1st Annual State of Wolves Address/Patience Thread-p.2 BUMP!

[Busch Legion]

It sounds like Rambis and Kahn are both on the hot seat. Word is the PR people made a round of phone calls to season ticket holders asking what they thought of the two.

Read this from a wolves fan.... any truth anybody confirm?

[funkatron101]

It sounds like Rambis and Kahn are both on the hot seat. Word is the PR people made a round of phone calls to season ticket holders asking what they thought of the two.

Read this from a wolves fan.... any truth anybody confirm?

I didn't get a call, PeeDee and my friend didn't either. *shrug* Certainly possible.

[Rodeo Clown]

I think we can all agree that one of the most glaring weaknesses currently hurting this team has been the PG play.

And the one most assets have been poured into. 2 top six picks, 2 free agent signings (one of which we have to give somebody a pick to take off our hands after deciding he didn't fit Rambis's system), and Sebastian Telfair is our best point guard. Isn't it great?

I am a fan of Rambis. I know some of you aren't the biggest fans, but the bottom line is that a coach can only work with what he's got.

Which is the exact opposite of what Kurt Rambis does. Instead of employing an offense that plays to his roster, he's trying to force the triangle on them.

[shangrila]

If Taylor cared what the fans thought McHale wouldn't have lasted 13 years

[LOBO 7]

So, it's time for my 2nd Annual State of the Wolves Address. I said I would bump this every December 16, but because of the lockout I had to wait. Now, after a difficult loss last night and frustration seeping into our posts, I feel like it is a good time to bump the Patience Thread.

First of all, I will reflect on what my feelings were last year.
In terms of what it's like to be a Wolves fan, I stand by what I said last year:

I, like all of you, have strong feelings about this team. We are the vanguard of Wolves fans. Casual fans look at the final scores, see that the Wolves lost, and shrug, saying this is just another bad Wolves team. We are not casual Wolves fans. We are emotionally committed to this team, whether we like it or not.

If you are anything like me, a Wolves loss effects your mood, even if in the back of your mind you expected a loss. You are excited every single game day, and schedule your social life around Wolves games, not vice-versa. You felt absolute rage the first time Ginobili flopped to foul Darko out of the game, you felt even worse the second time. You feel pure elation when the Pups show flashes of brilliance. You feel righteous indignation towards all the haters, even though some of them have already learned their lesson and closed their mouths.

There is something to be said for being a diehard fan of a terrible team. Those of us that are here now, scrutinizing every bad shot by Ridnour or every missed defensive rotation, will be rewarded for our agony. As this team grows, every victory will taste much better in our mouths than it will in the mouths of casual fans. Whenever the victory comes that puts this team 15 games above .500, on that day we will know why we cared back on December 16, 2010, when the team was 6-20. The casual fans will just begin paying attention, but they will feel nowhere near as much joy as we will. Call it karma. We have committed to this team, and right now all we get is crushing defeat after crushing defeat, but if we are patient it will all be worth it, as the wheel of Karma turns, one day it will pour limitless joy into our hearts.

Now I think we are getting close to being rewarded for our agony. The back-to-back wins felt great, but we have to remember that young teams are always plagued by inconsistency, and last night's loss to the Grizzlies was just a flat effort. But our overall point differential is still in the positive, so we just have to keep our heads up and take it one game at a time.

I also stand by what I said last year about the ways in which Rubio would change this team:

Of course, no discussion of our PGs would be complete without talking about Rubio. I have always been really high on Rubio, was elated when he fell to us in the draft, and remain confident that he will play for us. And the more I watch this team this year, the more I realize that he is EXACTLY what this team needs. He has some of the best court vision I have ever seen, and has a knack for getting teammates shots where they want them, in a rhythm they are comfortable with. Basically, he has the ability to increase the offensive efficiency of virtually all of his teammates. With all of the offensive talent on this team, that is a scary proposition. Last year I worried at times that our system wouldn't allow him to truly blossom, but this year we have noticed how bad Ridnour is because the ball is in his hands more often than anyone else's. Swapping Rubio in for Ridnour, to make all those decisions, will be an incredible upgrade. Obviously, Rubio is a pass-first PG, but that label doesn't do him justice. At 20 years old he already has truly elite court vision and anticipation, seemingly always knowing where all 10 players in the court are, and what they are going to do next. This is something you can't teach. It may take him some time to adjust to NBA defenses and to his teammates, but even if his jumpshot doesn't improve much his instincts for breaking down a defense and finding the open man will translate to much-improved offensive efficiency. Also, although Beasley is a gifted scorer, he is not the type that needs the ball in his hand to be effective, and would be just as effective catching and shooting (which is also Johnson's strength). Even if Beasley becomes our go-to guy, having Rubio on the team will not hinder Beasley's scoring ability, but will actually improve it. Rubio also has a knack for controlling tempo, knowing when to push the pace, when to slow it down, and knowing which possessions its critical to get a good shot, and even who should take that critical shot. On defense, he shows the same anticipation he does on offense and is very good at playing the passing lanes and pressuring the ball. By knowing where the opposition wants to pass the ball and denying that passing lane, he can cause a lot of commotion on the defensive end, which is something our current PGs have absolutely NO concept of. If our core at PG is Rubio playing about 25-28 minutes with Flynn backing him up for 22-25 MPG or so, we will be in very good shape. If Rubio turns out to be an absolute stud that can handle more minutes than that, Flynn may need to be traded to a team with more minutes for him. Either way, PG will not be our biggest weakness for too much longer, I promise (For me, the hardest part about this "patience" business is waiting for Rubio).

As lofty as my expectations were for Rubio, I can honestly say that he has surpassed even my expectations. His passing and vision and poise and ability to run an offense are about what I expected, which is to say that they are fantastic. I think he is ALREADY a top 5 floor general, after 6 games in the league. Even I didn't think I would be able to say that so quickly. His defense has also been about what I expected, maybe even a bit better than I expected. But where he has truly blown away my expectations is in his shooting/scoring. As high on him as I have always been, I thought he would struggle to score. I'm sure his shooting percentages will come back down to earth at some point, but I honestly never thought he would be hitting clutch threes so early in his career, and I thought he would have trouble finishing at the rim as he adjusted to NBA defenses. But his ability to dupe defenders with a quick pass fake before he finishes at the rim has allowed him to create the space he needs to finish at the rim uncontested. This is just another example of his uncanny BBIQ. His clutch shooting is just proof that he is playing with a lot of confidence and that despite his somewhat awkward set shot, he has decent touch on his shot. His form on pull-up jumpers off the dribble is quite good, and there is no reason to believe that he won't continue to improve. His FT shooting is generally solid, even though he missed 2 big ones last night. But overall, he has been nothing short of brilliant, and we now have another of the funnest players in the world to watch (along with Love) on our team. I am truly ecstatic about Rubio.

Last year at this time, Love was the one I was ecstatic about:

Kevin Love has surprised us all, and we are all lucky to be able to watch him every night. We are now officially surprised if he doesn't have a double-double at halftime. After a questionable start to the season, in which many of us, including myself, were calling for his head, he has responded pretty incredibly. 20 and 15 is no joke. We all know his weaknesses and have discussed them to death, but I think we can all agree now that he is the type of dude you keep on your team. He's now shooting 40% from 3, which means his 3 point shooting is probably here to stay. He's gotten a lot better at scoring in the post, though he still gets blocked sometimes and its not where he's most comfortable. He's gotten very good at getting to the line and knocking them down when he gets there. He's averaging 20 PPG, and we really don't run too many plays for him, which means he is very good at getting in where he fits in, complimenting our offense with whatever comes his way, usually very efficiently. He will also get more open looks from Rubio, though his offensive rebounding numbers might go down as our offense gets more efficient But because he gets so much of his offense from "scavenging" or catching and shooting, he also fits well next to Rubio. His outlet passing is still as beautiful as ever, and he may have more of an opportunity to use it as our defense improves. He just doesn't have the physical tools to become an above average defender, especially against longer, quicker players or anywhere on the perimeter, but he does have the BBIQ and anticipation to position himself properly and be part of a solid team defense. He obviously worked hard over the summer and is in much better shape than he was last year, and if he continues to work hard and improve he could continue to surprise us all. He's 22. He's a keeper.

Even with all that gushing praise for Love last year, he continues to surpass expectations and prove doubters wrong. I said at the time that he didn't have the physical tools to be an above average defender. Then he went and transformed his physical tools by coming back with a whole new body, and now his defense is at least average for a PF, and may even be close to above average. He is an absolute stud that we must lock up long term. Not much more needs to be said about him.

There are some things I said last year that I will have to eat crow on:

I am a fan of Rambis. I know some of you aren't the biggest fans, but the bottom line is that a coach can only work with what he's got. This year, we have yet to play a single game with our full roster healthy. We have a lot of new guys trying to adapt to eachother, to a new system, or to the NBA itself. We are the youngest team in the league. Despite all of this, we are competitive and play with a lot of energy. Many of our players have shown great individual improvement. Love and Darko have probably surpassed all of our expectations, and Beasley has shown renewed confidence and flashes of brilliance. More than anything, we have had a lot of frustrating losses. But Rambis has remained patient with his team, and been able to keep the team patient with each other and with their coaches. He may not be the best Xs and Os coach on the planet, but he gets his team to play hard night in and night out and not lose their tempers or their confidence when things don't go their way. The players respect him, and he respects them back, never really calling players out individually or yelling at them too much in public. He understands that there are certain things players need to learn for themselves, from experience, and he understands that he needs to be patient. I really think we are lucky to have him, and lucky that he is committed to this team long term.

Some of you (*cough* *Vindicater*) may remember that I defended Rambis pretty strongly last year, until about the All-Star break, when even I turned against him. But early in the year I thought that all the close losses and competitiveness were proof that he had us close to turning the corner. I now realize that any positives we had last year were achieved in spite of Rambis, not because of him. I am now willing to eat as much crow as necessary to put those feelings behind me. Vindicater in particular should enjoy that.

So, another thing I am ecstatic about is Adelman. He, unlike Rambis, is a coach we are truly lucky to have, and I guarantee that next year I won't have to eat crow on that statement. He has made his teams over-achievers everywhere he has been, and I'm confident that with time he will bring that to this team. Our back-to-back victories over the Mavs and Spurs were some early evidence of this over-achieving, and I have to think that there will be a lot more of that to come.

That said, we can't expect even him to completely turn things around over night, and we have to remember that most of this roster was here last year, turning the ball over at an atrocious clip. Some of that was on Rambis trying to shove a square peg into a round hole, but not ALL of it can be blamed on Rambis. This team is still plagued by very silly TOs. Rubio's TOs I can live with, because they are the exception to the rule and any player passing the ball as much as he does is bound to have a few TOs. But virtually every other player on our team seems to struggle mightily with completing even basic passes. This is obviously a concern for Adelman and I'm confident it will improve with time.

The fact that we do still have so many players from last year makes our defensive improvement an early surprise. I expected our offensive efficiency to improve pretty quickly, but I did not expect our D to be dramatically better so quickly. Rubio makes a big difference by limiting penetration. But Adelman also deserves a lot of the credit for a defensive scheme that the players buy into and the trust they have developed in each other on the defensive end. If we can continue to play even average defense it will be a HUGE development for this team.

The only criticism I have of Adelman at this point is his rotation decisions at times, most notably last night's 4th quarter. He played some of the Pups to death last night and they were noticeably exhausted down the stretch, which may have allowed the Grizz to get over the hump. He is obviously high on Tolliver as a "4th Quarter Guy". I understand this, as Tolly contributed a lot in our wins and our near-wins against OKC and Miami. But some nights Tolly just doesn't have it, and last night was definitely one of those nights. Hopefully Adelman will adapt and be able to find the "right" guys to play down the stretch every night. That said, I love that he has played Rubio pretty much every minute of every 4th quarter so far this year.

I think the way he is handling Rubio so far has been good. Obviously, he is a much better player than Ridnour, and deserves to be starting. I think that all Adelman is trying to do is limit the amount of pressure on Ricky to be this team's savior. By bringing him off the bench and allowing him to inject energy into the team and play as freely as possible, I think he is boosting Ricky's confidence while limiting the pressure on him. That said, we play SO MUCH better with him on the floor that I think we can barely afford to keep him out of the starting lineup much longer. When he checked into the game last night our starters had dug us into a 16-3 hole, which was promptly cut to a 4 point deficit by the end of the 1st quarter, mostly due to Ricky's playmaking. That said, we should try not to put too much weight on last night's game alone, because it was just an overall terrible effort by everyone but Rubio and Love. Hopefully we won't have to say that about too many games this year.

Our SG play has been horsesh%t. Flat out. But we have to remember how much we miss Barea, and how good we look with a Barea/Rubio backcourt. The Barea signing is another thing I am ecstatic about, and I really hope his hamstring injury doesn't linger or keep resurfacing. I also hope Lee returns sooner rather than later, as I think he could be very good for this team. Until then, unfortunately, Wes, Ridnour, and Ellington will have plenty of opportunities. They are all at their best when they just catch and shoot. Ridnour especially. For all his faults, he is a pretty lights-out shooter. The same can't be said for Wes and Ellington. They have both been "good shooters" at times in their careers but are both obviously struggling with their confidence right now, which is why they are both passing up open threes and trying to create something off the dribble, which has only led to trouble. Same with Tolly, in last night's game. He passed up an open three to dribble the base-line, then threw that terrible pass that led to the TO that basically cost us the game. But before last night, Tolly had been one of our most reliable spot-up shooters, and he obviously has good chemistry with Rubio, so it is understandable why Adelman has been keeping him on the floor down the stretch. Basically, Rubio needs to be surrounded by confident shooters. Unfortunately Wes, Beas, and Ellington have not been confident all season. Williams has been pretty good in that regard, and he also obviously has good chemistry with Rubio, so it is surprising that his minutes have been as limited as they have been. That would be my other criticism of Adelman.

Anyways, my fingers are getting sore, but my basic point is that we are in a MUCH better position than we were last year. Rubio is truly a godsend, Love is even more of a beast, everyone else leaves a lot of question marks, but I have a lot of faith in Adelman to get the most out of this team.

"All we need is just a little more patience" - Axl Rose

[Vindicater]

Some of you (*cough* *Vindicater*) may remember that I defended Rambis pretty strongly last year, until about the All-Star break, when even I turned against him. But early in the year I thought that all the close losses and competitiveness were proof that he had us close to turning the corner. I now realize that any positives we had last year were achieved in spite of Rambis, not because of him. I am now willing to eat as much crow as necessary to put those feelings behind me. Vindicater in particular should enjoy that.

FIRE RAMBIS!!!!!!!



Lets just enjoy the fact we have such a strong looking team for the future and I agree with you, patience is still needed this early into a new era. 6 games is just the beginning.

[LOBO 7]

Some of you (*cough* *Vindicater*) may remember that I defended Rambis pretty strongly last year, until about the All-Star break, when even I turned against him. But early in the year I thought that all the close losses and competitiveness were proof that he had us close to turning the corner. I now realize that any positives we had last year were achieved in spite of Rambis, not because of him. I am now willing to eat as much crow as necessary to put those feelings behind me. Vindicater in particular should enjoy that.

FIRE RAMBIS!!!!!!!



Lets just enjoy the fact we have such a strong looking team for the future and I agree with you, patience is still needed this early into a new era. 6 games is just the beginning.

You were fighting the good fight by shoving the Rambis hate down my throat, so thank you for that

Now we can set aside our past differences and unite in our enthusiasm for this year's team.

Cheers mate