And yet there's Tom Thibodeau, distracting his players and barking out plays the second the ball gets inbounded. Jeff Teague, Jimmy Butler or Jamal Crawford are walking the ball up the court, getting the play from the sideline and showing zero urgency.
Have the Wolves ever looked around? Do you ever see the Warriors jogging lightly? The Rockets display urgency even when they're hammering a team by 30-40 points. What about quality organizations like the Celtics, Spurs and Raptors -- do they take plays off? Do they walk through their sets?
The Minnesota Timberwolves have EMBARRASSED themselves through two games of their soon-to-be short postseason run. Karl-Anthony Towns is complaining to the media that he's getting "triple-teamed" on every play? Oh, so Butler, Teague and/or Andrew Wiggins are wide open every play? Why aren't you piling up assists then, KAT?
Excuses, excuses, excuses. Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley KILLED Towns on "Inside the NBA" the other night, and rightfully so. If you want to make an impact, show some urgency and demand a re-post. Kick it out, re-establish position and demand the ball. Then go to work. Shaq and Chuck know what the hell they are talking about.
Just pathetic. Don't even show up if your body language screams we have no chance to win this series. Everyone can see it. Wolves making millions and millions of dollars to quit. Sign me...I'll play hard all 48 minutes.
Despite my disappointment with the Wolves, they'll probably play a close one in Game 3. It's just the nature of the beast. Last I saw the Rockets were -5.5 and 87% of the public was on them. It's a classic "home dog" play; though I would never personally trust these Timberwolves.
We'll see if Minnesota can make it interesting down the stretch. They should really ride Wiggins more; but Thibs has no idea what he's doing. He has to go. The game has passed him by, like Phil Jackson, George Karl and Byron Scott. "Adapt or die," as Brad Pitt says in Moneyball. Thibs wastes athleticism in Towns, Wiggins, Butler, Teague and even Nemanja Bjelica, because they don't push the ball and they aren't being coached properly.
Ultimately, it looks like these guys don't want to play for Tom Thibodeau. They look like caged birds, dying to get out and fly. Athletes wanna run. They want to have fun out there. Run-and-gun is fun, and it gives everyone on the team a rhythm. Thibs represents the Old Guard, and the Old Guard is long gone.
Part II: Why do the Blazers think it's 2001?
Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum are fantastic one-on-one players, and I really do think that Terry Stotts is a good NBA head coach.
But damn, guys, run some friggin' plays. Mix in some ball and body movement. How about some backdoor cuts?
I say they think it's 2001 because these Blazers essentially treat Lillard and McCollum like Shaq and Kobe Bryant. Oh Shaq got a touch last play? Now let's give it to Kobe, and so on and so forth.
The Blazers are getting shellacked by Alvin Gentry's Pelicans because they aren't playing REAL basketball. Portland's playing hero ball, and part of the problem is that the rest of its team isn't very good. They may need to take a look at their front office. They dumped an awful lot of now-dead money on Evan Turner. Yeesh.
Lillard and McCollum look around and don't see much of a reason to pass. Their teammates seem to agree. Other than Al-Farouq Aminu and (sometimes) Jusuf Nurkic, none of the "others" really even try to make an impact.
Meanwhile, on the other side, hellllllll yeah Pelicans! Very happy for them. Anthony Davis is an absolute freak from another planet; Jrue Holiday is playing with bravado and toughness, a deadly combination; Nikola Mirotic is lighting it up from the perimeter and Rajon Rondo is impacting the game in every possible way.
I'd like to take a moment to apologize to Rajon for calling him a "pathetic loser" during the 2015 NBA Playoffs. Clearly, the Mavs were just a bad fit for him. Totally different story with Gentry and the Pels.
And I hate to say it, but this club is definitely better without DeMarcus "Boogie" Cousins. Boogie is a top-20 all-around player in the world, but Mirotic gives the Pelicans the floor spacing they need. What a money trade that was. With Mirotic keeping perimeter defenders honest, the driving lanes open up for Holiday and Rondo. Not to mention -- most importantly -- the clean pick-and-roll opportunities with AD.
I'd like to see the Pels bury the Blazers in Game 4. No need for this lopsided series to continue.
Part III: Billy Donovan doesn't coach. At all.
You have a great chance to go up 2-0 against a very tough Utah Jazz team. All you need to do is run some quality sets and get good looks. It's really not that hard. The real teams do it.
Instead, Billy Donovan lets Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony run wild. Westbrook clearly knows how to pad his stats, but he doesn't know how to close a close game. With his athleticism and ability to penetrate, PG, Melo and Steven Adams should be getting high-percentage looks down the stretch.
Instead, the Thunder just seem like they are panicking all the time. That's a reflection of Westbrook's low IQ and Donovan's lack of control over his team. Like Thibs, he's another one who needs to go. OKC plays exactly the same way it did under Scott "The Robot" Brooks. Brooks may have been saying "guys, we have to score points" and "guys, we have to get stops" all the time, but whatever Donovan is doing isn't much different.
On the other bench, Quin Snyder has emerged as one of the elite basketball coaches in the world. For the second-straight season, the Jazz outperformed the talent level of their roster. That's a direct testament to the coach, as well as the determination and hard work of his players. These Jazz are grinders. They run hard. They cut hard. They move the ball. They want to knock off these big names from OKC.
Ricky Rubio is shooting the ball better than ever before; Rudy Gobert, as always, is an eraser in the paint; Derrick Favors is playing pretty well and Donovan Mitchell is an ABSOLUTE STUD. What a pick! I just texted my Hot Takes Team the following:
"Just thinking about how painful it is that the Knicks took Frank Ntilikina over Donovan Mitchell."
Everyone cried.
In the end, I'm rooting for the Rockets, Pelicans and Jazz in these series. PUSH the ball up the court. SPRINT through your sets. PASS the ball to open teammates. KNOCK DOWN good looks.
Play real basketball. And I'll root for you every time.
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