Minnesota Sports Forum

Cam, Agree that Rubio played a good game, although I thought he made a few careless turnovers. That was the only dent in an otherwise really nice performance. Love the fact that he was able to get into the paint and finish, plus hit a very timely long range jumper to help keep Utah at bay late in the game.

KiwiMatt wrote:Dieng and Muhammad looked good tonight!

These kids are good. I just hope they're not rewarded with another string of DNP's. Whenever Dieng, Muhammad or Hummel do anything right, it boosts the entire team. Nobody roots harder for anyone on the squad more than these guys. Adelman must keep building on this. It's about to be March and those guys have the freshest legs on the team. It's time we at least put Dieng and Muhammad in closer game situations to see how they react. Maybe not 4th quarter crunch time, but in the 2nd quarter, mid 3rd. We can't go into next year having to redo their rookie years on top of adding 2-3 more rookies next year.

WildWolf2813 wrote:

KiwiMatt wrote:Dieng and Muhammad looked good tonight!

These kids are good. I just hope they're not rewarded with another string of DNP's. Whenever Dieng, Muhammad or Hummel do anything right, it boosts the entire team. Nobody roots harder for anyone on the squad more than these guys. Adelman must keep building on this. It's about to be March and those guys have the freshest legs on the team. It's time we at least put Dieng and Muhammad in closer game situations to see how they react. Maybe not 4th quarter crunch time, but in the 2nd quarter, mid 3rd. We can't go into next year having to redo their rookie years on top of adding 2-3 more rookies next year.

Adelman's stubbornness is out of control. He is so invested in not playing Shabazz that it seems he is afraid of playing him so he won't get shown up if he plays well. Yesterday Zgoda asked him if the injuries meant Shabazz might get more playing time, and he reported that Rick got very defensive. Eventually Rick answered that the centers' injuries would require Hummel and Luc to play more at PF, which might open some time for Shabazz at SF. Essentially saying that Shabazz is not ready, but injuries are forcing Rick's hand.
I have always admired Adelman, but my admiration is fading. He seems like an unhappy, angry old man whose time has definitely passed.

I don't know LST. I think it's partially Adelman's stubborness and partially the fact Shabazz can only play SF. With Brewer, Budinger, and Mbah Moute also SFs, there is the practical reality of trying to find playing time.

Q12543 wrote:I don't know LST. I think it's partially Adelman's stubborness and partially the fact Shabazz can only play SF. With Brewer, Budinger, and Mbah Moute also SFs, there is the practical reality of trying to find playing time.

Yeah, I agree that some of this is on Flip, because Flip built an unbalanced roster with too many SFs (one of the reasons I think we can't draft McDermott. even though he looks like a stud). I think because Shabazz played a lot of SG in college, and Howland said predraft that he was convinced he would be a SG in the pros, Flip thought Shabazz would get minutes there. Unfortunately his best position is SF, along with the 4 other guys, so Rick has to handle a logjam.

Still, Rick's grumpy attitude about Shabazz yesterday with Zgoda was revealing to me. He's dug in. This team has really been fun to watch the past three games...all double digit wins...but Adelman's dourness takes some of the fun out of it.