5. Closing games
Last year was not a fun year for the state of Minnesota when it came to end of game situations. Throughout Tom Thibodeau’s press conference, he constantly reiterated that closing games was a huge issue. He did reference the 22 gamess that the team blew double-digit leads.
Clearly, that was one of Minnesota’s biggest flaw last year. No team should ever be able to lose that many times like that. Something wasn’t right and it looks like Minnesota fixed that issue greatly.
How did they fix this?
This offseason, Thibs’ and his staff went out and found player’s that were familiar with his system, and that fit the teams need. This includes players like Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson, Aaron Brooks, Jeff Teague, Jamal Crawford.
Adding these players will hopefully end some of Minnesota’s issues revolving around late game situations. Thibs iterated that adding toughness is a big part of this fix.
Thibs has mentioned closeouts four times now. Obvious that's a big area he wants to improve.
— Dunking With Wolves (@DunkingWolvesFS) September 22, 2017
Losing kills Thibs and you can easily see this throughout the offseason and press conference. One big quote to take away:
"Defense is where we suffered. We have to make that commitment."
Defense will go a long way towards fixing this mistake.
After watching some of the player’s responses, you can really see they are excited about Butler and Gibson. Other players as well, but the biggest thing for them was being able to learn from a previous player who played under Thibs.
That is good news to hear that these players are willing to take a bigger leap towards becoming even better players. Adding these veterans should help this team correct last years issue.