Game Thread GAME# 10: TIMBERWOLVES @ BLAZERS - NOVEMBER 4, 2018 - SUNDAY, 6:00 PM (PST), NBCSNW

[Boob-No-More]

I can see you point here.
But i have a tendency to think the players are not playing well because of Butler not the other way around.

Blaming someone else for your own lack of effort is pretty weak. I get that Jimmy is a big distraction, but where was the defensive effort from KAT and Wiggins last season? Where was it the year before? The lack of effort on the defensive end was there before Jimmy arrived. He shouldn't have called them out about it publicly, but on the other hand, he shouldn't need to call them out at all. They are both max contract players. They should be putting out max effort at both ends of the court.

BNM

 

[illmatic99]

Also, this is an unbelievable defensive play.



Not a foul.

Kawhi got all this pub for his no look steal, but this was more impressive.

 

[kjironman1]

Blaming someone else for your own lack of effort is pretty weak. I get that Jimmy is a big distraction, but where was the defensive effort from KAT and Wiggins last season? Where was it the year before? The lack of effort on the defensive end was there before Jimmy arrived. He shouldn't have called them out about it publicly, but on the other hand, he shouldn't need to call them out at all. They are both max contract players. They should be putting out max effort at both ends of the court.

BNM

Isn't Butler a "Max Contract" guy also? Do you think him playing at full effort would give KAT and Wiggins help defense and solidify that team defense? Then there is Gibson. He doesn't seem the same either.
Chemistry on a team has huge implications. There is no question about that. This team not only should be better but Jimmy Butler has destroyed what positive they did have. It was a terrible move to bring him there in the first place. The writing was on the wall. This is why a one year rental is never a good idea unless all the cards are on the table from the very beginning.

 

[Hoopguru]

Isn't Butler a "Max Contract" guy also? Do you think him playing at full effort would give KAT and Wiggins help defense and solidify that team defense? Then there is Gibson. He doesn't seem the same either.
Chemistry on a team has huge implications. There is no question about that. This team not only should be better but Jimmy Butler has destroyed what positive they did have. It was a terrible move to bring him there in the first place. The writing was on the wall. This is why a one year rental is never a good idea unless all the cards are on the table from the very beginning.

I agree they should be better, one playoff trip after 14 years and as many top picks that the've had, to me make's Neil Olshey shine as a GM. I know Olshey has many haters in here but stand back and look at what he's accomplished with really little to work with besides Dame and a few picks. Is the the best GM hell no, but he's top 6or7.

 

[kjironman1]

I agree they should be better, one playoff trip after 14 years and as many top picks that the've had, to me make's Neil Olshey shine as a GM. I know Olshey has many haters in here but stand back and look at what he's accomplished with really little to work with besides Dame and a few picks. Is the the best GM hell know but he's top 6or7.

To be fair. He also created a bit of his own mess. So yeah top 10 but not the best for sure. He made some good moves and bad. I'm calling him human even though he talks like a mechanical salesman.

 

[hoopsjock]

Isn't Butler a "Max Contract" guy also? Do you think him playing at full effort would give KAT and Wiggins help defense and solidify that team defense? Then there is Gibson. He doesn't seem the same either.
Chemistry on a team has huge implications. There is no question about that. This team not only should be better but Jimmy Butler has destroyed what positive they did have. It was a terrible move to bring him there in the first place. The writing was on the wall. This is why a one year rental is never a good idea unless all the cards are on the table from the very beginning.

According to Butler, the chemistry is bad BECAUSE Towns and Wiggins are lazy and have poor work ethics. Until this season you can say whatever bad about Butler as a person but he has been known to be an extremely hard worker which is evident by going from the 30th pick to one of the best players in the league on both ends of the floor.

This isn't advocating for bringing him in via trade (although I still would for anyone other than Dame, CJ, Nurk, Collins, or Simons), but I don't get why Towns and Wiggins should be given any sort of benefit of the doubt when they haven't shown much defensively in the NBA.

 

[kjironman1]

According to Butler, the chemistry is bad BECAUSE Towns and Wiggins are lazy and have poor work ethics. Until this season you can say whatever bad about Butler as a person but he has been known to be an extremely hard worker which is evident by going from the 30th pick to one of the best players in the league on both ends of the floor.

This isn't advocating for bringing him in via trade (although I still would for anyone other than Dame, CJ, Nurk, Collins, or Simons), but I don't get why Towns and Wiggins should be given any sort of benefit of the doubt when they haven't shown much defensively in the NBA.

I'm going with bad chemistry all around. Butler seems to have worked hard but he certainly isn't now.
After reading your post i had a thought and maybe i can give him a bit of a break. What if Butler played hard and the rest didn't really respond? Then Butler gets a major injury playing hard for a team that doesn't and he won't be staying with anyway? That would be a shame.
The whole situation just stinks from every angle. Minny has lost all power in trading Butler. Butler is losing bargaining power over this. Nobody is going to want to go to Minny and play for dudes that don't want to get things right. KAT and Wiggins are both either going to have to leave or find a way to start competing.
Like i said. The whole situation just stinks.

 

[Gronk Brady]

According to Butler, the chemistry is bad BECAUSE Towns and Wiggins are lazy and have poor work ethics. Until this season you can say whatever bad about Butler as a person but he has been known to be an extremely hard worker which is evident by going from the 30th pick to one of the best players in the league on both ends of the floor.

This isn't advocating for bringing him in via trade (although I still would for anyone other than Dame, CJ, Nurk, Collins, or Simons), but I don't get why Towns and Wiggins should be given any sort of benefit of the doubt when they haven't shown much defensively in the NBA.

For a team that couldn’t win even 1 game in the 1st rd of playoffs, you have 5 untouchables in a potential trade for a top 15 player in Jimmy Butler??! Wow, just wow lol

 

[kjironman1]

For a team that couldn’t win even 1 game in the 1st rd of playoffs, you have 5 untouchables in a potential trade for a top 15 player in Jimmy Butler??! Wow, just wow lol

Jimmy Butler isn't acting like a top 15 player right now though?

 

[hoopsjock]

For a team that couldn’t win even 1 game in the 1st rd of playoffs, you have 5 untouchables in a potential trade for a top 15 player in Jimmy Butler??! Wow, just wow lol

For someone who mentions CJ's contract a lot and how he's almost "out of his prime", you sure don't mention the ramifications of Butler staying and making way more than CJ while being older and more injury prone or the lack of talent left if he leaves.

 

[Hoopguru]

For a team that couldn’t win even 1 game in the 1st rd of playoffs, you have 5 untouchables in a potential trade for a top 15 player in Jimmy Butler??! Wow, just wow lol

Id have two untouchables. Dame & Collins.

 

[hoopsjock]

I'm going with bad chemistry all around. Butler seems to have worked hard but he certainly isn't now.
After reading your post i had a thought and maybe i can give him a bit of a break. What if Butler played hard and the rest didn't really respond? Then Butler gets a major injury playing hard for a team that doesn't and he won't be staying with anyway? That would be a shame.
The whole situation just stinks from every angle. Minny has lost all power in trading Butler. Butler is losing bargaining power over this. Nobody is going to want to go to Minny and play for dudes that don't want to get things right. KAT and Wiggins are both either going to have to leave or find a way to start competing.
Like i said. The whole situation just stinks.

On the Wolves boards last night there were people advocating just cutting Wiggins and eating his $146.5 million contract, that's how bad his effort is.

 

[Boob-No-More]

Isn't Butler a "Max Contract" guy also?

No, actually he's not. He wants to be, but he had the misfortune of being a free agent during the summer of 2015 - the year before the new TV deal kicked in that led to the ridiculous contract of the summer of 2016. He isn't just underpaid relative to KAT and Wiggins, based on his production he is underpaid period.

Do you think him playing at full effort would give KAT and Wiggins help defense and solidify that team defense?

Not unless KAT and Wiggins are willing to put in the effort at the defensive end. They didn't do it last year, before all this controversy blew up. That's on them, not Jimmy.

Yeah, at this point the team chemistry is damaged beyond repair. That's on Thibs. The very first time Jimmy came to him and requested a trade, he should have immediately been working the phones. Even after the second time Butler requested a trade and it went public, Thibs refused to take calls from other GMs and insisted Jimmy was not available. This could have, and should have, been resolved much sooner. That's on Thibs, for not being in tune with what was going on and not acting on it when he found out.

BNM

 

[kjironman1]

On the Wolves boards last night there were people advocating just cutting Wiggins and eating his $146.5 million contract, that's how bad his effort is.

Wow.
We bitch about Meyers. At least Meyers tries to play as best he can.

 

[kjironman1]

No, actually he's not. He wants to be, but he had the misfortune of being a free agent during the summer of 2015 - the year before the new TV deal kicked in that led to the ridiculous contract of the summer of 2016. He isn't just underpaid relative to KAT and Wiggins, based on his production he is underpaid period.



Not unless KAT and Wiggins are willing to put in the effort at the defensive end. They didn't do it last year, before all this controversy blew up. That's on them, not Jimmy.

Yeah, at this point the team chemistry is damaged beyond repair. That's on Thibs. The very first time Jimmy came to him and requested a trade, he should have immediately been working the phones. Even after the second time Butler requested a trade and it went public, Thibs refused to take calls from other GMs and insisted Jimmy was not available. This could have, and should have, been resolved much sooner. That's on Thibs, for not being in tune with what was going on and not acting on it when he found out.

BNM

Maybe Thibs has a little too much EGO going?

 

[Boob-No-More]

Maybe Thibs has a little too much EGO going?

Or maybe he's just a really shitty exec that doesn't have a clue about building a cohesive roster.

BNM

 

[BBert]

Yeah makes the commute home in the dark when it's raining crappy.

I hate getting up and the commute to work in the morning when it's dark and raining 1000 times more.

Thank god we changed the clocks back to normal time. It was awesome going out into the daylight this morning.

I fucking hate daylight savings time. The entire justification for it during the war to save energy is no longer valid. So why do we still do it?

 

[Hoopguru]

I hate getting up and the commute to work in the morning when it's dark and raining 1000 times more.

Thank god we changed the clocks back to normal time. It was awesome going out into the daylight this morning.

I fucking hate daylight savings time. The entire justification for it during the war to save energy is no longer valid. So why do we still do it?

I think DST is the way to go, makes for longer days with day light, which we need here in the NW.
And actually, it now is lighter earlier.

 

[BBert]

Not really sure what Seth has done to deserve these minutes. He's been pretty meh so far. Stauskas has earned these minutes more than Seth.

Evan Turnover is my least favorite Blazer. I literally have an anxiety attack every time he has the ball. But Seth Curry is the worst player in the Blazers regular rotation. I wish they'd play Baldwin instead. At least Baldwin's defense is first rate.

 

[BBert]

Minnesota is doody without Butler. Wiggins and Towns don't scare me. They are the definition of "mental midget".

Sitting Butler like this to prove the point smells like strategy on the part of Thibs. No?

 

[UncleCliffy'sDaddy]

Evan Turnover is my least favorite Blazer. I literally have an anxiety attack every time he has the ball. But Seth Curry is the worst player in the Blazers regular rotation. I wish they'd play Baldwin instead. At least Baldwin's defense is first rate.

I agree 100%. I don’t think Curry has looked very good, especially the last 2 games. But I see how the other teams react when he gets the ball in his hands. He scares the shit out of them just on his last name alone. We haven’t had a psych out guy like that since we had Steve Kerr for a year. Curry definitely makes the defense paranoid and that’s a good thing.

 

[BBert]

Towns and Wiggins don’t seem like a good pairing. Neither of them play off each other.

It feels so right to see the Timberwolves management be completely fucking clueless and inept.

 

[BLAZINGGIANTS]

Haven't read through the comments yet, but before I do I just want to say what a disservice our crappy announcers did to Trent Jr. Not one mention about scoring his first career bucket. Don't you have to at least mention it instead of talking about shoes the whole 4th quarter?

It was nice to see the Collins/Nurk lineup for a few minutes. They were a bullshit foul call on Collins and a stupid pass from Turner away from being a 10-2 run while in the game instead of 10-5.

They did mention Trent’s first bucket. At least during the TV broadcast.

 

[BBert]

He always seems really stoic.

Like his dad?

 

[BLAZINGGIANTS]

Also, this is an unbelievable defensive play.



Not a foul.

Kawhi got all this pub for his no look steal, but this was more impressive.

Yeah. It was a lame foul call. The fans let the officials know, too.

 

[BBert]

No one is ever going to remember the outsiders when it gets cancelled at the end of the year.

Shit we have to wait that long?

I love three things about that cycle. That the crowd cheered his double-double (someone's watching the hustle board).
That he immediately shifted to "Swaggy" Meyers
That he dunked on a dude he just charged and got a T for taunting

"Swaggy M" LOL

 

[BBert]

cringe worthy chant

Haha I loved it. If Meyers plays like he did last night (without posing) the crowd will love him. The put backs. The rebounds. The monster jam attempt. The technical. Every one of those people probably dogged on Meyers in the past, but deep down the Portland soccer mom fans felt bad about picking on the special needs kid and are happy for him.

 

[illmatic99]

Haha I loved it. If Meyers plays like he did last night (without posing) the crowd will love him. The put backs. The rebounds. The monster jam attempt. The technical. Every one of those people probably dogged on Meyers in the past, but deep down the Portland soccer mom fans felt bad about picking on the special needs kid and are happy for him.

Was it genuine or in jest? Felt like it was more sarcastic on TV

 

[BBert]

Haven't read through the comments yet, but before I do I just want to say what a disservice our crappy announcers did to Trent Jr. Not one mention about scoring his first career bucket. Don't you have to at least mention it instead of talking about shoes the whole 4th quarter?

It was nice to see the Collins/Nurk lineup for a few minutes. They were a bullshit foul call on Collins and a stupid pass from Turner away from being a 10-2 run while in the game instead of 10-5.

They did mention Trent's first career bucket, mentioned he got it in front of his dad. But just once. And the shoes thing was stupid. Calabro made a comment about it and Hurd just kept going on and on about it. I thought it was a really ageist attack on Calabro, frankly. Like, your old so your opinion doesn't matter. It was way over done.

 

[BBert]

Was it genuine or in jest? Felt like it was more sarcastic on TV

I think the actual chant was somewhat satirical, yeah. The applause wasn't though. If he keeps playing like that, he won't get another sarcastic chant, but the fans will definitely get behind the feel good story of Meyers Leonard grows up.