Those of you who still pay attention to the Wolves may have noticed a disturbing trend developing in the past few games: Randy Wittman citing a lack of quality guard play as the reason why the Wolves are losing. With that in mind, what do the following stats have in common?
Min Pts Ast
20 2 8
37 20 8
39 10 6
48 27 11
If you guessed Sebastian Telfair and Wolves victories, you are correct. If it were not for Bassy--a player viewed at the time as a worthless piece of the KG trade--the Wolves would likely have 2 wins instead of 4. I know it’s not much, but it is something to think about when you hear Witt calling out the team’s guard play (which is, admittedly, not good). What on God’s green earth do you expect when you start a guy who has a career shooting percentage of 38.8%? What do you expect when you start him along side of a guy who has a career mark of 40.6% and zero handle(Marko Jaric) and/or an undersized rookie (Corey Brewer)? Combine them with 2 power forwards who can’t pass the damn rock and you really have to question whether or not effective guard play has anything to do with the Wolves’ current offensive woes...to say nothing of the fact that Marko and Bassy are shooting career high percentages from the f'ing floor (Bassy is actually a negligible .02 below his career high with Portland). However, we all know that Witt is even less likely to call out the Iron Range Ape than was Mr. Casey so he has to make up shiite as he goes along.
At the end of the day, all this nonsensical blubbering has turned out to be nothing more than the team throwing Brewer under the bus and taking pot shots at the most improved player on the squad. You stay classy Minnesota Timberwolves.
One really has to wonder if Witt timed his remarks during Brandon Roy’s visit to Minneapolis for comedic effect.
Think of the message that this sort of BS sends to potential Wolves. Not only will the front office select the wrong type of player, but once in place, Coach Chucklenuts will call him out in public.
Anywho, let’s get back to the action.
The first thing I wrote after tip off vs the Nuggets was this: “wtf is up with this starting lineup? The Nuggets are going to have 20 blocked shots.” They ended up with 12 against an overmatched and out of position Wolves squad. All in all, the Wolves played a true center (if Chris Richard can fit this bill) for a grand total of 7:03. Ryan Gomes, Craig Smith, and Antoine Walker all took turns at the 4. Denver responded with healthy doses of Nene, Marcus Camby, Linas Kleiza, and tiny Eduardo Najera (6-8/235). Surprisingly, the Wolves outrebounded the Nuggets 44-42 but they were killed by the quick outlet pass that opened up a tremendous fast break where the B&G were outgunned by 20.
The Denver game was a classic example of the importance of the four factors. 1- The Wolves were outshot 54.3% to 44.9%. This negated their advantage in pace and offensive rebounding. 2- The Wolves outrebounded the Nuggets 44-42, but as mentioned before, they failed in their transition defense to turn their four-factor victory into something meaningful. 3- The Wolves were outgunned at the free throw line (26-35) to (20-29). Again, this works against the team’s pace and rebounding advantages. 4- The Wolves won the turn over battle 12 to 10 but thanks to wide margins in FG% and FTA/FTM, it didn’t matter at all.
Note: the NBA doesn’t provide eFG% on their stat website. You can calculate your own as follows: eFG%= (FGM + [0.5 x 3PM])/FGA. Tempo-free measurements are good indicators of performance and I really wish the NBA would include them in the official stat line. Back to the game…
Have the last few games left you asking the following questions: Where is Brewer? Where is Richard? Will they see the floor during rookie appreciation night? Well, the rookie night isn’t all that important but both Brewer and Richard have seen their minutes drop like rocks in the past week or so. Why? I honestly have no answer with Richard. His two man tandem stats from 82 Games indicate that he is a tremendously effective teammate, especially on defense. Richard is one of only 3 active Timberwolves to have a positive Roland Rating, which is a measurement of on-court vs. off-court success. Again, his defensive on/off numbers are what really take the cake: opponents average 101.8 points per 100 possessions while he is on the court vs. 113.7 while he sits in Witt’s doghouse on the bench. Granted, Richard nearly had a 17-Trillion in the game against New Orleans but this well-coached and fundamentally sound big man has seen his surprising rookie play rewarded with 3 DNP-Cds and a total of 33 minutes played in the last 6 contests. Who ever said the Wolves were interested in player development?
Corey Brewer’s case is almost as befuddling. In the last 7 games, Brewer has seen minute totals of 16, 27, 29, 37, 27, and 7. Since being shifted to the 2 spot, Brewer has seen his minutes, rebounds, and shots decline. In the case of his shooting, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. However, since the Indiana victory, Corey is shooting 42% (12-28) from the floor. He has improved his shot selection while reducing turnovers and increasing steals and assists. Granted, his 16 and 7 minute totals were against the Warriors (Stephen Jackson) and Nuggets (Carmello Anthony) but surely he could have seen the floor more against these two Western Conference contenders.
Getting back to the guards, to give Witt some credit, the guard play on this team is terrible. From bad shooting to dribbling into double teams in the low post to entering the ball into Big Al too late in the shot clock, the Wolves’ guards really don’t seem to have a basic understanding of what good guards can offer a squad. It pains me to say it but the only time you see flashes of what this team could be is when Rashad McCants decides to play a 2 man game with Big Al. These two could be a pretty damn effective in/out 2-man matchup and it is exciting to see them “get it” every now and then. In the spirit of Witt’s revolutionary brain storming sessions (you know the ones: where he sits Richard and plays Doleac for 7 minutes a game) I’d like to suggest a crazy line up shakeup: Shaddy at the point. He can’t possibly be worse than Marko, he shoots better than Bassy and he has enough handle to be just as effective bringing the ball up the court as any other active guard on the roster. How about this for a soul searching line up:
PG: Shaddy
SG: Brewer
SF: Gomes
PF: Big Al
C: Richard
Marko, Bassy, and Smith are your first men off the bench and Green and Walker are rotated in (together) when the opportunity arises.
Misc.
In a continuing series of brainstorming trade possibilities, I offer the following:
The New York Knicks are at $90 million with 13 guaranteed contracts going into the 2008/09 season. I’m not really sure how they’ll be able to keep a 1st rounder with that crew but it may be worth a phone call to see if the Wolves could buy a pick or send them Ratliff (expiring 11 mil) for their draft pick and one of their 6-8 million players with a player option in 09/10. They are in salary cap hell and they are 2 years away from the free agent apocalypse when 9 of their players have options. Plus, if there is any NBA executive stupid enough to part with a draft pick for cap space, it's the Iron Range...I mean, Isiah Thomas.
Phoenix should also get a call as they’re sitting with Atlanta’s 1st rounder and they don’t want to hit the luxury mark. The Wolves have a $5 million dollar trade exception from the Mark Blount trade and they could absorb a player like Brian Skinner or (gasp) Marcus Banks while getting a pick (likely in the high teens/low 20s) in return. If Taylor really wants to buy this team back on the right track, he should offer to take Marcus Banks and Phoenix's 1st rounder off the books for the trade exception. Buy out Banks (it hurts, I know; but it’s a bit of karma) and either package the Phoenix and Heat/Celtic picks to move up or hope like hell that a solid point (DJ Augustin) or big man (Devon Hardin) falls down to the pick.
Finally, Jerry Zgoda of the Strib had a nice article about the 1995 and 2004 McDonalds All America Games the other day. Unmentioned in the article is that the current Celtics squad has two players from each class: Paul Pierce and KG from 95; and Rajon Rondo and Glen Davis from 2004.
In the spirit of getting more players from the 2004 squad on the Wolves' roster, and to fulfill Greg Buckner’s Denver dreams, How about Buckner, Green, and Cash to the Nuggets for JR Smith and Von Wafer? If the Nuggets want to keep Smith, they'll have to go way the hell over the luxury mark for a guy who is not seeing all that many minutes in mile high. That’s about all you want from Denver. Smith is the only player worth taking in, both for talent and contractual reasons. Long shot, I know, but a man can dream, can’t he?
Until next time.
PS: Isiah Rider got arrested again.
