Minnesota Sports Forum

What? WHAT?

How is that even possible?

AbeVigodaLive wrote:What? WHAT?

How is that even possible?

It's weird, abe. And it was an injured PF (Belly) who broke the streak. With guys like Zach, Wig, Bazz et al, this club needs to be running more.

longstrangetrip wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:What? WHAT?

How is that even possible?

It's weird, abe. And it was an injured PF (Belly) who broke the streak. With guys like Zach, Wig, Bazz et al, this club needs to be running more.

And a 73-year-old PG throwing him that perfect 60 foot pass...

I've been saying this since last year. This is one thing I think you have to pin on poor coaching. This team doesn't have a mindset to run, so they don't. I get so tired of seeing two of the greatest athletes to ever play in the NBA walk or jog up court after a defensive rebound. Our PG almost always comes back to the ball while the opponent gets down court. Get the rebound, kick the ball out, fill the lanes and lets go!!!!!! It's really a limiting strategy for us to methodically set up in the half court as a matter of routine.

We've been horrible in the fast break opportunities we've had. The spacing is typically terrible with everyone converging at the hoop and the ball handler is typically not the guy you want leading the break. I also don't know how comfortable Lavine is pushing it and making quick decisions off a missed basket. There are sometimes windows available that he doesn't hit because the potential for a turnover is there.

That said, there's no reason not to push it when Rubio is in the game.

Yeah I've been disappointed in that too fellas. But Sammich looks like he prefers a grind it out slow game focused on D, which seems to be working, but boring for fans.

It is bizzare.

I think we all including Sam want to see the Wolves run and get those easy buckets.

I want it to happen more but for now I am ok with it not happening to a certain extent because I think it can improve.

Why is it not happening? Shahidi pointed out some reasons already but I will expand on that.

Rebounding. At times the Wolves struggle to get rebounds. It's sorta weird but part of it is the lack of girth of the Wolves bigs. It seems weird the Wolves at times struggle to rebound but it's pretty obvious at times.

Spacing and running fast breaks. This doesn't just happen it's something that you have to practice learn work on etc. this may be something Sam should be working on more and maybe it's something he plans on spending more time on down the road but he hasn't prioritized it. Regardless the Wolves suck at running in transition. Guys don't get to good spaces leading to all kinds of problems. Guys need to know where they are supposed to go it's like a part of an offense. This team isn't where it needs to be on offense likely because of the strong focus on defense and fast break is another thing that has suffered.

Lavine playing PG. He has improved in a lot of areas but he isn't a guy that really makes you want to run the floor to get paid. His decision making is the big issue for him etc etc.

3 point shooting. It's not a strength of this team although there is some potential there. That hurts on fast breaks.

A lot of times the offense is not free flowing so guy are used to coming down and running a play and possibly looking for a way to get themselves a shot instead of creating a god situation to score a bucket. If the players and coaches are able to get the offense running more smoothly as the season goes on guys will find better spaces and quicker opportunities to score both in fast break, transition and half court looks. Every once in a while you see a glimps of it but not often enough. Not having Rubio game in game out doesn't help this progression and Miller at times has to play a different role than just distributor at times as the backup.

Bottom line is this team does need to improve in this area it needs to do a better job scoring off TOs especially. A lot of this is on Sam but I hear him every game telling guys to get up the floor. Can Sam coach guys to put them in spots to make that happen at an acceptable level for this team for now? Probably but it may take some time.

We crash 4 and 5 players on the defensive boards primarily because we don't have a nose for the ball rebounder. KAT looks like he can learn to be a good rebounder, but he's not Kevin Love or Kevin Garnett in his prime . . .yet.

When you send 4 and 5 players to rebound you aren't going to get transition points, but it's better than giving up 2nd chance points.

As soon as we start leaking wings it seems we give up offensive boards, and that's just not acceptable. It's not bad coaching, it's learning the game and playing the numbers.

shahidi124 wrote:We've been horrible in the fast break opportunities we've had. The spacing is typically terrible with everyone converging at the hoop and the ball handler is typically not the guy you want leading the break. I also don't know how comfortable Lavine is pushing it and making quick decisions off a missed basket. There are sometimes windows available that he doesn't hit because the potential for a turnover is there.

That said, there's no reason not to push it when Rubio is in the game.

Yeah, my guess is that Mitchell and the coaching staff have emphasized protecting the ball over fast break basketball. I've seen a number of fast breaks, as Monster mentions, where the spacing sucks and the decision making is poor. Rubio is an absolute maestro on the break, but how often is he out there with the guys that really get out and sprint down the floor? Not much.

I have a difficult time blaming this one on the coaching staff...you can see Sam on the sidelines exhorting his team to step up the pace after getting a rebound. I think this has more to do with Ricky being out. I'm a fan of Zach at PG, but as monster said earlier, he's not likely to reward a player streaking down the court on a break with a nice pass...more likely to take it himself. Maybe he can develop that part of his game, but right now it's not a strength. Let's see what happens tomorrow with Ricky back.