It's funny....I saw one of their games on NBA TV recently. The arena wasn't exactly deafening (the Wolves were trailing their opponent) and besides the dribbling (and rim-clanking) of the basketball you could hear this hoarse croaking bark of Thibs instructing his players. I mean, constant----no; strike that. Incessant. As a player that has to get old, real quick.
Are you kidding? They have consistently been one of the worst defensive teams in basketball. They are slightly improved this year (up to 25th) but they are still awful. They suck because Levine, Wiggins, and Towns have no clue how to play NBA defense, despite their physical talents. Gorgui Dieng and Rubio are both near elite level defensively, and there's no reason their 3 stars shouldn't at least be decent on that end, particularly KAT. Offensively you are fighting an uphill battle with Rubio, but they are still holding their own on that end (12th overall). If they would have went with an offensive guy, then you are basically giving your 3 stars carte blanche to completely ignore that end. Plus, as I said, Rubio is a bit of an albatross that will limit just how lethal you can be. http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/page/2/sort/DRPM/position/9 http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/page/2/sort/DRPM/position/5 http://www.espn.com/nba/statistics/rpm/_/page/3/sort/DRPM/position/1 There's just no reason 3 guys that talented should be hurting you that bad.
2 major issues: 1) It is going to take time and conflict for a guy like Thibs to connect with young millennials, for them to buy into his defense >> which is objectively the main problem, they should be playing better defense. Non-millennials hate to acknowledge this thing, but it's the truth. I can see it clear as day, these guys are going to have to go through some tough times together and some players will not make it out on the other side, but it will ultimately work out because Thibs won't be fired anytime soon. 2) Rubio, Rubio, Rubio. His elite strength is improving the guys around him, and his number one weakness is his stunning lack of offense weakens the guys around him. What a waste. Luckily he plays good defense which is keeping him on Thibs' good side, but he should not be starting in the NBA right now. I watched our last game with them and I watched them a few games ago, teams are just hilariously backing off him and using his defender to float around and harass KAT or Dieng. On a separate note, from stats only it looks like Lavine is maybe starting to turn the corner and understand his role as basically a sniper who opens up the floor with 3's, scores in transition. He's never going to be a good facilitator for others but he can be a Klay Thompson ish player if Thibs gets through to him - always on the receiving end of assists, hounding perimeter players. I thought they were close to dumping him but maybe he has more potential to play for a winning team than I thought. Minny will play well in the second half but they can still contend for 8th if they trade for a veteran PG right now. It just hit me that he was lead assistant with the Celtics when they won with Rondo. Maybe there's something there. Rondo would be a significant upgrade over Rubio if Thibs knows how to manage him and Rondo trusts him.
always said that Minny is still way too young this year to actually take much of a leap. They are still very much in the learning process and still will be for the next 2-3 years. When your core 3 guys all just turned 21 and still coming into their own as players its extremely difficult to develop team sucuess collectively. Lavine/Wiggins is a bit of a puzzle here because both these guys are showing to be just scorers without much versatility. So I'm not so sure the fit in the long run will be there unless these guys develop other abilities. But they are still developing so we will see. Nobody should have really expected a playoff team this soon tbh. Nothing says they would make that tremendous leap this year. Doesn't help that their pg play is atrocious either.
I want them to do well because KAT is going to be a beast in a year or two but they have to trade rubio and get another veteran pg who gets on them whenever they mess up.. like a cp3.
I think people assumed Wiggins was going to better than he actually is. None of their backcourt pieces really even fit.
definitely. Wiggins was touted so quickly as the next star. And as of now it looks like Lavine is actually the better player on nights out of the two.
Lavine and Wiggins pretty much suck, but the coaching decisions are worse. They should be playing small ball basically all game. It amazes me that coaches continue to play 2 Center basketball in this day and age. Insanity. I think Dekker at PF for them would be a PERFECT fit.
Wiggins is 2nd worst SF defensively Lavine is the 3rd worst PG defensively. Towns is BY FAR the worst C defensively. He is a good 1 DPM worse than Okafor at 2nd worst. Lavine was never supposed to be a good defender. Wiggins was supposed to be elite, but he has been among the worst for 3 years now. Towns is still only in his second season, so we need to give him some time. When your 3 best players (ignoring Rubio) is among the worst defenders in the league, you aren't winning anything.
Thib's coaching style is outdated. This is why I wasn't for getting him or JVG. They want to slow the game down and limit possessions as opposed to creating more. They want it to be a defensive slugfest while offering absolutely no creativity on offense. The way the game is played you can't win without scoring the ball. This is why I always thought MDA was the best option for us. Kudos to me lol
On top of what others have said, it needs to be noted that Wiggins specifically has costed them at leat 3-4 games. Either he is completely invisible like last night or in the last minutes he makes costly turnovers like the Portland game or doesn't hit his FTs. Thibs has decided so far that in the last minutes of close games the ball will go to wiggins for iso. It's not been working. But it's a process. Young players need to be put to those situations to learn.
I hope you're not just using DRPM to evaluate Dieng's defense; to my eyes he's not even close to being elite defensively (and is in fact part of the problem). He's again allowing well over 50% on shots at the rim, he's still too weak to hold his ground in the post, and he still manages to find himself out of position in PnR coverage on a consistent basis. I'm not saying he doesn't have the tools, but Wiggins, KAT, and LaVine have the tools too. But they all have woefully bad defensive fundamentals.
Is Wiggins really that bad at defense? I feel like starting good defenders on terrible defensive teams tend to look unfairly bad in the most common advanced defensive stats. It's almost like a consistent flaw in the formulas. Tyson Chandler for example looks like a joke of a C with those stats but he is certainly an above average defender who is simply being attacked relentlessly due to porous perimeter defense and he guards the best big man every night. On the inverse side, Harden is looking pretty decent on advanced stats and although he has improved he's still probably well below average for a starter in this league (not being critical, I appreciate he is putting in the effort). His numbers look good because he starts with Bev/Ariza/Capela and he guards the weakest non-big every night. Same goes for Enes Kanter, who if you watch a game will realize is an absolutely atrocious defender night in night out surrounded by good defenders with an elite defensive coach/system. Advanced stats say he's average, but OKC fans would laugh at that notion I'm sure. By the same token Wiggins has looked like a very servicable man to man defender against us if I go by the eye test. I don't think he's horrible, and I definitely don't think he can't improve. He's probably looking worse than he is because he's guarding the best perimeter player every night and 3 of his teammates are very poor team defenders. I could be wrong, but I'm seeing this issue more and more with the advanced stats.
