Minnesota Sports Forum

TheSP wrote:

thedoper wrote:Derrick was the "x-factor" for this team this season. How can you say that in an introductory presser then not play that player. Maybe Adelman mean he would be an x in the lineup. That is my main problem. They propped him up without pushing him above Dante in the lineup, and then traded him for a worse player talent wise.

It's highly possible they were simply trying to give him some confidence in the hopes he would step up his game, both on the practice floor and in games. How long do you spoon feed a kid?
He may well blow up in Sac, it isn't all that unusual for a player, free from the burden of the expectations of a high draft pick to finally breath once he can be just another young talent given an opportunity. Then there is the second reason he may well develop, Sac has no illusions of competing this year so for the first time in his career his team can focus on his development rather than his errors costing them much needed wins.

As others have said, he should have been traded on his draft night, with Love here he was never going to fit in. Fit, not just with a coach, or system, but with your teammates is vital for success and he didn't fit here and never would.

I agree with what you are saying generally about it not being the right fit for Derrick. But DNP coaches decision is not spoonfeeding someone. It is making them eat your shit. I just don't think player development is not really on Adelman's radar. He has said so himself, that as a coach you can't allow people to play through their mistakes or you won't be coaching for long. I do believe it is philosophical with him, that his top priority is mistake free basketball in the moment. Veterans get a longer leash with him. I think that the NBA is changing significantly with 4 year college players being a relic of the past. Great teams think about player development and time will tell which route the current wolves brass take, but I think we can all agree that they missed the mark on many levels with Derrick, both in their initial evaluation, usage, and long-term development.

thedoper wrote:
I agree with what you are saying generally about it not being the right fit for Derrick. But DNP coaches decision is not spoonfeeding someone. It is making them eat your shit. I just don't think player development is not really on Adelman's radar. He has said so himself, that as a coach you can't allow people to play through their mistakes or you won't be coaching for long. I do believe it is philosophical with him, that his top priority is mistake free basketball in the moment. Veterans get a longer leash with him. I think that the NBA is changing significantly with 4 year college players being a relic of the past. Great teams think about player development and time will tell which route the current wolves brass take, but I think we can all agree that they missed the mark on many levels with Derrick, both in their initial evaluation, usage, and long-term development.

A couple thoughts:

1. I think it is the entire organization's priority right now to win every possible game they can. Outside of a couple years with KG they've been absolutely horrible and fans are getting sick of it.

2. As for spoon feeding, if a player isn't putting up the requested effort in practice then I don't see how he gets a longer hook in live fire. DWill simply didn't have the fire in his belly of a player fighting for playing time has to have. He didn't appear to have the mental makeup to fight through diversity, and I'm not sure coaching him will change that.

I wish the kid well, but he was doomed here from the get go, and much of that falls on his own shoulders.

But DNP coaches decision is not spoonfeeding someone. It is making them eat your shit.

Doper, This is another myth that Derrick Williams apologists like to perpetuate...that somehow Adelman never gave him enough chances. It's simply not true. As a rookie, Derrick played in all 66 Timberwolves games (it was the lockout year) and played the 4th most minutes on the squad. He even started 15 games.

In his second season, he played in 78 out of 82 games and started 56 of them.

Now explain to me how on God's green earth Adelman did not give him an opportunity to develop and improve? How many years into a player's career do they need to be spoon fed minutes?

Derrick may go on to be successful under a different coach and system, but he was decisively mediocre in his 2 1/2 years in Minnesota. And it wasn't due to lack of opportunity.

You guys were all Beasley fans, weren't you?

That was uncalled for, Senator

papalrep wrote:You guys were all Beasley fans, weren't you?

That was uncalled for, Senator

Channeling Dan Quayle, Father?

It worries me that Flip and Adelman weren't on the same page. Flip could have traded Williams this summer at a higher value than we ended up trading him at. If Adelman wasn't going to give Williams substantial playing time and lower his value, he needed to inform Flip or Flip needed to find out the plan. Either way they were clearly on the same page.

Q12543 wrote:But DNP coaches decision is not spoonfeeding someone. It is making them eat your shit.

Doper, This is another myth that Derrick Williams apologists like to perpetuate...that somehow Adelman never gave him enough chances. It's simply not true. As a rookie, Derrick played in all 66 Timberwolves games (it was the lockout year) and played the 4th most minutes on the squad. He even started 15 games.

In his second season, he played in 78 out of 82 games and started 56 of them.

Now explain to me how on God's green earth Adelman did not give him an opportunity to develop and improve? How many years into a player's career do they need to be spoon fed minutes?

Derrick may go on to be successful under a different coach and system, but he was decisively mediocre in his 2 1/2 years in Minnesota. And it wasn't due to lack of opportunity.

Q, much of what you say here is accurate. But don't you remember the stretches during his rookie season where he really WAS going well? And even last year we saw some of the same. What was Adelman's response? He was constantly the whipping boy. His mistakes were much more magnified and identified than anybody else on the roster. He was often benched after an error when other young players and even veterans were allowed to make the same mistakes. I'm not going to say that Derrick didn't have a hand in his demise here. He did. But I will say that it could have gone a lot differently if all parties involved had a true vested interest in making him the best player he could be.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

Q12543 wrote:But DNP coaches decision is not spoonfeeding someone. It is making them eat your shit.

Doper, This is another myth that Derrick Williams apologists like to perpetuate...that somehow Adelman never gave him enough chances. It's simply not true. As a rookie, Derrick played in all 66 Timberwolves games (it was the lockout year) and played the 4th most minutes on the squad. He even started 15 games.

In his second season, he played in 78 out of 82 games and started 56 of them.

Now explain to me how on God's green earth Adelman did not give him an opportunity to develop and improve? How many years into a player's career do they need to be spoon fed minutes?

Derrick may go on to be successful under a different coach and system, but he was decisively mediocre in his 2 1/2 years in Minnesota. And it wasn't due to lack of opportunity.

Q, much of what you say here is accurate. But don't you remember the stretches during his rookie season where he really WAS going well? And even last year we saw some of the same. What was Adelman's response? He was constantly the whipping boy. His mistakes were much more magnified and identified than anybody else on the roster. He was often benched after an error when other young players and even veterans were allowed to make the same mistakes. I'm not going to say that Derrick didn't have a hand in his demise here. He did. But I will say that it could have gone a lot differently if all parties involved had a true vested interest in making him the best player he could be.

Eh, I don't know. It's funny how guys that make their shots end up with longer leashes. Derrick never got his outside jumper going and that's really the key for him offensively. Without that, he ended up making a lot of clumsy drives to the basket. And without the floor vision to make plays off the dribble, it was all or nothing on those drives. I think that drove Adelman crazy and he indeed tightened the leash up.

DWill did the usual and followed up his good game with a 13 pt blah game. The verdict is still out but this sure looks like the DWill we had in MN.

Derrick's rookie year, he was 4th on the team in minutes played. Last year he was 5th on the team in minutes played.

Is this stupid conversation about D-Will not getting minutes (or a fair chance) here ever going to end?

He is getting plenty of minutes on a bad team right now.....this is a perfect situation for him.