From the opening tap you could hear the creep. No amount of "Everybody Clap Your Hands," DJ Mad Mardigan, howl-o-meter, or in game hype could mask it.
Apathy is here folks.
Even casual fans have seen this before. Second verse, same as the first.
Tonight, the Wolves reverted to mid-December form by allowing another team’s average (slightly above average in the case of Wes Matthews) wing player absolutely torch them from long-distance. This ugly era was placed into a larger context by the excellent comment about frustration by airete:
We lost the home opener with Love on the bench. Could have been the right call, but it opened the season with more WTF Rambis?
We then beat the Bucks and felt better briefly. Memphis, Miami, Orlando, Atlanta and Houston run changed that. It was feeling pretty bad to be a fan, but I wasn’t jumping on the someone needs to be fired bandwagon. The LA game was a turning point.
Rambis had Magic Johnson talk with the team and they played the Lakers tough. Then they beat Sac away and had the feel good night of the year when they came back to destroy a Knicks team that was beating them. Still didn’t like the rotations, but felt like Rambis was getting through to the players.
Atlanta game I missed, but Charlotte felt like robbery and started the trend of we lose in the fourth. Still giving Rambis the benefit of the doubt. Clippers win keeps that rolling as we see him give the ball to Beasley for a game winner the way we hope it’ll play out in the future.
LA comes in Love lays an egg and Barnes torches us. Disappointment, but that’s about it. OKC again felt like robbery, but plenty of chances to question coaching choices in this one. Losing to the Spurs in OT nothing to fire anyone about. They Golden State embarrasses us at home. Followed by a predictable Dallas loss and another heartbreak vs the Spurs. Disappointment, but no reason to fire anyone.
We crush Cleveland, but the shooting numbers are crazy so the win may not be a fluke, but the margin is to a degree.
Losing to the Knicks in NY is disappointing, but that’s about it.
The 4th quarter crap that allows us to lose to Oklahoma sucks. After this one it feels like someone should take the blame.
We beat Det and that’s nice, but still feeling bad about the Thunder.
The Bulls play actual D with an actual PG and we look like a rec league team. Bad feelings from the Oklahoma game carry over still looking for answers.
Here’s the tipping point. GSW beats us, Phx beats us, Por beats us in what all feels like the same game. We double too much and good shooters are open for wide open threes. Players deserve some blame certainly, but at this point Rambis’ defensive scheme is exposed. Still feeling good about what the guys can do, but really questioning why the same mistakes are happening nightly. Begin to think Rambis may really be part of the problem.
Denver game so close with the 4th quarter run, but just not quite there.
The Clippers embarrass us. There are a lot of reasons we lost this game, but it sucks getting embarrassed by the worst team you face on a 6 game road trip.
Utah loss makes it 7 in a row and this one was thrown away in horrible fashion. If we had employed the "let them dunk" defense we should have pulled it out. So now after having the GSW Phx Por sequence pointing me towards blaming Rambis we have an emotionally damning nightmare at home.
Cleveland comes it and it goes to the final possession. Glad for the win, but beating Cleveland by one isn’t reassuring of the brewing doubts. Beating the Hornets helps so much as we actually beat a good team. Once. 4th quarter melt down vs Denver at home. Sigh. Leading in the fourth feels fragile not hopeful.
Beating NJ at home is nice.
Playing Boston into the 4th at Boston is almost all you could hope for. Had we been trailing and just not able to close it out would be one thing. Blowing the lead again is too familiar.
D league all-stars beat us at home. The bandwagon of something is wrong grows.
I think that pretty much sums it up. Are there any other eras of the season we're missing here?
I've mentioned several times during the year that I have no idea how to write about this squad. It still remains the case. Everything that can be said about this team has already been said. I don't need to tell you about how or why they sink or swim. Even if they make this a close game (I'm writing this with about 4 minutes to go in the 2nd quarter), we all know what will happen in the end: they will blow it in spectacular and predictable fashion.
I suppose we could talk about how David Kahn continues to provide ammunition to those who think he doesn't have the first clue how to evaluate NBA talent. Maybe we could talk about the in game cluelessness of Kurt Rambis. What about a few examples of how Jonny Flynn doesn't know how to play basketball?
Uggh.
I don't know what else there is to say and frankly I'm not too keen about sticking around for the 2nd half to figure something out. At this point of the season it requires some form of higher math to figure out how to find any positives with this team outside of Love, Beasley, and....well, Anthony Tolliver came back tonight. That's awesome. He's a Creighton Bluejay and the 3rd best player on this team.
Well folks, that about does it. I'm off to plug in the Grado cans to the ol' ipod with a lossless copy of Tom Waits' Raindogs while reading a new book on the Kindle and sipping on a Surly. It beats whatever madness might be happening at 600 First Avenue.
Apathy. It's here already.
BTW: If anyone wants to talk about what really matters for the rest of the year, here's the most up-to-date Hoopus Draft Board (with some numbers from past years to help you figure out where these players fit in):
- Ty Lawson PG UNC (2009) 44.2873507936508
- Kemba Walker PG UConn 43.0255946843854
- Kevin Love PF UCLA (2008) 39.6477110753175
- Steph Curry Combo Guard Davidson (2009) 39.214705562293
- Derrick Williams PF Arizona 38.6137479261269
- Kyrie Irving PG Duke 37.4715615758874
- Jared Sullinger PF OSU 37.3929952890247
- Blake Griffin PF Oklahoma (2009) 37.2065922745941
- Demetri McCamey PG Illinois 35.3351535677768
- Alec Burks SG/SF Colorado 34.7312605168383
- Jordan Hamilton SF Texas 33.9128890196843
- Nolan Smith Combo Guard Duke 33.7156540913888
- Marcus Morris PF Kansas 33.6063649222065
- Markeiff Morris PF Kansas 33.2354296221378
- DMC PF/C Kentucky (2009) 32.616960724073
- Evan Turner SG/SF OSU (2009) 31.405750110742
- David Lighty SG OSU 31.3851153042638
- B-Easy Combo Forward K-State (2008) 31.2533456972975
- Kawhi Leonard Combo Forward San Diego State 30.497142452241
- Derrick Rose PG Memphis (2008) 30.1011236685322
- Joshua Smith PF/C UCLA 29.8792681096681
- Terrence Jones Combo Forward Kentucky 29.6836390415071
- Jonny Flynn PG Syracuse (2009) 28.9979330877274
- Blake Hoffarber SG Minnesota 28.7896681873428
- Keith Benson C Oakland 28.4514970014791
- John Wall PG Kentucky (2009) 28.4332739656053
- Deshaun Thomas SF OSU 28.2982662100232
- Cris Singleton PF Florida State 28.2378700159472
- Trey Thompkins PF Georgia 27.8135254636046
- Kalin Lucas PG MSU (2009) 27.1499839694108
- Derrick Favors PF Georgia Tech (2009) 27.0312516175496
- Kemba walker PG UCONN (2009) 26.8691123906706
- Tobias Harris Combo Forward Tennessee 26.3865809303536
- Travis Leslie Combo Forward Georgia 26.3521380468282
- Trevor Mbwake PF Minnesota 26.1247190966477
- Tyler Zeller C North Carolina 26.0747762456226
- Jeff Taylor SF Vanderbilt 26.0688777937191
- Josh Selby Combo Guard Kansas 25.6164965032253
- Russell Westbrook PG UCLA (2008) 25.3676399853189
- Elias Harris SF Gonzaga 25.2398976833977
- Aaric Murray C La Salle 25.2331324253839
- Kalin Lucas PG MSU 24.3035371226524
- Wes Johnson SG/SF Syracuse (2009) 24.277868541669
- Kyle Singer SF Duke 23.8549973717039
- Brandon Knight Combo Guard Kentucky 22.3521841432225
- Chandler Parsons SF Florida 22.2191709317291
- Tyler Honeycutt Combo Forward UCLA 22.0171482466272
- Perry Jones PF Baylor 21.8049801238951
- Scotty Hopson SG/SF Tennessee 21.2731070179534
- Malcolm Lee Combo Guard UCLA 20.6417233774503
- Harrison Barnes SG/SF North Carolina 20.5205418105359
- CJ Leslie Combo Forward NC State 20.4703013708514
- John Henson PF North Carolina 20.2657887296043
- Rodney Williams SF Minnesota 19.2199462542987
- Eric Bledsoe Combo Guard Kentucky (2009) 19.0162057633201
- Mason Plumlee PF Duke 18.999841160523
- Durrell Summers SG MSU 18.2974629817337
- Patric Young PF/C Florida 16.0094124488824
The previous edition can be found here. Just think how cool next year will be with no draft pick to look forward to.