Minnesota Sports Forum

What if the season could start over tomorrow, and instead of the lineups we have seen, the coaching staff decided to go in a completely different direction:

Starters: KAT, Gorgs, Wiggs, Lavine and Ricky.

Bench: KG, Bjelica, Bazz, K-mart, Miller.

So basically they start the five guys together with the most potential to make something happen in the future, meanwhile the bench unit is the cagey vets plus two guys who need shots in Bazz and Bjelica. (yeah I didn't include Prince but of course he would see minutes as well...and eventually Tyus)

Surely we would not have started as good as 8-8. But after 16 games would we have gone 10-32?

For whatever reason the coaches fell in love with this veteran mentorship program and all it ended up doing was splitting our starters and backups into two teams that really didn't work (and even worse, Lavine at point guard). Finally now with Lavine starting (well, at least every other game) we are seeing a true 5-man chemistry develop. Imagine if that unit was allowed to play together from day one! Also, imagine if the smart vets were allowed to stabilize our second unit, and play against the other teams reserves. KG could still play his 12 minutes a game, he could just do it against weaker players.

Everybody here likes to focus on individual players, me included (Ricky can't shoot, Wiggins has no fire, KAT is god, etc.) but at the end of the day basketball is a team game. Teams develop an identity, and ours should have been obvious: youth, energy, and athleticism.

It's all hindsight of course, but it seems like this season was handled completely wrong from the start. No vision from our weak ass coaches. No forward thinking. I just hope next season we bring in a staff that can get it right.

For me I am starting KG with Towns the first 20 or so games.

The perimeter players??? Idk man that one is tough there was a lot of guys for a limited amount of minutes and Prince at times was way more valuable defensively than any of us imagined he would be. I wanted to see more of Bazz earlier but he was so brutal defensively at times and the Wolves were playing defense back then.

This season probably wasn't handled with great wisdom vision etc but let's remember that the guy that was all that for the franchise isn't with us anymore and that is significant. The guy left in the organization had a job to do but it was a tough position to be in not to mention many of them lost someone in Flipthat the bwere personally very close to. I think sometimes we have forgotten that human element.

As a young rebuilding team that is the route I would have took. Get your guys time together and hope good chemistry forms. I didn't think we would be a playoff team this year and I feel we are much better off building for the future with these young guys.

Mster -- Nice post. For many of us, your suggested hypothetical isn't hindsight. I along with others wanted to start Ricky, LaVine, Wiggins and KAT. I recall saying at the outset that I was ok starting KG but not leaving him in long. But it didn't take long for me to change my view on KG based on how ineffective he was offensively. And the bottom line from the beginning should have been developing the young guys both individually AND as a unit for the future.

Would we have done better than 10-36 dong what you suggest and what man of us advocated at the beginning? Hard to say. I think the answer is yes based on how this group has been doing lately now that they're finally having a chance to play together with at least some consistency. But even if it had no impact on our record, it would have allowed them to develop as a unit and given our staff the chance to evaluate them as a unit.

I'm ok with it.

Granted, we know Mitchell has sucked. And the team has lost more than we thought... while seeming to regress for a spell after a solid start. But I get the approach, if not the results.

This season was a lost cause as we all know after Saunders' death. The goal was to develop the young guys. KAT and Wiggins got to see what it takes to be a professional on/off the court from the vets. Maybe a foundation of accountability and professionalism gained roots this season. I guess we'll find out down the line. I think it could be telling that after that horrible dry spell, the youngsters are leading the team to some quality wins lately. Maybe it's all been part of the development, the learning process.

I do, however, wish the LaVine situation was handled better. Is he a starter? Bench guy? PG? SG? The kid is super young and still very raw. Treating mercurial players in such unexpected and inconsistent ways kinds of fuels that inconsistency, doesn't it? I'd think the Wolves would have wanted to do just the opposite with a guy like LaVine. Then again, the kid doesn't make it easy (not necessarily in a bad way). The Wolves are learning (along with us... and with LaVine himself) exactly what he is as a player. It's still largely an unknown.

As for Muhammad and others like Payne and Bjelica. Meh. I don't see any of them as starters in this league, or as foundations for the franchise, so they are aren't as critical to what this season was about... at least for me.

The starting lineup should have been Ricky/Lavine/Wiggins/KG/Towns from day 1. Two good defensive bigs to cover for our perimeter guys. 3 guys who can handle the scoring load. At least one volume 3pt shooter. It's a well balanced lineup that really just needs some more 3pt shooting. We should have come into the year with a real backup C and not relied on Pek to come back healthy. We should have let Dieng be the 3rd rotation big and play both spots next to Towns and the other C and Belly should have cleaned up the few extra minutes.