Conner's Blog

It’s been a while since I last wrote about the Timberwolves.  After firing their head coach and placing Kevin McHale in that role I tried to continue following them.  I watched the first 5-6 games and then pretty much stopped watching or paying attention as they were losing games at a ridiculous pace.  Well apparently things are starting to change, since Christmas the Wolves have lost one game, and currently hold a five game winning streak.

You could definitly accuse me of being a fair weather fan in this case.  I couldn’t stick with the team through another awful season, and I honestly did want to see McHale fail.  It’s good to see some life in the team again.  Randy Foye is playing like I knew he could, he’s playing with confidence and slowly developing into a leader on the team.  Since I havn’t watched any games I am relying on recaps and box scores to piece together the reasons for this winning streak.  Here are some observations I made.

• Kevin Love hasn’t been scorer, but he is a rebounding machine.  He has grabbed 10+ rebounds in most of the wins.
• Randy Foye was moved to the 2-guard spot and he is thriving.  He consistently leads the team in scoring, and contributes a few assists, rebounds, and steals.
• Al Jefferson’s stats have not changed, other than he is no longer leading the team in scoring every night.
• Rashad McCants has been benched.  Other than 7 minutes in a blow out win against Oklahoma City he has barely played during the winning streak.
• One of the teams biggest weaknesses hasn’t contributed to the wins.  The team is still shooting under 40% on three-point shots most nights, yet they have been winning.

McHale didn’t follow all of my advice, but he did stop playing McCants, and I consider that a win.  Since I”m back on the bandwagon with the other 25 remaining Wolves fans you will probably see a few  Wolves related posts once again

Last night is the kind of night I expected out of this years Timberwolves.  I didn’t get to watch the game, in fact I completely forgot about it until I got into my car and the game was on the Fan.  I listened to about 3/4 of the third quarter and the first few minutes of the fourth before I headed into the Orchestra (which was wonderful).

Randy Foye showed something last night, the question is can he keep it up.  Fourteen assists is impressive, and if he can give us half of that most nights I think most fans would be happy.  According to sources his teammates and coaches told him to be more aggressive.  This is exactly what he needed to do, he has the talent, he just was playing in fear of making mistakes.

A few other observations from the box score.

• Kevin Love has been regressing, he had 4 rebounds and 2 points against the Pistons.  Hopefully he can pick it up, but if we win I’m okay with him taking his time.
• Al Jefferson only scored 19, he has been a little off as of late, but I think the team performs better when he isn’t the focal point in the offense.  He is good enough to get 20 without touching the ball every possession.
• Craig Smith has really come on strong.  He scored 16 last night and had 9 rebounds.  I’m okay with him and Love being the 6 and 7th men.
• Jason Collins started and looked terrible.  While I was listening to the game he picked up two fouls in less than 10 minutes.  He didn’t score and had 1 rebound and 1 assist.  We need more from our starting center.
• Rashad McCants was injured and didn’t play.  This is a good thing and needs to continue.  McHale needs to trade him soon, he provides nothing of value other than the ability to jack up 10-12 shots in 5 minutes.

It is good to see the Wolves win a few games.  Last night’s game was their most impressive of the year.  The Pistons are contenders in the East and last nights game should have been a game that helped them get on track since the Iverson trade.  Instead the Wolves blew them out and held onto the lead.

Last year the Wolves got on track in the last month of the season and played .500 ball.  If they play .500 for the rest of the year, this season will have gone from a complete dissapointment to a success.  Of course I still think Randy Wittman is not the best man for the head coaching job, but as long as he keeps the job I’ll support him when he wins.

I’m giving up, Randy Wittman is not going to be a successful head coach.  I wanted to give him a chance, he came into an impossible situation, but after a 1-6 start, I am convinced he cannot produce a winning team.

Now don’t get me wrong this team shouldn’t be 6-1 but they should at least be 5-2 or 4-3.  The only loss that is excusable on a talent level is the loss to the Mavericks.  We can blame all the other losses on a poor start or an inability to finish games. We need to point a finger, unfortunately for Wittman it is pointed at him. Last night’s game made this clear to me.  Al Jefferson was shut out during the fourth quarter and the overtime.  Don Nelson came up with a strategy that kept the ball out of Jefferson’s hands.  It is up to the head coach to figure out how to adjust to the other team’s adjustments and Wittman appears unable to do this.

Another example from last night’s game is the fact that the Wolves tried to play an up-tempo game.  I knew from the moment they started trying to run the court things would go badly.  Golden State was the master of running up and down on teams last year, and even without Baron Davis, they are still good at it.  The Wolves are not masters of the up-tempo style but they do have one of the best low post scorers in the game.  Anyone with an ounce of common sense would have slowed the game down and pounded the ball into Al Jefferson.  Instead, the Wolves ran up and down the court, ended the first quarter tied and racked up seven fouls.  I actually went to bed at that point knowing they were going to lose.

I’m not sure who the Wolves should hire, maybe Fred Hoiberg would like to take the reins.  We need a coach who is a teacher with a defense first mindset.  The Wolves have plenty of offensive talent, where they are lacking is the defensive end.  The team has regressed defensively and we can safely say Randy Wittman is not the answer there.  We also need a coach who can make adjustments during games.  Tony Parker’s night and last night are both perfect examples that Wittman is unable to make those adjustments.  We need a new coach, and while we are at it let get a new GM.

This is supposed to be a post about the Wolves but I have to mention Tony Parkers night.  This man was amazing last night.  I would rank his performance as one of the best I have ever seen, and that includes some of Michael Jordan’s best post-season performances.  He willed the Spurs to victory yesterday and deserves every bit of credit.  But let’s get back to the Wolves.

Kevin Love is the real deal.  Kevin Love just hustles, hustles, and hustles some more.  Love played solid defense against Tim Duncan, grabbed rebounds and had a phenomenal game.  I haven’t seen any other rookies play yet, but I have a hard time believing that they have had an impact on their teams like Love.

Our defensive rotation is awful.  Parker didn’t just score 50+ points because he was that hot, he was open all night long.  If the Wolves don’t fix their pick and roll defense we may as well not even play against teams with point guards who can shoot.  The Timberwolves one on one defense was ok though which is a good sign.

Al Jefferson doesn’t trust his teammates yet.  He went up against double teams a few too many times for my liking.  He also faded from contact in the fourth quarter and in overtime.  That is concerning to me.

Kevin Love scored a go-ahead basket with less than a minute remaining.  He’s the real deal Wolves fans.  O.J. Mayo may score 26 points a game during his career, but Love will average 20-7-5 and will block shots, get steals, and chase down loose balls all night long.

The Target Center’s new court is rockin’.

Cory Brewer will be defensive player of the year in 2-3 years.  He makes little mistakes that cost him, but if his teammates are figure out how to defend a pick and roll with him he will be able to shut down almost any guard or forward in the league.

Rashad McCants should not be allowed on the court.  He got embarrassed on the defensive end and completely missed a wide open teammate on at least one occasion.  Let’s trade him now for whatever we can get.

The Wolves play like a young team.  Too many little mistakes that kept the Spurs in it.  Passes picked off and players left wide open.

The Wolves have been hitting free throws well the last two games, I’m guessing Randy Whitman focused a ton of time on that after the first games showing.

FSN North needs to change either the size of the info box or the font.  When it’s hard to tell if a number is a 6 or an 8 your font choice sucks.  I don’t care if it looks fine in HD, they need to test it on regular television sets first.

The Timberwolves need to ask me to go one on one against Foye for an hour or so.  He’s playing so tight right now it’s no wonder he keeps making mistakes and missing shots.  He needs a confidence booster.

Game MVP: Tony Parker, Wolves MVP: Al Jefferson with a nod to Kevin Love, Least Valuable Player: Rashad McCants, Hustle Players of the game:  Kevin Love, Mike Miller, and Cory Brewer

If you are a Timberwolves fan, you probably consider them an irrelevant NBA team.  Due to Kevin McHale’s numerous mistakes as GM, the team was forced to trade away our biggest star, Kevin Garnett.  McHale’s trade created a championship team, unfortunately it was for the Boston Celtics and not for our hometown team.

The Wolves won 22 Games last year, 17 of those game in the second half of the season.  If you watched any of the games, you saw a remarkable improvement in play.  This was mostly due to a vastly improved defensive game.  In fact I think the team could have won 30-35 games last year if it wasn’t for poor outside shooting.

There is currently some debate on whether Kevin Love will be able to contribute immediately.  I haven’t been able to watch him since Summer League, but if those games are any indication, I think he will be able to.  His lines in the pre-season have been below mediocre, but he did pull down 10 boards in the last game.  I think Love will be okay, and if he gets to see time along side Al Jefferson things will only get better. Of course it could take 20-25 games for him to get comfortable with the pace of the regular season, but he’ll figure it out, he’s a smart player and will be a good fit for this team.

Of course no Wolves conversation is complete without discussing the main piece of the Kevin Garnett trade. Al Jefferson is one of the best young players in the game and he is only going to get better.  Last you he put up some very good numbers.  There is one thing to consider about Jefferson which makes me think he will really improve this year.  Remember that he went straight from high-school to the NBA.  He was one of the last players to do this.  His draft class of 2005 was one year after LaBron James was drafted.  James has become a perennial All-Star, but did take a few year to fully develop.  Considering that Jefferson is a forward, and it isn’t unusual for big men to take longer to develop in the NBA than guards, he could be poised for a break out year.

The Wolves also are getting a healthy Foye back.  Now everyone knows McHale got caught flat-footed in the Roy-Foye trade, but Foye isn’t a bad player.  If he stays healthy he should be able to start 82 games this year.  He is going to have to learn on the job, but the additional of two veteran guards in Ollie and Mike Miller should help.  Foye has a great jumper, and with the offense running through Jefferson his passing won’t be a liability. If he can put up 19 points and 7 assists per night we can consider this season a success for Foye.

Cory Brewers’ jumper is another reason for hope.  He appears to have worked on it all summer and this has definitely paid dividends.  His range and accuracy seemed much better than last year.  He even appears to have a three point shot.  If Brewer is no longer a liability on the offensive end, he will get more minutes and will be able to defend the star forward and shooting guards in the league.  Getting Brewer’s defense for 35-38 minutes a game instead of 22 would be a huge benefit.

If our core has improved and the additions of Love and Miller can contribute, we can consider this off season a success. We’ve added an additional outside threat in Miller which should help Jefferson immensely. McCants, Foye, and Love also have great range, so when the three of them are in the game Jefferson has all sorts of target to hit out of the double team.

That is where the biggest improvement comes in. We got rid of the slow, poor shooting, and expensive Marko Jaric, and added Miller who has always been a terrific shooter. The Wolves outside shooting was our biggest liability last year during the second half. If we can make some three pointers and keep the defense honest against Jefferson, we’ll reach my prediction of 35-40 games. I’ll looking forward to tonight’s game as the Timberwolves rebuilding period hits it’s stride.