Analytics have never liked Wall. To put it in perspective, Wall sits at .103 Wins Shares per 48 minutes in his career. Slightly better than Rubio at .093. But at the same time, both of them combined don't quite add up to Chris Paul (.203). 

 

The problem with Wall is he gets held up as an elite player, but he's never been anywhere near that in his career.

I guess I don't get any comments criticizing Dieng's fit with the team or Lavine's fit. Those guys are not the problem. In fact, when Dieng is aggressive offensively, the team wins. 

 

Meanwhile, six years into the league and Rubio is still a horrific shooter, and not he can't even average over 7/7 a game. It is silly to watch this team with Wiggins or Lavine controlling the ball in crunch time with Rubio out on the damn floor . . . for what . . . spacing? No.

 

Also, is Tyus Jones effectively injured, or what the hell is going on? 

Dieng and Lavine are both very good young players but I don't think it is difficult to see that they don't fit perfectly as starters. 

Do you disagree that Dieng is a bad matchup defensively against smaller 4's? Do you disagree that Wiggins has problems guarding larger 3's? They can try to exploit that on the offensive end but it is a disaster defensively.

Ideally imo the Wolves would be able to add a 25-30 minute larger and defensively focused wing and/or a smaller 4. Dieng and Lavine would then off the bench (playing 25-30 minutes) and spend less time paired with Towns and Wiggins. At that point they would have a legitimately good bench. 

 

I don't know what has happened to Tyus Jones after the great debate on here regarding him. He should be playing some but Thibs is going with Rubio and Dunn and there really isn't PT for a 3rd point guard.

 

Dieng and Lavine are both very good young players but I don't think it is difficult to see that they don't fit perfectly as starters. 

Do you disagree that Dieng is a bad matchup defensively against smaller 4's? Do you disagree that Wiggins has problems guarding larger 3's? They can try to exploit that on the offensive end but it is a disaster defensively.

Ideally imo the Wolves would be able to add a 25-30 minute larger and defensively focused wing and/or a smaller 4. Dieng and Lavine would then off the bench (playing 25-30 minutes) and spend less time paired with Towns and Wiggins. At that point they would have a legitimately good bench. 

 

I don't know what has happened to Tyus Jones after the great debate on here regarding him. He should be playing some but Thibs is going with Rubio and Dunn and there really isn't PT for a 3rd point guard.

 

Rubio has been terrible for most of the year. He has had a handful of good games. He offers no shooting potential whatsoever, which affects Wiggins, Lavine, and Towns. 

 

Rubio has been terrible for most of the year. He has had a handful of good games. He offers no shooting potential whatsoever, which affects Wiggins, Lavine, and Towns. 

And you ingnored everything that I said about defense. Wiggins (due to Lavine) and Dieng are defensive mismatches that other teams are exploiting. This will be an issue regardless of who is at PG.

 

Rubio is Rubio and there are issues. But there are issues if you are starting any of the 16th-30th best PG's in the NBA.

It also needs to be mentioned the two most important defensive players on the Wolves right now are Dieng and Rubio. Wiggins is improving. Towns and Lavine have been disappointing. 

 

Towns becoming a better rim would be the best possible outcome of this season.

 

I guess I don't get any comments criticizing Dieng's fit with the team or Lavine's fit. Those guys are not the problem. In fact, when Dieng is aggressive offensively, the team wins. 

 

Meanwhile, six years into the league and Rubio is still a horrific shooter, and not he can't even average over 7/7 a game. It is silly to watch this team with Wiggins or Lavine controlling the ball in crunch time with Rubio out on the damn floor . . . for what . . . spacing? No.

 

Also, is Tyus Jones effectively injured, or what the hell is going on? 

The problem is that point-Wiggins isn't a very effective late game offense. The silly part is not having Rubio initiate the offense when he's in the game.

 

Rubio has been terrible for most of the year. He has had a handful of good games. He offers no shooting potential whatsoever, which affects Wiggins, Lavine, and Towns. 

Rubio has had a down year, and of course his shooting doesn't help with spacing, but he has a positive effect in setting up the scorers to score.

Rubio is awful defensively. They really need to trade him (not for Wall either)

 

Trade him for picks and a couple solid bench pieces.

If it weren't for the fart they ripped against the Rockets, the wolves would be on a four game winning streak. Things are looking a lot better this week.

 

If it weren't for the fart they ripped against the Rockets, the wolves would be on a four game winning streak. Things are looking a lot better this week.

Exactly my thoughts.

 

Everyone was frustrated because they knew the Wolves weren't as bad as they were playing but this is what happens to young teams. The playoffs are unfortunately a pipe dream now but hopefully they can continue this run. The best part is they beat two .500 teams (and the Suns) while playing a good 44 mins against the Rockets. 

 

One criticism that Thibs has faced is running his starters into the ground and in those 4 games every starter has played 33+ minutes. Most starters are close to 40 most nights. This is something to monitor.

 

Exactly my thoughts.

 

Everyone was frustrated because they knew the Wolves weren't as bad as they were playing but this is what happens to young teams. The playoffs are unfortunately a pipe dream now but hopefully they can continue this run. The best part is they beat two .500 teams (and the Suns) while playing a good 44 mins against the Rockets. 

 

One criticism that Thibs has faced is running his starters into the ground and in those 4 games every starter has played 33+ minutes. Most starters are close to 40 most nights. This is something to monitor.

 

Yes. Again, I don't understand the non-usage of Jones, and probably either Payne or Hill here. That said, only Lavine and Wiggins are over 36 on average. I guess when they are blown out in some of these games that skews it. It totally SEEMS like the big three are playing 40 each game though. Personally, I would like to see Bjelica, Dunn, Aldrich, and Jones getting the most minutes off the bench.  

 

Yes. Again, I don't understand the non-usage of Jones, and probably either Payne or Hill here. That said, only Lavine and Wiggins are over 36 on average. I guess when they are blown out in some of these games that skews it. It totally SEEMS like the big three are playing 40 each game though. Personally, I would like to see Bjelica, Dunn, Aldrich, and Jones getting the most minutes off the bench.  

 

You are talking about min/gm for the season. I was talking about the 5last  games when they started winning (including GS). Dieng is at 37.2/gm - Wiggins 40.4 - Rubio 37.6 - Towns 38.6 - Lavine 40.8

 

We are excited that they are winning but this appears to be the price.

 

Jones and Dunn play that same backup position so that might be the issue if the Wolves don't want to play Dunn at a wing position.

 

You didn't list any true wings so that is probably the reason Lavine and Wiggins are playing so much. Shabazz is fine but it would be nice to have a 3rd wing that really deserved to get 25-30 min/gm off the bench.

 

Aldrich hasn't played in two of the last 5 games. It will be interesting to see if he works his way out of the lineup in favor of more Bjelica allowing Dieng to play the 5 some.

 

Exactly my thoughts.

 

Everyone was frustrated because they knew the Wolves weren't as bad as they were playing but this is what happens to young teams. The playoffs are unfortunately a pipe dream now but hopefully they can continue this run. The best part is they beat two .500 teams (and the Suns) while playing a good 44 mins against the Rockets. 

 

One criticism that Thibs has faced is running his starters into the ground and in those 4 games every starter has played 33+ minutes. Most starters are close to 40 most nights. This is something to monitor.

How can you say the playoffs are a pipe dream when the 8th seed (Portland) has only 1 less loss than the Wolves?

 

You are talking about min/gm for the season. I was talking about the 5last  games when they started winning (including GS). Dieng is at 37.2/gm - Wiggins 40.4 - Rubio 37.6 - Towns 38.6 - Lavine 40.8

 

We are excited that they are winning but this appears to be the price.

 

Jones and Dunn play that same backup position so that might be the issue if the Wolves don't want to play Dunn at a wing position.

 

You didn't list any true wings so that is probably the reason Lavine and Wiggins are playing so much. Shabazz is fine but it would be nice to have a 3rd wing that really deserved to get 25-30 min/gm off the bench.

 

Aldrich hasn't played in two of the last 5 games. It will be interesting to see if he works his way out of the lineup in favor of more Bjelica allowing Dieng to play the 5 some.

Have you and I been watching the same Shabazz?

 

Have you and I been watching the same Shabazz?

I alluded to him not deserving 25 minutes off the bench as a wing and being the reason that Wiggins and Lavine are playing 40+min/gm lately.

 

How can you say the playoffs are a pipe dream when the 8th seed (Portland) has only 1 less loss than the Wolves?

Ummm... Okay...

 

They still have the 6th worst record and are 10 games under .500. It is really unlikely even considering that Portland is 13-18.

I will say this. If the Wolves want to make the playoffs beating Denver in Denver tonight is a must.

I don't really give a rip about the playoffs, but this team is ready to stop losing to bad teams. This should be a slam dunk. Anything else will be a disappointment.

Wiggy's gonna have a big night.

Dang. I was half right, I guess. We need paint presence. Bad.

Ugh... This team desperately needs a bench.

Lol another awesome choke, Thibs is trash.

That was Thibs' fault, eh? Well, if that don't beat all...

Is it just me, or do we bite on every pump fake? How do you fix that?

Good lord this team....

I guess we're all pretty much over it by now, then...

No, I turn them on when I can, but I will say that attempting to get tickets when I was in the cities turned me off from following the team too closely. For a team that hadn't yet done anything, they were wanting prices like they were coming off a solid playoff run, let alone even making the playoffs.

I guess we're all pretty much over it by now, then...

I'll still watch, but yeah, I'm over it. Draft position!!!

So, tonight's a great example. Here the wolves are, playing the other 11-26 team, making them look like the Washington generals. Great. We obviously don't belong with the mavs. So why can't we just separate from the sludge at the bottom of the nba already?!