No matter who the coach is we're going nowhere with our "rim protector"

[BloopOracle]

https://streamable.com/be9yh

To the point clip of all off KAT's defensive lapses/bad D last night, slow to react, atrocious in the pick and roll. Doesn't hedge and doesn't get back to his man. He just stands 5 feet away from the ball handler every time. His footwork is really awful, you can see him move to the left and his right leg leads the left or vice versa. He's tripping over himself trying to move laterally. It's also why he's late on almost every shot contest, he tries to regain his balance and jump off 2, but the little extra pause in setting his feet correctly is causing a delay in the shot contest. Awful straight up stance, doesn't mirror the ball, worst DRPM among centers, our defense has been better with him off the floor all 3 years. You could put together clips just as bad as this game if not worse for 90% of his other games as well such as this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6pTgqWyvP0&feature=youtu.be&t=2m30s

The only thing he seems to excel at is knowing his assignment..... I don't care if you brought in Popovich or Stevens we aren't going anywhere with Kat at this rate.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Ouch...that's awful. Yeah, I don't know that Pop or Stevens could fix KAT's defense. But I'm almost certain Pop wouldn't have given Karl 39 minutes of court time last night the way he was playing at both ends of the court. Accountability...the good coaches demand it.

[Lipoli390]

A couple points:

1. First, I agree that no coach can, on his own, fix KAT's defensive shortcomings. But good coaches will take full advantage of what he does bring -- namely offense -- while minimizing his weaknesses - interior defense. Harden's poor defender, but the Rockets take full advantage of his offensive prowess. Thibs has failed to get the most out of KAT's offense.

2. I'm not disputed how horrible KAT was defensively last night. He was putrid last night and has been mostly bad this season. But I could easily assemble a video of any Wolves player and show repeatedly pathetic defense by that player.

[BloopOracle]

"1. First, I agree that no coach can, on his own, fix KAT's defensive shortcomings. But good coaches will take full advantage of what he does bring -- namely offense -- while minimizing his weaknesses - interior defense. Harden's poor defender, but the Rockets take full advantage of his offensive prowess. Thibs has failed to get the most out of KAT's offense."

I would say minimizing a point guard's defense is just a "tad" bit easier than minimizing your rim protector's defense lol

"2. I'm not disputed how horrible KAT was defensively last night. He was putrid last night and has been mostly bad this season. But I could easily assemble a video of any Wolves player and show repeatedly pathetic defense by that player."

Would those Wolves players also have the worst DRPM at their respective position in the entire NBA and statistically make the Wolves better defensively whenever they're off the court every year of their career? At some point those 2 infamous stats need to end the cherrypicking footage argument.

[crazy-canuck [enjin:18955461]]

A couple points:

1. First, I agree that no coach can, on his own, fix KAT's defensive shortcomings. But good coaches will take full advantage of what he does bring -- namely offense -- while minimizing his weaknesses - interior defense. Harden's poor defender, but the Rockets take full advantage of his offensive prowess. Thibs has failed to get the most out of KAT's offense.

2. I'm not disputed how horrible KAT was defensively last night. He was putrid last night and has been mostly bad this season. But I could easily assemble a video of any Wolves player and show repeatedly pathetic defense by that player.

I think there's a big difference in hiding a guy like harden on the perimeter and your center. There are very few teams, maybe none, that can mask a really bad defensive center.

Me biggest issue with thibs is that we don't run enough. I don't know if it's Teague or if it's by design, but he never pushes the ball and when he does have a break, he settles at the 3point line to set the offense.

This then creates more problems. We don't have the 3 point shooting to constantly play a slow half court offense. With Teague and Kat unable to perform a simple PNR, we can't take advantage of that either. So, now we are stuck with isos.

We have the horses to run, we should be running and adding pressure on the rim to offset or lack of 3 point shooting.

Defensively, I'm not sure if thibs can do anything with Kat (with the Patton pick, I think he knew). Wiggins had started to get it. Bazz has gotten better. Tyus has gotten better. Kat is the only one that has regressed and the only thing we can do now is wait and hope he gets it.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

I agree coaches are responsible for helping to minimize the weaknesses of their players and teaching their players how to improve and motivating them to do so in various ways (accountability, sticks, carrots, etc). In that sense, coaches are like teachers (full disclosure, I am a teacher). I have no way of knowing, but it feels like there isn't as much teaching going on as there should be. Now, maybe Thibs can't do that physically, but I'm sure he could find and hire a retired center like Mutumbo who was a great defender and task him with training KAT on his defensive techniques and habits every single day. And if Thibs' barking isn't motivational for KAT, I'm sure the organization could bring in somebody who specializes in motivational techniques. Given the amount of money invested in KAT, Thibs, and the franchise in general, this is totally logical.

But at the end of the day, this is on KAT. No matter what a coach does or doesn't do, it's the players' responsibility to improve as much as they can. And KAT's defensive technique and his passive approach are both unacceptable right now.

[Lipoli390]

I'm not excusing KAT or suggesting that he's not responsible for what we all agree has been his horrible defense. But very few teams repeatedly allow the unimpeded penetration allowed by the Wolves so-called perimeter defenders. Opponents routinely run free in the paint against the Wolves. They get there quickly, exiting and re-entering with impunity. No center can defend against the athletic highly skilled NBA players of today when they have such easy ingress and egress into and out of the painted area.

Moreover, when a team is as bad defensively as the Wolves, a single player's defensive ineptitude, even a center's, has to be kept in perspective. In other words, KAT's poor defense is just one of our many problems. And one huge problem is a head coach who hasn't gotten through to KAT and who does a terrible job of getting the most out of the players he has, which includes magnifying their strengths and minimizing their weaknesses.

But honestly, the Wolves aren't going to win in any event scoring under 100 points or even scoring under 110. I'll state the obvious again. The name of the game in today's NBA is scoring, especially for a team with Wolves personnel. The Wolves should have scored over 110 against the Heat and, if they had, they would have won. Scoring more also helps the defense because it slows the opposing team's offense. So if the Wolves had scored 112 points, the Heat would have probably scored less than 109. The Wolves are 10th in the League in PPG. They need to be top 5. And yes, the defense needs to improve. But part of that defensive improvement will be a better offense - echoing Larry Brown's recent comment that good defense in today's NBA is an efficient offense. We need to run more, increase the pace, and have dramatically better ball movement with quicker decision-making in the half court. We need more 3 attempts, more drives to the hole, stronger finishing in the paint, and far fewer mid-range contested 2 attempts. We need to dramatically reduce the iso crap. And for all his defensive ineptitude, we need to run the offense far more through KAT and stop repeatedly posting him up low against big centers.

[thedoper]

I agree coaches are responsible for helping to minimize the weaknesses of their players and teaching their players how to improve and motivating them to do so in various ways (accountability, sticks, carrots, etc). In that sense, coaches are like teachers (full disclosure, I am a teacher). I have no way of knowing, but it feels like there isn't as much teaching going on as there should be. Now, maybe Thibs can't do that physically, but I'm sure he could find and hire a retired center like Mutumbo who was a great defender and task him with training KAT on his defensive techniques and habits every single day. And if Thibs' barking isn't motivational for KAT, I'm sure the organization could bring in somebody who specializes in motivational techniques. Given the amount of money invested in KAT, Thibs, and the franchise in general, this is totally logical.

But at the end of the day, this is on KAT. No matter what a coach does or doesn't do, it's the players' responsibility to improve as much as they can. And KAT's defensive technique and his passive approach are both unacceptable right now.

We could get KG...oh wait.

[Monster]

A couple of the plays highlighted in the first video show Towns forcing Whiteside into contested at worst midrange jumpers. That seems like pretty good defense to me. There are some other bad moments but I don't see why those were highlighted. I've seen some progress in Towns and the Wolves defensively the last couple weeks that's been a bit encouraging. I'm gonna see how this plays out a while longer before I declare Towns a complete loss on that end.

[TAFKASP]

If this NBA thing doesn't work out for KAT he surely has a future with the Washington Generals!