Futility, Inc.

Feeling good about that new coach yet? Does anyone not in denial believe we have a chance to get substantially better this season? Since the Iron Ranger was reinstated as coach we have lost four straight against good teams, the latest being the Lakers 98-86 somnambulant victory over the Wolves. The Lakers played mediocre, disinterested basketball the entire game, shooting under 45%, getting outrebounded (16-9 on the offensive end), made one less free throw and hit less from the arc than the Minnesota club, yet found a way to win by 12.

Why?

Try shooting 36% percent from the floor, and committing 17 turnovers, mostly in the first half. Even when the Wolves tightened their act up in the second half turnover-wise and moved the ball around--especially in the third quarter--one never had the sense that the Lakers felt any sort of urgency to respond...until they did in the fourth.

Okay, you can say it's the Lakers, with talent and veteran leadership to spare. But it's also the story with the Jazz, Nuggets, and Spurs. They all took Minnesota's best shot, then kicked in another gear when they had to and won those games, just like in those expansion years we're "celebrating" in this our 20th anniversary. When they play tonight against the Kings, will the Wolves respond to a team who is closer to them in talent and experience, or will they continue to make excuses, as McHale did again last night about them not being in shape to run his desired tempo?

Yeah, right.

The problem isn't tempo, it's defense and finishing. Game after game, we hear about how Love and Jefferson are such dynamic rebounders, but I ask you, what good is rebounding if you can't make a basket? This is especially true with Kevin Love, who is being pounded down our throats by our television broadcasting crew. Here's the deal; Love may be serviceable to pretty good one day, but he has to do three things:

1) Find different and creative angles to score in the low post after an offensive rebound. Kicking it out to an open player helps as well, but given the scrums down low, if he can't put it back up for a basket after grabbing an initial carom, then all you're doing is padding stats, and giving Jim Petersen a good orgasmic stroking. If he can convert a higher percentage of his rebounds directly to points or assists, he could be better than good.

2) Hit a mid-range shot. Love showed good range in college, but has been terribly inconsistent to date in the pros. The majority of college ballers usually take a year or so to adjust their shooting skills to the pro game; as a result, it's not surprising that Love is struggling. But part of this whole undersized front court Al-can-play-with-Kevin sort of thing was based on Love's ability to play the high post, make the mid-range basket, draw out the defense, and use his passing skills to help distribute the ball. That hasn't happened yet, especially when McHale is stubbornly trying to justify his selections of other mediocre draft choices like Craig Smith and Rashad McCants.

3) Play some damn defense. He's shown some aptitude, but unless both Love and Jefferson commit to an urgent, consistent two-way style of play, this undersized concept of McHale's simply won't work. I'm on record as saying it won't work anyway, but these guys do have some talent, it's just not consistently at both ends of the court.

The essential problem with this team is that McHale's primary focus seems to be proving to the rest of the world his roster can play at a higher level. That means trying to rehabilitate folks like McCants, Smith, and Foye. Love is essentially behind two pecking orders; one is the normal rookie-has-to-justify-his-spot process, but the second is the-coach-has-to-demonstrate-he-picked-the-right-players-or-he-loses-his-job siutation. That's a recipe for futility, because as we've seen against the good to great teams all year long, both the coaching and talent level isn't up to snuff.

We'll have another indication tonight, on the road against the Kings.