Minnesota Sports Forum

Very disappointing loss last night to a team I figure we have to beat at home. I was one who foresaw that we would be a fringe playoff team before the season, but even I am surprised to find us under .500 at this point in the year. With hope for a turnaround on the horizon, here is tonight's 2 + 1:

1) With just a little bit of discipline with the ball, I think we have a great chance to win tonight. Every time we seemed to crawl within striking distance, we would get careless with the ball and turn it over. It doesn't seem like anyone was immune to this. Ricky, Love, Corey, Kmart - they all seemed to make mistakes at inopportune times. It just seems like we were as much responsible for the loss as the Nuggets were.

2) It must have been fun to be a Nugget tonight. You want an open shot? No problem. You need to get to the rim? Here's a lane with no resistance. How about an uncontested Lob for a dunk? We can accommodate that too. I don't want to hear how good the Wolves are defensively. They play awful team defense. They have some good individual defenders, but collectively they are terrible. As someone said in another thread, Rick needs to start developing Dieng to give us some rim protection. His skill set is needed badly and he isn't going to become a player languishing on the bench every night. Burying these rookies, especially Dieng is a problem that needs to go away.

Plus 1 - Someone else said it very well tonight. We are probably not as good as we were the first couple weeks, but we aren't as bad as we've seen recently either. The question is where do we fall in between those extremes? Getting Bud back will help, but injuries are going to happen to every team and you have to be able to weather those storms. It's really not a good excuse. I suspect we will have more runs of really good play that will make us believers at various points of the season. But in the end we will probably be in a dog fight for #8 which is where we belong. Extremely frustrating to say that after all the assets we held during the Kahn regime.

And that's CoolBreeze's 2 things I didn't like tonight plus 1.

Nice report Cool. I am also disappointed we're already below .500. Adlelman said after his press conference that we might look good on paper, but that doesn't matter during games. Well then isn't that the fault of the coaching staff? We need more rest for our starters and that means playing the rookies a little more. I think they can help in areas where we need it. And of course Luc will help out with some of those wide open looks and drives to the basket.

I want a guy like Faried. That's what this game hit home for me. I love Brewer's relentless energy. I like how hard Cunningham and Rubio work, and I'm excited about getting a guy like Luc for that reason too. That's all so nice after years of having guys like McCants, Beasley, and DWill. But I'd love to have a guy who crashes the boards like Faried. Love's a great rebounder, and Pek's not bad, but I just love how much energy Faried brings when he crashes the boards.

SameOldNudityDrew wrote:I want a guy like Faried. That's what this game hit home for me. I love Brewer's relentless energy. I like how hard Cunningham and Rubio work, and I'm excited about getting a guy like Luc for that reason too. That's all so nice after years of having guys like McCants, Beasley, and DWill. But I'd love to have a guy who crashes the boards like Faried. Love's a great rebounder, and Pek's not bad, but I just love how much energy Faried brings when he crashes the boards.

Love's far and away more relentless on the boards. Energy level and skill, Love has that. The way he'll play volleyball sometimes on the glass and on the third tip it goes in for a bucket is amazing. He just can't explode with athleticism that Faried can and I'm assuming that's what you mean.