Minnesota Sports Forum

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/team-usa-has-some-issues-that-need-fixing-053832901.html?nhp=1

"Defense was supposed to be the strength of this unit - Krzyzewski and his players went so far as touting themselves as potentially one of the most defensive teams in Olympic history - with solid individual defenders in Paul George, Jimmy Butler, Thompson and DeAndre Jordan. But Australia and Serbia picked apart Tom Thibodeau's scheme by keeping the ball moving, catching them sleeping on backdoor cuts and pounding the ball inside. "

Perhaps we need to rein in our expectations as to what Thibs's schemes alone will do for the group. I think Thibs been surrounded by good defensive players in Chicago and Boston and its some combo of the players and the schemes that have resulted in strong defenses.

I do think our defense will be vastly improved because I think KAT, Wiggins and Zach can all improve a lot from last year on the defensive side and each has good physical tools to be either dominant (KAT) or very good (Wiggs, Zach). Thibs also brought in three guys who played good defense in Dunn, Aldrich and Hill.

Here's how I'd grade our players on the defensive side looking at last year's stats:

A. Very good: KG, Aldrich, Ricky
B. Average to Good: Gorgui, KAT, Bjelica, Hill
C. Below Average: Wiggins
D: Terrible: Rush, Zach, Tyus, Payne, Bazz

This year I'd project Dunn to be in group A or B, KAT to go to Group A, Wiggins to move up to Group B, Zach to move up to C.

I didn't take too much out of the great defensive effort against China...after all, their best player was Yi. But I'm also not ready to indict Thibs for the team's poor defensive showing the past two games. While there are some great defenders on the roster, guys like Irving and Melo are getting significant minutes and we know their defensive reputations. Also, I don't know how much an impact coaching has on these Olympic teams, but I suspect not much.

All that said, I think your basic premise is that the Wolves are going to be better defensively this year, and it may not have that much to do with Thibs. If so, I tend to agree with that. Of all the elements that may lead to improvement in the Wolves this year, replacing Mitchell with Thibs is the one I give almost the least weight to. Much more vital to their success this year is the additional depth Thibs has added through the draft and free agency, and even more important, the maturation we expect to see naturally this year in our 1st, 2nd and 3rd year players. I don't think Thibs was a bad hire even though he was not my first choice, but I think this team was going to be much improved this year regardless of whether Sam or Thibs was coaching. It's a roster built for rapid improvement.

While I certainly agree that growth of our young core and our off-season acquisitions are a large part of any improvement this year, your effort to downplay the acquisition of Thibs smacks far more of your less-than-enthusiastic support of Thibs than the actual impact Thibs will make.

I can see reasonable arguments made for which element might be most impactful, but I have a hard time accepting that anyone of those elements is significantly less impactful than the other. I view them as the three pillars that our improvement is built upon.

Each element is worth 10 games, and I will concede to you whichever one you want to credit for that 11th extra win and a 60-win season... ;-)

Thibs can teach it but the players must want to do it. Are the U.S. players 100% committed at this point? They know they can get away with less than max effort on D most of the time.

Consequently, we will know how badly the Wolves roster wants to make the playoffs by their actions on D. I have little doubt Thibs will give them what they need.

60WinTim wrote:While I certainly agree that growth of our young core and our off-season acquisitions are a large part of any improvement this year, your effort to downplay the acquisition of Thibs smacks far more of your less-than-enthusiastic support of Thibs than the actual impact Thibs will make.

I can see reasonable arguments made for which element might be most impactful, but I have a hard time accepting that anyone of those elements is significantly less impactful than the other. I view them as the three pillars that our improvement is built upon.

Each element is worth 10 games, and I will concede to you whichever one you want to credit for that 11th extra win and a 60-win season... ;-)

I hope you're right about Thibs, Tim, but for me the jury will be out until I actually see the improvement over Mitchell. Thibs has always had very good regular season records, but it's difficult for me to analyze his coaching contribution because he has always had a good roster to work with. I look at the starting five that Mitchell won 47 games with in 2006-7...Rasho, Bosh, Garbajosa, Ford and Parker...and I have a difficult time concluding Thibs would have won more than 47 with that collection. So while I'm quite confident our 9 players in their first three years (including Belly) will make huge advancements this year, and fairly confident that Aldrich, Hill, Dunn and Rush will add a few wins by greatly improving our depth, I'm only guardedly optimistic that Thibs will also increase our win total.

LaVine and Wiggins really need to buy into what Thibs is teaching, as I think those two guys playing motivated and attentive defense will go a long ways toward improving as a whole. Both have the raw materials, other than strength perhaps, to be far better defenders than what they were.

Thibs spent this whole offseason saying you need to play defense as a team. How long has Team USA had to jell together on that end? It's measured in days not weeks. It takes time and while some players currently on the team are familiar with what Thibs has done in the past there are some key guys that maybe haven't gotten on the same page. It only takes one guy to mess things up. I think Thib's ability to coach a basketball team on the defensive end gets the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise. It's also possible they find themselves and blow away the competition. They have the talent to do so but its not like other teams don't have legit players because they do.

Unless Bjelica curbs his propensity to pick up cheap fouls very quickly... I don't know how he can be considered above average.

I don't blame Thibs at all, you can't teach your schemes over a couple weeks to a bunch of players who aren't on the same NBA team