What have we learned about Wolves so far?

[Tirion]

1. Randy Foye is a NBA PG experiment is failed. He lacks the point guard skills to get the ball to Jefferson in crucial situations (evident in our last game) or set people up with open shots. Like with Miller for example. Mike's 3 best scoring games came when Telfair was our main PG (SAS, SAC, POR games).

2. Randy Witman is a moron. His small ball line-ups clearly aren't working, but he still puts out undersized, overmatched players (Smith and Gomes) in the post instead of taller, bigger players (Love - he's our second best rebounder, Madsen - post defense, Collins - he's healthy now). Nelly took his lunch money beating Wolves with a zone and a BIG LINE-UP (Biedrins and Turiaf owned the boards in the 4th), despite the fact that his team was depleted with injuries.

3. This team is a mess. The Wolves have played VERY EASY schedule so far, and are 1 - 6. Not a single one of the opponents in the Wolves' first seven games has a record above .500. They have yet to face even the decent competiton not to talk about the elite. The remaining schcedule in November is:
15 vs Por (healthy Oden)
16 at Den (they are on a roll with Chauncy at the point)
19 vs Phi (they are finding their game, beat Raptors last night)
21 vs Bos
23 at Det
26 vs Pho
28 at OKC (our only winnable game)
29 vs Den

I can see 3-12 record at the end of November easily.

[Devilzsidewalk]

I've learned I'm not going to tie my mental satisfaction in with the Timberwolves.

Whatever the roster or front office is, the players on the court know what wins games; if they continue to lose, I don't think it's because they aren't trying, it's because they don't have the ability. So they can continue to practice and improve. Or not. It's got nothing to do with me, I'm just a fan.

So that's what I've learned, to follow the team on my own whim as an uninvolved observer, rather than get emotionally absorbed in the sadomasochistic peepshow that is the 2008 Minnesota Timberwolves season.

[C.lupus]

^ You say that now but you know you won't be able to turn away from the Gomes vs. Oden matchup.

[john2jer]

Oden looked ok on defense last night against Miami, but his offense was ugly as can be.

[invno1]

Dont evaluate till a New Coach is brought in Whittman and Cronies are condesending with the players....look to PHX & NYK at what bringing in a good coach psycology is huge.

[Devilzsidewalk]

^ You say that now but you know you won't be able to turn away from the Gomes vs. Oden matchup.

that goes without saying, I'm not going to deprive myself of the modern day version of Magic vs Bird.


I thought of another thing I've learned: when the Wolves are playing bad, I don't enjoy playing 2k9 nearly as much.

[funkatron101]

With a good coaching staff the Wolves could feasibly be 5-2 now. With an adequate coaching staff, 3-4.

[Calinks]

That no matter what, this team is going to get better but you can't go any lower than where we are right now.

[4ho5ive]

Dont eat yellow snow.

Oh wait, wrong situ. Once again it seems like we are overreacting to a bad start. Once again this is only year 2 of the rebuild. I think we have a lot of really good players here, with a better coach and staff we could get back on the right track to success. We just need to cut ties before its too late.

[RD&KG2]

We've learned that we have the ability to play with about any team in the league....Just not for the entire game.

[Vega06]

I dont think the Randy Foye "PG experiment" has failed just yet. His assist to TO ratio is good. He just has a bad habbit of picking up his dribble when he's trying to get the ball in the post and that traps him. I think it's just his offensive game that's off right now.

[D1SGRUNTL3D]

I dont think the Randy Foye "PG experiment" has failed just yet. His assist to TO ratio is good. He just has a bad habbit of picking up his dribble when he's trying to get the ball in the post and that traps him. I think it's just his offensive game that's off right now.

Are you serious? Watch him run an offense. He dribbles it, then hands it off to Miller or Brewer, then stands by the 3 pt line.


Twitt is the worst coach by far in the entire league. We fail to realize this.


Miller needs to shoot more, McCants needs to shoot less

[TMo519]

So how is him throwing it to Miller or Brewer and running to the 3 point line an indicator of his PG abilities? If the play is called for him to do that, what is he supposed to do?

All this PG talk but in all reality, you don't NEED a top level point guard. Half the teams in the league have offenses in which a top PG isn't even necessary besides to bring the ball up the court and initiate the offense. We need an offensive philosophy that doesn't rely on the PG to basically dominate the ball and make all the plays, just initiate it. Obviously it'd be totally ideal to have a PG to literally run the offense, but I really don't think that is our problem right now. Our problem is 1st off, defense at times. We've actually played some decent defensive games, but at some bad moments, there are lapses, they need to clean that up. If this team could just make one or two stops when needed, they'd be at .500 right now. I don't buy that these players can't play defense, defense is all about the scheme and effort. Sometimes the effort is there, but I don't know if the effort is being placed correctly.

[Vindicater]

That we really need to work on finishing games. We have gone into the 4th quarter of nearly every game this season with a winnable chance and only won once. Experience and confidence will help with this a lot.

[benshizzle]

There is no go to guy... you might think al jeff but he is not enough. Look at the good teams, they have 3 go to guys... 2 perimeter and 1 post. The elite teams at have 3 or more look celtics and lakers, they are unselfish and will always find the open go to guy, and they are stacked with them. I would not call al jefferson a go to guy... not the way wittman plays him, but he might be closest we have. Who can we give the ball to and say go get us 2 points? Also wittman needs to keep this team under composure . Experience is part of it but so is wittman coaching the pups.

[Vindicater]

Well... if we need somone to score at the end of the game we need to give it to miller

[Calinks]

Big Al is definatly the go to guy. Problem is we either don't get him the ball or he's being covered too properly. GS was working us with that zone but if we had Love out there, we would have had another option and Al wouldn't be so heavily guarded. Nobody is worried about Ryan Gomes down low. Nellie was probably laughing his butt off when he saw the line-up we had at the end of the game.

[Dewey]

I would not guage our wins and losses versus other teams records as significant early on in the season. But after the all-star break, I'd agree it becomes a significant factor. Right now a loss is a loss. A win is a win. While most are trying to settle into a rotation, we're missing a team identity.

1.) Foye is a failed PG experiment in "our system". My biggest concern has been his defense.
2.) Jefferson is not a tripple-threat. Lacks floor IQ/passsing. If Love produced more posting up on the block, we'd be much better off running more offense through him instead of Al.
3.) Miller is under-utilized. I don't believe this is by his choice, but he's trying to work with it.
4.) McCants is frustrated, and for the first time since he's been here, I can see his concern with how roles are being laid out for each player - it's a horrible thing to see.
5.) Brewer seems to find ways to help when he's not involved offensively, and has a role.
6.) Gomes is becoming a trade-bait-package (with Carney) as each day goes by. He has skill, but just lacks energy (Carney being the opposite).
7.) Telfair is a true PG, but a merely a backup PG on most other team in the NBA.
8.) What's up with Collins??

Bottom-line: We lack identity. I "think" Wittman is trying to force a balanced attack and does not want too much reliance on any one player. That may be why he has had some issues wih Al as well for being too much of a black-hole, and Miller not shooting as much as we'd all like to see. I respect that theory, but he has failed to incorporate an offense to accommodate this goal.

[Blue Wolf]

We know that with Wittman as coach, we aren't really going to learn much about anything.

Rotations suck, minutes are heavy some nights...non-existent on others, kids are getting yanked out of games in haphazard fashion, no team defense whatsoever...Wittman has to go. HE HAS TO. To make matters worse, Wittman is coaching to keep his job right now and not doing what's in the best long-term interests of the team.

McHale should finish out the year as coach -- not because it's his roster and he should have to deal with it (and I don't think it's a horrible roster), but because I think the players will actually respond to him as coach and play better.

McHale also has a personal stake in seeing recent lottery picks (McCants, Foye, Brewer and Love) develop, i.e. justify his selection of them. Because of that, these players are likely to get more consistent minutes, be allowed to play through their mistakes and allow us to find out what we have in them.

[Dewey]

I'd be all for Mchale coaching the team IF they turned the GM role over to Fred Hoiberg. I will admit that McHale has put together some players that can spread the floor, and at the same time, he has played with success in that type of system, thus, may be a better guy to teach it and coach it.

This does not condone Mchale has done things right, but I can see his fundamental objectives are not on par with Wittmans coaching style. Point is, I have much more faith in McHales knowledge of the game than I do with Wittmans coaching ability. Coaching is difficult, but I feel Wittman is talking more than seeing and listening. To me that's a sign that he's losing his voice as the leader.