Minnesota Sports Forum

Just when you think it can't get worse, here is tonight's 2 +1:

1) This is honestly the last time I am going to rip on Thad. And that's because if you can't see what this guy is by now, me nor anyone else is going to convince you. His effort and incompetence was flat out embarrassing tonight. I don't know what type of personal demons he is battling, but he shouldn't see the floor once we get healthy. I once exaggerated and said he was the worst defensive player in T-Wolves history. Now I'm not so sure it was much of an exaggeration. Just brutal again tonight.

2) There is not enough practice time or maturation that can take place during a season to allow this many young guys to play well together. I can see now that it just can't work. That being said it was fun to see all the bounce brothers on the court at the same time tonight. I just wish it was 2017 when we were seeing it.

This is the worst stretch of Wolves basketball that I can ever remember. And I go back to year 1. I just don't know what else we can do except wait for Ricky to come back to provide the much needed leadership. When he does, I would stick with him and the kids as much as possible. Perhaps that way at least some good can come out of this season.

Plus 1 - I just chuckled as I typed "Plus 1". I'm going to challenge all of you to chime in with at least 1- Plus 1 tonight. It will be therapeutic exercise for us. Here's mine: We saw that our next coach probably isn't sitting on our bench this year.


And that's CoolBreezes' 2 things I didn't like tonight Plus 1

So basically one of your 2 are going to more often then not simply say: 1) Thad

+1? Wiggins had a decent night. Afflalo was hitting some tough shots over him. Can't do much about that. Dieng is usually solid as well and it's fun seeing some of his flashes mixed in. Both have some rookie type lapses, but that's to be expected.

TheGrey08 wrote:So basically one of your 2 are going to more often then not simply say: 1) Thad

+1? Wiggins had a decent night. Afflalo was hitting some tough shots over him. Can't do much about that. Dieng is usually solid as well and it's fun seeing some of his flashes mixed in. Both have some rookie type lapses, but that's to be expected.

He won't even be mentioned

Thad is over matched, no question. In the minutes I saw (2nd half), I did not hate what I saw from Thad though. He cannot be our 4 but he showed some tenacity and I venture to guess it was in conjunction with his teammates playing with a sense of urgency. Some of the best basketball I have ever seen from Thad is when his whole team is engaged. Some of those Philly teams really got after it on D and that was when Thad was at his best. Some guys create energy and some guys feed off of it and it seems clear that Thad feeds off of it. I think if we can get him in the right spot, he can still be an asset.

Here are multiple Pluses;

1) Wiggins had his 7th consecutive game of shooting ball at 44% or better (barely...). He is also keeping his turnovers down, so his overall points per possession used continues to get gradually more efficient. I actually thought he defended AA pretty well, but that dude was making every god damn contested step-back J he took. I don't know how else Wiggins could have defended it.

2) Shabazz had a very nice, well rounded game. Your could hardly tell Wilson Chandler was out there tonight, so his defense was solid too.

3) Gorgui continues to battle hard. But man, Mozgov and Nurkic are a couple of big dudes. You combine them with JJ Hickson and Kenneth Faried and once again, we are just outgunned down low by bigger, stronger players across the board. And similar to Utah's Rudy Gobert, I envision Nurkic eventually being Denver's starting Center. He's really good. There are a lot of very good Centers these days. There has been a nice resurgence in that position over the past 5 years or so.

4) The coaching staff seems to be loosening the reigns on the 3-ball, which is a good thing. We got up quite a few 3's tonight and it's clear that Andrew and Shabazz have a green light now.

Tell me Cool, who played better tonight: Young or Bennett? And not based on expectations at all. What did you see.

Camden wrote:Tell me Cool, who played better tonight: Young or Bennett? And not based on expectations at all. What did you see.

I really can't differentiate between the 2. They were both horrendous. But here is one thing I will say on behalf of Bennett: He's working out there. He's just so confused and has no confidence that he can't do anything right. But what's bad about Thad is he doesn't have the skills to compete, but what's worse is he doesn't have the heart to try. I can't deal with that.

Is Anthony Bennett really much of a hard worker though?

I'm not really seeing it with the eye test. Didn't Flip recently rip him for uneven effort? And he did arrive in camp after being the surprise #1 pick last season woefully out of shape. I don't want to defend Thad Young for his uninspired efforts.

But, it's not like there's much waiting on the bench behind him. I'm just not a Bennett guy and I don't know why anybody would be by what they've seen over his first 115 games.

Bennett was awful tonight. It's clear he is a long term project with no guarantee he'll amount to anything. And Young is just not a starting PF in the West.

We need PF help in the most terrible way. As Q as mentioned, Adrien could play PF, but that won't happen until we sign another big (or Pek returns).

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

Camden wrote:Tell me Cool, who played better tonight: Young or Bennett? And not based on expectations at all. What did you see.

I really can't differentiate between the 2. They were both horrendous. But here is one thing I will say on behalf of Bennett: He's working out there. He's just so confused and has no confidence that he can't do anything right. But what's bad about Thad is he doesn't have the skills to compete, but what's worse is he doesn't have the heart to try. I can't deal with that.

I swear it's like we watched two different games. Bennett showed piss poor effort all over the place. Only time he tried was when Hickson backed him down. Atrocious in every scenario that didn't involve post defense.