And so it starts

[Mstermisty [enjin:6864008]]

K-Love staying here will come down to winning. We can pay him the most money so that is not an issue. But if the Wolves are still a fringe playoff team at best by next year's trade deadline, he could easily be gone. But to print an article like this at this juncture is just pointless speculation, especially the K-Love part. There is nothing here that nobody didn't already know. What is this guy's next article going to be about? Rubio needs to shoot better?

[AbeVigodaLive]

Long, I think the fact the girlfriend is an actress may be the biggest factor. She certainly isn't going to move to Minny to pursue her career, so if Love is seriously involved it would be unlikely for him to re-sign here.

Yeah, I can see at least a thin thread there, but everyone is an "actress" here in LA...Cody Horn is an epically bad actress. Check her out in Magic Mike!

I have to believe Love's decision is going to be ultimately based on which team that can afford him has a chance of winning a championship. I don't have a great NBA salary cap mind, but everything I hear tells me it's going to be difficult for either local team to meet the criteria.

True. But not every actress is the daughter of the head of Disney Corp.

[AbeVigodaLive]

This is a substantive, thoughtful article. The material on Adelman is primarily quotes directly from the man himself. And the clear implication from those quotes is that Adelman will not return next season. I found three of Adelman's points about the team particularly interesting and revealing.

First, he noted that this team's lack of consistency from its perimeter players. No doubt that reference is aimed primarily at Kevin Martin who simply can't be counted on from game to game to deliver the one thing he is capable of delivering -- i.e., scoring.

Second, he emphasized this team's lack of players who can break people down off the dribble -- a point I've been making since the beginning of the season. Here's the quote: ""Kevin can get his shot, but it's easier to take big guys out of the game. When you have a perimeter person who can break people down and help his teammates, that's a different story. We don't have anybody doing that on a consistent basis."

I've mentioned it before... how we read what we want to read in quotes. For example, I have no idea how anybody would excuse Rubio from either of those quotes. I'm not saying it can't be about Martin as well.

I just don't get why anybody wouldn't assume when the coach talks about inconsistency from perimeter players he wouldn't be talking primarily about the worst shooter in basketball history and the guy who has been benched by the coach multiple times at the end of games for inconsistency.

[Lipoli390]

Abe --

You're obsessed with Ricky. Honestly, the inconsistent label doesn't apply well to Ricky. Truth is, he's been pretty consistent -- consistently good at forcing turnovers on the defensive end, consistently good ay setting up teammates and getting assists, consistently good at rebounding at the PG position, and yes, CONSISTENTLY bad as a shooter.

Note that I didn't single out or exclude any specific players (including Ricky) from Adelman's point about the lack of players who can break down defenders off the dribble. Actually, Ricky is the only guy who effectively breaks down guys off the dribble, but I didn't exclude him from Adelman's criticism because Ricky has yet to show he can consistently finish his layups and actually score on his dribble penetration.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Abe -- you're obsessed with Ricky. Honestly, the inconsistent label doesn't apply well to Ricky. Truth is, he's been pretty consistent -- consistently good at forcing turnovers on the defensive end, consistently good ay setting up teammates and getting assists, consistently good at rebounding at the PG position, and yes, CONSISTENTLY bad as a shooter.

Not obsessed, I just find it amusing that so many repeatedly give him pass after pass after pass after pass. If you notice, I rip people's undying defense of him more than Rubio himself. He is who he is as an NBA player... good and bad.

[Lipoli390]

Abe -- Your general take on Ricky is spot on, but I'll note that you quoted my post in criticizing what you consider the excessive defending of Ricky. My post was specifically aimed at Adelman's point about inconsistency and I think Martin is exhibit A on that point because he does only one thing and can't be counted on to deliver that one thing game to game. And I did not exempt Ricky from the dribble drive critique even though he's the only guy who can dribble by defenders. :)

[60WinTim]

I lean towards Abe's perspective: Adelman's " perimeter consistency" comments include all our backcourt players, and if any thing, Martin is more the exception to the consistency problem. The guy is scoring 19 points a game, and doing it rather efficiently. It's the shooting from Rubio, Barea, Shved and Brewer that is wildly inconsistent.

And a bit off topic: people have been ripping Bud a new one, but the guy currently is our 3rd best 3-point shooter! Something to do with small sample size, I guess...

[mjs34]

Abe, we all realize Ricky is a lousy shooter. Just because he isn't called out every game doesn't mean people are giving him a pass. If Ricky is included in Adelman's quotes, then that is on him because Ricky has shown no improvement in his shot, so it would be more accurate to say Ricky has been consistently lousy. I didn't know Love's girl friend was the daughter of Disney corp. That makes it even less likely he re-signs imo.

Martin has been up and down scoring anywhere from 6 pts to 30 pts for this team, and has disappeared late in games. I do think there is plenty of blame to go around on this one though.

Tim, Bud has a very small sample size as you stated, but even with his better 3pt shooting over the last two games, he is still 14th on the wolves for TS%. Add that to his terrible D, and I think the criticism is justified. Maybe Bud will get better, but considering we continue to hear that players need to prove themselves in practice, I find it odd that he is getting the minutes over other players.

[Jester1534]

Okay I don't usually post here but I know at least three girls who go to Augsburg who are hook up calls for Love when he goes to sneaky Pete's and I've met love because of them. If you guys are seriously worried about a gf then you guys are crazy lol

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Okay I don't usually post here but I know at least three girls who go to Augsburg who are hook up calls for Love when he goes to sneaky Pete's and I've met love because of them. If you guys are seriously worried about a gf then you guys are crazy lol

HAHAHAHAHAHA!