I've seen enough of Wiggins to conclude he'll never be a good defender. I still hold out some hope for KAT but that hope is fading. So both need to simply improve enough so they're no longer terrible.

This team is built to score, not defend. That's even more true now that Teague has replaced Rubio as our starting PG. We clearly have to improve defensively because we can't expect to win giving up 120+ points. But to win, this team will have to consistently score over 110 points and fairly frequently score 115-125 points. This team is filled with scorers - KAT, Wiggins, Teague, Bazz, Crawford and Belly. The defense simply has to be good enough to hold teams under 110. Sadly, this team, without Butler, can't even do that against medicore teams. I don't have an answer for the offense. One thing is that we lack 3-point firepower.

Watching KAT and Wig try to play defense is like watching me trying to eat with chopsticks.

TheFuture wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:$19 million per year for 3 years??!! Nice job Thibs.

Yeah, obviously I'm still pissed about that signing. Ricky was not perfect, but he was the ONE player we could count on giving it all and contributing every night. Is it now obvious to everyone that Ricky was not the issue with this team?? This is embarrassing.

papalrep wrote:Sorry man. It's the confessional for me.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

papalrep wrote:Sorry man. It's the confessional for me.

LOL - I'm going to let you slide. I believe the other proponent of Ollie was Lip.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:It's not just "want to" that KAT doesn't have on defense. He also sucks at it the few times he actually tries. Poor fundamentals, terrible instincts, and an incredibly weak base. I think he has to play the 4 next to a guy who can actually defend the rim.