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On the Ball
The Three-Pointer: Coming Home To Roost
Photo copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by Kent Smith/NBAE via Getty Images)
Game #16, Road Game #8: Charlotte 100, Minnesota 90
Season record: 4-12
1. Sooner or Later, Unreasonable Expectations
What odd personality changes seemed to be rippling through the Timberwolves' starting lineup early on in tonight's game against the Charlotte Bobcats. There was Al Jeffeson, barely waiting for the double team to come on the very first offensive possession, zipping the ball to Mike Miller way out on the wing. And there was Miller, not for a second hesitating; no surveying the floor for opportunities to pass and no trying to dribble around his opponent as if he were an orange cone in the parking lot of a driving lesson. Instead, Miller rises and torques his body with that sweet stroke that sends the ball through the twine with barely a rustle. A few possessions later he cruised down the court off the dribble and did it again before anyone got settled. Meanwhile, Jefferson was working his tail off on defense, not only playing traffic cop in the lane but showing hard on the pick and roll. And Randy Foye was attempting the kind of snazzy but generous passes that genuine point guards execute.
It all seemed very hopeful. Then reality caught up. By the end of the game, various weaknesses in the games of Jefferson, Miller and Foye had been exposed. Coach Randy Wittman--with grim reaper Kevin McHale accompanying him on the road to impartially determine whether he made some idiotic personnel decisions when overhauling this team or if the real culprit is Wittman's inferior coaching--tried to modify his snit with enough composure so as not to seem embattled. And the Wolves had been handed their 12th loss in 16 games by a non-playoff team from the Eastern conference.
Begin with Jefferson. Was it mere coincidence that he played his most tentative offensive game of the season on a night when he established a new career high with six blocked shots and began the game covering territory in a manner reminiscent of the days of Kevin Garnett (albeit not as quickly, of course)? I've written before about the difficulty of truly devoting yourself to both ends of the court in the NBA. Two games after Wolves coaches decided they wanted defensive specialist Trenton Hassell to contribute much more to the offense a few years ago, Hassell told me it was exhausting, and probably not sustainable without his play suffering from inconsistency. It isn't just the increased physicality of legitimate two-way play, but the mental strain of consciously changing your habits and ingrained style.
Tonight, Jefferson looked befuddled while trying to get his own shot. (It may be years before I ever write that sentence again.) In 18:48 first-half minutes, he launched just four field goal attempts, making one, missing one, and enduring the other two being erased by Emeka Okafor, one in the paint, the other on a baseline jumper. At the other end of the court, however, Big Al had four blocks of his own, on four different players. As a team, the Bobcats were shooting only 40.5%, and required deft ball movement-- 16 of their 17 field goals were assisted--to get that much. But because the Wolves committied 14 turnovers in that first half (only one of them by Jefferson), making Charlotte plus +10 in field goal attempts, the Bobcats were up 7 at the break.
In the second half, Okafor steadily became more confident, and more dominant, in his matchup with Jefferson. Part of that had to do with the fact that, despite already having amassed six blocks with 3:44 to play in the third, Jefferson was 2-9 FG, and Wittman sat his star through the quarter break and finally brought him back with 7:05 to play (an 8 -and-a-half minute span during which Charlotte increased its lead from 8 to 12). Over the next 98 seconds, Jefferson doubled his point total with a pair of free throws and a layup, and fed Kevin Ollie with a beautiful interior pass that generated a layup +1 (no assist was given, but check the game tape for the gold star dime), whittling the lead to single digits. Then Okafor went to work. On three straight possessions, Charlotte went to their center, facing up Jefferson. Okafor knocked down the shot every time, drawing a foul on Jefferson the third time to complete his 7-point flurry at the line. Before that free throw was in the air, upping the lead back to 12 with 3:44 to play, Jefferson had already been benched in favor of Kevin Love.
The situation was disturbingly similar to the 4th quarter in Oklahoma City, when Chris Wilcox faced up on Jefferson for 15 points, eventually compelling a double team that yielded a pair of wide-open treys that the Thunder converted to tie the game at crunchtime. It may be asking too much for Jefferson to be as refined and accomplished on the defensive end as he is 99% of the time on offense, but bodying up opposing big men, denying position, communicating on help, learning the angles (he took a horrible path toward Kevin Durant on the latter's drive and dunk in Oklahoma City) all should be part of his improvement agenda.
All that said, I don't think Jefferson deserved the scathing assessment provided by Wittman after tonight's game. "They had guys who wanted it more down the stretch. Okafor just came in and dominated us on the inside," Wittman remarked. TV sideline guy Telly Hughes gingerly followed up, asking, "Was it just one of those nights for Al?" But Wittman wasn't having it. "Well, no, you've got to stay with it and do other things. There are going to be nights when you don't have it offensively and if you don't continue to do things at both ends of the floor, then you can't play. I've got to find people to play."
Then there is Mike Miller. For the past three games now, he's been the Miller we knew from Memphis, the guy looking to spin digits on the scoreboard. Along with pumping in 19 points on 7-13 FG, including 5 of 8 from beyond the arc, he also picked up a game-high 10 rebounds and dropped a team-high 5 assists. It was a near-total reversal of the Saturday night home loss to Denver, when Big Al had his offensive mojo working while Miller was missing open jumpers.
Ah, but as good as it was to see Miller singe the twine, corral the caroms, and dish the rock, Wolves fans could have used a little bit more *move the feet* action. Charlotte won this game because they came in ranked last in the NBA averaging 88.62 points per game, and amassed triple figures instead. Much credit for that offensive boomlet goes to Okafor, who went off for 24 points. But the man Miller was guarding much of the evening, Jason Richardson, put up 25. Where Okafor was minus -1 in 37:58 minutes of play, J-Rich was a game best plus +15 in 37:53 of burn. (To be fair, Miller's minus -2 was best among the Wolves' five starters.) Yes, Miller on Richardson was obviously problematical going in, and yes, it certainly was a rotten time for Corey Brewer to tear his ligament of be lost for the season. But what was it Wittman said tonight? "If you don't continue to do things at both ends of the floor, then you can't play."
Finally, there is Randy Foye. After Foye scored 25 points (11-20 FG) and had six assists (4 turnovers) and 5 rebounds in the loss to Denver Saturday, Wittman lamented the fact that he only got to the free throw line one time. Tonight, Foye's 23 points, 4 assists (3 turnovers) and zero rebounds notably included a 7-8 performance from the free throw line. "At the start of the game, we didn't get good guard play," Wittman said to Hughes and other assembled media in Charlotte. "We turned it over. We weren't into things. The right people weren't getting touches early on. When you turn it over, you can't get your defense set... We've got to start finding some veteran guys who can follow the gameplan and what we want done. You can't do it selectively... I thought we needed to get Randy off the ball and let Kevin [Ollie] run the show and I thought he did a great job of getting us into things. And Randy became more aggressive. He got to the free throw line. He was a different player than he was after that first half."
Well, there's a novel concept: Maybe Randy Foye isn't a natural point guard after all! Maybe he's more comfortable and better suited to being a guard who plays off the ball! If only that had been more obvious when the Wolves drafted him.
2. Same As It Ever Was
It was mentioned more than once tonight that the last time the Wolves and the Bobcats met, Jefferson tied his career high by going off for 40 points. While that stands in stark contrast to Big Al's 8 points this evening, other parts of tonight's game and that contest last April 7 are pretty similar. First of all, despite Jefferson's scoring explosition, Charlotte won the April game 121-119. The interior defense mounted by the smallball lineup of Jefferson and Gomes in the frontcourt resulted in Okafor and Nazr Muhammed combining for 16-21 FG, propelling Charlotte to team-wide shooting accuracy of 62.3%. Responding to a question about Jefferson allowing Muhammed to hit his first eight shot attempts, Wittman is quoted as saying, "He's got to learn. He's a young kid. We all get paid for 82 games and there's no games you take off and just play through. We don't do it that way. You get embarrassed a little bit, and then he wakes up and plays pretty hard."
The Wolves had two chances to force overtime in the final seconds. On the first one, Foye's pass to a cutting Jefferson went out of bounds. On the second, Jefferson missed an open, albeit fairly long-range 19-footer. "We should have scored on both of them," Wittman is quoted as saying. "That's how you win games like that, by making plays down the stretch."
3. Before We Go...
This trey has not been kind to Wittman. Quite frankly, it is much easier to criticize him right now than to find positive signs. No doubt Kevin McHale is compiling his own ledger of positives and negatives as he follows the team. But let's keep some perspective here. McHale engineered the ouster of Flip Saunders after he judged that Flip could no longer handle a roster that included Garnett, Sprewell, Cassell, Szczerbiak, etc. Then he replaced Dwane Casey because he didn't feel Casey's 20-20 record and 8th seed standing in the playoff race demonstrated enough consistency with a roster that included Garnett, Davis, Blount, McCants, etc. Now the pressure is inevitably mounting on Randy Wittman because McHale has stated that a roster with Jefferson, Miller, Foye, Gomes, etc. should win 40 games this season.
I'm no genius, but in predicting 30 wins for this squad this season--as of now an unduly optimistic assessment, but sharply scaled back from McHale's rosy vision--I said the biggest potential drawbacks and question marks were whether or not Randy Foye could truly be a point guard, and whether a front line that predominantly featured Jefferson and Kevin Love could adequately defend in the low block. Those were--and remain--obvious concerns regardless of who is coaching this team. An unhealthy number of coaches and players have come and gone in the past four-plus years, but the losing has continued to escalate. Draw your own conclusions.
43 Reader Comments
I watched a smidge and listened to a little more last evening - and I didn't bother playing it back late, opting instead for a decent night's sleep. But between what I heard, saw and read here and in the Strib, it feels like the wheels are dislodging for the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Contradictory quotes in the paper, more than a twinge of desperation in the tone and content of Wittman's postgame, Ollie and Cardinal getting 4th quarter run - these are not leading indicators of a winning program.
And while we are between fishing and ice fishing seasons, the fact that McHale wants to be closer to the team all of a sudden smells, well, a little fishy.
I thought these meaningless, horrible road trips weren't supposed to happen to this team until sometime in Febraury. I guess they are ahead of schedule.
I have never been a fan of Wittman - I believe his record in his 4 seasons of being a head coach speaks for itself. But this quote in Jerry Zgoda's blog today:
“I’ve got to find some guys — and probably some veteran guys — who are going to follow the game plan and what we want done.”
absolutely kills me. To me, it says 2 things:
1- Whittman feels he is fighting to keep his job and keeping his job is going to be the #1 priority. If that means we bury our young players, the ones who are making mistakes and not following the plan, well so be it.
2- There is serious disconnect within the organization as to what the goals/priority is for this season. Is it play competitively right now or is it play the potential to see if it can become a competitive team? I though the Blue Print was the latter.
Because of the economy, I downgrade from a full to a partial season ticket package this year. I have only seen 2 games in person. Frankly, I am not interested in watching Cardinal, Ollie, Collins, etc., get minutes just because they can run the 75 pages of plays in the play book properly. If that is what Whittman wants, I can guarantee even a bigger downgrade in my ticket package next year.
I want to see Foye, Brewer (my favorite player - man I am going to miss him), Love, and even McCants play. If Love gets beat up one game - so be it. Like Brewer, I think Love will learn quickly and be a far better player next year. If he does not learn or adapt, than frankly the team has learned something about him and his long term role in the organization.
My last comment. For the last several years, I have purchased a 1 game use of a suite for a holiday break game to entertain my best clients. This year, I have Dec. 29 against Memphis. I have always had a full house (many times buying extra tickets) As of today, I have only 3 people who have accepted my offer for the game. Even the most hardcore fans, don't really want to go. There is simply no interest.
For that reason alone, changes need to be immediately.
Just A Fan--
At the risk of sounding defensive, the quote you cite in Zgoda's blog is likewise in my piece. I understand that my trey wasn't posted until 9 this morning, and early risers go where the information is most current (I'm working on more rapid turnaround from completion to posting with the new format here).
Plus, as someone who is usually less reliable with verbatim quotes at home games than the beat writers (I frequently forget my tape recorder and rely on frenzied-scribbled chicken scratches in my notebook), I become more accurate when I'm taping the road games and Fox Sports goes to Wittman in the postgame. In today's Strib, Zgoda has Wittman praising Jefferson's six blocks before he talks about guys wanting it more down the stretch and Okafor dominating. In fact Wittman ripped Jeffeson before Zgoda himself pointed out Big Al's career high, at which point Wittman offered his qualified praise. I think the order of those things is significant in context. I'm not trying to criticize the reporting of Zgoda, who, unlike me, was at the game, was part of the q&a session, and needed to pound out a story on a deadline at least four hours earlier than the 3 a.m. when I finished this piece. But I do think in this case the context matters.
A few thoughts:
1) This may very well be our best starting five, but is Foye-Miller-Gomes-Jefferson-Collins one of the slowest starting fives in the history of the league? It probably didn't help last night, when Felton-Richardson-Wallace are a lightening-fast, if not super-skilled, trio.
2) Foye's perimeter shot is a beauty...I fully expect him to regain the 40% touch that he showed last season. As always, I just hope that it happens when he is playing off the ball.
3) Still not much to get excited about from Love. What happens when well-coached teams are told "DON'T BUY THE HEAD-FAKE!!!"? He stops getting to the foul line and his scoring (which has been decent, but not great) is almost entirely removed from his game. Even with that said, I'd really like to see him get 30+ minutes per game. This isn't football, where young quarterbacks take a physical (and resulting emotional) beating on bad teams. Love could be improving at a faster rate if he was committed to with a starters' load of minutes--or something close to it. Brian Cardinal doesn't need those nine minutes, last night.
Britt,
Not defensive at all. In fact, maybe if we all got defensive, it might carry over to the team on the basketball floor!!
I read Jerry's quote at breakfast (almost drowning in my orange juice in he process) and was so PO'ed that it has stayed with me all morning. I kind of glanced over your report of the same interview. I agree that context is important. Yet my feelings remain the same - I want to enjoy young players playing more freely toward the future rather than veterans running plays for the present.
I couldn't agree with Just A Fan more about what the blue print of this team should be. As a fan, I find myself getting exponentially angrier every time Love or Brewer(sigh) was well-rested but not on the floor. Witt is obviously coaching for his job, and it's to the detriment of the long-term development of our young guys.
An example that sticks out in my mind from a few games ago (I don't remember which one) was when Witt called out Kevin Love for taking long jump shots when they weren't falling for him. Something along the lines of "(Love) is taking 20 foot shots and he can't even hit a shot from 3 feet). Well Love was already playing much more tentatively then he had been early on, and this just exacerbated the problem. We NEED a low post scoring threat that can hit a jumpshot, and Love can hit that shot! The last thing Love needed was his coach essentially telling him he's not allowed to take those jump shots anymore, when the rookie was only having a cold spell. I don't think I've seen him take a jumpshot in the last 4 games now, and it's safe to say we can blame that on Witt.
Here's hoping that future T-Wolves coach Jerry Sitching is a little better.
Andy G,
Interesting comment about Love and his head fakes. I've been particularly pleased with his ability to draw fouls in the post, often with head fakes or good body position as he goes up for his shot.
But, maybe these opportunities will decrease in the future. I think, however, that if players stop bitting on the head fakes that he will be fine. He already has a quick hook shot in his arsenal and I think he'll be able to get that off if players do not react to his fakes. Just a thought.
OK.
It seems more and more obvious to me that Kevin McHale seems to have some sort of "vision". It might even be appropriate to call it tunnel vision. Or a hallucination. It seems apparent that he is out of touch with the realities and motivations of a typical current NBA player.
Let us recall that McHale came from Hibbing, starred for the Gophers, and then the Celtics. Now what I'm about to say could be construed as a racial thing, but it's really about culture. Kevin McHale simply has no formative background that allows him to relate to the inner city game of basketball and psyches of the vast majority of the athletes that play it. I'll opine that his perspective has always been twenty years behind the current realities.
I've said this before, many times perhaps. Kevin McHale seems to be trying to recreate his golden era with the Celtics. Perhaps not a bad goal, but he's no Red Auerbach. Further, the times have certainly changed, notably the money involved, that the league has become a "players league", and the cultures on the playgrounds of America are far different from that high school gym in Hibbing.
And then there's the whole concept of McHale's "vision" of a team built around some sort of McHale clone. I believe that this was the single biggest problem between Kevin Garnett and Kevin McHale, with Garnett resisting the pressures to take the pounding inside -- realizing that his talents (and especially his body) were not right for that. But did McHale ever adjust to the spectacular and unique talents of KG? I think not.
And that's pretty much my point.
McHale doesn't seem to see players for what they are and instead sees them through some sort of wishful / wistful lens. Remember him castigating Sam Cassell for not playing smashmouth basketball? Sammy was a 15 year NBA veteran who had never played that way, why would McHale think he should, or would?
With regard to Wittman, so much of what he says, and the inexplicable things that he does appear to originate with McHale. He seems to be a rock solid McHale party line aparatchik (i.e. appointed to his position on the basis of ideology and loyalty rather than competence, with little or no actual training for the job). When I read that McHale went with the team to Charlotte, my first thought was that he went to try and lend the force of his, um, personality to Wittman's coaching messages.
But indeed, perhaps Wittman is being prepared for the axe -- even as Wittman cries out that he is looking for players who "can follow the gameplan". But even if he is about to be axed, a new coach won't help the Wolves because it's the same mismatched set of players and it'll be the same fantasy gameplan. Especially if that new coach is named McHale.
My conclusion?
If the Wolves are to achieve a level of competitiveness that would prevent Glen Taylor from either selling or moving the team, then the first step to take is to fire (retire, whatever) Kevin McHale. Send Wittman with him.
You could be right, Nate, and maybe Love will become an all-around, consistent scorer. It just seems to me that he's too short and unathletic to get off good shots in the paint. Compared to Jefferson, he's shorter, less athletic (and Jefferson is a pretty average athlete) and doesn't have that once-in-a-generation set of moves to score with. Right now, it looks to me like his only hope is to bull his way toward the basket, make a desperate up-fake, and try to create a ton of contact, while the ball flies nowhere near the basket. He's gotten some calls (and he's a great free thrower, which is nice) but I feel like the 6'10" defenders will soon realize that they should just play him straight up and force him to make a tough shot.
I only caught the last 1.5 quarters because my League Pass was malfunctioning for the first 2.5. When I turned on the television, Cardinal was beginning a long stretch of run, and then Ollie joined him. I figured that Jefferson must've gotten ejected, because he wasn't out there. It turns out that Jeff simply wasn't "following the game plan." It's hardly a new joke, but one wonders what the game plan is? In addition to its lack of athleticism, the team looks painfully disorganized. Most of this can probably be attributed to Witt; some can probably be attributed to Foye. Still, Foye is playing a lot better lately and is finally giving fans reason to be optimistic, even though his defense is terrible.
Does anyone know whether Carney is a good defender? Since we acquired him, I've always looked at Carney as nothing more than a Kirk Snyder type of stopgap, especially given how bad he looks offensively. He's a much worse shooter than Brewer, and his shot is uglier than Bassy's. But if Carney is a decent defender, we actually might need him. Miller will probably end up playing some at the three now that Brewer is injured, and Miller hasn't been able to defend some of rangy, athletic swingmen like Jason Richardson and John Salmons (yes, I just complimented John Salmons!). Does Carney intrigue anyone here, or do most agree that his skills lag too far behind his athleticism to make him a potential rotation player? It might be too early to tell, but I'm leaning toward the latter. I guess we'll probably find out, if Witt decides to give Cardinal's minutes to him.
AndyG - slowest starting five?
Bird/Parish/Johnson/Ainge and McHale immediately come to mind.
More obscure, just about any of the Denver Nuggets teams of the `80s featuring the likes of Wayne Cooper, Dan Issel, Alex English, Kiki Vandeweghe, Calvin Natt, and T.R. Dunn.
The problem is that McHale believes Jefferson is a cornerstone to be built around, when in fact he's not a franchise changing talent. Sure, he's a major piece of the puzzle, but not someone that you construct a team around. So McHale pulls off a trade that brought in two complimentary players in Miller and Love instead of keeping the guy that had the best shot at being a second major piece of the puzzle - OJ Mayo. That's on McHale, not Wittman. Taylor needs to wipe the slate clean and bring a whole new crew in.
Britt,
Should the Wolves play zone defense? I feel like Al can be a better shot blocker and with Athletics 3s like carney and Gomes; we can be effective.
Rich--
There are a few things that would make me leery of the Wolves running primarily zone right now.
* Wittman, as a disciple of man-to-man coaches Bob Knight and Mike Fratello, wouldn't trust it.
* The best offensive lineup is pretty slow, not good for a zone at the other end. You're right about Carney's suitability, but I'm not sure emphasizing Carney is any form is good long-term planning for this franchise. And as much as I like Gomes, the most athletic part of his body is his brain.
* It is hard to get players--especially those who have extensively played college ball--to believe you work as hard playing zone as you do man-to-man. There are some tenacious matchup zones--like John Chaney at Temple ran--but getting pro ballers all in in terms of desire and dedication to zone is problematic.
Rascal Flatts,
I'm still not sold on Mayo. He's been very good, but I'm not sure he's a superstar or a cornerstone. Perhaps I'm being an apologist for McHale.
From David Thorpe (ESPN) in his Rookie Notes:
"Memphis' record might be miserable, but the Grizz must be thrilled with Mayo, who continues to score lots of points with efficiency. However, there is some concern over how he's doing that. Mayo currently gets 80 percent of his shots from the perimeter, but only 37 percent are assisted. For comparison's sake, consider two other excellent outside shooters who play off the ball: Richard Hamilton (82 percent of his shots are from the perimeter, 75 percent assisted) and Michael Redd (74 percent of his shots are from the perimeter, 73 percent assisted).
This suggests that Mayo is very adept at getting his own shot. But combine that with his 2.2 assists per game and an ugly offensive picture forms -- he's not (yet) helping anyone else get involved in the offense. Memphis is fifth-worst in the league in offensive efficiency and dead last in assist rate."
In the past, Thorpe has also criticized Mayo for his inability to get to the free throw line in a half-court offense. Mayo usually gets to the line from the fast break. This has often been the knock on Mayo, that he can't get to the line and that he can't create for teammates.
But, who knows, the season is young, maybe Mayo will continue to improve. I'm just not sure he would be the second major piece to the puzzle.
I still hope that Kevin Love is going to continue to improve and be (a different yet) equal player to Mayo. I base this mainly on my insane desire to see the Twolves climb out their awful situation.
I like Kevin Love, hopefully for the Wolves he'll perform well enough for wolves fans to avoid all the "what ifs." It seems like we've been saying that after every draft.
Granger over McCants
Roy over Foye
and who should we have drafted instead of Brewer?
I'm not sure if the wolves lack luck or scouting, or both. Lacking luck is slightly less depressing.
Britt,
My conclusion is that it is time for McHale to act and fire Wittman. In fact, I think McHale should take over the reigns as coach again and be accountable for the team he has put together. McHale has been a pretty bad GM over the years, but I'd argue that over the last year and a half he has done remarkably well with trades and clearing cap space. Despite all the losing, the wolves future isn't as dark as people think. McHale has shown that he can coach, how about a cameo for at least the rest of this year.
Some advice for the new wolves coach or Wittman if he wants to keep his job:
Play the kids, and keep an 8 man rotation.
Give Foye 40 minutes a night splitting between point and shooting guard. Give Telfair the other 20 minutes at point. No Ollie.
Give Love at least 30 minutes of burn a night. No Cardinal.
Get Love on the floor more with Big Al, even play Love at the 3 if necessary.
If Brewer hadn't gotten injured, it would have been great to see him play 30 minutes a night.
Get McCants out of the doghouse and let him play. Even if the wolves trade him, his talents need to be on display. He has no value to other teams otherwise.
8 man rotation
Foye
Miller
Gomes
Love
Jefferson
Telfair
McCants
Smith
If we had Granger than Brewer would be kind of redundant (although looking at the current roster it seems as the McHale has never heard the word).
Where to begin? We could have:
Joakhim Noah
Spencer Hawes
Thaddeus Young
Sean Williams
Rodney Stuckey
None of these guys are exactly superstars yet but I'd take those top three over Brewer.
Say what you want about Larry Brown, but he wouldn't even have to pay much attention to the game to outoach Wittman. I did not watch much of the game, so I can't comment on Zgoda's remarks about the defense on Jefferson, but one would think that Brown would exploit our weaknesses as well as anyone.
There was always a lot of talk about Casey and his knowledge of the games and of other teams sets. Don't really hear that about Wittman, who seems better suited to being a screamin' his lungs out college coach.
Dr J-
That is a really sensible post. My only tweak would be to start McCants at the two, slide Miller to the three and bring Gomes off the bench. The Wolves aren't constructed to win ballgames with defense and the young guys (Bassy included) aren't going to get better on either end if they can't count on a steady dose of at least 15 to 20 meaningful MPG.
This is the core McHale has assembled and invested in. It needs to gel and roles need to be defined. Using Ollie, Cardinal and Collins as veteran stopgaps is plain silly. Stopgaps for what? Until LeBron, Melo or Bosh decide that Minnesota is the place for them?
The 2nd half benching of Bassy was BS. He didn't have his best offensive shift, but he was -1.
Hey everyone, look on the bright side... at least we won't have to give our inevitable Top Ten pick to the Clippers again this year!!!
Wooohooo!!! Sigh.
ditto on the rotation, dr. j. well said.
Here's a few questions I've been thinking about:
1- Does Witt have it right? Is this team filled with guys who require a slow pace system with lots of free throws to force early bonuses in order to win?
2- Are their 40% 3 point shooters paper tigers?
3- Is Witt engaged in open warfare against McHale and his personnel decisions? That "off the ball" comment at Foye as well as playing Collins, Ollie, and Cardinal are pretty frontal assaults on the Iron Ranger.
4- Does Papa Glen's promise of employment allow for such a battle to take place and can Witt win for the benefit of the fans and long term promise of the club?
5- Is there a line to be crossed with a coach taking pot shots at the players when they are nothing more than thinly veiled shots at the front office? Even if I knew my boss was going after upper management, if he were taking shots at me and my co-workers in the process, I'd get a little pissed.
Maybe we fans completely overvalued the ability of this team to run *any* system at all. Maybe he's patching it together the best way he can: low turnovers, no gambling on defense, as many free throws as possible, and basic defense.
I'm finding it harder and harder to watch this team. They are on the verge of having 4 1st rounders and cap space and the same group who crashed the car is still behind the wheel. They've been blowing drafts since 99. They've been screwing up free agent signings since T-Hud. They've been overvaluing internal talent since Wally. Seeing McHale still in the front office is like seeing Rummy back at DoD. Change. Si se puede. This club will continue to downgrade as long as the same group is in charge.
Where is the bottom?
When solid, regular posters here lose their appetite for this team, what's left?
One of the inducements this season for season ticket holders is the perfect attendance "contest". As long as at least one of an account holders' tickets gets punched for each game they remain eligible for prizes. Through eight home games, only 656 account holders are still eligible. The Wolves already have STH's money - this is about reducing empty seat syndrome.
Think about that - only 656 account holders have gone or found a use for their tickets less than 20% through the season. That's probably competitive with the Swarm. And yet the status quo drumbeat goes on.
Well said, SnP.
Here's another question? What will be the straw that breaks the camel's back? That is, if McHale doesn't get fired for these voluminous past failures, what will it take? Even lower attendance? Public humiliation? A players revolt? A media backlash (which is partly public humiliation)? I'm just curious why Taylor seems to refuse to fire McHale despite all the things we always complain about. He hasn't been reluctant to make other personnel moves. Why the unconditional loyalty to McHale? I just can't understand it.
I hope this html tag works, but here's an illustrated history of being a Wolves fan:
If it doesn't work, I put it up at Hoopus over here:
http://www.canishoopus.com/2008/12/3/678485/witt-s-end#comments
Yeah, that captures it.
S+P--
That was a superb post. (For those who don't know, he runs his own excellent site at canishoopus.com) Here's how I would answer...
1--The Wolves essentially have two platoons. Most of the veteran talent and supposed cornerstones are best playing the way Witt is encouraging--half-court structure with an inside-outside orientation. The starting lineup the team has been trotting out the past few weeks--Jefferson, Gomes, Collins, Miller and Foye--should have easily recognized, well-defined roles and a formidable inside-outside offense. If and when it breaks down, I think the tweaks should be lifting Collins for Ollie and going smallball. Yes, I know how much I've railed against it, and that hasn't changed. I'm talking about when teams throw out ultra small lineups. With just one sub, the Wolves could still match up on defense and not distract from their standard half-court package.
Why this team doesn't play a second go-go unit of Love, Smith, Carney (Brewer was more ideal), McCants and Telfair is beyond me. This would be a unit that wheels and deals and runs constantly, going against either the ending stint (and thus tiring energy) of the opposition starters or their early second-quarter, late third-quarter bench players. Whatever one thinks of McCants and Smith, they have a special chemistry unlike any other pair on this team--play them together in an uptempo mode that hides their hideous D. That also gets Bassy constantly in transition, where he needs to be. And it exploits Love's outlet passing and gives him a chance to think less and play more in a freewheeling game that suits his offensive skill set.
2--No paper tigers. Miller has proven himself for years and years. Wittman's verbal lashings have obscured Foye's recent resurgence, especially from outside the arc. After going 7-35 before his Pistons breakout game, he has hit 7 of his last 15, more in line with his first two years, when his 3pt% was 37% and 41% respectively. Whether or not McCants can be rescued remains to be seen, but he won't finish the year making only 24.4% of his treys (or 37% of his FG overall). I don't expect Gomes and Bassy to continue to shoot better than 44% from long range, but at least Gomes has great shot selection and Bassy should be looking for dimes anyway.
3--McHale has always liked Wittman's toughness and willingness to hold his players accountable. I'd actually think Wittman's deployment of the obscure vets is more showing McHale he's doing everything possible to motivate the team. As for Foye, it may be that a consensus is coming among the front office about Foye. He strikes me as a perfect Timberwolf in terms of marketing--I've never heard any civilian do anything but gush about his behavior off the court, and he is relatable to many Wolves fans. Thus, especially if those McCants trade rumors were true, the notion of moving Foye over to off-guard more frequently could be purposeful from folks beyond Witt.
4--Getting rid of Randy Wittman will annoy the hell out of Glen Taylor on a variety of levels--financial, structural, public relations. When McHale fired Casey, I wrote that he was out of scapegoats. I honestly don't know what's going to happen here.
5--It would not surprise me if Wittman had many more enemies than friends in that locker room right now. The Wolves are not only underachieving on preseason expectations, but they are doing it under the lash of a coach who has established precious little continuity 16 games into the season.
AK asks "where's the bottom?"
Maybe this is an indication. After waiting all summer for the Wolves season to begin and having to wade through several preseason Vikings "On the Ball" posts from Britt while on the edge of my seat waiting to the first "three pointer," I am now requesting, pleading with Britt to give us a break from the Wolves and post a Vikings thread with his take on the William's Wall suspensions and what it means to the Vikings playoff chances.
Now, that is rock bottom for a Wolve's fan.
Where is the bottom?
I think the Wolves should go after Marbury, if he's released or bought out from New York. Now THAT is the bottom.
two general points to all the fine commentary:
- I think Love's outlet passing ability is overrated. The pro game is too well scouted for people to fall asleep on him and the defending players are too athletic for it to be anything like an effective tool.
- Foye is too small for meaningful minutes at the two guard. He is at his best as a combo guard playing the point next to a play making 2 or 3. For me, he's just not good enough of a player to be a marketing draw.
It's difficult to know how much blame to apportion where. It was somewhat classless and definitely bad timing of Taylor to blame KG and Flip for things that happened in the past, but both of them had stakes in the mess of the last 3 KG years. McHale obviously has a large share of it; however, it'd be interesting to know for sure who initiated and finalized the Smith fiasco. If McHale didn't, he's still a below-average GM, but he's a below-average GM who had to help clean up a mess he wasn't mainly responsible for.
People like to blame only the FO or only the coach or only McHale, but this is a problem that stems back to the day Tom Gugliotta decided he didn't want to play here any more. From that point, the decision-makers (that includes Flip as GM for part of it) scrambled to put a team around KG without looking for long-term solutions. McHale's lack of savviness (and abundance of stubbornness) has hurt them a lot, which is surprising considering his first two moves (Donyell Marshall for Googs and drafting KG) were bold and very good. As for the drafting? I just wonder about the quality of their scouting compared to other teams.
Well, Well. I don't even know what to say. I haven't said much because I really don't like to post when I get depressed but I think this squad is somehow worse than last year. How? I don't even know. But I was much more excited last year through the whole season and we are just less than twenty games into this one.
Some observations.
1. Al Jefferson(to me) seems like he will be the downfall of our team for the next ten years. Hear me out. Not because he isn't talented. Not because he couldn't be a good player on a great team. Yet because he is going to be overvalued by our staff and made the cornerstone. He is not that player. He is a great 2nd or 3rd option on a team but his game is very one dimensional. Granted that one dimension is maybe the best I've witnessed on the T'pups.
2. I'm sad that Brewer is gone obviously but I'm convinced he needed to be traded anyways. He is not a slowdown half court player. He can do it but it takes him out of the offense. Watching him run the break is beautiful . To go along with that is his great D which doesn't seem to get worse as he runs more. His energy seems to be never ending.
3. Maybe this is too early but I want to talk draft. I like Calathes from Florida. I like Rubio from Europe. Yet I really think we need two things. One, a point guard that can penetrate and kick or score. Two, a defensive big man that is not totally helpless everywhere else.
Thanks for reading. Britt your the best. The only Minnesota sports writer I continue to read consistently. At least we have Tubby Smith!
Calathes and/or Rubio would put us closer to the white out that McHale seems to be aiming for, but I don't think Calathes is the answer. He's a very good college player, but I don't think he'll be more than an NBA role player, and his lack of athleticism would compound what is already one of our biggest weaknesses. Rubio, on the other hand, would be great, I think. We obviously need point guard play, and he could be the next Steve Nash. I like his height, creativity, and ability to orchestrate the break. That said, I don't know how well Rubio would work in Wittman's suffocating offense, but he would allow us to move Foye over full time to the off guard position, which would allow many Wolves fans to rest easier.
Britt, thanks for the shout out and kind words. AK, I borrowed your quote about STHs over at Hoopus and I have to tell you that the Swarm averaged over 11k per home contest last season.
Getting back to the questions, Britt, I kind of feared that your take on McHale and Witt is what is actually going on; that McHale would view Witt's Foye off-the-ball comments and his deployment of Ollie, Collins, and Cardinal as something other than stunning indictments of his front office buffoonery. I guess these guys come from the Big 10 school of Neanderthal love where hurting someone simply means you really care.
Hoping against what will probably end up happening, I really wish that Witt was doing everything he could to leverage McHale out of the front office. If he is, he's clearly doing so at a cost...as it's piling on to the players' lack of confidence and performance. I just was hoping that Witt made a calculated gamble that he, at this point, is every bit as untouchable as McHale in Papa Glen's eyes and that he would force everyone else in the front office to take sides. Of course, this probably gets us Freddie Hoiberg and Sichting in place of McHale and Witt. That's like getting Wolfowitz and Feith in place of Rummy and Pearle.
I was watching the Knicks/Portland game last night and I realized that the Knicks have less talent than the Wolves but with a masterful coach. The Blazers are on the other end of the spectrum; having a 2nd string that is better than the Wolves' starting 5. Who here among us would not trade, straight-up, Foye, Miller, Gomes, Jefferson, and Collins for Rodriguez, Fernandez, Outlaw, Batum, and the Vanilla Gorilla? This is what caused me to write the blow-it-up post over at Hoopus. What is there to blow up? Who will be there to coach it? Either they make a coaching change and we're left with another member of the Country Club at the head of the bench or they make a trade and we're left with the same crew who crashed the car behind the wheel. It's crazy. There's nothing to be attached to as a fan at this point. We don't know where they're going and we have no faith that they'd be competent enough to get there. I'd be perfectly content with them dumping Miller + McCants to the Cavs for Wally, Snow and a late 1st and calling the Bulls to see what they would give for Big Al (Hughes + 1st rounder + Noah?). 99% of the keepable players on this team are built for a style their best (at one end of the court) player can't play. It's a mess.
Reading the Strib this morning, my impression was that Wittman's "Game Plan" and work ethic comments were all about defense. This also helps makes some sense as to why Wittman memory of Jefferson's six blocks was displaced by his anger at Al's defense late in the game.
Whether or not that is true, Foye's comment about passes that "look good" to folks like you and me may not be considered "good" if they aren't specified in the "game plan" is awfully weird. It indicates to me that something is seriously disconnected between the coach and his "marquee" players.
And yes, APB, bringing back Marbury would be "rock bottom".
Sorry, that was AndyG opining that Marbury would be "rock bottom".
With gallows humor, let me add that Allen Iverson will also probably be without a team, and perhaps Wally too, at the end of this season. Unless these guys need to "feed their families", perhaps they'll be willing to play for the Wolves at league minimum salaries.
To be an apologist...
One thing we're often advocating for on this board is that the wolves incorporate more outside talent into the coaching staff and front office. That is, a dream might be for the Wolves to have replaced McHale with someone like Sam Presti (GM for OKC) who is a young gun from the Spurs organization.
While Glen Taylor has not initiated a full scale renovation of the front office or coaching staff with outside help, the Wolves have (slowly) been bringing in people with outside perspectives.
First, at maybe least intriguing is Jim Stack. He actually worked in Chicago before coming to MN. It's my understanding here was there during the Jordan years and a bit after. We may have problems with Stack but at least he has worked for another professional organization. Of course, I remember being excited when Trader Jack McCloskey was brought in, what a nightmare that was.
More movement has been made at the assistant coach level.
Dean Cooper came over from Houston. From wolves website: Dean Cooper enters his first season on the Wolves coaching staff after spending the previous nine years with the Houston Rockets, most recently as Vice President of Player Personnel. With the Rockets, Cooper was responsible for the evaluation of draft prospects, free agents and potential trades. He also oversaw the coordination of national and international scouting activities.
Ed Pinckney came over from Villanova. Ed Pinckney comes to the Timberwolves from his alma mater, Villanova University, where he was an assistant coach the past four seasons.
Again, professional experience from outside the organization. Who knows if these guys have any power, but I find Cooper's resume particular interesting.
What sucks is that almost everyone else in the organization has little to no equivalent experience elsewhere. McHale, for example, has only worked for MN. Hoiberg only for MN. Sichting, only for MN. Haskins only for MN. Bickerstaff only for MN. Babcock, only for MN and Toronto (where he sucked). Babcock scouting for Denver but I don't count this as equivalent experience.
I don't even need Glen to fire McHale. Could we even replace Babcock with someone from the Portland organization or from San Antonio. Give someone a raise and advance them more quickly than they could advance in SA. But, maybe they would just be influenced by McHale, etc.
Perhaps there is no way to get more of these outside perspectives without finally jettisoning McHale.
Interesting that Witt today acknowledged that he was out of line in benching Bassy for the second half. SnP, why would you start Ollie over Bassy if the plan is to let Foye settle into the two?
Bassy hasn't been given much of a chance to show what he can do when surrounded by good shooters, like Miller and Foye. He started four games and was benched early in two of those.
On ball defense at the point is overrated unless you're Rajon Rondo with a freakish combination of long arms and lateral quickness.
What with the new rules, PGs are at a huge disadvantage, and even those who are known as good defenders get torched more often than not.
I've been a Bassy apologist for a long time. I've said from early on that I thought he'd be starting by mid-December. In terms of pure basketball enjoyment, Brewer, Bassy, and Love are the 3 players I most like watching. Gomes is getting there but right now those 3 (now 2 with Brewer down) are my favorite players.
I think they'll have to pick and choose where they run out a Bassy/Foye backcourt, both in terms of size and Miller's minutes, but I think we'll see it soon enough. Whatever happens, I do think it's becoming increasingly likely that their 1st pick is a guard.
Does anyone get the impression that the players have lost any semblance of respect for Wittman? He isn't very careful about choosing when and where to assert himself. Everytime he asserts himself, but can't realistically follow through, he loses another piece of authority. His job can only get more difficult. That might be a problem. Although firing a coach based on how the players like him opens up a bit of a pandora's box.
I think the obvious conclusion to this 3ptr is get a new coach and Toronto just did the pups a favor by firing Sam Mitchell. There's a fresh perspective, a coach who understands the NBA, new marketing excitement for an otherwise dead year, and a commitment to development all rolled into 1. Personally, I'd fly Mitchell in overnight and have the announcement ready for the press tomorrow morning.
(BTW, simplify on the captcha. Do you really have a spamming problem here that requires a 2 word check?)
Nice article about coaching changes
i find myself longing to trade for chris kaman, now largely redundant on the clippers' roster. am i way off on this one?
they need a veteran guard (mike miller) and there are certainly more guards than centers in the upcoming draft, especially if we are already going to try moving foye to the two. we throw together rhino and miller (and change?), we get kaman in return. they don't lose a big in rotation, add a perimeter shooter, maybe pick up a draft pick for a flier; we pick up a true big, drop one of our redundant fours, create space for foye at off guard and for love at four, and solidify our principle three-man rotation in the pivot for the next five or six years (kaman, jefferson, and love). what am i missing here?
maybe just wishful thinking, but depressed as i am w/ respect to last night's game, you can't blame me for dreaming about solutions to this debacle.
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