Saturday, January 3, 2009

Vivacissimo Minnesota

Grandmaster Starbury in the TC House Friday

According to Wikipedia, "tempo (Italian for 'time, movement') is the speed or pace of a given piece. It is an extremely crucial element of composition, as it can affect the mood and difficulty of a piece." Friday night, the Wolves played at a Vivacissimo (very fast and lively) rate, out running Nellie's Warriors, 115-108. A video recap of the game can be found here.

The political spin has reached the player roster; according to the Associated Press, Randy Foye mentioned that “we’re just happy to get one game, no matter three out of the last five.” Well...okay, the club is playing a better brand of ball, and is showing that it can kind of keep it together against bad teams. Let's give "Coach" McHale kudos for that, straight up. They are--for the moment--taking teams they should beat. Two clubs they have recently vanquished--the Knicks and Warriors--play absolutely no defense whatsoever, but a win is win right? Especially at 7-25, the second worst record in the league, and after a humiliating, team worst collapse against a decent, but not great, Dallas team. Put in the same situation, I'd be telling whoever wanted to listen that the franchise glass is a quarter full as well.

Everyone played fast last night; the Wolves shot 90 times vs. 80 for the Warriors, so even though their FG percentage was worse than Golden State's, the fact they were able to hit three more baskets (41 vs. 38) and five more free throws (25 vs. 30) offset the Warriors slightly better percentage from behind the three point arc (7-20 vs. 3-13). Al Jefferson attacked the rim much quicker than usual and was very decisive against Andris Biedrins, who out of all Nellie's roster is probably their best interior defender and shot blocker. In 40 minutes of play, Al went a dominant 11-22, with an excellent 10 for 10 in free throws, for 32 points and 10 rebounds, a superb +14 for the night. Starters Ryan Gomes, Randy Foye and Kevin Love off the bench also had great support for the big guy, with 21, 17, and 19 points respectively. Foye, playing off guard, had 7 assists, while Gomes and Love helped Al clean the glass with 18 rebounds between them--10 for Ryan, and 8 for Kevin.

The Wolves also showed some defense in stretches...but not a lot. There's not any great individual defenders on this roster, but team defense is more about effort, and the club showed it was interested in playing both ways from time to time. Given the Warriors shot a respectable .475 for the game, it was the decision to up tempo the game, stop GS just enough and create more scoring opportunities that allowed the Wolves to finish out their "masterpiece" successfully.

With Chicago coming in tonight, where do we go from here? Unfortunately, the Wolves can't schedule a competition against one of the premier high school teams coming to play today before the NBA tilt; they are still in basketball purgatory, not good enough to beat winning teams, but now starting to show life against losing teams. The fan attendance--especially in this economy--is getting worse by the moment, especially against teams like the Warriors and Grizz. They have one player(Jefferson) who can consistently play huge on the offensive end; everyone else is kinda-sorta, depending on the team and matchups. Kevin Love plays big against smaller, weaker opponents, but plays terribly small against bigger, stronger players. Randy Foye can't run an offense, but from the two guard position, keeps the ball moving and has a decent assist total. Gomes--as always--shows flashes of energy, but when the game gets tense against teams that can ratchet up their defense, simply disappears.

And, incredibly enough, "Coach" McHale is starting a 35 year old journeyman at the point, for a little on-court leadership. How's that for developing a roster?

Actually, this seems to be all about face-saving rather than rebuilding. Eak out some wins, prove that you're not the worst team in the league, and demonstrate that there are at least a couple of players who can contribute to a roster. With a better managed cap and draft choices...we'll see what happens. Play up tempo, try and entertain the rubes, and we'll go from there.

Not a great orchestration for the future, on any scale.

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