Kahn: Timberwolves Play Is 'Inexcusable'

cavsfan_osiris · Post #1 » by **cavsfan_osiris** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:04 pm

http://www.twincities.com/timberwolves/ ... ck_check=1

Timberwolves president David Kahn is very unhappy with his team's play to begin the season.

Minnesota suffered a record-tying defeat at the hands of Golden State on Monday in a 146-105 loss.

"I don't want to sugarcoat what I feel was a lack of fight from our team Monday night," Kahn said. "It's inexcusable and unacceptable, for any one game, for us not to put up the requisite fight. I hope it does not become a pattern. If it does, it will be remedied. We will not spend an entire season tolerating that."

Kahn added that he believes head coach Kurt Rambis and his staff are the "strength of the team," which likely means that he'll shuffle the roster if the team's play doesn't improve.

Winter Wonder · Post #2 » by **Winter Wonder** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:16 pm

I think it is more of a wake up call type statement to the players and/or a statement for the fans to show he realizes their frusteration in regards to performances where the team doesn't compete. I mean, you take a game vs the celtics (arguably a top 5 NBA team) and granted they were playing a back to back and got in late, but it was a 2 point loss to a talented team. Then to Portland, a solid team, a very good team actually, but were pretty much destroyed there. Then to Golden State, likely bottom 1/3rd in the NBA and do get destroyed again? Unacceptable.

I mean, no one is expecting even close to a winning season. People are expecteing improvement and effort. Both seemed to be lacking the last few games and it has to be pointed out. It was, now hopefully fans are pacified knowing management realizes the problem and hopefully players realize that perceived lack of effort will not be tolerated.

Overall, not sure what I could see for actual trades, but maybe it gives Kahn a kick in the shorts to keep working on it.

karch34 · Post #3 » by **karch34** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:35 pm

I agree lack of effort should not be tolerated. That said, I don't think that's the only issue. To me the issue is that we have unproven talent and a new system, which we're trying to use to be competitive, develop players, and at the same time not be so successful we lose our pick to the Clippers. Those goals don't exactly allign perfectly. New players, new system, and developing young players pretty much guarantees you're not going to be competitive, at least early on.

Maybe the realization kicks in that even if you got someone like Kevin Martin, Rudy Gay, or other players that have been discussed you'll have a better team, but it's still going to be awhile before we're truly competitive. A 20ppg scorer probably isn't going to stop us from losing our pick to the Clippers. With Love out, Al still getting healthy, Brewer and Flynn learning, no addition outside of LeBron is going to make us truly competitive, IMO.

Not trying to say the product shouldn't be expected to be better, even if the wins aren't there, but the lack of talent or inexperience of that talent is going to have predictable results early on.

Post #4 » by **Worm Guts** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:44 pm

Winter Wonder wrote:
Overall, not sure what I could see for actual trades, but maybe it gives Kahn a kick in the shorts to keep working on it.

I think I could see Gomes being traded if we continue to be this bad. I've always thought he was kept around for some continuity and some reliability at the 3, but if we're going to be this bad anyway, we might as well clear that extra million that would be left on the cap if we cut him plus maybe get something else.

If he wants to do something drastic, he could trade Jefferson. He's supposed to be the leader of the team and he's not a Kahn guy.

Or he could trade some of our insignificant players for other insignificant players in hope to get more effort.

lobishome · Post #5 » by **lobishome** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 3:45 pm

Kahn added that he believes head coach Kurt Rambis and his staff are the "strength of the team," which likely means that he'll shuffle the roster if the team's play doesn't improve.
I don't know how works the NBA'S teams, but in Spain when a GM must confirm a coach ... :no:

Kahn isn't saying that the roster is bad , he say that they don't fight, and this is a coach's responsability.

Wolves2011 · Post #6 » by **Wolves2011** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 4:01 pm

cavsfan_osiris wrote:http://www.twincities.com/timberwolves/ci_13754992?nclick_check=1

Timberwolves president David Kahn is very unhappy with his team's play to begin the season.

Minnesota suffered a record-tying defeat at the hands of Golden State on Monday in a 146-105 loss.

"I don't want to sugarcoat what I feel was a lack of fight from our team Monday night," Kahn said. "It's inexcusable and unacceptable, for any one game, for us not to put up the requisite fight. I hope it does not become a pattern. If it does, it will be remedied. We will not spend an entire season tolerating that."

Kahn added that he believes head coach Kurt Rambis and his staff are the "strength of the team," which likely means that he'll shuffle the roster if the team's play doesn't improve.

I agree with Kahn.

With a young team you expect, mistakes, learning, losses etc. But with a young team with potential, the losses are generally in closing out games. Not being blown out by 40, by a potential lottery team.

This team has 4 "good offensive players". jefferson, love, Flynn and Sessions.
[with the team - Rubio and Pekovic don't count]

Love has been out and Jefferson playing maybe 60% or 70% coming back from injury. Flynn is a rookie. But we are forgetting Sessions. He needs to be developed also. He is only 23 yo. He is a asset we are not using. We don't have many "top talents" on this team ... and leaving one of them out of the mix is not smart in my view.

Rambis wants to develop Flynn's PG skills thats fine. We also need to develop Sessions shooting skills. Put them out on the floor together.

Unless they are showcasing Brewer to trade him, letting him shoot as much as he has is too much.
[Note: he is still shooting 38%. He's just shooting twice as many shots so scoring more.] If Brewer sis a defensive stopper, he needs to be selective in his shooting. Right now he is shooting himself off the court in my view.]

Vega06 · Post #7 » by **Vega06** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 5:08 pm

Brewer isn't a defensive stopper, he's an off-ball defender that needs to be around a good defensive team to be effective. Richardson, Gordon, Miller, and Azubuike all had no problem scoring on him. I wouldn't mind trading him if we could get any kind of value back.

dunkonu21 · Post #8 » by **dunkonu21** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 5:37 pm

Not gonna lie I was having a little panic about how our team was playing. But this makes me feel better.

As Charles Barkley said "The game isn't that complicated." Players play hard and u work on it from there. I think Rambis is asking very little of this team and they should be able to deliver at least well enough for him to be pleased.

Post #9 » by **Calinks** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 5:53 pm

Maybe we will bring in somebody who can actually play offense.

Devilzsidewalk · Post #10 » by **Devilzsidewalk** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 5:59 pm

Calinks wrote:Maybe we will bring in somebody who can actually play offense.

I think I know where you're going with this

Vega06 · Post #11 » by **Vega06** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 6:04 pm

How much does Indiana like Brandon Rush?

MLC84 · Post #12 » by **MLC84** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 6:18 pm

Kahn is a joke. His fingerprints are all over this mess, and now he throws the player's effort under the bus? He says the coaches are "the strength" of the team because he hired them all - and so can't deflect any responsibility for what they are and are not doing from himself - as he can with players who are "holdovers".

Clearly the move to Ramis' "system" (and injuries) is not going so well right now. It might work, but management coming out with statements like this is stupid and will only undermine the situation.

Every time Kahn opens his mouth, it adds 6 months to the "rebuild phase" - it must now be up to 4 years. This entire season is obviously a tank - why would anyone want to watch? And what kind of rebuilding "plan" depends almost completely on getting future high draft choices (and then hopefullypicking correctly)? I'd say one that is lazy and inexcusable!

Vega06 · Post #13 » by **Vega06** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 6:34 pm

So you're content with the effort the players are giving?

lobishome · Post #14 » by **lobishome** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 6:45 pm

MLC84 wrote:Kahn is a joke. His fingerprints are all over this mess, and now he throws the player's effort under the bus? He says the coaches are "the strength" of the team because he hired them all - and so can't deflect any responsibility for what they are and are not doing from himself - as he can with players who are "holdovers".

Clearly the move to Ramis' "system" (and injuries) is not going so well right now. It might work, but management coming out with statements like this is stupid and will only undermine the situation.

Every time Kahn opens his mouth, it adds 6 months to the "rebuild phase" - it must now be up to 4 years. This entire season is obviously a tank - why would anyone want to watch? And what kind of rebuilding "plan" depends almost completely on getting future high draft choices (and then hopefullypicking correctly)? I'd say one that is lazy and inexcusable!

Interesting. :thumbsup:

... and would be interesting too to know if Kahn set before the "2009 way of play" or the rebuild this team.

B Calrissian · Post #15 » by **B Calrissian** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 6:54 pm

It's hard to argue with him. Keep Flynn, Love, and Brewer (his value is so low that we might as well keep him, plus he is my favorite wolf ha) and trade the rest. I guess Sessions could be added to that list if Rambis gives him and Flynn more minutes together.

Devilzsidewalk · Post #16 » by **Devilzsidewalk** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:01 pm

B Calrissian wrote:It's hard to argue with him. Keep Flynn, Love, and Brewer (his value is so low that we might as well keep him, plus he is my favorite wolf ha) and trade the rest. I guess Sessions could be added to that list if Rambis gives him and Flynn more minutes together.

they should get minutes together for sure. Might even start Sessions so he can play w/ Big Al. Right now, I'd start Sessions/Ellington/Brewer/Pecherov/Jefferson. Get Flynn 25-30 off the bench

Foye · Post #17 » by **Foye** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:05 pm

Shuffling the roster doesn't lead to anything at this point.

What we need is continuity. You can't shuffle the roster every two weeks.

Keep going, hope we get a stud in next years draft and sign a good FA or trade for a good player and we'll be alright in future.

Part of the reason we suck so badass is that the team doesn't know each other.
The reason why we're worse than last season is that our wings Foye and Miller had some decent NBA experience and were capable of filling their positions at least solid (they couldn't deliver the expectations but they were solid players - something we're missing now at the #2 and #3)

Narf · Post #18 » by **Narf** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:16 pm

B Calrissian wrote:It's hard to argue with him. Keep Flynn, Love, and Brewer (his value is so low that we might as well keep him, plus he is my favorite wolf ha) and trade the rest. I guess Sessions could be added to that list if Rambis gives him and Flynn more minutes together.

Really? You're not keeping Al on that list? Trading him because he's redundant with Love and his value is high is a fine stance to have. But suggesting that he sucks and doesn't give effort is a little hard for me to swallow.

B Calrissian · Post #19 » by **B Calrissian** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:23 pm

Narf wrote:
B Calrissian wrote:It's hard to argue with him. Keep Flynn, Love, and Brewer (his value is so low that we might as well keep him, plus he is my favorite wolf ha) and trade the rest. I guess Sessions could be added to that list if Rambis gives him and Flynn more minutes together.

Really? You're not keeping Al on that list? Trading him because he's redundant with Love and his value is high is a fine stance to have. But suggesting that he sucks and doesn't give effort is a little hard for me to swallow.

No need to swallow anything. Go ahead and spit it out because I didn't say a word about Al sucking or not giving effort, although I think that is partly true. I don't think he gives enough effort (on defense), but I wouldn't say he sucks. His lack of passing does suck though.

Post #20 » by **Worm Guts** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 8:33 pm

Foye wrote:Shuffling the roster doesn't lead to anything at this point.

What we need is continuity. You can't shuffle the roster every two weeks.

Keep going, hope we get a stud in next years draft and sign a good FA or trade for a good player and we'll be alright in future.

Part of the reason we suck so badass is that the team doesn't know each other.
The reason why we're worse than last season is that our wings Foye and Miller had some decent NBA experience and were capable of filling their positions at least solid (they couldn't deliver the expectations but they were solid players - something we're missing now at the #2 and #3)

I would expect a whole lot more roster shuffling in the next year, whether it's done now or next offseason. We've got alot of guys on 1 year contracts.