Dallas Game thoughts

[worldK]

Good win tonight! We beat a team we should beat at home.

Kevin love is back. The best pf from 2 seasons ago is back and playing at an even higher level with his improved passing skills.

Kevin martin is such a breath of fresh air on this team. A wing player who can shoot,score,create and draw fouls. We have 2 efficient scorers on this team in love and martin.

Brewer continues to impress and earn his contract.

Rubio and pek play better in the 2nd half tonight. They are still not where they should be though.

On to our weakness.. The bench continues to be a burden for us. Againts teams that we should beat, our starters can will us to victories, but if we are up againts top caliber teams, unless the bench steps up, we are in trouble.

Hummel got some playing time tonight due to dw being out. While he wasnt bad, he wasnt good either and i expect him to be back on the bench when dw suits up. Overall, the bench is going to be a problem for us unless barea and dw can play consistently, dante gets back his mid range shooting from a year ago and shved can be useful. Chase would help when he gets back.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Yup, this squad is not firing on all cylinders and guys like Pek and Rubio are struggling mightily to convert shots. Love and Martin have been outstanding and we're squeezing every ounce of potential out of Corey Brewer by the way he's being utilized. Pek and Rubio have got to get more efficient. Pek can't even take advantage of mismatches like he used to.

As for the bench, Adelman is going to have to get out of the hockey shift mode - which he had to do tonight by necessity - and may even need to think about having Love or Martin always on the court. That means one of them needs to be subbed in for earlier.

[Mstermisty [enjin:6864008]]

Some observations:

--I was in the camp that thought Brewer was going to fit in and earn the starting job, but he has far surpassed my expectations. His energy on the court is amazing, and him and K-Love have formed a lethal two man 3 second fast break. I was regretting losing Kirilenko, but now I'm happy we have Brew instead.

--K-Love had possibly his best 1st quarter ever. But beyond that he made two huge shots in the 4th when we really needed it. That's what a superstar needs to do.

--K-Mart: has found a home. He's in the right offense, his skills are needed here, and no doubt Ricky needs a guard next to him that can shoot. He's been huge so far and there's no reason he can't keep it going.

--Ricky and Pek: they both showed signs in the 2nd half tonight. Ricky, for as bad as he has shot, continues to bring defense to the table every night. Pek finally started asserting himself underneath the hoop. Hopefully one or both of them are about to break out. But at least they both showed up in the 2nd half.

--The bench: this is the biggest concern of this squad right now. Finally Dante gave us something tonight, but other than that it was bleak. JJ is always going to be a hit or miss player. Right now D-Will is in the same camp. Hummel held his own tonight but really didn't help. Gorgui got splinters. Bottom line is I really hope Bud can return sooner than later.

4-2, now beat the Lakers. Don't be fooled by their mediocre record, without Kobe they suck. Gotta beat 'em. 22 losses in a row to the same team? 23 is one too many.

[TAFKASP]

4-2, now beat the Lakers. Don't be fooled by their mediocre record, without Kobe they suck. Gotta beat 'em. 22 losses in a row to the same team? 23 is one too many.

They're the Lakers, 23 is 23 to many.

[Phenom]

This is a lot of what I expected from Corey when I lobbied for the Wolves to pick him. When the Wolves drafted Ricky, I was even more excited. I am so glad he is back.

[m4gor [enjin:6667447]]

hello guys, i have been lurking in here for some time, but i guess it is time to light it up so here are my thoughts about this game:

K. Love - well what to say, fantastic performance, he is the reason why we won and he is the reason why we won in good fashion, he came there scored bunch of points and sealed the deal, exactly what we want, exactly what we need

K. Martin - great performance also, experienced player great scorer who knows his abilities, we needed this kind of player for ages, he helped us when we needed him the most

C. Brewer - he was great, some posters earlier (other topics) mentioned that he is bad rebounder, well he is not going for rebounds at all, his job is to be first on the other end of a floor, so i am perfectly fine with him having 0 rebounds, he brings energy, speed and defense, and so far is playing out of his mind

N. Pekovic - firstly i have to admit i felt disappointed, but second look tells that he had 15 points out of 9 shot attempts, he also played great defense, his contract negotiation was long and yes he looked rusty in pre-season, but there are no signs of him being satisfied, he is bashing himself when he fails, it is hungry PEK we know, within month or two he will enter the beast mode, i am putting off any fears about him.

R. Rubio - well, wolves fast breaks are Love to Brewer because it is the fastest option and it works. We cannot let Rubio handle the ball when it matters also, he cannot shoot but also has extremely bad shot selection and opponent can even let him drive to the basket as he sucks around the basket also. This is really bad situation and i fear for him, because i don't see him developing shot fast enough (if ever), so we could see Ricky playing off ball as he played in Barcelona and in Spanish national team. So basically he would be on floor as a defensive specialist, who can extend the play by perfect pass sometimes. From my point of view this would make wolves 7-8 seed for this season but also for all future seasons till Ricky develops his shot and can legitimately become primary ball handler.

Bench - Dante brought us what we needed. Rest of bench sucked as hard as possible, but we are getting used to this.

Adelman, tactics -

Adelman did great job with finding working rotations. As it is, we cannot afford to play without both Love and Martin at the same time, he figured this out in first half when there was only PEK left after Love got into foul trouble and it didn't worked well, so he played Martin with PEK and Ricky+Brewer+Love in the second half and it worked well.

Conclusion -
GOOD WIN. But there are several things the team is getting used to. And we will improve as a team. However my concerns are about bench and mostly about Ricky and they are really big, so i am not sure about our ceiling yet. Time will tell :-D

p.s. My english sucks and i know that, i am from Europe and still learning (intermediate level at best :-D ).

[bleedspeed]

As for the bench, Adelman is going to have to get out of the hockey shift mode - which he had to do tonight by necessity - and may even need to think about having Love or Martin always on the court. That means one of them needs to be subbed in for earlier.

I agree. but I would say Love/Martin or Rubio/Pek need to be on the floor together at all times.

I wish the preseason would have been more about finding at bench then who would make the team. Playing a 5 man unit a good chunk of minutes would help. I know the second unit is missing Turiaf a lot.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

I am a fan of getting Pek off the floor early so that he can be the primary option on the second team. There just aren't enough shots there for him on the first team with Love and Martin. The lack of depth at C in the league has let us get away with playing Love at C to close games and it makes more sense when Ronny comes back to have him be the first big off the bench to play next to Love and play solid D and rebound, while Pek can get the touches he needs on the second unit who has nobody that can score outside of JJ. You still get the pick and pop with DC and when Bud comes back you have another 3 point shooter on the floor. It just makes sense to play Pek with the second unit more to make him the primary option of that unit when he can actually get touches and shots. The hockey shift doesn't work when you bring in JJ, Shved, D Will, DC and Ronny because JJ and D Will are the only two scorers and there is no inside presence to get easy buckets when the perimeter guys struggle. That was one of the biggest needs I thought we had going into the offseason (backup big who could score down low) and they didn't address it, so we need to stagger Pek and Love more so there is always someone on the block who can score to take some pressure off the perimeter guys.

[TAFKASP]

p.s. My english sucks and i know that, i am from Europe and still learning (intermediate level at best :-D ).

No worries, your English is better than many in this country!! Completely understandable. Welcome to the forum!!