Minnesota Sports Forum

KLove has stated he wants to build a team good for 10 seasons (like say, San Antonio), not a team good for one lower rung playoff berth. To that end -- play Shabazz, bench Bud until he is all the way back.

Play and our other young up and coming players (wait, Bazz and Dieng are it).

I prefer a meaningful draft than a 4 and out play off run against OKC. That may do more damage than good. Flip is one season into this latest rebuild - let's do one right.

With all due respect, your holiness, I find the title of your thread inconsistent with the content. You equate playing Shabazz and benching Bud with tanking, but I see it as just the opposite. Bud is clearly not ready to contribute, offensively and especially defensively, and Adelman's insistence on giving a guy on the mend 20 consistent minutes every night is a prescription for tanking. And Shabazz is exactly what a team whose bench is scoring-impaired needs. If you really want to tank, try this strategy:

1)Adelman, continue to show no enthusiasm on the bench and scowl when Ricky does something that doesn't meet your approval.

2) Continue to play Bud 20 minutes a night, and encourage him to shoot, shoot, shoot

3) Continue to keep Shabazz on a very short leash. If he does anything rookie-like, yank him.

4) Continue to go small against big lineups by subbing Cunningham in for Pek.

5) Continue to favor JJ at point guard in critical moments in the fourth quarter...after all, he's the veteran, and that's what we need down the stretch to calm us down.

6) Don't give Dieng any minutes. His propensity to block shots is obviously a fluke, and we're better off with Cunningham protecting the rim

That's how to tank! And strangely, exactly the strategy Rick Adelman is employing. Put me in the camp of not being ready to tank though. If we don't make the playoffs and avoid the 14th spot, a draft pick in this loaded year will be a nice consolation prize. But our goal should be the playoffs, and it's up to Adelman to get us there. He has shown flashes of leaving his stubbornness behind in recent games, but not enough for my taste. Do the opposite of the 6 steps above, and we still have a good chance of passing Phoenix and Memphis.

Tanking should wait until the last week of the season to see where we're at in the standings (as to not end up 14th). I would like to see a couple more little winning streaks/rookie development/lineup changes, that is if Tired Rick still has any energy left.

I don't believe we need to consider tanking, but I do think we need to completely revamp the way we build this team. I understand having to overpay to get good players, but we tend to overpay for everyone. We try to finish out a team before having the needed talent in place, and I am not sure we can reverse that.

the wolves are just gonna stay at .500 the rest of the way most likely

LST - One of your better posts - Bravo

That's how to tank! And strangely, exactly the strategy Rick Adelman is employing

Brilliant Analysis LST

when did Love say this

when did Love say this

Don't have a link. It may have been Flip on the Funkadelic, saying Kevin does not want short term fixes, he wants to build a contender for the long haul