Poor awareness and focus exemplified

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I finally had a chance to re-watch the last two 3s made by Houston to tie it up. In BOTH cases, it involved defensive breakdowns by - you guessed it - the dynamic defensive duo of Wiggins and Towns.

In the 3 that Anderson made, it was a simple high pick and pop with Harden as the ball handler and Anderson as the screener. As you guys might recall, we were switching everything at that point. KAT switched onto Harden, but instead of following Anderson out beyond the arc, Wiggins was trying to recover back to Harden, leaving Anderson wide open. Whoops!

On the second 3, Wiggins was overplaying Harden on the inbound and he easily cut toward the hoop, leaving Wiggins in his dust. KAT was on Ariza on the opposite side and stupidly left him in order to cut off Harden. Remember, Houston needed a 3 to tie with only 10 seconds or so left. While it sucks Harden would have gotten an easy layup out of the deal, the right play for KAT would have been to not leave Ariza. Double whoops! But wait, we're not done yet! Wiggins did hustle to rotate over to Ariza but did the old fly-by on the pump fake, leaving Ariza a wide open uncontested 3. Triple whoops!

For whatever virtuosity these guys occasionally display in isolation one-on-one defense, it's these types of plays that exemplifies why we are one of the worst defenses in the league, with these two guys being a major cause of it. Just a total lack of awareness, discipline, and decision making. When will they learn!?

[WildWolf2813]

Q- WILL they learn?

I don't think it's a matter of when anymore.

[Mstermisty [enjin:6864008]]

Young or not it's astounding at the mental breakdowns that happened in that last two minutes. And not just the defensive end, although that was the worst of it.

The possession where KAT tried to hand off to Rubio was the worst possession of the year IMO. First off, the main thing that needed to happen there was you run the shot clock all the way down before shooting. The Rockets were not going to foul at that point down 7, so you MUST take 24 seconds off the clock. So Rubio throws the ball to KAT which already I don't like. No need to do that halfway through the shot clock. Then the real mistake happens. Rubio runs by KAT and for whatever reason he tries to hand it off to Rubio when he got doubled. The pass was not easy to make and he made a bad one. Plus why do this anyway? The Rockets wanted us to go quick and KAT was playing into their hands. Just terrible awareness of time and situation.

But Thibs also deserves blame in the mental department. How in the world, with 6.5 seconds left and you need to go the length of the court, do you not give the ball to Lavine or even Rubio and let them bring it up the court. The KAT, Wiggins 2 man game was a mind boggling stupid choice. Just give the ball to Lavine and let him work--he has 6.5 seconds and could be the fastest guy with the ball in the league sans Westbrook. My god Thibs, what were you thinking? Also Thibs went back to the Wiggins isolation point guard offense. Um, this doesn't work, and shows no signs of working. Enough.

I'll say this though, despite KAT, Wiggs and Lavine being mental midgets when the game is on the line, it's better that they have the talent and lack decision making than the other way around. I think they will get the mental part, but it's obvious it may not be happening sooner than later. That said I don't think Thibs has helped their causes by using them in ways that gives them the best chance to succeed.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Mstermisty, I have no clue why Thibs drew up that last play the way he did. Zach LaVine was basically put on this earth to run that play.

And good observation on another one of KAT's huge mental mistakes.

This is why I absolutely dread the idea of adding yet another high lottery pick to this team. Do we really want to keep enduring these mental breakdowns? And by the way, the guy we'd add would be another 1-and-done prospect. LaVine and Wiggins are in Year 3 and STILL have their training diapers on!

Package Wiggins + the lotto pick and get Jimmy Butler in here!

[Monster]

Mstermisty, I have no clue why Thibs drew up that last play the way he did. Zach LaVine was basically put on this earth to run that play.

And good observation on another one of KAT's huge mental mistakes.

This is why I absolutely dread the idea of adding yet another high lottery pick to this team. Do we really want to keep enduring these mental breakdowns? And by the way, the guy we'd add would be another 1-and-done prospect. LaVine and Wiggins are in Year 3 and STILL have their training diapers on!

Package Wiggins + the lotto pick and get Jimmy Butler in here!

Do you think it's worth mentioning that this roster has 2 players that have played for the same coach 2 years in a row in the past 3 seasons in Dunn (college) and Rush? The Wolves player have had a ton of turnover in that dept Adelman was the last coach to coach more than one season and the ONLY coach to coach more than 3 seasons for this franchise was Flip. There are only 4 head coaches in franchise history that have coaches 2 full seasons or more.

Getting back to the current roster...despite all that Lavine is WAAAAAYYYYY ahead of schedule at least offensively right? In his 3rd season Lavine is putting up over 20ppg and doing it efficiently while playing with 3 other 20+ scorers. That's credit to him. My hope is that Thibs is coming in setting up something that will last and this franchise can start becoming one where people say "Look at what they do in MN they make guys better it's a good organization" instead of the legit joke (looking back) it's been for most of this time they have missed the playoffs.

[Lipoli390]

Misty -- I think you and Q covered the field and nailed the most frustrating things from last night's game from certain players and Thibs. I'll add that Thibs sat Dieng for an extended time last night after he failed to close out on a shooter. Thibs screamed at him then benched and ingnored him.

Q -- I'm with you all the way on a Wiggins + lottery pick swap for Jimmy Butler. Last summer I would have scoffed at the idea. But what I've seen so far this season from Wiggins and Thibs' stubborn insistence to make him into something he isn't, I'd be all in on the deal you suggested.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Misty -- I think you and Q covered the field and nailed the most frustrating things from last night's game from certain players and Thibs. I'll add that Thibs sat Dieng for an extended time last night after he failed to close out on a shooter. Thibs screamed at him then benched and ingnored him.

Q -- I'm with you all the way on a Wiggins + lottery pick swap for Jimmy Butler. Last summer I would have scoffed at the idea. But what I've seen so far this season from Wiggins and Thibs' stubborn insistence to make him into something he isn't, I'd be all in on the deal you suggested.

"So far" being the key phrase here. I think the front office will continue to exhibit patience the rest of this season, as they should, but if Wiggins (and the team) are looking about the same at the end of the season as they do now, I don't see how they don't at least entertain the thought of moving him + another asset for a guy like Butler if he could be had.

Aaaand.....Chicago seems ripe for a rebuild since this Rondo/Wade/Butler thing isn't working out so well. And who do they have on their roster that is young and up and coming? No one really. If we were to trade them our lottery pick + Wiggins it would immediately jump start their rebuild AND they would still have a couple of good veteran mentors around to help these guys along.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Mstermisty, I have no clue why Thibs drew up that last play the way he did. Zach LaVine was basically put on this earth to run that play.

And good observation on another one of KAT's huge mental mistakes.

This is why I absolutely dread the idea of adding yet another high lottery pick to this team. Do we really want to keep enduring these mental breakdowns? And by the way, the guy we'd add would be another 1-and-done prospect. LaVine and Wiggins are in Year 3 and STILL have their training diapers on!

Package Wiggins + the lotto pick and get Jimmy Butler in here!

Do you think it's worth mentioning that this roster has 2 players that have played for the same coach 2 years in a row in the past 3 seasons in Dunn (college) and Rush? The Wolves player have had a ton of turnover in that dept Adelman was the last coach to coach more than one season and the ONLY coach to coach more than 3 seasons for this franchise was Flip. There are only 4 head coaches in franchise history that have coaches 2 full seasons or more.

Getting back to the current roster...despite all that Lavine is WAAAAAYYYYY ahead of schedule at least offensively right? In his 3rd season Lavine is putting up over 20ppg and doing it efficiently while playing with 3 other 20+ scorers. That's credit to him. My hope is that Thibs is coming in setting up something that will last and this franchise can start becoming one where people say "Look at what they do in MN they make guys better it's a good organization" instead of the legit joke (looking back) it's been for most of this time they have missed the playoffs.

Yes, LaVine is definitely starting to fulfill his immense potential offensively from a scoring perspective. He has definitely shown demonstrable growth in his game. Unfortunately, he's not very good at the very same things WIggins isn't very good at - mediocre rebounder, doesn't get many deflections, never takes charges, defensive awareness issues. It's tough to have two guys like that co-exist on the wings unless your other guys are elite in those other areas.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

I love watching Jimmy Butler and he's easily a top-10 player in the league right now, but I don't know if I make that trade. It's not that I think Butler isn't worth it. It's that I'd like for the Wolves to build something special that can last for a decade and then continue with different pieces. I don't think Wiggins will reach the level of player Butler is right now, but I think we have to roll the dice and hope that our three Young Pups figure it out along the way WHILE MANAGEMENT BRINGS IN LEGITIMATE, PRODUCTIVE VETERANS TO MAKE THE PROCESS EASIER.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I love watching Jimmy Butler and he's easily a top-10 player in the league right now, but I don't know if I make that trade. It's not that I think Butler isn't worth it. It's that I'd like for the Wolves to build something special that can last for a decade and then continue with different pieces. I don't think Wiggins will reach the level of player Butler is right now, but I think we have to roll the dice and hope that our three Young Pups figure it out along the way WHILE MANAGEMENT BRINGS IN LEGITIMATE, PRODUCTIVE VETERANS TO MAKE THE PROCESS EASIER.

Right, Butler would be that legitimate productive vet! Keep in mind, we'd still have guys like KAT, LaVine, Dunn, and Tyus Jones around. This isn't completely doing a 180 in terms of dumping all the young potential for vets.

I'd prefer we not have to move anyone either, but I don't know how all options aren't on the table if we can't even match last year's win total.