Adelman's Wolves Tenure so far

[Crazysauce]

I am not a fan of bashing a coach, Even Spurs fans bash Popovich which I think is just stupid. These players just suck, plain and simply. The effort that was there for Love has definitely faded. Martin couldnt guard me in a wheelchair. Rubio cant shoot at all, and on top of that his inability to get through a screen is unacceptable. Brewer still cant shoot, is a decent guy off the bench. Pek is a beast down low on offense, but does not protect the rim at all on defense as he is too slow and unathletic. And with Love your other guy, to go with Martin, possibly the worst defender I have ever seen, and you have a terrible team. Throw in the fact our second unit also looks terrible. Turiaf has looked good since coming back but everyone else look lost out there. This team is an embarrassment. And worst of all, there is no fire at all from this team. A lot of sad scared puppy dogs.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

Thanks for posting the article, doper. I found it well written, and it summarized a lot of the feelings I have about this team. We don't know why they seem like they don't enjoy playing together or why they can come up so flat at times, but Adelman certainly might be the problem. I like how the author comments on Adelman's limited emotional range...it's really true. Even when they are having one of those games where everything is working (most recently the Philly and Charlotte games), he is incapable of displaying any joy. These are young guys mostly in their 20s who have probably generally had a lot of fun in their lives playing the game they love, but Adelman just sucks the good feeling out of any situation.

I respect Adelman a lot, and so do Flip and Taylor, and for that reason he is not likely to ever be fired. What I am hoping for is that he just becomes tired of coaching and decides to step aside...hopefully this year. He's just not the right guy for the team we have right now.

[thedoper]

I am not a fan of bashing a coach, Even Spurs fans bash Popovich which I think is just stupid. These players just suck, plain and simply. The effort that was there for Love has definitely faded. Martin couldnt guard me in a wheelchair. Rubio cant shoot at all, and on top of that his inability to get through a screen is unacceptable. Brewer still cant shoot, is a decent guy off the bench. Pek is a beast down low on offense, but does not protect the rim at all on defense as he is too slow and unathletic. And with Love your other guy, to go with Martin, possibly the worst defender I have ever seen, and you have a terrible team. Throw in the fact our second unit also looks terrible. Turiaf has looked good since coming back but everyone else look lost out there. This team is an embarrassment. And worst of all, there is no fire at all from this team. A lot of sad scared puppy dogs.

I don't think it is "coach bashing" to acknowledge when a coach has lost the room. Adelman is a skilled coach with a great resume. But even great coaches can wear out and their message can become lost to their players. You said yourself they lost their fire, well they need to get it back. You may be right about the talent on this team. But I truly believe they have underachieved in many instances this year (a number of blown leads, etc). I think they need a different message and philosophy.

[thedoper]

Thanks for posting the article, doper. I found it well written, and it summarized a lot of the feelings I have about this team. We don't know why they seem like they don't enjoy playing together or why they can come up so flat at times, but Adelman certainly might be the problem. I like how the author comments on Adelman's limited emotional range...it's really true. Even when they are having one of those games where everything is working (most recently the Philly and Charlotte games), he is incapable of displaying any joy. These are young guys mostly in their 20s who have probably generally had a lot of fun in their lives playing the game they love, but Adelman just sucks the good feeling out of any situation.

I respect Adelman a lot, and so do Flip and Taylor, and for that reason he is not likely to ever be fired. What I am hoping for is that he just becomes tired of coaching and decides to step aside...hopefully this year. He's just not the right guy for the team we have right now.

I respect Adelman too, and can see how he deserves respect for his storied career. I was very excited about his hiring. But on the flipside, I think the notions of loyalty have been real problem for Taylor's approach to NBA business (Joe Smith, Signing KG's friends, keeping McHale on board way too long, rehiring Flip). NBA business should be cutthroat in approach to GMs, Players and coaches. These are elite-level, specialized jobs that shouldn't be treated as regional wedding card sales jobs.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I am not a fan of bashing a coach, Even Spurs fans bash Popovich which I think is just stupid. These players just suck, plain and simply. The effort that was there for Love has definitely faded. Martin couldnt guard me in a wheelchair. Rubio cant shoot at all, and on top of that his inability to get through a screen is unacceptable. Brewer still cant shoot, is a decent guy off the bench. Pek is a beast down low on offense, but does not protect the rim at all on defense as he is too slow and unathletic. And with Love your other guy, to go with Martin, possibly the worst defender I have ever seen, and you have a terrible team. Throw in the fact our second unit also looks terrible. Turiaf has looked good since coming back but everyone else look lost out there. This team is an embarrassment. And worst of all, there is no fire at all from this team. A lot of sad scared puppy dogs.

Saying that the team sucks and lacks talent is way too simplistic for me. And beyond that, it's just not true. If they didn't have talent, how could they blow out teams by 31 and 27 points in 2 of the past 5 games? And they have had several of those blowouts this year. Only a team with talent can frequently blow out other NBA teams. The problem with the Wolves is not lack of talent, it's the inability to display any kind of consistency at all. How can they go from blowing a team out on their home court to losing to the hapless Kings within the span of a week? This lack of consistency is something that needs to be analyzed, in hopes that it can be corrected. I don't know that the author is really bashing Adelman, but I do think he may be questioning whether his time may have passed.

I don't have the answer, but I do think it's a valid issue to ponder and discuss.

[thedoper]

So Adelman doesn't deserve any of the blame here???? Please stop the bleeding. No one is happy. We are underachieving. We don't play defense. Come on.

[thedoper]

Adelman on tonight,

"Our top two players took 37 shots and we only took 1 technical free throw. I will have to look at the tape and see why we didn't get to the line, because we usually do."

i.e it was the refs fault.

on Barea,

"I thought that was our best chance to win."

Was it still our best chance to win after his missed 3 and his blocked 12 footer?

I would just like to hear Adelman say "this one is on me" one time.

http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/video/2014/01/31/AdelmanPG13114mp4-3130969

[Lipoli390]

We are what we are -- a .500 team. Adelman has strengths and weaknesses like any coach. He also has a proven track record as a winning head coach with multiple teams and the respect of his peers who all see him as an excellent head coach. Perhaps Adelman's better days are behind him. And I'm leaning towards preferring a younger more dynamic head coach. But I don't see this team having a better record to date this season under some other head coach.

The core problem with this team is its roster. And the responsibility for the roster lies with Kahn and Flip. We have a D-League caliber bench and a starting line up with no shot-blockers, only one bona fide above average ball-handler at his position and two terrible shooters. And no one who scores effectively on dribble penetration. At least three of our five starters -- Brewer, Martin and Pekovic -- are one-way players.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

I wish you'd stop calling Pekovic a one-way player. It leads to the thinking that he's poor on defense when that's not true at all. Is he a shot-blocker? No. Is he good on defense? Yes. The frustration with Brewer and Martin make some sense, though.

[mjs34]

We are what we are -- a .500 team. Adelman has strengths and weaknesses like any coach. He also has a proven track record as a winning head coach with multiple teams and the respect of his peers who all see him as an excellent head coach. Perhaps Adelman's better days are behind him. And I'm leaning towards preferring a younger more dynamic head coach. But I don't see this team having a better record to date this season under some other head coach.

The core problem with this team is its roster. And the responsibility for the roster lies with Kahn and Flip. We have a D-League caliber bench and a starting line up with no shot-blockers, only one bona fide above average ball-handler at his position and two terrible shooters. And no one who scores effectively on dribble penetration. At least three of our five starters -- Brewer, Martin and Pekovic -- are one-way players.

Lip, I think it is time to move on from Kahn. Flip had a pretty clean slate this last summer. He signed Pek to a big/long deal, picked up DC's option, and signed on Brewer, Martin, Bud, Turiaf, Hummel, and Price. That is around 32-34 mil in salary for this year. There is no reason that we shouldn't have filled in some of our glaring holes. Most of these moves were supposedly Adelman's guys, so I don't want any excuses by Adelman. He has rookies rotting on the bench that he refuses to try and take advantage of. If we aren't winning most games due to our bench, doesn't it make sense to try a different approach. Other than Pek getting hurt, he hasn't made a change to the starting lineup all season. Adelman is just too god darn stubborn to get out of his own way.