Game Report - Wolves v. Heat

[Lipoli390]

Huge crowed turned out tonight. Not surprising since Target Center was the stage tonight for the world champion Heat and the best basketball on the player, LeBron James. Unfortunately, the largest crowd of the season so far saw just how bad this Wolves team is. I doubt many fans left the arena tonight thinking about making plans to return. The Heat played down to the level of their competition tonight and still beat us by 20 points.

Tonight's game, coming on the heels of the Denver game, was just further confirmation of a fundamental truth -- this Wolves team is not very good. It's not the schedule. It's not back-to-backs. And it's not injuries to two perennial bench players, Turiaf and Budinger. It's an overall lack of talent, a tremendous lack of athleticism, and no one who can create his own shot going to the hole. We're strictly a jump-shooting team, but we have only two bona fide high caliber perimeter shooters in Kevin Martin and Kevin Love; yet neither one knocks down threes on par with Steph Curry, Klay Thompson or Danny Green among others.

Kevin Love is definitely this team's best player. With him, the Wolves are a Western Conference lottery team at somewhere between 9th and 11th in the standings. Without Love, this team is essentially what we saw last season.

Here are some specific observations from tonight's game:

1. The Wolves are a group of plodders. The lack of movement on the offensive end is astounding. It's not lack of effort. It's lack of ability. These guys just aren't very quick and don't explode off the floor. Their lack of quickness and athleticism shows up even more on the defensive end. Love's rebounding and scoring covers for some of these deficiencies, so you really notice how bad this team is when he's not there. Things might be different if this team was loaded with really good shooter. But it's not. Watching Brewer shoot threes or attempt dribble penetration is painful. Watching Luc shoot takes painful takes pain to a new level of unbearable.

2. Ricky Rubio had a bad game. But the worst thing is that looks very frustrated and unhappy. Right now, I think he's already contemplating the day he leaves here. He played much better on the offensive end 2 years ago. The difference? He has no athletes to play with this season. Say what you will about Wes Johnson and Michael Beasley, but they were athletes who gave Ricky moving targets. When you watch this team play live you really notice how difficult it is for Ricky to make the offense work because guys give him stationary, largely immobile targets with short arms and no leaping ability. Ricky's strength is passing to teammates on the move where he anticipateswhere they will be, not where they are, and throws to the spot, not the player like a good quarterback. It just won't work with these guys. Ricky has the wrong set of teammates to bring out the best in his game.

3. Watching Pek struggle to get in position for a pass is only slightly more painful then watching him miss multiple layups and end up shooting 39% from the field as he did tonight. And of course, he's not exactly a rim protector on the defensive end.

4. Luc isn't a rotation player on a playoff team. He's a rotation player on a lottery team. He's a complete butcher on the offensive end. Good defender? Yes, but not a great one. This team needs scoring and Luc is just another roster player who can't shoot or handle the ball.

5. JJ continues to play worse than I've ever seen him play his entire NBA career. But the reason is no mystery. He heads a second unit that wouldn't even be a top team in the D-League. So while he has always tried to do too much himself throughout his career, this season he has no choice and no teammates to take any of the pressure off him. So teams can defend him almost 5 on 1.

6. Dieng has some potential, but he still looks really, really raw. I do love his effort.

7. Hummel hit a couple threes playing against the Heat scrubs. But I don't see a playoff team rotation player in Hummel.

8. At one point early in the 2nd half, Budinger was laughing and trying to joke with his teammates on the bench while the game was underway. He was talking to Shved who sat immediately to his right and Shabazz who sat to the right of Shved. To the credit of both Shved and Shabazz, they ignored him and didn't crack a smile. How you can laugh and joke on the bench when your teammates are getting their asses kicked at home is beyond me. If I were Adelman, I'd tell Chase to keep his ass in the training room working on his rehab in all future games until he's ready to play.

9. I'm growing tired of Adelman's myopic affection for certain types of players who play a certain way. I'm sure Robbie Hummel does exactly what the coach wants. But he simply can't defend at the NBA level and hasn't shown the ability to knock down jumpers or do anything else of note on the offensive end. This team needs scoring, especially with Love out tonight, and Shabazz was drafted primarily because of his scoring. No excuse for not giving him more burn tonight.

10. Things will get better as the schedule eases up. But tonight's game was another measure of how far away this team is from anything approaching contender status.

Let the "blow it up" discussion start. Because I honestly think the Wolves will have to embark on another rebuilding effort after this season ends if not before. Unfortunately, I don't trust Flip to lead the rebuilding effort.

Sorry for the downer tonight, but this game, the Denver game before it and numerous other games so far this season paint a troubling picture of a team hurting for talent and a coach probably ready for retirement.

6.

[WildWolf2813]

I'd love to see this team's rebuilding pitch, but if it gets to that point, I'll tune this team out for good.

[Lipoli390]

Wildwolf - I wouldn't blame you if you did.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I'm off the bandwagon if we have to start rebuilding this close to the last rebuild. At least make the playoffs a few times. I'd be willing to stay on if we could pull off an Orlando rebuild (they're one more draft away from being in great shape in the East). Don't think we could find another rental sucker like the Bucks though.

[Coolbreeze44]

Lip, a lot of what you write here is pretty accurate. You're a little too up and down for me, but you generally have pretty good insight. Your best point is #9. Adelman has gotten everything he has wanted in terms of shaping the roster his way. And as you point out, we are still not a playoff quality team in the West. As soon as this year is over, Rick is going to ride off into retirement and we are going to be left with the most unathletic mess in the league. Do we really have a choice but to rebuild? Not if we care about building a consistent winner. And you all know exactly how we have to do it. Love and maybe Pek are going to have to go to try and build up some assets again. I'm hoping Love will bring us a top 3 pick in this year's draft. If he stays healthy he might. But this rebuild is not going to work. Anybody should be able to see that.

[m4gor [enjin:6667447]]

9. I'm growing tired of Adelman's myopic affection for certain types of players who play a certain way. I'm sure Robbie Hummel does exactly what the coach wants. But he simply can't defend at the NBA level and hasn't shown the ability to knock down jumpers or do anything else of note on the offensive end. This team needs scoring, especially with Love out tonight, and Shabazz was drafted primarily because of his scoring. No excuse for not giving him more burn tonight.
.

Yeah, it looks like Adelman refuses to adjust his system and rather plays mediocre/bad player who fit better to the system, Bazz cannot shoot corner threes and Hummel can lets play Hummel .. With genius PG we should rather play some free style like George Karl did last year with Nuggets, not to overcoach and put there players who have some attributes to fit to Adelman system but otherwise are bad

if we want to rebuild we have to move Love, and to get max value from Love we would have to move him in this winter (to give buyer 2 playoff runs + better chance to resign him) .. and i am just not seeing us to do this, therefore he will be gone for nothing, because barely making playoffs (or not making them at all) will not be enough to keep him happy ..

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

It's too early to throw in the towel on this roster. I'm willing to be patient through the rest of this season to see how things go.

As for Adelman, I feel bad for the guy. He absolutely tries to design sets that get guys shots where they are most comfortable. We just don't make enough of them. Look at all those corner 3's Brewer missed! Look at all the interior bunnies Pek missed! Look at all the mid-range jumpers Cunningham missed! These are all good shots; they just don't go in.

He's trying to maximize the talent he has, but guys just aren't able to convert.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Lip, as always I appreciate your in-person game report. I think this one is too negative, but I understand. As a former season ticket holder for many years, I remember that an in-person loss is much more painful than a long-distance one. While I kind of watched the game in the comfort of my home, and focused more on making dinner as the game got out of hand, you had to sit there and watch our worst performance of the year. Below zero temps probably didn't help your mood much either!

But the fact of the matter is we just didn't shoot well...worst shooting night in team history. When Corey airballed his first corner three, followed soon after by several missed layups by his teammates, I knew it wasn't our night. Not to mention having to play against James, who is twice as good as anyone on our roster. We weren't going to win that game. I'm just glad it's over.

Your impatience with Adelman is understandable. I'm concerned that his anally-retentive style is a poor mix with today's NBA player, and that his best days are behind him. Yes, his offense can be a thing of beauty when it is working. But his inflexibility in using his roster is frustrating for me. The rookies should be seeing the court more for several reasons. In order to not wear out our starters, to give them a chance to develop, and to provide a little more entertainment for the fans who want to see what they have to offer. Come on Rick...loosen up, and have some fun.

I disagree with your assessment, which many on this board share, that lack of quickness and athleticism is a big issue with this team. As a League Pass subscriber, I listen to the opponent's TV feed in half of the games, so I get to hear what others think of our team. While they regularly rip our shooting, they often mention how hellish it is to play against our ball-hawking, lane-jumping defense, and how exhausting it is to chase after guys leaking out on fast breaks. We're not very long and we certainly don't shoot very well, but in many games this year we have seemed to me to be the quicker team. If I were to rank the team's problems this year, they would be 1)missed layups and threes, 2) lack of contribution from the bench and 3) occasional lack of effort on defensive rotation.

I'm not happy with being two games under .500 and 2 1/2 games out of the playoffs, but the schedule now gets much easier. I wouldn't be surprised to see them go 8-3 or 7-4 through the end of the year. We have managed to stay reasonably healthy while other teams have not, and we will face several teams in the next 2 months (Chicago, Memphis, Golden State, New Orleans...even the Lakers with Kobe at half strength) who have key players out, and that will benefit us greatly. I'm staying optimistic, and still predict we will be a playoff team.

[mjs34]

Lip, I am happy to see you made it home safely last night. There are a lot of bridges to jump off on the way home. I agree with most of your points, except for the rebuild. I still think we can salvage what we have. Unfortunately that won't happen with Adelman at the helm.

I agree with Cool that when Adelman walks away at the end of the year, he will be leaving a mess of unathletic one dimensional below average role players behind. Maybe that's too much.....not really!

Q, setting up an offense that gets Brewer and DC long jumpers isn't maximizing talents. Neither player has ever shown an ability to score efficiently in those situations.

I would love to see a lineup of Dieng, Love, Bazz, Martin, and Rubio. I think it would help our rookies acclimate faster by having more talented guys next to them running things, and would also help defensively as well.

I can't say it enough, we overpaid on Pek. The guy isn't even one dimensional when we play an athletic aggressive defense. I think Flip should be shopping him now trying to grab a first rounder next year. Flip really dropped the ball this offseason by not signing a 3 - D guy. Instead he opted for the 3 guy or the D guy. Why can't he understand that there is a big difference there?

If we continue with the current system, I see us more likely to go 4-7 rather than 7-4 Long!

[Coolbreeze44]

It's too early to throw in the towel on this roster. I'm willing to be patient through the rest of this season to see how things go.

As for Adelman, I feel bad for the guy. He absolutely tries to design sets that get guys shots where they are most comfortable. We just don't make enough of them. Look at all those corner 3's Brewer missed! Look at all the interior bunnies Pek missed! Look at all the mid-range jumpers Cunningham missed! These are all good shots; they just don't go in.

He's trying to maximize the talent he has, but guys just aren't able to convert.

Q, I don't know how you can feel bad for St. Rick. This is his team, shaped the way he wanted it. We went all in for the short term to try and make an appearance in the playoffs. And it doesn't even look like we are going to get that. We've gotten rid of all the guys Rick didn't want. He doesn't deserve any sympathy.