ClutchFans Game Thread: Timberwolves @ Rockets 1/30/2012

I'm not denying that. And it very well could be that the Rockets are making a mistake by not just blowing up the team and trying to rebuild through the lottery. But when you do so, you also run the risk of being bad for several years.

 

Scola got bailed out quite a bit. He was 25% from the field and 66% from the line. Scola had 3 boards and 3 turnovers.

Patterson played the same amount of time as scola. Shot 80% from the field for 8 points (same as Scola). He also got 5 boards and 0 turnovers. I would rather have someone that is so efficient from the field without relying on the refs for free-throws. I don't see where you got "no presence on the glass" from if he had more rebounds than Scola.

 

Durvasa,

You don't leave the best player on the team on the bench during crunch time, I don't care how poorly he has been playing. Unless.........you realize your best player really isn't that good.

Either he's hurt or they're preserving him for trade.

 

I want to see Morris out there. Forget Budinger and Parsons development. Bring them off the bench. This is not a good enough team to be worrying about playoff positioning. Bring Marcus back and let him have some minutes.

 

Lose 5 more games with Marcus Morris out there. Allow him to enter the starting lineup and go on with this rebuilding stuff already. Trade Scola already and include budinger so the decision is easier.

 

Your a pure hater. It's gotten old to blame him for the bad defence when he's on the bench.

Theer are other bigs. Hill has been playing well and was playing well this game. He's the guy I wanted out thee in and I've posted that but whatever welcome to ignore.

 

Popovich left his starters on the bench through an entire 4th quarter and overtime against the Mavs last night ...

Lowry's offensive game has been so off the last few games, and he played so sluggishly in the 3rd quarter, I just think that McHale felt there was no point putting him back in. And, frankly, I agree with that decision. Why waste his energy, when a comeback in that situation would be such a low probability? I think McHale was also factoring in that the reduced minutes could maybe do Lowry some good as well.

 

ZachLowe_SI Zach Lowe

 

Durvasa, you're a big stats guy. I enjoy your stuff. And you bring up a good point about Pops.

Now convince me that we aren't trading him and tell me you haven't thought about that possibility when stuff like tonight happens. Sure, you can bring up one isolated instance of Pops benching his starters. But, realistically, that is the extreme exception. You know that it is very customary that when the game is in the balance in the 10 point range with 5-8 minutes left in the 4th quarter that most every coach in the league in most every game, will have their best players on the floor for the final 8 minutes or until the opponent puts the game out of reach.

It is highly unusual for McHale not to put Lowry back in there. Now, consider that fact that McHale has been very public about shortening his rotation and only playing 7-8 guys. Now consider that Dragic is getting more and more minutes. He almost had more minutes than Lowry had tonight.

Add it all up and convince me that they aren't shopping Lowry. I ain't buying it. I think they are shopping him hard and I think they've already got a deal for him.

 

Pretty much what i expected the first time we played them, had Beasley played.

What's Beasley's ceiling? Not trying to knee jerk over one game, especially if Bud was defending him at times, but this guy has always had those flashes of stardom. Today he just reminded me of what he can do. While other guys are out there getting by on length or how high they can jump, Beasley is actually making moves.


He's only 23....Wolves do have Johnson, who's not as good, but could be solid eventually. I wouldn't mind helping them get a two guard in exchange for Beasley. The established stars aren't just aren't coming here.

Or do we pay him in FA?

 

You made the case that patterson provided no d and no presence on the boards. The FACTS state otherwise. I like how you conveniently ignored the rest of what I said. Scola shot TERRIBLE from the field AND the free throw line. Pat shot GREAT at 80% from the field. Patterson had 3 MORE rebounds and 3 LESS turnovers in the SAME amount of time. I don't see what you are saying here. I didn't even say anything about Hill so....
Yes I think Scola should be traded. He is great but is having an average season at best. He is not getting any younger and our team isn't going anywhere with him. Our team will not get too much worse without him. You just said Hill played well. 4 is his natural position so why would you be so opposed to trading Scola?

 

McHale has given mixed messages on the short rotation thing. Early in the season, he said that there was value in having a deep bench because in a shortened season you want to rest your main guys. Mid-season, he decided to shorten it up because the bench was playing so bad. Then we started to win, and he spoke about the benefit of a short rotation. Last few games, Bud and Jordan have done some good things and he's started to go back to saying that having depth is good.

Back to this game, you can see the game flow here. Note that Lowry was -11 in the 3rd period. The margin remained in the 15-16 point range through most of the 4th quarter (there was a 6-0 run inside of 4 minutes).

If the bench could have brought the score to around the 8-10 point range early in the period and sustained that for a few minutes, then I could see McHale maybe putting Lowry in at around the 6 minute mark. But asking Lowry to lead the team from a 15 point deficit with a half a quarter to go, to me, would have been expecting too much.

I think another factor here is that perhaps McHale wanted to use the final quarter as a sort of "practice time" for his bench. Of late, we haven't been seeing Dragic playing extended minutes without Lowry. But going forward, its important that Dragic learns how to run the team on his own so that Lowry isn't forced to play 40 minutes. This 4th quarter, even if we weren't going to win it, offered an opportunity for Dragic to be the floor general for an extended period.

 

CH: In your opinion, do you think that the heavy minutes McHale has put on Lowery are starting to take their toll?

 

Well, our small lineup has been with Lowry, Dragic, Lee, and Martin or Bud, along with a big up until tonight. And when it got back to 10 with 4 minutes left, there was never any move made back to Lowry.

Yes, it definitely felt like Dragic is getting minutes by himself to be the floor general for an extended period of time. I am reading something into that. I think it is by design to increase Goran's trade value and to get him ready for our starting PG spot when we move Kyle. I think we are moving Kyle and we may very well move Goran as well if we can get the trades we want.

 

It's a sad time when the future of the T-Wolves looks a lot brighter than the future of the Rockets.

Also, Beasley, another guy that Clutchfans love to hate on and call a cancer, killed the Rockets, Parsons and Lee in particular. He's just a flat out baller and he can score with the best of them. Remember that the T-Wolves acquired the services of Beasley for two 2nd round draft picks. Now that's a $ball move!

What is your opinion on the best route to take moving forward for this team...blowing up the team and rebuilding through the lottery or rebuilding while being an average team? I understand both have risks, but what would you do?

 

Khan gets beaten up by short sighted people, but I have always thought he has done a pretty good job.

DD

 

What are you thinking? Gasol?

 

Likely. But it's really a matter of the team playing VERY poorly with Dragic as the sole PG until very recently and couldn't afford to rest Lowry.

If the Dragic-lead lineups manage to perform well, I doubt the team puts makes Lowry play heavy minutes going forward given the compressed schedule.

 

Yeah Beasely has got a good future. Barring personal problems. Dont know why more teams didnt take a run at him? Rockets certainly are not one to be choosey.

 

Every GM is bound to hit on a few of their moves, given enough time and given enough draft picks. There is nothing long-sighted about Kahn. He hit on Rubio, missed on Flynn, missed on Johnson (or so it looks) and the jury, obviously is still out on Williams. Beasley looks good tonight and looks like a good acquisition in a cheap trade, but they also spend MLE money on Darko, who is, frankly, still not that good.

It's not like Kahn had some sort of visionary long-view tanking strategy-- in fact, they fired Kurt Rambis after a couple of worse-than-expected years. Their team just sucked.

Also, lets remember that the bad records under Kahn didn't land them their main talents: Love (McHale draftee) and Rubio (5th pick, traded for in exchange for Mike Miller and Foye-- a good trade).