Minnesota Sports Forum

monsterpile wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:Damjan Rudez might be the worst defender I have ever seen on an NBA court.

I stopped watching because my feed kept stopping. Rudez looked fine the first half what happened the 2nd half did guys start driving and posting him up?

He pays no attention to anyone other than his own man, and he's just not quick enough to guard anyone. You gotta hand it to Sam though for giving him a chance...he has the most minutes tonight.

Two hours of preseason basketball is really hard to sit through

LoBrow with the first airballed lay up I've seen since I did it in 9th grade...very traumatic.

Ouch...Zach is 3-19 in his first two pre-season games. Good thing he made that last three.

longstrangetrip wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:Damjan Rudez might be the worst defender I have ever seen on an NBA court.

I stopped watching because my feed kept stopping. Rudez looked fine the first half what happened the 2nd half did guys start driving and posting him up?

He pays no attention to anyone other than his own man, and he's just not quick enough to guard anyone. You gotta hand it to Sam though for giving him a chance...he has the most minutes tonight.

We are obviously showcasing him for a big trade. Lol

longstrangetrip wrote:LoBrow with the first airballed lay up I've seen since I did it in 9th grade...very traumatic.

Tuned in a for a couple minutes to see that. Been there done that. Lol

I'm a bit disappointed that we are playing hero ball PnR with such a young team. These aren't experienced players who understand all the tricks of the trade when it comes to stuff like the PnR and they end up just getting stuck with nowhere to go when it doesn't work perfectly. Ball movement and proper movement without the ball should be the first thing taught to these guys through a structured offense. It's gonna be a long season offensively if we are gonna rely on these guys to just beat their man to create the offense most of the time. That offense only works when you have some of the best players in the world which we clearly don't have. Going the development route is fine, but give them a chance by providing some structure for them to operate in. Right now it just looks like we're throwing them all to the no pun intended wolves and seeing who survives when we should be going the route of the top teams who are taking the pressure off the individual and putting it on the team through structured offensive and defensive systems.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat

- The theme continues - poor defense and getting badly outgunned from beyond the arc.

- We actually shot the ball OK from beyond 3 in terms of percentage, but the Bulls got up a lot more volume. That matters.

- Hoiberg is a modern day coach. Damn, it would have been nice to have nabbed him. The Bulls offense was full of motion, quick passing, and lots of 3's. Pretty stuff.

- Bjelica has been our best overall player in two games. That's both good and bad. The good news is that he looks like an immediate contributor at PF that will see plenty of minutes. The bad news is that we're in big trouble as a team if he ends up being our best player!

- Towns play so far has been very encouraging. I especially liked how active he was on the boards tonight.

- Tyus Jones looked like a different man compared to the first pre-season game. He was sharp all night offensively, making good decision after good decision. Defensively.....not so great, but he did make a decent effort.

- Brown or Rudez: Pick your poison.

OK I went back and watched from the 2nd quarter on since I missed alot in my internet stream when it was live. Some thoughts.

Zach

The last 2 possessions of the 2nd half looked like bad shots by Lavine and maybe they could hasve been better but he was looking at 2 for 1 opportunities there so I will give him a break there. I don' remember him getting burned on defense. Bazz was the guy that probably looked the worst overall. He has to play better but it wasn't as bad as I first thought.

Rudez

I don't think he was anywhere near as bad on defense and LST felt. Its not surprising to me that he had the best +- on the team. He played pretty solid and he did only have 1 rebound, but he was banging around down there a decent amount. He looks like an NBA player when you consider he has what seems to be an elite 3 point shot.

Brown

He had kind of a rough night and was easily overshadowed by Tyus. I am a fan of his, but he has to be better to stick. He does seem to be better on defense though especially when it comes to screens

Wiggins

Finally decided to do something late in the game. I'll admit its a little troubling what he is and isn't doing. Hopefully he gets himself more involved.

Tyus

I know he looked bad on defense a few times, bu his bigs didn't help him out in some case AT ALL. He looked like he belonged tonight he looked comfortable and he really didn't seem overmatched as an athlete either. it was a pretty impressive outing even if he wasn't going against a legit starter. Brooks can make alot of guys look silly if he has it going.

Bjelica

He looks like he will be a solid player from the start. He may take a while to be able to get his playmaking game on track, but he has enough other things that make me want to see him be he next PF after KG.

Offense

It was pretty brutal early on but they did get it going later. Sam said this team will be able to score no matter what and thats probaly true. Of course they need to work on that from what they have now, but there is plenty of scoring to go around. They kept the turnovers low most of the game and even 13 in the 2nd preseason game is pretty good.

Defense

Yikes I dont' really want to break this down much more but it needs alot of work both team and individually. Its still early so hopefully it will get better. There are a lot of young guys and no real vets to help in that area besides KG and he can only do so much and in limited minutes.

Towns

Dude is gonna be good.

Bazz

He did his thing that we expect. He seems willing to play D but loses guys pretty easily. It really feels like this team needs a defensive coach. sigh

Volans19 wrote:These CSN guys are god awful. Give me Dave Benz everyday of the week over these morons

I like those guys, especially Stacey King. At one point tonight, he said Aaron Brooks looks like Billy Ocean, and just as you were trying to think of any Billy Ocean song, he starts singing "Car-i-bbean Queen!"

Then you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S5ghg-dsNEyoutube it, and of course, he's right. I dare you to watch 1 minute of that video without imagining Billy Ocean take a pull-up three from the stage.