DON'T PANIC

[Ed. Since SnP and I haven't been able to bring ourselves to optimism, I think we could all benefit from McCleak's offering.]

With all the doom and gloom surrounding the Wolves, I thought it would behoove someone to point out why the sky isn't falling.  Since the rest of the Wolves fanbase is tuned out, trading Mike Miller, trading Al Jefferson, imagining an owner savvy enough to fire McHale, or hoping that the Target Center burns down so that we can sow its ashes with salt, bury them at sea, and never again speak the word "basketball" in the Twin Cities again, I guess it has to be me.  So here's some observations/problems, and the solutions (or lack thereof).

1)  Rebounding:  The Wolves are one of the worst rebouding teams in the NBA right now.  They've only grabbed 47.6% of possible rebounds so far this season.  The Wolves have 5 players who are above average at rebounding (six if you think of Gomes as a SF), and those 5/6 have received the most minutes this season.  What does it mean?  Partly I think it's a reflection of how bad the Wolves have started out of the gate, partly I think it's the bad, bad rotations that Wittman throws on the floor.  If your front line is Smith/Gomes/Miller, you're going to lose a lot of rebound opportunities, pure and simple.  Now a Jefferson/Love/Gomes, on the other hand...

2)  Three-point shots:  A lot has been made of this already, but the Wolves absolutely need to get behind the line more often.  They have taken 15.1 3PA a game this season, which is 23rd in the Association.  Now, this is a team with 3 players who shot over 40% last season, which is fairly august company, putting the Wolves up with the Lakers, the Magic, and the Raptors.  Interestingly, only the Magic seem to be embracing the long ball, as the Lakes and the Raptors are shooting 16.6 and 15.6 threes per game.  In any case, the Wolves must embrace their destiny as former employers of Juwan Howard and bombing.  Anything less than 20 per game is a disappointment.  And once they do this, expect them to start winning a little bit more.

3)  Cohesiveness:  This team doesn't seem to have any idea of how to play in the units that are being thrown out on the court.  This is Wittman's fault and needs to end now, today, immediately, this second, etc.  The Wolves have 11 players with over 10 minutes a game, and 9 players with over 90 minutes of playing time, meaning they played over 10 minutes a game for every game the Wolves played, not just their own.  This is disgusting/asinine/idiotic/laughable/fill in the adjective.  Of the top of my head, a recommended rotation going forward:  Foye and Telfair at the point; Brewer, McCants, and Miller at the two; Brewer, Gomes, and Miller at the three; Jefferson and Love at the four; Collins and Jefferson at the five.  That's nine players, all with definable, usable abilities that can be mixed and matched on the court, if you have a coach that knows what he's doing.

Now, a couple of suggestions:

1)  Trade Craig Smith:  Craig Smith is a very good player, a nice guy, someone who has had two of the best nicknames ever on the Wolves, and is utterly wrong for this team.  When Al Jefferson's on the floor he doesn't have enough space to work, and the defense is just a sieve, as it is with everyone (to be fair, he hasn't had a chance to go with Collins, who might be a perfect fit for him as an inside partner).  But why keep a guy who is, at best, redundant?  Trade him to Chicago, who would sell their own mothers for an inside scorer.  Trade him to Boston and let him pair up with Kevin Garnett, who is the epitome of the perfect inside partner for Smith.  Send him to the mad scientist lab in San Francisco, or the hippie lab in LA.  The point is, he's an inexpensive, short contract and a very good role player.  The Wolves should either be able to get a pick and an expiring contract back, or they could bundle him with Cardinal's Not-As-Bad-As-People-Say contract and ship to someplace like, say, Indiana.  The point is that the Wolves could trade him and not miss a beat in the current season, and help out their future prospects.

2)  Have Corey Brewer play point...on defense:  Seriously.   He's big, he's fast, he's strong vs. point guards.  Additionally, the rest of the unit tends to have issues on defense, so you might as well put you may as well put your best man defender where he can do the most good.  If he's playing against a shoot-first guard, even better.  Speaking of defense...

3)  Don't worry about the D:  This team isn't supposed to be good on D.  Arguably, it detracts from what they are good at.  Now, I'm not advocating that they ignore it, and they're giving up a frankly unaccaptable amount of points right now.  But if they can make themselve average on defense, that should be all they need to get things moving for this team.  But to do that...

4)  Stop playing Wittmanball:  A lot of people have been decrying smallball due to the Wolves horrific start.  I don't think it's smallball's fault.  I think it's Wittmanball's fault.  In smallball you play your power forward at center, your tall small forward at power forward, a shooting guard, a point guard, and another guard of your choice.  In Wittmanball you play your midget power forward at center, your average sized small forward at power forward, two poor defending shooting guards, and a point guard of your choice.  Additionally, you play at one of the slowest paces in the league, have your guards drive in 1 on 3 situations, and try to post up at all other teams.  Wittmanball is built for teams that are simply too good, and need to add obstacles simply to make the game competitive.  However it's nice to see that someone has that kind of faith in this team.


If all this isn't enough to brighten the most despairing heart, consider that the Wolves have the following 4 options available:  1.  They follow my advice and get better.  2. They don't follow my advice and get better.  3. They stay this bad and a coaching change is made soon.  4.  They stay this bad and a coaching change isn't made soon enough or at all, in which case we get Ricky Rubio.

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