KAT is amazing, great game to head into the all star break

yeah, and 3-1 in the last 4 with wins vs teams that are a combined 37 games over .500 entering the all star break (LAC, CHI & TOR). We've swept CHI & ATL this season. You have to wonder what this group would play like with a good coach.



I agree that I would take a PG high in the draft, but I would not trade Ricky without getting a hell of a lot in return. I'd love to see us get a good FA PG either as a backup or a potential starter. idk who might be available, but Lowry would be a guy I'd love to have on this team.

Whiteside wont come here anyway from what I heard, but he's by far the best of those three players. What we would do if we could get Whiteside is start KAT and Whiteside and have the best 4/5 combo in the NBA for many years. Gorgui is a nice backup. Whiteside is a great center.

Batum is older, but he's a much better player than Barnes imo. I think Barnes looks better than he is because of how easy it is for a guy like him to fit in with the team he plays on. I think he'd be a below average player on most other teams.

Nice post - thanks for finding that info.



yeah, that was a great game vs a very good TOR team - the second best in the Eastern Conference.

Pretty nice timing for Rubio to outplay Lowry, one of the top 5 or so PGs in the NBA. Great game for Ricky. 19 pts, 5/9 FG, 3/6 from 3, 6/6 FT, 8 boards, 8 assists and a steal, while holding all-star Lowry to 4/15 shooting.

Towns is amazing. imo, he is better right now than KG was at the same age, and that is saying a lot. If he continues this, he's got a great chance at multiple MVPs later in his career. He could have been a legit all-star selection this season, and he's running away with rookie of the year.

I just hope Rubio doesn't get screwed out of his 1st team All-Defensive team selection

He will. Like 70% of the announcers in the league think he's a defensive liability. Some observations from section 211 row A:

-Ricky's D so good. He got into Lowry's cuts so many times and just blew up everything and made TOR reset

-Lavine's D also good. He's way better at defending 2s i think because he doesn't get drilled in as many P&Rs

-Bjelly kind of a space cadet. Totally lost his man for no reason, spent like 8 seconds not within 25 feet of his guy, gave up an open 3 (which Pat Pat missed). Also lets his dude get inside position for rebounds. I think there's two problems; he's clearly the 10th guy on the floor to realize the shot is going up. And he's not nearly strong enough to move any bigs.

-Payne was awful the first minute or so of run. Then Ricky got taken out and he was much less toxic to what we were doing while playing with Miller.

-Dem dunkz!! Crowd was dead in first half, rocking in 2nd. Plenty of good seats available tho.

1st team all defense? Are you guys high?

TOWNS!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_dwRsR2pGk


Windhorst: T'Wolves are best fit for Thibodeau
YES PLEASE! I have heard that KG is a fan of Thibs, having spent time with him in BOS (2007 - 2010), which includes their championship season. Thibs also has ties to this organization from way back when Musselman was HC - he was an assistant from 89 - 92.


Towns NBA rankings:
9th in rebounds per game (tied with Davis, right below K Love)
8th in blocks
6th in FG%
33rd in points per game (now tied with Okafor)
25th in FT%

14th in PER
16th in TS%
11th in eFG%

9th in REB%
8th in BLK%

and he is only 20 years old.

Why would it be strange to put the best defensive point guard in the league into the all defense team?

Ricky Rubio is most certainly not the best defensive pg in the NBA.

Who is better? Probably Chris Paul, but who else? Conley? I'm curious to see your list.

Paul, Beverley, Conley all come to mind.

Ricky is a good defender, but I've never heard anyone (outside of this thread) claim nor have ever seen any reasonable statistics that support that he is the best defensive pg in the league.

Cat link anything cause the mobile app sucks, but Rubio is the leader of PG in DRPM, by quite a bit.
Also is a leader in steals+turnovers caused+offensive fouls drawn

Got this from from a recent Nylon Calculus article

Would love a link that says I'm wrong, lemme know if you find it.

Here's DRPM
http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/rp...RPM/position/1

Here's article mentioning steals+TO created+Offensive Charges Drawn
http://nyloncalculus.com/2015/10/27/...-timberwolves/

Good stuff

I wonder if GG23 gets his info from people like Kevin Lynch. I listened to that clown on KFAN earlier today and he basically says that Rubio should be a backup because of his shooting. After listening to that crap, I doubt Lynch pays any attention to stats other than shooting. Lynch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQCU36pkH7c

Rubio plays elite team D but he might be the worst 1 on 1 pg defender in the league. He can't stay in front of anyone. I'm confident he's still a net defensive positive but lol at best pg defender in the league

Look below your post

Lavine!

rubio really is an unique snowflake

bruce bowen learnt how to camp out at the corner, why can't this kid. might be the diff in the '19 finals vs the durant led knicks

wow, I didnt even know Towns was competing in the NBA skills competition, and he wins it. So much skill.

The slam dunk contest was entertaining as any I've seen before. Lavine and the other guy were both doing amazing stuff. Just when you wonder what each of them could do next to score a perfect 50, they'd both do it. Lavine might be the best dunker ever. I've seen comments from some national pundits saying this was the best dunk competition ever.

Skills competition is a joke. You basically run the length of the court a couple of times and then shoot a 3. Towns went 1 for 4 when Thomas went 0 for 3 so Towns wins.

they need to change the way the dunk contest is judged. Instead of giving scores why not watch all the dunks and then rank who had the best dunk? Lavine deserved all those 50s, but I don't think he deserved to win. Gordon's 50s were better IMO. Granted I still wanted Lavine to win and didn't care that Gordon got robbed.

I went to the BOS game last night - nice win. We should have put them away, but at least we played well early and got the W.

I got to hang out in the WCCO booth for the pregame show because a good friend of mine was a guest on the show with John Focke (my friend is a radio sportscaster for a Willmar radio station). I really like John a lot - he invited us into the booth and was very friendly and engaging during breaks. Its pretty obvious he hated Rambis. He likes Mitchell though. It seems to me that the reason why is because Mitchell hangs out and BS'es with some of the media after press conferences, and Mitchell does sound like he is knowledgeable and passionate about the game. He's just lousy at being an NBA head coach imo. John or Al Horton would have made way better choices for the TV job that they gave to Dave Benz.

Towns is amazing. We ran the offense through him most of the first half and BOS could do nothing to stop him.

Rubio is very good. Here are some clips:

Watch Rubio's eyes/head. He appears to be playing a two man game with Towns off the pick & roll, then somehow he spots Gorgui cutting to the hoop and delivers a perfect pass^


Look at the ball denial going on here^


This ends with a nice shot by a wide-open Lavine, spoon fed by a nice pass from Towns, but what really set all this up was Rubio drawing three defenders to the paint and then setting a nice flair screen so that Lavine stayed wide open for the easy shot. He gets credit for nothing in the stats on this play, but it shows how things he does go way beyond the box score. He also had 15 points (on only 7 shots), 8 rebounds, 8 assists and a steal playing vs an all star PG who shot 8/20 from the field.

The future is ours imo



(best offensive 5-man lineup in the NBA is our current starting 5)