Nice to comfortably beat a team we should comfortably beat.

At least we gained on all the other teams between us and Denver. If we continue playing .700 ball the rest of the season, that's 42 wins.

yeah. The Nets are really bad. We kept giving up easy baskets and we pulled away and won by 20 despite that. Someday maybe we'll beat a team like that by 50. I cant believe we lost to these guys earlier in the season.

Losing to the knicks twice really bugs me still

yeah, we lost a lot of games we should have won. If we had beat Denver the two times they beat us, we'd be ahead of them right now.

This is probably the highlight of the night from last night's game.



I cant lip read well enough to tell what he said after "what the **** is going on". Maybe it was "**** you, **** you, you're ok, no wait, **** you too!"
lolthibs

Zach torn ACL

Welp

Losing Lavine sucks, but I doubt its going to matter much as far as wins go the rest of this season.

During the broadcast last night, they showed a replay of a play where KAT missed a shot, then jogged down the court slowly to get back on defense. While he was jogging back, 87 year old Zach Randolph was hustling back hard to get deep inside post position. They got the ball to him and he scored easily. Jim P talked about the lack of effort.

If I was a coach on this team, I would be replaying that highlight (lowlight) over and over again for KAT to see. This is why we lose games. It isnt a talent issue. It is an effort issue, primarily on the defensive end. And it isnt just KAT. He's one of the big reasons, but Wiggins does the same **** too. Lazy transition defense and lazy closeouts. The past two games we got out hustled by teams we should have beaten.

This team is frustrating to watch at times. They look so good for stretches (1st quarter last night), then they put it on cruise control and piss away games they should be winning.

Adding some depth might help a bit, but this is not just a depth issue or a minutes issue. How many MPG did KG play in his prime? How many times did he loaf back on defense? I dont know if there's a way to figure out that loafing number, but I bet his career number is probably lower than what Wiggins or Towns do in a single game.

Towns says all the right things and tries like hell offensively, but if his defensive effort doesn't improve, he will never be one of the best players in the NBA.

Almost no young guys play defense, especially if they carry an offensive load. Give thibs more time. This is what he specializes in.

yeah, I hope you're right. I got spoiled watching KG. It is frustrating right now though.

Lance Stephenson come on down

It will be interesting to see if he even gets playing time. If he does, I hope he isnt washed up. He isnt old (younger than Gorgui) and he used to be a very good player. Does anyone know why he was available?

He's crazy iirc

He's always been crazy. Has the crazy level increased recently?

I don't think so. Only Larry bird could semi contain it though

http://www.awolfamongwolves.com/2017...-day-contract/

So my understanding is he's bad at shooting, good at defense and ball handling and was good at passing.

Also:
- when he was 19, he shoved his girlfriend down a flight of stairs, then bashed her head against the bottom stair.

- I think this was the EC finals.... prior to this he was trying to get under Lebron's skin, making the choke sign at him. Then this happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz3wvCNnF98
LOL

I have no idea what we're getting here. Maybe Thibsdust will work on this guy the way Bird semi-contained him. Or maybe we cut him in 10 days.

Stephenson interview: http://video.startribune.com/new-tim...ves/413184143/

He's saying the right things. Hopefully he gets playing time and plays well. It would be nice to have a wing who can handle the ball and play defense well.

He's a guy on a 10-day, this is an awful lot of discussion.

More talk about how awesome Wiggins was in the final minute last night please. He:

-hit a turnaround jumper to go from 1 down to 1 up
-collapsed the defense and found an open Tyus for 3
-buried two FTs (FINALLY)

10-day guy who played 20 minutes last night including a bunch of minutes down the stretch.

Yes, the Timberwolves have an extensive history of playing 10-day guys.

Here are the 10-day guys from the last 3 years:
Greg Smith
Lorenzo Brown
Sean Kilpatrick
Miroslav Raduljica

(it gets even uglier once I add in the "rest of season" guys after the 10-day period ends)

Hassan Whiteside, Mario Ellie, Anthony Mason & Avery Johnson had great careers after being signed to 10 day contracts. Its rare, but once in a while these guys can become valuable. Just because its never happened to a Wolf before doesn't mean it cant.

Stephenson looked very good last night. If he plays like that all the time, he could be a nice piece to the puzzle. That being said, he seems to have worn out his welcome everywhere he's been and one game is a meaningless sample size. Hopefully Thibs can convince the guy to keep his head on straight.

I rewatched the game and i'm certain that Stephenson sucked. That's expected since he's been with the team for 2 days but he's being discussed in Timberwolves circles as if he played well and he didn't.

What makes you say he sucked?

My take after watching the game once was that he put in a lot of effort, was probably slightly positive defensively, moves the ball well offensively, made a couple nice shots, missed a few shots, and generally looked like someone who knows how to play NBA basketball. Also, most of the people who commented about him at Canis and Thibs were positive about this game for him.

Moves the ball well? He's a much worse ball stopper than Wiggins.

Your list of 4 positive outcomes included 3 guys who haven't played since the early 2000s and Whiteside. There are hundreds of 10-days a year. That means we're looking at, what, a .1-.3% success rate? And how many of those guys were 26.5 or older? I'm guessing none.

You're not rebutting my point with those numbers.