At what point does promised development become mere futility?
Say what you want to about our club, but if you compare the Wolves to another rebuilding club--the Sonics--who would you judge is farther along, especially after Friday's loss? After trying to sell the notion in the preseason that all those players we got from Boston equaled the number of lost # 1 draft choices in the Joe Smith debacle, the Wolves are running out of outrageous lies. You can blame injuries, or roster turnover but the farther the season progresses the more obvious it becomes: this organization is the worst in the league. We are true bottom feeders.
One could claim the Knicks are truly the most dysfunctional, and if you include all the off-the-court incidents that well may be true, but how can any one say that personnel wise Isiah Thomas has been worse for his team than Kevin McHale? Only putting the "rebuilding" tag on our efforts gives any rebuttal reasonable cover. Once again, compare us to Seattle, Charlotte, Memphis, even Philadelphia. We have even surpassed our own ineptitude, in losing to the Bucks last night. As incredible as it may seem, we have begun to make the Wolfenson-Ratner-Stein era look good in comparison.
In watching the game and reading the recaps this morning, it seems we are more than halfway to a shrug of our shoulders. Instead of being more determined and challenging each other to play better, there seems to be a general resignation to the situation and praise for the close defeats. I'll put it to you another way: if you want to see an under-talented team play hard and develop, Williams Arena is your venue. Tubby Smith is taking roughly the same team from last year and renewing optimism. How? By hard work, discipline, and an actual strategy on both offense and defense. That man can coach. I would estimate that by the time the actual Big Ten season is over, the Gophers will not have won many games in the regular season. You can tell however, that they headed toward success, just in the approach Smith is taking to the game. He can legitimately sell hope for the future. Right now the Wolves can't.
It is a waste of time trying to analyze this club. All the plus-minus, popcorn machine statistics are worthless. Even the most casual fan can watch a game and see the lackluster defense, the poor chemistry, and the resulting hard sell from the broadcasters. Folks know ugly when they see it. Right now, you couldn't even put lipstick on this pig, it would melt right off.
Based on their progress, it's going to get a whole lot worse, but will it ever get better?
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Very well put. Plus, the Barn is a much better place to watch a game than is Target Center. At first I thought they'd get 19 wins. Now, I think 15 would be a stretch...mid-January, I'm sure 10 will look like a long way off. With their luck, they'll be the worst team of all time, drop to 4th in the draft (with the Heat moving up to the top pick) and get stuck with the leftovers after the Mayo/Rose/Beasley trio come off the board.
Adding to the misery is the fact that their 2nd best player is a vertically challenged power forward who is incompatible with their very best player.
I 100% agree about the coaching aspect of all of this. The worse thing that could have happened to Wittman was that he missed a few games and fans got a look at someone else running the ship.
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