SB Nation - Jonny Flynn

Game Wrap Open Thread

Stop-n-Pop — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:46:16 -0000

More photos » by Michael Dwyer - AP

What do you say about a team that played like dogs against a squad that appeared to shut it down somewhere in the 2nd quarter? I've got nothing. I was tempted to turn the channel to a football game right around the time the camera pulled away to show KG joking around with Pierce on the bench with about 10 minutes to go in the 2nd. It was over at that point. The Wolves clawed their way back into the teens against the Boston scrubs, but the only reason this tilt wasn't a 50-point blowout was because Boston took their foot off the pedal...early.

I would like to point out two things. First, at no point during this game was Jonny Flynn ever in danger of setting up a teammate for an easy shot. Never before have I seen someone with more than 20 points get taken apart like he got taken apart by Rajon Rondo. Flynn spent the game about 10 feet off of Rondo begging him to shoot. Rondo did not take the bait and he still found ways to torch Flynn for 13 points (on .500 shooting), 15 rebounds, and 3 steals.

Second, I'd like to point out this fanpost from Rumblebee:

David Kahn about a month ago implied he may not make any significant moves (beyond the draft) to improve the team before next season (such as using cap space). I just saw another comment that gives me the same impression:

Sam Amick: Wolves content to wait for Rubio in the Sacramento Bee.

In the article about Rubio, Kahn mentioned he thinks the Wolves are three or four years away and will then explode as a contender (I'm paraphrasing). This is not the kind of comment someone would make if he were planning on using cap space to bring in a dynamic player this summer, or at the deadline in February. I am sure Kahn would pull the trigger if offered a ridiculous deal, but otherwise it appears the cap space will not be leveraged for at least another year.

That's my read on it too. I know the team will not turn up its nose at a target of opportunity, but this fan base isn't going to wait 2-3 more years with this type of product. It's not. There's not that many of us left. I'd like to think that they have the time to be patient but they don't. On a night where the Wolves played the team that turned itself around faster than any other team in the league, I think most fans are hoping for a Boston-esque approach rather than the Portland plan.

Oh well. It was a bad game and the late game "effort" was only brought about by playing a team that didn't give a rat's you-know-what and passed on beating them down by 30+.

What did you notice about the game?

Preposterous Statements

Stop-n-Pop — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:45:35 -0000

For those of you who are fans of the noon to three program on KFAN you are probably aware of the (in)famous preposterous statement contest where the host and the interim producer gather the silliest and most over-the-top statements from the world of sports and then run them off against each other in a winner-take-all tourney for preposterous statement champion of the world.

During yesterday's pro'grum they added the following statement (from a caller): "If [the Wolves] add a good shooting guard and a center, they'd be a .500 team."

There are two angles to this statement. On one hand, the idea the Wolves are two competent players away from being a .500 team isn't all that far out of an idea. In fact, we here at Hoopus have said over and over that the Wolves need to add a wing player like Rudy Gay and an athletic big like Joakim Noah or Jason Thompson in order to take the next step before hoping that the Sessions/Rubio/Flynn/(Wall?) battle can play itself out at the point.

On the other hand, the idea that the few remaining Wolves fans are in a position to talk excitedly about the addition of 2 more competent players in order to make it to an even split in their record is...well, that's kind of preposterous. It's really preposterous.

What is also preposterous is trying to draw any conclusions about this team from any single game of action. After performing like up-tempo gangbusters against the talented Utah Jazz, the Wolves came out an laid a preposterous egg against the Clips. This team is a whole lot of hit and (mostly) miss right now and if I had to pick one or two angles that would determine whether or not they will win, it would be the play of Jonny Flynn and the nondescript wings. Against Utah, Corey Brewer and Jonny Flynn went off and the team was able to compete. Against the Clips, not so much.

OK, that in mind, and with clear understanding that there are no grand themes you can take away from any of these games other than that Minny is out manned by a mile, let's get around to last night's tilt. It was notable for three reasons:

Effort. Last night the Wolves played like dogs. With OKC/Dallas and Sacramento/Washington on ESPN, there were plenty of other entertaining NBA viewing options last night and yours truly took full advantage of the remote in order to see them. Again, I don't think this effort is indicative of a larger trend (i.e. a team that quits); rather, it was simply a bad night in terms of effort and focus. Who should be blamed for this? Ultimately, the coaching staff but that doesn't really matter. What matters is that I found it pretty damn easy to flip the channel to watch the Thunder and Kings, two teams that were worse than the 2008/09 Wolves and who are now both hugely watchable, entertaining, and competitive. I think the Wolves are filled to the brim with a bunch of fine outstanding citizens who I really want to see succeed (for example: Brewer and Gomes) but ultimately there is a line that I'm not going to cross in terms of watching a bad product. Last night's game was a bad product. Too many blank stares and possessions with no ball movement. The Wolves had a chance to cut the lead below 10 with a few minutes to go in the 3rd. Instead of moving the ball around and attacking the paint like they were in the first quarter and a half of play, they ended the possession with two soul-sucking Al Jefferson 15 foot jump shots that book-ended an offensive rebound to keep the play alive. Each time he got the ball during this stretch, Big Al grinded the possession to a halt, faced his defender, and moseyed around a bit before jacking up a mid range jumper on a night where he wasn't shooting well. During the first quarter and a half, the ball was moving, players were driving and kicking, and the Wolves were scoring in transition. At somewhere during the middle of the 2nd quarter, it seemed like a switch went off and ball movement went out the window.
Shooting. A byproduct of bad ball movement and poor effort was a mountain of long and mid range jumpers from a squad that doesn't have any good shooters. The Wolves ended the game with an eFG of 39%. If you throw out Kevin Love's 7-12 effort, they only posted a 35% eFG while going 0-9 from beyond the arc. It's not just that the Wolves were taking long and mid range jumpers, it's that they were taking contested long and mid range jumpers without making attempts to turn their bad look into something better for a teammate. Again, effort contributed to the poor shooting and it led to many a click over to the Dallas/OKC game where I was almost blinded by the awful orange shoes of the Thunder.
Weak side defense. Ouch. I can't remember how many times during the game where I watched a Clipper player (usually Baron Davis) dribble to the corner, get doubled, and then kick the ball across the court for an open shot and/or drive. It wasn't just that the Wolves were doubling a guy they should have been begging to shoot, it was that the other three puppies on the court seemed hell-bent on drifting towards the double-team, further opening up the weak side of the court. I'm not the only person to notice this:

Minnesota has no orientation whatsoever to their defense. Like a lot of young units, the Wolves’ off-ball defenders overplay the strong side. There are moments when Baron is trapped in the right corner with two other defenders cheating that way (2nd, 3:50). Smart teams beg Baron to shoot from that distance, but for some reason the Wolves think they can beat the Clips by pressuring Davis. This dynamic is one reason Rasual Butler is able to find as many clean looks as he does against Wayne Ellington and Corey Brewer in the second quarter, and why the Clips are able to reverse the ball for easy shots at will.

It was also noticed by the coaching staff:

"Our weakside defense was awful. It was absolutely awful. We were unattentive, we didn't anticipate, we didn't read. Very poor," Rambis said. "We didn't root guys off the post, didn't try to deny post opportunities, and our double teams were sporadic. Getting to cutters, rotating to shooters, the whole thing collapsed. That was a disappointment."

It was atrocious. Aggressive double teaming is one thing, having the other guys on the floor getting locked in on the double team and drifting towards it is another. Again, this is another example of poor effort and a lack of concentration. The Wolves really blew it last night. They had a chance to put together their first winning streak of the season against a below average Clipper squad at home. Instead of taking advantage of an opportunity to (relatively) raise the roof and give their hometown fans something to be excited about, they laid an egg and made them turn the channel. Now that's preposterous.

GameFlow can be found here. Four Factors if you care:

	Pace	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
LA Clippers	98.0	122.4	57.8%	17.8	31.0	10.2
Minnesota		96.9	39.0%	26.4	28.6	12.2

You may notice that today's post was led off with a picture of a Sacramento Monarch. That woman's name is Rebekkah Brunson. She is the 6'3" former All Star forward taken by the Lynx with the 2nd pick in the WNBA dispersal draft. She has a career 18.5 reb% and last year she put up a PER of 19.1. While the Wolves are busy putting up dud efforts on nights where they should be giving their equivalent of a playoff effort, the Lynx are busy putting together one of the best young rosters in all of professional basketball. Is it too late to put Roger Griffith in charge of the Wolves? if you are a fan of great basketball, the best basketball in town for the next few years will indeed be played in the Target Center...by the Lynx. They are putting together a championship caliber squad. Here's hoping David Kahn can follow suit with the guys in the men's locker room.

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.

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.

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.

Game Wrap Haiku

Stop-n-Pop — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:21:19 -0000

More photos » by Jeff Lewis - AP

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Clips announcers, wow!

Al Jefferson, many walk

Bassy, game's best point

At least this one was close and interesting. The best part of the night was watching the Clippers announcing crew apologize for their very own Iran-Gate right before one of them told the world that "I'm not going to ask you where [Nate] Jawai is from." Really? You don't own a program and you don't want to hazard a guess? Lordy, how do guys like this get in front of a mic? I know that Donald Sterling owns the team but come on; when your lily-white announcers are cracking jokes about not knowing the origins of players, presumably because they have dark pigmentation and foreign accents, it may be time to rethink whether or not the guys with the live-feed access to thousands of people are smart enough to have that sort of position. Thank goodness for J-Pete and Hanny and thank goodness we don't root for the Clips.

More game-based wrappiness to follow in a bit.

UPDATE: My intertronz went down today and I didn't get a chance to put up the game wrap. What I do want to note is that Al Jefferson ended the game with 8 turnovers including a few traveling calls down the stretch. Al is clearly getting his sea legs under him but one of the things that made him such a wonderful player in the past was his ability to post a high usage rate without a lot of TOs. Last year he had a 26.1 UsgR with a 7.3 TOr. That's a lot of team possessions without a lot of turnovers. This season he's sitting at 23.4 and 9.8. In other words, he is using less possessions but making more turnovers. On the good side of things his assist rate is up from 6.3 to 11.4, which is pretty decent for a center. He's still getting to the line at the same clip (19 FT/FG) but his rebound rate is also way down (17.5 to 12.8). His DrawFoul% is currently at 12.1% while last year it was at 12%. Putting this all together, we can make a few assumptions about his ability to get to lose rebounds and his ability to facilitate the ball on offense. He's doling out more assists but it is coming at the expense of a significantly increased turnover rate. Once his legs catch up with him, and once Kevin Love returns, will these trends continue? Will his rebound rate increase once he has an above-average frontcourt player around him? Will his assist rate go down once Love is given the Pau Gasol role on the pinch post?

In terms of last night's game, one of the things that was most interesting about the traveling calls is the always-present NBA question of whether or not Big Al would have received those calls if the Wolves were a .500 or above team and if he had A1 Alpha Dog status. One of the big themes of the young season is that the Wolves led the league in preseason with FTA by 22 attempts over the next best FTA shooting team and they are now the regular season's worst FTA shooting team in terms of free throw rate (a horrible 16.1), the 2nd worst in terms of FTA differential (-5.6), and dead-last in net FTAs (a paltry 18.2). Losing Kevin Love hurts but does it hurt that much? The team hasn't been as good in transition as we first expected and they aren't attacking the lane in the 1/2 court as much as they did in the preseason but are these changes enough to account for the massive shift in FTA output? Just how much did the replacement refs help out the Wolves at the charity stripe?

Whatever the case, the Wolves are a poor shooting team that doesn't get to the line. That's it's biggest functional problem right now. You can't win games if you can't shoot the ball and don't get to the line. It's that simple. Forget everything else for a moment; the Wolves need to attack the rim and get to the line. I know they are trying to bring along Jonny Flynn with a trial by fire but at what point does he need to be told to attack the lane at all costs? Who else is going to get FTAs on this squad right now?

What say you?

RUMOR: Golden State Warriors Head Coach Don Nelson on his way out

Atma Brother ONE — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:01:12 -0000

More photos » by Paul Sakuma - AP

Poor guy. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)

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It amazes me how little love coach Don Nelson gets after coaching masterfully and overachieving with not 1, but 2 poorly constructed rosters (2006-2007 WE BELIEVE and 2007-2008 48 wins) by former GM Chris Mullin, should-be-former team president Robert Rowell, and the worst owner in all of sports Chris Cohan.

It amazes me how much vitriol is pointed at Nellie by the media AFTER a blowout win on the road in New York.

From all this hysteria you would think Nellie has been a loser his entire second tenure with the Warriors with the likes of LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.

After the jump we dissect CBS Sports Ken Berger's piece Nelson's abrasive style might have him on way out.

Yeltsin never recovered his popularity after a series of economic and political crises in Russia in the 1990s. The Yeltsin era was marked by widespread corruption, economic collapse, and enormous political and social problems. By the time he left office, Yeltsin had an approval rating of 2 percent by some estimates.

There's a key insuation here with this Boris Yeltsin comparison which seems to be curiously leveled at Nellie at large that he's corrupt. Corruption is a pretty serious charge. It still feels like (and maybe I'm wrong) that this all comes back to people's random fascination and continued excuses for failed GM Chris Mullin (by the way how many teams are lining up for his supposed grand services right now?). Geoff Lepper over at 48Minutes.net recently provided some much-needed background for the hysterically blown up and sensationalized Nellie-Mullin "drama":

NBA FanHouse (Matt Steinmetz): Don Nelson doesn't like dealing with the print media anymore. This is something that's been building for a long while, a byproduct of him getting blamed at the start of last season for the falling out that took place between the Warriors and Chris Mullin.

I have no proof of how much influence Nelson had in Mullin's twist-in-the-wind, slow-motion dismissal, but it's clear that Nelson has been stung by the fact that people in the Bay Area and national media believe he did help in pushing out Mullin.

(Sidebar for my personal thoughts: Nelson was less an active participant, and more a deliberate observer, standing on the sidelines while Mullin and Robert Rowell engaged in their blood feud - even as he knew he was the only guy who might be able to bring the two sides back together again. I've heard from folks close to Nelson that he was very upset Mullin didn't side with him during Nelson's post-WE BELIEVE holdout - which Nelson eventually lost to Rowell - and I think Nelson's silence during the Mullin-Rowell fight was his form of payback.)

Basically Nellie's buddy Mullin did nothing to help him out in his negotiations with the easily negotiable Rowell (just ask Stephen Jackson) after he saved the franchise back in 2007. So why is he supposed to go out of his way to help out Mullin when Rowell's looking to fire him (good dismissal, just probably for the wrong reasons from a guy who should have been fired as well). This is corrupt on Nellie's part? Don't think so.

By the way when was the last time you heard folks lobbying corruption charges against Mullin for not hooking his mentor and savior (both in his playing days and GM stint) Nellie with a much deserved pay increase or for straight up lying to Jason Richardson's face (supposedly his favorite player) when he said he wouldn't trade him a few days before unceremoniously dumping him to make this roster younger and rawer after the Warriors first playoff run in well over a decade?

After beating the Knicks 121-107 on Friday night, Nelson stands only 21 wins shy of becoming the NBA's all-time winningest coach. But his insistence on alienating and humiliating his best players -- which continued at Madison Square Garden even in victory -- could soon lead to a coaching change, a high-level coaching source told CBSSports.com.

Again Nellie got the win pretty easily. Who was cemented to his bench for whatever reason really doesn't matter. Nellie is public enemy #1 when the Warriors lose and when they win. That's a lose-lose situation that this Hall of Fame coach doesn't deserve.

With no realistic trade scenarios emerging for Stephen Jackson -- and with the team's other miserable star, Monta Ellis, wanting out, too --

It cracks me up how "Captain" Jack and Moped Ellis' tantrums are made out to be legitimate reasons to fire Nellie. Nellie may (hilariously) look like Boris Yeltsin after these losses as they joked on the CSN Bay Area post game show last night, but these two guys are straight out of this movie:

via www.thelightisgreen.com

Someone explain to me why Jackson is miserable after Nellie saved his hoops career when no one would touch him and Rowell foolishly gave him an undeserved $36 million check? Someone explain to me why Ellis is miserable after Nellie found the perfect role for a undersized, speedy, defenseless 2-guard with limited handles and low hoops IQ, being handed the keys to this franchise, and despite nearly ruined his own career, did not have his contract rightfully and legally voided last season?

Nelson's last option to keep the team from blowing up already is under consideration. Nelson, 69, would assume a consultant role, with top assistant Keith Smart taking over as head coach.

"It could happen by next week," the source said.

....

Nothing is ever 100 percent with the Warriors; not even the players know who's making the decisions or whom they can trust in the organization, a second person familiar with the team's problems said. A third source said the timing of Smart's ascension to head coach is difficult to predict simply because of the person who'd be making that decision.

"Nellie would," the person said.

For everyone jumping at the thought of Coach Smart taking over here's some facts:

Nellie's coaching record: 1312 wins (2nd all time), 1012 losses [Basketball Reference]
Smart's coaching record: 9 wins, 31 losses [Basketball Reference]
Over the past 30 years the best coach this franchise has had is... Don Nelson
The Dirty Dozen: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Thanks to Nellie, they'll do so with their two stars, Jackson and Ellis, coming off inexplicable 47- and 45-minute performances, respectively, against the Knicks.

So inexplicable that the Warriors WON? It never ceases to amaze me how many folks out there that think they know how to coach and manage a roster better than Nellie.

For good measure, he also embarrassed No. 7 overall pick Curry in the very building where he'd hoped to spend his NBA career. If Curry thought he might face some dysfunction if the Knicks had picked him at No. 8, these few months with Nelson have been quite the education.

For comparison's sake let's look at #7 pick Stephen Curry's minutes this season versus the two picks right before and after him:

#6 Jonny Flynn: 28:11 minutes per game

#7 Stephen Curry: 26:11 minutes per game

#8 Jordan Hill: 7:05 minutes per game

Note that all 3 of these rookies play for teams that well... suck and are in "rebuilding mode" (all 3 of these teams have "building" for quite some time now). The thing is Nellie and the Warriors have beaten the other two squads. It's curious why Curry's playing time this season is leveled as a failure of the coach this season. Do the coaches in Minny and the NY have to face daily diatribes from so many critics for the playing time for Flynn and Hill? Doubt it.

Nelson had made a point of praising Curry during our conversation at the Warriors' morning shootaround. But even when he praises someone, he manages to insult someone else.

"He's going to be our future point guard for many, many years," Nelson said. "And I feel we'll build the team around him."

Funny, that's what the organization told Ellis, too. Oh, never mind.

Wait I thought Nellie was too busy humilating Curry by not giving him playing time? Now he's praising him, but taking a shot a Monta? Seems a little dubious to me.

The Warriors' revised plan -- Curry's 2:35 run Friday night, notwithstanding -- explains why one source familiar with the situation said Nelson has been actively looking to trade Ellis, too.

"He wants Monta out," the source said.

Folks who have been watching Ellis this season and last know that's not a bad thing (see What's wrong with Monta). It's abundantly clear right now that Mullin and Rowell's "master plan" to build around Ellis and Andris Biedrins and destroy WE BELIEVE was a very silly move. The Warriors should be looking to upgrade from Ellis.

Jackson said Friday he's not angry with Nelson, but rather with the fact that he was given the impression the Warriors would be "more of a veteran team" this season. Though Jackson didn't elaborate, a person familiar with the situation said his anger -- and Ellis' -- stems from a dinner meeting with Rowell at the end of last season in which the Warriors' president vowed to surround them with a playoff-caliber supporting cast.

This has to be the most hilarious part from the "Captain" and his "pupil". Now I would have loved to see the Warriors get older, smarter, and better on the court particularly with Amare Stoudemire (probably more so than anyone- I'm even on record as saying he'd quite possibly be a lower health risk than Biedrins this season which is so far true). BUT it's hilarious how 2 of the on-court "leaders" of this team have acted less and less "veteran" like with each passing day.

Nellie is not the problem. Cohan and Rowell are problems #1 and #2 and this flawed roster is problem #3. If Nellie steps down next week as rumored the Warriors might see a short little burst of enthusiasm from a raw, immature, and low IQ roster of too many me-first players a la Bob Lanier back in 1994 (though at least that roster had some more classy players). But guess what? It's all down hill after there. Don Nelson is the best head coach and even front office personnel Cohan and Rowell will ever luck into.

How do I know this?

Again, The Dirty Dozen: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Also see: Polling GSoM: What exactly won't Monta Ellis do?

More thoughts from the GSoM community (folks who actually watch Warriors games)

What's wrong with Monta (Dubs fan in Boston)
CBS Berger Report: "Nelson will quit by next week!" (faetati)
Back off Nellie and Jack: It's ROWELL, trick! (AR4)
Would you be opposed to trading Ellis? (WarriorSth)

Poll

If Warriors head coach Don Nelson steps down next week as rumored will this kick off The Dirty Dozen trilogy part deux?

YES: Hello Coach Winters!

106 votes

NO: Cohan and Rowell know what they're doing.

28 votes

OTHER: I'm sick of the nonstop Dubs Drama.

246 votes

380 votes | Poll has closed

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

Not in the face!

Stop-n-Pop — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 05:58:53 -0000

More photos » by Jeff Chiu - AP

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OK, this is something of a game-wrap record for me. I'm writing this with the score 106-73 in favor of the 1-6 Warriors with roughly 1:50 left to go in the 3rd quarter. Hanny has just said something about the season not being about wins and losses and he's even moved on to the hustle award for the night.

When I fired up the post editor Golden State had an astounding 48% oReb rate: 11 offensive rebounds on 23 misses. Awesome? I know. Flash forwarding to Stephen Curry's buzzer-beating 3 pointer to end the 3rd quarter and this is what the Four Factors look like:

	Pace (Poss)	Eff	eFG	FT/FG	OREB%	TOr
Minnesota	105.4 (79)	97.5	47.8%	19.4	33.3	22.8
Golden State		140.5	61.1%	31.9	33.3	10.1

I suppose you could take something of a moral victory away from the fact that the Wolves have pulled even in the oReb% category but keep in mind that the Warriors have a significantly smaller number of misses to fool around with.

Let's try something different for tonight's post. Let's talk about the positives. First and foremost is Corey Brewer. Here's what True Hoop's Henry Abbott had to say about Brew after the Portland game:

In the last few weeks, I have heard Corey Brewer mentioned three or four times as the butt of jokes. It's getting to be time for that to stop. He and Andre Miller both dared each other to shoot all night, but Brewer did it with purpose -- and was an effective help defender helping to keep Roy (who had one of his worst games as a professional) at bay. He's no All-Star at this point, but there's no doubt he's vastly improved. He's among the team's leaders in steals, assists, blocks and free throws attempted -- and his defensive talents and efforts are constant and not to be overlooked. When he hits a couple of 3s, like last night, he's hard to miss.

In tonight's game, Brewer got out in transition, was disruptive in the open court, and for the first time I can remember he d'd up an opposing wing with superior size (Stephen Jackson) without getting physically abused. I know what I am about to write doesn't seem like a big deal, but for those of us who have watched the Wolves over the past 2+ years, it is: Corey Brewer is an NBA rotation player. For a while there his game was pretty dicey and I wasn't sure I would ever write that. Yet, there it is. Hooray!

Hey, look at that: Oleksiy Pecherov finally got into the game! Can he trigger a 28 point comeback? That would be a gigantic positive.

Another positive is that we got our first extended look at Jonny Flynn and Ramon Sessions in the same backcourt. We'll have to wait for the PopcornMachine GameFlow to really break it down, but I believe the tally from the first stint was a +2 against the similarly undersized Warrior backcourt.

Did the Warriors really have a 66-33 run? Sorry, I have to get back to the positives. AC Law is making his 3rd appearance of the year. Good for him. See, another positive.

OK...more positives. (crickets)

Let's have some random thoughts to bring this thing on home:

This game will hurt the ol' defensive efficency ranking. It will also hurt the less-mentioned Pride Index.
It seems that the preseason optimism concerning free throws was both short-lived and ill-conceived. Getting Kevin Love back will help a bit but this team is generating zero offense going at the rim. This is problematic when you are not a jump shooting squad. With just over 5 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter the Warriors have taken 4 more threes than the Wolves have FTAs.
The Wolves aren't a very good team but their offense has faaaarrrr outpaced their defense in terms of ineptitude. Here are their Four Factor stats heading into the GSW game:

Team Four Factors
	PACE	OFFENSE					DEFENSE
TYPE	POSS	EFF	eFG	TO	OREB%	FT/FG	EFF	eFG	TO	OREB%	FT/FG
STAT	94.3	96.8	45.1	16.2	27.2	17.0	106.8	49.6	17.6	29.2	24.6
RANK	9	27	27	18	9	29	16	18	8	27	15

This team simply can't put the little orange ball in the bucket. Again, when you can't get to the line when you are not a jump shooting team, this is a tad problematic.

OK, AC Law just got a breakaway dunk. Really?
Nathan Jawai followed up his career performance in garbage time against the Blazers by getting worked on the offensive glass by Anthony Randolph.

OK, that about does it. The score is now 129-89 with Anthony Randolph at the line. Corey Brewer is still the only player out there who looks like this bothers him enough to do something about it. The problem here is that there is far too much to do and Mr. Brewer lacks the tools to do a lot of it. There is no other way to put this one other than it is the most embarrassing and frustrating loss since Dwane Casey's Revenge last year against Dallas. Who doesn't remember that classic tilt in which Minnesota built a 29 point lead shortly after the half only to watch the Casey-led Mavs claw their way back to not just a win, but a win where Minnesota conceded a 5 point game with 45 seconds to go. I think Kevin McHale's post game comments were something along the lines of "our guys had had enough by that point."

It's now 144-99 and I'm going to bed.

Until later.

UPDATE: The FSN studio crew has just told me that the Wolves have equalled the worst loss in franchise history as well as the most points given up. Now that's a positive!! A record setting performance!! Who wants to talk about cap space!!??

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.

SB Nation - Jonny Flynn

Game Wrap Open Thread

Preposterous Statements

Congratulations Utah!!!

The Jonny Pod

Dealing with no hope

Game Wrap Haiku

RUMOR: Golden State Warriors Head Coach Don Nelson on his way out

What's wrong with Monta (Dubs fan in Boston)

CBS Berger Report: "Nelson will quit by next week!" (faetati)

If Warriors head coach Don Nelson steps down next week as rumored will this kick off The Dirty Dozen trilogy part deux?

YES: Hello Coach Winters!

NO: Cohan and Rowell know what they're doing.

OTHER: I'm sick of the nonstop Dubs Drama.

Mavericks Vs T-Wolves: Game 9 Preview

Not in the face!

Cap space and draft picks oh my!