It’s Almost Over for Minnesota
Randy Foye (photo. Jeff Forney)
When I previewed the Minnesota Timberwolves’ season back in September, I wrote that, at worst, they would still finish with a better record than last year’s (22-60) team. With 11 games left on the schedule and the Wolves sitting at 20 wins, that’s still a possibility. But at the same time, it’s hard to say these Wolves made any tangible improvements over last year’s version.
Staggering to the finish line in ’09, the Wolves lost Corey Brewer (knee) for the season in November, fired coach Randy Wittman in December, lost Al Jefferson to an ACL tear in February, and traded once-promising first-round pick Rashad McCants for spare parts (a.k.a. Shelden Williams) at the deadline. Offseason pickup Mike Miller (9.7 ppg) has also played his worst season as a pro. Even Kevin Love‘s solid play (10.8 ppg, 9.0 rpg) has been overshadowed by the fact that Minnesota could have just kept Rookie of the Year candidate O.J. Mayo on Draft day instead of trading him for K-Love.
So while there is some talent there — led by Jefferson, Randy Foye, Love and Ryan Gomes — the team has suffered from the typical elements that make for a bad team: Injuries, bad coaching, youth, and, apparently, lack of effort/focus.
Getting blown out in Atlanta last night, T’wolves coach Kevin McHale benched his starters for the entire fourth quarter after they’d let the Hawks get out to a 26-point lead in the third. From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
They sat Monday’s fourth quarter because the reserves, including Bobby Brown, Brian Cardinal and Kevin Ollie, played with more of what McHale termed “spunk.” Starting forwards Ryan Gomes and Mike Miller combined to score only 11 points. Starting point guard Sebastian Telfair scored two on 1-for-7 shooting.
“The reserves played a lot better,” McHale said. “I thought they moved the ball better. They ran up and down the floor. We right now are running on empty with some guys. I think they think it’s OK to give in and say I’m tired. You’re a professional athlete. You can’t be tired.”
Although McHale probably will (and should) get fired this season, does he deserve all of the blame for the depressing situation in Minny? He did put this roster together, true, but he can’t do anything about injuries, and he can’t make guys try hard, if that really is the biggest issue.
Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune
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March 24th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
rubberbandman says:
good 4 me that i’m not a minny fan …
March 24th, 2009 at 3:11 pm
George W Kush Sr says:
He should get the blame since he’s responsible. He’s the coach right now, so the players lack of intensity is his fault. He selected this team, he’s the one deciding not to surround his big man with shooters other than Miller. He’s made bad decision after bad decision, so he deserves the boos.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
dagwaller says:
Austin, not one of your best pieces. I hope that someone put you up to this.
I read somewhere that they’re 3-18 without Jefferson. So let’s see…a team loses its best player, and they get worse? Shocker. If it wasn’t for that, you’d think they’d be a few wins better than last year ALREADY, and this wouldn’t be an issue. Ditto with Corey Brewer. He was the 7th pick a year or so ago – his injury counts for nothing in your book?
Another bad, and oft-used criticism is the trade for Love. I’m sure that there are plenty of people in love with small, shoot first guards. I’m not one of them. How many combo guards win championships? Tony Parker and…? Tony Parker and…? Exactly. OJ Mayo will have a Ben Gordon, JR Smith like career. Kevin Love is bigger and is already better than OJ Mayo. The Wolves made the right decision here. Unless you like trading big-for-small.
McHale’s GM decisions have been bad over the years. His coaching grade? Incomplete. I wish they hadn’t fired his predecessor, but that’s the way it goes in today’s NBA I guess.
Miller was a total whiff. Who saw that coming, though? I think that if he had worked out, and Jefferson/Brewer hadn’t gotten injured, we’d have seen a 5, 8, maybe 10 game improvement over last year. Not too bad. Those things didn’t happen, but with a good pick coming up this year, and a (hopefully) more competent GM to work a trade, there’s no reason the Wolves can’t be competitive next year.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Austin Burton says:
@dagwaller — And didn’t I mention all those factors in talking about why the season has been so bad?
As far as the trade, I disagree that Love is better than Mayo. I like Love and was one of the few people I know who said he’d be a good pro, but between the two I’d still rather have Mayo. And besides that, the point was that even as good as Love has been, in the public’s eye, it’s still overshadowed by the O.J. trade and the fact that O.J. is having a better season (hence the ROY consideration).
Not having Jefferson is one thing, but that has nothing to do with their lack of effort. The few Minnesota games I’ve watched since Jefferson got hurt, their problems go deeper than just not having their star.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:39 pm
Celts Fan says:
Tony Parker’s not a combo guard, he’s just a PG that’s really good at scoring. HUGE difference.
And yes, despite the legit excuses for this year, mchale should be gone. He shoulda been 9 years ago for the joe snith fiasco. Every check he’s cashed since that day has been playing with house money and dude just went bust…he shoukd go back to doing what he’s best at, looking like a pedophile in sweaters that’d make mr. Rodgers vomit.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Scott says:
Yuppers, McHale should get the axe, his punishment for constructing this squad was to coach them for the last half of the season, then he’s gone.
Regardless of what you want to say about the Love-OJ trade, the reality is that Love doesn’t enhance Minny, neither he nor Al can justify playing the C spot on a legit squad, more because of their size. Where as OJ would have really paired up well with Big Al, as he’s hella solid and regardless of what some haters (who think he’ll be the next BG) may think, he’s shown a lot of people that he’s going to be a really really solid pro, probably a borderline all-star in a few years, and who knows after that.
If McHale gets the axe, I wonder if KG would be thinking to himself “It’s about damn time” lol
March 24th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
Big shot bob says:
No KG knows Mchale taught him all those post moves he has.
March 24th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
dagwaller says:
Austin, you did list all of those problems. But your point was that it was all over for the Wolves. In light of all their problems, though, I’m saying that your point should have been that they’re just getting started. If (if if if, I know) Jefferson hadn’t gotten injured, you wouldn’t even be saying this, because they’d be a few games better.
I’d say that there were a LOT of people that thought Love would be a good pro, including NBA GMs. And again, who exactly says who belongs in the ROY conversation? Love is on a squad with less talent than Mayo, and yet his team is 2.5 games better than Mayo’s. So, perhaps the subject of this article should have been, “It’s Almost Over for Memphis”.
Celts, good point about Parker. Parker is the closest thing to a combo guard to win a championship that I can remember. I guess you could say that Billups and Parker are similar in that they’re talented scorers as well as quality point guards. Mayo? He’s good. He’ll get better, I’m sure. But what is he best at? Scoring. As a guard, he has…3 assists per game, vs. 2.74 TO per game. In other words, he’s a volume scorer (his 3FG% is below average) that can’t pass well, and doesn’t rebound especially well. So, in spite of what some optimists may say, he’s essentially Ben Gordon or JR Smith without
Furthermore, he plays a very similar role as Rudy Gay, so again, I say that was a bad trade for the Grizz.
I think that we can all agree, though, that McHale should be out as GM at the very least. I think he should get a half season as head coach next year, just to see if he can do it, but I don’t blame anyone for disagreeing there…
March 24th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Chris says:
Wow OJ better than Love? I hate to say it but love hit his rookie wall like 20gms into the season and has since improved every single month since then. He may be one of the top 10 rebounders in the game and his offense is getting better and better. What does OJ mayo do that is elite? started out hot for sure. fizzed since. Take a look at the PER for the two players and tell me which one does more.
March 25th, 2009 at 12:22 pm
Wolves. says:
Read Dime Daily – I’m on point w/dagwaller’s view. No offernse to AB, but if you’re a diehard, you know KLove is the guy we needed. We already have (had) Foye & McCants, so no need for another undersized, shoot first two guard. Love’s numbers are insane and I’m guessing the reason AB thinks Mayo is a better player is the hype machine. Mayo has gotten the tick and of course the shots since the day he landed in Memphis. Love plays what, about 24 min’s a a game? He has what, about 22/23 double doubles. His offensive game is just coming around right now and he still hasn’t knocked down the 15-18 foot jumper with any regularity as of yet.
Mike Miller, by the way, was a complete whiff. No one thought that his jumpshot would crawl up his ass. No one in the frozen north has figured out why he doesn’t ‘Let it Fly’ like he has inked on his arm…? It’s a great mystery. They need to move him this off season unless he makes a committment to shoot. We’re without Big Al and he’s sooooo timid with the rock, it’s embarassing. In his defense though, his all around floor game is solid. But the Wolves brought him in to stroke it, not to be a facilitator.
The Wolves need a true 7 footer to compliment Big Al and KLove and they will have a solid front line for years to come. That and a true PG will serve them well. Bassy is a solid back up, but not a prime time guy. Foye is insanely inconsistent, but hopefully when Al gets back he will be more steady.
McHale? Completely…Incomplete. I’d say give him one more year (if he wants it) but scrap the entire front office immediately. The guys do respect McHale and he is a solid basketball mind, problem is the snowball effect of injuries, youth and the guys are just feeling sorry for themself.
Sad to not see improvement over last year, but as soon as Al went down I said the Wolves would be LUCKY to get 4 more wins. Not sure, but I think they have 3. 50/50 on whether or not they can eek another one out.
Let’s see what they do with all of their stockpiled draft picks.
Grizzlies? Not hating on them at all. Good young nucleus, however it was fool hardy to trade Kyle Lowry for Mike Conley. I think my 2 year old daughter could put him on spin cycle…
March 25th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Wolves. says:
Or to keep Conley and trade Lowry. Point made.
March 25th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Austin Burton, "T.M.P." says:
Maybe I should clarify; when I said “It’s Almost Over,” I meant this terrible season, not the future prospects of the Wolves in general. They do have a solid foundation with Jefferson, Foye, Love and Gomes (and MAYBE Telfair). And they can start fresh by getting rid of McHale this offseason along with their high Lottery pick.
March 25th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
dagwaller says:
McHale, Bird, Thomas, Jordan, and even Dumars to an EXTENT (Darko and the Billups trade) – seems like there are an awful lot of all time greats that are flops in the front office. Do Mullin and Baylor belong on that list? Does Dumars? Just spitballin.