lipoli390 wrote:Wiggins and Towns really let the team down tonight. They needed to produce in the second half, but failed. Towns looked tired as evidenced by his three-pointers hitting the front of the rim in the fourth quarter. Towns should have been posting up Kuzma far more than he did tonight.
Paul Pierce is making some great points in the post game. Paul said there's something wrong when the Wolves lose by just a few points and Towns has the 4th most touches on the team and isn't getting or commanding the ball in the post. Maybe it's Towns' fault. But a good head coach would tell Towns to post up Kuzma every time and tell the rest of the team to feed him in the post every single possession. This just isn't working. This was the game the Wolves absolutely should have won. Towns has to toughen up and Thibs has to go.
I agree Towns needs to toughen up but there is no excuse that teams can put SF on towns and get away with it.
When the double comes we run no backside action. We should be able to punish teams if they put small guys on Kat.
Why does Wiggins not post up the whole game. Why don't we run action for Wiggins and Towns at the Elbows. It was successful thibs first year. It eliminates good spots to double and allows those guys to make 1 dribble to the hoop and allow there God given talents to take over.
Our offense just doesn't work in the 4th quarter and end of game situations. Our normally poor ball movement gets even worse. Leg's are tired after playing 40 minutes and Iso becomes much less effective than it was early in the game. And then predictably we lose. Wasn't Wig unstoppable in the first half? And then what, he touched the ball a half dozen times in the 2nd while he watched Jimmy and Drose take turns going one on one? I'm sorry, this just gets old.
lipoli390 wrote:Wiggins and Towns really let the team down tonight. They needed to produce in the second half, but failed. Towns looked tired as evidenced by his three-pointers hitting the front of the rim in the fourth quarter. Towns should have been posting up Kuzma far more than he did tonight.
Paul Pierce is making some great points in the post game. Paul said there's something wrong when the Wolves lose by just a few points and Towns has the 4th most touches on the team and isn't getting or commanding the ball in the post. Maybe it's Towns' fault. But a good head coach would tell Towns to post up Kuzma every time and tell the rest of the team to feed him in the post every single possession. This just isn't working. This was the game the Wolves absolutely should have won. Towns has to toughen up and Thibs has to go.
I just don't think kat and wiggins are involved much in the 2h. I think it's tough to get into a rythm for them sometimes.
Imo, jimmy is the one that let the team down this game, not those 2.
I think we tried to get Kat going but he just failed in this game. But mark jackson made a good point we posted Kat up when Chandler was on him not Kuzma in the 2nd half. But Kat has to make his open 3s late, he has been terrible at that all year
CoolBreeze44 wrote:Our offense just doesn't work in the 4th quarter and end of game situations. Our normally poor ball movement gets even worse. Leg's are tired after playing 40 minutes and Iso becomes much less effective than it was early in the game. And then predictably we lose. Wasn't Wig unstoppable in the first half? And then what, he touched the ball a half dozen times in the 2nd while he watched Jimmy and Drose take turns going one on one? I'm sorry, this just gets old.
Yup. It sucks. Rose can iso on the bench and in spurts in the 4th. But that laker d is shit. There is no reason we should have had such trouble scoring at the end of the game.
CoolBreeze44 wrote:Our offense just doesn't work in the 4th quarter and end of game situations. Our normally poor ball movement gets even worse. Leg's are tired after playing 40 minutes and Iso becomes much less effective than it was early in the game. And then predictably we lose. Wasn't Wig unstoppable in the first half? And then what, he touched the ball a half dozen times in the 2nd while he watched Jimmy and Drose take turns going one on one? I'm sorry, this just gets old.
Also I would love to see plays where Wiggins runs off 3 screens and gets to make a play. Or set him up at the elbow. Make him come off some flare screens. Keep him invested in the game. I think the consistency would be higher because he has to keep engaged when we run plays designed for him.
Rose has been the only thing worth watching this year because he can actually play iso. Thibs needs to be fired.
I defended thibs a shit ton last year. I'm done with him. There is no creativity. Now Wiggins and towns disappeared once again in the 2nd half, but we ask them to play straight iso or take slot 3s not corner 3s. We run no players off screens to get open looks.
Also we just lost game where Rose and Taj went 10 of 13 from 3
Very true, Doper. I grew up in Chicago and was a Bulls fan before I became a Wolves fan. So I watched a lot of Bulls basketball when Thibs was there. What you're seeing here under Thibs is exactly the same offense the Bulls ran when Thibodeau was there. Rose and Butler are doing exactly what they did in Chicago under Thibodeau. Now he has Derrick Rose doing exactly what Rose used to do for the Bulls. Even thought Derrick has been terrific this season, it's not the way to be a top team in today's NBA.
You can see now why Thibodeau gave the big contract to Teague. As I mentioned in a post last year, Teague was the closest thing to Rose offensively that Thibodeau could find last summer. Thibodeau has a fixed idea of exactly what he wants offensively and we're seeing it. Although we're finally seeing something resembling a modern NBA three-point volume from the Wolves in Thibodeau's 3rd season, it's still essentially the same iso offense I remember watching the Bulls run. It's a terrible misuse of the personnel Thibodeau inherited.
CoolBreeze44 wrote:Our offense just doesn't work in the 4th quarter and end of game situations. Our normally poor ball movement gets even worse. Leg's are tired after playing 40 minutes and Iso becomes much less effective than it was early in the game. And then predictably we lose. Wasn't Wig unstoppable in the first half? And then what, he touched the ball a half dozen times in the 2nd while he watched Jimmy and Drose take turns going one on one? I'm sorry, this just gets old.
Also I would love to see plays where Wiggins runs off 3 screens and gets to make a play. Or set him up at the elbow. Make him come off some flare screens. Keep him invested in the game. I think the consistency would be higher because he has to keep engaged when we run plays designed for him.
I've been saying to put him on the block and let him bully guys in the paint. His 3 ball looks better this year but posting up used to be money. Tonight wouldn't have been a good time for it because Lebron guarded him most of the game, but against just about any other opponent it would be effective. And YES, keep him engaged. He was a spectator on offense in the 2nd half and it wasn't his fault whatsoever. He was engaged on defense all game.
CoolBreeze44 wrote:Our offense just doesn't work in the 4th quarter and end of game situations. Our normally poor ball movement gets even worse. Leg's are tired after playing 40 minutes and Iso becomes much less effective than it was early in the game. And then predictably we lose. Wasn't Wig unstoppable in the first half? And then what, he touched the ball a half dozen times in the 2nd while he watched Jimmy and Drose take turns going one on one? I'm sorry, this just gets old.
Also I would love to see plays where Wiggins runs off 3 screens and gets to make a play. Or set him up at the elbow. Make him come off some flare screens. Keep him invested in the game. I think the consistency would be higher because he has to keep engaged when we run plays designed for him.
I've been saying to put him on the block and let him bully guys in the paint. His 3 ball looks better this year but posting up used to be money. Tonight wouldn't have been a good time for it because Lebron guarded him most of the game, but against just about any other opponent it would be effective. And YES, keep him engaged. He was a spectator on offense in the 2nd half and it wasn't his fault whatsoever. He was engaged on defense all game.
Great observation, Cool. It's the system that often disengages Wiggins offensively and that was evident tonight. You are right that he was engaged defensively, so it wasn't as if he was playing like he didn't care. I've been expressing my frustration with Thibodeau's offensive "system" for well over a year now. All we can do is count the days until Butler and eventually Thibodeau are gone. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure Thibodeau will be here all season and I could see him staying beyond this season. I wouldn't put anything past Glen Taylor at this point.
The Wolves have spent 2 max contracts on two players who can't be trusted to lead this team. Even if there was a coach who thought "I can do a better job than Thibs at getting the most out of Towns and Wiggins", that coach isn't gonna wanna work for Glen Taylor.
This must have been a fun one to watch...the box score shows a lot of great performances from our starters (except KAT), and a poor night from our reserves. It seems like Thibs reverted to the old Thibs who can't trust his reserves...too bad, because he hadn't done that much this year. Yes, the bench played poorly, but then again as I have pointed out, reserves always do when they aren't given enough minutes. And of course the other old pattern happened again last night, with tired starters not able to run down loose balls, make shots, or defend against a more rested team. Come on Thibs...look at your own box scores and learn.
This board seems to be letting Butler's unattractive personality get in the way of objectively talking about his performance. I read through the thread and assumed that he must not have been very good tonight, but then I see that he went an efficient 24-5-5 with 3 steals...not a bad night. Butler may be a jackass, but he is having a terrific season. 22-5-4 with almost 2 1/2 steals per game, and a (by far) team-leading PER of 24.5. Yes, he has to go, but let's acknowledge what he is doing while he is here.
