Minnesota Sports Forum

Wow, you rarely get that kind of access. Kudos to Sam for being so open and Britt for . . . well, earning the reputation that got him the access!

Sam's definitely old-school (ok), defensive (not great but he's in a tough spot), a little too certain of his interpretations (that's my concern), and super organized and prepared (I like that--particularly in terms of the individual player development plans).

The thing is, I don't think he said anything I disagree with. His take on Zach in particular is tough but fair. He's right, Zach has all of the potential in the world but a million bad habits, especially offensively. He needs to learn how to consciously make good decisions and then repeat them enough that it becomes unconsciously good decisions. Right now, he's just making so many unconsciously bad decisions because he's just not conscious out there.

Sam's also right that Wiggins has got to figure out how to adjust now that teams expect his spin move (I would have liked to hear Sam talk more about the need for him to look to pass out of the drive when the big slides over to help). He's right too that Bazz needs to learn to pass too, and has started to do so. Towns and Dieng both give up too much weight to be able to give up post position to big centers (look how well opposing big centers have done against us).

I love that Sam wants us to be able to run, and he's right that we can't do that if we don't get more stops and rebounds. But I think we can do more on this. I think here though we need to think about ways to have a designated leaker (Bazz in particular) to kind of take the Corey Brewer role. I've been disappointed in Wiggins on the break--he just doesn't get out and really run enough and spends too much time jogging. And maybe stop relying so much on Rubio to come back to the backboard to get the rebound. Sometimes he comes back to get it even if there's no offensive player, and in those cases, Rubio should start heading up the court and one of the bigs should grab it and pass it to Rubio quickly to make the finishing pass to the leaker.

Wiggins should be the leaker. It is not like he will ever get the rebound himself.

bleedspeed177 wrote:Wiggins should be the leaker. It is not like he will ever get the rebound himself.

Heh. Although to Drew's point, the problem is he doesn't run hard either. He's a loper. We need a guy willing to run hard like Brewer (the Usain Bolt of leakers). Bazz does that.

Adding Bazz to the starting lineup makes sense on so many levels. He gives Rubio another offensive weapon, he gives us a corner 3 threat (at least based on his recent shooting - Lord knows our guys rarely sustain it), he will automatically increase our pace of play. Defense is what we give up - and perhaps a lot - but it's worth a try.

I saw LaVine's comments in the GDT thread for the Thunder game. This confirms my comment in a post yesterday or the day before that Zach appears demoralized. I have no problem with Zach's comment. But I do have a problem with a head coach whose conduct spurs that sort of comment from a young player. I might feel differently if Zach were a slacker. But he is by all accounts a tremendously hard worker, often described as a gym rat. Unlike Wiggins, you'll never see Zach fail to chase down a loose ball or rebound in his vicinity. Fortunately, Zach snapped back today and had a great game on both sides of the ball. But he was playing really well the last month of last season - well before Sam's "tough love" approach as head coach.

As for Sam's whining about the AAU background and playground style of players coming into the League these days, my response to Sam is DEAL WITH IT! The reality is that ALL the American players coming into the League today and for the past 10 years are and have been products of the AAU system -- Kevin Durant and Michael Westbrook for example. So what do NBA-caliber head coaches do? They coach and teach. They design schemes that draw out the strengths of these former AAU PLAYERS and make the most of the talents those players bring to the table. They certainly don't whine publicly about the reality of the background of the modern day player.

I read Sam's interview. You have to really feel an overwhelmingly strong urge to defend Sam to find anything positive about him from that interview. Some of his responses we probably all agree with, but in those responses he was simply master of the obvious. I didn't see anything in Sam's remarks that reflected any special insights or understanding you'd expect from a NBA-caliber head coach. I saw his condescending attitude in some responses. And I noticed that he misstated his offensive record as Toronto's head coach.

And the bottom line is this. The team is not improving. In fact, it's regressing. Sam's rotations and substitutions are often odd or nonsensical. The spacing and movement off the ball on the offensive end are typically terrible. Zach and KAT look like their at their wits end with Sam. He's a bad coach and the sooner he's gone the better.

Lip - Tell us how you really feel. Please stop tap dancing around this question. :-)

lipoli390 wrote:I saw LaVine's comments in the GDT thread for the Thunder game. This confirms my comment in a post yesterday or the day before that Zach appears demoralized. I have no problem with Zach's comment. But I do have a problem with a head coach whose conduct spurs that sort of comment from a young player. I might feel differently if Zach were a slacker. But he is by all accounts a tremendously hard worker, often described as a gym rat. Unlike Wiggins, you'll never see Zach fail to chase down a loose ball or rebound in his vicinity. Fortunately, Zach snapped back today and had a great game on both sides of the ball. But he was playing really well the last month of last season - well before Sam's "tough love" approach as head coach.

As for Sam's whining about the AAU background and playground style of players coming into the League these days, my response to Sam is DEAL WITH IT! The reality is that ALL the American players coming into the League today and for the past 10 years are and have been products of the AAU system -- Kevin Durant and Michael Westbrook for example. So what do NBA-caliber head coaches do? They coach and teach. They design schemes that draw out the strengths of these former AAU PLAYERS and make the most of the talents those players bring to the table. They certainly don't whine publicly about the reality of the background of the modern day player.

I read Sam's interview. You have to really feel an overwhelmingly strong urge to defend Sam to find anything positive about him from that interview. Some of his responses we probably all agree with, but in those responses he was simply master of the obvious. I didn't see anything in Sam's remarks that reflected any special insights or understanding you'd expect from a NBA-caliber head coach. I saw his condescending attitude in some responses. And I noticed that he misstated his offensive record as Toronto's head coach.

And the bottom line is this. The team is not improving. In fact, it's regressing. Sam's rotations and substitutions are often odd or nonsensical. The spacing and movement off the ball on the offensive end are typically terrible. Zach and KAT look like their at their wits end with Sam. He's a bad coach and the sooner he's gone the better.

Lip, Your frustration is fair and Mitchell deserves a lot of heat. However.....

I don't have a problem with Mitchell's tough-love approach. Frankly, some of these guys have probably been coddled throughout most of their basketball existence and they never went through the experience of being broken down and then built back up. This should have really happened in their youth or college experience, but now Mitchell is "stuck" being the one having to do it.

While ultimately Mitchell isn't long for this team, we may see the fruits of his labor borne out under the next head coach.

Edit: Also, I also hear about Zach being a gym rat. That's great and all, but just because he spends a lot of time in the gym doesn't mean he's increasing his b-ball IQ or being a student of the game. Perhaps he is studying film, working on weaknesses, studying other great players, etc. - I really don't know. But being a gym rat doesn't really say a lot to me.

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I think it is all about balance. When he plays right you have to be the first to say it and praise him for it. I think the difference between Sam and Zimmer is that you will see Zimmer come out and say he is one of my guys. If Sam came out and said LaVine is one of my guys in the media. He said he sees the gifts and the drive with him we just have to break some bad habits it will be huge. Saying KG just got it doesn't help. It does the opposite.

bleedspeed177 wrote:I think it is all about balance. When he plays right you have to be the first to say it and praise him for it. I think the difference between Sam and Zimmer is that you will see Zimmer come out and say he is one of my guys. If Sam came out and said LaVine is one of my guys in the media. He said he sees the gifts and the drive with him we just have to break some bad habits it will be huge. Saying KG just got it doesn't help. It does the opposite.

Good point, but actions speak louder that words. He left LaVine at PG out there the entire 4th quarter and left Rubio on the bench in what was a close game. Ultimately, that kind of move provides way more positive reinforcement to a player than just saying nice things about him.

(Again, I'm not suggesting that Mitchell should have popped off about Zach's low b-ball IQ to Britt - I think that was bad form. I'm just saying that how he handles his playing time is more impactful).

Q12543 wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:I saw LaVine's comments in the GDT thread for the Thunder game. This confirms my comment in a post yesterday or the day before that Zach appears demoralized. I have no problem with Zach's comment. But I do have a problem with a head coach whose conduct spurs that sort of comment from a young player. I might feel differently if Zach were a slacker. But he is by all accounts a tremendously hard worker, often described as a gym rat. Unlike Wiggins, you'll never see Zach fail to chase down a loose ball or rebound in his vicinity. Fortunately, Zach snapped back today and had a great game on both sides of the ball. But he was playing really well the last month of last season - well before Sam's "tough love" approach as head coach.

As for Sam's whining about the AAU background and playground style of players coming into the League these days, my response to Sam is DEAL WITH IT! The reality is that ALL the American players coming into the League today and for the past 10 years are and have been products of the AAU system -- Kevin Durant and Michael Westbrook for example. So what do NBA-caliber head coaches do? They coach and teach. They design schemes that draw out the strengths of these former AAU PLAYERS and make the most of the talents those players bring to the table. They certainly don't whine publicly about the reality of the background of the modern day player.

I read Sam's interview. You have to really feel an overwhelmingly strong urge to defend Sam to find anything positive about him from that interview. Some of his responses we probably all agree with, but in those responses he was simply master of the obvious. I didn't see anything in Sam's remarks that reflected any special insights or understanding you'd expect from a NBA-caliber head coach. I saw his condescending attitude in some responses. And I noticed that he misstated his offensive record as Toronto's head coach.

And the bottom line is this. The team is not improving. In fact, it's regressing. Sam's rotations and substitutions are often odd or nonsensical. The spacing and movement off the ball on the offensive end are typically terrible. Zach and KAT look like their at their wits end with Sam. He's a bad coach and the sooner he's gone the better.

Lip, Your frustration is fair and Mitchell deserves a lot of heat. However.....

I don't have a problem with Mitchell's tough-love approach. Frankly, some of these guys have probably been coddled throughout most of their basketball existence and they never went through the experience of being broken down and then built back up. This should have really happened in their youth or college experience, but now Mitchell is "stuck" being the one having to do it.

While ultimately Mitchell isn't long for this team, we may see the fruits of his labor borne out under the next head coach.

Edit: Also, I also hear about Zach being a gym rat. That's great and all, but just because he spends a lot of time in the gym doesn't mean he's increasing his b-ball IQ or being a student of the game. Perhaps he is studying film, working on weaknesses, studying other great players, etc. - I really don't know. But being a gym rat doesn't really say a lot to me.

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I agree. I remember reading a piece about LaVine a year or two where his long, late-night shooting sessions were mentioned.

He was practicing dunking like his heroes... and shooting fadeaways and shots like that like his heroes. Instead of emulating those types of shots... why not perfect the Zach LaVine jump shot? I know he was just a kid, but I thought it was telling at the time.

Hope the kid reaches his potential... but there are hints that he's gonna be one of those perpetual teases that will alternate between incredible promise and maddening inconsistency. There's always a place in the league for those guys, but they seem to wear out their welcome eventually and move on to the next place.

I thought this was a pretty good interview and Sam shared some pretty good insight here. I do think Sam is defensive but I didn't take him as being a jerk in the interview. Brit isn't exactly a guy that is a unicorns and rainbow columnist either so think he would be fine with Sam disagreeing with something he said.

I havent seen the last 4 or so games but this team has t played well lately. I can buy into Sam and his staff (plus the vets) telling guys to do the right stuff developing them individually but the system on all fronts isn't working. Some of that is on the coaching staff. Some of it is on the players. It does seem to me Sam is putting in all the work you could expect on development. I know it's his job but it's probably not the easiest thing to do. I think Sam is more telling people these young kids have a lot to learn than being really all that upset about The previous levels but it does get old hearing all that. Regardless this coaching staff sounds like it's putting in a lot of hard work. Hopefully it pays off. I'm looking towards a different coach after this year but this interview and piece by Brit is some good insight into Sam to get me through this year at least.