| NOP @ MIN | GAME 15

[Ethomasp31]

I thought Covington had a steady impact throughout the game, hitting threes in transition, causing deflections, making good rotations, and getting boards. First game together was solid. Want to see Rose with this team, more Tolliver, less Dieng.

Teague-Wig-RCov-Saric-KAT

Rose-JO-Wig/RCOV-AT-TAJ

are the obvious two main lineups, sorry Tyus and Dieng

This is the way I would rotate the players. The way we have used Wiggins this last year and a 10 games has been a waste. He needs to play in an offense where there is cutting and movement. I was talking with a friend who played D1 down in Alabama, and he made the comment after the New Jersey game that the offense the Nets run was the type of offense the Wolves should be running with Wiggins and Towns. When we had Butler we used Wiggins as a spot up shooter, which is not what he is...

Tonight, when we started to struggle in the 3rd quarter, there was no movement at all. I think VanGundy enev made the comment that there was too much posting up and watching.

Even in Thibs first year when we had Rubio, Wiggins was being set up by Rubio and getting dunks. He got to the line about 8 times a game as a 21 year-old. I have no confidence in Thibs being able to run the correct offense for Wiggins and Towns though....especially when Rose is on the floor with them.

[Crazy-Canuck]

Thibs iso ball in the 4th nearly got us. Teague was doing his best jimmy impression.

However, kat and wiggs were having none of that. That was kobe shaq stuff to close this game on both ends.

[MN7725]

Pg - Saric
SG - Wiggins
SF - RoCo
PF - Taj
C - Towns

I would seriously go forward with this line up. Sub in Okogie first off the bench if Andrew is putting up stinkers. Teague can shoot all he wants on the 2nd team. Dude doesn't know how to do anything else anyways. Anyways, Covington is a beast.

Did you not watch Teague the 1st half?

That was against 1st team All-Defense player Holiday too

I'll admit I missed the first quarter and some. But what I saw out of Teague the rest of the game was a lot of holding the ball, dribbling, not knowing how to pass the ball, etc. If I wasn't so tech challenged, I could easily capture 15+ plays when Teague should've pass it but didn't and resulted in a bad shot.

3rd quarter was a disaster and Teague is at least partly to blame no doubt

But biggest problem I thought was that NOP made the adjustment to pack the paint, started dropping their bigs way back on every screen

Spacing was just terrible, guys were passing to each other when they were 3 feet apart

It was strange, KAT and Taj just seemed to be joined at the hip in the paint (along with their defenders), 1st half KAT was at least popping out for 3s, all four of his attempts were in first half.

I don't really no what they were going for in 3rd quarter, just seemed like every possession was either Teague dribbling into other players, KAT trying to post up AD in a packed paint or weird things like dribble hand-offs for RCov

Teague's weird reluctance to take jump shots (injury related?), and the paint be clogged made for some ugly offense

[Loyal[]Wolf]

I wasn't able to watch game because I am in Mexico on a vacation but how did our new guys look and everyone else? It looks like this trade - by the highlights - gave our whole team a big energy boost.

And, Wiggins, did he finally dunk hard at end of game? He's back baby!

[MN7725]

I thought Covington had a steady impact throughout the game, hitting threes in transition, causing deflections, making good rotations, and getting boards. First game together was solid. Want to see Rose with this team, more Tolliver, less Dieng.

Teague-Wig-RCov-Saric-KAT

Rose-JO-Wig/RCOV-AT-TAJ

are the obvious two main lineups, sorry Tyus and Dieng

This is the way I would rotate the players. The way we have used Wiggins this last year and a 10 games has been a waste. He needs to play in an offense where there is cutting and movement. I was talking with a friend who played D1 down in Alabama, and he made the comment after the New Jersey game that the offense the Nets run was the type of offense the Wolves should be running with Wiggins and Towns. When we had Butler we used Wiggins as a spot up shooter, which is not what he is...

Tonight, when we started to struggle in the 3rd quarter, there was no movement at all. I think VanGundy enev made the comment that there was too much posting up and watching.

Even in Thibs first year when we had Rubio, Wiggins was being set up by Rubio and getting dunks. He got to the line about 8 times a game as a 21 year-old. I have no confidence in Thibs being able to run the correct offense for Wiggins and Towns though....especially when Rose is on the floor with them.

Having a "Five-Out" lineup like Teague/Wig/RCov/Saric/KAT is how you get movement and cutting

What's the point of Wiggins cutting to rim when Taj's defender, frequently the opposing "C", is parked in the paint

Have to stretch the defense and pull defenders away from the rim to get that to work

Taj is very good post up player, I actually think he can feast on a lot of backup bigs with four shooters around him. Dieng has zero post up game, just the mid-range jumper, so its not like playing him with Bjelica or Tolliver (or Saric now) opens anything up for Dieng.

Playing KAT-Taj limits KAT's post game, playing Dieng with the stretch PF in Bjelica/Saric/Tolliver doesn't open anything up since Dieng doesn't even have a hook shot, the spacing is wasted.

[walk with me]

If Kat could focus on defense like this for the remainder of the season starting Saric would be fine.

Gorgui needs to do some soul searching. If not he should be benched for the rest of the season, cut, traded, waived, stretched. Whichever option we can take.

[life_saver]

Read on Twitter

[TheFire]

I hope Tibs gets more out of Saric than he did out of Bjelica. He doesn't seem like the best coach for players from Europe.

[XDevilBoiX]

Congrats on the win. Looks like Covington and Saric did good for you guys.

[life_saver]

Just my opinion but I think Okogie could be a great pg.

any reason why you think so?

[Klomp]

Watch on YouTube

[walk with me]

I hope Tibs gets more out of Saric than he did out of Bjelica. He doesn't seem like the best coach for players from Europe.

Saric appears to be a better player so i don’t think opportunity will be a problem.

Just my opinion but I think Okogie could be a great pg.

any reason why you think so?

Josh cannot play pg. no ball handling or experience doing so. Sounds good but it’s real life and not nba 2k. It extremely rare that a SG/SF can transition to a PG. look at randy foye who had. Great nba career. He was undersized, couldn’t make the adjustment and was a lotto pick.

[Klomp]

Watch on YouTube

[Rookie-Mistake]

Watch on YouTube

Says the right things, does the right things (for the team), appears humble and genuine. I'm happy with the acquisition.

[Domejandro]

I get it is fun to exclusively hate on Thibodeau, but his effort to establish Karl-Anthony Towns early in the game is a crucial change that puts a ton of pressure on the opposing defense; I hope this continues.

Jeff Teague was clearly having trouble elevating, that is why we saw him struggling to hoist shots up at the end of the shot-clock.

[Domejandro]

Just my opinion but I think Okogie could be a great pg.

any reason why you think so?

I took that as a joke given that he dribbles like Corey Brewer, but if not, I need an explanation as well.

[shangrila]

I get it is fun to exclusively hate on Thibodeau, but his effort to establish Karl-Anthony Towns early in the game is a crucial change that puts a ton of pressure on the opposing defense; I hope this continues.

Jeff Teague was clearly having trouble elevating, that is why we saw him struggling to hoist shots up at the end of the shot-clock.

I'll give the team credit, they're definitely looking for Towns more now. And Thibs shares in that for sure.

The issue now is it's all simple stuff. There doesn't seem to be anything extra, like screens, to try and get Towns free or in a good position. I missed this game but in the Nets game I saw the same sequence play out time after time; ball advances, Towns tries to post up, ball tries to get to Towns. That was it. And so when the Nets guys were fronting him there wasn't anything else for our guys to try, they just kept trying to throw crap passes that got deflected or forced Towns out of position to get it.

They need to start using him at the top of the key, have him initiating offensive sets with Wiggins cutting off screens. With floor spacers around them (Saric, Covington and Teague/maybe Rose) that SHOULD give Wiggins plenty of space. Hell, they could even have Saric come set a screen for KAT, do some bizarro 5/4 PnR. Would be amusing at least.

But baby steps in the right direction is nice. Hopefully it continues.

[Domejandro]

I get it is fun to exclusively hate on Thibodeau, but his effort to establish Karl-Anthony Towns early in the game is a crucial change that puts a ton of pressure on the opposing defense; I hope this continues.

Jeff Teague was clearly having trouble elevating, that is why we saw him struggling to hoist shots up at the end of the shot-clock.

I'll give the team credit, they're definitely looking for Towns more now. And Thibs shares in that for sure.

The issue now is it's all simple stuff. There doesn't seem to be anything extra, like screens, to try and get Towns free or in a good position. I missed this game but in the Nets game I saw the same sequence play out time after time; ball advances, Towns tries to post up, ball tries to get to Towns. That was it. And so when the Nets guys were fronting him there wasn't anything else for our guys to try, they just kept trying to throw crap passes that got deflected or forced Towns out of position to get it.

They need to start using him at the top of the key, have him initiating offensive sets with Wiggins cutting off screens. With floor spacers around them (Saric, Covington and Teague/maybe Rose) that SHOULD give Wiggins plenty of space. Hell, they could even have Saric come set a screen for KAT, do some bizarro 5/4 PnR. Would be amusing at least.

But baby steps in the right direction is nice. Hopefully it continues.

For what it is worth, I noticed Tom Thibodeau using Robert Covington a lot to set screens for Towns, which led to him being defended by E'Twaun Moore on multiple occasions. Obviously, it is a bit dangerous to get hopes up after one game, but the curl-screens were really nice tonight, and I would love to see more of them.

The entire offense stagnated once we started posting Taj Gibson again (I like the guy, but we over-utilize him offensively at times), but in spurts, Minnesota did a good job trying to get Towns open.

I agree that he should receive the ball at the elbows though.

[minimus]

Has anyone noticed that we won rebounding battle by 1?

[Kumar]

Great win.

Enjoy the loss, Butler. Can’t spell Butler without an “L”.