Waiting for Wonderboy

 

   The Timberwolves recently endured a rough four-game road trip out West, losing three games (vs Portland, Golden State, and the L.A. Clippers) and winning just one (vs the quite hapless Sacramento Kings). The Wolves were in every one of the games—in fact, they took leads into the third or fourth quarter of every contest—but they had major problems finishing, a direct reversal of the way they had finished games the first nine games of the season. Otherwise known as the period before Kevin Love came back from his hand boo-boo.

     Am I saying the Wolves are worse with Kevin Love in the line-up? Not exactly. But I do believe that, though Love is a smart player, he isn’t smart enough to realize that all the individual stats, awards, social attention, and big money isn’t what drives a winner on the court. Look at the way he pouted and insinuated leaving the Wolves after signing a rich four-year contract last year with the Wolves that wasn’t quite rich enough for Kev. This’ll be a problem a few years down the road.

    Anyway, skill combined with unselfishness combined with supreme game awareness is what drives a winner. Lucky for the Wolves, Ricky Rubio knows this (or at least hasn’t let fame or money or jealousy get in the way of his understanding…yet), and as it was announced Wednesday night, he’s been cleared to practice. This means he’ll probably be back in a week or so, in my estimation. That means the Wolves can soon finally look forward to legitimate improvement.

     For now, I’ll assess the roster, individually, with the 6-8 T-Wolves 14 games (or 17%) into the season.

GUARDS

Luke Ridnour – C-

If The Matador isn’t hitting his shot, he’s a major liability to this team. And he has only shot ) . What’s worse, he has been missing more open threes, important free throws, and crunchtime shots in general. On the Western road trip, he was mostly responsible—along with KLove and JJ Barea—for each of the three losses. Against Portland, he got chewed up by rookie Damian Lillard and shot . Against G.S., he was waylaid by Steph Curry, a player in his exact mold but slightly younger and shot . Against the Clippers, he wasn’t much of a match for Chris Paul or Chauncey Billups or Jamal Crawford, and he had four turnovers, including a blundering one during crunchtime.

J.J. Barea - D

This guy is simply overused by the T-Wolves. He should be a twice-a-game, 5-6 minute-stint-at-a-time, change-of-pace pawn. Instead, the Wolves are playing His Delicateness for long stretches where we have to watch him rabbit-dribble away the shot clock and either horse up some fadeaway garbage that gets blocked or falls short or finally pass to a teammate who is forced horse one up to ward off a shot-clock violation. Also, since the NBA warned him for flopping, he’s gotten zero calls from the officials. Kind of a major problem for a little guy who’s game is predicated on drawing fouls.

Malcolm Lee – B+

The second coming of Trenton Hassell (that’s actually a compliment when you remember that the 2003-04 Hassell was the starting 2-guard on the most successful Wolves squad in franchise history) could carve out a nice niche for himself on this team by simply remaining healthy, continuing to play tenacious defense, and developing a more consistent jumper from, say, 15 feet.

Alexey Shved – A-

Shved, mon homme. You are playing better than anyone thought you would (except for me, of course). You have a wealth of all-around skills that make you look a little like Toni Kukoc. You have a new haircut that makes you look like Toni Kukoc. You have earned the trust of Coach A—no small task (ask Derrick Williams). You are not afraid to make a play in the endgame. You are also a favorite character in my fictional bedtime stories to my sons, a character who never understands what Coach Adelman is saying to him and has to ask Kirilenko to translate, is constantly speaking in Russian: Moscow, vodka, Molotov, nyet, nyet, nyet, and going to the mall to try on new American clothes yet likes to throw sweet passes and hit threeballs when not going over to Ricky Rubio’s house for bubble gum ice cream after practice.

Brandon Roy – D+

Honestly, Roy probably helped the Wolves to two wins in the five games he saw action before hitting the DL with a knee injury. Crap, a knee injury. Santa, please bring Roy some new knee joints for Christmas, would you? If he’s somehow healthy enough to play even 20 minutes a game down the road, his steadying hand improves this team tremendously.

Will Conroy – A

Congrats on playing in the NBA. A win, in my book. Would love to see this good guy catch on again, if not with the Wolves, with somebody else.

Ricky Rubio – I

We need this guy back. Too bad the Lockout wasn’t this year instead of last year. I truly feel like everybody will play better once Rubio is back. Ridnour, Shved, Kirilenko, and Love in particular.

FORWARDS

Dante Cunningham – A

Guy is way better than I thought. Averaging 8.1 points and 5.2 rebounds in 23 minute per game. Big hustle, ducks in a row, sticky fingers, defensive force, knack for coming up with loose balls AND can shoot from 16 and in. Great pick-up in the trade for the lackluster Wayne Ellington, now averaging 5 ppg and playing 14 minutes per game in Memphis.

Derrick Williams – C-

I’d say Williams could have a legitimate gripe about his grade. Teacher won’t give him a break. I don’t know what’s going on with Adelman and Williams, but I hope it pays off for Williams down the line. Picking up Josh Howard was either a slap in the face to Williams or just a dumb move by the brain trust. I think Williams can play. Maybe the development of some sort of legitimate midrange game would help, because he has been doinking a lot of threes and getting his shit thrown at the rim. Who’s taking Williams under his wing on this team?

Kevin Love – D

I have three major problems with Love so far this season. One, that knuckle injury was real stupid, no matter how he really got it. To have the gall to complain this offseason about the Wolves not signing him to a bigger contract and bitch about the Wolves never having made the playoffs in his tenure thus far and then leaving Minnesota in the lurch with a dumb injury was foolish. Two, now that he’s back, he seems content to fling up short, flat bricks until his hand starts feeling better. How about just grabbing 30 rebounds a game instead and throwing it to guys who can make it, or are at least open? Three, it’s time to grow up and start playing some real defense. His one-on-one D is average at best, and never intimidating. His help D is appalling, considering his supposed smarts and ability to hustle after rebounds. Where’s the hustle, Kev, when Ridnour or Barea get ceaselessly beat to the rim? His rebounding has been nice, but that’s all the good I have to say at this point.

Andrei Kirilenko – B+

Probably the MVP of the team thus far, he carried the Wolves to their early-season burst. But, like the Wolves, he’s slipped in the games since then, right down to his absence from the last game of the road trip due to back spasms. Love the hustle, the backdoor cuts, the defense, the blocks and steals, the excellent game-winning pass vs Indiana, the veteran influence. But I saw the Boy With the Dragon Tattoo On His Back, Or At Least Dragon Wings Coming Out From Under His Jersey At the Shoulders play much better, consistently, for Russia in the Olympics this summer. I think he’ll be a great match with Rubio.

Josh Howard – C

Why did the Wolves sign him when they needed a guard? I do not know. He seems about as average a player as there is right now. Wish he was Mickael Pietrus.

Chase Budinger – C

Early-season A gets downgraded to C with knee injury that could keep him out the majority of the season. I liked the spring in his step and stroke in his three, but that’s all moot, for now.

BIG GUYS

Nikola Pekovic – B

His excellent toughness, tattoo, ability to draw fouls, and hairline have recently been overshadowed by his glaring inability to shoot with any accuracy outside 6 feet from the hoop.  Would love to send him over to McHale for some work. Except that McHale’s in Houston, now. Jack Sikma’s words of wisdom will have to suffice.

Greg Steimsma – B-

Steimer had a nice couple of games early on before getting buried on the bench. Love his defensive ability, but I think his hands are worse than I thought. Did you see that sweet pass he received cutting to the basket last night? Neither did he!

Louis Amundson – B-

Interesting little piece FSN did on Lou recently where we discovered that he loves to get into philosophical arguments with his look-alike sister and has a weird fear of getting his hair cut. I was hoping he wasn’t quite so one-dimensional (big defensive bod), but he seems to be. Quite.

Coach Adelman – B

Had an A in my book until Love came back. Since then, the Wolves slip in every second half. That’s on the coach. On a side note, what was he sucking on during all the games out West? Cough drops? Peyote? A sore tooth? His cud?

P.S.: Great to see that Fox Sports North is finally ridding itself of Robby Incmacrappski. Never seen such a brown-nosing, ramblingly repetitive, dumb-question-asking dinkus since…well, I have seen lots of people like that. But they shouldn’t draw paychecks as professional sports sideline reporters. Adios, Dingleberry… Now if they can fire the broadcast director who keeps going to the under-the-basket angle at all the wrong times.

Lovegood, Willbad

     The Wolves game versus the Nuggies last Wednesday night took on extra electricity when Kevin Love made his first appearance of the season ahead of schedule, yet the game went south for the Wolves when they reversed course and played worse in the second half instead of vice versa and lost 101-94.
     Love looked energetic and even feisty out there, but his presence in the line-up bogged down the flow for the other players. As RCoach Adelman said to Ray Richardson of the Pi-Press, "We didn't do a good job of cutting when we did give [Love] the ball. We stood and watched. When guys come back, we have to figure out how we're going to do things. That might take a little time."
     At first glance, the 34 points and 14 boards put up would suggest that Love was all the way back from the knuckle push-up (cough, cough) injury that broke the third and fourth metacarpal bones in his right--or main punching--hand. But a closer examination of his shooting form (maybe better termed as "flinging" in his first game back) and resulting stats--2-for9 from three-point land and 8-for-14 from the charity stripe--lead me to believe that the mending phalanges have a ways to go. However, as Love said at halftime, his dad told him to let it fly, and that seemed to be Love's modus operandi, which was fun to watch. That free-firing attitude probably led to Love's throwdown of Kosta Koufas in the third quarter, too, which was a pleasure to watch. I mean, what's Koufas expect when he attacks Love's very weakness (broken hand) on a breakaway? That's right, you get thrown into the row of camera guys. That situation, methinks, has some historical rankling going back to the time where Koufas busted his butt when he was a member of the T-Wolves in many a practice only to see Love get the playing time, and limelight, in games.
     Speaking of playing time, where was Derrick Williams's? Zero minutes and zero seconds? The only guy to get a DNP-CD in the box score? What has Williams done to Adelman to deserve this? The rift between the two must be worse than it appears. I found myself feeling for Williams as he sat...and sat...and sat as the likes of Josh Howard, Greg Steimsma, and Louis Amundson passed his by on the bench on their way to the scorer's table. I've been there a couple times (thanks Gary Thomas, thanks Perry Ford), and it's a situation that screwdrivers your competitive heart. I think Derrick Williams has serious game. I hope he can find it with the Wolves.
     P.S.: Bummer about Brandon Roy's scope surgery on his knee. Hope he can come back and give Minnesota something yet this season (and next, which the Wolves signed him for, too).... Also hoping, maybe, Rubio will beat the rehab timetable like Love did. Obviously very different injuries--incomparable, even--but don't you feel like team attitude goes a long way in rehab duration sometimes? I do.

Hope In the Cold: In Fargo

Participants in the annual Fargo Football Game, L-R: Johnson, Carr, Trefz, LeBoutillier, Best, Burt, Wester.

Each fall we take leave of our families
And migrate northwest from the Twin Cities
Out in the Arctic air where the truth abides
And the bonds of brotherhood are true and tried
And the grass is dying out but we feel alive...
In Fargo
-lyrics from the hit song "Fargo"

     Well, this last weekend was the fourth annual visit to the land of Fargo. We started the trip in 2009 when our friend Matt "T-Bone" Trefz became a pediatric cardiologist M.D. and was transferred up to Fargo. Lonely as hell in Fargo, T-Bone invited us up his way, and we had such a fine time commiserating, eating, imbibing from the fruits of the vine, watching and playing football (yes, ill-advised as it sounds, two-hand touch style) and being men in general, we decided to make an annual event of it--even after T-Bone's loneliness was quelled by the bewitching beauty Karis, now his wife.
     As we were driving up there last Friday night, the Wolves were battling the Golden State Warriors. Danno and I listened in a little on the car radio only to be chided by a half-sleeping Mike Carr a.k.a. "Goofy" (you know, the dumb-looking Disney character) as my three younger kids know him. Goofy is a strange sort of basketball fan. As a lifelong Minnesotan, Goofy is as knowledgable and interested about local sports as any, yet he refuses to support the Wolves--or the Vikings or the Twins for that matter--because...why? I don't know. He likes to complain more when they lose? He has a negative attitude? He wasn't loved as a child? Well, I know it wasn't the last option--Goofy's Mom is a saint, and I feel sorry for her that she had such a weird son.
     Anyhow, I'll give you an example of Goofy's weird attitude toward the Wolves. So Danno and I were listening to the game in the car busting it up I-94, and for most of the second half, the Wolves were getting trounced. But then, like usual this season, they came back in the fourth quarter. Most of the second half, Goofy was out cold in the back seat. But he woke up just in time, apparently, to hear that the Wolves had cut the Warriors' deficit to 94-91, and to comment, "Turn the channel, they're going to lose."
     "They're about to come back," I said, believing in the power of Alexi Shved.
     "Terrible team," said Goofy. "Perennial losers. Shut it off."
     Typical Goofy. Yeah, the Wolves lost, but not just because they're the Wolves, and not just because Goofy wanted them to. Times like that, you'd just like to smack him. I posed five questions to Goofy, which, surprisingly, he answered, the next day. Trefz--who took in one of the Wolves preseason games at the Fargodome earlier this fall--also weighed in on a couple of the questions. The following is a Q & A transcript of our discussion:

Nate Boots: Your childhood was rich with basketball history having grown up in the Bloomington, Minnesota, area. You even played high school basketball for a Minnesota coaching legend in Jack Evens. So why hasn't this knowledge translated to your adulthood?

Mike "Goofy" Carr: It has transferred. Our views on what type of player Darko would be for the Twolves is very telling. You really need to buy a darko jersey soon to fulfill your end of the bet. [Ed. Note: the bet Goofy refers to was a bet wagered in 2010 about Darko Milicic in which I bet Carr that Darko would become an NBA All-Star within the then-recent four-year contract he had signed with the Wolves. I lost this bet, which meant that I would have to refer to Carr as the "Master of Basketball Knowledge" for one calendar year AND buy a Darko jersey which I would wear three times within that calendar year to public events of Carr's choosing. It is the one dark spot on my otherwise largely successful wagering career vs Goofy.]

Boots: You've lived in Minnesota your whole life. Why do you hate the Timberwolves so much?

Carr: If you look at the Wolves' history, it is actually pretty unbelievable how awful this franchise has been. Donyell Marshall, JR Rider, Paul Grant, Rasho Nestorvic,William Avery, Ndubi Ebi (my alltime favorite one), Rashard McCants, Corey Brewer,Johnny Flynn, Wesley Johnson. [Ed. Note: Name misspellings left Carr style.] Not to mention the Stephon Marbury disaster. Ray Allen would have looked good in Twolf uniform. Also, Brandon Roy when he was a rookie and had good knees. Has a 2nd round pick ever panned out? The Joe Smith mess killed them. I liked Flip. How could you root for Sprewell after his "feed the family” comments? Running Flip out, McHale coaching, Firing Casey who actually was doing ok, Rambis running the triangle with a group that couldn't do it, Khanzie, etc. etc. Besides Garnett, Love trade, the hiring of Adelman, and possibly Rubio (yet to be determined), if you looked at this objectively what type of grade would you give this organization? It is very hard to get on board with this track record. 

Boots: What do you make of the Timberwolves' newest Russian additions, Andrei Kirilenko and Alexey Shved?

Carr: I like them. They were fun to watch in the Olympics. Shved looks a lot like Toni Kukoc with the new haircut. I thought AK47 was a good player in Utah.

Trefz: I think they should make a giant banner with the images if Shved, Kirilenko, and Pekovic with the heading "The Iron Curtain".  It will go down in Minnesota sports lore like the Purple People Eaters.  Additionally, there should be a Shveddy Balls night with a signed mini-basketball handed out to each of the first 1,000 kids who show up to the game.  The fact that these two ideas have not yet been hatched and put into action is an epic marketing failure in my opinion.

Boots: When the Timberwolves make the playoffs and surprise people by season's end, what will you be saying then?

Carr: 1) I will be shocked if they make the playoffs. 2) They have to win games at home against Charlotte and Golden State to be taken seriously.  3) Injuries are a part of the game. I was excited last year when they were in the mix and with Adelman coaching.

Trefz: Those are both two giant assumptions.  More likely, your experience with the team this year (and in years to come) will be like that of any garden variety Detroit Lions fan.  

  

Boots: When Tubby Smith gets fired by the Gophers, do you think the Timberwolves should hire him to be their new equipment manager, yes or no?

Carr: No. This needs to be the year for Tubby. Hoping sweet 16. He has the pieces. I am hopeful they can get it done. 

Trefz: Tubby will win a national championship within the next five years and go down as the greatest coach in Gophers history.  By the way, my wife once declared she went out on a date with his son Saul.  This stated while munching on mediocre chicken as she was obliged to watch to the Gophers lose to Iowa in spectacular fashion with an appalled and gloomy table partner at a Buffalo Wild Wings...because the GD Big Ten Network isn't carried in the Cable One standard cable package in Fargo, ND!!  I always assume she's lying when she says stuff like that, but I could be wrong.       

END of TRANSCRIPT

     Though the Wolves lost Friday, the weekend was a success. I'll enjoy calling these two fellows up in a few months to ask if they'd like to hit a Wolves playoff game or two.