What would you do?

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Milt Newton just fired Sam Mitchell and called you in to be the head coach - yes, you! You have a 100% healthy roster and Milt isn't willing to make any trades because he wants to see what you can do with this roster. He also tells you that while development of the young guys is a priority, that he believes winning games is part of development. So "soft tanking" isn't an option. Your job is to field a team that will compete.

So here's the punch line: Tell me three things you would do differently from Sam Mitchell.

Bonus points: Tell me at least one thing you would do the SAME as Sam Mitchell that isn't obvious (like "I would start Towns and Wiggins like Sam does").

[DNatagal]

I will take this challenge...
1) pace of play... We have AAU guys (right Sammich), so we live in transition. I want the team to play fast. Turnovers will happen, but that is to be expected.
2) Bazz takes Wiggins spot in starting lineup for a couple games... At least
3) Change to a spread offense, 4 behind the arc and only one body in the lane.
4) keep Zach at the point, he is better with the ball in his hands
Bonus: Shoot 3s at least 5 x per quarter, everyone but Pek gets a go. And pound or into every players head, that they will not be pulled for taking an open 3, but damn sure will be if they passed it up.

Defense be damned.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

I will take this challenge...
1) pace of play... We have AAU guys (right Sammich), so we live in transition. I want the team to play fast. Turnovers will happen, but that is to be expected.
2) Bazz takes Wiggins spot in starting lineup for a couple games... At least
3) Change to a spread offense, 4 behind the arc and only one body in the lane.
4) keep Zach at the point, he is better with the ball in his hands
Bonus: Shoot 3s at least 5 x per quarter, everyone but Pek gets a go. And pound or into every players head, that they will not be pulled for taking an open 3, but damn sure will be if they passed it up.

Defense be damned.

I bolded the two parts I agree with most:

Pace of Play - Our offense is in a tailspin and we struggle mightily to get open looks in our halfcourt sets. Increasing our pace and getting more early offense seems to make sense for this squad. But that in and of itself is a mentality change and requires practice reps (which means less time to focus on defensive principles). Guys like KG and Prince aren't really built to run anymore and Wiggins has always been a loper. Bazz and LaVine, and Towns to a lesser degree, seem to be the only three guys willing to bust their asses down the court. Certainly it takes advantage of Rubio's skills. You would need to shake up the starting lineup to make this work.

Not pulled for taking an open 3 - I love that because perhaps it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. May be that attitude breeds confidence, which therefore breeds more accuracy.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

1. I start Shabazz Muhammad and see what it does for my team for a month. Why a month? It gives me enough games to see what happens to both starting and bench units while allowing a handful of games for everyone to adjust.

2a. I shorten my rotation to 10 players, and those 10 players will know what type of minutes they will be receiving nightly. This is different from Sam's 12-14 man rotation where nobody knows what they'll play that night. He plays it by feel and that creates confusion throughout the roster.

2b. Minute Allocation:

PG: Rubio (32) / LaVine (18)
SG: Wiggins (34) / Martin (14)
SF: Muhammad (30) / Prince (16)
PF: Garnett (18) / Dieng (24)
C: Towns (34) / Pekovic (20)

*Players will play different positions. All minutes are accounted for with those ten players.

Muhammad gives Rubio another cutter/spot-up shooting threat on the floor. He gives the starting unit another offensive weapon that it didn't have with Prince, though I appreciate what Prince brought while he was starting. It should allow the offense to work better since Wiggins won't be depended on to carry the load, perhaps he focuses some of his energy elsewhere. Wiggins will also draw the physically weaker defender now since there's a stockier offensive threat playing next to him at SF. Sam tried to take advantage of this, but he couldn't because teams don't respect Prince's scoring ability, and rightfully so. I took our best defensive lineup and swapped Prince for Muhammad to add some offensive balance.

Our bench unit also added some balance. Tayshaun's offensive weaknesses should be easier to hide with Martin, Pekovic and Dieng around him. His ability to keep things jiving on both ends of the court would be welcomed off the bench.

3. More post-up plays for Karl-Anthony Towns. We can't continue to use him solely as a mid-range shooter. He's more than capable of scoring/creating on the block and we've gone away from that far too much as the season's continued. Get him going in the post and force the defense to collapse on him, which should open cutting lanes. If they don't collapse, then let Towns eat. Sam is trying to do this with Wiggins, but Wiggins doesn't have the vision nor ability to pass like Towns and he hasn't been scoring efficiently the last several weeks. Make the change.

What would I do the same as Sam Mitchell... Hmm, I guess the easy answer is continue to play LaVine at point guard, but that's out of necessity and trying to create consistency within the team. You can't yank guys around. He should have been SG out of training camp, but that wasn't the case. The best thing to do is allow him to gain his confidence back and that's by letting him do what he was doing when it was successful.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

1. Move Lavine into the starting lineup.

Ricky/Lavine/Wiggins/KG/Towns
Tyus/Bazz/Prince/Dieng/Pek

Wiggins will be subbed out early for Prince and then come back in with Bazz to be our primary bench scoring. Zach and Towns will be the primary scorers on the first unit.

2. No more hockey substitutions ever as noted above. Wiggins or Towns will be on the court at all times and they will be the guy the offense goes through when they are on the court alone. When together I am running them in the PnR to give Wiggins an easier time getting to the bucket while giving him a more defined outlet if he runs into multiple defenders.

3. Play 4 out. KG and Pek are on the block and everyone else is PnPopping or sitting in a corner ready to fire. Towns is on the block when he plays with Dieng and Dieng is in the corner ready to shoot.

I honestly can't think of any non-obvious thing Mitchell does that I would continue. Keep Martin benched is probably my best answer.

My offensive game plan is feed Towns early in the post and have him run PnR with Wiggins. Option 2 is Ricky running the PnR with KG with the goal of finding shooters/cutters as a result of his probing. Then move the ball to Lavine for a secondary PnR with Towns if Ricky's action doesn't net an open look. For the second unit, option 1 is the Tyus/Pek PnR because they should work really well together. Option 2 is Wiggins PnR with Pek looking for Bazz on weakside cuts.

Defensive game plan is to try to push ball handlers towards help defenders and focus less on individual defense. I want the first unit guys to stick to the perimeter with Towns and KG protecting the rim and the second unit guys help as much as possible and trap drivers.

[AbeVigodaLive]

For this season... nothing revolutionary compared to others...

- Push the pace: Use youthful excurberance and athleticism as an advantage. Or, hide it from being exposed by slowing things down. The average pace is 95.6. The Wolves have played at a slower pace in 16 of the past 21 games. More alarming... The slowest pace in the league is 91.2. The Wolves have played slower than that in 4 of its last 8 games. OVer the course of the season, the Wolves are slightly below average. That tells me two things:
1. The Wolves are playing at a much slower pace than they were earlier in the season.
2. The Wolves are losing more while playing at that slower pace.
(Is there a connection here? If I was the coach, I'd definitely be looking for it.)

- 3 Pointers: The Wolves suck making them, so just giving the team freedom to shoot more of them from anywhere might not be the answer. I'd work in more sets in an attempt to shoot "better" three pointers. There's no reason why the Wolves should be so far behind other teams in the number of corner threes it takes. Find out where guys are most comfortable shooting them... and work sets to try to get them in those spots. And implore Prince to take those corner 3s... and Rubio to shoot wide open three pointers when the ball gets tossed back out and no defender is within 10 feet.

- Beg for help: I've been clear about my thoughts on this coaching staff (beyond Mitchell.) They might be nice guys. Might even be good assistants... someday. But right now, this collection of coaches is overmatched. And as noted previously, they're generalists. I want an assistant who can (1) give our defense a scheme/identity that confuses other teams on occasion. Or, (2) a fantastic offensive mind for 2016 NBA basketball. Actually... to be honest... I'm hoping to have a guy leading the charge for 2020 NBA basketball. Instead of being the last to catch up to trends... lead the way.

SAME: The learning process happens off the court, too. I'm assuming Mitchell is better at this part of it. Teach the guys to be professionals and accountable (as much as 20 year old multi-millionaire millenials can be held accountable)...

[thedoper]

1. I start Shabazz Muhammad and see what it does for my team for a month. Why a month? It gives me enough games to see what happens to both starting and bench units while allowing a handful of games for everyone to adjust.

2a. I shorten my rotation to 10 players, and those 10 players will know what type of minutes they will be receiving nightly. This is different from Sam's 12-14 man rotation where nobody knows what they'll play that night. He plays it by feel and that creates confusion throughout the roster.

2b. Minute Allocation:

PG: Rubio (32) / LaVine (18)
SG: Wiggins (34) / Martin (14)
SF: Muhammad (30) / Prince (16)
PF: Garnett (18) / Dieng (24)
C: Towns (34) / Pekovic (20)

*Players will play different positions. All minutes are accounted for with those ten players.

Muhammad gives Rubio another cutter/spot-up shooting threat on the floor. He gives the starting unit another offensive weapon that it didn't have with Prince, though I appreciate what Prince brought while he was starting. It should allow the offense to work better since Wiggins won't be depended on to carry the load, perhaps he focuses some of his energy elsewhere. Wiggins will also draw the physically weaker defender now since there's a stockier offensive threat playing next to him at SF. Sam tried to take advantage of this, but he couldn't because teams don't respect Prince's scoring ability, and rightfully so. I took our best defensive lineup and swapped Prince for Muhammad to add some offensive balance.

Our bench unit also added some balance. Tayshaun's offensive weaknesses should be easier to hide with Martin, Pekovic and Dieng around him. His ability to keep things jiving on both ends of the court would be welcomed off the bench.

3. More post-up plays for Karl-Anthony Towns. We can't continue to use him solely as a mid-range shooter. He's more than capable of scoring/creating on the block and we've gone away from that far too much as the season's continued. Get him going in the post and force the defense to collapse on him, which should open cutting lanes. If they don't collapse, then let Towns eat. Sam is trying to do this with Wiggins, but Wiggins doesn't have the vision nor ability to pass like Towns and he hasn't been scoring efficiently the last several weeks. Make the change.

What would I do the same as Sam Mitchell... Hmm, I guess the easy answer is continue to play LaVine at point guard, but that's out of necessity and trying to create consistency within the team. You can't yank guys around. He should have been SG out of training camp, but that wasn't the case. The best thing to do is allow him to gain his confidence back and that's by letting him do what he was doing when it was successful.

I am getting a little tired of agreeing with you Cam;) Muhammad into the starting lineup has been the change that has made the most sense for a while. Unfortunately I don't know at this point if the team is buying into anything that Mitchell is selling.

[Phenom]

I always believed that Wiggins size at the two was negated with Prince in the lineup and, to a lesser extent, Martin. Bazz and Wiggins is the duo that can exploit their game in the post according to matchups. I agree with starting Bazz.

Next I would get Nema involved in the pick and roll game. I think it comes more natural to him than it does for Dieng. Plus he can extend the PnR out to the arc. Putting the ball in his hands to create will help get him into a rhythm. No more of the Adelman treatment of parking him in the corner or slot.

Pushing tempo also makes sense, as others have listed. This group just has too much talent that is Glen Taylor made for running more. Could we steal Mike D'Antoni from Philly so soon? He will get them running.

KAT also needs to be more involved on offense. He is the only one I expect will score from anywhere on the floor anymore. I think if the team fed him some more the team would have a few more wins, honestly.

I would sign the players up for rebounding clinics that emphasize boxing out.

I would replicate Sam's therapy sessions.

[TAFKASP]

1. Win more.
2. Lose less.
3. I don't need a 3rd as I'm confident that my first two changes would be enough.
4. I would continue to suggest, in the kindest and least offensive way possible that Pek not attempt more threes!

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

I would turn off my TV, webcast until next year.