Wolves Aren't Trying to Win

[LordBaldric]

This is the only sense I can make out of the utterly garbage Rambis rotations. He and Kahn know this is a throw away season, and the big chance to stockpile assets with $$$ and a high draft pick. So Rambis throws out absurd 12 man rotations on a regular basis, and gives Kevin Love way less minutes than he should get.

(23 mins tonight vs 27 for Gomes. Are you kidding me!?!)

If Rambis actually thinks we are on the right path with these rotations, we are screwed for the next 3 years...

[LordBaldric]

And let me speak about the goal of developing players. Rambis' rotation isn't about this at all, because the deep bench players he's forcing to play are scrubs who will be gone next year. If player development were the goal, Love, Brewer, Flynn, Sessions, Ellington, Jefferson would be fed heavy minutes at the expense of others. Instead we are squirming to find minutes for Sasha!

Either Rambis is a moron, or covert tanking is going on.

[Klomp]

This is the only sense I can make out of the utterly garbage Rambis rotations. He and Kahn know this is a throw away season, and the big chance to stockpile assets with $$$ and a high draft pick. So Rambis throws out absurd 12 man rotations on a regular basis, and gives Kevin Love way less minutes than he should get.

(23 mins tonight vs 27 for Gomes. Are you kidding me!?!)

If Rambis actually thinks we are on the right path with these rotations, we are screwed for the next 3 years...

Who are you to say we aren't trying to win? Do you think we've won 10 games by not trying to win? Do you think we would've beaten Denver and Utah if we weren't trying to win?

And you use tonight as an example. Gomes was a +8, while Love was a -5. Also, Gomes was playing a lot at the SF, not PF. So you are saying we should've had Al, Love, and Hollins out there at the same time?

And I haven't even mentioned that Love is still recovering from whatever was bothering him earlier this week...

Players don't only develop on the court. Sometimes they need to sit on the bench to pick things up.

[Slum_Dillinger]

Klomp angry.....Klomp smash.....Klomp destroy wild theory

[Klomp]

Klomp angry.....Klomp smash.....Klomp destroy wild theory

LOL....thanks for my new sig

[Dewey]

I wouldn't say we aren't "trying" to win, but it's certainly not our #1 priority ... I'm certain both Kahn or Rambis would ever deny this since they've actually discussed this in the past.

Brewers stock is rising and you have to play Gomes and Sasha to try improving their trade value. Good business for a team that is going to be making more major changes.

Some of the rotations are "quagmires" and most any fan will feel the their eyes bulging as they try to figure out why some play the minutes they do. To say it's aimed at winning would be false. We need to prioritizing players we'd like to retain, improve the value of players we're most willing to trade ... that simple. These guys are professionals, like it or not, and they will win time to time, regardless.

10 wins? Tells us we are not very good. Period.

[Foye]

I think we are trying to win but our team is just not very good at this winning thing. That's a part of their game they haven't figured out

[wolves_fan_82au]

This is the only sense I can make out of the utterly garbage Rambis rotations. He and Kahn know this is a throw away season, and the big chance to stockpile assets with $$$ and a high draft pick. So Rambis throws out absurd 12 man rotations on a regular basis, and gives Kevin Love way less minutes than he should get.

(23 mins tonight vs 27 for Gomes. Are you kidding me!?!)

If Rambis actually thinks we are on the right path with these rotations, we are screwed for the next 3 years...

lol u only just notice this ???? i have been saying this since day one of the new season

i never used to be so negative until i saw khan trade away some players that could of helped us

[LordBaldric]

This is the only sense I can make out of the utterly garbage Rambis rotations. He and Kahn know this is a throw away season, and the big chance to stockpile assets with $$$ and a high draft pick. So Rambis throws out absurd 12 man rotations on a regular basis, and gives Kevin Love way less minutes than he should get.

(23 mins tonight vs 27 for Gomes. Are you kidding me!?!)

If Rambis actually thinks we are on the right path with these rotations, we are screwed for the next 3 years...

Who are you to say we aren't trying to win? Do you think we've won 10 games by not trying to win? Do you think we would've beaten Denver and Utah if we weren't trying to win?

And you use tonight as an example. Gomes was a +8, while Love was a -5. Also, Gomes was playing a lot at the SF, not PF. So you are saying we should've had Al, Love, and Hollins out there at the same time?

And I haven't even mentioned that Love is still recovering from whatever was bothering him earlier this week...

Players don't only develop on the court. Sometimes they need to sit on the bench to pick things up.

There's plenty of minutes available at the 4/5 spots for Love to never get less than 30 mpg. I would hope you would know that +/-, especially on a per game basis, is a terrible benchmark. Perhaps you were one of the many people that didn't actually see last night's game, but Gomes +8 mark is entirely due to the hot start of the game, where Flynn and Brewer came out on fire. Gomes had little to do with it.

Sasha is so bad that there is no excuse for him playing any minutes at all, yet he plays. Rambis routinely uses 11 or 12 man rotations, and these end of the bench guys are total scrubs who won't be herer next year and have trade value only as expiring contracts. Love (our most productive player) isn't given consistent big minutes. If you think these are signs of a coach trying his best to win, I don't know what to say. Even Vinny del Negro knows to only play you top 8 or 9 guys and to give your best players the most minutes.

Maybe I should have titled the thread "Rambis isn't trying to win". And maybe it's best in the long run for us to lose in a big way this year, but lets at least call a spade a spade. My alternative is "Rambis is a terrible basketball coach", so I'm trying to be optimistic.

[C.lupus]

I don't think winning is a top priority this year. We wouldn't have all these scrubs on the team if it were. Sometimes you have to take a step back in order to get better. That said, I don't like Love coming off the bench and getting 23 mpg.

[Krapinsky]

Love is much more effective when he gets 25-30 minutes a game.

[Diggler]

Hopefully we're just letting scrubs play to increase their trade value as the deadline approaches. If not... well... wins are almost counterproductive in our position, at this stage of the season. If Rambis really doesn't know who the real players are and who is the dead weight, then you've got to wonder how he got the job.

[slinky]

1st: I agree that winning isnt what we are trying to do. And anyone at the beginning of the year who thought otherwise needs a reality check. Kahn and Rambis both said from the very beginning that wins were not the priority this year. Whether its the correct approach or not, idk, but I am not sure why anyone is surprised. We traded Miller and Foye, for a player that wont be here for a couple of years. Thats a pretty clear sign of what the teams' agenda going into the season would be.

2nd: I think the issue with the rotations are that we do not have a style of play. Do they want to be uptempo and run the floor? Do they want to space the floor, and run a version of the triangle? Do they simply want to run a motion offense?

I dont think the wolves can ever put 5 guys on the court who are all best suited to run the same style of offense.

My biggest concern of this year, is that the team hasnt established an identity. You can instill one style of play and still lose 80% of your games. But right now it just seems like Rambis's rotation depend on the style of play he wants to run for the specific game. For example, I think when they want to run the ball through Jefferson, you will see more shooters out there(ie. sasha, gomes) When they want to be uptempo...flynn, brewer, love, hollins.

It would be great if they(Kahn and Rambis) would just decide on how they want their team to look 2 years from now and start teaching it to the core players. If its a triangle team, than run the triangle every chance you get. If its fastbreaking uptempo, than look to trade jefferson and pekovic, and start running the ball up and down the court.

[cpfsf]

I still don't understand our coaches fascination with Pavlovic. You'd probably not think a coach is obsessed with a player if they're only playing them for 13 minutes per game, but this is Pavlovic we're talking about here.

[Narf]

I still don't understand our coaches fascination with Pavlovic. You'd probably not think a coach is obsessed with a player if they're only playing them for 13 minutes per game, but this is Pavlovic we're talking about here.

My theory is he plays the way they want him to play. He's basically there as a teaching tool. "When we get a good outside shooter, he'll play like Pavlovic is playing but he'll actually hit the shots".

Next year we draft a Paul George type with Utah's pick and he plays the role Pavlovic plays off the bench with higher efficiency.

[Klomp]

The ONLY piece of the rotation I have any gripes about is Pavlovic.

[dwill82]

I actually thought Rambis did a fine job last night with his roatation. I was in the middle of writing an article (dunkingwithwolves.com) on what I'd like to see in the 2nd half of the season. One of the things I wanted to see was moving Hollins into a starting role. He brings the length and athleticism to the lineup Love and Big Al don't. I like both Big Al and Love but obviously they hurt the team because neither one is athletic enough to guard these athletic 4'5 and 5's they see each night. Unfortunately for them the league is getting quicker and quicker each year.

The one complaint I still have is I want to see tucker take Sasha's minutes and even a few of Damien's.

[shangrila]

^Same. I want to see what Tucker can do.

[Dewey]

I actually thought Rambis did a fine job last night with his roatation. I was in the middle of writing an article (dunkingwithwolves.com) on what I'd like to see in the 2nd half of the season. One of the things I wanted to see was moving Hollins into a starting role. He brings the length and athleticism to the lineup Love and Big Al don't. I like both Big Al and Love but obviously they hurt the team because neither one is athletic enough to guard these athletic 4'5 and 5's they see each night. Unfortunately for them the league is getting quicker and quicker each year.

The one complaint I still have is I want to see tucker take Sasha's minutes and even a few of Damien's.

Convenient opinions ...

How about we try to determine how Kahn would like to "pick up the pace", but then stacks a team with slugs. Brewer and Hollins are the only players that fit Kahn's system, yet he claims he'd like to run.

[dwill82]

Nothing really convienient about them. There was more in there including starting Sessions because the triangle offense is hard for young PG's to run, and Flynn is a perfect sparkplug type player. I suggested they start either gomes or Hollins but said i would like to see Hollins more. I also said I want to see both Ellington and Tucker play more because we know what Damien Wilkins can do but these two guys.