Minnesota Sports Forum

What a waste of a near capacity Friday night crowd. Appropriately, the game ended amidst a cascade of boos aimed squarely at the home team. This was truly the most pathetic Wolves performance of the season. The scoreboard says the Wolves lost by 12, but the real margin was over 20. As I recall, we were down by 20 with a couple minutes left when the Heat pulled Whiteside and essentially coasted the rest of the way.

KAT had by far his worst game since coming to Minnesota. But everyone on this team except perhaps Tyus Jones was pathetic.

I'm going to keep this short. Miami played a modern NBA offense and the Wolves did not. I don't know how apparent it is on TV. But the Wolves lack of movement with and off the ball is absolutely astonishing! If there was any doubt, last night's game showed us that Teague is NOT the problem. It's slow, methodical, isolation basketball. That's what the Wolves play every possession of every game. Depending on matchups and how well certain players are shooting on any given day, the Wolves sometimes win and sometimes lose. Last night it was one contested off-balance 2-pointer after another. In contrast, Miami's offense filled with constant movement with and off the ball along with nice screens -- all leading to one uncontested shot after another, many of them threes.

The Wolves didn't lose because of our defense. Our defense actually wasn't that bad. Miami's offense was simply much better. You don't win in today's NBA scoring 97 points. Only one winning team last night scored under 100 points and that team, the Pistons, scored 99. Half of last night's winning teams scored 115+ points. The Wolves have had some big scoring nights, but our scoring depends on individual players and matchups. Our offensive system restrains rather than enhances our ability to score. Over the course of the season, it will be harder and harder for the Wolves to keep pace offensively with other teams. And because our stagnant offensive system fails to put pressure on opposing defenses, Wolves' opponents can more easily avoid fatigue.

A few other more specific observations that tie back to Thibs's coaching:

1. Thibs had KAT posting up inside constantly last night. The Heat hit, held and fronted him. Combined with the Wolves poor ball movement, Miami's approach to defending KAT prevented him from getting many scoring opportunities. KAT is a high skill player. He's also our best scorer. The offense needs to run through him and that can't happen if he's posting up low more than half the time, especially against big defenders like Whiteside.

2. Once again, Thibs resorted to having Wiggins run the offense at the end of the 3rd quarter. Of course, when Thibs does that, we end up with Wiggins in a one-on-five isolation play. Last night, Wiggins first turned the ball over -- which wasn't surprising given his handle and the fact that everyone in the building new he would either drive to the hole or pull up for a contested 2-pointer. When Miami failed to score on the other end, Thibs ran the same play. This time, it didn't result in a turnover. But it did result in a missed contested "soft" layup attempt by Wiggins. Thibs was the only one in the building last night who didn't know that play was idiotic.

I know there are those who would disagree with me. But in spite of the flaws we've all seen in Wiggins, KAT and others on this team, it comes down to coaching. I don't need to see more to know that Thibs is a poor head coach. Antiquated stagnant unimaginative offense, only minimal improvement on defense in spite of his reputation and the fact that he got the two defensive-oriented vets he wanted, and repeating the same poor decisions like having Wiggins run the offense in crunch time.

So I see the Wolves ending up with the 7th or 8th seed. Talent alone will get us there. But never want to see Thibs coach this team again after this season.

Sorry you had to sit through this one, Lip...hope you got out like I did when we went down 19 with about 5 to go amid a chorus of boos. And well deserved.

I completely agree with you that Thibs was outcoached again, although I think he was outcoached on both ends of the floor. Yes, Miami's offense is much more fluid than Thibs' and results in a ridiculous number of wide-open threes. But I also think Thibs is inept at coaching defense against such an offense. How many times do we have to leave a shooter wide open in the corner before Thibs makes a correction?

Where I disagree with you is where this team ends up in the standings. Yes, Thibs is holding us back and outcoached seemingly every night. But I also see a roster that seems more talented than 90% of the teams we face, and a conference that is rapidly falling behind the East. Put these two factors together and I see talent overcoming coaching more often than not, and a top 4 finish. That assumes good health, because we have learned that a Thibs-coached team just can't survive without Belly...if he is out for a long time, this a 38-40 win team.

Kevin McHale couldn't kill this board.
-Dwane Casey couldn't kill this board.
-Randy Whitman couldn't kill this board.
-Kevin Mchale couldn't kill this board.
David Khan couldn't kill this board.
-Kurt fucking Rambis couldn't kill this board.
-Rick Adelman couldn't kill this board.
-Sam Mitchell couldn't kill this board.
Tom Thibodeau is working diligently to kill this board.
-Tom Thibodeau is working diligently to kill this board.

longstrangetrip wrote:Sorry you had to sit through this one, Lip...hope you got out like I did when we went down 19 with about 5 to go amid a chorus of boos. And well deserved.

I completely agree with you that Thibs was outcoached again, although I think he was outcoached on both ends of the floor. Yes, Miami's offense is much more fluid than Thibs' and results in a ridiculous number of wide-open threes. But I also think Thibs is inept at coaching defense against such an offense. How many times do we have to leave a shooter wide open in the corner before Thibs makes a correction?

Where I disagree with you is where this team ends up in the standings. Yes, Thibs is holding us back and outcoached seemingly every night. But I also see a roster that seems more talented than 90% of the teams we face, and a conference that is rapidly falling behind the East. Put these two factors together and I see talent overcoming coaching more often than not, and a top 4 finish. That assumes good health, because we have learned that a Thibs-coached team just can't survive without Belly...if he is out for a long time, this a 38-40 win team.

LST -- Actually, I agree with you on the Thibs poor defensive coaching as well. His idiocy on offense is just more obvious to me. I agree with you also on our talent level, although we're still too lacking in 3-point shooting. Nevertheless, I see still our coaching dragging us down to a 7th or 8th seed. If the team's health doesn't hold up for the most part, then we're looking at another lottery season.

Jimmy Butler: "We've got to start guarding somebody. It's getting ridiculous and it's getting sad. I heard some boos in there. Rightfully so."

Thibs on KAT: "He's got to keep moving. That's a big part of the problem. They're looking for him. If he stands stationary, you're not going to get the ball."

I thought Towns was horrdendous on defense again last night, ALWAYS out of position leading to easy drive and kicks for corner 3's, that's an obvious dagger right to Karl's throat by Jimmy

Nice to have Cole's 8 million dollars on the bench doing nothing as well. Somewhere Pek is nodding his head in approval. KAT is gonna be burned out by the time he's 27.

BloopOracle wrote:Jimmy Butler: "We've got to start guarding somebody. It's getting ridiculous and it's getting sad. I heard some boos in there. Rightfully so."

Thibs on KAT: "He's got to keep moving. That's a big part of the problem. They're looking for him. If he stands stationary, you're not going to get the ball."

I thought Towns was horrdendous on defense again last night, ALWAYS out of position leading to easy drive and kicks for corner 3's, that's an obvious dagger right to Karl's throat by Jimmy

Absolutely right about KAT's defense last night. And his offense wasn't much if any better. But Jimmy hasn't exactly been dominating defensively either. On the offensive end, Jimmy repeatedly demonstrates that he's no where near the level of a James Harden, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry or LeBron James. I guess that's not exactly a revelation.

BizarroJerry wrote:Nice to have Cole's 8 million dollars on the bench doing nothing as well. Somewhere Pek is nodding his head in approval. KAT is gonna be burned out by the time he's 27.

Yes, Cole is a wasted roster spot. Interesting point about KAT getting burned out by the time he's 27.

BloopOracle wrote:Jimmy Butler: "We've got to start guarding somebody. It's getting ridiculous and it's getting sad. I heard some boos in there. Rightfully so."

Thibs on KAT: "He's got to keep moving. That's a big part of the problem. They're looking for him. If he stands stationary, you're not going to get the ball."

I thought Towns was horrdendous on defense again last night, ALWAYS out of position leading to easy drive and kicks for corner 3's, that's an obvious dagger right to Karl's throat by Jimmy

As for Thibs comment, I think he needs to take a long look in the mirror. It's not just KAT who isn't moving. Trust me on that. I've seen it live every single game this season (and last). The ball stalls with the dribbler -- either our PG or Butler (sometimes Wiggins) -- with little if any off-ball movement. NBA teams play the way they practice. I don't buy for a second that the team plays like the Heat on the offensive end in practice but then in games walks the ball up with lots of in-place dribbling and an eventual isolation shot off the dribble late in the shot clock. As someone from Chicago I used to watch a lot of Bulls games during the Thibs/Rose era even though I was already here in Minneapolis. Interestingly, the style you see the Wolves play today is exactly what the Bulls played back then. The difference? Rose was an all-world star one-on-one PG back then. And Noah was an elite defensive center. As if stuck in his glory days, Thibs seems to insist on playing a style that worked then but can't work for the personnel he has here. The good coaches adjust to their personnel. The bad ones don't. I've seen enough to recognize Thibs as a bad one.

Better defense would have helped last night. But again, you're not going to win many NBA games scoring 97 points. Scoring is particularly important for a team with the Wolves' personnel.

Yeah I gotta be honest I'm not too fond of his offense he likes to run, I like to defend him based on his defensive success in the past but I would be a hypocrite if I didn't attack him for this plodding crap he likes to run for years now. I also wish he would shut the fuk up when we have the ball on offense just let them play, if you're going to dominate the defensive side of the ball with yelling out exactly what to do you have to throw them a bone on offense once in awhile.