Minnesota Sports Forum

Camden wrote:Ricky needs to drive-to-score more. Shabazz needs minutes. Budinger's getting better; looked really good tonight. JJ and Adelman need to go.

Squishypoo wrote:When is the trade deadline? Anyone think denver would want JJ?[/q

bazz needs no more minutes. what has he got like 12-13 shots in 20 some minutes these past two games?

I agree that Muhammad needs more minutes and Adelman has to go, but I also agreed with Adelman yanking Shabazz out of the game after he bricked two threes. On a night where Shabazz could get his little jump hook off anytime he wanted, he shouldn't be hanging out around the 3-point line.

Shabazz was our bench offense tonight. Let it fly. And yes, he needs minutes. Did you watch the game? Other than him, the bench produced very little.

Let me bring focus back on JJ's stat line. 1-7, 6 points, 0 ast, 1 TO. I'd rather let Alexey play backup point.

Camden wrote:Shabazz was our bench offense tonight. Let it fly. And yes, he needs minutes. Did you watch the game? Other than him, the bench produced very little.

Let me bring focus back on JJ's stat line. 1-7, 6 points, 0 ast, 1 TO. I'd rather let Alexey play backup point.

Id rather have you play backup pg then jj

Portland seems so dependent on jump shots, but man, they make 'em when it matters. Shabazz and McCollum played well (but I'd still rather have McCollum). Shabazz gave a nice effort on defense too. If he keeps getting some burn, it will be interesting how he responds once opposing teams scout him and force him to go right.

alexftbl8181 wrote:

Camden wrote:Shabazz was our bench offense tonight. Let it fly. And yes, he needs minutes. Did you watch the game? Other than him, the bench produced very little.

Let me bring focus back on JJ's stat line. 1-7, 6 points, 0 ast, 1 TO. I'd rather let Alexey play backup point.

Id rather have you play backup pg then jj

At least I'm a willing passer. And I can score in the post. We should trade for someone that can do that. Hmmm, who's available?

Andre Milla.

Bazz has one move. He goes to his left in the post and takes a hook shot that he tries to draw contact on to get a foul. He doesn't really score anywhere or anyway else other than on the block and the FT attempts resulting from that one move. At the end of the day, his offense doesn't come within the flow of the offense. It comes as a black hole, ball stop. It works when he is the only scorer on the court like he was often tonight, but I don't think we should be shutting down the offense just to get him the ball. He still is not a good jump shooter, so he is a post up specialist who doesn't do much else for you. I think Adelman played him at the right time and pulled him at the right time tonight. At the end of the day, we have no business beating Portland missing 3 out of 5 starters. It was a good effort and hopefully it allows them to keep their heads up and keep the energy up going into the next game.

khans2k5 wrote:Bazz has one move. He goes to his left in the post and takes a hook shot that he tries to draw contact on to get a foul. He doesn't really score anywhere or anyway else other than on the block and the FT attempts resulting from that one move. At the end of the day, his offense doesn't come within the flow of the offense. It comes as a black hole, ball stop. It works when he is the only scorer on the court like he was often tonight, but I don't think we should be shutting down the offense just to get him the ball. He still is not a good jump shooter, so he is a post up specialist who doesn't do much else for you. I think Adelman played him at the right time and pulled him at the right time tonight. At the end of the day, we have no business beating Portland missing 3 out of 5 starters. It was a good effort and hopefully it allows them to keep their heads up and keep the energy up going into the next game.

Deal with it. If Flip didn't know this when he drafted Shabazz then God help us all.

Let Shabazz be who he is. Who he is and what his game is can help us at the moment. We can't keep drafting guys and then try to change everything about them.

khans2k5 wrote:Bazz has one move. He goes to his left in the post and takes a hook shot that he tries to draw contact on to get a foul. He doesn't really score anywhere or anyway else other than on the block and the FT attempts resulting from that one move. At the end of the day, his offense doesn't come within the flow of the offense. It comes as a black hole, ball stop. It works when he is the only scorer on the court like he was often tonight, but I don't think we should be shutting down the offense just to get him the ball. He still is not a good jump shooter, so he is a post up specialist who doesn't do much else for you. I think Adelman played him at the right time and pulled him at the right time tonight. At the end of the day, we have no business beating Portland missing 3 out of 5 starters. It was a good effort and hopefully it allows them to keep their heads up and keep the energy up going into the next game.

As someone who watched Muhammad live many times at UCLA, I can say you are epically wrong in saying he only scores in one way. You are correct that the move you describe is his best move; in fact, on most nights, like last night, it is close to unstoppable. The way Shabazz uses his size combined with a freakishly explosive vertical jump makes this an incredibly effective post move. But Shabazz is a prolific scorer in many ways. He is effective on the fast break, relentless on putbacks on the offensive board, and on back cuts to the basket when paired with a good passer. And beyond that, he shot 38% on threes his freshman year on good volume...better then Chase Budinger's percentage his freshman year and equal to C.J. McCollum's rate during his four years in college.

Does he play the way Rick Adelman wants his wings to play? Of course not. We have seen what Rick wants from his second team: corner offense ball movement resulting in a three point shot. This is a beautiful offense when it works, but unfortunately you need a lot of shooters on the court for this to be effective, and the Wolves reserves are generally not effective shooters. What a luxury to have a guy off the bench who has been a prolific scorer everywhere he has played.

Shabazz has always had the reputation of being a very hard worker in practice, and I would like him to be getting some practice minutes paired with Rubio. I think that he could become what selfish PG Larry Drew didn't allow him to become in college: an unstoppable scorer in the pick and roll. Flip and Rick have both complimented Muhammad on his work ethic, but his style of play doesn't put him in Rick's top ten players on the roster, so he may not even be getting consistent second team minutes in practice. This season is lost. Adelman has guaranteed that with his tunnel-visioned rotations. But last night proved to me what I have thought since draft night...given real minutes in the NBA, Muhammad can be a prolific scorer. I think that a new, aggressive and open-minded coach will either start him or give him 20-25 reserve minutes at SF, and let him show that the ability to score in bunches that he showed in the Pac 12 translates easily to the NBA. I was disappointed in Shabazz when he put up that second missed three last night, when he had been scoring so easily on the block, because it gave stubborn Rick Adelman the opportunity to yank him and say "See, that's why I can't play him" while ignoring his performance (including defense, by the way) the rest of the game. I agreed with his decision to bench him at the moment as a teaching tool, but I will not agree if he uses it as an excuse to bury Muhammad on the bench.

More Muhammad.
Less Adelman

I was at the game last night. It wasn't for lack of trying, but that was literally the only move he could score on. He might have been a decent scorer in college, but the NBA is a step above that so to say he can be a prolific scorer in the NBA with one NBA move is just wrong. He never even tried another move on the block and the only reason the move worked last night was because he had a smaller player than him in Wes Matthews defending him. People just need to cool it on Bazz. This isn't college. He's a rookie. Just because the current options are bad doesn't just make him a good option automatically. He's played enough now to consider him as an option, but in no way has he played enough to get this much praise for his game. It's crazy how reactive some of you are to one game and then you make reaches like saying he was this in college and that's what he'll be in the pros. He's a 6'6 SF who has one post move that works on this level and people are talking like he is already a prolific scorer. Watch Durant and Melo play. That is what a prolific scorer looks like.