Minnesota Sports Forum

The biggest bash on Adelman I think is his use of JJ. People want Ricky more in the 4th quarter.

I think what makes Ricky good despite his lack of shooting, and excluding his passing, is the effort he gives while he's out there. While other players looking like they pace themselves at levels of 5-6 out of 10, Ricky is always going level 10. It's the reason he's leading the league in steals. He's always running around defensively on the perimeter, pressuring ball handlers off the inbounds ect. So Ricky gets burned out more then other players.

So you have to give him time off in the 4th quarter because he plays most of the 3rd. That's why a lot of the times wolves are up double digits going into the 4th.

JJ I thought his first year here was pretty good but got injured a lot. Every year it seems he's gotten worse and worse. This year though, he's been beyond awful. So many times the wolves have had double digits leads, only for JJ to come in and blow the entire lead in a span of 3-4 minutes. The wolves don't even need a backup PG to come in and extend the lead, they just need someone who can at least maintain the lead. Adleman simply has no other options. You have to give Ricky some rest, if you play him 35+ minutes you risk some injury big time.

I was big before the season for keeping Ridnour over JJ. Instead Flip gave away Luke for free, leaving the backup PG to a guy who can't play PG.

Don't blame adleman for the fact he doesn't have a guy who can hold a double digit lead

AJ Price?
Moving Alexi to the backup point?
There have been numerous games where Rubio has been rested but Adelman leaves him on the bench.

I think you make some good points, alex, and I've had some of the same thoughts at times. Ricky does play hard, and would not be effective if asked to play too many minutes. Where I disagree is with your statement that Rick has no other options to turn to after Ricky. Both Price and Shved can play PG, and perhaps Rick should be exploring other options on his roster rather than continuing to put JJ out there. JJ can be an exciting player who can score in bunches, but we haven't seen enough of those spurts this year. And his style of play is not conducive to protecting a lead, as he has demonstrated over and over this year. Price is not a scorer, but he has experience of 229 NBA games at point guard and likely could protect a lead better than JJ when he is having one of his increasingly more frequent bad games.. And I don't know why Rick doesn't give Shved a chance at PG. He has not shot well this year, but he gets his teammates involved much better than JJ.

Adelman gets locked into a certain mindset and seems to be incapable of showing any flexibility.

BloopOracle wrote:AJ Price?
Moving Alexi to the backup point?
There have been numerous games where Rubio has been rested but Adelman leaves him on the bench.

You made my point much more succinctly than me, bloop!

I'm going to be typically blunt here. In response to what is shared above I have two main points:

1) A lot of the Rick bashing DOES center on his 4th quarter rotation decisions. But not to be minimized should be his reluctance to invest in our young players. I think that's just as big of an issue.

2) Alexi Shved is not an NBA player and should not come up in a discussion about possible solutions. Once his contract runs out, it's back to Europe for him. He is the worst basketball player I have seen in the league this year, and that is no exagerration.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:I'm going to be typically blunt here. In response to what is shared above I have two main points:

1) A lot of the Rick bashing DOES center on his 4th quarter rotation decisions. But not to be minimized should be his reluctance to invest in our young players. I think that's just as big of an issue.

2) Alexi Shved is not an NBA player and should not come up in a discussion about possible solutions. Once his contract runs out, it's back to Europe for him. He is the worst basketball player I have seen in the league this year, and that is no exagerration.

Sorry Cool, but I have to counter with Robbie Hummel!

Aren't they one in the same? LOL

CoolBreeze44 wrote:I'm going to be typically blunt here. In response to what is shared above I have two main points:

1) A lot of the Rick bashing DOES center on his 4th quarter rotation decisions. But not to be minimized should be his reluctance to invest in our young players. I think that's just as big of an issue.

2) Alexi Shved is not an NBA player and should not come up in a discussion about possible solutions. Once his contract runs out, it's back to Europe for him. He is the worst basketball player I have seen in the league this year, and that is no exagerration.

I agree with your first point, cool, but only in part with your second. Yes, Alexey has looked like one of the worst SG in the NBA this year, but I believe that is because he is playing out of position. Shved is a ball handler and facilitator, not a scorer. He looked great at PG two summers ago as a point guard leading Russia to a medal against many NBA players, but Rick refuses to give him meaningful minutes there.

Just another example of his inflexibility and how he is trashing this season for us.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:Aren't they one in the same? LOL

I think Shved actually has NBA level athleticism, but he just can't shoot. Hummel strikes me as someone you see in a church league! :)

LST - I'd play Price at PG over Shved any day.