Minnesota Sports Forum

http://www.minnpost.com/sports/2014/11/wolves-werent-just-bad-against-new-orleans-they-were-disgraceful

I find that I usually agree with Robson's takes...they are generally well thought-out and presented in a balanced manner. I don't recall seeing as much anger in one of his columns as I see in this one. I guess I'm not feeling the anger he is directing toward our vets, but I am extremely disappointed...especially on the defensive side. His description of Martin's brilliance on offense in using angles and screens to get open or draw fouls is right on...he can be an explosive scorer on the nights where he decides to work. But Robson goes on to say that Martin doesn't seem as interested in being a student of the game on defense. I sense that he feels what I do about Martin...that he teased us with his comments about getting away with things in the past followed up with a spirited effort on offense and defense in the first week of the season. He sucked me in, but then he reverted to his "I don't care" attitude on defense and his "every other night" brilliance on offense when Ricky went down. Oh well, we can always remember the first week of this season when we want to look fondly back on Martin.

Many of us talked about the positive influence our vets can have in developing our youngsters, and I have been largely pleased with the leadership of Young, Rubio, Brewer and Turiaf. But I also know the rookies see Martin and Williams taking off plays, and I hope they don't pick up lazy bad habits from watching them. Flip can help by limiting the minutes of anyone he thinks is loafing. Yes, we need Martin's scoring, but not if his indifferent defense leads to the big minus numbers he has been putting up recently.

A lot of what he wrote was already noted by several of us on the post game day thread: http://minnesotasports.enjin.com/forum/m/15059925/viewthread/17110758-observations-from-smoothie-center-game-report

I for one agree with the author - it was obvious who "checked out" of that game for anyone who watched and that just shouldn't happen from those guys. It was one game. If it's a pattern, then I'm sure they'll get rid of those type of players. But we know now that Pek was hurt. And Martin/Williams played better the next night. I'm hoping that's the last we'll see of that type of poor efffort. I can take losing, but I don't want to see quitting.

I thought he was being harsh but after lashing out he went back to his realistic expectations and I thought it ended up being fairly balanced. I thought Martin wasn't that bad on D against Dallas especially before he hirt his ankle. Martin hasn't built up credibility on that end of the court to give him the benefit of the doubt. I liked what Thorpe said about Martin is that he has the ability physically to kinda dish it out on the offensive end getting fouls but on defense he just doesn't have it physically. That doesn't excuse some of the other things Martin does poorly on defense that doesn't require strength.

I truely think all the youth and a new system has caught up with the Wolves especially without 2 glue guys in Thad and Rubio that make whatever Flip was trying to do work. Defensively it looks like sometimes guys just flat out do the wrong thing leaving guys open. Brit alludes to this when talking about Pek. This team didn't stack up to me as an above average defensive team when the season started and you take away Rubio and the last couple games Young...ouch. Hopefully Young can come back and play soon.

I think Robson is making a decent point here that the supposed veteran leadership is not coming from the elder statesman on our team. Young has shown maturity in a short time, but looking at it from Robson's take, Martin is painted as a problematic character attitude-wise. I am happy that Mitchell is on our staff as well as Flip. I see us weeding out any negative influences on the youngsters by the end of the season.