Game 21: San Antonio Spurs (17-4) @ Minnesota Timberwolves (6-14) - 8:00 PM ET

[Calinks]

Was at the game. Pretty boring affair. Guy a few rows up was PISSED with Wiggins and Towns. Couldn't believe they only had 9 points at the time. Place was aleady pretty empty and the few fans that stuck around in the end were just hoping for free Cherry Berries. Wolves have definitely missed the opportunity to get the local people excited around here this season. Fans are pretty salty right now.

[NewWolvesOrder]

I cant believe all those who want to blame Zach and not one peep about Rubio or the bench. As bad as Rubio and Towns were our starters still beat their starters! Rickys 4 pts 5 asst in 31 minutes doesn't cut the mustard. I like Ricky but he's not above criticism. Our bench was outscored 42-24.

What are you smoking? Nobody blamed LaVine tonight. Not counting canadians of course.

[Note30]

On pace for less wins than last year under Sam....regressing with the same players...

Who knew. Sam Mitchell, the coach we needed but didn't deserve. He was always in shadow of the 3 line doing work from afar, while we mocked his ways. The outcast, karma reincarnated, and Flips last stantion, all for naught as we welcomed false gods into our abode with ripe 1st overall picks and superstar talent, only to see them squandered as sacrifices for rituals that no longer bear fruit. Perhaps what was once had hope to be a beautiful and possibly poetic epic has now become melancholic nightmare, filled with howls of thousands of angry wolves. Howling in the night as they are forced to watch the end of their last hope.

[Calinks]

On pace for less wins than last year under Sam....regressing with the same players...

Who knew. Sam Mitchell, the coach we needed but didn't deserve. He was always in shadow of the 3 line doing work from afar, while we mocked his ways. The outcast, karma reincarnated, and Flips last stantion, all for naught as we welcomed false gods into our abode with ripe 1st overall picks and superstar talent, only to see them squandered as sacrifices for rituals that no longer bear fruit. Perhaps what was once had hope to be a beautiful and possibly poetic epic has now become melancholic nightmare, filled with howls of thousands of angry wolves. Howling in the night as they are forced to watch the end of their last hope.

I know you are joking though but with all seriousness, Thibs needs more time before we should say he sucks. I think ultimately this is going to be another evaluation season which really sucks to see as we were hoping to be competitive (and I think we still be down the stretch). Thibs has to see what he has, what he wants to change, and what he wants to add. The young guys get yet another season to try and figure themselves outs and gain consistency.

[Note30]

On pace for less wins than last year under Sam....regressing with the same players...

Who knew. Sam Mitchell, the coach we needed but didn't deserve. He was always in shadow of the 3 line doing work from afar, while we mocked his ways. The outcast, karma reincarnated, and Flips last stantion, all for naught as we welcomed false gods into our abode with ripe 1st overall picks and superstar talent, only to see them squandered as sacrifices for rituals that no longer bear fruit. Perhaps what was once had hope to be a beautiful and possibly poetic epic has now become melancholic nightmare, filled with howls of thousands of angry wolves. Howling in the night as they are forced to watch the end of their last hope.

I know you are joking though but with all seriousness, Thibs needs more time before we should say he sucks. I think ultimately this is going to be another evaluation season which really sucks to see as we were hoping to be competitive (and I think we still be down the stretch). Thibs has to see what he has, what he wants to change, and what he wants to add. The young guys get yet another season to try and figure themselves outs and gain consistency.

C'mon man you can't do that. I was just about to trigger some poor soul here.

Half jokingly and not do you think Thibs could use his Team USA connects? Do you think more firepower is the solution we need here? What if we signed Chris Paul and Blake Griffin in some offseason wonder story?

*Sneaks behind a bush like the Coyote.

[blazeyo]

Thibs sucks, bring Blatt.

[LesGrossman]

The way I see it, Wiggins played decent D on Kawhi, but the problem is he didn't wear Kawhi out on the offensive end at all and he isn't physical on defense, you could see Kawhi's legs were fresh even tho this was a B2B for the Spurs. As JimPete said, Wiggins is an inch taller, but Kawhi has 30 pounds on him, it was just too much... Man we really need to move Wiggy to SG and not play him and Lavine together so much. I'm down to even playing Zach at PG for 10+ minutes if that's what it takes, because defensively this is not sustainable.

I can agree with most of what you wrote but Zach at PG is a recipe for disaster. He got better at it but still doesnt involve guys around him near as much as needed. I would like to see a Rubio-Wiggins-Bjelica-Towns-Aldrich lineup. I guarantee there'll be a lot more passing and off-ball movement and overall more intelligent play to be seen which usually leads to success.

[codigoman]

Thibs sucks, bring Blatt.

Sam? Thibs ? Blatt? The problem is not the coach, our players are raw or bad executing winning basketaball: Defense, team offense and shot/play selection, mental weakness.

This game as example, how many bad shots take the spurs ????

I am starting to think conservative treatment will not be enought, probably we need surgery (major trades)

[cartermaxim13]

Even though, Zach does a great job with the 2nd unit and as their primary scorer, I would not take away his starting job to move Wigs to SG. Zach has a way better season than Andrew and I don't know whether it's such a good idea to reward a well-performing player with a 6th man role, whereas the other player, who predominantly sucks lately earns that starting spot. This could cause some disharmony and Wiggins does not really deserve this kinda treatment.

[Tensten]

Most typical wolves game ever. Start game strong, great defense for once and flowing offense. Frustate Pop and make him switch his lineup. After that we just get lazy and start putting up contested shots rather than find best shot. KAT and Wiggins have so hard time to understand that they dont have to always finish play if they get ball. Read the situation and if there is no room to attack then dont. Also so much just standing around behind three point line. Its very difficult for PG to find someone if they dont cut and drive. Our shot selection is so poor that we keep giving possesions away when we are on the run and reason we won't get any separation.

Im not happy Thibs doesnt seem to be upset when we put bad shots. Also his rotations seem to be written into rocks and never change them when there was obvious reasons to do that. If Towns gets lazy then bench him. If Rubio slows down then bring Dunn earlier. If Wiggins doesn't want to body up players then bring Shabazz. You can always bring them back to game. Its not like once they are on bench they have to stay there.

[TheProdigy]

We shouldn't get too upset with this loss against the Spurs who are a top 5 team in the league. Very encouraged by how Dunn performed last night. He was very aggressive driving to the hoop and opened up shots for others. Would like to see him get more playing time in the next game to see if he can build on his success.

[Merc_Porto]

We are young, the pups are going to improve, get stronger, sure...
But are they going to improve to a level they can make this team a contendor ?
Are they that good ? I dont see any improvement for Wiggins in 3 years, the same for Rubio in 6 years.

Maybe we are overrating most of our young players like we did in past a lot of times.

We have our superstar in Towns, we shouln´t be affraid to make big moves, if is true that we refuse to deal Lavine or Wiggins + Dunn for Jimmy Butler,

[Dewey]

wow ... its amazing how disfunctional we become for stretches, Teams continue to make runs that we cannot answer to. I'm more and more convinced that when Dec. 15th comes around, we are gonna be talking...
1. Rubio ... total non-threat inany facit. He can be a 5th wheel time to time, but never a player you can go to.
2. Wiggins ... had the look of dis-interest again. Had no signs of putting up a fight or even challenging his opponent at any point.
3. KAT ...sitting outside settling for 3's again? End of story.
4. Dieng ... held his own. Happy to see he didnt go try a bunch of 3's
5. Lavine ... help his own. Has a ways to go, but we continue seeing improvements
6. Dunn ... coming around. Could allow us to open up some trade opportunities
7. Bjelica ... Held his own for his 10 minutes
8. Aldrich ... Meh, never got into a flow of the game on either end.
9. Bazz ... continues to prove he needs a new start somewhere.

[Dewey]

We are young, the pups are going to improve, get stronger, sure...
But are they going to improve to a level they can make this team a contendor ?
Are they that good ? I dont see any improvement for Wiggins in 3 years, the same for Rubio in 6 years.

Maybe we are overrating most of our young players like we did in past a lot of times.

We have our superstar in Towns, we shouln´t be affraid to make big moves, if is true that we refuse to deal Lavine or Wiggins + Dunn for Jimmy Butler,

hindsight is 20:20, else I agree.

We need legit starting SF options to look at ... we cant sit and spin forever. There is a point where we need to roll the dice.
1. Porter
2. Gay
3. Chandler
4. Ariza
5. Barnes
6. Crowder
7. Gallinari
8. Green
9. etc.....

[Merc_Porto]

hindsight is 20:20, else I agree.

Talking about the rumors...

I wasn't the only one to say that we should have taken the Lavine + Dunn for Butler deal and run.
I confess i was redundant to trade Wiggins instead of Lavine (that was a rumor as well)

The difference between Lavine or Wiggins for Butler (27yo) is, we would have a boderline superstar for the next five, six years to join Towns. With Wiggins and Lavine you never know what is going to happen, can they reach that level ? Maybe, maybe not.

Same goes for Wall, even in the last couple of weeks there were some people saying that Rubio or Dunn + Lavine for Wall is overpaying.

[Nick K]

Most typical wolves game ever. Start game strong, great defense for once and flowing offense. Frustate Pop and make him switch his lineup. After that we just get lazy and start putting up contested shots rather than find best shot. KAT and Wiggins have so hard time to understand that they dont have to always finish play if they get ball. Read the situation and if there is no room to attack then dont. Also so much just standing around behind three point line. Its very difficult for PG to find someone if they dont cut and drive. Our shot selection is so poor that we keep giving possesions away when we are on the run and reason we won't get any separation.

Im not happy Thibs doesnt seem to be upset when we put bad shots. Also his rotations seem to be written into rocks and never change them when there was obvious reasons to do that. If Towns gets lazy then bench him. If Rubio slows down then bring Dunn earlier. If Wiggins doesn't want to body up players then bring Shabazz. You can always bring them back to game. Its not like once they are on bench they have to stay there.

Good points. Lots of truth there.