Minnesota Sports Forum

Thoughts on tonight's win over Denver:

- What a tremendous all around game by Wiggins. Shooting, driving, passing, blocking shots. I'm as high on him as anyone, and yet he really impressed me tonight. I'm so excited to watch him the rest of this year / career.

- Rare decent performance by Young. But I'm blown away that he wasn't credited with any turnovers. I remember at least 2.

- Loved the Nugget announcers reaction when Zach went in for his dunk. They said something like "uh oh, watch this". They were really impressed with his athletic ability.

- Robbie Hummel can play for my team anytime. Like him in the starting lineup.

- I can't even imagine what Flip is going to do with the minutes when we get the 4 injured guys back. Mo will lose the most. But you have to keep playing Andrew and Dieng big minutes. Shabazz needs decent run and you can't permanently banish Zach to the bench. Hopefully a trade or two will work this thing out.

- Some of you might be tired of hearing it, but the future still looks bright to me.

Figures. Great game that is not on TV. Still really pisses me off when road games are not on TV as if we have a choice to go to the game. If they are giving the broadcast team a break the least they could do is play the opposing teams broadcast. I ended up just watching the Wild instead of dealing with online streams. It was a good game as well.

It's nice to get another W on the back of a big Wiggins performances as well as solid games by the rest of the rotation for once.

So nice to win a couple games in the last handful. I almost forgot what it felt like! We had the lead late in the 4th and actually got good shots (Dieng was big down the stretch). Let's hope this continues.

Wiggins looking better and better. Still some passive plays, but he's definitely starting to recognize his physical advantages and use them better, and it doesn't hurt if you hit your first few 3s. Nice work kid.

I love Hummel's work ethic. He showed up big time in the boxscore tonight, but even when he doesn't, I like the hustle and energy he brings. Losing Brewer and then Adrien, we really need that on the floor. I really miss Adrien right now. He had his limitations, but giving him some of Bennett and Young's minutes would be really good for us.

Cool, What happened to your trademark 2 + 1?

My guess is that the rotation will work itself out. We know that Pek physically isn't capable of sustaining starter-level minutes. My guess is that he becomes Dieng's backup, and against bigger teams, may be Flip tries playing them together a little bit. That would mostly cut into Young/AB's minutes at PF, but I don't see this happening much.

Budinger will probably be completely cut out of the wing rotation in favor of Wiggins, Shabazz, Hummel, and Martin. It's weird including Hummel in there (our supposed 15th man), but he is a glue guy that is really tough to keep on the bench. We are just flat out a better team when he's on the floor. Who starts and who subs is TBD, but we know that Wiggins is a lock to keep starting at one of the wings.

Then you have Rubio and Williams at the PG. That means LaVine is relegated to garbage time, but my guess is that Mo gets hurt at some point and LaVine will still get decent playing time, it just won't be as steady.

GRIII will finally be sent down to the D-League.

Looks like our starting pf was sitting at the end of the bench this whole time.

BizarroJerry wrote:Looks like our starting pf was sitting at the end of the bench this whole time.

Well, Robbie was clearly the SF.

Flip commented that he wanted Bud coming of the bench to help their scoring. He also commented that Robbie just seems to have a good vibe with Wiggins and crew...

Figures that Wiggins best game apparently is one that I didn't get recorded. Saw some highlights on NBA TV and ESPN, but sucks that I can't go back and watch. Sounds like "my boy Hummel" (thats for you Q :)) put together a good game, as well as everyone being efficient offensively.

How did the overall D look? Nice to see that Afflalo didn't go off a second time against us. Did they have Wiggins on him?

Looks like Flip may be a little over the top on getting wins at this point judging by the minutes played by the starters. Starting to worry about injuries when all starters were over 36 min and 3 were in the 40's.

I am really liking Hummel as a cheap vet on the bench. I will admit I was wrong, but I think a heady young player really helps in these situations. He is not a starter or even a front end rotation guy, but he is one of they 9-15 players you want on your team that can not hurt you when he needs to play.

As for the minutes. I don't' mind Flip playing to win when the game is in reach. It has to help the young guys see what it takes and it is important to get a taste of it. I think less minutes is helping Zach get better quality minutes. I hope his minutes continue to inch backup.

sjm34 wrote:How did the overall D look? Nice to see that Afflalo didn't go off a second time against us. Did they have Wiggins on him?

It was up-and-down as a team. There times when our rotations were great and guys were playing extra gritty. And then at other times, guys would get caught ball-watching, not fighting through screens and giving up layups. We clamped up down the stretch, though. Got a lot of stops.

And Wiggins locked Afflalo up. Played up in his grill and challenged his shots so well that some of them were airballs, that is if he didn't actually block it. He had three or four blocks last night. I also thought he was the most consistent option to put on Lawson except for some minutes where LaVine did a nice job. Overall a great game from AW.

Camden wrote:

sjm34 wrote:How did the overall D look? Nice to see that Afflalo didn't go off a second time against us. Did they have Wiggins on him?

It was up-and-down as a team. There times when our rotations were great and guys were playing extra gritty. And then at other times, guys would get caught ball-watching, not fighting through screens and giving up layups. We clamped up down the stretch, though. Got a lot of stops.

And Wiggins locked Afflalo up. Played up in his grill and challenged his shots so well that some of them were airballs, that is if he didn't actually block it. He had three or four blocks last night. I also thought he was the most consistent option to put on Lawson except for some minutes where LaVine did a nice job. Overall a great game from AW.

Good to hear. Defensive lapses are bound to happen at times with a young team. Glad the played well overall and turned it up down the stretch. That's big.