Minnesota Sports Forum

I'd rather have Thibs, obviously, but I'd also rather have Messina over Ollie. Seeing Hoiberg and Donovan struggle in their transition to the NBA game has me very cautious of college coaching prospects. Ollie could very well be the Brad Stevens we want, but I'd rather go for someone that's coached in the NBA already. That's my take.

Brooklyn_Wolves wrote:OK, I just looked up Ollie the NBA player. His number of attempted 3pt shot in his career is....29 ( made 9)! Question: do his college team shoot 3s?

I ripped Kevin Ollie often during my early years at the ESPN version of this forum.

Classic mediocre journeyman... good enough to start 21 games in his last full NBA seasons for the woeful Wolves.

But the guy has a national title as a college coach. Made the tourney 2x in 4 years... with this season being a bit of a surprise aided by a 80 foot shot. Don't really know too much about him as a coach though.

I like Ollie and so he is the young guy I like the most but like Cam laid it out man I just don't know if he is really going to have success or not.

Messina is an interesting guy I would be interested in him. My knock on him is shouldn't we be looking at a coach prospect from a team that takes a lot more 3's than the Spurs? ;)

Speaking of 3 point shooting Jim Peterson has been harping on how the Wolves lose the battle of 3 point shots and we all know it's a big deal however the Wolves actually are not that bad defending the 3 when it comes to attempts and percentage from that distance. At worst middle of the road. Where they are really bad is at the rim only the Lakers and Kings are worse there. I am not suggesting the Wolves don't have problems guarding the 3 because I think they have vast problems most nights guarding anything that moves but I found those stats interesting. I think there is plenty of blame to go around for that bad defense. I can't emphasize enough no matter who ends up coaching this team someone on the staff needs to be a legit defensive minded coach.