The Positivity Thread

[Klomp]

We legitimately have a chance to jump into 2nd place this week.
We are 3 games back of Houston
Houston losing right now to the clippers in the 4th
Their next 2 games are us and the Warriors
As long as harden does not play I like our chances

The bolded is the only problem, because I bet he plays

[Maefteda]

We legitimately have a chance to jump into 2nd place this week.
We are 3 games back of Houston
Houston losing right now to the clippers in the 4th
Their next 2 games are us and the Warriors
As long as harden does not play I like our chances

The bolded is the only problem, because I bet he plays

That's not the type of positivity we are looking for in this thread Klomp

We'll beat the Rockets with Harden regardless!

[minimus]

It is funny but aside of KAT, Wiggins improvement and Butler MVP season, I think that Tyus, Patton, MGH, Brown and Ameli Jefferson are the main reason why I expect us to be good for a few next years. If Thibs can continue their development they all can be in our rotation one day. And this thought makes me smile.

[Klomp]

31-18
We've only hit 34 wins nine times in the 29-season franchise history

[Klomp]

January was a pretty grueling month for Minnesota on the schedule. Only 2.5 back-to-backs in the month, but still squished 17 games on the schedule by never having more than one day off between games. The month started in the middle of a stretch of 4 road games in a 5-game span, and tomorrow ends a span of 7 road games in a 9-game stretch. The 17 games this month is 2 more games than any other month for Minnesota (9-7 with 1 game remaining). That 5-game homestand sweep was HUGE!

Thankfully, there's still over two months remaining in the season. Plenty of time to turn that trend in the right direction. To be still the third seed after all that with the franchise's history over the past decade is still something to stay positive about.

[urinesane]

Nice to see this thread not have to be full of silver linings and moral victories.

[minimus]

We have top5 midrange shooter in Dieng, one of the best spotup 3point shooter in Bjelica, excellent team defender in Tyus and the best all time 6th man in JC. I feel like it is a good foundation for solid bench. How this might not work for us? Easy answer: bad shot distribution, lack trust and inconsistent team defense. Bjelica and Dieng should get ball in their hot spots. And as I still think that we are one player away from being consistent winning group. We need a 3&D player, either from gleague, or MGH or waivers. I think it is feasible to do it this season.

[minimus]

It looks like Dieng and Bjelica are playing with some confidence right now. An underrated part of Bjelica game is his ability of feeding the post from perimeter. Also any pass from Bjelica is usually a good one. It might be our advantage over other team to have a solid C/PF punch from the bench and excellent starting duo in KAT/Gibson. You just need to constantly explore this advantage, i.e. feed KAT, give Dieng when he is open for midrange shot, pass to Bejlica when he is open on perimeter, feed Gibson in low post. These are all high percentage shots. I'm okay with Wiggins not having 10+ shots per game if these additional touches are for our bigmen.
Tyus is solid contributor in this regard. He moves the ball and excellent team defender (and just average individual defender) But he is often close to liability in offense, he must hit that open 3s to stay on the floor. This is a strong point for keeping Teague as starter.

[minimus]

1) I noticed that KAT has been making some very good passes to both Wiggins and Butler from top of 3point arc. It might be a good indication of what Thibs is trying to do. While It also might be a waste of KAT's offensive abilities since his is unstoppable in offense, but I like this idea of making him more versatile, passing bigmen, invite both Jimmy and Wiggins to cut hard to the basket.
2) While Wiggins is playing much worse than expected I still see him adjusting a bit. Now he executes backdoor cuts, offers some weak side help, rotates, running back in transition. The effort is not consistent, but I think it is mental thing. I.e. can be fixed.
3) I was happy to see Teague getting back to his usual game, scoring efficiently without overdriblling. One thing that makes me optimistic is his PnR game with Taj. Every PG should have a trusted PnR partner, even Jimmy looks more dynamic with Taj, because Taj set good screens, has good hands and roll hard to the basket. Teague is the only player from starting five who didn't play for Thibs or with other guys from starting unit before this year.

[southern wolf]

http://global.nba.com/news/post-star-break-nba-com-power-rankings/?cid=trafficdriver:nbacom:homepage

We're 4th in NBA.com's post break power rankings and are having "the best offensive season in franchise history". I won't talk about the defensive rating cause this is the positivity thread.

[Narf]

I won't talk about the defensive rating cause this is the positivity thread.

Meh, we've turned the switch on once and Towns has grown to become a good shot blocker. I feel like Thibs isn't given enough credit for teaching team D to terrible defenders. I think we're a year away from being legit good on D, but we should be much better in the playoffs when no one is taking plays off.

[minimus]

I really like how JC filled role of spot up, catch and shoot 3point shooter. Also Teague has been solid last games, he has still got elite quickness.

[life_saver]

Our offensive rating this season is 3rd in league and 21st in all time NBA history.
Our offensive rating this season - 114.1
This season Rockets lead offensive rating in all time NBA history - 115.8

[King Malta]

We're 2-0 since Jimmy went down.

[Note30]

If we win 3 more games we'll have the best record we had since the post-KG era began.

[life_saver]

I think some of them are underrating our team when Jimmy is not playing. So far this year, we have played 8 games without Jimmy. Our record in those 4 games is 4-4 and our record with Jimmy so far this year is 15-14. All the 4 games we lost without Jimmy were tough away matches - Warriors, 2xPortland, Utah. Remember that we were sucking in away matches even with Jimmy. We still put up decent fight in those 4 away matches despite losses. We won against Raptors(3rd best record in the league), @ Clippers, Bulls, @Kings without Jimmy. So, looks like we did beat some good teams when we were without Jimmy right? And may be we are still a decent team even without Jimmy eh?

[minimus]

Not really. If you watch these games you can notice that we didn't play well at all. We didn't have identity nor played our strengths.

[Klomp]

Not really. If you watch these games you can notice that we didn't play well at all. We didn't have identity nor played our strengths.

Get your negativity out of the positivity thread!

[karch34]

Since I went anti-Thibs, I'll throw this out there. Might be grasping at straws. Master plan by Thibs:

Year 1: truly understand the talent
Year 2: Add a lot of vets and give heavy minutes to give young players to experience what playoff grind/meaningful games late in the season is like. Whether it's actual playoffs or last 20 games as if they're the playoffs when every game counts.
Year 3: Improve bench to cover long grind of regular season now that young players understand what it takes to win. Adapt game plan to fit strengths of players and what the current NBA is.

[K4P]

atleast we have an nba team...