SB Nation - Ryan Gomes

The Jonny Pod

Stop-n-Pop — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 23:54:56 -0000

I know I promised a double game wrap so let's quickly deal with the Laker game before moving along to the tilt that, unfortunately, says the most about Our Beloved Puppies: The Lakers are the best team in the NBA and there is no shame in losing to a team that could end up as one of the all-time greats. The end. As for the Kings...

I'm a big Apple fan but one of the things I can't stand the most about the company is their willingness to spring new products on their consumers with little or no warning. My personal experience dates back to the little iPod you see above. I went out and bought that little doohicky about a week, maybe two, before the iPod video launched.

I enjoyed my iPod. It iPoded well and was able to hold nearly all of my music. Yet, it probably became irrelevant at just about the time I bought it.

And so begins the career of Jonny Flynn in a league with Tyreke Evans.

I'm not really sure what the correct word is for what Evans did to Flynn last night but here are several that I think should qualify for a chance at the title: eaten, mangled, transmorgified, cold-cocked, and stampled (I made this one up). Whatever it is, I'm sure we Wolves fans will have more than enough up-close opportunities to figure it out over the next however many years.

The most disappointing thing about last night's game wasn't the action on the court. The Wolves played well early on their 4th game in 5 nights spanning from Toronto to Minneapolis to LA to Sacramento and they lost Ryan Gomes to an ugly ankle injury. It was one of those games where you can probably talk yourself into chalking the loss up to a little bit of a lack of effort, a little bit of indifference, and a whole lot of "let's get out of here". What was most disappointing about the game is that for all the talk of two top draft picks, Ricky Rubio, and future assets, the Kings--a franchise that was below the crap-ass level of the 2008/09 Wolves--fell into a bit of luck (see Evans, Tyreke) and are now miles and miles and miles beyond the Wolves. A bad game is a bad game is a bad game is a bad game (believe me, I watch the Wolves) but last night's demolition was something more. It was a realization that the Kings have something that cannot be answered by Jonny Flynn or Ricky Rubio....to say nothing of what Jason Thompson and a legit 7 footer (Spencer Hawes) means for the Wolves' front line.

For 4 quarters Evans had his way with the Wolves' back court. From post ups to Manu-esque below-the-rim drives to the hoop the guy got what he wanted when he wanted it and he did so primarily because of his physicality. He physically dominated his position more than anyone else on the court. I know we talked about his physical upside in the lead up to the draft but....well, there it was on full display. The guy is LeBron James at the point, and yes, I went there. Maybe Manu with muscles is more like it. Congrats to the Kings for finding the bit of luck that all franchises need to make the big jump from level to level.

Who is that guy for the Wolves? Well, if there is one thing to hope for it is that John Calipari can go 3-3 with dominant lead guards in the NBA Draft. If Derrick Rose is the speedster and Tyreke Evans is the physical powerhouse, here's hoping that John Wall is a magical combination of the two and that the Wolves finally end up with the top pick.

Wrapping this up, last night's loss had more to do with roster management than anything else. The Wolves have fallen behind yet another young bad team that they were ostensibly ahead of last season. At least they didn't find themselves in this position because they passed on or traded Evans in the draft. Kahn's got that going for him.

Until later.

Win Streak Hits 11, Kobe's Finger Banged

DexterFishmore — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 07:04:07 -0000

Lakerdom's lingua franca added a new medical term tonight: "avulsion fracture." That's what befell the precious right index finger of Kobe Bryant in the second quarter of a 104-92 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. It happened while he was defending Ryan Gomes near the sideline, and it sent him to the halftime locker room early. He returned, with a splint courtesy of trainer Gary Vitti, to play about 18 minutes in the second half, looking more or less OK, but he admitted after the game that it felt "pretty painful." Please commence your candlelight vigils.

The Lakers' effort level was up and down tonight. After opening up an 11-point lead early in the quarter, they let point guard Ramon Sessions engineer a comeback that made it a two-point game at half. L.A. allowed Minnesota to score 1.10 points per possession over the first two quarters, which is just absurd. The Wolves average 0.97 PPP on the season. On the road against a team with the Lakers' length, they shouldn't even sniff the 1.00 mark.

In the third quarter, the Lake Show locked everything down. They forced the Timberwolves to do what they do best - turn the rock over to the other team - and built up an 18-point margin. A key contribution was made by ~~Laker double agent~~ Minnesota head coach Kurt Rambis, who sat Sessions for the first 10 minutes of the third. Sessions was 6-for-6 in the first half, so it was nice of Rambis to cool him off.

There wasn't a lot of flow in the Laker offense tonight. It was one of their worst shooting performances in a while. Pau Gasol, though, put in an evening of solid work: 17 points, seven assists and a career-high 20 boards. Ron Artest was quietly productive (16 points, five assists and three steals), and backcourt reserves Jordan Farmar, Shannon Brown and Sasha Vujacic chipped in 22. Onward to Utah.

Before we go, however, a heartfelt plea to Stu Lantz, wherever he may be: come back soon. I AM BEGGING. Hot Rod Hundley filled in tonight, and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say his performance was the most tragic event in American history. About 80% of the game he spent mumbling impenetrably. Dude, seriously... you need to speak up and enunciate. You sound like an 80-year-old Boomhauer up past his bedtime. The remaining 20% of the game, we realized how nice things were when we couldn't understand what Hot Rod was saying.

I need my Stu back. I swear, I'm never writing a bad word about him again.

	Poss.	TO%	FTA/ FGA	FT%	EFG%	TS%	Off Reb%	Def Reb%	PPP
Minny	96	18	0.18	75	45	48	32	71	0.96
L.A.	96	15	0.14	77	49	52	29	68	1.08

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?

Some Should: Grizzlies Barely Beat Timberwolves

djturtleface — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:47:14 -0000

More photos » by Jim Mone - AP

12 days ago: Memphis Grizzlies' Marc Gasol (33), of Spain, looks to shoot as Minnesota Timberwolves' Al Jefferson, left, defends in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2009, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)

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The Memphis Grizzlies might not have righted their two game losing streak in fantastic fashion, but they pulled out of the slump in the middle of a long road trip. That's got to be worth something for these young guys.

Rudy Gay returned from his trip home to Baltimore to play well in long minutes, scoring 20 relatively efficient points and grabbing a few boards and assists on the night as well.

The Grizzlies won largely because of a huge 3rd quarter run sparked during a rather short stint by the bench, which now seems to consist of just Young, Tinsley, Thabeet, and Carroll, that the starters carried on. Otherwise the Grizzlies were outplayed slightly in each quarter.

Late in the 4th, O.J. Mayo missed two crunch-time shots, both somewhat questionable selections, but he played the hero by recovering an offensive rebound on his own second miss. Ramon Sessions then missed free throws to send the game into overtime as the Grizz sealed the less-than-stellar victory.

Get over to the boys at Canis Hoopus and stop back for more updates as I get a chance to watch the rest of the game; I only caught the last couple minutes.

Bad golf, a bit of pride and a team effort

Stop-n-Pop — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:20:30 -0000

More photos » by David Zalubowski - AP

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If you scroll down the page you will quickly come across a post giving thanks to everything good with the Wolves followed by a post wondering how fans can watch a team with very little hope for a good future. Up and down, I know.

Wolves fandom is becoming a lot like bad golf. You go out and drop good money to make bad shot after bad shot on your way to a 90 but you keep coming back because once or twice a round you put a shot about 3 feet from the pin and you talk yourself into believing that with just a little more practice, you can drop your score by 5-10 strokes, which would make it all worth your while. If I can do it once....

Last night's victory against Denver was that one good shot per round and dammit if it doesn't keep me coming back for more.

First of all, it was nice to see a team that showed some f'ing pride and refused to stop playing hard after being down 40-25 after the first quarter. With Melo hitting on all cylinders and the Wolves being outmuscled down low by Nene and K-Mart, it could have been one of those nights where no one would have batted an eye at a 30 point loss. The game got dangerously close to being flipped to another tilt on League Pass. The only thing that kept me from hitting the remote was a consistent offensive effort for 4 quarters (25, 25, 31, 25).

Getting back to the pride thing, the Wolves were staring a number of futility records straight in the face. From tying the franchise record for most loses in a row and the worst start in team history to going through the entire month of November without a win, it probably was important that they avoided sliding into any sort of "all-time worst" discussions (although that hasn't stopped ESPN).

The second thing of note was that this was a complete team effort. All 5 starters finished in double figures led by Ryan Gomes' 27 points. Gomes carried the team through long stretches of the game before being thrown a bit off with some bad calls against him with about five minutes to go in the 4th. At one point Big Al yelled "f#$k it, keep playing" at him while he was jabbering at the refs.

Gomes' line shows what the Wolves can do with decent production on the wing but you can't count on 12-18 from Mr. Gomes on a night-in/night-out basis. You also can't count on 37-69 shooting from your starting 5; at least not with this squad.

Enough with what the team can't count on. Let's focus on what went right. The Wolves won this game because of an all around team effort and solid shooting. Take a look at the Four Factors:

	Pace	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
Minnesota	97.0	109.3	53.0%	20.2	22.0	15.5
Denver		103.1	45.2%	28.6	22.9	14.4

Shooting, shooting, shooting, and more shooting. They couldn't hit the broad side of the barn from beyond the arc (3-16) but they did end up with several more fast break and transition points than I remember them getting in quite a while. I'll have to dig into the numbers after sites like 82Games and Knickerblogger are updated but the Wolves got a lot of easy looks before the defense was set. This was the sort of offense we saw glimpses of in the preseason. It is also the type of offense that allows Jonny Flynn and Corey Brewer to get the most out of their games.

Speaking of Mr. Flynn, if he ever gets the hang of the running-the-offense thing, he's going to be a pretty good player. He has an amazing ability to initiate contact against bigger players while maintaining his balance and finishing his shot. That has to be really hard to do and it really goes a long way in negating his lack of height in the lane. Moreso than in any other game this season, Flynn was able to drive and kick against the Nuggets. He had at least 4 non-assists that went to guys with wide open perimeter shots who couldn't close the deal. At no point of the game was Chauncey Billups, Aaron Affalo, or J.R. Smith in any danger of being able to stay in front of him with the ball. While he has a long way to go in terms of being able to set up his teammates in the 1/2 court, his speed and ability to control his dribble deep into the lane were, at times, game changers in Denver.

Another game changer was the intangible play of Corey Brewer. With 2 minutes to go Brewer made a fantastic, hey-where-did-he-come-from close out on an Afflalo 3 attempt (which was missed) followed 30 seconds later by another sprinting-out-of-nowhere play that broke up an easy layup by Nene (Brewer forced him to earn his points at the line where he missed 1 of 2 shots). He followed that up by bringing the ball up court against the press with 50 seconds left in the game. Let me repeat that: Corey Brewer brought the ball up court against the press with 50 seconds left in the game. An NBA game. Oh, he also had a huge and-1 with under a minute to go. The guy did it all.

Brewer ended the game with the fewest number of shots amongst the starters as well as being part of several possessions where he ran something that can only be described as a competent and productive 2 man game with a teammate on the offensive end of the court. This is a big, big deal. By being able to run a pick and roll, and by being a danger to put the ball on the deck and facilitate in the 1/2 court offense, Brewer becomes a player that has to be guarded above and beyond being within 10 feet of him (which was often the case in the past).

The main beneficiary of Brewer being a competent 1/2 court player is Al Jefferson, who was able to be useful even when his shot was not going down. Jefferson was able to operate from both sides of the lane (not just the low left block), pass to open teammates, and even disrupt a shot or two on defense. He even had the aforementioned "f-it, keep playing" rah-rah comment to Gomes. Jefferson's biggest task going forward will be to figure out if he can be an Alpha Dog who can affect the tempo and pace of the game simply by drawing double teams, crashing the boards, and running the offense through the post. He doesn't need to simply get the ball in the low block, dribble for 5 seconds and jack up a jump hook for this to happen. Here's hoping he can figure this out somewhere down the line.

I know that this game is probably the Wolves' version of putting one 3 feet from the cup but it was really nice to see some things that, hopefully, can become part of this team's character going forward. The scoring was spread out, the tempo was good, they got out in transition more than usual, Al Jefferson wasn't a black hole, they got production from the wing and opposing fans started leaving their seats with time left on the clock. Granted, a lot of it had to do with getting good nights out of guys who you probably can't count on for that type of production on a night-in/night-out basis, but the style of game was the type of thing I hope to see much more of in the future with a better roster.

Until then, I guess I'll have to settle for bad golf and a great shot every 9 holes or so.

BTW: I would be remiss if I didn't mention a gigantic WTF for Denver's coaching staff. When the game got close in the 3rd and K-Mart was jacking up 20 footers while Carmelo Frickin' Anthony is standing in front of a bunch of home refs instead of taking it into the lane, I...well, seriously, WTF?! Why wait until 2 minutes to go to give the guy the ball to bring up the court and tear apart whoever is guarding him? You don't get to have teen-quarters against a team like the Wolves with Melo on the team. Post him up, let him bring it up the court, whatever....it was ugly.

Unacceptable... (Nuggets/T'Wolves recap)

Andrew Feinstein — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:02:02 -0000

There are good losses, bad losses and unacceptable losses. This one falls squarely in the "unacceptable" column.

Call me the Nuggets Curmudgeon from now on, because I've had it with the way this team is playing. Going back to the Nuggets no-show performance against the Heat in Miami at the beginning of the month, the Nuggets nasty habit of waltzing through games against lesser competition finally bit them in the ass tonight. Could this be the wake up call the Nuggets needed moving forward? Or was tonight's unacceptable (I'll get to why it's unacceptable in a moment) loss to the god awful Timberwolves be the continuation of a pattern that we'll be seeing all season long?

Sitting at 12-5, in theory there shouldn't be much to complain about. In theory. But among those 17 games played, only five - home against Utah and the Lakers, on the road against Portland, Miami and Atlanta - were against teams that actually scare anyone in the NBA, and including Miami in that fivesome is a stretch. While the Nuggets have been cursed with a league high 22 back-to-backs, they were also given a blessing by getting 13 weak opponents out of their first 18 games (Golden State being the 13th weak opponent...coming into Pepsi Center on Tuesday).

But rather than take advantage of these circumstances and pad the win column early as they did admirably last season, the Nuggets have pissed away two should've/could've/gift wrapped victories (at the Clippers last week against an injury-depleted Clips squad and tonight against the lowly Wolves) and almost gave away a third to the Knicks on Friday night.

Before everyone says I'm being too negative, allow me to explain the difference between a good loss, a bad loss and an unacceptable loss.

When the Nuggets lost to the Bucks in Milwaukee, I'd call that a good loss. The Nuggets were wrapping up a tough road trip that included three pairs of back-to-back games, and even though the Bucks were the more energized team the Nuggets dug deep and put up a fight through the very end of the game.

When the Nuggets lost to the injury-rattled Clippers in Los Angeles last week, that was a bad loss. The Nuggets had been off for two days, had played only twice in eight days (both at home) prior to that game and both those games were walkover, no-energy-needed contests. But they were on the road and anything can happen on the road.

Tonight's game falls into the nether regions known as an unacceptable loss. Entering tonight's contest, the Nuggets had a day off, last played at home and, oh yeah, the Wolves were 1-and-fucking-15 before tonight! All the Nuggets had to do was watch game tape of their easy victory against the Wolves in Minneapolis last week to further exploit the Wolves myriad problems, pound the ball inside and play halfway decent defense.

So who were the culprits for tonight's embarrassing home defeat? In no particular order, allow me...

...head coach George Karl, for waiting until the five or so minute mark remaining in the game to demand that his team start playing harder and turn up the pressure on the Wolves (according to Altitude's Maya Starks).

...Carmelo Anthony, for continuing his El Matador-style defense for the second game in a row turning Ryan Gomes into an All-Star while getting to the free throw line for a mere five attempts. Five attempts?!!

...Chauncey Billups, for continually chucking three's even though he made just 25% of them tonight and finished a ghastly 2-13 overall (and yes, I had claimed Chauncey's shot was back after the Knicks game...shows you what I know).

...J.R. Smith for playing defense so erratically, I thought he might take out all his teammates on several possessions like a bowling ball crashing into the pins.

...Ty Lawson for being so careless with the ball, I thought Anthony Carter had suddenly reemerged as the backup point guard.

...Chris Andersen for remaining grounded as teams take it right at him inside with no fear whatsoever. Three @#$%& rebounds? Three?!!

Ok. Deep breath. My venting is over (for now). I still have the utmost confidence that this Nuggets team can make noise when it counts. But when they finish one game behind Portland or Dallas for homecourt advantage in the second round of the playoffs (forget the Nuggets catching the Lakers by season's end, that ain't happening) remember this loss. This unacceptable, unwarranted, inexcusable, horrible loss.

Photo courtesy of AP: David Zalubowski

Mavericks Vs T-Wolves: Game 9 Preview

Phillip Baggett — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:52:07 -0000

The Match-ups:

Point Guard

Jason Kidd: Jason like the rest of the Mavs Wednesday night had a subpar shooting night (not that any of us expect him to score a ton of points, but still), he did however have a solid night on the defensive end. It will be up to Jason to get this offense started. The Maverick offense has been very lethargic and downright maddening at times. Mr. Kidd is at his best when those around him are cutting to the basket, and the T-Wolves defense is awful. Look for Kidd and his mates to run and run often.

vs.

Jonny Flynn: Flynn the T-Wolves first round draft choice this year from Syracuse is a nice player, and he has gotten his NBA career off to a good start. Flynn comes into tonight's game averaging 15 pts., 3 assists, and 3 reb. Per contest. Jonny is a shoot first point guard who can create his own shot (this is a requirement to play in Minnesota). He has been a little careless with the ball however. On the flip side his defensive skills are pretty good as he creates almost as many turnovers on defense as he does when he has the ball.

Edge: Mavericks

Shooting Guard

~~Josh Howard~~, Rodrigue Beaubois: Josh continues to struggle with the health of his surgically repaired ankle. I would not be surprised if he does not sit out tonight's game. If Josh plays, look for the Mavs to use him sparingly and in short bursts. While the Mavs could really use his aggressive style and rebounding, the risk versus reward ratio is way off balance. If Howard cannot go look for Roddy B to get his second start (if Carlisle starts Barea instead I am gonna scream!)

vs.

Cory Brewer: Brewer has not been just exactly what the Wolves had hoped for when they selected him in the first round in 2007. While his point totals have risen this year (career 6.4, this year 11.8), it's mainly due to him simply being on the court longer. Brewers minutes have risen from 22minutes per, to 33 minutes per. As his field goal percentage is still hideous (38% career, 36% this year) the worst part about all this is he is worse on the defensive end. Brewer's opponents (based on 48 minutes) average 29.6 points per, against him.

Edge: Mavericks

Forward

Shawn Marion: 8 games 13 free throws, WTF?????????

vs.

Ryan Gomes: The T-Wolves version of Erick Dampier. Never know which Ryan will show up. Some nights Ryan goes for 12 and 12 and then he will go for 2 and 4, it is a crap shoot with him.

Edge: Mavericks

Power Forward

Dirk Nowitzki: Can you please find your jump shot? And can you please tell your teammates to stop standing around watching you work?

vs.

~~Al Jefferson~~, Ryan Hollins: Umm... yeah no chance

Edge: Mavericks

Center

Erick Dampier: One would have to assume that Dampier got an earful from his head coach after his poor performance against the Spurs. I would also assume that Dampier will draw the defensive assignment of Nathan Jawai, so look for a big night from Dampier unless Minnesota goes small.

vs.

Nathan Jawai: Let's just put it this way the Mavericks traded Jawai for "a conditional 2^nd round pick in 2012", now while I like his physical attributes he is still very raw, make no mistake he is not Al Jefferson.

Edge:

Injuries/Suspensions

Minnesota T-Wolves

OUT - Kevin Love (broken hand)

OUT - Al Jefferson (family illness)

Dallas Mavericks

OUT - Tim Thomas (recovering from knee surgery)

OUT - Josh Howard (his ankle of course)

Prediction: This game should be a blowout and the blowout should start at the time of tip off, but something tells me this T-Wolves team will hang around for a bit before they bow out.

Mavericks- 113

Timberwolves - 90

Mavericks vs Timberwolves preview

Mavericks vs Timberwolves coverage

Cap space and draft picks oh my!

Stop-n-Pop — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:55:36 -0000

More photos » by Don Ryan - AP

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The caption on this picture says that Jonny Flynn is battling Steve Blake and LaMarcus Aldridge during the first half of their game. In reality, Flynn had lost control of his dribble and simply fallen over in the lane, dropping the ball into the hands of a Portland defense who was willing and able to relieve him of possession. Such was the night for the Wolves. These are the sorts of contests where you really hope that the Wolves' coaching staff knows what they are doing because to the fan's naked eye, there really wasn't anything that went right. Nothing.

BTW: before you head below the jump, you should click here to read our newest feature: Money Talks with shrink.

We all knew this was going to be a long season. We all knew the Wolves weren't going to be world beaters. Most fans know that the Wolves have put themselves into a situation with a solid organizational future filled with cap space and draft picks. We know that the new coaching staff is installing a system with a high learning curve. We all know that being a Wolves fan in 2009/10 requires a load of patience.

All of that being written, there are some quarters, some halves, and some nights--even this early in the season--where even the most patient amongst us has to be wondering "what the hell?"

David Kahn started his tenure by priming the pump for an expectation of a two point guard system. He drafted a bunch of points, signed one more, and then hired a coach who won't put two points on the floor together. Al Jefferson, the team's highest scorer and best paid player, is looking completely hampered by injury and by a system that seems 100% not geared to utilize his talents. The team's best all-around player is out for 6-8 weeks with a broken hand and will probably take a few weeks to get back in the swing of things once he finally finds his way back onto the court.

I give this team about a 2% chance of finishing the season with its current roster. Something is going to give. Someone is going to get moved. This is a good thing. This team has a lot of assets and, by all accounts, they have a hard working VPBO who is willing to make the big deal. The problem for us fans is that the current product is...well, what are we supposed to feel about it on nights like the ones against Milwaukee and Portland? This team was blown up in the off season and it looks even more mismatched than last year's group. Yes, Jonny Flynn is intriguing. Yes, it looks like Kurt Rambis and his staff knows what they are doing, but can this franchise weather the storm of unwatchable ball with players who are likely not part of the long term plan? Who on this club can you be sure will be around in 2 months? Really, even Al Jefferson has to be put into question at this point. He looks like a square peg out there...a square peg who can't play defense and is 30 pounds more mismatched at the 5.

It's not that they're not playing hard. It's not that there aren't some things to be excited about, but...well, I don't think I really appreciated just how much Kahn's early dealing put this entire franchise into a state of flux and how that would affect my interest in what is going on out there on the court. I will watch the games because I love pro ball and the Wolves are my favorite team, but watching the squad against the Blazers I couldn't help but think that we're going to see about 10 more changes to this team in the next year and that I have more allegiance to what might happen than to whatever Pecherov, Wilkins, Cardinal based rotation we see run out on the floor. Jonny Flynn can put up 20 points a night but the most exciting thing about this club is still its cap space and draft picks. That's crazy. A lot of people have emailed me to ask me when I think the Wolves will "turn the corner". My answer to this is the moment we stop talking about draft picks and cap space for about 10 games in a row. For now, it's more entertaining to talk about things like whether or not Big Al is a fit or whether Ryan Gomes and Ramon Sessions will get traded before the end of the year. That's a bit more problematic than I thought it would be at the start of the season.

Getting around to the actual game, here's the Four Factors:

	Pace	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
Minnesota	94.0	98.9	48.8%	14.5	21.3	16.0
Portland		123.4	54.3%	32.9	29.3	13.8

(UPDATE) The PopcornMachine GameFlow is available here. (UPDATE)

The most disappointing aspect of this particular game was a complete unwillingness of anyone in blue to attack the paint. Greg Oden is a nice young center and the Blazers have a lot of young athletic wings who can make that sort of thing a bit of a pain, but if you are going to win in the NBA you need to attack the rim and get to the line.

Another disappointing thing of note was the Wolves getting out-assisted 35 to 19 and out-rebounded by 10. Al Jefferson was in full Black Hole mode, drawing the entire offense to a grinding halt whenever he touched the ball while taking a good 5-6 seconds to set up a one-handed push shot that rarely was on mark. Nathan Jawai repaced him and proceeded to find Ramon Sessions twice in the middle of the lane where he could do nothing with the ball because he was surrounded by nothing but trees. On too many possessions, 3 or 4 Wolves just stood around and watched.

As for the rebounding...the less said about that the better.

I don't have any bullet points for this game. It was completely non-descript on the part of the Wolves. Jawai had some nice moves, Gomes played OK, and Corey Brewer found some time to make a few good hustle plays as well as keeping the Wolves from getting ally-ooped on a couple of times.

The last thing I have to say about this game is that I hope whoever gets to stick around for 2-3 years remembers this one. I hope they remember the Blazers taking 3s and going for the Sports Center dunks while being up by 25 (quick side note: how in the world did Ramon Sessions get called for a foul when Martell Webster jumped on his back?). This is one of those tilts that you have to file away in the revenge file. The Blazers came out and kicked the you-know-what out of the Wolves and they kept on kicking when they were down. I'll never hope an injury on anyone but this was one of those games where you were kind of hoping Jawai or Brian Cardinal would have put someone trying a 3 while up by nearly 30 on their back. Perhaps the Wolves aren't even at that level of play. Maybe there's nothing long term for the majority of these guys to protect. Whatever the case, here's hoping someone remembers what kind of crap was put out there last night and does something to change it when they get the chance with a better surrounding cast somewhere way, way, way down the line...well past 70+ more games of wondering who will get to stay or go, and what, if anything, will be done with all that cap space.

Until later.

Game 7 Preview: Timberwolves vs. Blazers

Dave — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:26:03 -0000

Game Time: 6:00 p.m. Pacific TV: Comcast

Suffering through the latest in an interminable litany of rough starts to their seasons, the Minnesota Timberwolves bring a 1-5 record into the Rose Garden tonight to face the Blazers. If this surprises you then you might also be shocked to learn that it's a little cold in Minnesota this time of year. And that hockey is popular there. And that if you want gravy with your meal you have your choice of white, off-white, beige, or cream...which is also the standard culinary color palette of the region. But that's OK, because all they eat is soup. Except in the summer, which lasts exactly 2.5 days in early August. That's when everybody flocks to the lakeshore to get eaten by mosquitoes. Well, except for the substantial portion of the population that can't get to the lakeshore because of all of the road construction they do in those 2.5 days. Gotta fix the potholes yanno. In Oregon "pothole" is that depression in your seat divider where you hide your stash, but in Minnesota they can literally swallow your car. This is not only bad for your shocks, it leaves nasty abrasions from the gravel that has collected at the bottom from last year's snow traction follies.

In any case, even though the ‘Wolves have hit the NBA pothole from hell, to their credit they've only been blown out twice, actually generating a close finish against Boston and a reasonable one against Phoenix. But close only counts in prom dancing and federal budget planning. 1-5 is 1-5 and the Blazers should be prepared to take this team out early and never let them back in.

One of the chief sources of Minnesota's woes, besides never being able to live down having elected an ex-wrestler to the state's highest office (darn you, Iron Range!), has been the shaky recovery of star forward Al Jefferson from knee and Achilles problems. Jefferson is back into the rotation this year but he's shooting 39.6% from the field. That's a bad number for your gunner guard. From the forward-center upon whom you depend for superstar production it's a disaster. Like the Jell-o running out before supper. Or Gary Anderson missing his only field goal of the year just when you need those three points to take you to the Sup...uhhhh...sorry. Too soon? My bad. Jefferson has had a couple nice games but he's been inconsistent. Naughty or nice, he's not been able to lead them to wins. They've just gotten closer when he's played better.

One of the bright spots of the young season has been rookie point guard Jonny Flynn, whose name sounds like he should be the lead character in a Broadway Musical. "What are you doing here, Jonny Flynn?" "Why I'm here to court trouble, and woo a girl, and build the most fantastical contraption the world has ever seen!" Flynn's fantastical contraptivating has propelled him to a 51% shooting clip and 15 points on 10.5 shots per game. He's been averaging only 3.2 assists per game though, coupled with 3.3 turnovers. Stop me if you've heard this one before. A Minnesota GM walks into the draft and says, "Give me a point guard who's more of a scoring guard and can't really take care of the ball." That said, Flynn has more promise than Randy Foye or the boatload of point guards who preceded him and is likely to be a nice pick-up for the team.

Another new arrival is forward Oleksiy Pecherov, late of the Washington Wizards. He's got a sneaky offensive game, gives energy, and can rebound some. He's been doing both for the ‘Wolves and appears to be blossoming in his new home. Less successful has been point guard Ramon Sessions who can't seem to get used to the new system, new teammates, and the expectations that have been put upon him. He's falling deeper and deeper into the rotation. 7-footer Ryan Hollins also comes off the bench to provide a small scoring boost.

A couple stalwarts from past years remain with the team. Ryan Gomes is a 6'7" bruiser with range who always gives the Blazers fits. Corey Brewer is an energy guy with no offensive game...and often not much energy.

The ‘Wolves had a difficult time last season in part because they started three forwards and no center. Their solution to the problem this year is to start four forwards and no center. Having ditched Foye in the backcourt they now send Brewer out there. For the record that's one small forward, one swing small-power forward, and two power forwards plus Jonny Flynn. But don't worry, that'll only last until Kevin Love's hand heals. Then they'll probably get rid of that pesky small forward and just go with four power forwards and Flynn.

Fielding that lineup it's little surprise that Minnesota is coughing the ball up like a loogie in the snow. They're also shooting an anemic percentage from the field and an abysmal percentage from the three-point arc. They're giving up more foul shots than they generate. Their shot blocking can best be described as "Minnesota Nice". They're only barely holding their own on the boards. It's a bigger nightmare than that time they caught revered columnist Sid Hartman French kissing a llama in the janitor's closet at the Star-Trib. Ewwwww...the flashbacks are the worst.

If Minnesota is going to win they need you to make a ton of mistakes, pay no attention on the boards, and they need to get hot from the field. That's a pretty tall order. Let's hope the Blazers aren't in an obliging mood.

Pivotal Points of the Game

1. If you hound their point guards, who else is going to handle the ball? Or make a pass? Or do anything good besides put up a possibly awkward shot?

2. Even though you want to make it tough for Flynn and company to move the ball you can actually relax if their point guards score. They'll not win the game on their own. The only guy who can possibly do that is Jefferson. Don't let him wake up and you have the ball game.

3. This game should be an offensive buffet for Portland. They have no shot-blockers, so get the ball inside. Posting with Oden is good. Driving guards are good. They pretty much have to commit extra men to stop any aggression. When they do that, flick the ball outside. They'll not recover from the perimeter and you should be able to feast on threes all night long. If your offense is struggling you stopped you. They won't do it.

4. The only other key is not to get lazy or complacent. Any team can grab offensive rebounds and score off of misses. Any team can run out and convert your careless turnovers. Play professional basketball, walk away with the win. Don't let them think they have a chance.

Check out the Minnesota point of view with our old friends at CanisHoopus.

Enter tonight's Jersey Contest here.

--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)

Love Hurts

Stop-n-Pop — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 14:45:09 -0000

OK, it's starting to add up. Losing Kevin Love and his .208 WP48, 4.1 FTA/game, league-leading 15.1 oreb%, top-10 dreb%, and #2 overall reb% hurts. The team is already in the performance hole with the loss of Mike Miller's minutes at the off-guard, but losing Love's 30+ mpg to Oleksiy Pecherov and Ryan Hollins is costing this team the production it should have when the White Hole and Antigravity replace the minutes formerly used up by Craig Smith and Shelden Williams/Jason Collins. Yes, the two 7-footers are putting decent numbers, but they would even better if they were moved down a notch on the depth chart.

Last night the Wolves were a -9 on the offensive glass. It was even uglier when you calculated the percentage of available misses grabbed by the X-mas tree color clad visitors. The Bucks grabbed an astounding 36.2% of available misses on the offensive end of the court compared to the Wolves' 19%. If you can grab 1/3 of your misses, and you have a big beastie like Andrew Bogut in the paint, chances are a decent number of those misses are headed right into the bucket.

In just 6 short games the Wolves are getting destroyed at the 4/5 in the rebounding department, averaging -7.4 reb/game between the two positions. Last year, the team was a net 1.6 positive at the power forward and center. Granted, you can't view these numbers in a vacuum and the loss of Mike Miller is going to cause opposing bigs to get their grubby mitts on a few extra balls per game, but the overall point I'm making here is that losing one of the NBA's top 2-3 rebounders hurts in a bad way and the Wolves are starting to see the effect of this much production lost over even a short period of 6 games. We're already approaching the time where we can start talking about how Love's departure has cost the team 1 win. Of course, what they are losing in rebounding they could be making up in defense and we'll have to wait and see how the balance plays out. There are a lot of factors that play into something like this and I don't want to make a blanket statement, but I'll say it again: losing a top-flight rebounder when trying to rehab a center on the fly next to two new frontcourt players is going to have an impact, possibly a big one...relatively speaking.

Speaking of stats, Knickerblogger and 82Games are now updated for the current season. The early returns are that the White Hole is playing pretty well and that Jefferson is a pretty average (at best) player right now. Corey Brewer isn't rebounding his position nearly as well as Mike Miller did, Ryan Gomes has picked up some of the rebounding slack, and Jonny Flynn is a good scorer but a, thus far, lousy facilitator.

Speaking of Mr. Flynn and the anticipated PGBR (Point Guard Battle Royale), he scored 12 of his 20 points in the final 9:40 of the game, well after the game was decided. This isn't a complaint. Rather, it's a hope that the Wolves quickly figure out that Mr. Flynn can get pretty much wherever he wants to go with the ball in the 1/2 court and that he might be the team's best scoring option when the offense isn't clicking. In other words, when they start a quarter on a -8 run and nothing seems to be working, Flynn might be a more attractive offensive option than what Big Al is currently bringing to the mix. Flynn's PPR is a terrible -4.5 at the moment. Hopefully he'll begin to figure out the facilitation thing but for the time being he's a scorer, and a fairly decent one for having just 6 games under his belt. What I'm getting at here is that if Flynn is going to be a scorer, part of his development will be to figure out when to take it to the rim on 4 or 5 straight possessions when the game is still on the line, not when it's already decided. BTW: Here's hoping and praying that 4th Quarter Flynn never makes its way of the Wolves' PR Department's lexicon.

A few bullet points to wrap things up:

Al Jefferson was absolutely manhandled by Andrew Bogut.
Luke Ridnour won the PGBR.
Andrew Bogut went to the bench with 2 fouls with just under 5 minutes to go in the 1st quarter. The Wolves were up by 7 at the time and they couldn't take advantage of having the big guy on the bench. This is where the game was really lost. The Wolves could have put the Bucks away in the later part of the 1st and the opening part of the 2nd. Instead, we were treated to some of the ugliest ball of the year: bad shooting, turnovers, terrible decisions, and so on and so forth.
Speaking of awfulness, this game probably had worse reffing than the Celtics tilt. My favorite stretch was when Big Al swiped at a ball in Bogut's hands, missed, and hit him in the face. This happened right in front of the Bucks' bench and Scott Skiles went nuts and got a technical. A minute later Big Al made a nice drive to the hoop, was hacked by Bogut (which would have been his 3rd foul in the 1st half), and was not given a whistle...in other words, it was the 3rd or 4th makeup call of the night in a managed game that 100% absolutely did not need to be managed. The refs didn't cost the Wolves the game but they did make a hefty contribution to the unentertaining nature of the contest. I'm putting my vote in for the makeup call being the worst thing in the NBA.
After a 4-16 effort from the floor, Brandon Jennings saw his FG% dip from .429 to .395. As was mentioned in yesterday's preview post, Jennings takes around a quarter of his shots from beyond the arc. Yesterday 4 of his 16 shots were from beyond the arc and he is down to .409 from .440. He is going to be an exciting player but the shot just isn't there and I think it's pretty obvious that he simply had a hot 3 game streak to start his career. That being said, his facilitation game is clearly ahead of Flynn right now. This may have a lot to do with the different systems being run by the Wolves and the Bucks (Jennings looked great running plays that Flynn would run were he on the Bucks).
Comment of the night:

This game is kind of spooky...

Like watching us play ourselves.

by mutleyil on Nov 6, 2009 8:01 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Indeed.

Yesterday I put up a post about Rick Kamla's questionable comment about Yi Jianlian and my disbelief that he could continue to do interviews on outlets like KFAN and not be questioned about his remarks. In the interest of a greater context, I would like to point out that there is a much, much, much bigger black eye in the NBA right now and his name is Donald Sterling.

Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Donald Sterling, owner of the National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Clippers, agreed to pay $2.73 million to settle a U.S. government lawsuit in which he was accused of housing discrimination.

The payment is the largest ever obtained by the government in a discrimination case involving apartment rentals, the Justice Department said today in a statement.

"Housing is a basic human need, and yet decades after passage of the Fair Housing Act far too many still encounter barriers like discrimination," Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez said in the statement. "The magnitude of this settlement should send a message to all landlords that we will vigorously pursue violations of the Fair Housing Act."

The government sued Sterling in August 2006, saying he discriminates against black and Hispanic prospective tenants in buildings he owns in Los Angeles’s Koreatown area. Sterling owns about 119 apartment buildings in Los Angeles County, according to the Justice Department’s statement.

Sterling is a slumlord who likes to pay for sex:

Donald Sterling, the miserly tycoon who owns the Los Angeles Clippers, testified last year that he regularly paid a Beverly Hills woman for sex, describing her as a $500-a-trick "freak" with whom he coupled "all over my building, in my bathroom, upstairs, in the corner, in the elevator." Sterling's graphic testimony--which came during a two-day pretrial deposition in connection with a lawsuit he filed against the woman, Alexandra Castro--will surely nettle basketball commissioner David Stern, who normally has to explain away the behavior of 20-something athletes, not married 70-year-old club owners worth nearly a billion.

It kind of puts the dress code in an entirely new context, doesn't it?

There's more. The ultimate must-read article in the Sterling collection is this ESPN ditty, which contains the following gems:

"For years he has run semianonymous ads (crude design jobs he reportedly locks up himself) seeking 'hostesses' for Clippers events and his private parties. ... According to testimony Jaksy gave under oath, Sterling touched her in ways that made her uncomfortable and asked her to visit friends of his for sex. Sterling also repeatedly ordered her to find massage therapists to service him sexually, telling her, 'I want someone who will, you know, let me put it in or who [will] suck on it.'"

And:

"When Sterling first bought the Ardmore, he remarked on its odor to Davenport. 'That's because of all the blacks in this building, they smell, they're not clean,' he said, according to Davenport's testimony. 'And it's because of all of the Mexicans that just sit around and smoke and drink all day.' He added: 'So we have to get them out of here.' ...[Kandynce] Jones had repeatedly walked to the apartment manager's office to plead for assistance, according to sworn testimony given by her daughter Ebony Jones in the Housing Rights Center case. Kandynce Jones' refrigerator dripped, her dishwasher was broken, and her apartment was always cold. Now it had flooded. Davenport reported what she saw to Sterling, and according to her testimony, he asked: 'Is she one of those black people that stink?' When Davenport told Sterling that Jones wanted to be reimbursed for the water damage and compensated for her ruined property, he replied: 'I am not going to do that. Just evict the bitch.'"

Deadspin has more. As long as this man owns an NBA team, anything that comes out of David Stern's mouth about player conduct should be taken with an appropriately large grain of salt. BTW: It's kind of amazing that such a big stink was made about Rush Limbaugh owning an NFL team when guys like Sterling are around.

BTW: Here are the Four Factors of last night's game:

	Pace	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
Milwaukee	91.0	95.6	45.7%	14.6	36.2	20.9
Minnesota		79.1	41.9%	13.5	19.0	23.1