Preseason Game Report -- Wolves v. Raptors

[Lipoli390]

A song keeps playing in my head after tonight's game: "What the world needs now is Love sweet Love. It's the only thing that's there's just too little of." If you saw tonight's game you know what I mean. There was one, and I mean only one, positive for the Wolves tonight and it was the play of Kevin Love. He looked every bit the all-star power forward he was two seasons ago. It was great to see.

I've seen three differences between the Kevin Love so far this preseason and the Love of two seasons ago. First, he's a better passer now than he was then. Second, he is in better physical shape than he was then. And remember that he came to camp in very good shape two years ago. Well, he's taken it to another level. You might recall that, even two seasons ago, I often reported that Love was one typically one of the last two guys down the court for the Wolves. I can tell you now that, except when he throws a full-court outlet pass, he is one of the first guys down the court for the Wolves. Finally, he's definitely more vocal and assertive on the court.

There was a brief moment at the end of the first half when Love went down behind the basket holding his ankle and unable to get up. I think my heart stopped beating for about 30 seconds. But he got back on the court and then you could see everything was fine after the trainer checked him out. A huge scare. No doubt that Love is the most important part of this team. And from what we've seen and heard so far, he is poised to give the Wolves the kind of season they need from him to have a shot at making the playoffs. From what I've seen of his supporting cast, he will have to be healthy and at the top of his game all season if this team is to secure a playoff birth. What the Wolves need now, is Love sweet Love. We need more Love. We certainly don't have too little of any of Love's teammates.

Here are my top 10 additional observations from tonight's game:

1. Pekovic is in horrible shape and seems to be just going through the motions. He looks fat and happy, not hungry. If what I've seen of Pek the past two home preseason games is something I have to continue to watch the next five years at $12 million per year, I'll experience a five-year period of perpetual nausea. You could see that Love got pretty disgusted with Pekovic tonight. At one point, Love looked furious at Pek as he motioned for Pek to move into position in the lane for a pass while Pek was just standing around watching on the weak side. Pek did a lot of standing around tonight. And he was always the last guy down the court for the Wolves. Sometimes I thought he wouldn't even make it down the court at all.

2. I liked the energy from JJ even though his shot was way off. The Wolves offense ran much better with JJ instead of Shved next to Ricky in the backcourt.

3. Speaking of Shved, it was the same Shved I saw in the first preseason game and the same one we all saw the last two-thirds of last season -- a poor shooter who repeatedly drives recklessly into the lane without a clear purpose. He doesn't look like a shooter or facilitator - neither PG nor SG at the NBA level.

4. Loved Corey's energy and I thought he defended well overall. I also liked the way he ran the court. But he's the same old Corey who can't handle the ball or shoot and who isn't much of a rebounder either. At 185 pounds, he is overmatched physically against most starting SFs, who are generally around 225 pounds. A 185 pound guy who can't dribble or shoot isn't a starting quality SF in the NBA. Nevertheless, having Corey coming off the bench with his energy and defense is a good thing to have. I just see a big hole at the starting SF position.

5. Once again, Ricky appeared to be playing without any joy. He's still giving a nice effort as evidenced by his 4 steals tonight, but that spark he brought two seasons ago seems to be missing. It's very troubling. I do wonder sometimes whether his knee is still bothering him. There was a moment in the first half when I saw him grab his knee and rub it a bit. I don't know what's wrong, but something doesn't seem quite right with Ricky. It was also troubling to see Ricky struggle again with his shot. He shot doesn't seem to have improved at all.

6. We looked horribly overmatched athletically tonight. We even looked athletically overmatched against the Moscow team. The one exception on this team is Derrick Williams. Otherwise, every else seems a notch or two below the typical NBA player athletically.

7. I love the way Shabazz competed as evidenced by his 5 boards in 9 minutes. His shot looks horrible. It looks awkward and forced. His shot didn't go in much tonight as he went 1-4 from the field.

8. Price strikes me as a ball hog. A bit of a JJ Barea, but not nearly as good. I don't see him sticking with the team. At least I hope not.

9. Jeffers played fairly well defensively, although he's not great on that end. But he's pretty bad on the offensive end. The Wolves may end up keeping him given how weak this team is looking defensively. However, he looks to me like the player he really is -- i.e., a 28 year old perennial D Leaguer. I'd like to think we can do better with our final roster spot.

10. I think the players miss Bill Bano. Love and Pekovic were both affectionately bantering with him.

This team needs to show more soon to give me any notion they could be more than a 7th or 8th seed. In fact, I see them possibly struggling just to capture that 8th seed. So we'll see if they progress over the remainder of the preseason and early in the regular season.

I saw Oladipo in the last Orlando preseason game. He looks tremendous. I really, really wish Flip could have put together a deal to get him.

That's it for now.

[bleedspeed]

I am surprised Dieng and Brown are not playing more. Dieng is a lock, but it would be good to see more of Brown. Shved is not the answer at SG. Any chance Brewer or Shabazz long minutes at SG?

[60WinTim]

We'll probably see more minutes than we had hoped for with Rubio and JJ together on the floor...

[KiwiMatt]

It's not all doom and gloom fellow Wolves fans!

I managed to catch the game and took a lot of positive things out of the game. First and foremost as Lip mentioned, Love looked like his old self and had a great game. He really does look a lot thinner which his helped his quickness on both ends of the court. At one stage he grab a defensive board and in one motion threw it up to Brewer on the fast break which ended up in Brewer shooting two FT's. The pass in itself was amazing and there aren't any other big men I know of that can pass the ball like that!

Pek did nothing eye catching but he play solid D on Valancuinus, who I made add is gonna be a force in the near future. I wouldn't worry about Pek, he's gonna be a 15/8 guy, and do a lot of the little things that won't show on the box score i.e boxing out and clogging the lane.

Brewer give us an option on the fast break where he is an extremely strong finisher. Other than that he needs to focus on being a 3 and D guy. But that's all we should expect from him, he needs to play the 'Trenton Hassell' role.

Shved and Rubio both shot the ball horribly. With Shved it's shot selection and with Rubio it's shot mechanics, he needs more arc on his shots. But besides the shooting they played most other aspects of the game well.

Derrick Williams look's like a whole new player this season. Like Love he is thinner, but I noticed how much easier he is getting to the hoop with his speed and athleticism. Like Lip mention he is the only above average player in terms of athleticism on this roster. Besides Williams and Brewer we aren't very athletic. But I completely agree with Flip and Adelman that William's is our X Factor player. We NEED him to develop in to a good player as we really can't afford another botched drafted pick from the Kahn era.

All and all I'm optimistic about the season. I see us finishing with the 7th seed.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I agree that all is not doom and gloom, kiwi, but last night raised a lot of red flags. I still think they make the playoffs IF:

1) they don't have a crippling injury season like last year
2) Ricky Rubio starts playing with the joy we have seen in the past. Something is not right with him.
3) Pek finds the intensity he showed last year...with Corey at the 3, we need Pek to average at least 8 rebounds a night (not 2 like last night).

I recognize that it's only pre-season, but I'm concerned that there is something more happening with Ricky and Pek. Hopefully they will flip on the switch when the regular season starts.

[Lipoli390]

Kiwi - One of the things Pek failed to do last night was box out. Pek didn't do the big things or the little things. Same thing in the preseason opener. That's what's troubled me.

It's definitely not all doom and gloom for the Wolves. But Longstrange is right about the red flags so far this preseason. Adelman sure seems concerned as evidenced by the tongue-lashing he gave the team after last night's Loss. The Wolves have three more preseason games and two weeks of practice to get it together for the start of the regular season. Let's hope they do.

[KiwiMatt]

It's the preseason Lip so I wouldnt buy in to it too much.

I'm sure the money based incentives will be enough to motivate Pek to perform night in night out (well lets hope so). I noticed he's been ranked 53rd in the ESPN 2013 Player Rankings and didn't realise he had such a good PER at 20.26.

Hopefully with better outside shooting Pek will get more room down low to operate this season, A healthy Love alone will help here not to mention adding Martin's outside shooting. He just needs to bring it every game. I would like to see the the Wolves feed Pek early on in games and get him on the scoreboard. Normally when Pek starts well he finished well.

[Lipoli390]

Kiwi -- Good point about feeding Pek down low early to get him going. Love seems poised for a monster season. We really need Ricky to get his mojo back and improve his shot at least a little. Those are the keys as I see it.

[bleedspeed]

I wonder if the preseason feels like a let down to Ricky at this point. Not having much time off after the euro tourney he just played in.

[60WinTim]

4 games in 6 days. Lot's of film to show everyone what needs fixing. It's a good thing we are experiencing difficulties now rather than later (well, hopefully not later!).