FanPost

The Rambis Tenure (Red pill perspective)


I've been thinking about writing this for awhile, but after the season everyone and his brother had trade proposals and I did not want to steal from their thunder (I would rather steal players from the thunder but that is another fanpost entirely). Rambis was an awful coach there is no debating that. The team did not play defense, made tons of turnovers, did not realize that there was a

three point line on the court and more (I could go on all day). This post is not a defense of Rambis nor praise to Kahn. Rather some of the positives of having a terrible coach.

1. The Roster is better than the record indicates. No this is not a show of hands question, but I think everyone on CH should be able to realize that this team was better than 17 wins. Sure they were probably 25-30 wins bad, but that's about a 75% improvement! This means that instead of drafting in the lower lottery (purgatory) we were able to get a stud this draft. So I know that not everyone is a fan of an Aardvark's little sister, and he may not be at a position of need. However, I think he will at least be an above average NBA player and we need all of those we can get.

2. We realized the need for defensive on this team. Think about it this was about as bad team defense as we could play and this is about as bad individual defense we could play. That means that any strides toward mediocre (forget average) will make us happy. I don't know about you but I like being happy.

3. Despite Rambis some of our players showed legitimate flashes (think 30-30 or when Beas went off). If they can do that under Rambis just think what they can do with a regular competent NBA coach!?!?!?!

4. Kevin Love improved. I want to give Rambis some credit for this, here is my theory. Klove "Hey coach I'm pretty good at basketball maybe you should play me more" Rambis "No I am your ceiling you won't ever amount to much more than a white hustle player" Klove "Whatever coach I'll show you!" Klove continues to work and improve, ashamed to come off the bench on a terrible team and guess what he's an all-star, averaged 20-15, and forced Rambis to play him. Good work Rambis!

5. We realized that it takes really good players to make the Triangle work. Maybe Winters doesn't deserve the Hall of Fame after all.

6. The team got a huge helping of humility. With humility comes character (or hopefully some good stuff) Remember when Beas said after the first Memphis game that they weren't prepared because they thought it would be easy? Well I guarantee you that no one in the locker room thinks winning is going to come easy.

7. If Rambis would have been better he would be coaching Rubio (shudder). This is a really key point and I think the biggest plus for our horrible record this past year. Can you imagine Ricky running the triangle? Can you imagine 1 more season of STOPS!!! As painful as losing last year was next year would be more painful if Ricky seemed like a bust because of our awful defensive and offensive schemes. Would you rather know that your coach is awful in his second or third season? I would rather know right away so we can get someone that actually works and get this team on the right track.

At some point last year I suggested that the model for the Timberwolves may not be in the NBA, but rather in the MLB. My other favorite sports team is the Detroit Tigers. In 2003 the Tigers set a franchise record for games lost, yet in 2006 they were in the World Series. Besides almost completely revamping their roster and adding good players from both within and without, a major coaching change had to be made. A young promising "brilliant hire" had to be released and an older experienced manager had to come in. In Leyland's first year they won the pennant. Hopefully that's the next move.