Grading the Players

[TDWOLVESFAN]

The first grade is for what the players according to what they should bring to the team.
The second grade is how they compare to the rest of the league as a starter or bench player, etc.
Grade the players and add a little of your reasoning.

AL C+ / C+ Highly effective low post scorer even though he was slowed this year by surgically repaired knee. Better @ PF than C. Stepped up defense a little this year but has a ways to go. Needs to work a lot on not getting the ball slapped away from him. He has to start trusting his teammates more, not hang on to the ball for 6-8 seconds and learn to pass out of double teams more efficiently. Even if our shooters don't hit the shots, we have a chance at the rebound. If he gets the ball slapped away we most often lose the ball right there.

Darko B / C+ Good help defender, quick hands and feet, decent hook shot when it isn't flat. Alters a number of shots and blocks a few. Sometimes looks somewhat lazy walking or jogging instead of running up the floor. Should work on rebounding position - at least when he is out of position he tries to tap the ball away from the other team. Pleasantly surprised.

K Love B / B- Has improved almost every facet of his game over last year. Pace and energy of game changes when he is in. Still needs to improve on not telegraphing passes and stop whining about every call he thinks should have or should not have been made. Would like to see his shooting % closer to 50%.

Ryan Hollins C / D+ Lots of energy - Can dunk with his elbow. If he could use some of that energy more constructively he would be a serviceable backup center in this league. Needs to work on changing paddle hands in softer ones (maybe the drill they had the goalie Jim Craig do in "Miracle on Ice". Needs to box out on a regular basis and use his athleticism to outjump people for those rebounds he is out of position for.

Ryan Gomes C- / D Very inconsistent this year. Started out defending well and has looked lost out there eve since returing from his leg injury. Shot is way too flat to shoot a high percentage. Seemed very disinterested most of the season.

Corey B+ / B- He too has improved in most aspects of his game. He still has those games where he looks like Gumby flying around out there. If he continues to get stronger and work on his ball handling his offensive game will be that much better. Defensively - I don't know some nights he holds his own - even looks good - other nights out of control.

Wilkens C+ / C- Usually has solid defensive games, would like him to be more aggressive on offense more often. If he could increase shooting %'s to 46% and 35% I would be more happy with him and he would be more valuable off the bench.

Sasha D- / F What a brick chucker. Occassionally he hustled on defense that's why not an F.

Wayne C+ / C+ Has a nice shot and decent handle. Occassionally shows he can drive to the bucket. If he improves as much next year as he did this year, especially on D he will be a solid bench player.

Jonny C / D + Some nights he creates for his teammates other nights he can't or won't. He continually gets beat on defense and has not improved on that aspect at all this season. I noticed when he is playing another top 10 pick rookie he tries to one up them throughout the game. If he gets beat by a flashy play or big 3 pt shot you might as well forget about him passing the ball on the next possession. He has alot of talent and pride, he just has to learn how to use it effectively in this league where he will almost always be the shortest guy on the court.

Ramon B- / C Is solid backup PG. He has gotten more aggressive offensively as of late. He usually does a decent job defensively. Needs to work on extending his shooting range to help this team out.

I did not grade the remaining players as they have had and will have very little impact on the team. The exception being if they keep Cardinal around as an assistant coach to teach the the annoying little things he does to opposing players on defense.

[Biff Cooper]

Can you elaborate on what the grades are supposed to represent? Are we just talking this season - what does "should bring to the team" mean?

[Calinks]

If 22 points 11 rebounds and 2 blocks is a C+ then what the hell constitutes an A?

[LordBaldric]

It's not a letter grade, but Hollinger grades Big Al out today as among the biggest chuckers in the league.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insid...PERDiem-100408

Al Jefferson, Timberwolves
I realize it's the Wolves and somebody has to shoot on this gawdawful team, so I'd be willing to overlook the combination of subpar TS% (52.4) and high usage rate (22.5). But c'mon big fella, would it kill you to pass out of a double-team once in a while?

Jefferson is the unofficial league leader in post-ups that begin with him thinking "Let me just see if I can split this double before I try to kick it out" and end with him trapped by two men against the baseline. He's making progress of a sort -- his abysmal assist ratio (8.9) is a new career high -- but it's going much, much slower than hoped.

I also enjoyed this one. I knew his mentality would hurt him and he's already getting the reputation. There is little evidence to show that he's willing to change also.

[Slum_Dillinger]

Ill give Sasha an F



and a U

[GopherIt!]

and I'll give Sasha a "C".

I give Hollinger an "F" for being "fair minded" and "factual."

[southern wolf]

Harsh on Big Al and Flynn. What grade would you guys give Rambis?

[LordBaldric]

Harsh on Big Al and Flynn. What grade would you guys give Rambis?

I'd give Rambis a big fat F unless he is purposely tanking.

[Worm Guts]

If 22 points 11 rebounds and 2 blocks is a C+ then what the hell constitutes an A?

Nobody on the Wolves has those numbers.

[Krapinsky]

If 22 points 11 rebounds and 2 blocks is a C+ then what the hell constitutes an A?

Nobody on the Wolves has those numbers.

I thought Darko was putting up 26/13/3 with dominating D? Sure seems that way...

[C.lupus]

I'll give this a shot but I'm not going to put as much effort into it as the OP.

AL: C If 23/11/2 is A work for him, then 17/9/DWI is solid C work. He certainly has a legitimate excuse for his play but there is no excuse for his DWI.

Darko: B Not in shape but has shown more than most of us expected in the last half of the season. Lets Al play his natural position and actually plays some defense.

Love: C+ Has improved but not as much as I had hoped. Still doesn’t seem to be able to stay in shape which is very disappointing to me. When he’s on, though, he is a game changer with his energy and rebounding. Needs to stop whining and start doing cardio workouts.

Hollins: C- He is what he is.

Gomes: D Inconsistent and uninterested most of the time.

Corey: A- Only real positive surprise from this team all year. Still has improving to do but he is finally looking like a legit NBA player.

Wilkens: C Don’t really know what to say here. Better than Sasha worse than Brewer.

Sasha: F Sasha fails. Epic failure. A big.fat.F for Pavolbic. Did I mention how much of a failure he is?

Wayne: C Solid season for a #28 pick rookie. Should be a solid backup in the league.

Flynn: C Definitely has some things to work on like defense and shooting but he was in arguably the worst conditions of all rookie PGs this year and he still put up decent numbers. He has potential but needs to work on his holes.

Ramon: C- Solid backup I guess but I was disappointed in his performance. I wasn’t expecting Chris Paul but I was expecting a little more.

Normally I’d give a 15-win team an F for overall performance and this team certainly deserves that. I’m going to give them an Incomplete, though, since this was a lost year going in and most of the players are obviously not part of the team going forward. So they get one hall pass from me but next year I won’t be so kind.

[Dewey]

It generally seems there are some positives, but as many disappointments ...

My thought was Love would be much more aggressive inside, offensively, than anything I've seen so far. Basically, I viewed him as a guy who'd be at the line more. Flynns defense is more disappointing to me than any other player, but he is starting to learn how to finish in the lane, offensively.

Most others are what I expected. I knew Brewer needed time to develop physically and would be a decent player, but didn't expect this much change in a single season ... though his defense is still overrated.

A lack of athleticism is significant, and IMO, the Wolves potential to improve is dependent upon additional changes ... likely many more changes. The draft will be our first opportunity to address this huge limiting factor.

[fleet40]

And what would you guys give the coaching staff? There are some big name guys looking for a head coaching chance.

And ill be honest, I don't live in MN so I don't see all the practices or info about them. But in all honesty when I do look into them on the NET I see Laimbeer working hard with the bigs. It seems he has had the primary goal of working with the big guys on the team. And it looks like he has transitioned well from being the mean, jerky Pistons only guy, to a guy who has worked hard as an assistant for the Wolves. He has helped Love improve a bit, and I can say that Darko has played better since Bill has worked with him as well.

I have not seen Theus do much of anything, and perhaps they can just have a cardboard cut-out of him on the bench next year?

And Rambis? Your thoughts.

[LOBO 7]

And what would you guys give the coaching staff? There are some big name guys looking for a head coaching chance.

And ill be honest, I don't live in MN so I don't see all the practices or info about them. But in all honesty when I do look into them on the NET I see Laimbeer working hard with the bigs. It seems he has had the primary goal of working with the big guys on the team. And it looks like he has transitioned well from being the mean, jerky Pistons only guy, to a guy who has worked hard as an assistant for the Wolves. He has helped Love improve a bit, and I can say that Darko has played better since Bill has worked with him as well.

I have not seen Theus do much of anything, and perhaps they can just have a cardboard cut-out of him on the bench next year?

And Rambis? Your thoughts.

Kahn has stated that our coaching staff is our greatest asset (or something along those lines) so they are probably not being held accountable for this year at all. I think this is fair, as this year was 'Year Zero' of the rebuild, and in some ways I believe the 'purpose' of this year was to lose as many games as possible. Mission accomplished.

Laimbeer and Theus have been pretty invisible, but of the 2 it seems like Laimbeer is definitely more engaged with the team. I would like to keep Laimbeer around, Theus I'm pretty indifferent to, I know there is some speculation of him taking some college coaching job. I won't be upset if he's back, or if he's gone. I think Laimbeer can help 'toughen up' our bigs, which I like.

As far as Rambis goes, I'm a believer. His demeanor has been constant, he hasn't gotten visibly frustrated, and he keeps preaching the same basic thing: that this team plays very well in stretches and very poorly in stretches, that the poor stretches cost us ballgames, that this is what is to be expected from such a young team, etc. I pretty much always agree with his statements, and I think he does a good job of keeping the players' confidence up despite the difficulties. The only player who has been visibly frustrated is Love, and I think there may be some underlying tension between Love and Rambis, but this is pure speculation.

(My view on Love is that he feels some sense of entitlement, he's always been the best player on the teams he's been on, feels slighted, etc, but, bottom line, he's being a bit of a sissy and this diffucult stretch needs to make him want to work harder. If this is the case, I think Rambis is probably handling it in the right way, making him work a bit, showing him that things won't be handed to him in this league. Kevin is still very young, and I haven't given up on him by any means)

Anyways, I like Rambis.

[sledgeross]

Nate Jawai, Ill give him a C for his 16 point game in portland last year