Minnesota Sports Forum

A surprisingly sparse crowd for the preseason home opener of a team that has generated so much excitement. The scoreboard is great and the arena entrance area on the skyway level has improved dramatically.

As for the game, we were up by 40 in the second half and won by less than 10 after an extended run with the bench in the 4th quarter. Hmm. What does that tell us?

Here are some of my main observations divided into THE GOOD, THE BAD and THE UGLY:

THE GOOD

1. Gorgui is much and I mean MUCH bigger. I almost didn't recognize him and thought for a second that I misremembered his jersey number. Wow. And his game has improved even more over last season. His increased size has clearly made his stronger and far better able to hold position defensively in the paint. I can't say enough about how tremendous he was tonight - on both ends. And you can tell Thibs loves him. In fact, Dieng was the only player Thibs patted on the back. More on Thibs later.

2. Yes, KAT is a budding superstar. But we all knew that. He could have scored 50 tonight. He was schooling Gasol as i Marc was brand new to the League. KAT looked even quicker with the ball than last season and he made Marc Gasol look slow and ordinary.

3. Rubio was terrific on both ends. It's amazing how he can have such a positive impact on the team without scoring. But it's true and it showed again tonight. It was obvious tonight that Ricky and KAT are the two most important players on this team. We need both to play and remain healthy for this team to succeed.

4. Zach's defense tonight wasn't just improved. It was tremendous. He looked like an entirely different player on the defensive end. And I loved his hustle on the offensive end. He sprinted and outran everyone else on the floor when someone else brought the ball up. And when he handled the ball in the half-court, he didn't over-dribble but instead kept the ball and the offense moving. He missed a couple layups, but it looked tonight like we're going to see him score inside more this season. In the meantime, he still showed his beautiful outside shooting stroke and fearlessness tonight.

5. Brandon Rush wasn't great, but he was solid. He missed a few threes I expect him to make, but he played well overall on both ends.

6. This is a totally different team defensively. They aren't just marginally better than last season on the defensive end; they are dramatically better -- at least when it comes to the starting five.

7. Belly was terrific tonight and the only positive news when it comes to the bench. Which leads me to the the next two categories.

THE BAD

1. Tyus Jones. Tyus was pretty bad tonight. But in his defense, he had no one worthwhile on the court with him. And I'll give him a lot of credit for effort. He's really limited by his size and needs talent around him to succeed. I did notice that his teammates really seem to like him. During a timeout in the 4th after the second unity had been out there a while stinking it up, you could see all the players on the bench rallying around Tyus, talking to him, patting him on the back or putting their arms around him. Note that they didn't do anything like that for any of the other bench guys during that or any other timeout. Interesting.

2. Jordan Hill. He looked pretty mellow out there. Probably toked up before the game. It was sort of funny watching him right after Thibs called his number. He stood up from the bench and, before walking onto the floor, he put his arm around Thibs and flashed this huge smile. It was odd. Watching him on the court, you could see some of his talent, but you could also see he's not a model of intensity. But no surprise there.

3. Lucas. I like his effort and his smarts. But I can tell you we don't want him as our #2 PG. That's for sure.

THE UGLY

1. Dunn. I'm sad to report that words can't describe how horrible Dunn looked tonight. He has a terrible looking shot with no discernable form or control. He has a horrible high dribble and doesn't seem very elusive. Worst of all, he constantly overdribbles in the half-court. His defensive wasn't impressive either tonight. You could seem Thibs shaking his head constantly in response to Dunn's play. Finally, Thibs just couldn't take it anymore. He was clearly furious at Dunn, barking at him and then pulling him in the 4th in favor of Tyus. I never thought Dunn would be a great player, but I was hoping he could become a good player and do so relatively soon. I am further convinced he'll never be close to great, but I still think he can be good. It's just going to take more time than I expected. Bottom line is that I don't think we can count on him as a #2 PG or SG this season. The idea that drafting him made Ricky expendable was laughable to me from the beginning, but seems even more absurd now.'

2. Payne. No surprise here. He really does play like a chicken with its head cut off. I don't think I've ever seen a dumber player in the NBA. Too bad because he certainly gives an all-out effort.

3. The Bench. I singled out the above two bench players in particular for the UGLY category. But I'll just say that the bench overall was UGLY even though Belly played really well. In fact, Belly was the only bright spot on our bench. It's ridiculous to suggest that the bench wouldn't have been better with Bazz. Fact is the second unit would have been a lot better with Bazz. Wiggins return will push Rush to the second unit. Put Bazz and Rush out there with Belly and the secon unity looks a whole lot better. But the second unit still needs a decent PG and I don't think we have that guy on our current roster, although I'm hopeful Tyus can be just good enough with some better talent around him.

Overall, I left tonight's game feeling really positive about this team. Our starting lineup built up a 40 point lead over a pretty talented team. Belly was terrific and the return of Wiggins and Bazz will definite strengthen what tonight was a very weak bench.

I promised I'd comment on Thibs.

He looked constantly angry tonight, but that's no different from the way he always looked when I saw him coaching the Bulls. He barked a bit at players, but I don't think he went overboard. In fact, I was amazed at how composed he was when his bench was imploding in the 4th quarter. And I noticed his bark was a controlled bark - not the fury we used to see Sam direct towards his players.

I loved watching him during timeouts. He never stood by himself near the paint the Sam and Rambis used to. He went right to the bench and talked to his players. Interestingly, with one exception, he never patting players on their backside when they came to the bench. The one exception was when he patted Gorgui as Gorgui came off the court for the last time.

Thibs is intense and tough. You see it on his face and in his demeanor. I see this team taking those same characteristics.

Thanks for the report Lip. I don't know if you looked at the box score but could you comment on how Tyus had a nice looking stat line but struggled? I remember Belly having a nice stat line the first preseason game but watching the game he was just ok but Aldrich was fantastic.

Other than Dunn being disappointing I think Hill has been the next most underwhelming guy. He isn't a big time impact guy to whom with but Inwas expecting him to look more effective going against other team's scrubs.

Tyus wasn't terrible. Hence his placement in my BAD rather than UGLY category. The team performed terribly when he was running the point -- although not as bad as when Dunn was playing the point. But again, I think Tyus needs good players around him for him to shine. It's clear he has much better instincts than Dunn and I love Tyus's heart. He's a very solid 3rd string PG who might rise to second string with enough decent complementary players around him. Belly was a guy who looked a lot better than his stat line. I'd love to see him out there with Rush and a better PG.

By the way, what was the deal with Wiggins? Where was he? Also, any word on why Bazz didn't play? He was in uniform and appeared ready to play.

lipoli390 wrote:By the way, what was the deal with Wiggins? Where was he? Also, any word on why Bazz didn't play? He was in uniform and appeared ready to play.

No reports on why they didn't go. Just a guess maybe because there is a game Friday also. Maybe KAT and ricky/lavine will get the night off for rest and Thibs can get an extended look at different combinations. This is all hypothetical

Thanks, Geek. Interestingly, Wiggins wasn't even in the building.

I wonder if Wiggins and Bazz violated some team rules. Perhaps Wiggins' offense was worse and he was suspended. But that's wild speculation. More likely, Wiggins was sick or had some sort of family situation to attend to. And perhaps Bazz tweaked an ankle in shoot around.

lipoli390 wrote:I wonder if Wiggins and Bazz violated some team rules. Perhaps Wiggins' offense was worse and he was suspended. But that's wild speculation. More likely, Wiggins was sick or had some sort of family situation to attend to. And perhaps Bazz tweaked an ankle in shoot around.

Wiggins had an allergic reaction and Bazz had some hip tightness.

I agree with almost everything you said lip I just watched the game on TV but that 4th quarter was weird, there was no structure offensively, like nobody finished, nobody looked ready (Aldrich had a dunk off a Tyus feed but was not paying attention). Never worked inside out besides one possession where hill missed a layup over a shorter defender (nice move though).

I have learned not to panic based on last preseason but we have a weird combo of players off the bench that I like our first 5 bench players and how they mesh but I am worried about injuries.