Minnesota Sports Forum

Oh, how we forget...

#1) Our top two and highest usage players are 21 & 22 years old. They have not learned how to consistently play great defense, and they have not learned how to consistently make other players better. Which is also why our supporting cast seems so much worse than they ought to be...

#2) The team struggled early on as coach and players figured things out. We tout the "almost .500 team to end last season", but what about the 17-12 record the Wolves compiled over 2+ months before the Belly injury? We were all feeling pretty good back then.

But with Zach gone, and then Belly gone, the depth was not there, and our young studs were not seasoned enough to keep the mojo going. It sucks to end the season on such a sour note. The players deserve blame for not figuring out how to win, and our coach deserves blame for not figuring out how to make the players figure out how to win.

So we go into the offseason with everyone looking to make improvement in their game (and coaching, and GMing), to hopefully play better and win more games next season.

60WinTim wrote:Oh, how we forget...

#1) Our top two and highest usage players are 21 & 22 years old. They have not learned how to consistently play great defense, and they have not learned how to consistently make other players better. Which is also why our supporting cast seems so much worse than they ought to be...

#2) The team struggled early on as coach and players figured things out. We tout the "almost .500 team to end last season", but what about the 17-12 record the Wolves compiled over 2+ months before the Belly injury? We were all feeling pretty good back then.

But with Zach gone, and then Belly gone, the depth was not there, and our young studs were not seasoned enough to keep the mojo going. It sucks to end the season on such a sour note. The players deserve blame for not figuring out how to win, and our coach deserves blame for not figuring out how to make the players figure out how to win.

So we go into the offseason with everyone looking to make improvement in their game (and coaching, and GMing), to hopefully play better and win more games next season.

Agreed our depth is the largest reason for our shit play. Top 10 pick (again) and 26ish mil to spend on a couple free agents should help a ton.

I still cannot believe that 26 million is now only enough to get two decent players.

TheFuture wrote:

60WinTim wrote:Oh, how we forget...

I still cannot believe that 26 million is now only enough to get two decent players.

Yep. I definitely chose the wrong career path. Damn.



[Note: To be fair, being 6'0" and/or without enough talent (relatively) might have had something to do with it.]

On depth, Thibs tried to add better quality, but the money being thrown around was just nuts. It shouldn't be "as nuts" this offseason. And of course, with a season of "getting to know ya" under his belt, we are all interested in what trades Thibs might cook up.

60WinTim wrote:On depth, Thibs tried to add better quality, but the money being thrown around was just nuts. It shouldn't be "as nuts" this offseason. And of course, with a season of "getting to know ya" under his belt, we are all interested in what trades Thibs might cook up.

As noted by others here, all three of his FA signings seemed legit at the time and were mostly praised.

Aldrich. Arguably his best year for a 50+ win team in LA.
Hill. 20+ mpg rotation player for a 46-win Indiana team... for only $4M?!?! I called it a steal.
Rush. A catch-and-shoot three point shooter with legit experience on a Finals team.

They didn't work out. Did all three regress? Were they bad fits? Not given enough of a chance? Combination of things?

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

60WinTim wrote:On depth, Thibs tried to add better quality, but the money being thrown around was just nuts. It shouldn't be "as nuts" this offseason. And of course, with a season of "getting to know ya" under his belt, we are all interested in what trades Thibs might cook up.

As noted by others here, all three of his FA signings seemed legit at the time and were mostly praised.

Aldrich. Arguably his best year for a 50+ win team in LA.
Hill. 20+ mpg rotation player for a 46-win Indiana team... for only $4M?!?! I called it a steal.
Rush. A catch-and-shoot three point shooter with legit experience on a Finals team.

They didn't work out. Did all three regress? Were they bad fits? Not given enough of a chance? Combination of things?

I think this is quite obvious, as I stated above: Our two highest usage players do not create shots for other players. Therefore, the other players only get shots when they create for themselves. And so they are not nearly as productive as they were with their previous team.

So, do we just hope our two young studs figure this out and get better over the offseason?

Lip (now multiple times paraphrased) "Sam has that same young core playing .500 ball at the end of last year"

Monster "This isn't the same roster as last year Lavine and Belly are injured"

Lip "It's the same core..."

What? Do you get what I am saying now?

Look if you want to say it's the same core overall for the season as last year and you are frustrated with the outcome...eh I won't have much issue with that and it's fair and understandable. Zach did miss 35 games and certainly didn't play at all down the stretch. Belly certainly wasn't the only reason the defense fell apart but the coincidence was pretty significant and Casspi or whoever else played minutes certainly wasn't as good.

60WinTim wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

60WinTim wrote:On depth, Thibs tried to add better quality, but the money being thrown around was just nuts. It shouldn't be "as nuts" this offseason. And of course, with a season of "getting to know ya" under his belt, we are all interested in what trades Thibs might cook up.

As noted by others here, all three of his FA signings seemed legit at the time and were mostly praised.

Aldrich. Arguably his best year for a 50+ win team in LA.
Hill. 20+ mpg rotation player for a 46-win Indiana team... for only $4M?!?! I called it a steal.
Rush. A catch-and-shoot three point shooter with legit experience on a Finals team.

They didn't work out. Did all three regress? Were they bad fits? Not given enough of a chance? Combination of things?

I think this is quite obvious, as I stated above: Our two highest usage players do not create shots for other players. Therefore, the other players only get shots when they create for themselves. And so they are not nearly as productive as they were with their previous team.

So, do we just hope our two young studs figure this out and get better over the offseason?

To be fair, Aldrich is not a guy who even needs the ball. And Hill never even got the chance.

I don't know what the solution is. As insanely talented and productive and good Towns is offensively, I have no idea what it'll take to get him to try as hard defensively at this point. Maybe eventually?

Best teams in the league have a ball dominant scorer that takes over games from the perimeter on in.
I love Towns but this team would be better off with him as the number two option. I don't know what that solution is simply saying that's part of the problem. Since other teams won't be giving up a player like that anytime soon they still need to look to the draft and hope to get lucky.

PorkChop wrote:Best teams in the league have a ball dominant scorer that takes over games from the perimeter on in.
I love Towns but this team would be better off with him as the number two option. I don't know what that solution is simply saying that's part of the problem. Since other teams won't be giving up a player like that anytime soon they still need to look to the draft and hope to get lucky.

I agree with what you are saying. That Lavine guy would have been handy to have around a few of the last chunk of games.

I think the Wolves need to find a vet combo guard that can score some buckets at times off the bench that was really missed on this squad. I'm not a big fan of Rodney Stucky but I wonder if because of his injuries and flaws he could come pretty cheap. Trey Burke seems to have found a role with Washington as a solid bench scoring guard. He isn't a bigtime vet but he has some good things going for him and probably would be cheap and might fit well playing with some big PGs. I still can't believe how cheap the Lakers signed Lou Williams a couple years ago.