Minnesota Sports Forum

I think the other issue with the crappy defense is poor spacing on offense. We have so many guys that play downhill or hang out near the rim hunting for O-boards that we just never have enough guys back in transition. We just get killed on missed shots on drives to the rim because at least 3 of our players are in the paint, usually KAT, Taj, and the guy driving (Teague, Butler, or Wiggins).

Q12543 wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:Just found defensive rating on/off on NBA.com

Kat when on the court our defensive rating is 112.1 compared to when he is off the court 102.0 a 10.1 deference when he plays compared to not play pretty big difference

Very true, but you also need to look at our offensive rating with him on versus off the court. It almost erases the deficit caused by his crappy defense (not quite though).

While KAT is a major problem, it takes more than one guy to be the league's 2nd worst defense.

That is also a good point, I am just frustrated with the lack of improvement on that end of the court and I think it is huge to have at least an average defensive center to be successful and Kat has not proved that yet in his career. But you are right I can't take away his special talent on that side of the ball.

Well, the RPM stats are in. Since they don't differentiate for role or playing time, I will try to provide some context:

Teague - Ranked 13th among starting PGs....that certainly passes the historical smell test of being a mid-tier starting NBA PG.

Butler - Ranked around 18th among starting SGs, tied with coincidentally, Donovan Mitchell, the rookie for Utah he'll be matched up against tonight.

Wiggins - Ranked 55th overall among SFs and near the bottom among starters. Let's just say RPM, along with a fair number of other stats, doesn't think Wiggins is very good.

Gibson - Ranked around 17th among starting PFs. Seems about right.

KAT - Ranked about 12th among starting Centers.

People might wonder how this can square with being 7-5. Remember that our overall team +/- is actually in the negative, as almost all of our wins have been close. Stats look at things cumulatively of course and the bottom line is we're playing more like a .500-ish or slightly below team.

Bjelly is a bright spot and ranks very high in RPM among PFs, but again his role is limited.....don't know where he'd rank if he played full time minutes like Taj.

After 1 game we're back to 26th in defensive rating. Love the way these small sample sizes work.

thedoper wrote:After 1 game we're back to 26th in defensive rating. Love the way these small sample sizes work.

More proof that Thibs is a defensive genius ;)

Q12543 wrote:Well, the RPM stats are in. Since they don't differentiate for role or playing time, I will try to provide some context:

Teague - Ranked 13th among starting PGs....that certainly passes the historical smell test of being a mid-tier starting NBA PG.

Butler - Ranked around 18th among starting SGs, tied with coincidentally, Donovan Mitchell, the rookie for Utah he'll be matched up against tonight.

Wiggins - Ranked 55th overall among SFs and near the bottom among starters. Let's just say RPM, along with a fair number of other stats, doesn't think Wiggins is very good.

Gibson - Ranked around 17th among starting PFs. Seems about right.

KAT - Ranked about 12th among starting Centers.

People might wonder how this can square with being 7-5. Remember that our overall team +/- is actually in the negative, as almost all of our wins have been close. Stats look at things cumulatively of course and the bottom line is we're playing more like a .500-ish or slightly below team.

Bjelly is a bright spot and ranks very high in RPM among PFs, but again his role is limited.....don't know where he'd rank if he played full time minutes like Taj.

I'm really shocked how low wiggins is. Never been a big fan of RPM but I feel like he has been a lot better this year by the eye test. Has he taken a big jump, no, but feel like he has been so much better at the little things and defense this year

longstrangetrip wrote:

thedoper wrote:After 1 game we're back to 26th in defensive rating. Love the way these small sample sizes work.

More proof that Thibs is a defensive genius ;)

Well 3 games in a row holding teams under 100 and we should be flirting with top 10. It's a bit early to be using too many stats in our overall analysis in my opinion.

kekgeek1 wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Well, the RPM stats are in. Since they don't differentiate for role or playing time, I will try to provide some context:

Teague - Ranked 13th among starting PGs....that certainly passes the historical smell test of being a mid-tier starting NBA PG.

Butler - Ranked around 18th among starting SGs, tied with coincidentally, Donovan Mitchell, the rookie for Utah he'll be matched up against tonight.

Wiggins - Ranked 55th overall among SFs and near the bottom among starters. Let's just say RPM, along with a fair number of other stats, doesn't think Wiggins is very good.

Gibson - Ranked around 17th among starting PFs. Seems about right.

KAT - Ranked about 12th among starting Centers.

People might wonder how this can square with being 7-5. Remember that our overall team +/- is actually in the negative, as almost all of our wins have been close. Stats look at things cumulatively of course and the bottom line is we're playing more like a .500-ish or slightly below team.

Bjelly is a bright spot and ranks very high in RPM among PFs, but again his role is limited.....don't know where he'd rank if he played full time minutes like Taj.

I'm really shocked how low wiggins is. Never been a big fan of RPM but I feel like he has been a lot better this year by the eye test. Has he taken a big jump, no, but feel like he has been so much better at the little things and defense this year

I think we squint so hard to try to find improvements in Wiggins' game that it almost becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. But take a step back and honestly not much has changed in terms of his overall impact.

Let's look at other stats besides RPM - his PER, WS/48, TS% and BPM numbers are all consistent with his career averages in those categories. He's a fairly inefficient volume scorer that does very little else at a high level.

It "feels" like defensively he is having more of an impact this year, but that is faint praise considering how this team is doing overall. The numbers don't really back the eye test up.

4-1 at home, 4-4 on the road. Our road heavy opening schedule will turn after the Charlotte game next Monday and by the end of the month we will be near equal balance between home and away games. I would suspect our stats will be much more impressive by that point as well. I see 6 wins in those 9 games making us 14-8 at the end of November. I could easily see 7 wins in that stretch too.

thedoper wrote:4-1 at home, 4-4 on the road. Our road heavy opening schedule will turn after the Charlotte game next Monday and by the end of the month we will be near equal balance between home and away games. I would suspect our stats will be much more impressive by that point as well. I see 6 wins in those 9 games making us 14-8 at the end of November. I could easily see 7 wins in that stretch too.

Fair point. Our strength of schedule has been a bit on the tougher side. Our success at Target Center will be key.