Timberwolves in Disarray, Who is Buddy Hield?

Last night was ugly. The Wolves got beaten soundly by a 76ers team that has now won four games on the season, and looked bad doing it. David wrote a terrific recap, full of passion and anger about the team and the coaching of Sam Mitchell, and I was thrilled with it.

We are a fan site, not a news site. We try to cover the team honestly and fairly, but we are fans first and foremost, and that means passion and emotion, and I want that to come out in our writing. You can get a straight recap anywhere; what I hope you get here at least sometimes is an intelligent fan voice that isn't beholden. We've had people move on from here to actual jobs in sports media, and I'm always happy to help with that and thrilled when it happens, but we aren't reporters here. We're fans, and David expressed his legitimate frustration last night in a well written piece that was what that game deserved.

I often get told when I criticize the team, both here and on twitter, that I should be patient.

I've been a fan of this team since before KG was drafted, and I still invest an immense amount of time and energy into it; I'm nothing if not patient.

But patience doesn't mean blind faith, and it doesn't mean no criticism.  The implication of the "be patient" complaint is that the Wolves have all of this young talent and if we just wait it will be everything we want.  But the truth is, there is still a lot of work to do both in roster management and coaching, and those are areas where the franchise does not have a strong history. More specifically, the owner has not proven adept at hiring people who are good at those things. So just assuming it will all work out...no. Active intervention by smart people who know what they are doing is necessary.

It also assumes that the Wolves have enough talent to be a championship contending team. That's also far from clear. At the moment, Ricky Rubio, with all his flaws, is the Wolves best player. I bow to nobody in my love of Rubio, but if he's your best player, you probably aren't very good. I expect Karl-Anthony Towns to be their best player at some point in the hopefully near future, but beyond that there are real questions about the talent level through the rest of the roster, and it's not clear that we are getting answers to those questions as we move forward with this season.

So thanks to David for writing from his heart and making a statement that this just isn't good enough. Because he's right. It isn't.

On a different topic: Who is Buddy Hield? Guy put 46 (on 23 shots) on Kansas at Kansas in a triple OT loss (he plays for Oklahoma).  I looked him up: he's a 6'4" senior shooting guard who just turned 22. He's scoring like a beast this year, and shooting lights out. He was a pretty good 3 point shooter as a sophomore and junior too, though nothing like this year so far.

Anyway, he obviously isn't a top prospect at that age and size. Draft Express has him at the top of the 2nd round, though I'd be shocked if he didn't go in the first. Is he Anthony Morrow? Courtney Lee? Better? Worse? I have no idea; have never seen him play and know next to nothing about him.

Next up for the Wolves is a four game home stand starting Wednesday against the Nuggets, followed by the Cavs, Mavs, and Thunder.

What else ya got?

Today in history

1477: Battle of Nancy; Burgundy loses to Switzerland 
1500: Troops of Duke Sforza re-take Milan
1776: New Hampshire adopts first state constitution
1781: British navy led by Benedict Arnold burns Richmond, VA
1875: Grant sends federal troops to Vicksburg, MS during Reconstruction
1895: Captain Alfred Dreyfuss is stripped of his rank after his conviction (later overturned) for treason
1896: German paper reports the invention of the X-Ray 
1905: Audubon Society incorporates
1919: Nazi party forms as German Farmer Party
1925: Nellie Taylor Ross becomes first woman governor (Wyoming)
1930: Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow meet
1957: Jackie Robinson announces his retirement

*History note: I'm going on a Barbara Tuchman jag. Just finished Guns of August about the 1st month of WWI, and am starting March of Folly. She is an awesome writer of history. Incredibly compelling.

Today's musical birthday is a bit of a departure: Alvin Ailey the great American choreographer, born in 1931 (d. 1989).

Have a Tuesday