Minnesota Sports Forum

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2006474-5-biggest-mistakes-the-minnesota-timberwolves-made-this-season

1. The Public Dispute
2. Derrick Williams Trade
3. Misuse of Shabazz Muhammad
4. The Lost Trade
5. Delay in Playing Gorgui Dieng

well.....my feathers are ruffled now

I agree that these were 5 critical moments/factors for the Wolves, and all negative, but I don't see #4 as a "mistake". I never believed that Memphis was at all interested in trading Prince/Allen for JJ/Bud, so I can't call it a mistake that the deal didn't get done...it was only a silly rumor. As for the other 4:

1) Public Dispute. We had a lot of discussion on this board, and my recollection was the majority here didn't really think Love did anything wrong. I still think Love was completely out of line to publicly call out two teammates, and I admit I was concerned about Love's maturity at the time. Since then, though, Love has been a model teammate, in addition to being one of the top 5 players in the league. I think Love learned a lot from this experience, and on balance it turned out to be positive.

2) DW trade. I was a supporter of this trade at the time...excited about LMaM's defensive reputation and relieved to be finished with Williams. Luc's complete ineffectiveness, though, has turned me around on this deal. I don't know whether to blame Flip or Adelman, but I'm choosing to blame Flip. I think he mishandled the DW situation.

3 and 5) I will never understand Adelman's refusal to play 2 rookie first round draft picks who potentially could fill two major team needs...bench scoring and rim protection. It's baffling to me. Combined with Rick's insistence on giving JJ huge minutes at backup PG, his insistence that Bud was healthy and deserved big minutes immediately upon his return, and his general disengaged nature all season, I give him an F for his coaching this year...and that may be generous. A better coach could have given this team 10 more wins.

I would have replaced 3) and 5) with just one major mistake...allowing Adelman to coach one more year. That was the biggest mistake the Wolves made this year. Many of us found it unusual that Glen/Flip didn't announce last summer that Rick was returning for another year. I think it's because he never really told them. He arrogantly just assumed he would continue coaching without communicating his intention to his employer. All of a sudden it was time for Summer League, and there was Rick...watching his son coach. I'm furious at the role Adelman had in bringing us long-suffering fans another lost year.

longstrangetrip wrote:I agree that these were 5 critical moments/factors for the Wolves, and all negative, but I don't see #4 as a "mistake". I never believed that Memphis was at all interested in trading Prince/Allen for JJ/Bud, so I can't call it a mistake that the deal didn't get done...it was only a silly rumor. As for the other 4:

1) Public Dispute. We had a lot of discussion on this board, and my recollection was the majority here didn't really think Love did anything wrong. I still think Love was completely out of line to publicly call out two teammates, and I admit I was concerned about Love's maturity at the time. Since then, though, Love has been a model teammate, in addition to being one of the top 5 players in the league. I think Love learned a lot from this experience, and on balance it turned out to be positive.

2) DW trade. I was a supporter of this trade at the time...excited about LMaM's defensive reputation and relieved to be finished with Williams. Luc's complete ineffectiveness, though, has turned me around on this deal. I don't know whether to blame Flip or Adelman, but I'm choosing to blame Flip. I think he mishandled the DW situation.

3 and 5) I will never understand Adelman's refusal to play 2 rookie first round draft picks who potentially could fill two major team needs...bench scoring and rim protection. It's baffling to me. Combined with Rick's insistence on giving JJ huge minutes at backup PG, his insistence that Bud was healthy and deserved big minutes immediately upon his return, and his general disengaged nature all season, I give him an F for his coaching this year...and that may be generous. A better coach could have given this team 10 more wins.

I would have replaced 3) and 5) with just one major mistake...allowing Adelman to coach one more year. That was the biggest mistake the Wolves made this year. Many of us found it unusual that Glen/Flip didn't announce last summer that Rick was returning for another year. I think it's because he never really told them. He arrogantly just assumed he would continue coaching without communicating his intention to his employer. All of a sudden it was time for Summer League, and there was Rick...watching his son coach. I'm furious at the role Adelman had in bringing us long-suffering fans another lost year.

I completely agree with you on everything except #2. I think Adelman completely mishandled the DW situation. How do you think Flip mishandled the DW situation?

My opinion is Flip saw a bench that didn't have a ton of talent and had no other moves to bring someone in. This left him with a young and talented but inconsistent DW as our best option for a sixth man. I'm not defending DW because he's been a bust but I would take a bust coming off the bench over Dante and Hummel. Before DW was traded Adelman had played him about the same number of minutes as Hummel, I can't understand how that is possible. Keep in mind this is early in the season, if going into it Adelman had no intention of playing DW he needed to communicate with Flip and DW should have been traded in the off season when he had decent value.

First off, I don't think anyone in their right mind would have predicted that being .500 at this point in the season would put us 7 games back from the 8th seed. It's just crazy how much competitive imbalance there is between the two conferences.

Second, we've had our best season in years. Granted, the expectations were higher, but there is no question this is the best team and best basketball we have seen since the early 00's. We absolutely destroyed teams on a semi-regular basis and it was fun to watch when everything was clicking.

While I think the five points above are legitimate, I don't think any of them made that big of a difference. Most of us had the team pegged between 41 to 50 wins. I'm not sure anyone thought we would rip up the league on our way to 55-60 wins. A few better bounces, some better clutch play, and a coach that wasn't distracted by personal issues and a looming life in retirement probably would have yielded us the 5 or 6 additional wins we needed to get over the top.

At the end of the day, the #1 thing we need to do is find a coach this offseason with some fresh perspectives, a passionate desire to coach, and is someone that places an emphasis on defense.

3 and 5) I will never understand Adelman's refusal to play 2 rookie first round draft picks who potentially could fill two major team needs---This is why Adelman is no longer in Houston, right?

We could have had Tony Allen? Really? So Rick didn't want to trade Bud and Flip wimped out? What the hell happened?

Q12543 wrote:First off, I don't think anyone in their right mind would have predicted that being .500 at this point in the season would put us 7 games back from the 8th seed. It's just crazy how much competitive imbalance there is between the two conferences.

Second, we've had our best season in years. Granted, the expectations were higher, but there is no question this is the best team and best basketball we have seen since the early 00's. We absolutely destroyed teams on a semi-regular basis and it was fun to watch when everything was clicking.

While I think the five points above are legitimate, I don't think any of them made that big of a difference. Most of us had the team pegged between 41 to 50 wins. I'm not sure anyone thought we would rip up the league on our way to 55-60 wins. A few better bounces, some better clutch play, and a coach that wasn't distracted by personal issues and a looming life in retirement probably would have yielded us the 5 or 6 additional wins we needed to get over the top.

At the end of the day, the #1 thing we need to do is find a coach this offseason with some fresh perspectives, a passionate desire to coach, and is someone that places an emphasis on defense.

Q, I disagree with comments on the win total. I think most pegged their number based on the expectation of injuries setting the team back some, but it wasn't injuries that did that. It was Adelman's pigheaded decisions and rotations that accomplished that.

When I think back to the first time Pek and Turiaf were out, and we had DC starting and Dieng still getting mininmum minutes, it makes me question how Adelman survived as long as he did in this league. How can you not be giving minutes to Shabazz at this point in the season?

I am not going to give any credence to the lost trade because we really don't know the facts. The Dwill trade made zero sense other than Adelman's mismanagement again. Love calling out his teammates was handled poorly, but clearly didn't set the team back at all.

I think this is a 50 win team with a better coach running things, but I still think we need to move Pek, to push us even farther.

Q, I disagree with comments on the win total. I think most pegged their number based on the expectation of injuries setting the team back some, but it wasn't injuries that did that. It was Adelman's pigheaded decisions and rotations that accomplished that.

When I think back to the first time Pek and Turiaf were out, and we had DC starting and Dieng still getting mininmum minutes, it makes me question how Adelman survived as long as he did in this league. How can you not be giving minutes to Shabazz at this point in the season?

Leaving out the fact that Adelman put Love at the 5, where he was putting up the best numbers of his career because no 5 could guard him. Love ended up getting worn down too much though leading to Deing getting time. Just thought I'd remind you of that point

The Rage Monster wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:I agree that these were 5 critical moments/factors for the Wolves, and all negative, but I don't see #4 as a "mistake". I never believed that Memphis was at all interested in trading Prince/Allen for JJ/Bud, so I can't call it a mistake that the deal didn't get done...it was only a silly rumor. As for the other 4:

1) Public Dispute. We had a lot of discussion on this board, and my recollection was the majority here didn't really think Love did anything wrong. I still think Love was completely out of line to publicly call out two teammates, and I admit I was concerned about Love's maturity at the time. Since then, though, Love has been a model teammate, in addition to being one of the top 5 players in the league. I think Love learned a lot from this experience, and on balance it turned out to be positive.

2) DW trade. I was a supporter of this trade at the time...excited about LMaM's defensive reputation and relieved to be finished with Williams. Luc's complete ineffectiveness, though, has turned me around on this deal. I don't know whether to blame Flip or Adelman, but I'm choosing to blame Flip. I think he mishandled the DW situation.

3 and 5) I will never understand Adelman's refusal to play 2 rookie first round draft picks who potentially could fill two major team needs...bench scoring and rim protection. It's baffling to me. Combined with Rick's insistence on giving JJ huge minutes at backup PG, his insistence that Bud was healthy and deserved big minutes immediately upon his return, and his general disengaged nature all season, I give him an F for his coaching this year...and that may be generous. A better coach could have given this team 10 more wins.

I would have replaced 3) and 5) with just one major mistake...allowing Adelman to coach one more year. That was the biggest mistake the Wolves made this year. Many of us found it unusual that Glen/Flip didn't announce last summer that Rick was returning for another year. I think it's because he never really told them. He arrogantly just assumed he would continue coaching without communicating his intention to his employer. All of a sudden it was time for Summer League, and there was Rick...watching his son coach. I'm furious at the role Adelman had in bringing us long-suffering fans another lost year.

I completely agree with you on everything except #2. I think Adelman completely mishandled the DW situation. How do you think Flip mishandled the DW situation?

My opinion is Flip saw a bench that didn't have a ton of talent and had no other moves to bring someone in. This left him with a young and talented but inconsistent DW as our best option for a sixth man. I'm not defending DW because he's been a bust but I would take a bust coming off the bench over Dante and Hummel. Before DW was traded Adelman had played him about the same number of minutes as Hummel, I can't understand how that is possible. Keep in mind this is early in the season, if going into it Adelman had no intention of playing DW he needed to communicate with Flip and DW should have been traded in the off season when he had decent value.

I don't think the facts support your assertion, rage. I'm way down on Adelman, but I have very little problem with how he handled DW. He played him almost 25 minutes a game in 2012-13, and over 16 minutes a game before he was traded this season. I don't think his inconsistent play warranted more than that. But I will never understand why Flip picked up DW's option if he intended to trade him. I am a big supporter of Flip and most of the moves he has made so far, especially his draft coup, but I will never understand why he did that.

alexftbl8181 wrote:Q, I disagree with comments on the win total. I think most pegged their number based on the expectation of injuries setting the team back some, but it wasn't injuries that did that. It was Adelman's pigheaded decisions and rotations that accomplished that.

When I think back to the first time Pek and Turiaf were out, and we had DC starting and Dieng still getting mininmum minutes, it makes me question how Adelman survived as long as he did in this league. How can you not be giving minutes to Shabazz at this point in the season?

Leaving out the fact that Adelman put Love at the 5, where he was putting up the best numbers of his career because no 5 could guard him. Love ended up getting worn down too much though leading to Deing getting time. Just thought I'd remind you of that point

Pretty silly that I need to point out that anyone can guard DC, so where Adelman pencils Love in has nothing to do with who is guarding him. Just saying!