This one hurts. In order to dull the sting, let's bullet point this bad boy:

• Randy Foye is playing some terrible basketball. While there was much rejoicing when he finally made it back to the hardwood, the payoff has been bad point play and stunted team ball. Last night's 4th quarter was about all you need to see to draw some mighty negative conclusions about Foye's ability to be the 1-guard in the NBA. First, there was the garbage dribbling at the top of the key. Outside of providing him no real advantage or lanes to the basket, he actually had the ball stripped from him with the shot clock running down to zero, forcing him to jack up a no-prayer shot. I wonder what it must be like to defend such a thing; between the legs over and over while the belt buckle remains in the same spot. Whatever works, I suppose.

  A second 4th quarter offense came when Foye had laser eyes for Al Jefferson on the post, passing up a wide-open Marko Jaric, waving his hands just beyond the 3 point line. This was hardly the first missed look; one of the highlights of the night was when Corey Brewer (who seemed to be everywhere on the court) hustled for a nice blocked shot, passed the ball to the point, sprinted ahead of the defense and was promptly rewarded for his efforts by Foye making the alley-oop that sent the packed house into a state of insanity...oh wait, that last part never happened.

  Missed passes, laser-eyes on the post, an inability to drive his man in the lane, basic entries to the post, garbage dribbling, passing around the perimeter...the list goes on and on. Perhaps the most frustrating thing about Foye's performance at the point was that this was the 2nd game that he has taken minutes exclusively from Sebastian Telfair. This worked out alright in the first 3 quarters but when the kitchen got hot, 4th Quarter Foye laid an egg that was absolutely cooked by the Celts. It baffles the mind why he was given as long a leash as he was during the period.

• For the life of me, I will never understand why Randy Wittman called a timeout for the last offensive possession and then ran out a lineup consisting of Big Al, Brewer, Jaric, Telfair, and Craig Smith. Can you tell me where the outside shot is coming with that particular group of players? Why call the timeout? Why not use the speed on the floor to take advantage of a slower Celtic squad in transition? Why not forego a tricky inbounds pass in the half court setting (remember last time)? None of it made any sense, but not making sense makes plenty of sense with Witt's coaching...if you know what I mean. To give Witt the benefit of the doubt, Foye was not on the floor because he a) can't shoot and b) can't run a big-league offense. His other perimeter threat...well, that's another story.
• Defensive rotation is a beautiful thing. It's a sign of b-ball knowledge, maturity, and teamwork. Somewhere along the line (I didn't write down the time in the game...sorry, I was holding a pretzel), Shaddy failed to rotate and the Celts got a highlight reel pass and dunk. Witt immediately called a timeout and came out on the court yelling at McCants for his poor d. Shaddy walked right past him to the bench, ignoring his coach and then annoying his teammates while pleading his case from the pine during the next few possessions. This is the 2nd time in the past few games where Shaddy has clearly FUBAR'd something on the court, been called out for it, and then pitched a hissy fit. You can read about the last snit here. It would have been nice to have McCants in on that last play. He's the club's only legit perimeter threat. He's also the club's only legit head case and the team should pull a lesson from the Utah Jazz and send this clown packing a'la Gordon Giricek. He let the club down again because of his poor play and attitude and there's simply no reason to keep a redundant player (see Foye, Randy) like that around. Maybe Charlotte will take him. I hear they want to reunite the last UNC championship team.
• Corey Brewer and Bassy went a combined 4-18 from the floor with 13 points. Outside of the poor shooting they combined for 2 blocks, 7 assists, 3 steals, 10 boards, and only 3 turnovers. They were the best defensive players on the Wolves side of the ball and they were able to facilitate proficient team play more than their subs: Foye and McCants. In a year where fans were told that youth and player development were the most important products on the court, Bassy and Brewer have shown more development and youth than the squad's hopeful starters. Both Brewer and Bassy are 2 years younger than their counterparts. They have shown development on the court as well as maturity off it. They play team ball and they do not appear to have any ego; precisely the thing you want in your glue guys. Along with Marko, I think it is becoming abundantly clear who the best guards on this team are and who just doesn't get it.

Finally, I have been pimping a Wolves/Bulls trade for quite some time now. You can read the latest breakdown here. One of the things that the Wolves need the most from any big man that would join Big Al in the frontcourt is an ability to make the interior pass. Well, I just found this little ditty on ESPN's rookie tracker:

One of Joakim Noah's best talents is his interior passing ability, but that strength is mostly wasted on this Bulls team. He has consistently made sharp passes to Ben Wallace -- ones that would lead to dunks, and 1's or other easy finishes for most NBA centers -- but they only amount to an occasional Big Ben dunk or, typically, a missed shot.

Exactly. What. The. Club. Needs. At this point the Bulls are tied with the New Jersey Nets for the final playoff spot in the East. That being said, both of those teams suck and they have some massive long-term problems. Let's sweeten up the deal a bit:

To the Bulls
-Ratliff
-Shaddy
-Smith
-Celtic and Heat 1st round picks

To the Wolves
-Ben Wallace
-Joakim Noah

Here's next year's rotation:

1- Telfair/Jaric/Foye
2- Foye/Brewer/Jaric
3- Gomes/(Beasley/Green/Budinger/Gallinari)/Brewer
4- Big Al/Big Ben
5- Noah/Big Ben

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Alright, that about does it. Until next time.

PS: Check out the new version of ESPN's Trade Machine.

Forget the possibility of a win this afternoon. As a long time Wolves fan, I feel competent in appealing to the gods of anti-karma to pull this one out for Nelly's bad guys.

In a bit of statistical synchronicity the Randy Wittman helmed Wolves are going to hit both the mark at which former coach Dwayne Casey was fired (40 games into the season) and the 82nd game of Witt’s T-Wolves’ head coach career in the very same contest: at Golden State, 3:00 P.M.—be there or be square.

Let’s deal with these milestones one at a time.

Dwayne Casey was a 2nd year coach with a 20-20 record at the time of his firing. He took a team with a starting lineup of Mark Blount, Ricky Davis, Kevin Garnett, Trenton Hassell, and Mike James to an even-Steven .500 mark. Granted, he got to this mark by winning 4, losing 4, but considering the talent on the squad, and what they are doing this year, it is a damn-near miracle that they played as well as they did. (Just ask Pat Riley.)

Ricky Davis is averaging a 6-year low 14.5 ppg in Miami while compiling a career low 12.2 PER. Mark Blount is his partner in Southern Florida crime; averaging a paltry 5.6 ppg, 2.6 reb, and a career low PER of 9.3. Trenton Hassell is currently stealing money from the Dallas Mavs. He and his $4.35 million salary have played 319 minutes in Big-D while scoring a grand total of 53 points in only 25 games. Mr. Hassell has a hefty 5.6 PER, which is not too far below his career mark of 8.8…and yes, the Wolves gave this guy a decent long-term contract. Mike James is stealing money in Houston; averaging 7.3 ppg, 1.7 rpg, and 1.8 apg with a 10.4 PER for nearly $6 million/year. KG is…well, he’s the best player on the best team in the league.

Coming off the bench, coach Casey played a rotation of Craig Smith, Troy Hudson, Justin Reed, and Mark Madsen. Mr. Reed currently plays for the Austin Toros of the D-League, T-Hud’s career is over after a hip surgery (the Wolves owe one more year on his buy-out), Mad-Dog has a blog, and the Rhino is an effective player on the offensive end of the court.

During his 40 game stint in 2006-07, Casey’s Wolves largest loss was 29 points while their largest margin of victory was 19. Their longest winning streak was 4 games and their longest losing streak was 4 as well. Overall, to include both Wittman and Casey, the team ranked 25th in offensive efficiency and 21st in defense. With a Pythagorean W-L mark of 30-52, the 2006-07 Wolves lost games by an average of 3.6 ppg. Seeing that Casey’s squad lost by an average of only 1.5 ppg, Wittman’s –2.1 contribution to the mix seems to put the team’s post-Casey struggles in a bit more troubling light.

Upon taking control of the Blue and Gold, Wittman’s squad provided stark relief from Casey’s up and down, win 4, lose 4 approach. Witt simply lost 4, won 1, lost 3, won 1, and so on and so forth. In an especially embarrassing stretch to close out the year with a draft pick still in hand (which they used to select a 185 lbs wing man who can’t shoot), the Wolves went 5-15. In that 20 game stretch (6 of which were without KG), the Wolves were outscored by 8.55 ppg. In that miserable 1/4th of a season the Wolves lost their 15 defeats by a combined total of 189 points while seeing an advantage of 18 points in their 5 wins. In 20 losses, Dwayne Casey’s Wolves lost by a combined total of 196 points, only 7 more than what Witt accomplished in 5 fewer games.

In the 1st 40 games of the 2007-08 season, the Randy Wittman led Wolves are 5-35; losing their games by an average of 9.7 points while ranking dead last in defense and 27th in offensive efficiency. The Wolves’ Pythagorean W-L mark is a paltry 8-32 and they are at or in the bottom 3 of the league in ppg, FTM, FTA, assists, assist differential, free throw differential, and FG% differential.

Individually, the Wolves are an even bigger mess under Witt’s questionable tutelage. Take Gerald Green for instance. Last year in Boston, Green averaged 17.1 pts, 4.2 reb, 1.7 ast per 36 minutes while shooting 42% from the floor in 1779 minutes. This year, while playing in about 1/2 of the team’s games, Green has scored a total of 96 points in 249 minutes while shooting 7 points lower than last year from the floor and seeing his PER drop by nearly 5 whole points. Ryan Gomes has seen a dip in points, minutes, FG%, rebounds, and assists. After a terrible start he is finally putting things together but this should be viewed as a return to form rather than being “coached up” by the current Wolves staff. From Chris “yo-yo minutes” Richard to Corey Brewer, to a front line of Gomes, Smith, and Big Al, there hasn’t been a single instance in the 1st half of this season (outside of Jerry Sichting’s victory over Phoenix in Witt’s absence) where you’ve been able to look at the squad and say, “That’s some mighty fine coaching.” In reality, it’s been quite to the contrary.

Moving on to Witt’s full 82 game schedule, his 17-65 mark would rank 2nd all time in terms of losses to the Jerry Rodgers led 1991-92 squad that went 15-67. Unlike the 91-92 squad (who kept the point differential, offensive efficiency, and defensive efficiency out of the league’s cellar), this year’s squad is a honorary expansion team. In the grand scheme of Wolves-dom, Wittman’s 82-game performance is in direct competition with Bill Blair’s 1994-95 team for the title of Worst Wolves Team of All-Time.

With a starting lineup of Winston Garland, Christian Laettner, Isiah Rider, Sean Rooks, and Doug West the 94-95 Wolves lost their games by 9 points/contest while ranking 26th out of 27 in both offensive and defensive efficiency. (Just for the record, I remember calling into the Chad and Barrero show to advocate picking Alan Houston and Nick Van Exel in the Rider draft. It remains the only time I’ve ever called into a talk show.) Anywho, Witt’s squad only needs to maintain its current pace to out-suck the worst Wolves team of all time; finishing at or near the bottom of the league in off/def efficiency and point differential. With a 15.1 point disparity in their last 10 losses, the Wolves should make their way past the 10 point differential any game now.

Getting back to player development, the Wolves have 8 players 25 years old or younger. 3 of the group are starters (Jefferson, Gomes, Bassy), 3 see significant minutes off the bench (McCants, Smith, Brewer), and Green and Richard ride the pine at around 10mpg. However, if you look at the last 10 games (1/4th of the season), Brewer is averaging 18 mpg with 1.8 reb, 1 apg, and 4.4 ppg; Richard is averaging 10.7 mpg, 0.7 ppg, and 2.4 rpg; Gerald Green is putting up 13.7 mpg, 5.1 ppg, 2.6 rpg, and 1.2 rpg (cough…better than Brewer…cough); the Rhino is averaging 20.7 mpg, 9.6 ppg, and 4.4 rpg; and Bassy has hit a bit of a wall while going 33% from the floor with 5.8 apg, 7 ppg, and 2.7 rpg. All of these numbers are trending downwards. All of these players are showing little to no development; some of them being jerked in and out of the line up with 17 minutes one game, a DNP-CD the next; some of them being put out into 5 man rotations that clearly show a history of malfunction; some of them seeing nothing approaching consistency…the list goes on and on. One of the big hopes for this season was to find out if Shaddy could play the 2 and Foye handle the 1. Not only do we not know the answers to those questions (we’re pretty sure about the former), but we likely won’t have a good enough sample size to make an informed decision about either scenario before the draft.

The bottom line here is that Randy Wittman has underperformed even the lowest of expectations during his first full season at the head of the Wolves’ bench. Not only has he put up the 2nd worst 82 game record in Wolves history, but his team loses games by a greater margin and with lesser efficiency than any other Timberwolves team to ever take the court. This is no small achievement…as someone who sat through the 94-95 season and games at the Dome can tell you.

Even more significantly, this lack of performance cannot be solely traced to the loss of Kevin Garnett. It is arguable that this year’s supporting cast is every bit as competent as the roster that was trotted out during KG’s last year, especially taking into consideration the woeful performances that former Wolves are chalking up this season. Nearly every single player in the KG trade (outside of Big Al and recently Ryan Gomes) has seen his performance lag when compared to previous seasons. Granted, a lot of this blame lies with the front office (a whole other topic), but you would be very hard pressed to look at the Wolves’ roster and point to a single player that has developed under Witt’s tutelage.

While I obviously can’t speak to what happens in practice and behind closed doors, Wittman’s approach to poor play has been to call out the manliness of his overmatched squad; as if all their problems of rotations, 5-man units, shooting percentages, and free throw discrepancies could be solved with a simple “cowboy up.” At some point this sort of approach will net diminishing returns…which is a scary proposition with a 5-35 club.

Most frustratingly for fans is the growing lack of anything to care about with this team. We’re told that we should withhold additional judgment until the return of Ratliff and Foye. We’re told that this team is young and that there will be growing pains. We’re told that one of the big payoffs of the KG trade will be cashed in during the next 2 drafts. Yet, we’re left with a product that plays (and loses) in a predictable manner, night in and night out. We’re left with a squad that will most likely let its 2 biggest trade assets (Ratliff’s expiring money and Blount’s trade exception) pass with zero action. We’re left hoping for a series of draft picks that will be made by the same folks that took 2 6’4” guards and a 185 lbs swingman instead of players like Danny Granger (a 3), Brandon Roy (a 2...wait, they did take him), and Sean Williams (a 4/5)…you know, players that actually would have complimented KG. Worst of all, we’re left with a coach that has not only underperformed his predecessor by 15 games through the 1st 40 games of this season (compared to last year), but who has also put up the 2nd worst Wolves record of all-time over an 82 game span.

Perhaps the Wolves marketing department should take a lesson from Witt; maybe Sweetwater Jones should yell at the fans to suck it up and take it like a man. Yeah, that will work for a little while.

UPDATE: For an additional take on the 1/2 way point in the season, read Peter Weinhold's excellent post at Hoop Springs Eternal.

"I don't want [Randy Foye] having the ball in his hands all the time...he'll play [pretty evenly] a mixture at the 1 and 2."

- Wolves coach Randy Wittman on the prospect of Randy Foye playing the majority of his minutes at the point.

Listen to the entire interview here.

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.

It’s kind of a bittersweet night for Mr. Stop-n-Pop. My Oklahoma Sooners and Minnesota Timberwolves took it in the chin, but come tomorrow the airwaves of Southern Minnesota and Iowa (where yours truly is writing from—beautiful Council Bluffs…or, as I like to call it, Counciltucky) will no longer be clogged with political ad after political ad after political ad. When Conor Oberst is called in to campaign for Barack Obama from across the river in Omaha, some sort of unofficial line has been crossed. That line can generically be referred to as the gee I miss those Cialis commercials line. It’s truly a sad state of affairs.

Getting back to the Wolves, tonight’s recap will be cross-posted at Britt Robson’s On the Ball website, where Mr. Robson has created an open thread for those fans who would like to create their own trey. Sooooooo….

The Three Pointer: Boobery, Bullshiite, and the Hard Bigotry of No Expectations

1. Fouling for Pleasure

There are many, many things that are wrong with our beloved Puppies. From the lack of a consistent perimeter threat to important injuries, there are no shortages of things to nag about. However, the two most pressing and important deficiencies for the Blue and Green are their lack of a true center and their massive free throw disparity.

In a way, the free throw gap (not to be confused with the gap at center court before the game) is the most destructive portion of the Wolves’ game. By allowing nearly 8 more free throws per game to their opponents, the Wolves’ d is put in a hole so deep that even when it holds an opponent to 45% shooting from 2, 0% shooting from 3, and only 7 offensive rebounds (as it did against the woeful Clippers), it simply can’t find a way to win.

A big part of the problem with the loss to the Clips was that the Pups were fouling people 70 feet away from the basket. The 2 main culprits in the far-away hackathon were Rashad McCants and Craig Smith. I’ll give these 2 the benefit of the doubt by pretending that the fouls were the result of good defensive intentions gone bad; after all, according to pre-game analysis by Jim Pete and the newly minted Paul Allen, one of the keys to victory over the Blazers was to play aggressive defense without hacking the guy with the ball. Again, I’m not sure what defensive aggressiveness has to do with swinging wildly at an opponents arm 70 feet away from the bucket, but I’m willing to extend the benefit of a doubt.

Against the Blazers the Wolves performed admirably in the battle of free throws. 20 makes to the Blazers’ 22 is pretty good for this team and they even kept the FTAs within a reasonable 2 shot margin (25-27). Unfortunately, this game exposed a secondary issue that is growing out of the free throw disparity.

I don’t have the official stats for what I am about to claim but I am 100% sure that the Minnesota Timberwolves lead the league in bat-shiite crazy fouls. Whether it’s Shaddy trying to jump inside of Brandon Roy’s shorts in a macho show of look how aggressive I can play defense boobery or the Rhino giving a forearm shiver to the back of an opponent in an attempt to get an offensive rebound, our young, undisciplined, talent-strapped Wolves are gaining a reputation for unparalleled hackery. As any long-time NBA observer will tell you, this sort of thing is a perpetual motion machine; once the refs identify a player or team as being prone to commit bad fouls, more bad fouls are called. This situation further compounds itself when the bad-fouling players/teams are fouled in return and (gasp) the whistle is not blown…which then results in frustration and (double gasp) more bad fouls.

In one particular nasty stretch during the 4th quarter, Craig Smith was hacked in somewhat spectacular fashion by some no-name Blazer. Unfortunately, no whistle was blown. Smith was upset with the call and he took it out on Portland on the next possession by not rotating to his attacker on an open three. Thankfully, the shot was off and Smith grabbed the rebound while possibly being fouled again by the nameless Blazer. On the Wolves next shot (a miss, of course), Smith gave a hard shove to the back of He Who Shall Not Be Named and picked up the offensive foul. He then proceeded to throw both the ball and a hissy fit while picking up a technical. Which brings me to item #2…

2- Soul Searching

Following his technical, the Rhino stayed on the court. I know this shouldn’t surprise me, but isn’t it kind of sad that at this point in the season I’m not exactly sure what it takes to get benched? If throwing a ball (sort of) at the ref after failing to rotate defensively and picking up an offensive foul isn’t on the list, I’m not really sure what passes for standards with Randy Wittman.

Here’s another unofficial stat that the Wolves lead the league in: shots of pre-commercial f-bombs mouthed by dejected Wolves players. Last night saw Corey Brewer and Craig Smith give some adult rated love to the home viewers. In the past 2 contests I’m pretty sure I’ve seen Sebastian Telfair, Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, and Shaddy drop the uckfay on live TV. I’d swear too if I was headed off to a place where there appears to be no standards of performance or guidance. Granted, I’m just a casual observer with a League Pass, but this ship seems to be sinking a bit faster in recent games, and for all of the drastic changes that have been promised (another DNP-CD for Chris Richard) I just don’t get the sense that the inmates are listening to whatever it is that Witt is selling anymore. This is just a tad bit troubling with 51 games left to play. We all knew it was going to be bad, but when the coach starts telling local media that he doesn’t really know what to do and the players start acting like they really don’t give a shiite….well, I don’t know what it looks like, but there’s a line to be crossed for hard core fans like myself and I have a nagging sense that its fast approaching.

3- Misc

One of the biggest failures of the Wolves’ coaching staff is the recent post-flu bug rash of yo-yo playing time for young players like Richard and Brewer. Brewer has been additionally yanked around by being switched to the 2; a position he is much more physically suited to play at the moment. The change in minutes and position has had mixed results so far. Brewer isn’t as physically mismatched as he used to be at the 3 and he has improved his shot selection during the past 5 games while shooting 48% from the floor. Also, his assists and steals are up and he runs the floor better than any other rookie in the league. On the downside, his rebounds are way down and he looks even less comfortable with the ball in his hands on the offensive end. Corey looks like he’ll cruise through the rest of the year with 6-8 points on 7-10 shots while getting 2-3 assists and 5-6 rebounds per game. If he can keep up the steals and limit the turnovers while continuing to manage his shot selection, he’ll be all right. However, I don’t want to see too many more f-bombs on the way back to the bench.

According to CNNSI's FanNation Player Fantasy Position Rankings, Randy Foye is listed ahead of Bassy. His latest setback is trying the patience of eager fantasy owners, but he should be worth the wait, says FanNation. "Bite me," says Bassy.

Kevin McHale gets a shot across the bow in the latest run up of Memphis at ESPN.com:

Reality check: Minnesota Timberwolves general manager Kevin McHale likely would swap teams straight up with Memphis if he could.

I don't know. I'd much rather have last year's Florida squad. Speaking of which, how about Toine, Ratliff and the Rhino to the Bulls for Joakim Noah and Ben Wallace?

Speaking of the Gators, will Chris Richard get to play on Rookie Appreciation Night on the 6th?

Is it possible to sign and trade Craig Smith?

How could the Sooners possibly lose to inbreeds from West Virginia?

I’d have more for you tonight but it’s late and I have a long day of caucus organizing to do tomorrow in scenic Iowa.

Until later…