35-96
by Stop-n-Pop on Nov 12, 2008 9:03 AM CST
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"Every time you thought, 'I just don't know how this is going to go,' we'd turn around and win three or four in a row," McHale said. "With 42 games left to go, we wanted to make sure Randy had the time to get things going."
- Kevin McHale after firing Dwayne Casey, who had compiled a 20-20 record with a lottery-bound team.
Our Beloved Puppies are now 35-96 with Randy Wittman at the end of the bench. So far this year he has resorted to questioning his players' trust of one another, their effort, as well as "pulling the switch" on the starting lineup a handful of games into the season.
Presumably, Witt has his undies in a bunch because McHale is on record as saying the team should be a .500 ball club. We all know this is a pretty ridiculous goal and Witt himself has said as much.
Anywho, Witt has dug deep into his Bobby Knight bag of motivational tricks to get this team moving on the right direction. Coaching-wise, this has meant a lot of crazy lineups and a style of play that doesn't exactly fit the personnel on the squad. Last night's game is a perfect example of this approach in action.
Against the Warriors the Wolves ran out 11...yes 11...players in the 1st quarter of play. The substitutions began when Kevin Love was lifted (with a +6) at the 2:28 mark and replaced with mini-4 Craig Smith. Smelling blood in the water, Warriors coach Don Nelson replaced starting guard CJ Watson with the skeletal 6'10" rookie Anthony Randolph. When Nelson upped the tall-ball ante by putting in the 6'10" Ronny Turiaf, Witt responded with the small-ball duo of Randy Foye and Ryan Gomes. Not surprisingly, the 19-6 lead the Wolves accumulated at the beginning of the game quickly evaporated into a 27-27 score by the end of the quarter.
The fun continued right into the 2nd quarter with a lineup centered around Rashad McCants and Foye. The Warriors countered with a massive lineup centered around the ridiculously long Brandon Wright and Randolph.
This approach became so obvious that the Warriors' announcers were literally calling it the "tall-ball" lineup. Of course, it ran into a bit of a pickle in the 3rd when the Wolves finally got around to fielding a rotation of Mike Miller, Al Jefferson, Love, Brewer, and Foye, but Don Nelson made the necessary adjustments and rode his starters hard in the 4th and overtime while Witt inexplicably rolled out a McCants, Gomes, Foye, Smith, Big Al special over the better part of the last 17 minutes of the game.
Think about this for a moment. In the 1st quarter, with the Wolves up 19-6, Witt installs the rotating door to the tune of 11 different players. He then ends the game by sticking to a 6 man rotation for the final 17 minutes of the game. At every step of the way his flailing efforts were met with a Don Nelson smile and the insertion of yet another 6'10" tall ball player. It was absolutely brutal to watch. In comes a Minnesota Smurf...in comes a Golden State giant.
Even more frustrating was the apparent reasoning for some of these substitutions. Granted, he had already played 9:31 to start off the game, but Al Jefferson was yanked for Mark Madsen after absolutely, 100%-without-a-doubt not trying on help defense when he watched Kelenna Azubulke drive through the middle of the lane for a layup. Madsen played the final 2+ minutes of the quarter and was never to be heard from again. This is even more ridiculous when you take into account Jerry Zgoda's latest column on the squad, entitled Matchups keeping Collins on the bench:
Collins, though, offers something the Wolves so far lack: Size. He's a 7-foot center on a team that plays undersized Al Jefferson and Kevin Love at center and Love, Ryan Gomes and Craig Smith at power forward. After the Wolves traded for Love on draft night, basketball boss Kevin McHale said a Love-Jefferson frontcourt pairing is plenty big enough most nights in a league that has downsized in recent seasons.
Other nights, though, there still is a need for traditional NBA center size.
"We have, for a number of years," Wittman said when asked if his team has missed having 7-foot height. "We've talked about our size. We have to get bigger and as this moves on, we have to look to get him in the game."
Keep in mind that this was written before the Wolves were ripped apart by tall ball. (To play the Devil's Advocate, perhaps Witt is an evil genius and he is using games like the GSW contest to highlight the small ball deficiencies of the team that have been brought about by years of poor front office decisions.)
Along with Collins, the other DNP-CD was Kevin Ollie. Mr. Ollie didn't see the court because Randy Foye, the team's backup 2 guard, went for 38:45 while Sebastian Telfair, the team's starting point, only picked up 14:14 of burn. I mention this because the Wolves' small ball bench was decidedly torched last night while the starters were able to put up some decent +/- numbers. Bassy was having an off night and it was obvious. Instead of working with a Foye/Ollie duo at the point with the group of starters, the Wolves...well, I don't know if there was any rhyme or reason to what Witt was doing last night.
Getting around to the larger issue here involving the coaching of this squad, I think it is safe to say that while Witt is to be commended for pointing out the ridiculousness of McHale's 42-40 comment (he probably knew his days were numbered when he read that in the Strib), and while he was able to keep his players trying hard during a 22-win season, he is performing so far below a reasonable level this year that a change needs to be made ASAP for the sake of the long-term benefit of this club. It's bad. It's really bad. He's flailing about with rotations that make no sense, there is little evidence of player development, there doesn't seem to be a coherent system in place, and the on-court decisions don't seem to have any real coordination with the abilities of the personnel on the court. We'll save the topic of who should be coaching this team for another day, but let's acknowledge one thing here before moving on with the game's bullet points: Witt is a career .333 coach with zero track record of player development. He is who he is and he can't be anyone else. The fact that he's even in the position he is in is an indictment of one person and one person only: The Iron Ranger. Perhaps he should take the chair at the end of the bench for the rest of the year. It's not too late to hold him to the .500 standard he mentioned at the end of last year. Actually, I'd go as far to say that this is the only benchmark that needs to be met this year: Taylor making McHale coach his motley collection of players to a .500 record or else.
Oh well, let's wrap this up with bullet points:
- Randolph + Brewer = All skeleton team
- Overheard from the GSW announcing crew: "This is not practice." (In regards to the poor play of the Warriors in the 1st quarter. "Is McCants playing with teammates?" (In regards to 2nd Quarter Shaddy.)
- 2nd Quarter Shaddy had one of his classic moments last night in...surprise...the 2nd. After the aforementioned quote about playing with teammates, the GSW crew mentioned that Shaddy is a "tough guy" and that he was trying to "intimidate" the rookie Randolph. I'm not sure what this meant but Shaddy did have the famous scowl on full blast and he was bodying up Randolph at every opportunity. As luck would have it Shaddy and Randolph got locked up in a jump ball and before the tip you could see Rashad mouth the words "my ball" to the 6'10" Randolph. He then proceeded to lose the tip. Mission Intimidation....not accomplished. And so goes Shaddy's game. There just seems to be something missing between the player he is in his head and the one that makes its way out on the court.
- Foye went off in the 3rd.
- Why won't Mike Miller shoot the ball? Against Portland in the 4th he camped out opposite Al Jefferson and it worked like gangbusters. This time around...not so much. This was especially frustrating considering the zone Golden State played down the stretch. With two 40% three point shooters on the floor, the Wolves should have been more effective in this set.
- I don't like to complain about the refs, but with 46.8 seconds to go in the 3rd, I think I saw the wort call in NBA history. Andris Biedrins was "fouled" on the way to the hoop but in both real time and replay it was obvious that he wasn't even touched.
- Al Harrington, Corey Maggette, and Monta Ellis did not play in the Warriors' win. I'm pretty sure this means the Wolves are in the cellar of the NBA.
- The Wolves outrebounded the Warriors 18-4 in the 3rd and the Warriors outrebounded the Wolves 16-3 in the 4th. Kevin Love sat out the 4th. This by itself borders on a fireable offense.
Well, that's about it for now. Over at Zgoda's blog he has an interesting post up on wondering what happens next. Go check it out.
Until later.
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This may sound cynical...
but I wonder how much of the inexplicable PT decisions we’re seeing with Smith and Gomes can be attributed to the fact they both just signed moderate contract extensions. That is, Wittman’s clumsily trying to force them into the game are because he’s “supposed” to. I wish they would have just signed one of these two; this has only served to keep an already cluttered/disorganized roster, well, cluttered.
I didn’t watch past halftime. That means I did see 2nd quarter Shaddy in all his glory. Ugh. The maddening thing about him is, I believe, the guy has talent. He might be the most talented guard on the roster, but it doesn’t matter a lick because he’s simply never going to utilize it, at least not while wearing the toilet-bowl-cleanser-Blue of the Wolves. And he’s got zero trade value, which means they’re just going to watch him walk at the end of the year. The danger is he falls into a situation with a real coach that can coax it out of him, but I find that unlikely. Right now I’m looking at a guy in a walk year blatantly trying to pad his stats. I’d almost compare him to a poor man’s Ricky Davis, but I think that may be doing even Pretty Ricky a disservice.
And I agree completely that Witt’s ridiculous surprise about the defense has got to stop. That’s just not who they are right now, and it was never like anyone thought they would be a staunch defensive group heading into the season. If he honestly is surprised about this, I figure either he’s just another dim-witted pro sports copycat who wants to play good team defense because that’s how the Celtics just won the title, or he’s just another dim-witted pro sports coach who puts his own agenda/schemes before, to quote Norman Dale, looking at the hand he’s been dealt, resulting in putting square pegs into round holes (see Childress, Brad). Or maybe, and again, the cynical side of me is emerging, it suggests Witt may be distracting attention away from the fact he has what should be formidable offensive team looking completely discombobulated on the offensive end. Who knows?
I can't decide...
…whether or not I think Witt is coaching like he is to highlight McHale’s poor decisions with this club or if he’s simply in over his head or if it’s a pretty solid combo platter. I 100% agree about him needing to stop being surprised that a bunch of bad defensive players are bad on defense. I’ve said it before: it’s like expecting the Twins to hit a lot of home runs. They simply aren’t that type of a team and I think Witt knows that he’s not the type of coach that can squeeze out the offensive system that is needed here.
I think we’re about 2 games away from seeing a coaching change. I also think they’re close to trading Miller. He’s the only player of value and he could be used to package out Cardinal and/or McCants. I think it’s clear that Foye wins the Death Match in the eyes of the front office. The sad thing here is that the only thing that will change this team is if Papa Glen blows up the front office and brings in an outside set of eyes.
I wouldn’t even be opposed to seeing how much Big Al is worth on the open market at this point. I think they need to bring in a new GM ASAP and let him pick his coach and style and blow up the team accordingly. This isn’t to say that I don’t think this team has potential and could be placed back on the right track. However, with the FO and its history, and with Witt and his history, I just don’t see them being utilized correctly.
The World's Leading Exporter of Small Area Quickness
www.canishoopus.com
I hate to do this,
because who knows who is reading this, and I don’t want to make anyone feel bad. But Wim had kind of a funny idea on last night’s game thread: the “when will Witt be fired” sweepstakes. I think Wim had 23 Dec.; I said 1 or 2 Dec., immediately after the Charlotte loss game. Maybe you’re right and they can’t afford to wait even that long – I mean just in terms of filling seats at the Target Center. Who knows.
by plinytheelder on Nov 12, 2008 12:32 PM CST up reply actions
in fact
one of the other SBN sites has contests, and you can win shirts and the like. I think we seriously need some Hoopus t-shirt contests in here! With guys like secretarykissinger, Auswolf and Wim, you could soon become a global marketing phenomenon!
by plinytheelder on Nov 12, 2008 12:34 PM CST up reply actions
Well...
…we’ll have to talk about getting a t shirt section but I think we can start a when will Witt be fired sweepstakes. I think he’s gone after 2 more games.
The World's Leading Exporter of Small Area Quickness
www.canishoopus.com
My hoopus t-shirt is hereby pre-ordered
by Wim (Belgium) on Nov 13, 2008 1:46 AM CST up reply actions
Coaches
My preference for the next permanent coach (needless to say I agree it’s looking like Witt’s going to fall soon, so we’re likely looking at an interim solution for the majority of this year) would be to poach an assistant from a good, established head coach. Some examples…
Elston Turner: This guy was with Adelman during his Sacramento days for 6 years, and now he’s with the Rockets. Say what you will about Adelman, but the guy knows offense, particularly offense that fully utilizes versatile bigs (Kevin Love could play for Adelman, to say the least). Perhaps Turner could bring some of that here.
Ty Corbin: Working for Jerry Sloan and the Jazz. Former Wolf player, so maybe he’d be in Taylor’s comfort zone.
Mike Budenholzer: Guy’s been in the Spurs organization of 14 years and is now their head assistant. Enough said. Spurs are known not just for their crisp play but also their crack evaluation skills.
Anyway, just tossing some ideas out.
Complicating things, of course, is the FO is going to make the call. Who knows what they’re thinking. Maybe they’re hoping Sam Mitchell’s available. I don’t know.
Also, from a coaching candidate’s perspective, do you really want to come here? You know phone calls are going to go out to Casey, who I’m sure will mention his short leash, or the fact the GM is going nowhere, or that he got overruled on his draft pick preference… I mean, it’s not quite Al Davis/Oakland Raiders toxic, but it could be close.
Mitchell's working with a pretty small margin of error in Toronto
despite winning coach of the year a couple years ago. He wasn’t Colangelo’s hire, but after C. got there Mitchell had one of the best years in the history of the franchise, so not only could he not fire him (he’d have preferred Iavaroni), but he had to give him an extension. But people say it’s a tenuous cohabitation at best…I’d say if the Raptors don’t make it out of the first round this year, with Bosh, Calderón and O’Neal, Mitchell might very well be out of a job.
by plinytheelder on Nov 12, 2008 4:17 PM CST up reply actions
I'd love to see them really think out of the box...
…and bring in a Euro coach. Just for the sake of something completely different. I know it doesn’t make much sense but…well, I’m looking for big changes. I do think that an assistant on another team is the way to go. I also think the Casey business makes this problematic. Why on earth would you want to come here as an up and coming coach?
The World's Leading Exporter of Small Area Quickness
www.canishoopus.com
Yeah I agree
I’d like to see that too. The knock on euro coaches to this point is that they don’t teach D as well, but the Wolves’ D can’t get any worse. And the euro guys also have a reputation for being excellent offensive strategists, etc. I’d love to see a really imaginative coach teaching Love about playing the high post. And God knows the Wolves have some guys with real potential in an up-tempo offence. Put fans in the seats too.
by plinytheelder on Nov 12, 2008 4:32 PM CST up reply actions
man I’m still pissed that they didn’t plant Love at the high post for the entire 2nd half of the 4th quarter. I mean how elementary is this?
Then again I don’t think McHale knows there is a high post.
by plinytheelder on Nov 12, 2008 4:37 PM CST up reply actions
Yep...
…especially when GSW broke out the zone. My god, you attack the middle. Here you have a fantastic passing big man who can hit the mid range j and they don’t put him in the game when the opposition is running a fairly basic zone. It was baffling.
The World's Leading Exporter of Small Area Quickness
www.canishoopus.com
yeah you know I keep thinking I must be wrong – i.e. if they weren’t attacking it at the foul line, like you always do with a 2-3, there must have been some weird Nellie wrinkle. Guess you’d have to ask the players, but I sure didn’t see it.
by plinytheelder on Nov 12, 2008 4:48 PM CST up reply actions
witt lotto
looking at the schedule, we are going to get so CREAMED over the next few games. I’m with SnP in expecting the axe to drop fast — but would you rather do it before or after the celtics/KG visit on the 21st (and the likely humiliation of being 1-10 afterwards)?
i also have some tshirt ideas, but until wittman’s fired i think the old standard, “i’m with stupid,” might be the only real choice.
by secretarykissinger on Nov 12, 2008 4:19 PM CST up reply actions
yep...
..they better play well against philly.
The World's Leading Exporter of Small Area Quickness
www.canishoopus.com
hey got any RSF cassingles you could throw in for the prize?
by plinytheelder on Nov 12, 2008 4:38 PM CST up reply actions
I’m a little surprised your suggestion of gauging Big Al’s market hasn’t been more provocative, but maybe that just shows where we are.
Not that I disagree by any means. Jefferson seems like a pretty cool guy and he’s productive on the court, but I can’t say I’m a huge fan. Subjectively because I find teams that feature players like Jefferson—and the subsequent style they usually must play—rather dull; objectively because he’s predominantly a one-demensional player.
I’d certainly be curious to at least have an idea what his market is. He’s got a lot going for him: prime position, age, contract, numbers… I wonder if some scaled-down version (due to not needing cap filler) of some of the rumored KG offers from the likes of Golden State or Chicago would still be out there. You’d also certainly have more suitors without the cap-busting contract and, essentially, the veto power KG had. It’d be intriguing, to say the least. And they clearly wouldn’t NEED to trade him.
I’ll say this: If Rubio falls in their laps, then I think they ought to take it as a sign and seriously consider it. You’d then have a couple keystones in Rubio and Love who were born to play in an intricate, multi-dimensional scheme. It’d seem wasteful to ask these guys to throw it to Al 75% of the time and then stand and watch as he goes to work. (Although come to think of it, that does seem like a Wolveslike thing to do.)
I think this...
…is the year of buyer’s remorse for Big Al.
It’s pretty hard to tell how good someone really is in a crappy situation. Someone had to get all those points and rebounds and he was the guy.
The World's Leading Exporter of Small Area Quickness
www.canishoopus.com
One Issue, too...
with Big Al is he isn’t quite the smashmouth, put-his-defender-through-the-rim-while-drawing-the And-1 that the team tried to sell him as after the deal (while insinuating again that KG had a little too much softness to his game; incidentally, several blown personnel decisions were made due to this perception: McCants, Foye, and Mike James were all brought in in the hopes they would emerge as “dagger” players). Last season, for instance, Al did draw a lot more And-1s than KG, but overall, they drew fouls at about an identical clip (13% for Big Al; 12% for KG).
Now there were numerous reasons the trade was made. We can all recite them. But in terms of on-court play, the FO believed they were closer to winning than the general public, presumably because the theory was Al’s physical, “smashmouth” style would make up for KG’s brilliant all-around play. And of course we aren’t seeing that. Al isn’t Amare. Carlos Boozer draws fouls at about the same rate as KG and Al, but he’s a more efficient scorer than Al and a better passer. So he isn’t Boozer. He’s more like a superior (and infinitely more personable) version of Zach Randolph. So, where does that leave the Wolves?
After Looking at my Past Couple Posts...
I feel obligated to clarify that I don’t think Al’s a horrible player by any means. I actually think he’s underrated by many Wolves followers as a center. I think he might be one of the top 10 centers in the league. Or at least better than average. No, he isn’t a Dwight Howard-type speciman, but, join the club. Most teams get de-pantsed athletically at the 5 against Orlando and NOLA. Not much you can do about that. And many a draft pick has been wasted on busted bigs. If anything, having both Jefferson and Love on the team essentially “stiff proofs” the Wolves on draft night, which is worth something. (Now if they could just learn how to evaluate backcourt players…)
I don't think...
…he’s a bad player either, and I do think he’s capable enough at center to be a building block of a solid team. Like it or not, it’s Love/Jefferson at the 4/5 from here on out. I do agree with you about the FO’s inability to properly evaluate backcourt talent. It’s the Will Avery disease.
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I like jainfu's comments
about Al, I personally didn’t see them as an attempt to label him a horrible player. I think, as you say, he’s “better than average.” But this leads me to an opinion I have about the Wolves’ roster. I basically think it’s full of “average” or “better than average” players.
Patrick Reusse wrote in a column a couple of months ago that McHale had traded a great NBA player, Brandon Roy, for a guy who is “nothing special.” Admittedly, this is a rather harsh label. And I’m far from advocating all of Reusse’s opinions on basketball-related matters: this is the guy who said Love was a terrible pick…after seeing him play one exhibition game. But basically I think this observation was spot-on. This is the Wolves’ problem (well aside from their coach…): they have a bunch of guys who are average or even pretty good NBA players, but nothing more. I think this can be said of McCants, Miller, Foye, Telfair, etc etc. I think it can even be said of Jefferson: he’s a real good low-post scorer, pretty good at some other stuff, but not one of those truly special guys that comes along once in a blue moon.
The Wolves have exactly one guy on their roster that fits this description: Kevin Love. Obviously it’s early, plus he makes rookie mistakes, plus it’s hard to keep him in the game sometimes with all his fouling. But in my opinion he is the one guy on the team who has a chance of being (excuse the lame formulation) a truly transcendent NBA player. That’s why I advocate building the team around him, in the long run, and building the offence around him, in the short run: he is the one guy who will bring out the best in those pretty good but “nothing special” (I hate to use this formulation, but it fits) NBA players around him.
by plinytheelder on Nov 13, 2008 11:04 AM CST up reply actions
You're right....
unless Taylor shocks us all and poaches a creative and daring GM from outside, someone not currently in his rolodex.
Of course isn’t that always what it comes down to? The front office?
I’ll give McHale this: he’s done a wonderful job of gutting the roster of it’s dead weight. They could go 1-81 this year and I’ll still maintain they’re in a much better position than they were with the dreadful contracts of Mark Blount, Marko Jaric, Trenton Hassell, etc. on the team. McHale’s always been pretty good at trading when he essentially has to. I’ve always felt he did an amazing job handling the Marbury situation, for example.
I also believe that part of the reason McHale’s been kept around as long as he has is because a lot of the bad personnel decisions aren’t his fault. I think Taylor’s done his fair share of meddling. And of course I believe their hands were largely tied during the “appease KG” years.
But, as we all know, McHale’s mostly been a brutal talent evaluator. Unless the player’s shown some track record, more often than not McHale just can’t do it. He’s also consistently lost the forest for the trees in roster construction.
I bring this up because I agree that a change ASAP is essential. Because currently I believe the Wolves are positioned to potentially pull off a Blazers like turnaround, armed with several draft picks and a few tradeable players. They’ve already gone through the purge phase the Blazers did (incredible how distant the “Jailblazers” playing for a half-empty arena seems; that really wasn’t that long ago), now they just need to move forward. The Blazers did the following…
1) Come up with a plan and a personnel profile that suits it.
2) Evaluate well.
3) Be very aggressive in the draft.
4) Never, ever get lazy/reckless with assets.
5) Be opportunistic. (When you get to your 2nd round pick and guys like Chalmers or CDR are still on the board, don’t trade away your pick because you decided to do so beforehand).
6) Be lucky. (Move up in the lottery; take advantage of other teams misevaluating a Brandon Roy).
7) Don’t be afraid to move on.
That’s just off the top of my head, but since 1995 or 1996, has this front office displayed ANY of these traits? I’d just love to see what someone else running the show next offseason could pull off.
EDIT
I should add “Draft Night 2008” to my “since 1995 or 1996, has this front office displayed ANY of these traits?” Apologies. I think they had their best night since 1995 this year.
Not saying they’ve earned a stay, though….They still consistently violate several of the above.
Avery...
Looking back, that 1999 draft may have been the beginning of the end for this FO’s mojo. Wally could play, but they also had Richard Hamilton, Andre Miller, Jason Terry, Corey Maggette, and Shawn Marion on the table at that pick. (Can you imagine a Garnett-Marion combo at forward throughout their primes?) And then Avery, with guys like Kirilenko, Posey, and Artest there. (I’m not even holding Ginobli against them; everybody missed on him as he nearly went undrafted.)
In hindsight, that was an incredible draft, and with two good picks in it, all the Wolves had to show for it was a shooter who chafed with their superstar.
Nice Stat that will Gnash at our Hearts even more and my take on possible permanent coaches...
All-time worst coaches (by winning %)with over 290 career games:
1) Sidney Lowe: 25.73%
2) Tim Floyd: 28.04%
3) Ron Rothstein: 28.54%
4) Mike Woodson: 32.32%
5) Randy Wittman: 32.88%
And we’re keeping this historically awful slug around for what reason?
My thoughts on possible coaches…
Flip Saunders
Avery Johnson
Rudy Tomjanovich maybe…
Maybe Try testing the college ranks by approaching Mike Krzyzewski.
how many more losses
until witt moves up/down to displace woodson at #4? i know there are people here who can do math.
by secretarykissinger on Nov 12, 2008 4:07 PM CST up reply actions
Witt...
http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/MIN/coaches.html
http://www.basketball-reference.com/coaches/wittmra01c.html
He’ll need 6 more losses in a row to make it there. Witt is approaching some pretty impressive numbers. He’s almost at his 300th game and he’s also right around the 200 loss mark. 2 more losses puts him at 200. 5 more games puts him at 300. Will he be around for 300 games?
The World's Leading Exporter of Small Area Quickness
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i kinda hope he lasts long enough to make it (but then again i don't)
by secretarykissinger on Nov 12, 2008 4:21 PM CST up reply actions
Doing some quick math in my head...
….if he is allowed to finish the year and they have the same record as last year, he’ll be 118-252 over his career for a 31.9 ish winning %.
The World's Leading Exporter of Small Area Quickness
www.canishoopus.com
I'm glad you did this
so I don’t have to spend the whole night writing about why Wittman needs to go. But something to add to the list:
This team is built to do three things very well: 1) Shoot from beyond the arc 2) Rebound 3) Score on the inside. Wittman refuses to do 1, puts out lineups that don’t take advantage of 2, and the result is that the opponents focus on clamping down 3. If your coach can’t use the players you have, you can either fire the coach or replace the players. And since only four of the players on the roster are pre-Wittman, it’s gob-smackingly obvious what needs to happen.
well after looking at that
very ominous-sounding Zgoda blog, here’s an opinion from an a**hole. I think this team needs to build its offensive possessions around Love. I’m piggybacking on S/P’s assertion that he’s basically our best player. I agree with this assessment. After the Portland game it was clear, the only guy we had who could play at the level of what I thought were their 4 best guys – Roy, Aldridge, Batum and Fernandez – is Love (and this in spite of the fact that he had a bad game).
Anyways I think the Wolves basically need to do what the Vikes are planning to do with Peterson, and what the Grizzlies are doing with Mayo: give Love the ball and get on his shoulders. Love’s obviously a very different player than other guys like this: not a pure scorer, etc. But he’s clearly the most creative guy with the ball that we have, and it isn’t even close. I say make him a point forward, not in the sense of bringing up the ball, but of trying to get him the ball somewhere in the middle of the court and letting him create. Jefferson would have way more touches this way; I think the 3-pt attempts and percentages would improve too, as everyone knows that the long ball is easiest off an inside-out pass. And Love can hit the mid-range jumper as well as anyone (ok slight exaggeration, but what I’m saying is that’s his game).
Anyways I don’t see what else you do with this team. Get the ball in the hands of the best player, let him facilitate. Jefferson’s numbers will go up, the perimeter shooting will get better and more frequent. I’m trying to think of some witticism to end with but can’t so there.
I gotta admit I’m not really very good at systems and things like that. I know what a zone is and how to attack it, what pick and roll is but that’s about it.. but wouldn’t a triangle offence be good? There are probably more coaches that know this system by now? Or is there something missing?
by Wim (Belgium) on Nov 13, 2008 1:56 AM CST up reply actions
Probably not...
….there’s a reason why Phil Jackson is the only guy who really runs this. You need to have some top-end MJ/Pippen/Kobe/Shaq type talent and the Wolves simply don’t have it. It’s success with those teams had a lot to do with the personnel. They probably could have run anything and done well.
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Something's got to give
1. This next stretch is just going to be BRUTAL. The wolves needed to come out of this first 10% of their schedule with something like 4-4 or 5-3. Now it’s looking like 1-7.
2. What’s killer about that is the WAY they’ve lost these games. 2 in overtime (both of which they should/could have won in reg); two others by essentially 1 bucket they couldn’t get at the end (both Shaddy 3s) — portland (at least to tie) and OKC. More on that in a second.
3. Look at the teams they’ve lost to — OKC (1 win); SA (2 wins); Dallas (2 wins); GS (3 wins). We’ve accounted for 50% of those teams victories! The Wolves are not losing to good, healthy teams. They are losing to teams they should beat if they want to be competitive.
4. Why is that? As I mentioned in another post, part of this is that none of these guys have been in a winning situation in the NBA. They don’t know how to do it. That, and the fact that with Miller being MIA, there’s no one to for AJ to swing the ball to when he’s inevitably doubled that doesn’t have both hands around his neck (when Love’s on the bench)
5. But it’s more than that — the coaching and the rotations in the 4th quarter have been ridiculous. To get outrebounded the way the wolves did in the 4th quarter and not bring Love back is criminal. So is riding a hot Foye for 26 straight minutes. So is NOT doing situational substitutions when you know you’re going to have a dead ball after the next possession.
6. It’s also ridiculous that our “coach” can’t design one play to get our star scorer the ball in a position to score for the second half of the 4th quarter and all of overtime. In addition to his other flaws, I think Wit is just terrible (bill walton) at designing plays out of timeouts. Which is coaching 102 in the NBA.
7. AJ is what AJ is. That’s why people on this board knew that he needed a defensive minded center to partner with him. Maybe in time KLove’s smarts will at least allow them to minimize the defensive lapses. But without someone to protect the rim, a front line with AJ is always going to be substandard defensively. Of course, defensive-minded centers that are actually good are VERY rare. But trotting out lineups that include AJ but don’t include Love, Mad Dog or presumably Collins is going to expose this as a bad defensive team.
8. Again, as anyone with half a brain can see, they should embrace their defensive weaknesses and try to utilize their strength, which should be their offense. We need more tempo and more threes. Of course, we got a lot two nights ago and it didn’t work out, but i would trust this team a lot more if they took 25 threes a night (and still got AJ his points) than if Miller and Foye think they’re going to be Tony Parker and take it to the rack.
9. And if this team stinks (which, apparently, it does), then we need to see the young guys. I get that he can’t shoot and that he’s out of control sometimes, but Brewer needs more time (20 minutes a game is not enough if you’re going to start him). Same with Love. We don’t need more Rhino and Gomes. Those guys will be good role players if we’re good in 2 years. We know what they can do. We don’t need to see more of them.
That’s my rant. I’ll be really curious to see what the team brings on Saturday. My prediction: not much.
Following the church's orders, I suppose.
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yeah he definitely got out his chequebook.
Wonder what that whole bunch thinks of Harry Reid, you’d think he’d have been excommunicated by now. Guess that’s not the nicest thing to say, I’m sure Mormons come in all shapes sizes and political stripes. Anyways sounds like there’s quite a backlash out there, hear about that theatre dude in Sacramento (also a Mormon) who was forced to resign after it came out that he also donated a bunch of pro-prop 8 $?
by plinytheelder on Nov 13, 2008 11:30 PM CST up reply actions
things are pretty hot out here about prop 8
apparently the gloves have come off. in addition to the sacramento theater dude’s comeuppance (and schwarzenegger’s appeal that the vote be overruled in the courts), the most unforgiving among the gays are running a super fierce boycott of this “classic” mexican restaurant called el coyote, because their manager donated $100 to the yes-on-8 people. talk about picking your battles (wtf?). nevertheless, all the city blogs are gonzo about this latter episode:
http://www.losanjealous.com/2008/11/11/developing-following-yes-on-8-donation-discovery-la-blog-commenters-in-full-on-crazy-tizzy-over-ban-of-insufferably-bad-restaurant/#more-10686
anyway, too bad madsen made the wrong choice on this. was he advocating for romney during the campaign too? i imagine kevin love only has an opinion on it if it affects his taxes (so lets not even ask)….
by secretarykissinger on Nov 14, 2008 12:31 AM CST up reply actions
twolves blog
it was kind of nice to see twolves blog call bs on that by the way!
by secretarykissinger on Nov 14, 2008 12:37 AM CST up reply actions
yeah Madsen was pro-Romney
What was that story you sent out about Madsen baking his own bread? Anyways in that story or whatever it was I remember Madsen saying he would be caucusing for Romney because, if I remember right, “I think he has the right ideas.” — Oh I just found it, it was at the Pioneer Press, “MARK MADSEN TALKS BOB SANSEVERE LISTENS ’I HAVE 500 POUNDS OF WHEAT” – however you have to buy it!
ps wow that is some link, those are some pretty strong words about the restaurant – “El Coyote, an insufferably terrible restaurant with strong drinks to make you forget about the mind-blowingly horrible food” – hilarious! Is it that bad? Also love how one of the links gives a link to a blog called “Shut up! I know!” Good times.
Oh also check out the hot reference on “Mad Dog blog” where he gives props to everyone’s favourite former wolf (though he only reached his heights as a starter with the Raptors!): “I’ve played with two big men in my career whose passing skill is off the charts: Shaq, and Oliver Miller.”
by plinytheelder on Nov 14, 2008 6:49 AM CST up reply actions
He supported him....
….for “economic” reasons if I remember correctly.
I’ll never get how, legally, these anti-gay laws can get by without violating equal protection.
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