Just like Coach drew it up...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just before the actual game telecast on Channel 45, JB Bickerstaff was showing exactly how the Wolves were going to defend LeBron James that night. He spoke of how King James liked to work the left side, how the Cavs were going to clear space to exploit the defense, and how the Wolves were going to converge and make him give up the ball.

Wow. Who won that battle of strategy?

Yeah, they forced him to shoot jump shots in the second half, but the reality is he's a great closer, and he toasted the Wolves with clutch shot after clutch shot. James was a +14 for the night when only a few others on his injury riddled team decided to show up. The Wolves--by contrast--also have a few nicks, but again showed why this year is going to be rocky at best. They played harder than they did the last two games, and also notched 20 assists for the first time this season. However, the Cavs shot 20 more free throws than the Wolves, out rebounded the Pups, and had a slightly better field goal percentage than our club, in addition to having a player who's not afraid to take over the game when necessary.

In fact, I find LeBron is the perfect reply to those KG fans who ramble on about how Ticket didn't get the help he needed in Minnesota. Here's a guy that truly has taken lesser talent and at the right time, takes over games to lead his team to victory. Contrast that to KG, who plays maestro for three quarters, and now hands off the game to Ray Allen or Paul Pierce. KG may be an all around better player than James, but where he can't match the King is in those singular moments where the star has to shine brightly for the team to win. Five years into his career, James has done it many more times than KG has done it in 13. A primer for smaller market franchises: if you're going to pay one third of your cap to a single baller, then make sure he can do what James is doing for the Cavs. Seemingly, KG never quite understood the need to take significantly less money (not just the "discount" he took to get Sprewell and Cassell here) because, despite his greatness, he couldn't deliver in that one category--clutch 4th quarter shooting.

As for the Wolves, no one save Corey Brewer had a plus rating last night; technically Corey was at zero, but at least it wasn't negative. Jefferson had a good-to-great game, but also had five turnovers. Gerald Green probably will get some burn over the next few games off his performance as well. From a team viewpoint however, the Wolves are a collection of parts who are still trying to do too much individually on offense, and who don't defend well on defense. As time wears on, anyone paying attention to the players can see that, for example, Ryan Gomes should not be putting the ball on the floor--he's a spot up shooter. McCants is a talent, but not as talented as he thinks he is. No one on the club save Jefferson is a clutch finisher, which truly hurt the club last night.

Taking all these aspects into consideration, what improvements should we be looking for this year, since we will probably set the NBA single season record for losses ? The key will revolve around their identity. We hear a ton of talk from the Iron Ranger and Wittman about smash mouth basketball and throwing punches--real manly type of talk. The reality is right now the Wolves are still primarily a soft, jump shooting team. They have one true post player, and their offensive rebounding is better, but no team that gets to the line so infrequently, and plays as soft of defense as this club does can be labeled smash mouth or tough. At the end of the year if we have a core of players who have committed to that identity and know how to realize it, that should be one critical indicator of success.

If the fans can see progress in a core of players who show real commitment to developing and improving in all the "mental toughness" areas: defense, sharing the ball, 4th quarter play, etc, then hope can be legitimately sold. If what we've seen of the last three games is going to play out for the entire season, then I'm not sure a high draft choice will be enough to give any fans a sense that the current regime has any more clue than it did when KG was here to rebuild the team. It'll be like the Bickerstaff "chalk-talk" last night: great on paper, a failure on the court.