Minnesota Sports Forum

Watching Manu take over at the end of the third quarter and lead the Spurs back from a big deficit to take a 1-point lead. He's doing it by creating his own shot off the dribble. Nothing unusual from Manu. Tony Parker is one of the best in the game at creating his own shot off the dribble. So can K. Leonard, and Patty Mills. Meanwhile Portland has Lillard, Matthews, Batum and McCollum, all of whom can create their own shot off the dribble at a high level. The Wolves?? We have zero players in our starting line up who can create their own shot off the bounce -- yes ZERO!! It's fair to criticize Adelman, but consider what he has to work with. No players other than JJ who can create their own shot off the bounce, two poor wing defenders and no shot-blockers in our starting lineup. And it's not like we have anyone else with those skills on the roster who can be reasonably be considered capable of being part of our starting lineup.

thedoper wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:Slim -- How about Fred Hoiberg?

Nice Lip. If anyone could teach Ricky to shoot it would be him. Is that a giant hint of something?

:).

I think it's time to change the starting lineup:

Bring in LMAM for Brewer and have Budinger and Brewer as our wings off the bench.

Rubio/Martin/LMAM/Love/Pek with a second unit of Barea/Brewer/Budinger/Cunningham/Turiaf.

We need defense in the starting unit and fire power off the bench. Teams are punishing us with dribble penetration and LMAM is known as a good perimeter defender. Brewer flourished in Denver off the bench, and I believe the plan was to use him as a 6th man here.

Some of Adelman's calls are questionable and head scratching at times, but this comes down to the players. Love's disappeared the last 5 games, Rubio's confidence is at an all new low and Martin has lost his shot. The only positive atm is the improvement of our bench with the return of Turiaf and Bud.

lipoli390 wrote:Watching Manu take over at the end of the third quarter and lead the Spurs back from a big deficit to take a 1-point lead. He's doing it by creating his own shot off the dribble. Nothing unusual from Manu. Tony Parker is one of the best in the game at creating his own shot off the dribble. So can K. Leonard, and Patty Mills. Meanwhile Portland has Lillard, Matthews, Batum and McCollum, all of whom can create their own shot off the dribble at a high level. The Wolves?? We have zero players in our starting line up who can create their own shot off the bounce -- yes ZERO!! It's fair to criticize Adelman, but consider what he has to work with. No players other than JJ who can create their own shot off the bounce, two poor wing defenders and no shot-blockers in our starting lineup. And it's not like we have anyone else with those skills on the roster who can be reasonably be considered capable of being part of our starting lineup.

I agree with how you broke our team down, so what does that mean? What would be the smart thing to do?

I don't know why we are delaying the process here, start blowing this team up. It's a mess of a team with no mix of players that work well. Ricky needs to be on a fast break non-stop and throwing lob passes...umm maybe Brewer fits that role and no one else! Love & Peck need to be next to a shot blocker and maybe Dieng fits well but not when you already have Love and Peck. Martin/Budinger would be awesome on the heat much like R. Allen/M. Miller were last year but with out slashers and all-stars next to them these role players look like well.....role players.

At this point it should be all about development, if you think you can get more for players before the rookie draft then hold them otherwise we should be blowing this team up.

Ricky, Shved, Shabazz, Love, Peck should get majority of mins & Dieng should get a solid dose of playing time for his development.

I don't know why we are delaying the process here, start blowing this team up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KiwiMatt wrote:I think it's time to change the starting lineup:

Bring in LMAM for Brewer and have Budinger and Brewer as our wings off the bench.

Rubio/Martin/LMAM/Love/Pek with a second unit of Barea/Brewer/Budinger/Cunningham/Turiaf.

We need defense in the starting unit and fire power off the bench. Teams are punishing us with dribble penetration and LMAM is known as a good perimeter defender. Brewer flourished in Denver off the bench, and I believe the plan was to use him as a 6th man here.

Some of Adelman's calls are questionable and head scratching at times, but this comes down to the players. Love's disappeared the last 5 games, Rubio's confidence is at an all new low and Martin has lost his shot. The only positive atm is the improvement of our bench with the return of Turiaf and Bud.

Kiwi, I very much agree with your (and others) call to make LMaM a starter. It was fun to watch his defense last night on Derozen (by the way, I thought Corey was effective defensively last night also). He is the only defender on our team that consistently displays exceptional defensive footwork, rather than just constantly going for the steal. He is a terrible offensive player, but his rebounding and defense warrant a starter's role.

I disagree with your second team though. First, I don't understand the love for Budinger on this board. I have
always liked him as a player, but you can't expect a jump shooter to feel comfortable with his shot for a long time, perhaps a year, after two knee surgeries. Since his return, Bud is shooting 32%, 27% on threes, and frankly his misses aren't even very close to being good. Bud is a below average defender and distributor, so if he can't shoot, he has very little value to a team. I think he has a long-term role on this club, but he is not going to contribute in 2014. He needs to rediscover his game and shot in practice, and his backup minutes need to be given to a guy who has led his team in scoring every year of his life, including his most recent stint in the D League...Shabazz Muhammad. Do I think he is completely NBA ready? Of course not. But he is a relentlessly hardworking scoring and rebounding machine, and unlike Bud, completely healthy. He needs to be getting 15-20
minutes a night starting tonight. In all honesty, the chance of his playing is one of the only reasons I'm going to turn the game on tonight. I'm not turning the TV on to watch Bud clank more shots off the front rim.

Secondly, Shved needs to get 15-20 minutes off the bench at point guard. We have all noticed the difference in his game the past week...playing in a much more relaxed and free-flowing way, similar to the Shved that excited us in early 2012...and he needs some consistent minutes at the position he thrived at on the Russian Olympic team.

Finally, my patience with Adelman is gone. I agree with the consensus on this board that his recent comments to the media about the team do more harm than good. I respect and admire the guy, but it's clear his ship has sailed. His complete lack of joy on the bench is mirrored by Rubio and Martin on the court, and may be a contributing factor. I am enjoying watching the Minnesota Gopher basketball team play this year, after getting rid of a joyless coach whose time had passed and replacing him with a young, hungry guy. The Wolves need a Richard Pitino type on the bench...a guy who has a range of emotion that extends beyond frustration and disgust. I'm somewhat excited about the Hoiberg prospect, but frankly don't know if he has enough rah-rah passion in him...his demeanor on the bench is more cerebral than emotional.

There is little reason to watch this club right now. A new passionate coach and more minutes for young, hungry players like Shved and Muhammad would go a long way to restoring this fan's interest level.