Last Call

The current recipe for the complex cocktail known as the Timberwolves franchise:

• 1 part hopeful off-season
• 2 months disastrous start
• 1 firing of a head coach
• Mix in demoted VP as new head coach, stir roster, then chill for 13 losses.
• Add in 1 recovering month
• shake franchise vigorously with unlucky injury

And there you have it... you can call this concoction Basketball Brutal. The first taste is pretty bitter, but after you get used to it, you tell yourself with a few tweaks (hold the Shaddy, add some Love), this is going to taste okay.

This is where I belly away from the bar, because unless the mixologist changes, the drink itself will never really change. The proprieters of the franchise consistently try to sell you on what good taste really is (30 wins, low playoff seeds, etc), and suggest you should be thankful for the product. The one year they had a great drink special, it was judged a failure. Go figure.

Well, while not quite the equivalent of a 12 step program, I'm going to go on hiatus for a bit and try to move in a different direction. I'm going to be writing for a site called American Chronicle, and expand my beverage selection. We'll see what happens...

See ya when I see ya.

No Al AND No Defense

REUTERS/Eric Miller (UNITED STATES)

"When you say let's play faster, that seems to be code for "You don't have to play defense.' I'm going to have a find a different way to say it."- Kevin McHale

It was inevitable that the Wolves would mourn the loss of their stud, Jefferson. The reality is however, Al wouldn't helped beat the Raptors, because--just like the other 33 losses they've suffered this season--this team doesn't play defense. Even with the loss of their own legitimate All-Star, Chris Bosh, who's equal or better than Big Al, Toronto won the smallball contest 110-102. A video recap of the game can be found here.

There are times when being stubborn is a good thing; when it's wrapped up in an arrogant vision of how a team--first as a franchise executive, and second as a head coach--should be assembled and play, then it has to be evaluated on it's own merits. Here's the essential flaw in an organization where cronyism is valued over results: there's no one who can apparently step back far enough to parse the details correctly. This team has let one good month go to their heads, because the alternatives apparently are too overwhelming to consider. And now since Al is shelved, they have great cover to stick their heads in the sand, apply for an exemption to grab a couple of D-Leaguers, and play the majority of minutes with no one over 6'9 in their starting lineup. Why? I guess because the Iron Ranger says so, with little to no push back at all, apparently. Here's a guy who has done little right in the last five years, and where--even with Al in the lineup--they are undersized at every position. Even with Al in the lineup, their defense is awful. Now, with Al out of the lineup, what's the solution? Go smaller, play less defense, and try to outscore another admittedly bad team who still is built on an European model, a lot of outside shooters and a couple of post players, when healthly. The mind boggles.

I'm not a huge Kevin Love fan yet, I think it was another draft miscue by the franchise, but the kid knows a lot about team play. It's obvious to even bloggers who are always accused of knowing nothing that if you leave him out on an island with no help or no size, the combination of additional minutes and battling solo against bigger opponents will wear a body down. I thought we wanted to develop the rook! When a broken down Jermaine O'Neal starts toasting you at crunch time, what's to be learned from that? Only that for the rest of the season, if Love remains at the five instead of the four, every big man and their cousin are going to run at him, because he doesn't block shots. They're going to try and get him in foul trouble, or create a consistent help situation where the opposition will just sit on the double team, swing the ball to the open perimeter shot, and score with impunity.

Even Kevlar doesn't offer unlimited protection over a hail of bullets.

Here's hoping for the rest of the season, they can put a bigger body out there to save the lad and actually have him gain some confidence over the last half of the season, because--with no other moves made--it's one of the things this club can do to retain hope the rest of the year. People WANT this kid to succeed. Having Love become another casualty of a mediocre basketball vision doesn't do anyone any good.

The bottom line is, with enough assets assembled for the next couple of years, the Wolves don't have to blow the team up again. But someone, anyone other than Kevin McHale needs to assert themselves into the franchise mix, and add a serious defensive attitude and presence to this club, as well as a little size. That's how real progress is going to be made, and enthusiasm is built, even with your primary offensive stud on the shelf.

Luck

A few weeks back, while the Wolves were racking up wins against teams with injury-depleted rosters, I opined that their luck might finally be turning.

Oops.

Just for information sake, here's a couple of links talking about general ACL surgery:

http://www.arthroscopy.com/sp05018.htm (somewhat old)
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/anterior-cruciate-ligament-acl-surgery

We don't know the extent of the injury as of yet, but I think while it might take awhile for Big Al to get back, the odds for him making a full return are good...if he's lucky.

There's that word again.

At the risk of being self-indulgent (I'm not sure there's any other definition for bloggers who write on a continual basis for free), I think Wolves fans are going over a little over the top on this. Al was a top notch offensive marvel on a bad team. Were they improving? Sure, but the goal here was modest: 30 some wins. Much like our economy, before Al's injury, they were going to need another "stimulus" to really make the jump to the next level, because frankly, Kevin Love probably isn't going to be it. He could turn out to be a nice piece on a 8-9 man rotation because the quality traits he does have--passion, fundamentals, and a great basketball IQ--is great for team play. At least we may finally get to see how good he can get in the last half of the year.

However, it was obvious that the club was going to still need major help across the board; Love and Jefferson are/were redundant at power forward. As a result, the Wolves have to depend on what has been their weakest link--personnel management--to pull them out of the doldurms.

Here's what I wrote on 1/24:

"A popular opinion about the Timberwolves franchise was that it is cursed, or unlucky at best. Such awful win-loss records, no #1 choice ever. Stephon Marbury. Tom Gugliotta. Joe Smith. Malik Sealy. Bad draft choices. Poor trades and mediocre free agent acquisitions. The evidence is substantial, when you think about it. While a lot of these results can be square put on the shoulders of human error and bad decision making, one has to consider that SOMETHING supernatural might have affected the franchise's fate up to this time."

Looking back on it, I was being kind. The truth is past the Sealy tragedy and bad ping-pong lottery bounces, you really do make you're own luck in this league. It's not about perfection, it's about the percentages; the ratio of good draft picks, free agent signings and trades to bad, the way talent is developed. The Wolves haven't been very good for years in that aspect; to overcome this unlucky break, they're going to have to significantly improve the ratio of good moves over bad.

In the end, that might just make the entire franchise--and their luck--more successful.

Insult to Injury

Copyright 2009 NBAE (Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images)

Okay, losing to Houston on the road isn't the end of the world, in fact it was expected. Against New Orleans however, where the Hornets were missing two starters (Chris Paul, Tyson Chandler), one key reserve (Morris Petersen), and for the second half their other all-star (David West, in his premier as a WWE enforcer), that's insulting. On top of it, Big Al gets hurt.

If Jefferson is on the shelf at all, the fact that the All-Star break (no pun intended) is coming up is indeed fortunate. However, if it's more serious, where substantial healing time is needed, a little lemonade making will be in order. This will be a time where our dear Iron Ranger can have every excuse in the world to adjust his vision and put in a traditionally big lineup--albeit with journeymen-type bigs (Collins, Booth) at the five, and Love, Cardinal, Gomes at the four. This means no more cherry-picked minutes for young Kevin; he can demonstrate how he handles in part the ball running through his meaty hooks.

Folks have to remember that since Randy Wittman got fired, it's not just about restoring hope, it's about saving face. It's about Kevin McHale proving to the world that his version of smaller ball, up-tempo, not quite run and gun, five-guys-who-can-play-despite-their-size basketball can be successful. The dude is former President Bush stubborn. McHale's played his hand; people like Britt Robson in his latest post over at Secrets of the City may be getting annoyed at the fact no veteran big gets off the bench, but this is about proving everyone wrong. That's why he started Craig Smith and Rashad McCants in the first game post-Wittman, and that's why no one over 6-11 is getting in the game. If McCants wasn't such a knucklehead, he'd still be getting minutes. It's all about the Ranger.

Injury can change that, and give McHale the perfect cover for mixing things up.

If it sounds like I'm rooting for Al to be seriously hurt, I'm not. But Love had his half-season of getting used to the league. On an irrevelant team where he was a top five draft pick, he needs to start showing what he's got in ALL types of on-court situations. Similarly, to be able to throw in a big or two at the five in stategic points--setting picks, blocking shots--might just be a revelation for McHale. Given the fact that team has regressed to the point that Jefferson is the only one capable of creating any consistent offense, they'll probably lose "big" as well, but they're back to losing anyway. They know what they have in Jefferson, it's time to see who else can truly step up and play.

Blue Wednesday

Copyright 2009 NBAE (Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images)

Looks like I picked the wrong day to watch Minnesota basketball. Both the Gophers and Wolves went down to defeat; the Gopher game was over in about the first three or four minutes, the Wolves took another disjointed, awful game and made it close until the end, losing 94-86. You can watch a video recap of the Wolves game here...it's safe to watch this one.

Even though Minnesota shot like they were charter members of a bricklayer's union (.364 for the game), this game was more entertaining than the Indiana contest, and was filled with subplots. We had the starting of Kevin Love, the resurgence of Mike Miller's outside shooting, and the return of Rashad McCants.

I'll be up front: I'm not a McCants fan. There are continual apologists out there who still try to sell the fact that at the time of their drafting, McCants and Indiana'a Granger was a pick-em game. I don't think that's true, but even if it was, passing up someone with size and shooting ability over someone much smaller and who had already been exposed as "mercurial" emotionally while still in college was a bad idea from the get-go. As I remember, Dick Vitale was the only one who stood up for McCants on draft night. That sealed the deal for me right there.

Having said all that, I'd rather see someone with Rashad's talent on the court; there must be a coach somewhere who can get that knucklehead to play the right way...consistently. Then again, JR Rider is out of the league, isn't he?

Rashad's appearance was an indicator that some proverbial walls had been hit. It's been offered that the Wolves were pooped after playing their third game in four nights, but it's more obvious that for whatever reason, the poor shooting of Sebastian Telfair was the primary explanation for a McCants sighting. As much as Telfair's shooting enhanced the effectiveness of the Hawks' zone defense and propelled Rashad into the line-up, it also meant Randy Foye had to play point guard in the fourth quarter, in a primarily half-court game. This is increasingly becoming the kiss of death for Minnesota. If the game is a free flowing, run 'n gun affair, that's one thing, but in the half-court with the game on the line...we need another point guard. Execution in the half-court against winning teams is one of the next indicators of progress for this club; finding someone in the off-season who can run the team and shoot for a higher percentage is crucial.

Love's starting appearance was a result of Craig Smith being hurt, still, in slightly over 30 minutes of play, the excuse NOT to play him at clutch time in the fourth quarter was officially because Atlanta went small. Here again...with as many shots as the Wolves were missing, and being the fact that night after night we hear endlessly about his rebounding ability, couldn't we have used that skill, and made someone adjust to US? Gomes was having a terrible night. When will the defacto third pick overall in the last NBA draft be given a chance--like all the other top rookies--to expand his game, particularly on an extremely mediocre basketball team? It's not like anyone is making a playoff run here. Set Love free!

With road dates in Houston and New Orleans coming up, the Wolves may be tarnishing their recent success a bit until after the All Star game, where they get to play Toronto and Washington. The dog days of the season are quickly coming upon us, it will be fascinating to see how the Wolves keep their mojo alive, in search of a 30 win season, and McHale's future potentially hanging in the balance.

10 Seconds of Porn Would Have Been Better

Copyright Notice: 2009 NBAE (Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images)

During Tuesday's Wolves-Pacers game, I chatted with a NBA League Pass rep, asking them if they had the 10 seconds of porn shown during the Super Bowl. Anything had to be better than what I was watching on FSN. I would have taken even Cinemax soft porn, Showtime's L Word...anything.

Can any of the broadcasters, reporters or bloggers who advocate offense over defense justify a game like this? Does anyone objective still wonder why the Wolves can't consistently beat quality teams? From my Useless Press contacts, I understand even Norm Coleman is demanding a recount of the score...he feels jobbed.

No matter, the Wolves "won"116-111. Randy Foye, awful in the first half, (nine turnovers overall) made a couple of key defensive plays and scored five points in the fourth to secure the win. Secure is a term to be used loosely, because the club suddenly brain-locked late in the fourth and allowed the Pacers a chance to tie the game. TJ Ford, normally a great free throw shooter, bricked the back-end in two consecutive trips to the free throw line to prevent Indiana from extending the contest. I guess they felt the fans had seen enough.

Meanwhile our pro-wrestling television broadcasting equivalent--Jim Petersen and Tom Hanneman--continue to spin to a miniscule audience. Frequently guffawing when Kevin Love grabs a rebound, as if Love just won a tough man competition, Petersen hasn't quite realized that with a half year under the belt, most watchers have developed their opinion of dear, undersized, overweight Kevin. They even are trying to come up with a new nickname--Kevlar--to describe how "rugged" he is. Hanneman marvels what a year Love has had, even though he's only 20. Of course, he neglects to say that most quality college players now only play one or two years of NCAA ball, making them around 20 when they land in the NBA.

For the record, Love was born Sep 7, 1988. Taking a small sampling of those who actually MADE the Rookie Game roster All-Star Weekend, Rose, Westbrook and Lopez were all born in the same calendar year. There are a lot of young'uns making signficant contributions to their club in their rookie year, Tom. Kevin Love is not the baby Jesus, the second coming of Wes Unseld, or even Dennis Rodman. He's an above average rebounder who's at best a mediocre finisher. And, McHale is still cherry picking his minutes, as opposed to the before mentioned rooks who are making noise in the league.

But I guess there has to be some data the Wolves are getting that are telling them their audience is eating this stuff up. If true, it's once again a reminder that stats often don't tell the real story.

For those who really, really must...a video recap of the game can be found here. Here's a hint: Saw V is a classic compared to this.

Rock, Meet Hard Place

Would McHale be this friendly with the opposition if it were Phil Jackson?

Photo by the AP, 2009-02-01

Okay Wolves fans, lets review the last three games:

Game 1 vs. Detroit. Unable to execute in the half court offensively with Randy Foye primarily at the point in the fourth quarter, or guard Rasheed Wallace either down low or behind the arc. They lose.

Game 2 vs. Lakers - Unable to outscore one of the top offensive teams in basketball, or stop the appropriately sized Andrew Bynum at center (Kobe's always a given). They lose again.

Game 3 vs. Boston - Unable to out rebound or compete with oneof the top defensive teams in basketball, even when the Celtics lost their intensity in the second half. They lose once more.

Three losses against one above average and two upper echelon teams. What does that say about this roster?

In the short term, not much. Kevin McHale has succeeded in putting this team back in alignment with expectations for this year, somewhere in the mid 30 win column, give or take a couple of games. Barring a total collapse or another January type month, they have restored some sembalance of hope. Who cares if they can't win against championship or playoff caliber teams, that will come later...right?

Rock, meet Hard Place.

It's pretty obvious to any objective viewer that the Wolves have neither the size or the defensive acumen right now to compete against the "bigs" in the league. The hope seems to be that one day in the near future, Love and Jefferson will channel the late 70's duo of Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes and restore the club to relevance. I was in my late teens at the time, but I seem to remember there was a ton of pot smoking in the league back in that day as well. So, as the Wolves gravitate toward mediocrity, the haze in the room only gets thicker, the vision gets blurred. It will harder and harder for the franchise to realize that a more sure way of re-emerging as a contender is to add front court size and skill, and commit themselves to defense.

Meanwhile, Al puts up big numbers offensively, gets excited a bit on defense when the game is close (but only for a time), and Love's starting to yap at the referees more. This will be entertaining for awhile, but for how long?