CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Plus 1 - Quarter Pole Edition
- Coolbreeze44
- Posts: 13192
- Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 12:00 am
CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Plus 1 - Quarter Pole Edition
Since we have a few days in between games, and I didn't get a report out this week, I thought I would share a 2 +1 for the first 18 games. It's been an up an down start to the season and we have reasons to be both encouraged and disappointed with how things have gone. Here's the 8-10 version of the 2 + 1:
1) There's a lot to dislike so coming up with just 2 is difficult. It's gotten rather cliché to point the finger at the coaching staff, but I need to start there. Consider:
- Full platoon substitution patterns
- Kevin Martin in the starting lineup
- Full avoidance of anything resembling a fast break
- KAT sitting for 4th quarters in games where he could have been THE difference
- Virtually no PT for Tyus Jones
- Ridiculous play design (or non design) at crunch time
- Sub-par assistant coaches
- Stupid statements from the head coach at inopportune times.
Perhaps others can add to this list, but I'm not impressed to say the least. I'm thrilled that Lip reported Sam is not going to get an extension during the season. It would be so "Wolvesy" to do just that. Thanks for the emphasis on D Sam, but you're still without.
2) The teams' general apathy and lackluster play at home. If we could have just held serve at home, won the games we should have won, we would be the talk of the league behind Golden State. I just don't get the lack of energy and urgency we play with at Target Center. Haven't been to any games, but it appears the crowd isn't helping much. I can handle losing games with a young team, but we should at least be excited to play in front of the home crow.
+1 - Bullet Style:
- Performance on the road
- Continued maturation of Andrew and Zach
- Rookie of the month play from KAT. He really has us primed to get to where we want to be.
- Bjelica's overall play
- Ability to play well in the 4th quarter, particularly Andrew
- Vastly improved team defense
- The Western Conference coming back to the pack. It's not as brutal as it's been in the past
- Realistic hope for the present and certainly the future.
And that's Cool's 2 things I didn't like +1
1) There's a lot to dislike so coming up with just 2 is difficult. It's gotten rather cliché to point the finger at the coaching staff, but I need to start there. Consider:
- Full platoon substitution patterns
- Kevin Martin in the starting lineup
- Full avoidance of anything resembling a fast break
- KAT sitting for 4th quarters in games where he could have been THE difference
- Virtually no PT for Tyus Jones
- Ridiculous play design (or non design) at crunch time
- Sub-par assistant coaches
- Stupid statements from the head coach at inopportune times.
Perhaps others can add to this list, but I'm not impressed to say the least. I'm thrilled that Lip reported Sam is not going to get an extension during the season. It would be so "Wolvesy" to do just that. Thanks for the emphasis on D Sam, but you're still without.
2) The teams' general apathy and lackluster play at home. If we could have just held serve at home, won the games we should have won, we would be the talk of the league behind Golden State. I just don't get the lack of energy and urgency we play with at Target Center. Haven't been to any games, but it appears the crowd isn't helping much. I can handle losing games with a young team, but we should at least be excited to play in front of the home crow.
+1 - Bullet Style:
- Performance on the road
- Continued maturation of Andrew and Zach
- Rookie of the month play from KAT. He really has us primed to get to where we want to be.
- Bjelica's overall play
- Ability to play well in the 4th quarter, particularly Andrew
- Vastly improved team defense
- The Western Conference coming back to the pack. It's not as brutal as it's been in the past
- Realistic hope for the present and certainly the future.
And that's Cool's 2 things I didn't like +1
Re: CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Plus 1 - Quarter Pole Edition
Our attendance is 2nd worst in the league still. That sucks considering our record and the potential of this team. Hard to pumped to play a home game in an empty barn. Trailblazers and Kings are wayyyy ahead of us in attendance and it's hard to argue their teams are in any better shape than us. The reality will remain that Minnesota fans are fickle and it is not a basketball town.
- khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]
- Posts: 6414
- Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:00 am
Re: CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Plus 1 - Quarter Pole Edition
Why should fans show up? This team sucks at home and doesn't show up themselves. If they want fans to come back they have to earn it. It's going to be a slow recovery of fans after the last ten years. It's not gonna happen overnight with rookies and sophomores. This town will pay up for winners. We're sick of paying to watch losers.
- Q12543 [enjin:6621299]
- Posts: 13844
- Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 12:00 am
Re: CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Plus 1 - Quarter Pole Edition
I can understand questioning Mitchell and the coaching staff with individual decisions - the piece parts if you will. But it's really hard for me to get too upset with the total body of work: An 8-10 record. Mitchell and Co. must be doing something right.
Now let's see how the rest of the season progresses.
Now let's see how the rest of the season progresses.
- BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]
- Posts: 3290
- Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 12:00 am
Re: CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Plus 1 - Quarter Pole Edition
Nice summary thus far.cool. I can't disagree with anything there. I wanna see tyus instead of YMCA Miller. I'd like to see kat and dieng play more together. A poor mans mourning,mutombo if you will
- AbeVigodaLive
- Posts: 10272
- Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 12:00 am
Re: CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Plus 1 - Quarter Pole Edition
thedoper wrote:Our attendance is 2nd worst in the league still. That sucks considering our record and the potential of this team. Hard to pumped to play a home game in an empty barn. Trailblazers and Kings are wayyyy ahead of us in attendance and it's hard to argue their teams are in any better shape than us. The reality will remain that Minnesota fans are fickle and it is not a basketball town.
I think Minneapolis is an underrated basketball town. The fans have been through a lot. They're coming... I'm not worried about that. They've been more than patient with this franchise. I think they deserve the patience from everybody else...
Re: CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Plus 1 - Quarter Pole Edition
AbeVigodaLive wrote:thedoper wrote:Our attendance is 2nd worst in the league still. That sucks considering our record and the potential of this team. Hard to pumped to play a home game in an empty barn. Trailblazers and Kings are wayyyy ahead of us in attendance and it's hard to argue their teams are in any better shape than us. The reality will remain that Minnesota fans are fickle and it is not a basketball town.
I think Minneapolis is an underrated basketball town. The fans have been through a lot. They're coming... I'm not worried about that. They've been more than patient with this franchise. I think they deserve the patience from everybody else...
I think the Twin cities can be a basketball town. Let's be honest though it's been over 10 years since this franchise has actually been relavent. That's a lot longer than some other franchises. Humans are creatures of habit and for years the Wolves haven't given fans a reason to show up to games on a consistent basis and there for a while like the Twins did a number of years ago they were practically giving away the cheap tickets to try and get people to show up. If there is something really buzz worthy people will start coming. It will happen with this group of players but it will take time especially since they haven't played well at home.
Re: CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Plus 1 - Quarter Pole Edition
Well when there's fans that hate players like KG and champion for players like Ricky it makes me wonder if they care more about likeable players over winning teams.
Re: CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Plus 1 - Quarter Pole Edition
I don't want to make excuses for Sam he has been a head coach before he has been around the game long enough etc but we should remember he got thrown into this job a few weeks before TC started. He is a Flip disciple so it's not like he will run completely different stuff than Flip would have but still he didn't have a lot of time to plan what he wanted for his vision for the team and it went from sorta take care of the team till Flip gets back doing it your way to you are the guy for the season to ok Flip is gone now you are basically auctioning for the job. In addition he didn't pick his assistants they are Flip's assistants. Maybe he loves all those guys and perfectly happy with them or maybe he would like a couple different guys (or replaced all of them lol) that he would have preferred if the situation was different. On top of all that he was close to Flip he lost someone dear to him. How big of a difference does all that stuff make? Idk but it shouldn't be completely lost when considering what Sam has done as a coach so far. When you look at all that's happened the last few weeks it's kinda amazing the Wolves have done as well as they have. AP guy mentioned that in the latest podcast and also said some credit could go to Milt for weathering through all this with the team exceeding expectations etc. It's stil early though so we will see how things play out with this team and Sam coaching. His next challenges are to get the team playing better at home and get offense flowing at a more acceptable level.
- Mstermisty [enjin:6864008]
- Posts: 752
- Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2013 12:00 am
Re: CoolBreeze's 2 Things I Didn't Like Plus 1 - Quarter Pole Edition
PorkChop wrote:Well when there's fans that hate players like KG and champion for players like Ricky it makes me wonder if they care more about likeable players over winning teams.
Jesus H. Christ on a popsicle stick man, give it a rest. Most of us like Ricky because he plays his ass off when he's on the court and almost without fail makes the team and players around him better. Is he flawed? Yes, we all know that too. Not every thread needs to turn into a Ricky discussion though. Sheesh.
Good summary Cool, the play at home has been the biggest disappointment for me and it's not even close. I'm not a fan of Mitchell's coaching, but I think he's a decent fit for a young team THIS year. Beyond that we need to find someone better.
I'm tolerating the KAT dnp-cd's in the 4th quarter for now, but if this season is truly about development, as Mitchell keeps preaching, then this better change sooner than later. Also, the "Gorgui is a young player and needs to be developed as well" argument holds no water for me--dude will be 26 in about a month. KAT just turned 20. C'mon.
And finally, R.I.P. Scott Weiland. Died in Minnesota of all places. Glad I got to see STP with him as the singer, all the other versions are simply imposters.