Minnesota Sports Forum

Great large crowd with lots of energy tonight. Unfortunately, the Wolves didn't deliver. A couple preliminary thoughts.

First, what does this loss mean? It tells me this team will not be competing for a top 6 seed unless Butler returns healthy ahead of schedule. Tonight's game convinced me that the Wolves will be competing down the stretch to stay out of the lottery -- playing for a 7th or 8th seed with the distinct possibility of ending up 9th or 10th. Yes, Boston is a very good team, but they're not the juggernaut they were earlier in the season. Moreover, we were playing at home in front of a loud capacity crowd, Kyrie had an unusually bad game and Brown was out injured for the entire 4th quarter. Oh, and Belly scored 30 points to go with 12 rebounds. This was a bad lost, folks.

Second, why are the Wolves in this position right now where they're fighting just to stay out of the lottery? In my view, mainly because Thibs' failed as President of Basketball Operations to fill critical roster needs, namely 3-point shooting and adequate wing depth whether through the draft or free agency last summer, a trade before the February deadline or the waiver wire in the past few weeks. This isn't the first time that I or others have made this point. It's something I've complained about since last summer. I recall mentioning at the beginning of the season that we were ill-equipped for the inevitable unavailability of Jimmy Butler and now we're seeing it. Among other things, the $19 million per year for Teague would have been better spent on meeting these critical needs. But Thibs should get credit for putting most of the band back together with the recent signing of Derrick Rose. Now if only Thibs can pry Deng away from the Lakers and Noah away from the Knicks, the reunion tour can begin.

As for tonight's game, Belly was fantastic and Taj was terrific as usual. Otherwise, no one else on the Wolves is worthy of praise -- except maybe Derrick Rose for his hair and the fact that he didn't do any harm. Wiggins was absolutely horrible. It wasn't just his 28% field goal shooting, 4 turnovers and zero trips to the line. For anyone tempted to say "OK, but he played well defensively," please refrain. Wiggins was horrific defensively tonight. It was the old familiar Wiggins doing lot of ball watching and matador defense. Yes, he had 7 rebounds, but he had ample opportunities to pull down at least 12. And he stood by several times watching loose balls carom around him after KAT or Belly fought to keep them alive.

Our defense was horrible, especially in the first half, but that's nothing new. I just don't understand why we give opposing shooters so much space. I certainly understand why opposing teams generally shoot well against us. It's because we allow shooters to get comfortable. Oh, and we had our all-matador perimeter defensive team on floor tonight too, except for Tyus Jones who seemed to be the only perimeter defender who seemed to care an who generally stayed glued to his man.

But I can't let our offense off the hook. Once again in his post-game press conference, Thibs pointed to the Wolves point total (109) as enough to win. Well, no it wasn't. The Celtics scored 117, so we needed to score 118 to win. Actually, scoring 114 probably would have been enough because scoring more would have limited Celtic fast breaks and probably held down the Celtics point total. If Wiggins had simply hit 9 of his 21 shots, including 2 of his 8 three point attempts instead of going 6 for 21 from the field and 1 for 8 from behind the arc (42.8%/25% instead of 28%/12.5%), the Wolves would have scored 116 points. Add just two free throws by attacking rather than settlig for long twos, and the Wolves would have hit the 118 mark. It seems reasonable to expect at least that in a big game like this one from a player about to cash in on a max contract. Or how about Crawford hitting just 2 rather than 1 of his three-point attempts? As usual, the Wolves took mainly tough contested shots while the Celtics got a lot of great looks and easy buckets inside. Whether it is coaching, players or some combination of the two, our defense is bad, especially without Butler. So generally scoring under 110 points won't cut it and often we'll need to score over 115. As my wife said tonight, watching most other teams on the offensive end is fun and actually often beautiful, while watching the Wolves offensively, even when we win, is typically painful.

This stretch run is fast becoming very painful.



Maybe this team can turn it around with a win at home this Sunday against the Warriors who will likely be without Curry. But I'm not counting on it.

I'm seriously not sure what you are expecting. We were playing a team 26 games over .500. Boston is a good team at full strength except Brown late in the game.

On the 3 point shooting...in this game the Wolves actually won the 3 point battle against the let it fly Celtics but lost the FT line battle. Again just kinda hilarious how they are losing these games in some of the stat columns.

Towns has been awful defensively for months now. To let Towns skate for his absolutely pathetic D is crazy. The guy is a liability on that end, no way around it.

Justin Patton is going to fit right in with Wiggins and KAT. These guys are all talented players, but ultimately losers at this stage in their career, for various reasons. With KAT, it's defense. With Wiggins, it's the inability to turn elite talent into anything beyond mediocrity; he's a permanent tease. And with Patton, he's got the soft and lazy disease, which has no cure.

Not feeling too good about the future fellas!

monsterpile wrote:I'm seriously not sure what you are expecting. We were playing a team 26 games over .500. Boston is a good team at full strength except Brown late in the game.

On the 3 point shooting...in this game the Wolves actually won the 3 point battle against the let it fly Celtics but lost the FT line battle. Again just kinda hilarious how they are losing these games in some of the stat columns.

What was I expecting?? I was expecting this team to rise to the occasion and beat the Celtics on our home floor in front of a capacity crowd. By the way, the Celtics have played 66 games. In the last half of those games of those games they are only 7 games over .500 (20-13). They are not the Warriors or Rockets. Note that the depleted Spurs almost beat the Warriors last night at Golden State. I was expecting Wiggins to shoot a mediocre 43% from the field instead of a pathetic 25% and hit maybe 28% of his threes instead of 12.5%. Oh, and I was expecting him to get to the line, let's say, 4 times instead of 0. I was expecting Crawford to hit maybe 2 of his three-point attempts instead of 1. I would certainly expect this team to win when Belly scores 30 points and graphs 12 rebounds. Those were all reasonable expectations even without holding Wiggins to a standard commensurate with his talent or max contract.

But as I noted, front office failures have put this team in a position that is making it harder than it should be to stay afloat in Butler's absence.

thedoper wrote:Towns has been awful defensively for months now. To let Towns skate for his absolutely pathetic D is crazy. The guy is a liability on that end, no way around it.

I'm not letting Towns skate. His defense last night was terrible - as was the entire team's defense. It's really hard to single out any one player defensively when the entire team is so bad defensively. The Celtics are great defensively as a team. Interestingly, Kyrie Irving has gone from being one of the worst defenders in the League with the Cavs to being statistically one of the best. I wonder if Irving would be a top defender playing with the Wolves right now. Hmm... As for Towns' defense generally, it's simply not true to say he's been awful for months. To the contrary, he's been pretty good the past couple months. Unfortunately, last night he reverted to his embarrassingly bad defensive form from earlier in the season.

Q12543 wrote:Justin Patton is going to fit right in with Wiggins and KAT. These guys are all talented players, but ultimately losers at this stage in their career, for various reasons. With KAT, it's defense. With Wiggins, it's the inability to turn elite talent into anything beyond mediocrity; he's a permanent tease. And with Patton, he's got the soft and lazy disease, which has no cure.

Not feeling too good about the future fellas!

I fear you're right about Patton, but I hope not. As you know, I share your pessimism about the future. I heard someone on NBA radio the other day suggest that the Wolves "pressed the go button to soon," referring to the Butler trade. His point was that Butler will be on the decline when the Warriors finally start to decline and that's especially true when you consider Butler just had all or part of his right knee meniscus removed. There's an argument that the Wolves would have been better off keeping Dunn, LaVine and our #7 draft pick. Dunn brings toughness and defense in a young body with lots of upside. LaVine brings 3-point shooting and ballhandling skills that fit today's NBA along with lots of untapped upside. And although it's reported that the Wolves were going to draft Markkanen, it would have been interesting if they would have traded down a few slots and drafted Mitchell while also getting another asset.
I'm not suggesting that I would have done the things I just mentioned if I had been in charge. But perhaps another, smarter front office would have. There are arguments on both sides.

Another way to come at this issue is to ask yourself the following question. Right now, would you rather be a Wolves fan or a Sixers fan?

lipoli390 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:I'm seriously not sure what you are expecting. We were playing a team 26 games over .500. Boston is a good team at full strength except Brown late in the game.

On the 3 point shooting...in this game the Wolves actually won the 3 point battle against the let it fly Celtics but lost the FT line battle. Again just kinda hilarious how they are losing these games in some of the stat columns.

What was I expecting?? I was expecting this team to rise to the occasion and beat the Celtics on our home floor in front of a capacity crowd. By the way, the Celtics have played 66 games. In the last half of those games of those games they are only 7 games over .500 (20-13). They are not the Warriors or Rockets. Note that the depleted Spurs almost beat the Warriors last night at Golden State. I was expecting Wiggins to shoot a mediocre 43% from the field instead of a pathetic 25% and hit maybe 28% of his threes instead of 12.5%. Oh, and I was expecting him to get to the line, let's say, 4 times instead of 0. I was expecting Crawford to hit maybe 2 of his three-point attempts instead of 1. I would certainly expect this team to win when Belly scores 30 points and graphs 12 rebounds. Those were all reasonable expectations even without holding Wiggins to a standard commensurate with his talent or max contract.

But as I noted, front office failures have put this team in a position that is making it harder than it should be to stay afloat in Butler's absence.

Nobody is the Warriors or Rockets. I'd be interested to see what Boston's record is with a mostly full lineup. It seems like it was February they played a bunch of games where Rozier started and they were playing whoever else maybe not but are the Celtics the team you hush about or the team that's just a handful of games over .500 the last stretch you mentioned? You can't have it both ways.

I'm waiting a little longer to see if Thibs has changed or will change the culture and or made the right or wrong moves yet. People are potentially putting Butler one foot in the grave and he hasn't hit 30 yet. Someone told me a few months ago Taj was done at the age of 32. People are dismissing Patton too soon. I get it people want this thing to turn around now. It's going to take time. It always was and if this team waited it would have taken an even more painfully long time and the reward was not more certain than it is now.

I said in the game thread that I can shoot like Wiggins, but I change that. My Grandma can. People booed Rubio for shooting bad but give Wiggins a pass because he can dunk once a year. So sad.

The Wolves will miss the playoffs. I have no doubt about it anymore.