Minnesota Sports Forum

Felt great to get the season started at the new Target Center. And great to be part of a largely packed arena. I'll start with some general observations. Then I'll offer some thoughts on specific players. Finally, I'll offer a couple sidelights.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

Like the Spurs game, this game showed that the Wolves have a long way to go before they can be considered a legimate contender/top 4 or 5 team in the Conference. Honestly, if Rodney Hood hadn't been carried off the court fairly early in the 4th quarter, I'm convinced the Wolves would have lost. Or if Wiggins hadn't hit that improbably long shot at the end of the 1st half. We should all feel very fortunate as Wolves fans that the Wolves were able to squeez out a win at home against a clearly inferior team on paper.

Also like the Spurs game, the Wolves problem wasn't the defensive side of the ball; it was lack of offense. I heard Thibs on the radio driving home talking about the lack of offensive rhythm because of all the mixing and matching he's doing with various lineups. I can see how that might be part of it. But in these first two games, we've had a starting line up that has had no more rhythm than any other combination Thibs has thrown out there. What I saw tonight was what we saw most of last season on the offensive end -- very little movement off the ball, too much ball-stopping and very few screens and even fewer good ones.

The good news is that the Wolves were terrific defensively tonight. Yes, the Jazz shot 48% from the field, which doesn't speak highly of the Wolves defense. But the team hustled and got key stops through some hard-nosed, smart defense. And there can be no doubt that the defense begins with Jimmy Butler. His defense tonight was tremendous. Belly and Tyus were also very good defensively. Butler brings defensive tenacity and toughness. And you can see this team starting to forge an identity as a grind-it-out defensive-oriented team. That's the Butler effect. That style is not a natural fit for Wiggins, KAT or Teague, but it's clearly what Thibs wants and Butler is setting the tone for the rest of the team in that regard.

It was great to get the win, but I walked away from Target Center with the feeling that we were really lucky.

SPECIFIC PLAYERS

Crawford and Belly -- In my estimation, the two stars for the Wolves tonight were Crawford and Belly. I can't say enough about the huge lift Belly gave us off the bench with his 10 highly efficient points and 5 boards in just 13 minutes of play. And of course, the Wolves would have gone down in flames as a deja view reminder of last season if not for the 37 year-old Room Exception addition, Jamaal Crawford. His 17 points in 19 minutes, all in the 4th quarter, rescued his teammates from themselves. And in case you think it was just his 17 points, his great 4th quarter pass to KAT for a dunk and his overall ball-control in the 4th were also critical to the Wolves win tonight. I'm now a believer in Jamaal as someone whose age has not yet caught up with him. But the dark lining in the silver cloud is the fact that we had to rely so heavily on him to scratch out a win in our building over a mediocre Utah team that played the 4th quarter without its best shooter.

Wiggins -- His completely unforced turnover late in the 4th was the game-changing moment that allowed the Jazz to erase the Wolves 8-point lead at the time and nearly beat us. Otherwise, I liked the way he played tonight. I don't mind that he had no assists. I like that he hit big shots and I especially liked that he grabbed 5 rebounds to go with his 21 points. I also though he defended pretty well. I was disappointed that he shot only 37% from the field, but watching him live tonight convinced me that he performed better than the box score might suggest. He hit big shots and he got some big rebounds. The guy is sooo talented. If he had a good handle, he'd be an unstoppable offensive force. But in spite of his shaky handle, I still believe he can be a great player.

KAT -- I've seen him perform better, but he did bounce back tonight from his poor performance against the Spurs. And he did it against one of the best defensive centers in the League. His stat line was very good with 20 points on 58% shooting, 10 rebounds, 1 steal and 2 blocks.

Jeff Teague -- Teague finally played some really nice defense on Ricky at the end of the 4th quarter. But leading up to that he was terrible on both ends. Ricky clearly outperformed Teague all game and their comparative stats leave no doubt. Ricky's passing, rebounding and overall intensity would have been a big net plus for the Wolves tonight. We'll just have to see how Teague settles in over time. We're tied to him for 3 years at $19 million per year. So far he's been underwhelming to say the least.

Taj -- He played much better than he did against the Spurs. I thought he brought some much-needed intelligence and leadership on the defensive side of the ball. His 4 points on 2-5 shooting was underwhelming to say the least. But he gave us 8 rebounds, 2 steals and some nice defense tonight. I still hate his contract relative to his value, but no doubt he was a net plus for us tonight.

Gorgui -- Another subpar game for Dieng. He looks almost demoralized out there - lacking in confidence. But he was the only Wolves player to take a charge tonight. And while he only scored 3 points, he grabbed 4 boards in his 16 minutes. But Belly outplayed him and I think we'd be better off giving Belly a chunk of both Gibson's and Gorgui's minutes.

Butler -- As for JB, his defense, including 5 steals, was terrific. His defense in the 4th is what sparked us to a 10 point lead. But he's simply not in the same class as a Harden or Westbrook on the offensive end -- he's just not.

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

As I've mentioned before, KAT's dad sits 2 rows behind me. He's very vocal. He's especially vocal when his son has the ball. At one point, KAT had the ball just outside the paint on the right side of the Jazz basket. KAT's dad started yelling, "turn baseline, turn baseline." KAT was clearly out of hearing range, but he promptly turned baseline and hit a short jumper over the outstretched arms of Rudy. Good call by dad and nice read by KAT.

A funny moment in the 4th involving KAT's dad when one of the T-shirts thrown into the crowd hit him in the arm and bounced away. He didn't see it coming and it bounced off him to someone else. The guy behind me turned to him and said, "if you can touch it, you gotta catch it." KAT's dad smiled and said he was too focused on his phone. He does a lot of texting or tweeting (not sure what) during games.

That's all for now. Unless this team makes great strides in the next couple days, the Wolves will lose to the Thunder -- probably by a lot. But then we should beat the Pacers at home after that. Let's hope these guys start to gel with more time together. In any event, great that they got the win tonight.

Thanks for that Lip. We found a way. Fun first home game.

Yeah, fairly ugly game. Truthfully, I think expectations need to be curbed for the first 20-30 games. We are starting 3 new players, and incorporating major minutes to 4 players. This is going to take some time for these guys to figure out their roles....especially on offense. Right now, it is a feeling out process, and I think this squad plays very different two months from now. Up until then, I think we may see them flounder at times.

Thanks for the report Lip. I can tell you that it was a maddening game to watch as we failed to move the ball, did too much isolation, and clanked jumper after jumper. And to your point, it's kind of pathetic that we had to rely on Jamal Crawford improvising out there to keep us in the game when we have guys like Butler, Wiggins, and KAT.

I agree with the others on Bjelly. He spaces the floor, defends well (surprisingly - never saw that coming from him when he was a prospect in Europe), and keeps the ball moving. Everyone else is so isolation oriented. It's just ugly basketball because our "big four" just don't move the ball quickly and have zero chemistry.

As frustrating as their offense has been to watch, we should acknowledge that San Antonio and Utah are two of the elite defensive teams in the league. And two of our pre-season games were against another elite defensive team in Golden State. So we should give credit to the opposition - they don't make anything easy.

It was an ugly game in many respects, but that just might be how these two teams play...there were a lot of warriors out there tonight, and the result was a game that had nearly a playoff atmosphere...full house, involved Friday night crowd, and two teams that actually seemed to care about defense and winning this game. And while I somewhat agree with Lip's take that we were quite fortunate to win this one, win we did, and it feels pretty good the next morning.

Everyone knows me here as a Thibs detractor, but I will credit him with some good coaching in this game...perhaps even outcoaching his opponent. He clearly has gotten the message from Glen to dial back his sideline antics, and except for one moment when KAT had to leave the court to quiet him down when he feared a T at a critical moment, Thibs seemed in control of himself and the team. His rotations were largely appropriate (you can always second guess little moves any coach makes), and unlike last year, we seemed fresh at the end of the game...if he continues to play Butler high 30s in minutes but keeps everyone else 35 or below, this team is going to perform much better at the end of games...just like tonight. And I thought Thibs was effective in timeouts...three times calling plays that worked out of TOs at critical times (including the gutsy game-winning play for Crawford). Nice game, Thibs!

I agree with Lip that overall our defense was effective...everyone seemed to put in the effort on the defensive end. The problem is that KAT and Wig are just not very smart defensively, and I still don't know if that is on them or the coaching staff (probably a little of both). They both worked hard, but suffered occasional embarrassing defensive lapses (it was fairly evident how much better we looked defensively when G came in for KAT). Wig really focused on his help defense, but it led him to some bad decisions that allowed an average offensive performer like Hood to look like Klay Thompson. Thibs needs to get these two potential stars in the video room today and correct some big flaws.

Okay, it was just one game, but could the difference between Rubio and Teague be any more apparent? Ricky is bigger, has better vision, is more disruptive on defense, and, yes, similar to the last half of last season, even shoots better! I don't dislike Teague and will cheer for him to improve, but I still see the Rubio and Teague moves last summer as major blunders for many reasons. If the PGs swapped teams last night, I think the Wolves win by 20. Frankly, the offense (and defense) looks much better when Jones is in there, and his 5 assists (against only 1 TO) in only 15 minutes shows why he needs to consistently get 15 + minutes in every game.

I don't mean to focus on two negatives (by the way, where's Cool's 2+1?), but those two negatives were two huge takeaways for me. A better takeaway though is the tough element that Butler brings to this team. While I didn't appreciate the way the crowd turned against Rubio when he and Butler got into their scuffle, Butler's toughness rippled through the team. This team seems to have character, and that has to lead to more wins this season.

While Utah has less individual talent than Minnesota on offense, they moved the ball really well and Rubio was a big part of that. How often did he find an open corner 3 shooter or get Favors easy looks from 18 feet? And in terms of scoring, he had a highly efficient 19 points.

I thought Teague did a good job dropping down on those high PnRs and anticipating the Rubio pocket pass. He broke up a couple of those plays and that was big. Otherwise, he's been highly uninspiring. He has GOT to knock down those open 3's. After all, isn't that one of the big reasons Thibs acquired him???

Good to see Wiggins launch 6 3's again. He needs to keep up the volume. But dribbling the ball off his foot while standing still and not even being pressured.....I mean, really? That was terrible.

I had a chance to go to the game and passed it up. Oddly I didn't think I would ever say this and was not a huge Rubio fan, but losing him has lost my connection to the team. He was a player I could pull for and watching the game last night made me think how much better this team would be if he was still here. I doubt we would be talking about how the offense is out of sync. Rubio looks like he finally had that healthy offseason he always needed when he was here.

It will be interesting to see if I find any connection to this current group.

Did they ever say on Tv or does anybody know why Butler and Rubio were Jaw Jaking each other, they never explained what happened on the radio.

Jester1534 wrote:Did they ever say on Tv or does anybody know why Butler and Rubio were Jaw Jaking each other, they never explained what happened on the radio.

I saw that too. Curious about that.

jester1534 wrote:Did they ever say on Tv or does anybody know why Butler and Rubio were Jaw Jaking each other, they never explained what happened on the radio.

Butler was calling him out for his flopping. Some of it was carry over from the Tyus flop when little Tyus somehow knocked Ricky back 5-6 feet on a baseline drive. Then Butler knocked him down on a rebound attempt and Ricky embellished to try to draw another call. You could read Butler's lips on TV that he was calling him a flopper.