Game 19. Wolves @ Spurs

[shangrila]

People are too quick to jump on Rambis. The offence isn't the problem, people just doing whatever they want is the problem.

Isn't people doing whatever they want a coaching problem?

It's mostly Brewer and Ridnour. I don't know exactly how you'd tell Ridnour that almost everything he does is wrong and Brewer, well it's freaking Brewer. I doubt he even knows what he's doing half the time.

Guys like Love, Beasley and Darko all stick to the game plan and that's why it works for them.

[Worm Guts]

People are too quick to jump on Rambis. The offence isn't the problem, people just doing whatever they want is the problem.

Isn't people doing whatever they want a coaching problem?

It's mostly Brewer and Ridnour. I don't know exactly how you'd tell Ridnour that almost everything he does is wrong and Brewer, well it's freaking Brewer. I doubt he even knows what he's doing half the time.

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If it's only 2 guys, you could play those guys less. Especially when those guys are Brewer and Ridnour(non-building blocks).

[Worm Guts]

I didn't watch the game last night, but the Ridnour criticism seems harsh for a guy who scored 14 points on 7 shots.

[NewWolvesOrder]

Luke can shoot but his PG skills suck, he's not creating easy shot for his teammates plain and simple.

[shangrila]

If it's only 2 guys, you could play those guys less. Especially when those guys are Brewer and Ridnour(non-building blocks).

When everyone is healthy you're completely right. But for now the team already plays Beasley 30-40 minutes, Wes hasn't shown he deserves big minutes and Telfair just doesn't get minutes.

I didn't watch the game last night, but the Ridnour criticism seems harsh for a guy who scored 14 points on 7 shots.

He constantly overdribbled and most of those shots were long 2s early in the shot clock. Even worse, in the crunch time he constantly dribbled himself into corners, the baseline and took an absolutely disgusting shot that contributed to the team losing the momentum.

[wolfbourne]

This was a really tough loss again, and as sick as i am of watching games slip through the fingers of the team, i am still choosing to be patient with these types of losses. We are still a better team than last year. Still losing, but i would rather have the problem of sticking in games and blowing late leads, than being constantly blown out all game long. It in some ways makes the loss harder, but its a lot closer to winning. Again, we are also considerably set back with injuries to key players, and even when they return, we are still going to be behind of where we thought the team would be 50-60 games in, in a perfect injury-free world. I would be more worried if we are not winning 1/3 of these types of games come half-way thru the season. Once the roster gains strength, i think these will be the types of games that we will start seeing quite less of (the to-and-fro-then-choke games).

The biggest concern this game was the lack of a 3rd scoring option behind Beasley/Love. Darko played a great defensive centre but failed offensively hard. Sucks, but it' something that is going to happen while he is learning his strides to play hard mentally again. Wes was much more concerning. Firstly as already mentioned, his seemingly devoid lack of involvement as a scoring option in the offense. I don't know where it comes from, but it was glaringly evident in this game that Wes wasn't really getting too many plays to open him up. Hopefully when Jonny comes back, this will be resolved to an extent. Second is that he was touted as a confidently smooth shooter and too often thru games, especially tonight, has he looked way to hesitant to put up on some good% looks he got. He looked the most lost he ever has tonight, i thought he had his confidence back after the last game, but with his consistency right now, in a perfect world he is better on the bench coming off behind Webster. But its not a perfect world right now, we will have to just watch the Rookie have these off/on games. He will benefit greatly when Webster is back, being able to watch and have to follow up a more seasoned player than him at that position.

Ridnour still continued to be outshined by Bassy. However, Bassy only playing more controlled and structured of a PG as opposed to Luke's go-nowhere wild runs around the key and never thru it. Bassy can make it thru the key to the rim on occasion, but Luke seems to always end up being defensively bullied to only being able to skirt the outsides of the key and baseline at best. The guy cannot drive. And what is worse is how this is effecting running the offense. It seems he is rarely doing this at all. The only positive i can really pull out of his play is his shooting this game, which i think came from a combination of him just having the eye in for it tonight (mostly), and marginally better shot selection. Other than that, i personally feel that performance/role-wise he thus far is proving to be the worst signing we have done, and i honestly never thought that I would ever be saying this. We are going to be hurting at the PG for a lot longer i think. I would prefer at this point to have Bassy starting and playing the more PG minutes, but i can't see that happening. My next hope after that is that Rambis can coach Ridnour to slow his game down, much like Bassy has.

[Devilzsidewalk]

I'll be honest, I felt personally offended by this game as a Timberwolves fan, had one of those Truman Show **** with your mind for our entertainment feels going on, but after a restful slumber, we were exposed as a young team that **** their pants when a good veteran team turns it on, we already knew that, so whatever. Just gonna have to scrub it from our minds and pretend like it was the ref's fault or something.

I like the current philosophy though, Love and Beasley are getting 40 minutes, Wes is getting good learning minutes too. The rest of the team is what we thought they were, just need to bide time for Rubio, Flynn, Webster, and the continued aging of the youth. Just a brutal collapse, but I don't see total failure, there's signs of a future beneath the rubble.

[bluethunder0005]

Luke is meant to be a backup, he's been one pretty much his entire career. He's probably never developed the idea of running a steady offense. When Luke is providing a shooting and scoring spark off the bench in 15-20 minutes we won't hate his PG skills as much.

[Mattya]

Not picking on anyone directly but if you don't think Rambis was terrible at the end of the game, I would like to know if you actually got to watch the game since it was only on league pass. Watching the game last night I'm pretty sure the Ridnour shot everyone is complaining about came after a timeout. They are also mad when he gets himself in the corner dribbles along the baseline and makes one of the most basic mistakes you can make by floating a pass to midcourt. You never do that. You throw it off the opponent, force a pass to the closer player, or force a shot. That's too basic for a 28 year old to mess up. Brewer, I can let off the hook, he was playing aggressive on offense all night, and I would rather have him shoot that jumper, then force it inside on Duncan. BUT it was another super early shot in the shot clock, just like Ridnours. Plus in crunch time you almost have to force it inside to draw the foul and get to the line. The spurs got to the basket, and got to the line undeserved or not, that's how you win games. Then nobody fouls when there was like 30 seconds left and the spurs have the ball up by 2. Manu runs down the clock, drives to the basket, gets contact on Love and seals the game. Teams being unprepared like that is on everyone especially the coach and staff. They need to let the team know of they should foul or not, they shouldn't all be looking at the bench wondering during gameplay. Lots of positives in the game though. Beasley was aggressive and getting better shots, Love played well until he choked on those free throws( he always picks his game up though, so I expect a great game against the cavs), Brew played well on offense. It's really hard to know that Ricky is almost exactly the type of point we need right now. Defense on the wing, fast break points, and a facilitator.

[shangrila]

You can't blame that BS on Rambis though. I mean Ridnour is a 9 year vet, he should know not to do all the stupid things he does. Somebody trying to be the hero is on the player more then the coach.

I'm also starting to think that, when Webster is back, they should bring Johnson off the bench. He's not as NBA ready as we thought and it'd probably be better for him if he was eased into a starting role rather then thrown into it.

[LOBO 7]

You can't blame that BS on Rambis though. I mean Ridnour is a 9 year vet, he should know not to do all the stupid things he does. Somebody trying to be the hero is on the player more then the coach.

I'm also starting to think that, when Webster is back, they should bring Johnson off the bench. He's not as NBA ready as we thought and it'd probably be better for him if he was eased into a starting role rather then thrown into it.

I think we all are being a bit reactionary, which is natural after a string of such heartbreaking defeats. Some of us point the finger at Rambis, some at Ridnour or Brewer, some at Johnson, etc, but Love, Darko, and Beasley were all really bad in that 4th quarter too. There is no question the refs started giving the Spurs all their "veteran" calls once they got the momentum, and that stings like hell, but like it or not, that is how the league works. If we want to point the finger at one thing, as cliche as it sounds, we can blame YOUTH. Its easy for us to forget that we're the youngest team in the league, and 4th quarter collapses aren't unique to this team, virtually all young teams in the history of the NBA have suffered through many 4th quarter collapses before they finally "put it together". The good news is, our youth is one thing we are guaranteed to outgrow, and as painful as all these losses are, the only way this team will learn how to win is finding 100 ways to lose. I know many of you are sick of Rambis' excuses, how he always says that "its a process" and "these are the growing pains for a young team" and that "they need to learn how to execute in critical moments" but its true, and no matter what a coach tells his team, they have to go through it and learn from their own mistakes.
Now, the fact that this team has been as competitive as they have been with some elite teams is very promising, and the fact that they are doing it while undermanned is even more promising. The question now is whether or not these heartbreaking losses will crush their confidence and make them collapse harder and harder in close games, or whether, little by little they will learn from their mistakes. In that sense, it's hard to say whether all these tough losses are a good thing or a bad thing, but I lean towards them being a good thing because at least this team knows they can compete for 40 minutes with any team in this league. The victories might not come soon, but they will come as long as the Pups keep playing games with the energy they had last night. The Golden State and Dallas games were more disappointing to me, because they just never had that energy. Let's hope they bring it tonight against the Cavs.