Game Report - Wolves v. Magic

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I think the game was lost in the first half when we didn't match Orlando's energy. Instead, we had to claw back in the 2nd half. When you get into close game situations, you are leaving your fate largely in the hands of the officials and Basketball Gods, as random variability and luck plays a large role on any given play or call. If I shoot 50% from the field, there is a 50% chance on any given shot that I miss. For most of our guys, there is a 55%-60% chance they miss any given shot they take. So being in a situation where you HAVE to get a basket to tie or win....well, the odds are 50/50 at best.

As for Towns, I don't have a real problem with what Mitchell is doing. Gorgui really was playing well last night and I'm hoping this only fuels KAT's desire to get better and earn 4th quarter minutes. A little tough love doesn't hurt and I'd rather him take his lumps now. Let's not forget that Gorgui looked dejected at the beginning of this season. Kudos to Mitchell for rewarding him for recent good play. You can see how he's really stepped up lately.[/quote]

Yeah, I agree Q. If it keeps KAT fresher for the long haul and allows him to adjust to the NBA at a more relaxed pace, all the better. Some here are worried if he might be offended by the reduced minutes, but I think there is no issue with that at all. First, he appears to be a team-oriented high-quality guy who wouldn't be bothered by something like that. But more importantly, I never was aware of him sulking or being offended at Kentucky last year. If he wasn't offended by being limited to 20 minutes behind college players, I doubt he will be offended by being limited to 20-25 behind Pek and G.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

Mamma said there'd be days like this. Shots were not falling. They seemed out of sync on offense. That said, they closed out tough and held the other team under 100 points again. Winnable game that they lost? Yep. But in the grand scheme of things - this team is way better than I thought they'd be up to this point. There is still some rotation stuff to figure out. But it's a new coach and a lot of new players or new roles. I'm content with the progress I've seen and now it's a matter of taking incremental steps forward. Martin played better last night and based on my eyeballs he's giving full effort on defense too. Dieng has been playing some very good ball on both offense and defense. That last defensive possession he played staying step for step in front of Vucevic was really clutch. Wiggins has become the go to guy that takes over the end of games which is good to see. Just a lot of inconsistency - which is probably normal for a pretty young team. It's gonna take time. But I personally find them fun to watch right now.

Hey Weiner, you take that positive attitude somewhere else, we have to be angry on this board and cuss the coaches and demand perfect substitutions/execution at all times!

[m4gor [enjin:6667447]]

that shooting is disturbingly bad to say the least, when it comes to Rubio if you do not count Lakers game (which was fluke) in next 10 games he is 27-91 FG (.297) and 1-18 from 3pt land .. i mean his 3pt with legs set was probably only shot he had decent percentage with, it looks like he struggles there now aswell .. and other guys look like their shooting has worsen too

[AbeVigodaLive]

that shooting is disturbingly bad to say the least, when it comes to Rubio if you do not count Lakers game (which was fluke) in next 10 games he is 27-91 FG (.297) and 1-18 from 3pt land .. i mean his 3pt with legs set was probably only shot he had decent percentage with, it looks like he struggles there now aswell .. and other guys look like their shooting has worsen too

But he's such a marvelous passer and defender that stuff doesn't matter at all.

[Phenom]

that shooting is disturbingly bad to say the least, when it comes to Rubio if you do not count Lakers game (which was fluke) in next 10 games he is 27-91 FG (.297) and 1-18 from 3pt land .. i mean his 3pt with legs set was probably only shot he had decent percentage with, it looks like he struggles there now aswell .. and other guys look like their shooting has worsen too

But he's such a marvelous passer and defender that stuff doesn't matter at all.

I actually think his pull up jumper going left is his best shot. I find myself putting my hands together and begging to whoever is listening whenever Ricky winds up to shoot a three.

[m4gor [enjin:6667447]]

that shooting is disturbingly bad to say the least, when it comes to Rubio if you do not count Lakers game (which was fluke) in next 10 games he is 27-91 FG (.297) and 1-18 from 3pt land .. i mean his 3pt with legs set was probably only shot he had decent percentage with, it looks like he struggles there now aswell .. and other guys look like their shooting has worsen too

But he's such a marvelous passer and defender that stuff doesn't matter at all.

I actually think his pull up jumper going left is his best shot. I find myself putting my hands together and begging to whoever is listening whenever Ricky winds up to shoot a three.

that shot is looking best but Ricky came to the league and was shooting .340 from 3pt and his only 82 games season he was .333 still nothing to write home about but usable .. he really needs this so guys cannot ignore him completely, they can already ignore his drives as he is probably the worst finisher in the league, you put a finger on him and layup goes haywire .. if now they can sag of him completely on the perimeter, you will see our offense struggle mightily once this is on scouting report of teams we play

[Tactical unit]

Lip tell us what you really think about Sam. I would be curious to see who you think is A level and how many of them are true options here.

It's not hard to come up with a list of A-level head coaches -- Popp, Carlisle, Joerger, Thibs, JVG, Stan VG, Doc Rivers are a few who come to mind. Then there are a few what I would consider to be emerging A-level head coaches - Brad Stevens, Stotts. Then there are those viewed widely as potential A-level coaches - Fred Hoiberg, Kenny Atkinson, Ime Udoka, Tyronn Lue. Some of these names are obvious consensus choices, some are more subjective.

As for who's available, obviously some are not - e.g., Popp and Carlisle. Some would clearly jump at the chance to coach the Wolves as a young very talented team - e.g., Atkinson and Lue. Others may be interested - JVG, Thibs. I'm convinced we could do far worse than Sam. Again, the name Kurt Rambis comes to mind among others. But I'm equally convinced we can and should do better than Sam. Of course, what happens the rest of this season could change my mind. So I'm definitely not in the fire Sam now camp.

Doc Rivers? Crying Rivers? All he does is complain and cry to the refs all game. What has he done as a coach? First round exit every year in the league with Orlando, Only won one championship with Rondo, Ray Allen, The Truth & KG not to mention other solid pieces such as T. Allen, K. Perkins, Big Baby Davis, Cassell, E. House. Then he goes to a stacked Clippers team and has under achieved. Sorry to complain about just one guy on your whole list but I can't stand when people think Doc Rivers is good coach. He's had some of the best situations in basketball and vastly underwhelmed in my opinion.

Now on to Sam I loved him as a player and see some good characteristics out of the guy but have not been impressed with lineup decisions. I think he has a great situation in front of him with tons of talent on the team and for the first time I can remember all year he actually used offense for defense subs in last nights game. So maybe he is growing as a coach and I was on the get a real coach to develop these kids side of things last week (which I'm still not against), but now I am more interested to see if he grows as a coach. Part of being a good coach is identifying what you can do as a coach better.

I think Sam needs to focus on continually instilling aggression in his players on both ends of the floor, last night there were many times where it was too easy for Orlando when we were on defense and we were far to passive of a team on offense for a good portion of the game. I'd like to see more use of offense for defense substitutions and something has to be done about either the play calling out of timeouts or the execution of the plays, because far to often we come out of a timeout with a poor possession.

[Monster]

On the Wolves assistants...

I think the Wolves have a couple guys that are considered good as teachers and developers of talent in Saunders and Gates. Adelman is still around and of course he knows the corner offense of his dad etc. when he talks he sounds like a smart guy but I really don't know if he has a really good strength. Lowe I know is a punching bag for his abysmal track record as a HC but I will say that every time he talks coming out of halftime when I have been watching his takes seem dead on to me. It seems he would be the lead assistant but what are all his specific strengths? Idk I've wanted to ask AP guy to run down that for the Wolves on his podcast with Souhan but I keep forgetting. Ultimately I think we all wonder if there is a top level tactical offensive mind among this coaching staff now that Flip is gone. Is Lowe any better than decent at in game stuff to assist Sam?

Ultimately I think my point is that this seems like a solid coaching staff for development but all of us wonder if it can be the staff when this team needs to take the next step. Bringing in the right offensive assistant could be what this team needs or (homer alert) maybe that guy is currently on the staff now.

I would be interested in Lip and other's observations of some of the assistants. Gates seems to always be involved in some way.

[Carlos Danger]

Mamma said there'd be days like this. Shots were not falling. They seemed out of sync on offense. That said, they closed out tough and held the other team under 100 points again. Winnable game that they lost? Yep. But in the grand scheme of things - this team is way better than I thought they'd be up to this point. There is still some rotation stuff to figure out. But it's a new coach and a lot of new players or new roles. I'm content with the progress I've seen and now it's a matter of taking incremental steps forward. Martin played better last night and based on my eyeballs he's giving full effort on defense too. Dieng has been playing some very good ball on both offense and defense. That last defensive possession he played staying step for step in front of Vucevic was really clutch. Wiggins has become the go to guy that takes over the end of games which is good to see. Just a lot of inconsistency - which is probably normal for a pretty young team. It's gonna take time. But I personally find them fun to watch right now.

Hey Weiner, you take that positive attitude somewhere else, we have to be angry on this board and cuss the coaches and demand perfect substitutions/execution at all times!

You just wait Gak. I heard they signed last year's Euro MVP winner. Once he comes over from Europe and starts playing here - we'll really be kicking some butt! How's that for positive? :-)

[alexftbl8181 [enjin:6648741]]

I think the game was lost in the first half when we didn't match Orlando's energy. Instead, we had to claw back in the 2nd half. When you get into close game situations, you are leaving your fate largely in the hands of the officials and Basketball Gods, as random variability and luck plays a large role on any given play or call. If I shoot 50% from the field, there is a 50% chance on any given shot that I miss. For most of our guys, there is a 55%-60% chance they miss any given shot they take. So being in a situation where you HAVE to get a basket to tie or win....well, the odds are 50/50 at best.

As for Towns, I don't have a real problem with what Mitchell is doing. Gorgui really was playing well last night and I'm hoping this only fuels KAT's desire to get better and earn 4th quarter minutes. A little tough love doesn't hurt and I'd rather him take his lumps now. Let's not forget that Gorgui looked dejected at the beginning of this season. Kudos to Mitchell for rewarding him for recent good play. You can see how he's really stepped up lately.[/quote]

Yeah, I agree Q. If it keeps KAT fresher for the long haul and allows him to adjust to the NBA at a more relaxed pace, all the better. Some here are worried if he might be offended by the reduced minutes, but I think there is no issue with that at all. First, he appears to be a team-oriented high-quality guy who wouldn't be bothered by something like that. But more importantly, I never was aware of him sulking or being offended at Kentucky last year. If he wasn't offended by being limited to 20 minutes behind college players, I doubt he will be offended by being limited to 20-25 behind Pek and G.

I bet the same people were thrilled when Rambis would play Darko over Kevin Love