SB Nation - Kevin Love

In praise of the Big Piranha

Stop-n-Pop — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 04:07:40 -0000

Dear Wolves Marketing:

Please start selling Kevin Love. Please see the attached video for a suggestion about how local sports franchises actually feature their players in TV ads. The ad practically writes itself: Nick Punto and Michael Cuddyer are sitting in a ice shanty on a lake watching video of Kevin Love grabbing rebound after rebound after rebound. Cuddy looks over to Punto and says something along the line of "Winter piranhas, who knew?" Fade to black and a sign that says "Come see the Big Piranha." Show the ticket hot line and cut!

Thank you,

Stop-n-Pop

Moving on, last night's post game show contained something of a big moment for the FSN crew. During the game wrap, analyst (and fellow former Bloomington Kennedy Eagle) Mike McCallow said something that we here at Hoopus have been saying since the latter part of last season: Kevin Love is the best player on this team. Yes. Yes, yes, yes, and more yes.

I know we're in danger of getting repetitive on this point, but the reason why Kevin Love is the best player on the Wolves is simple: He does the most stuff. Last night he was 9-14 from the floor with 16 boards (5 offensive) and 20 points. He controlled the defensive glass, he started fast breaks, he sealed off defenders for easy angles to the bucket for the team's guards, and he even ran a successful 1-on-1 fast break against Tyreke Evans. Al Jefferson can be the best post scorer in the league but that's probably all he could ever be. Love's impact on the game won't be as deep in a single area, but it will be much, much, much wider. When this team gets good (and it will), Kevin Love is going to be its MVP. He will be a much larger-scaled version of what Ozzie Guillen talked about here:

"That's special stuff over there," Guillen said of the Twins club. "All those guys, they don't have big money or big stars, but the way they go about their business is awesome. That's why I call them the little piranhas, because they beat you to death. I would rather someone hit a home run with the bases loaded in the ninth rather then get murdered little by little. Those guys bite you little by little and, all of a sudden, you wake up and you are dead."

Instead of extra bases and hard slides, Love will bite the other teams with hard screens, impossible tips to teammates, and outlet passes. Each one won't seem like much all by itself, but at the end of the day, someone is going to wake up dead. And yes, that's one of the best sports quotes of the decade. Thank you Ozzie.

A few notes from the game:

Why on earth did the Kings not roll with their large front court lineup of Spencer Hawes and Jason Thompson? Did the Kings' coaching staff not see what they did to Love and Jefferson last weekend?
Tyreke Evans is a dominant physical presence but he's going to have to figure out what to do on nights when his shot isn't falling.
Sasha Pavlovic is not an NBA player right now. His worst play last night was when Kevin Love screened off a wide-open angle to the lane for Pavs and instead of going right up with the layup he went under the rim and was forced to pass it off. It's almost like he's forgotten the basic language of basketball...if that makes sense.
Another win, another solid wing performance. How much more evidence do we need that the Wolves need a solid (and consistent) wing player more than anything else?

That does it for tonight. Bottom line: Kevin Love + competent wing and point play = W.

Gotta run.

Preview: Kings at Wolves

Ziller — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:00:26 -0000

More photos » by Rich Pedroncelli - AP

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THE OPPONENT

Remember the Timberwolves, who last Saturday fell in defeat at the boots of the Kings at ARCO. The Wolves have four victories, including one this week against Utah. Minnesota's four wins (in 26 games, whoo) have come against the Nets, the Nuggets and the Jazz twice. The Wolves have the worst point differential in the league, have the third worst shooting clip in the league, the second worst offense overall and the 24th ranked defense. The Wolves suck.

THE KEY BATTLE

Al Jefferson and Kevin Love vs. Jason Thompson and ... Andres Nocioni? No word as of press time on whether Spencer Hawes will get his starting position back. Facing a Scantron and No. 2 pencil, I would scribble the 'B' bubble, assuming 'B' is associated with 'no.' Hawes had a solid spell in relief on Wednesday, but Spencer's bad outing against Minnesota on Saturday was surely part of the eventual post-Blazers benching.

(And please do not believe Paul Westphal's spin regarding the Wizards match-up. It's been discussed insightfully by others here on StR, but seriously. He got benched. He got benched.)

There are pros and cons, to me, in benching Hawes against teams like the Wolves. First of all, one of the few strengths of Minnesota is its offensive rebounding, between Jefferson and Love. We saw Jefferson own the offensive glass early in Saturday's game. He ended up with five offensive caroms, and Love had four. Benching Hawes, no matter how disappointing he has been on the boards this season, doesn't help when Omri Casspi is the replacement. Omri is a great rebounder at his position ... which is not power forward or center. We saw Nocioni play power forward in Hawes's stead Wednesday; if Hawes sits for Omri, that'd be the case again, with Thompson marking Jefferson (and risking foul trouble) and Noc handling Love. But Noc isn't a PF-level defensive rebounder, either. You open yourself up for exploitation on the offensive glass, something we saw executed perfectly early on by Washington.

Of course, adding Omri to the Evans-Greene-Nocioni-Thompson group makes the offense wail. Casspi is a perfect match for Evans and Thompson, just perfect. So what do you do? If it were my choice, I'd either start Hawes and keep all five Kings back to help rebound (you can score on Minnesota in the halfcourt) or I'd start Kenny Thomas and Omri (the latter in place of Noc), match K-9 up against Jefferson, let Thompson take Love ... and sub in Hawes the second Jefferson sits (or as soon as Thompson picks up his second foul, whichever happens first). Ryan Hollins is a good offensive rebounder, but less of a threat to do anything with the ball and an absolute sieve on the other end.

I have a feeling we'll get Omri in the starting five with Nocioni, which means we'll get a shoot-out, which is probably best for all viewers.

BOLD PROCLAMATION

Reggie Theus will arrange for Sam Amick to be forced to sit next to Minnesota's most slovenly, smelly man.

NUMERIC PREDICTION

Kings by 6.

DETAILS

5 PM tip-off. Comcast SportsNet and KHTK 1140 AM. Just one game thread tonight, plus the post-gamer (7:45) and the recap (eventually).

Congratulations Utah!!!

Stop-n-Pop — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:46:03 -0000

You are now responsible for 1/2 of the Wolves' victories. Well done. A zombie dance for you.

Game wrap in a bit.

UPDATE: Game wrap below the fold.

The Jazz are an interesting team. On one hand, they have some thoroughly non-enjoyable/unlikable talent. Carlos Boozer is a Dookie in preparation for leaving a 2nd team in his wake, Kyle Korver is a silly Iowegan, and Jerry Sloan will continue to coach as if the league were still in the midst of a coked-out pre-80s haze. On the other hand, they have the player I consider to be the best and most entertaining point guard in the game: Deron Williams. As much as I cannot stand to watch a backstabbing Dookie, Coach Cleaver, and the most annoying fellow Creighton Jayhawk in the world, there is no player I enjoy watching more when he is "on" than the former Illini point.

A couple of games ago the Wolves' TV crew ran a poll about who they thought was the best point guard in the game. I can't remember who they ended up picking, but for my money's worth, if I'm putting together a squad to win it all, here are my top 3 picks at the point: Williams, Rajon Rondo, and Tony Parker. Williams, to me, is the greatest surgeon in the game. He's not as flashy as Chris Paul or Steve Nash but he's physically dominant for his position with a balanced game that picks apart his opponent with precision and consistency. From the line, from mid-range, from beyond the arc, in transition, in 1/2 court...the guy does it all. He was playing out of the post of several key possessions in the 4th quarter and it baffles me that Sloan didn't ride that horse hard. Plus, when the game is on the line and time is running off the clock in a must-win playoff game, he can get his shot off in traffic, which is an amazingly important trait that some possess while others do not. Sorry CP3, I want D-Will for that possession.

Anywho, the first thing that should be pointed out about last night's tilt was that Williams was the best player on the court and it wasn't even close. He shot the lights out from the floor, got to the line a ton, dished out 13 assists, and...well, (robot voice on) Jerry Sloan is a fantastic coach and he knows exactly how to use Mr. Williams (robot voice off).

OK, now that we've talked about Utah's point guard, let's take a few minutes to gab about Jonny Flynn. Flynn undoubtedly shows flashes of brilliance. His quickness is world class and while he still needs to learn a thing or two about running a pro offense, his court vision is top shelf. His outside shot is surprisingly serviceable and should he ever develop an ability to dish off of the drive, he'll be damn near unguardable. That being said, the flashes of brilliance are accompanied by stretches of outright boobery. The CP3 inbounds boner in the NOLA game stands out over anything else but he is also guilty of overdribbling, going too much to his right, and inexcusably holding the ball when it is rotated his way on a nightly basis. Adding to our T-Wolves dictionary (first addition: Brewsist) is the Jonny Stop: The way in which a freely moving ball is stopped by an ultra-quick lead guard who uses the opportunity to survey the court and negate his greatest strength, his speed.

Watching Flynn play the point you can practically see his High School/AAU/Syracuse coaching play out in a motion picture thought bubble above his head. This kid has been the dominant lead guard for so long, and he has played for so long against such relatively inferior competition, that his first instinct in close games and/or highly leveraged situations is to do what he has always done: Be the be-all/end-all of ball movement and end the damn possession for his team. At Niagra Falls High, NY AAU, and Syracuse, his speed alone was enough to get the job done. No need for setting up teammates. No need for creating angles. No need for worrying about the shot clock. When the heat was on, it was Jonny, the ball, and his defender. This kind of nonsense will not fly in the NBA for a player like Flynn. He's not that quick. Maybe it will have its time and place in a few years when he gets the benefit of the whistle and learns how to better incorporate his teammates, but not now. While Flynn ended the contest with a career high in points while shooting the lights out from beyond the arc, he stunted several key possessions with the Jonny Stop. Also, while I'm very, very happy that he made the game winning shot, I think I suffered a Randy Foye flashback with the kamikaze drive down the right side of the lane. At least he didn't try and bank it off the shot clock.

Let's wrap this up with some bullet points.

Should the Wolves have lost, Kevin Love and Damien Wilkins would have been my choices for goats of the game. There is no dumber shot in all of basketballdom than the foot-on-the-line 3. There is no excuse for it. It has all the risk of a 3 pointer with none of the reward. Dumb, dumb, dumb, and more dumb. Love and Wilkins both made toe-on-the-line 2 pointers.
While Flynn took some heat earlier this season for an ill-conceived behind-the-back pass attempt, he and Love ran the behind-the-back pick-and-roll twice in the last two minutes of the game and it netted them two wide open three point attempts. It's really not a flashy play and it has the potential to be a nice addition to the offense. I want to see a lot more of the middle pick and roll with Love and Flynn.
The star of the game has to go to Corey Brewer. There were a few points in the game where Brewer reverted to the holy-crap-he's-everywhere kind of player that we got kind of excited about a few weeks ago. He was dunking, sticking shots, rebounding, and holding people up on defense all night long. It really is amazing how different this team looks with competent wing play. Imagine if they had some outside shooting to go along with the competent wing play. Paging Rudy Gay.
If the flash went to Flynn and the star went to Brewer, the workhorse award goes to Big Al Jefferson. The guy is really starting to return to form and he played the role of the bruising running back, grinding out short yardage situation after short yardage situation in order to keep drives alive and his team in the game. This site has been home to a long standing debate over the relative worth of Jefferson and Kevin Love for about 2 years now and my current thoughts on the duo are this: The problem with the Wolves is not Al Jefferson and Kevin Love. Neither has the advantage of playing with a consistently competent wing player or an outside shooter worth his salt. Neither has the advantage of playing with a group of properly-sized perimeter players. There is nothing wrong with having 1 or 2 undersized players in your rotation provided that you surround them with athleticism and length. Al and Love have complimentary skills and they are obscenely skilled on the offensive end of the court. My take on the pairing is that they are still in need of a Joakim Noah/Jason Thompson 3rd wheel and a pair of athletic slashers on the wing. I have been saying this since before Love came aboard. In the front court I want the aforementioned Noah/Thompson type and on the wing I have opined for, in order, Josh Smith, Trevor Ariza, and Rudy Gay. This team can put it together with some competent wing play and for either Flynn or Ricky Rubio to work out at the point...or for John Wall to land at the doorstep of 600 First Avenue. Wings, an athletic backup big, and hashing out the point guard situation, these are the things that need to be worried about before talking about whether or not Love and Jefferson can play together. Rudy Gay, Rudy Gay, Rudy Gay. Please, get 'r done. It has been obvious for over 2 years.

OK, that does it for tonight's wrap. We'll have a very cool announcement on the site tomorrow and then I'll follow that up with a post on the Lynx's choice in the supplemental draft, Rebekkah Brunson.

PS: If you really want to know why the Wolves won, it was because they collected a very large number of their misses:

	Pace	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
Minnesota	98.0	112.2	52.4%	27.7	32.6	15.3
Utah		110.2	53.7%	25.9	17.1	12.2

When you have an eFG of over 50% and you are collecting a 1/3 of your misses, life is good. This is another reason why you don't want to monkey with the Love/Jefferson duo. If you surround them with competent perimeter players, they will destroy the boards. BTW: We need to come up with a Wolves Dictionary term for when Love grabs an offensive rebound in between 3-4 defenders.

Preview: Wolves at Kings

Ziller — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 21:00:19 -0000

by David Zalubowski - AP

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THE OPPONENT

Despite a record worse than Stevie Wonder's baseball career, Minnesota isn't as bad as they look. Mind you, they look really, really bad. Being "not as bad" as that isn't saying a whole lot. Mikki Moore is a better rebounder than Andrea Bargnani, you know? The Wolves are still 1-5 in December. But only one of those losses (last night's visit to the Lakers) have been by a 10-point or greater margin. Progress!

Seriously, though, Kevin Love's return has meant a lot. Love's been back five games, and he's shoved Al Jefferson back to center and Ryan Hollins down in the rotation. (Blessed Earth!) Hollins is basically Moore, but younger and less endearing. As we know from experience, you cannot boast a starter as bad at rebounding for his position as Hollins and survive defensively. Of course, the Jefferson/Love frontline -- while beastly on the boards -- hasn't proven to be a defensive wall. No matter. Love is a big boost from all angles.

Love should make the Kings work on Sacramento's own defensive glass. That's actually an optimistic way of saying that Love could very well end up with 10 offensive rebounds. The Kings still have problems there, problems the team may soon need to accept, supposing Jason Thompson and Spencer Hawes are the frontcourt of now and tomorrow. Tyreke Evans and Andres Nocioni are rebounding defensively as well as you could reasonably ask for ... and the team is still 20th in the league in this category.

Luckily, the Wolves are phenomenally bad on offense: 28th in shooting, 29th in turnovers and 29th in foul drawing. Sacramento's weakness is defense; Minnesota should have trouble exploiting that. The Wolves have scored 100 points all of five times this season. Sacramento might be a good opportunity for No. 6, but it's always a struggle with the Wolves.

			FG			3PT			FT			Rebounds			Misc
	G	M	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	M	A	Pct	Off	Def	Tot	Ast	TO	Stl	Blk	PF	PPG
Al Jefferson	21	32.9	6.8	15.0	45.5	0.0	0.0	0.0	2.4	3.4	71.8	2.5	6.4	9.0	2.0	1.6	1.2	1.0	2.3	16.0
Jonny Flynn	23	29.4	5.0	11.6	43.4	0.9	2.7	32.8	3.0	3.7	80.0	0.3	2.1	2.5	4.3	3.2	1.2	0.1	1.4	13.9
Kevin Love	5	28.4	4.6	9.8	46.9	1.2	2.0	60.0	2.8	3.4	82.4	4.0	7.6	11.6	1.8	2.4	1.4	0.8	2.8	13.2
Ryan Gomes	23	30.5	5.2	10.9	47.8	0.9	2.0	42.6	1.1	1.4	75.8	1.4	4.0	5.4	1.6	1.5	1.0	0.2	2.6	12.4
Corey Brewer	23	30.2	4.3	11.1	38.7	0.3	1.5	17.1	1.7	2.7	60.3	1.0	3.2	4.2	2.2	2.1	1.8	0.6	2.7	10.5
Ramon Sessions	23	22.1	3.5	6.7	52.3	0.0	0.3	14.3	1.3	2.1	63.3	0.8	2.3	3.0	3.3	1.7	0.7	0.0	2.0	8.3
Oleksiy Pecherov	20	14.2	2.8	6.3	43.7	0.4	1.8	22.9	0.7	0.7	92.9	1.0	3.1	4.1	0.4	0.9	0.3	0.4	2.0	6.6
Ryan Hollins	23	19.3	2.6	4.8	53.2	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.3	1.9	65.9	0.9	2.0	3.0	0.9	1.4	0.3	0.5	2.8	6.4
Wayne Ellington	21	16.8	2.0	5.5	37.1	0.4	1.9	20.5	0.6	0.9	72.2	0.6	1.6	2.1	1.0	0.9	0.4	0.0	0.7	5.1
Damien Wilkins	22	15.7	1.7	4.1	40.7	0.1	0.7	20.0	1.1	1.3	82.8	1.3	2.2	3.5	1.2	0.8	0.5	0.1	1.5	4.6
Sasha Pavlovic	22	15.2	1.9	5.4	35.3	0.6	2.1	28.3	0.2	0.5	40.0	0.4	2.3	2.6	1.3	1.0	0.5	0.1	1.4	4.6
Nathan Jawai	17	11.8	1.5	3.2	47.3	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.1	1.4	82.6	1.4	1.6	3.1	0.4	0.6	0.2	0.3	1.6	4.2
Brian Cardinal	14	9.7	0.6	1.6	36.4	0.1	0.4	16.7	0.3	0.3	100.0	0.1	0.5	0.6	0.9	0.1	0.3	0.1	1.8	1.5
Jason Hart	1	4.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	1.0	0.0	0.0	0.0

THE KEY BATTLE

Jason Thompson vs. Kevin Love. As stated, keeping Love off the offensive glass as much as possible will be a key. But further, Thompson needs to exploit his (massive) size advantage here. Love nor Jefferson block shots with any regularity, so the Kings -- led by Thompson in the post -- should attack attack attack. On the other end, Love is most dangerous cleaning up at the rim. Thompson has done better defending the rim, but again (broken record): it comes down to boxing him out and securing those plentiful Wolves misses.

INTERESTING SIDESHOW

I didn't make Evans vs. Jonny Flynn the key battle because, well, Flynn's going to need a bunch of help to slow Evans. But remember how high Sacramento's front office had been on Flynn. If Evans had gone #2 or 3, there's a real chance the Kings could have spent the 4th pick on Flynn. In that sense, seeing how far Flynn how to grow while Evans excels (at a younger age, no less) is striking. And will be striking.

BOLD PROCLAMATION

Corey Brewer will have more steals than Mario Elie.

NUMERIC PREDICTION

Kings by 12.

DETAILS

7PM Pacific on Comcast SportsNet and KHTK 1140AM.

Something Special Brewin? Malcolm Jones Honored As Gatorade National Player Of The Year

Nestor — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:08:15 -0000

Many of us have followed college athletics long enough to know that we shouldn't always get too excited about hype around big time recruits. It is especially true these days in the world of college basketball. Sometimes recruits in hoops such as JF, AA, and KL live up to all the hype. Other times, well I don't think I have to go through the details of the Ben Ball ~~warriors~~ class of 2008 (you can also read the comments in this thread which will go back much further).

Same dynamics also play out in football to a certain extent (even though in football it takes recruits traditionally a year or two to make discernible impact in the program). I think we can write post after posts on who has worked out (MJD, Brian Price, Akeem Ayers, Rahim Moore, XSF) and who hasn't (Ben Olson, Aundre Dean ) in recent years in Westwood. Yet, every once in a while we read and hear about a recruit in football or hoops, and we can't help but hope for something special when everything looks and sounds right about his arrival to Westwood. Well, if you haven't yet then meet Malcolm Jones. He just became the first UCLA football recruit ever to be honored as the Gatorade National High School Player Of The Year:

The LAT writeup provides the eye popping numbers:

Jones, a running back-linebacker, has scored 109 touchdowns in his four-year prep career. This season, he has rushed for 2,156 yards, putting him 40 yards short of tying the single-season school record held by Marc Tyler. He has 36 touchdowns and is nearing 6,000 yards rushing in his career.

Jon Gold from the Daily News had the following comment from MJ's team-mate on how emotional he was yesterday:

"You should have seen the expressions on his face when he was walking out of class," Oaks Christian quarterback Nick Montana said with a wide smile. "He was with his family, biggest smile on his face; I haven't seen him smile like that in a while. He was tearing up a little bit - it was awesome to see."

Well congrats to Malcolm from the entire BN. We have a little more on him after the jump.

Gold sheds a little more light on Malcolm as a student and person off the field:

Jones maintains a 3.46 grade-point average and announced in early October that he would play for UCLA, choosing the Bruins over expected front-runner Stanford. Additionally, Jones is a peer tutor and a youth basketball volunteer referee.

"He's realizes I think that he's really blessed," Marshall Jones Sr. said. "He takes his blessings as something he should utilize for the good of himself and others. And that's what makes me proud of him.

"He's a better person than he is a football player."

He also has the right perspective heading into UCLA next season:

"I really wanted to go to a school where I can really make a name for myself, not just be the "next" star running back at a USC or one of those big-time colleges," Jones said. "I want to prove to everyone that I can really help turn the program around, get them back on top."

Sounds like a Bruin already. lol Here he was few weeks ago reflecting on his team's season, his commitment to UCLA, and the looming CIF playoffs:

Well, Malcolm is going to lead his 13-0 Oaks Christian team into tonight Northwest Division championship game against Gardena Serra. He has played on three consecutive section championship teams.

In terms of some previous history on this award, I should note in hoops it was KL and Jrue Holiday who were also honored as Gatorade NPOY (as I said in my opening grafs, we have mixed records). Previous honorees as Gatorade NPOY includes names such as Peyton Manning, Emmitt Smith and Jeff George. The list also includes Matt disrespected Barkely (won the award in his junior season), who hasn't really done all that much considering the talent he was surrounded with at Southern Cal.

All that said, it's still a big deal. As noted above Malcolm is the first Bruin recruit to win this award. As excited as we all are about him, what I am even more excited is listening to him, he comes as as the perfect Bruin in the mold of ATV. Keeping my fingers crossed, Malcolm experiences the same level of success as our current senior captain both on and off the field starting next year at UCLA.

GO BRUINS.

M.V.W.

Stop-n-Pop — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:27:06 -0000

More photos » by Bill Haber - AP

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It's a different team. In just two games it's a different team. From style to defense to confidence to the feeling in the crowd, Kevin Love has changed this team from a squad that was featured in "worst ever" conversations on ESPN (really, they went that far) to one that looks like it could see a few more 2-2 weeks before the season is over.

Is two games enough to call Love the best player on the Wolves? Is it enough to give him the title of the Most Valuable Wolf? I don't know about the sample size but I do know this: When Big Al Jefferson went down with a season-ending knee injury, each and every person in the stands knew exactly what the Wolves lost: 20 points/10 rebounds. When Kevin Love was out for 6 weeks with a broken bone in his left hand, what did the Wolves lose? Rebounding, defense, transition play, 1/2 court spacing...the list goes on and on. Again, we're dealing with an extremely small sample size but I think it's enough to admit, at the very least, that Love is the straw that stirs the drink. (Personally, I'd go farther than that; I think he's the best player on the squad by a long margin but we'll wait for 20 games before fleshing that one out.)

In last night's contest Love finished with 18 points on 6-9 shooting (2-3 from 3) with 10 boards and 4-4 from the line in 26:29. It was all on display. The rebounding, the outlet passes, the team defense, the way in which he completely changes the Wolves' 1/2 court offense...it's absurd. This guy simply keeps possessions alive or ends them in a favorable fashion at a stunning clip. This is the key to his play and it is what I mention whenever someone who doesn't know much about basketball asks me about his game: Whether that is ripping a defensive rebound away from an opposing player and hitting a teammate in stride 50 feet down the court for an easy layup or tipping an offensive rebound out to a guard for an open jumper, there is no other player on the team who does more stuff than Kevin Love. Stat sheet or no stat sheet, he does stuff, and that's all you really need to know. (Although it should be noted that this stuff does indeed show up on the stat sheet in one way or another. Love consistently leads the team in Popcorn Machine's HV, which is reb + block + assist + steal - turnovers . Last night he ended up with a team high of 12. He did so in about 8 minutes fewer than the next closest challenger.)

As for the team, check out the Four Factors from last night's tilt:

	Pace	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
Utah	92.0	109.8	51.2%	15.1	26.7	15.2
Minnesota		117.4	59.7%	20.8	25.0	14.1

Not bad, not bad at all. The eFG is through the roof for 2 reasons: limited 3 point shooting and a large number of transition buckets. The Wolves went 4-9 from beyond the arc while finishing with 17 points in transition. Nothing will help a poor shooting club more than limiting their 3s and getting layups in transition....well, nothing except a ton of free throws, which ended up in the Wolves favor too, as they ended up with 7 more FTAs than Utah.

The other big theme of the game was Wayne Ellington. Once again Corey Brewer did not play in the fourth quarter and the sole recipient of his minutes was his fellow Final Four MVP, Mr. Ellington. In the fourth, Ellington scored 8 points on 3-3 shooting from the floor, 2-2 shooting from the line, with 4 rebounds and 1 assist. He made two key defensive rebounds that triggered easy buckets on the other end and, best of all, he played good enough defense along side of his excellent offense to swing the Brewer Balance in his favor. For those of you who don't know what the Brewer Balance is, it is the equation that determines when the former Gator should be taken off the court. Whenever a player comes along whose combination of offensive prowess and defensive adequacy can produce better results than Brewer's defensive mastery and offensive ineptitude, the Brewer Balance swings away from Corey and, in this case, to Wayne.

One of the best things about Ellington at UNC was that his usage rate in Carolina was probably right around the relative percentage he could put up in the NBA. He wasn't the top dog on UNC but he still produced and was effective. He has a similar role with the Wolves. Al Jefferson is Ty Hansbrough, Jonny Flynn is Ty Lawson, Ryan Gomes is Danny Green and Kevin Love was played by Ed Davis and Deon Thompson. Ellington falls somewhere near the intersection of role player and significant contributor and it all depends on how the game comes his way. That's a good professional player to have on your roster and it will be interesting to see if Ellington can continue to adjust to the NBA and how close he can really get to the role he played at UNC. So far, the Wolves have to be encouraged by his play. It's the type of performance that seamlessly fits into a rotation.

One of the things that we have talked about on this site since the start of training camp is that Ryan Gomes may have priced himself out of the 2010 guarantee on his contract, especially considering the fact that Corey Brewer's option was exercised. Check out Gomes' numbers from the last 5 games. Last night he went for 23/5/5 on 9-10 shooting and some fantastic mid-range 2 man game work with Kevin Love and Jonny Flynn. If Gomes continues to play like he has over the last 5-10 games, and if he can continue to do so in the part of the offense that best highlights his skills, is he worth the $4.2 guaranteed option on his contract? He's been the Wolves best player this year (until Kevin Love came along) and he, along with Love, are the team's best 2-way players (Sessions could probably be thrown in here as well if he was given more minutes).

Wrapping this thing up, the Wolves are dangerously close to being able to field a competitive two way team that can bring it on a night-in/night-out basis. Their wing play is the big hold up but between Love, Gomes, Sessions, Jefferson and Flynn, they have guys who belong out there and that's a big upgrade over what we have seen in recent years. What is amazing about this is that Love appears to be the player to make it all work. Without him, we're seeing a lack of effort and a bunch of crap. With him, it's all different....or at least it has been for two games. I have a feeling it will be for many more.

What say you?

Preview - Utah Jazz @ Minnesota Timberwolves

Basketball John — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 22:13:41 -0000

More photos » by Jim Mone - AP

Rambis has his work cut out for him. These two will help, but it may take a while.

Browse more photos »

After starting the season 4-6, the Jazz have since gone 7-1 after hanging on against the Pacers last night. Let's take a look at the team's stats during those two respective runs

4-6

Team	FG%	3P%	APG	TOV	STL	PPG
Jazz	48	30.6	23	15.5	7	99
Opponent	47	39.3	21	13	7.4	101

7-1

Team	FG%	3P%	APG	TOV	STL	PPG
Jazz	51.2	38.6	28	13.9	9	102
Opponent	43.4	27	18	13.8	7	92

The Jazz have ramped up both offensively and defensively. That point differential of 9 points per game is right up with Boston's +9.5. Of course they've done it over the entire season and not just the last 8 games.

For the past few seasons, the Jazz have almost always started out the year well and then had varying degrees of success after that. But they always start out well. They are 11-7 this season through 18. They were 11-7 through 18 last season. For 2008 they were 13-5. And for 2007 they jumped out to a 14-4 mark.

So, was that 4-6 mark just getting the losses out of the way early? There's no doubt that they should have won at least 2-3 of those after getting huge leads and giving the game away.

Were things evening out or was there a turning point? I think there's a little of both.

There's no doubt that the Jazz were playing atrocious for those first 10 games. They were lost on defense and taking a bunch of jumpers on offense.

Something did seem to click though when Deron had to return home to take care of his ailing daughter. The Jazz were already without CJ and Korver. Suddenly, the rotation got a lot tighter and Eric Maynor and Wes Matthews were thrust into the starting lineup. It sure seemed like they started playing as a team then. That's not any inference that Deron was a problem. But maybe they relied on him a bit too much and now had to find a way to work together as a team again?

The Jazz were in danger last night of blowing a huge lead at home to the Pacers. Everything they had working for them in the first quarter when they built a 19-point lead went away for the next 2 3/4 quarters. They withheld the late charge by the Pacers and never relinquished the lead. There wasn't any one person that was responsible for it, it was all team.

So that's not really a preview of tonight's game against Minnesota. But it does apply in part because the Jazz, for whatever reason, have had some problems with the Timberwolves. We just always seem to struggle against them.

But tonight, they'll have Kevin Love back. If the Jazz don't want to lose any momentum that they've had from playing at home so much, they'll have to win this game as a team.

It will start with shutting down Minnesota's offense. They're at the bottom of the league in efficiency and points per game. Combine that with a defense that is nearly as bad and you're not going to have a lot of success. They're even getting out-rebounded which doesn't seem right. Love has a been out all season until last night, but they're still normally a good rebounding team. So with that, if the Jazz start taking a lot of jumpers again, they could be in for another battle because they're not going to get many second chances.

They need to take care of business tonight and not go down to a 2-win team.

The Bill Clinton Test

Stop-n-Pop — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 04:36:34 -0000

"There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America."

-President Bill Clinton

Had a young bill Clinton grown up with aspirations to lead the world's greatest basketball league instead of becoming President, I think it is pretty safe to say that a Commissioner Clinton would have rewritten this quote by substituting "NBA" for "America" and that last night's game between the Wolves and the Hornets would be one of the great challenges to this basic claim.

Let's begin with what is right. We were treated to an entertaining contest with a command performance from one of the best players in the league. There was the return of a phenomenal talent, flashy play, hustle, flash, broad themes and story lines.

On the other hand, we also had to endure WWE-esque referring, rosters that cause fans to think more about cap space and expiring contracts than championships, awful bench players and two entire squads that could probably be combined into a single squad that would likely be unable to contend for their crippling lack of proficiency at a key position (in this case, the wing).

Was the game entertaining? Yes, but there was always an undercurrent of pure nonsense that was very hard to ignore.

Anywho...the first notable thing about the action on the court was Jonny Flynn being given an up-close and personal view of what the very best point guard in the league looks like. Chris Paul's PG lesson began at the opening tip and did not end until the final buzzer. Each and every thing he did should be put into a downloadable mp4 that Flynn can put on his iPod and watch over and over and over and over. Where Flynn received the ball in the 1/2 court and paused for a moment or two to digest the action, Paul demands the ball and immediately shoots into action. Where Flynn uses his body to jump into larger players to minimize his defender's ability to jump while going for a shot, Paul uses his body to position himself between his defender and the rim in order to maximize favorable angles towards the hoop that allow for both better scoring and passing options. Where Flynn is able to dribble along the baseline and throw passes across the lane to the perimeter, Paul keeps his dribble deep into the lane causing the defense to collapse and open up much more favorable passing lanes. Paul put on a point guard clinic last night. At one point near the 1/2 he had 12 assists on 27 made Hornets shots. He ended the game with 15 assists on 39 made shots. In other words, even more so than the Cleveland LeBron's, New Orleans deserves to have a new nickname. And that's the rub.

I know that Dave Berri has already weighed in on the subject but I would like to add my two cents about it: Chris Paul is the back court version of Kevin Garnett. My only question right now about this analogy is what post-04 WCF year Paul is in with the Hornets? Just how far along on the process of decay are David West and Emeka Okafor compared to their back court doppelgangers of Sam Cassell and Latrel Sprewell? With their GM now at the end of the bench have they advanced to the time of Flip's firing? Will they attempt to move Peja's contract for an even longer deal and then lock themselves into a contract hell every bit as garish as what we saw here in Minny about 4-5 years ago? Hornets fans, I feel for you. There may still be time to get something out a historical player like Paul but I have the bad feeling that you will continue to see diminishing returns in his front court partners while causing an ever-increasing salary cap tragedy. Here's hoping the NOLA Pauls can avoid the fate of KG's Wolves. He's a fantastic player to watch and he's in need of...well, again, the Wolves and Pauls could put together a super team and Corey Brewer and Ryan Gomes would be the best wing players.

Moving along to the other big story of the night, Kevin Love saw his first action of the season with just over 6 minutes remaining in the first. In just under 24 minutes of action Love went 3-7 from the floor (2-3 from 3), 3-4 from the line (leading the team in attempts), 11 boards (3 offensive), 3 assists and only 2 turnovers. He finished with a +7. His impact was immediate and wide-spread. From rebounds and quick outlet passes to spreading the floor with his outside shooting to putting the ball on the deck for the best dribble drive dish of the year by any Wolves player, Love simply impacted the game and it will be very interesting to see how his on/off numbers look and how he impacts the team's overall numbers. The guy simply makes plays at a stunning rate. He's also a massive upgrade over the minutes previously given to Ryan Hollins and Oleksiy Pecherov. Oh, and he now wears a glove. How about bedazzling that bad boy for a Michael Jackson tribute?

Let's wrap this up with some bullet points:

Al Jefferson didn't have a great game (the interior defense was lacking tonight) but he did look a bit lighter on his feet than he has all season. He had a fast break dunk and a nice put back that was great to see.
Corey Brewer must be in some kind of doghouse. Last night he logged just 17:28 and the majority of his lost minutes went to Wayne Ellington, who was able to hit some of the open shots that are frequently given to wing players in the Wolves' system.
Speaking of wing players, as I mentioned up above, this game was conspicuously lacking anything approaching decent wing play on both teams. Both of these squads need better small forward play in a bad, bad way.
As a 2 win squad the Wolves have no business chalking up losses due to referring, but last night's game featured some of the shoddiest officiating in recent memory, highlighted by one of the most baffling calls right before the half where Chris Paul jumped about 5 feet to the side just across half court to draw a three shot foul on Ryan Hollins, who just happened to be running up the court. I suppose the pro-Paul side of this argument could be that Paul was simply being the crafty veteran by taking advantage of refs who he knew would make the call in his favor, but in my mind this play is no different than flopping. Paul acted in a way that he (rightly) suspected would draw a call that had no business of being called. It was WWE/game managing referring at its very worst. It cost the Wolves 3 points. Later on in the game the refs looked away at a James Posey ball slam and there were at least 3-4 plays where Wolves players were hacked going to the rim. Again, not something that you can chalk up a loss because of but it was distracting nonetheless.

Well, that about does it from my end. What caught your eye?

Until later.

The Hoopus completely-serious-no-cynicism-what-we're-thankful-for-about-the-Wolves post

Stop-n-Pop — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:00:22 -0000

OK, this can be the happy thread. If you want the bitchy one, please scroll down to the game wrap and let it all out.

This post is to list the things that are going right with the franchise. Consider it being done with the Thanksgiving spirit.

I'm most thankful that Corey Brewer finally looks like an NBA rotation player. He looks like the type of guy who raises his game to the level of that of his teammates and I am hopeful that he and Kevin Love can eventually provide the glue around 3 more offensively-minded starters.

What say you? Who do you raise your virtual whiskey glass to?

Dealing with no hope

Stop-n-Pop — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 04:43:16 -0000

Take a good look at that picture. That's the view from the "Wolves Section" of the Scheel's store in Mankato. 4 shirts (one of them to be picked up by yours truly) surrounded by 5 Celtics shirts, 5 Lakers shirts, 5 Cavs shirts, and some Dwight Howard and Paul Pierce gear. I was out and about at 9 AM for some Black Friday craziness and I'm pretty sure I didn't miss out on the Wolves rush. What I did miss out on was the North Star rush. Check out the Stars' apparel rack:

If you look to the upper right portion of the picture you'll see that the old-school Stars logo shirts were picked through to the bone; with only smalls and XXLs still available at the same time the Wolves had XLs and Ls still available to anyone with some cash in their wallet. For those of you playing along at home, that's a fully stocked apparel stash for a team that doesn't exist compared to 4 shirts for a team that was supposed to play on ESPN tonight.

I say "tonight" because I'm writing the game wrap with 2 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter and the Wolves are flirting with a 30 point loss to the Suns on a game that was preempted for the OKC/Milwaukee tilt on national TV.

For those of you who missed out on the nationally televised game because FSN and Channel 45 didn't pick up the slack, you didn't miss anything. In fact, you may be better off not seeing what happened at the Target Center on Kurt Rambis Glasses Night. The only intrigue available to the home fans was wondering if and when Kevin Love would take off his Rambis glasses while sitting behind the Wolves' bench. Really, that's the only interesting thing about this game.

The only other interesting thing about the game was that the Suns announcing crew took shot after shot at the Wolves' front office for putting together a team that clearly can't compete at an NBA level right now. From quickies about Ricky Rubio to extended stories about how the Wolves were consistently out of position, perhaps it was a good thing that the Wolves weren't granted a national audience tonight. If they did have a spot on ESPN they may go from 4 shirts at Scheel's to 1 or 2.

Some highlights from the game: Robyn Lopez torching Al Jefferson in his first minutes of the season, Earl Clark showing all sorts of versatility, Goran Dragic getting a rebound/put-back against 2 Wolves front court players, Jonny Flynn being completely unable to run a professional offense, several mentions of the fact that the Wolves traded away 2 starters for a guy who may never play at the Target Center, and Corey Brewer missing all sorts of layups and close shots.

That's about it. There is nothing good to say about this game. There is nothing good to say about this team. Forget Brewer's effort and Ramon Sessions' ability to run something close to approaching an NBA offense, this team is unwatchable right now and I am more interested in watching the Thunder take apart the Bucks right now than I am in writing about a team that doesn't even have 5 shirts at my local sporting goods store.

We all knew this would be a bad year. We all knew there would be a pause before the flurry of using the team's considerable offseason assets. That being said, who knew it would be this bad? How can this squad, and its fans, continue at this pace? The Wolves are not even close to winning a game right now. How on earth can they use said considerable assets to put together a competitive team before they lose the increasingly obviously frustrated Al Jefferson? Love coming back will help but will it help enough to bridge the gap between the hopelessness Wolves fans currently feel right here and the now and the time where they may be competitive some time in the next...what, 2 or 3 years? This team is off of the Minny sports radar. Here in Mankato I have MSU hockey on the radio and Dr. Laura will take over when that game is finished. No one is going to the bar to watch this mess. No one is going to Scheel's to buy a shirt or a jersey (except for this guy right here). Where is this headed? What is the end game? This is unwatchable basketball. Wolves fans deserve more than this. Even the diehards. We deserve more than this. This is nonsense.

To be perfectly honest, I don't look forward to watching these games any more. I really don't look forward to writing about them. What am I supposed to write about? We all know the score right now: A complete lack of talent and a bunch of guys who don't appear to fit together. Sessions is a player. Jefferson is a player. Brewer is a player with 4 other players around him. Flynn looks like a chicken with his head cut off. Opposing announcers talking at length about how Ricky Rubio will never play here....what the hell?! Were the folks at www.firedavidkahn.com ahead of their time?

I'm sticking through this but it is increasingly becoming a chore just to pay attention to what is going on. I'm sure fellow diehards feel the same. I know they do. I get emails.

Whatever the case, the long and short of today's lesson is that I got to buy a single Wolves shirt on Black Friday and instead of finding a Wolves sweatshirt for my daughter I bought her a youth basketball for Christmas before we sat down and watched the Thunder vs. the Bucks. Forget the Wolves. I want her to be exposed to real basketball. When will we see real basketball again?

Until later.