The elephant in the room ...

[walk with me]

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[m2002brian]

Wtf is with all the jumping?

[Klomp]

Read on Twitter

There was a similar tweet a few games ago ripping Towns for essentially the same thing Gibson does here. He starts to float out to the perimeter, leaving the guy in the paint wide open.

Towns should've picked somebody up, but there has to be communication.

[King Malta]

He's got to be doing this on purpose, I refuse to believe anybody is this bad defensively.

[walk with me]

[Streakers33]

Maybe we should all step back and remember that Wiggins and towns are still babies..

And someone make sure they pray... cuz where would this team be without jimmy and taj...
can u picture what we would be complaining about if we didn’t have them... oh heavens no...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mplsfonz23]

Maybe we should all step back and remember that Wiggins and towns are still babies..

That excuse is getting old.
Even babies eventually start to understand basic concepts. Plus aren't Embiid and Simmons babies too? And Joel missed 2 years.

I would love for them to figure it out, with the help of JB and Taj, hopefully it starts to sink in. Or maybe this tweet lights a fuse.

EDIT: Also, does anyone know if this is in good fun? Are they friends, or something more?

[KingFox]

Read on Twitter

that jumping is super strange wtf. Cousins was really bad and improved defensively (shot blocking wise, at least.) so
its possible for KAT to improve

Honestly it doesn't even look like his head is in the game on that end of the floor. spaced out

[shrink]

Didn't Towns block Embiid on back-to-back trips in the second half, that led to turnovers? One might have been considered a steal, because he had his hand on the ball down low. I'm sure those aren't as fun to talk about. I'm not a fan of these breakdowns of a solo play, because people pick the individual solo play they want to either praise or complain about.

Embiid made a great play with the Euro-step on Towns after he got past his first defender. Give Embiid some credit too.

I'm not saying Towns doesn't have a long way to go defensively, and he certainly makes mistakes. My eye test of the game as a whole was that he didn't do that bad, considering the skill level of the opponent.

[walk with me]

Didn't Towns block Embiid on back-to-back trips in the second half, that led to turnovers? One might have been considered a steal, because he had his hand on the ball down low. I'm sure those aren't as fun to talk about. I'm not a fan of these breakdowns of a solo play, because people pick the individual solo play they want to either praise or complain about.

Embiid made a great play with the Euro-step on Towns after he got past his first defender. Give Embiid some credit too.

I'm not saying Towns doesn't have a long way to go defensively, and he certainly makes mistakes. My eye test of the game as a whole was that he didn't do that bad, considering the skill level of the opponent.

Towns played B - B+ on ball defense
But
Towns Played D off ball defense

[shrink]

Didn't Towns block Embiid on back-to-back trips in the second half, that led to turnovers? One might have been considered a steal, because he had his hand on the ball down low. I'm sure those aren't as fun to talk about. I'm not a fan of these breakdowns of a solo play, because people pick the individual solo play they want to either praise or complain about.

Embiid made a great play with the Euro-step on Towns after he got past his first defender. Give Embiid some credit too.

I'm not saying Towns doesn't have a long way to go defensively, and he certainly makes mistakes. My eye test of the game as a whole was that he didn't do that bad, considering the skill level of the opponent.

Towns played B - B+ on ball defense
But
Towns Played D off ball defense

I think that's perfectly fair.

[AirP.]

Read on Twitter

There was a similar tweet a few games ago ripping Towns for essentially the same thing Gibson does here. He starts to float out to the perimeter, leaving the guy in the paint wide open.

Towns should've picked somebody up, but there has to be communication.

I very well doubt it... I'll cut and paste here what I wrote about the play from the game thread.

Let's talk about the many things Towns did wrong in this single play, would you believe that Wiggins added to the problem(off the ball defense). The more I look at this play the more problems I see. I'd go insane dissecting the bad defense day after day for Minnesota.

Embiid hands off to Redick
1. Towns did no recognize or trust Teague to stay on Redick even though Teague's progress to defend was no way impeded by the handoff and... Teague was right with the spot up shooter. So... no trust in his teammate and not knowing what Redick can and can't do.
Redick instantly understands the situation, pushes off one foot to create more space and pass back to Embiid.
2. Not only did Towns show, he continued to show against a jump shooter who didn't have a shot.
Butler, seeing the pass heads towards an open Embiid to cover him.
Towns does the right thing and looks to be heading towards the now open player under the basket.
Here's where everything breaks down...
Embiid receives the pass from Redick and instantly pump fakes the ball in the hopes of getting Butler in the air and then have a possible open lane to the basket. Butler doesn't bite. Also at this time Taj accounts for the open player under the basket, Taj is now covering TWO players.
3. Towns bites on Embiid's fake and stops recovering back to the open man under the basket and goes to double Embiid(for a split second) then just stands in the middle of the lane. The right play for Towns was to tell Gibson I got him(Simmons under the basket) and Taj goes back to his man and with that... the defense is fine but that didn't happen and more problems happen.
Here comes some fun stuff... includes Wiggins.
Saric(guarded by Wiggins) goes from the weakside wing, under Teague and then to the top of the key. This is important because Wiggins is playing so far off him that Towns thinks THIS is the open player and takes 1 step towards the top of the key before seeing Wiggins trailing his man.
Initially I thought Wiggins may have sagged off to help Taj but at no point did he look to know where the other player was, he simply didn't stick with his man. Wiggins actually should have switched off of Saric since Towns looked to cover him and Wiggins take one of the 2 guys Taj was guarding but Wiggins had no idea Taj was guarding 2 players or the fact that a player was even behind him at that point in the play.
With Saric going from the weakside wing to the top of the key, he pulls Wiggins and Towns away from the basket leaving a passing lane for Embiid to the weakside corner and Taj covering 2 players.

Embiid then looks to pass to the weakside corner, which Taj barely bites on but enough for Embiid to pass over Butler to a wide open Simmons. This is just one of the reasons Embiid is so special, his passing.
If either one of Wiggins or Towns don't follow Saric to the top of the key, the passing lane to the corner doesn't open up, Taj wouldn't of bit on the look off and would have been in position to challenge a shot from Simmons under the basket.

[AirP.]

Didn't Towns block Embiid on back-to-back trips in the second half, that led to turnovers? One might have been considered a steal, because he had his hand on the ball down low. I'm sure those aren't as fun to talk about. I'm not a fan of these breakdowns of a solo play, because people pick the individual solo play they want to either praise or complain about.

Embiid made a great play with the Euro-step on Towns after he got past his first defender. Give Embiid some credit too.

I'm not saying Towns doesn't have a long way to go defensively, and he certainly makes mistakes. My eye test of the game as a whole was that he didn't do that bad, considering the skill level of the opponent.

Towns played B - B+ on ball defense
But
Towns Played D off ball defense

When Minnesota is playing, I hope the other team has a high scoring center. Why? Because lesser centers do way better when the defense breaks down or Towns just loses his man. Basically Towns' lack of defense makes a lesser center into another scoring threat for the other team. Miami doesn't have a Whiteside, no problem their rookie Adebayo in his 3rd NBA game scores 13 points in 9 shots and has 13 rebounds(10 of those offensive rebounds).

I know this stat isn't perfect because of switching and players playing multiple positions but looking at PER by position, Minnesota is giving up a PER of 22.2 to centers on average. This is 4.4 PER points higher then any other position against Minnesota. The defense from the center position is a HUGE problem.
http://www.82games.com/1718/1718MIN5.HTM

If you have a fantasy basketball team, make sure any center playing against Minnesota is in your lineup.

[Klomp]

Spoiler:

Read on Twitter

There was a similar tweet a few games ago ripping Towns for essentially the same thing Gibson does here. He starts to float out to the perimeter, leaving the guy in the paint wide open.

Towns should've picked somebody up, but there has to be communication.

I very well doubt it...

Read on Twitter

Gibson'd departure wasn't as exaggerated, but he is wandering towards the guy in the corner over the guy under the basket.

[AirP.]

There was a similar tweet a few games ago ripping Towns for essentially the same thing Gibson does here. He starts to float out to the perimeter, leaving the guy in the paint wide open.

Towns should've picked somebody up, but there has to be communication.

I very well doubt it...

Read on Twitter

Gibson'd departure wasn't as exaggerated, but he is wandering towards the guy in the corner over the guy under the basket.

Gibson's man was the guy in the corner, Towns should have taken Butler's man and Embiid's pump fake stopped him from doing that.

Here's what I posted about that in the other thread(Towns wasn't the only player to screw up)....

I'm not saying Towns isn't screwing up, I'm trying to explain why because only then can you focus on what he needs to do to fix the problems.

Towns makes a decision to cover a wide open player in the corner because he feels Butler is covering Jordan. Basically the same time Butler and Towns go to cover someone else. For me, it's pretty simple, Towns needs to let Butler know he has Jordan because Butler really can't do anything against Jordan that close to the basket.

Also in that first example Wiggins is playing off his man, his hands down and allows a simple pass to a wide open D.Jordan. Also, Taj and Teague are chasing the same player which leaves someone open who Butler decides to go cover(thinking Towns is on Jordan). There's just multiple screw ups in that simple play that is highlighted by Towns leaving D.Jordan under the basket. Maybe Towns' is the biggest screwup there but not the only one.

[minimus]

In defense of KAT's defense I have say that KAT added some verticality in last games, which leads to more blocks. However I'd still prefer that he stays moving his feet rather than jumping in the air on every occasion.

[Vindicater]

Still think he will be fine in the long run.

Too active at the moment. With experience that will start to fall away.

[Klomp]

In defense of KAT's defense I have say that KAT added some verticality in last games, which leads to more blocks. However I'd still prefer that he stays moving his feet rather than jumping in the air on every occasion.

"KAT, we need you jumping vertically every game." -Jimmy Butler, after the game.

Thought that was interesting, since everyone here seems to hate him jumping in the air.

[Crazy-Canuck]

I think Kat had made improvements the last few games. He still does get lost once in a while, but everyone one does throughout a game.

People also jump on Wiggins, but he's been a good team defender for most of the year. It may not show up in individual stats like steals and blocks, but he's generally been in the right spot on switches and he's still generally one of the few that consistently is back in transition.

We wanted to see improvement from the young guys on the defensive end and I think we are seeing it. Now we need to see it every night and every play.

[southern wolf]

In defense of KAT's defense I have say that KAT added some verticality in last games, which leads to more blocks. However I'd still prefer that he stays moving his feet rather than jumping in the air on every occasion.

"KAT, we need you jumping vertically every game." -Jimmy Butler, after the game.

Thought that was interesting, since everyone here seems to hate him jumping in the air.

KAT jumping on d is fine as long as he's not mistiming his jumps.