Game 42: Minnesota Timberwolves (14-26) @ Dallas Mavericks (12-27) – American Airlines Center – 1 PM CST – FSN/WCCO

[packforfreedom]

it's a 3 game sample size vs as 38 game sample size and we don't have a single game without Wiggins. these overreactions are not even funny anymore.

You're looking at it wrong. That 38 game sample size is the one that proves that this team has a very hard time winning with Wiggins and LaVine sharing the court, as they're two of the worst perimeter defenders on the league. You need to have 3 other great defenders and / or a super offense to overcome that, and we don't. So when you're forced to try something different and it happens to work every time, you should keep doing it and see if you continue to be more succesful that way.

Actually, scratch that, it's not a 38 game sample size. They've already played close to 200 games together in these 3 years, and they've always stunk defensively.

hm, the defense efficiency is solid since the bulls game, with and without Zach. They really sucked at the beginning of the season, but Thibs decides to let them grow together and I think it's the right decision. For a couple of more wins (maybe, a 3 game sample size still means nothing), you shouldn't risk team chemistry, Zach's development etc. let them continue to improve together, because it's already happening.

[Sugarless]

it's a 3 game sample size vs as 38 game sample size and we don't have a single game without Wiggins. these overreactions are not even funny anymore.

You're looking at it wrong. That 38 game sample size is the one that proves that this team has a very hard time winning with Wiggins and LaVine sharing the court, as they're two of the worst perimeter defenders on the league. You need to have 3 other great defenders and / or a super offense to overcome that, and we don't. So when you're forced to try something different and it happens to work every time, you should keep doing it and see if you continue to be more succesful that way.

Actually, scratch that, it's not a 38 game sample size. They've already played close to 200 games together in these 3 years, and they've always stunk defensively.

hm, the defense efficiency is solid since the bulls game, with and without Zach. They really sucked at the beginning of the season, but Thibs decides to let them grow together and I think it's the right decision. For a couple of more wins (maybe, a 3 game sample size still means nothing), you shouldn't risk team chemistry, Zach's development etc. let them continue to improve together, because it's already happening.

The sample size since the Bulls game is not that great either. In the same span, while we've been better on defense, we've also been worse on offense. Is the work on one end of the court taking from the opposite one? Are we improving on one area and getting worse on the other? Or is it just one particular month where they're doing better as a team for one reason or another, but is not indicative of how Wiggins and Zach are doing together? We were also top-10 in DRTG for the first month of the season last year, and then we went on and felt to 26th in December (while KG was still playing) and stayed around there for the rest of the season.

I understand your point of view. I just don't think I've seen improvement from Wiggins and Zach to believe this high defensive efficiency is something that can continue unless one of those two (hopefully both) gets considerably better on D. Moving to the bench may help them realize that, and instead of being detrimental to their development it could actually help them going forward.