Pinch Hitter

[Coolbreeze44]

Sorry guys, could not see the game tonight. Could someone pinch hit with the 2 + 1 tonight and let me know how the game went?

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Here you go....I'll just pickup from what I left on the game thread:

1) The 3-point shooting differential was enormous. Portland put up 33 and we put up 9, only 3 more than Wes Mathews made by himself. Flip's offensive sets may generate open shots, but not enough of them are 3's, especially from the corner. You watch these teams we play and they literally design offensive sets hunting for that open 3-ball. Not Flip.

2) The two rooks - LaVine and Wiggins - were just awful tonight. LaVine once again raised serious doubts about his ability to be a competent PG, having made some careless errors. And Wiggins continues to struggle mightily on offense. I know that he was sick tonight, but this is the third game in a row where offensively he has been pretty bad.

+1) The team hustled and managed to claw and scratch enough to keep themselves in the game into the 4th quarter, forcing Portland to play their starters until the end.

I'd give 'Bazz a +1, but I want to see him build up some consistency. We've seen "flashes" from our youngsters, but none of them have been able to string together 3 or 4 good all-around games.

[thedoper]

Rebound Margin was pretty terrible too. We got nothing against bigs with talent right now and may not for the whole year.

[Coolbreeze44]

Here you go....I'll just pickup from what I left on the game thread:

1) The 3-point shooting differential was enormous. Portland put up 33 and we put up 9, only 3 more than Wes Mathews made by himself. Flip's offensive sets may generate open shots, but not enough of them are 3's, especially from the corner. You watch these teams we play and they literally design offensive sets hunting for that open 3-ball. Not Flip.

2) The two rooks - LaVine and Wiggins - were just awful tonight. LaVine once again raised serious doubts about his ability to be a competent PG, having made some careless errors. And Wiggins continues to struggle mightily on offense. I know that he was sick tonight, but this is the third game in a row where offensively he has been pretty bad.

+1) The team hustled and managed to claw and scratch enough to keep themselves in the game into the 4th quarter, forcing Portland to play their starters until the end.

I'd give 'Bazz a +1, but I want to see him build up some consistency. We've seen "flashes" from our youngsters, but none of them have been able to string together 3 or 4 good all-around games.

Thanks Q. Not exactly what I wanted to hear but appreciate the effort. I liked Rick Pitino's words to potential recruits when he was at Kentucky: "if you don't want to shoot the 3, this is not the school for you." Flip should have a conversation with him.

[kekgeek]

Here you go....I'll just pickup from what I left on the game thread:

1) The 3-point shooting differential was enormous. Portland put up 33 and we put up 9, only 3 more than Wes Mathews made by himself. Flip's offensive sets may generate open shots, but not enough of them are 3's, especially from the corner. You watch these teams we play and they literally design offensive sets hunting for that open 3-ball. Not Flip.

2) The two rooks - LaVine and Wiggins - were just awful tonight. LaVine once again raised serious doubts about his ability to be a competent PG, having made some careless errors. And Wiggins continues to struggle mightily on offense. I know that he was sick tonight, but this is the third game in a row where offensively he has been pretty bad.

+1) The team hustled and managed to claw and scratch enough to keep themselves in the game into the 4th quarter, forcing Portland to play their starters until the end.

I'd give 'Bazz a +1, but I want to see him build up some consistency. We've seen "flashes" from our youngsters, but none of them have been able to string together 3 or 4 good all-around games.

I agree with you Q that we need to take more threes but who do you trust shooting them?

[mjs34]

Wolves need to take a run at Mathews next off season. Would be a perfect fit on this team. I was pretty impressed with the way they played tonight. Take away the five "ridiculous" points they made on bank shots, and the wolves were right in the game all the way. Thought the officiating got a little stupid inside late in the game. They let a lot of stuff go early on, and then starting making some phantom calls.

Not sure why Bennett didn't play more. Thought he looked really good defensively early on, and except for two non calls against Kaman and Lopez, he seemed aggressive inside on the offensive end as well. I am not seeing the love for Young that Flip exhibits. Young as a nice running left layup, but other than doesn't seem to do much. Bennett is likely our best interior defender. He seems to be the only one that understands how to cover the PnR effectively.

Shabazz is definitely a scorer in this league. That was the one thing Flip seemed sure about after drafting him, and he is being proven right. If he can start consistently using his right hand, it will be impossible to stop him. Not as worried about his D, because I think our biggest problem is playing too much zone, and guys just don't seem to understand the spacing needed. We need to go back to more man D, and use the zone in short stints. Using it against a team like Portland was just foolish.

[bleedspeed]

It sucks about Wiggins and Lavine having off games. I really think getting another PG is important for LaVine's development. I don't mind him playing PG, but think he does best when he is in the backcourt with another.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Nice job pinch hitting with the 2+1, q...I don't think people realize how difficult it is to come off the bench cold after sitting the whole game and contribute a solid 2+1. I expect Cool will be off the IVs and back to the 2+1's after tonight's game.

Your point about the 3-point differential is well taken, but also completely explainable. With Martin out and Wiggins ill, we don't have many options that I feel comfortable with jacking up threes. The only starter I wanted shooting threes last night was Mo...I've never liked Thad's form on threes, and think he is reverting to his mean around 30% after an early season hot streak, and I think we are all pleased Corey only put up one brick last night. Our roster just isn't designed for many threes with our two best shooters out.

And with Ricky out on defense, we are completely unable to stop the PG penetration that leads to wide open threes. Mo and Zach look just fine defensively against Jeremy Lin, but are unable to stay in front of a real PG like Lillard, or even Blake. Penetration leads to threes with no defense, and NBA players are going to make those at a high rate.

Shabazz was really fun to watch on offense last night. Although I still haven't seen anyone able to take his left hand hook away, he becomes even more effective if he can develop his right hand also, so it was encouraging to see him go 1 for 2 with his right last night. It was also heartening to hear him only want to talk about his poor free throwing after the game and how that hurt the team. He's hitting FTs at a 10% lower rate in the pros, in contrast to most players who improve once they get to the NBA...60% for a guy who gets to the line as much as he does is not acceptable.

I also have to echo the comment above that Flip needs to deemphasize the zone defense, especially when Shabazz is on the court...he is constantly lost when we are in a zone. In contrast, I have been rather impressed with his man defense this year.

Chase rebounded well, but as Robson tweeted last night, it's embarrassing to watch him on the court right now. I hope that he is logging so many minutes because Martin and Rubio are out, and he is relegated to mop up when they return.

I have no idea what Flip was doing with Young last night...playing him 43 minutes on the first night of a BTB when he is clearly rusty and out of shape and also unable to do anything defensively against Aldridge. His defense last night was atrocious. I have never questioned Young's effort on the court, so I have to attribute his apparent lack of effort last night to being out of shape...it's astonishing what his two week break did to his conditioning. I suggested in the GDT that Flip was playing him so much to get him back in shape, but otherwise there was no reason for him to be on the court so much last night.

All in all, losing by double digits with three of our best players out is to be expected. The team is certainly not as much fun to watch Ricky out, Wiggins ill, and AB limited to 11 minutes (during which he had more rebounds than Thad did in his 43 minutes!). It's going to be a long season with Ricky out, and my prediction of an early January return doesn't seem very likely now since he is reportedly still very swollen and discolored.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

I thought Pek was only going to be out a few games, what happened? This guy is becoming a bust, and it's only going to get worse. He had one good season and we threw 45 something million at him. At least we only have him for 4 more years.

I'm also confused on why AB isn't getting anymore burn.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Here you go....I'll just pickup from what I left on the game thread:

1) The 3-point shooting differential was enormous. Portland put up 33 and we put up 9, only 3 more than Wes Mathews made by himself. Flip's offensive sets may generate open shots, but not enough of them are 3's, especially from the corner. You watch these teams we play and they literally design offensive sets hunting for that open 3-ball. Not Flip.

2) The two rooks - LaVine and Wiggins - were just awful tonight. LaVine once again raised serious doubts about his ability to be a competent PG, having made some careless errors. And Wiggins continues to struggle mightily on offense. I know that he was sick tonight, but this is the third game in a row where offensively he has been pretty bad.

+1) The team hustled and managed to claw and scratch enough to keep themselves in the game into the 4th quarter, forcing Portland to play their starters until the end.

I'd give 'Bazz a +1, but I want to see him build up some consistency. We've seen "flashes" from our youngsters, but none of them have been able to string together 3 or 4 good all-around games.

I agree with you Q that we need to take more threes but who do you trust shooting them?

Young, Budinger, Bennett, Shabazz, LaVine, and Wiggins should all be taking more 3's. Young especially started off the year looking really comfortable from that range and now he is hesitating and driving more, even when the shot is wide open.

You've all heard my rants about Bennett. The guy is a very good shooter from 20-22 feet. Is his percentage really going to drop that much by stepping out an extra foot or two?

I realize that we don't have the personnel to lead the league in 3PTAs. That's not what I'm expecting. What I am expecting is a coach that recognizes the value of the 3-point shot and looks for ways to get his best shooters open from beyond the arc. Flip doesn't do enough to enable or encourage the 3-point shot. He stresses the "open" shot. Well, an open 3-pointer is a hell of a lot better than an open long 2-pointer. He seems to view the two shots as equal, when in fact one is clearly superior to the other.