This is Ricky's team now

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Ricky needs to get off the phone with Love and start making some jump shots or learning to finish at the rim. That is the only thing that will keep Love here. Not a phone call. Everybody else is capped out at role player quality so Ricky has the fate of the team in his hands with his improvement this summer. If he can come into the season with a serviceable jumper and begin finishing through contact, it will go a long way towards making us a playoff team. If he can bump his scoring average to 15 PPG which isn't unreasonable for your second best player, we will have a shot at being good. He just needs to make sure some of those 15 come in the 4th so we stop essentially playing 4 on 5 offensively down the stretch of games. He'll be amazed how open his passing lanes will get if he is actually a threat to do anything other than pass offensively and that would make him that much more lethal. We can improve the bench, but that will only win some of the games we gave away last year. The rest will have to be won by the 5 guys on the floor at the end of games and Ricky is just as big a reason as anyone else as to why we couldn't close out games last year. We simply can't afford another year of goose eggs in the fourth from the starting PG. If he can become any kind of threat at the end of games, I think we have a much better record in close games.

[Papalrep]

Kevin Love is our best player. Ricky Rubio is our most important player.

Great post--so true--Ricky is the leader

[60WinTim]

So why didn't we see this before? Flip seems like such an obvious choice to coach this team, especially for the interim. Yet, before he named himself, we all kind of dreaded him doing it...

[Monster]

So why didn't we see this before? Flip seems like such an obvious choice to coach this team, especially for the interim. Yet, before he named himself, we all kind of dreaded him doing it...

I think we all were hoping for something better than Flip. We all want that younger promising guy both as a front office guy and as coach. I think because Flip wasn't successful in Washington with that mess of a roster and in Detroit he didn't move the needle it gives us pause. In addition it seemed crazy to give him so much influence over the team. As things went on SVG got the full power of the Pistons and let's be honest Phil is going to be extremely hands on with the Knicks running the Triangle which nobody else in the league does.

As ot turns out with the coaching search Joerger didn't happen other guys turned them down and they didn't see anyone else as a fit. As you said as far as Flip being a good fit yeah he is. His work with PGs as a Wolves coach in that area was pretty significant. Now he can maybe mold 3 guys with PG skills Levine, Rubio and Shved. In addition I think the guys on this roster seem like guys that may respond well to Flip.

Also as the guy in charge a lot of what Flip has done and said makes a ton of sense to me. I'm not saying Flip is a top FO guy in the league but if he was in that middle 3rd that would be plenty good at this point. I have faith Flip has a reasonable clue what he is doing and won't totally screw things up. It woukd be a fantastic storyline if he puts the franchise back to being a legit force in the west. That's a tall order in this conference but there is plenty of talent here it could happen.

[alexftbl8181 [enjin:6648741]]

I think this phrase still rings true. I've always said it, and I'm sure a lot on this board have as well. Kevin Love is our best player. Ricky Rubio is our most important player.

What does that even mean? Is "leadership" really more important then 26-14-5?

[bleedspeed]

I think this phrase still rings true. I've always said it, and I'm sure a lot on this board have as well. Kevin Love is our best player. Ricky Rubio is our most important player.

What does that even mean? Is "leadership" really more important then 26-14-5?

Certainly is. Spurs proved this is a team game. Rubio make this team go. They have sucked whenever he has not played and been decent when he does. They have always sucked with Love didn't play with Rubio.

[alexftbl8181 [enjin:6648741]]

I think this phrase still rings true. I've always said it, and I'm sure a lot on this board have as well. Kevin Love is our best player. Ricky Rubio is our most important player.

What does that even mean? Is "leadership" really more important then 26-14-5?

Certainly is. Spurs proved this is a team game. Rubio make this team go. They have sucked whenever he has not played and been decent when he does. They have always sucked with Love didn't play with Rubio.

does making his team go include the 4th quarter where he had like 20 fg for the whole season?

[Monster]

I think this phrase still rings true. I've always said it, and I'm sure a lot on this board have as well. Kevin Love is our best player. Ricky Rubio is our most important player.

What does that even mean? Is "leadership" really more important then 26-14-5?

Certainly is. Spurs proved this is a team game. Rubio make this team go. They have sucked whenever he has not played and been decent when he does. They have always sucked with Love didn't play with Rubio.

This narrative that Love isn't a team player is absolute BS. So the Wolves have been decent with Rubio at PG...well thats pretty obvious since he is the only PG that Love has played with thats anything better than a fringe starter at best. I loved the threads that were bumped about Love and now people are on Ricky cause he is the guy when almost everyone just a few weeks ago was down on him moving forward. Get a grip people. Love sucks can't lead a team ball stopper not a team guy...Rubio is who we are building around he can be the guy. If Rubio is the guy people are getting excited about in this thread and actually shows that this season then Love isn't going to leave next summer book it. Serious.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Monster - How is anyone supposed to take you seriously when you call one of the best passing bigs in the game a ball stopper? Ricky may have the leadership, but he is not a number 1 option on any team. A T Wolves team counting on Ricky to be their best player will never make the playoffs in the same way Rondo hasn't been able to carry the Celtics since the big 3 left. You need both Ricky and Love to be successful. It's the fact that the rest of the team around them has not been built to cover for their weaknesses as to why we are in this predicament. Put a rim protector next to Love who can be in the right position on the roll for Ricky to feed him the ball. Put wings next to Ricky who can shoot 3's, defend opposing wings competently and handle the ball some of the time. This isn't rocket science. The building of the roster hasn't worked because we just signed talent like Pek, Martin, Brewer, etc., but that talent doesn't fit around our two core players. The ideal team would be Ricky/Love/Rim protecting, athletic C and two 3 and D wings with one of them needing to be able to handle some of the ball handling responsibilities and the other being a borderline defensive stopper to contain the opposing teams best perimeter player. None of the other 3 positions fit that mold at all as we are currently constructed.

[mrhockey89]

I think this phrase still rings true. I've always said it, and I'm sure a lot on this board have as well. Kevin Love is our best player. Ricky Rubio is our most important player.

Just like KG and Marbury they need each other. They fit really well together although we honestly haven't gotten to see a lot of it due to them having injuries.

One thing I'll mention here is that we haven't done well in the draft but that 2nd year significant injury curse was some pretty crazy bad luck for what like 10 years? Derrick Williams amazingly broke it and if he did (cross your fingers) maybe he was worth the #2 pick. Lol Just saying those consistant significant injuries in the 2nd year didn't help and worth noting.

No monster...the curse with Derrick Williams 2nd year was that he stayed healthy