didn't see it. For anyone else.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources...224943249.html

Dunn looked much better than he has.

Woj is wrong on this. Rubio is very good. Thibs sees it and knows it. Dunn might be good someday, but will probably never be better than Rubio, let alone be better after 20 games or whatever. Trading Rubio would be insane unless we get a ridiculous offer. His contract is good too.

On how Dunn has looked so far: Dunn might never be a great offensive PG, but he is pretty good defensively already and might end up being elite defensively. I've heard he works very hard, so he will improve. Guys that work as hard as him are the type that end up being good players. Hopefully he figures out shot selection and running an offense better someday. Having Thibs here will surely help with that.

Its hard to not get super-excited about this team. These past two games have been amazing to watch. Look at this comparison between this season's preseason defensive ratings for the Wolves compared to last preseason:
I know its preseason, but this is a completely different team than before. You can see the way they're playing defense is way different than last year. That's coaching. When someone makes a mistake, Thibs is quick to call a timeout and correct it.

Our starting 5 was the best (or 2nd best) Ortg team in the NBA last season. Gorgui added 25 lbs and looks like a great player. Towns is improved. Lavine is improved. We added some good role players. Add Thibsdust and I think 8 seed is our floor (barring significant injury to either Towns or Rubio).

Don't forget about Belly. I'm expecting a huge jump. He's more comfortable and lost some flab, looked very good in the preseason.

yeah. He is talented. I think last season he was tentative because smitch would scream at him or bench him if he ****ed up. He looks looser and much more confident now. Its amazing what happens when you have the right coach.

fwiw Thibs absolutely screamed at Bjelly on Wednesday. I was frightened.

was it right after he turned the ball over? I watched probably less than 5 minutes. In those 5 minutes Belly turned it over and Thibs instantly called a TO.

We scored a basket. Bjelly jogged back in transition without paying attention. His guy went to the arc and Bjelly just jogged into the lane and may have actually fell asleep or something (dude's a space cadet sometimes). They knocked down a three, Thibs called timeout right away, then paced around for like 20 seconds before looking right at a seated Bjelica and yelled "What the **** are you doing!?"

Awesome, lol.

The awesome thing about this is, Thibs' players like him because even though he does this kind of stuff, there's a purpose to it. They learn what they did wrong and what to do about it next time. The way you can see the difference is all in the way Bjelly responds on the court compared to how he responded to smitch's bitching. He looks like a different player this season. Thibs does it with a purpose. Smitch grates on people. Thibs doesnt ask players to do stuff they arent capable of or dont like doing.

And he makes everyone do it every time. Cant wait to watch these wolves although not sure how or when I'm going to watch them. No ballstreams, free random streams are a huge pita, and I'm not going to pay for league pass but maybe I will

I say they win 44-45 games min.

FSN?

I say lower than the 7 seed in the west is a disappointment.

Well that's just crazy talk.

cha crazy talk...that's not a new thing.

it's hard to say what result would be disappointing because of how bad the second unit may potentially be.

i basically expect the starters to all take a solid step forward this season and the second unit to be a complete cluster**** of aids, costing the team plenty of games. if dunn/bjelly can just be average it would be a tremendous win for the team. otherwise i'm not sure what you do, other than possibly play wiggins on the second unit.

League pass would be cheaper. I don't have cable and don't watch anything else.

espn link

I would bet gobs of money on twolves o30.

I'm expecting the bench to be less of a cluster**** of aids than last season, both due to adding quality backups like Aldrich and (I'm assuming) Dunn (at least he has shown he can play quality defense if nothing else), along with the improvement of Bjelly and Thibsdust on the whole thing. Last season was a complete disaster every time Rubio was off the floor. I cant see the second unit sinking to those depths again.

Try sticking a crow bar in your wallet.

You can come over here to watch sometimes. I'm going to be DLing here most, but not all Fridays, so that will work when I do and when they play Friday games. Some Saturday and Thursday games might work too. I'll probably be tied up during most M - W games.

Unsurprising to see ESPN forecasting based on ancient history.

yeah. Although we've been burned so many times by this team, its almost hard not to expect more disappointment.

it's been talked about before, but how many years in a row is it we've opened on the road?

edit: maybe it's the bucks that always open on the road...damn I'm old.

I can. Thibs has to play Wiggins or Towns at all times imo. Dunn stinks on offense as does Aldrich, Rush can't create. I don't want to watch a whole year of Bazz chucking. Although maybe the best bet would be to just Musselman it; have the point guard dribble the shot clock down to 6 seconds every possession then pass to Bazz while everyone gets back on D. Limit the number of possessions in the bench unit's time on the floor.

Thibs did learn from Musselman. He learned a few other things too. It cant be as bad as last season.

Preseason wasn't very encouraging in that regard for whatever that is worth with the teams ORtg dropping from 120 to 86 with Rubio off the court, and the all 2nd unit of Dunn,Rush,Bazz,Bjelica and Aldrich being at 81.

On a positive SSS preseason positive note the starting line up was really good defensively.

Just start the obvious starting 5 but sub out players one at a time so at least one (and usually more than one) of rubio, lavine, Wiggins, towns is always playing. I don't get why this is an issue. Rush bjelica and Aldrich should theoretically all fit well with the starting unit