pg - did everyone die?

[MrDollarBills]

Obviously we lost this game even before it started with all the injuries. The real question is whether we have been having all these injuries because of Thibs. His strategy of playing starters heavy minutes against other teams’ backups might just be the reason why so many of the starters are injured at the same time. Thibs is good at winning games with this strategy but is losing the season as a result. I think we need a new coach next year who can utilize the roster more efficiently if we want to be a contender

It's because of Tom, this has happened with every single team he's coached where he just runs players into the ground and everyone acts confused and dumbfounded that playing every game like it's the conference finals could have negative effects. Anyone arguing to the contrary is just being delusional at this point.


This is from 2018

Take, for example, the Wolves victory over the Bulls on Saturday night, when the starters stayed in a game that was hovering around a 20-point advantage for the Wolves. They didn’t head to the bench until just over a minute remained in the game.

During the 2014 season, again with Chicago, it became apparent during the playoffs that Joakim Noah seemed to be suffering from soreness in his knee. Although this wasn’t a significant tear or major injury like the other players have experienced, Thibodeau admitted Noah had been suffering from soreness in his leg for the latter part of the season.


This came in a season where Noah started a career-high 80 regular season appearances, and averaged 35.3 minutes per game.

https://dunkingwithwolves.com/2018/02/26/does-timberwolves-coach-tom-thibodeau-have-an-injury-problem/

yeah. he needs to stop doing that. hate seeing the starters in the game late with big leads. i get that he's trying to teach finishing the job. but the risk doesn't outweigh the reward after a certain point.

When the team is at full health, the 2nd unit will be Burks, Deuce, Josh, Boyan, and Precious.

He has to trust that group to hold the line.

[Jeff Van Gully]

It's because of Tom, this has happened with every single team he's coached where he just runs players into the ground and everyone acts confused and dumbfounded that playing every game like it's the conference finals could have negative effects. Anyone arguing to the contrary is just being delusional at this point.


This is from 2018





https://dunkingwithwolves.com/2018/02/26/does-timberwolves-coach-tom-thibodeau-have-an-injury-problem/

yeah. he needs to stop doing that. hate seeing the starters in the game late with big leads. i get that he's trying to teach finishing the job. but the risk doesn't outweigh the reward after a certain point.

He'll never stop, that's exactly how Randle got hurt, we were up 17 with 4:30 left. RJ got hurt a few years ago because he left him in as well, he never learned his lesson from Rose.

4:30 with 17 legit might not be time to pull starters in today's NBA. i don't blame thibs for that injury. it's not like randle was inexplicably in the game.

there have been times i've watched it be like 2 minutes and they still in there. not cool.

[Buttah304]

He has been playing 39min per game the last 2 months and wants to be paid. But in some alternate reality where he would have been okay coming off the bench, DeRozan would have utterly destroyed 2nd units. Fully understand he doesn’t shoot the 3 (spacing concerns) but he’s a certified bucket getter and still has gravity on the floor. Can still go to the FT line 50 times over 5 games.

By no means advocating for him just trying to be clear that all of these options were flawed from the JUMP for various reasons. DD (minutes/money/spacing), Clarkson (defense/inefficiency), Burks/Bojan (can’t play them together), Brogdon (hasn’t played in a month and has no time-table for return), Tyus (barely 6 feet), Rozier (loser), Murray (4 years and 120Ms), PJ Washington and countless others.

If we’re being fair about this when factoring in our current slate of injuries - this was a house of cards and no move on the margin was fixing it.

[EnigmatiC]

yeah. he needs to stop doing that. hate seeing the starters in the game late with big leads. i get that he's trying to teach finishing the job. but the risk doesn't outweigh the reward after a certain point.

He'll never stop, that's exactly how Randle got hurt, we were up 17 with 4:30 left. RJ got hurt a few years ago because he left him in as well, he never learned his lesson from Rose.

4:30 with 17 legit might not be time to pull starters in today's NBA. i don't blame thibs for that injury. it's not like randle was inexplicably in the game.

there have been times i've watched it be like 2 minutes and they still in there. not cool.

Exactly. Spoelstra had all his guys in still too. That injury was not Thibs fault.

[Jeff Van Gully]

It's because of Tom, this has happened with every single team he's coached where he just runs players into the ground and everyone acts confused and dumbfounded that playing every game like it's the conference finals could have negative effects. Anyone arguing to the contrary is just being delusional at this point.


This is from 2018





https://dunkingwithwolves.com/2018/02/26/does-timberwolves-coach-tom-thibodeau-have-an-injury-problem/

yeah. he needs to stop doing that. hate seeing the starters in the game late with big leads. i get that he's trying to teach finishing the job. but the risk doesn't outweigh the reward after a certain point.

When the team is at full health, the 2nd unit will be Burks, Deuce, Josh, Boyan, and Precious.

He has to trust that group to hold the line.

i think he'll be able to. and i don't think burks will be consistently in that mix.

[Capn'O]

When the team is at full health, the 2nd unit will be Burks, Deuce, Josh, Boyan, and Precious.

He has to trust that group to hold the line.

No Burks.

Yes Mitch.

I really do think Burks goes to situational unless we see a change.

[Chanel Bomber]

btw Burks is averaging 19.1 FGA per 36 minutes in the 7 games with us while shooting 31.4%.
absolutely freaking ridiculous.

Nice

your not getting away with Burks playing like this that easily...

Yes I am

[JayTWill]

Spoiler:

It's because of Tom, this has happened with every single team he's coached where he just runs players into the ground and everyone acts confused and dumbfounded that playing every game like it's the conference finals could have negative effects. Anyone arguing to the contrary is just being delusional at this point.


This is from 2018





https://dunkingwithwolves.com/2018/02/26/does-timberwolves-coach-tom-thibodeau-have-an-injury-problem/

yeah. he needs to stop doing that. hate seeing the starters in the game late with big leads. i get that he's trying to teach finishing the job. but the risk doesn't outweigh the reward after a certain point.

When the team is at full health, the 2nd unit will be Burks, Deuce, Josh, Boyan, and Precious.

He has to trust that group to hold the line.

I posted this in Detroit/New York trade thread

After a bit of tinkering with the bench unit Thibs seemed to settle on a rotation of:
Starters - Brunson/DDV/OG/Randle/iHart
Bench - McBride/Grimes/Hart/(OG)/Achiuwa

Here are the points scored/points allowed per 100 possessions for those 2 line ups

Starters - 128.3/111.2_______+17.1 (374 possessions)
Bench - 104.0/84.7________+19.3 (75 possessions)

The starters dominated teams offensively and the bench dominated defensively. The bench unit was not pretty but it was effective. There are other line ups that transition between the starters and the bench but I'm curious how the new additions will fit if the team is fully healthy. They definitely don't fit the defensive identity of the previous bench unit and the starting unit isn't lacking scoring.

Obviously this is a very small sample size from a period in January but the second unit was not performing as bad as I thought they were and were actually outperforming opposing teams more than the starting unit was. They struggled offensively but maybe there was something about that unit's defensive versatility that really clicked.

For reference this is how the 2nd unit you described has performed in their extremely limited time together
McBride/Burks/Hart/Bojan/Precious - 95.5/195.2_________-99.8 (22 possessions)

Maybe swapping out Burks for OG and reducing the rotation to 9 guys will help but extremely early returns don't look great. Hopefully as the new guys get more acclimated they can have a larger impact offensively and maybe OG can cover much of their defensive limitations. As the roster fils out again Thibs should be able to use guys situationally which will help if he remains flexible. Personally I was looking past this season since I thought the team had too many obstacles to overcome which is another reason why trading a young guy for 2 older win now guys didn't make sense to me.

[Fat Kat]

Read on Twitter

[Spree2Houston]

Read on Twitter

The Pistons game was the NBA’s way of giving us a win back lol

[8516knicks]

When the team is at full health, the 2nd unit will be Burks, Deuce, Josh, Boyan, and Precious.

He has to trust that group to hold the line.

No Burks.

Yes Mitch.

I really do think Burks goes to situational unless we see a change.

Deuce, Josh, Boyan, and Precious and Mitch would be a formidable 2nd unit. Tons of rebounding. But would Deuce be up to it and is Bogs enough shooting. Could be. Want to see it. Actually the way this year is going that could end up being our First unit.

[mpharris36]

Nice

your not getting away with Burks playing like this that easily...

Yes I am

I see the game you're playing...

[Jalen Bluntson]

this the energy i'm trying to embrace.

let me smoke my **** in peace.

[Chanel Bomber]

your not getting away with Burks playing like this that easily...

Yes I am

I see the game you're playing...

[Knicksfan1992]

When the team is at full health, the 2nd unit will be Burks, Deuce, Josh, Boyan, and Precious.

He has to trust that group to hold the line.

No Burks.

Yes Mitch.

I really do think Burks goes to situational unless we see a change.

I also think he's going to give Burks a chance to play with Randle. He played his best with 1-2 other playmakers on the floor.

Problem with the roster right now sans Julius is that Thibs doesn't trust McBride to play PG in his system because it depends heavily on rim pressure to generate looks. McBride rarely gets 2 feet in the paint. He's much more of a SG on offense w/ Thibs. When Brunson is out Thibs can just have the offense flow through Julius getting downhill and opening stuff up with that. That's where Burks can thrive because he becomes much more of a secondary ball handler with the ability to catch and shoot off of Julius's gravity as well.

Burks, even for how bad he is playing, can come off a screen and get to either a middy pull up or cook on a switch. Problem is he can't make any jumpers currently and he's an awful finisher at base line

[Im Coming Home]

Read on Twitter

Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

****. Refs admitted the mistake, 2 min report said it too. What more do you want? We legit got screwed out of OT, and they NBA goes 'nah' like wtf?

At least with the Pistons, the 2 min report showed 2 times prior to the DDV/Thompson play that the Pistons should've lost possession twice, and we got screwed there so all in all, more 'fair'. Rockets game we just got screwed..

[Jalen Bluntson]

Read on Twitter

Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

****. Refs admitted the mistake, 2 min report said it too. What more do you want? We legit got screwed out of OT, and they NBA goes 'nah' like wtf?

At least with the Pistons, the 2 min report showed 2 times prior to the DDV/Thompson play that the Pistons should've lost possession twice, and we got screwed there so all in all, more 'fair'. Rockets game we just got screwed..

DET will get a do over to keep things fair. They will make us play last 8 seconds over after awarding them FTs.

[cgmw]

Nice

your not getting away with Burks playing like this that easily...

Imagine dying on the Burks hill.

Burks >>> RJ!!!!! Right CB?

[Chanel Bomber]

your not getting away with Burks playing like this that easily...

Imagine dying on the Burks hill.

Burks >>> RJ!!!!! Right CB?

I think we can all agree that MJ > Kobe. So why would I question whether MJ > Maple Mamba robot?

I rest my case.

[GettinitDone]

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