longstrangetrip wrote:I haven't been too concerned about Love leaving until I read this. Kerry Eggers is one of the best prognosticators in the league, and is seldom wrong. Take a look at his pre-season predictions to get a feel for his uncanny accuracy.
longstrangetrip wrote:I haven't been too concerned about Love leaving until I read this. Kerry Eggers is one of the best prognosticators in the league, and is seldom wrong. Take a look at his pre-season predictions to get a feel for his uncanny accuracy.
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."
Third, he noted that we have a good core to build around but need to supplement that core through the draft. He specifically mentioned Lillard as the sort of talent you can get in the draft if you draft well. He also mentioned guys drafted by the Blazers when he was their coach. I believe that Porter was a second round pick or a very low first round pick. His comment in the regard is telling because they help pierce through this myth that Adelman simply won't play or doesn't like young players. What Adelman doesn't like are bad players and he's obviously not impressed with what he's seen from Shabazz. That should come as no surprise. His comment is also telling inasmuch as it properly puts the onus on this team's management, which hasn't stepped up and made the sorts of moves this team needs through the draft.
As for the article's thoughts on Love, I think the prediction is a fair one. On the other hand, there is a lot that can happen between now and next season's trade deadline. We'll have to see how this team does the rest of this season and what moves it makes before next season. We'll have to see what, if any, teams Kevin would like to play on have sufficient cap room to sign him for the minimum amount of money he'll expect. The list will be very short and may not include any teams Love would prefer over Minnesota. So if Love wants out, the Wolves will be positioned to get a nice bounty in return because the teams he'd be interested will likely have to trade for him.
I like that the article didn't get into the silly and false speculation that Love doesn't like Minnesota or doesn't like Taylor, etc. At the end of the day, whether Love stays will depend on the extent to which this team wins the remainder of this season and the first half of next season. And that will turn on our front office's ability to improve this team through the draft and trades next summer.
Kerry Eggers has been a columnist in Portland forever. I can tell you his speculation on Love is purely a semi-educated guess. If we start off 20-4 next year, do you think Love will leave? Not that it's likely, it's just that so much can happen before a decision is actually made. To make statements like this seems kind of silly to me.
One other thing I caught about the article was this: "We're just not that good defensively," Adelman says. "We're more of an offensive team. We get to close games, and we've broken down at the end, not getting stops at the right time.
That's basically what I just said in the other thread. No defensive toughness. So if the HC says that about his team, should we believe him or the amateur stat jockeys trying to convince us the Wolves are good defensively?
I agree that there is a lot of insight in the Adelman quotes. I read Adelman's style with young players simply that he doesn't want to teach what he thinks are fundamentals that NBA players should have. My counter to that logic is that the trend is working toward fewer underclassmen coming into the league with guaranteed roster spots have all the fundamentals. The landscape is changing. I think the influx of successful, young coaches shows that. Adelman is totally right that we need to draft better, but I doubt that he would see the potential in a lot of players at this point because his experience is with fitting more mature players (for the most part) in his system.
I had two overriding takeaways: one favorable to Eggers and one unfavorable.
On the favorable side, I was astonished about how much Adelman said, and how much of it was substantial. How often in the past two years have we read an interview with Adelman that had a lot of substance in it? Or was as personal as this one? I swear Adelman said more about his wife's situation in this one interview than he has said to the Minnesota media in total. My takeaway is this: Eggers worked hard to develop his relationship with Rick, and Adelman trusts him enough to give a non-clichéd filled interview. I think this reflects poorly on our local basketball coverage. Zgoda is lazy, Sid is 113, and I suspect neither has much of a relationship with the Wolves leadership. I get much more insight from this board than I get from the Minnesota sports media.
On the unfavorable side is his bullshit comment that he "will be shocked if Love remains with the T-wolves after the trade deadline". Pretty strong words when the only evidence he cites is that Love would like to play in LA because he had such happy memories of the first 10 months of his life in Santa Monica, played one year of college ball in Westwood, and has a girlfriend here (because we all know how stable NBA relationships are)...but no mention of the wherewithal of the LA teams to absorb Love's contract. "Shocked" might be a slight overstatement.
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.
sjm34 wrote: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.
