Soooooooo...

For both teams

He took position in the post, pushed through Bogut, and forced some hard buckets. I want Darko to succeed here, but I’m really digging Pek’s game. If he keeps progressing like this he can be special.

lawson looking good.

Tonight’s my lucky night. :-}

the game. The movie was better than I expected and I am thinking the game will be worse than I expected.

nuff said.

Until the last half of the fourth quarter, when we decided to go on a 6-0 run on turnovers.

Here:

Kahn has said multiple times he didn’t anticipate making a blockbuster trade before Thursday’s deadline and it appears this may be the only move the team makes. There are areas the team needs to improve on, Kahn says, but they will like wait until the summer and — despite the team’s 13-44 record — there are no big changes coming.

“One thing I want to make very clear. I like the team. I like the team’s potential. I like its promise. I like its future. There is no new rebuilding plans coming to the front. There is no wholesale changes coming either the next 48 hours or even this summer. I think most of what we have to do now is some fine-tuning and make sure we cover ourselves in that area.”

Kahn targeted three areas that he thinks the team needs to improve on come summer. The first — and most obvious — is solidifying the point guard position. Despite drafting two point guards with the fifth and sixth overall picks in 2009 and signing one this past off season, the cupboard is practically bare. Jonny Flynn has struggled mightily since returning from hip surgery, Luke Ridnour is a nice veteran backup, the closest Sebastian Telfair gets to the court most nights is warm-ups and Ricky Rubio is still in Spain.

The second piece Kahn says the team needs to find is “another athletic four/five that can compliment the players we have.”

Fans reading this may be wondering, ’didn’t the team just trade for an athletic four/five that can compliment the players we have?’ But again, Kahn admits he “wants to have it both ways.” He wants to see if Randolph can become that player without putting the pressure on him that he has to become that player.

“On one level I want to see what Anthony can do in that role but I don’t want to put the pressure on him that he’s it, that that’s all we can do. But maybe we can supplement him too, this off season.”

The third and final piece of the puzzle according to Kahn is an issue that has plagued the Wolves all season: leadership. The team has used the convenient excuse all season that the lack of leadership stems from the fact that they are the youngest team in the league — and just got younger by trading a 24-year old for a 21-year old — but Kahn says that isn’t good enough.

Rhapsody music?

Probably could’ve used a defensive stopper tonight.

and if either he’s heading back East over the summer, or Kahn will call in their alleged “Gentlemen’s Agreement.” Maybe they’ll let him down easy by saying, “Hey, we tried running the offense through you, and it didn’t work. We’d love to have you stay on as a defensive big man, though.” Either he succumbs, or leaves.

Interesting deal

Been awhile since commenting, but I did watch the wolves game vs. clips before the all star break. Also made some urgent pleas to Kahn to trade for Mayo. Since Chad Ford is my neighbor maybe I can convince him to write up how the wolves should trade for someone at the 1-2 position that can play an efficient game of basketball…Mayo please!

Some things that struck me from the clips game were as follows:

1. Pekovic is improving the most of any t-wolf (assuming K-love was already awesome).
2. The backcourt is really really bad.
3. Ridnour is just below average and well, that’s the best I can say about any of our 1-2 guards.
4. Tolliver makes your heart swell. Plays hard, does all the dirty work, makes the most of his limited athleticism, probably shoots too many 3’s….
5. Darko still looks fairly timid, while showing flashes of brilliance. He is a serviceable center for 20 minutes a game.
6. Love is amazing, went toe-toe with Griffin and DeAndre Jordan and had a solid game.

Some general comments:

1. I like the Randolph trade, even though the backcourt needs serious upgrading.
2. How many wins would this team have if Deron Williams was the wolves point guard?
3. Can Rubio be the point guard that puts this team on a winning path?
4. Wolves still need a shooting guard even if Rubio is the goods. Ellington is a bench player, Lazar is a poor man’s Ellington.
5. Wes Johnson is a natural 3 and can be a solid starter at that position. Nothing spectacular though…

If our starting Center broke his femur, our team would improve. This is depressing.

I definitely think Rambis and Kahn should be gone, and their incompetence is the main reason we have the same # of wins as last year. But we missed 11 FTs and a number of layups / close shots (Rindour’s off a nice feed from Wes with a minute left down 1 being the biggest example, but Ellington missed a fast-break layup and there were a few others). And Rindour had other options than taking that terrible 3, regardless of whether the play drawn up by Rambis was any good.

I liked the fact that Wes was more aggressive and he does make the right pass more often than not. Rambis maybe shortened the rotation a bit (at least till he starts working in Randolph), but at the end of the day this loss seemed more about missed opportunities by the players rather than terrible coaching. That’s progress, right?

that last night’s game was competitive, and that wasn’t the case for the 5 previous games (other than the fluky first one, versus Houston), without one Supercool Beas.

Point differentials:

@ Houston (15-13) 02/08/11: +4
@ Indiana (15-12) 02/09/11: -11
Philadelphia (10-20) 02/12/11: -20
Portland (13-17) 02/14/11: -14
LA Clippers (5-22) 02/16/11: -8

@ Milwaukee (14-13) 02/22/11: -6

Those last three home games were particularly bad. Last night’s effort was closer to what we were seeing earlier in the year, in terms of competitiveness against a decent team.

Crazy deal. Came out of nowhere. I love how the Nets drove up the price on ’Melo for the Knicks, then went out and got their own superstar.