SBNation.com User Blog: Michael C. Boosalis II

2011 NFL Souting Combine Stats for QBs

Michael C. Boosalis II — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 04:36:09 -0000

2011 NFL Souting Combine Stats for QBs

"Please excuse the fact that the link is to the "Stealers Depot" "

My point is that Christian Ponder is REALLY quick. Look at the Chart. Is 20s, 60s & 3cone times are top notch. Look at them especially in comparison to Cam Newton and Colin Kaepernick. No wonder he torched the Niners for that 23 yard TD run!

The Success of Ball Control Football

Michael C. Boosalis II — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 03:20:03 -0000

What an amazing week for the Vikings. Comming off that difficult loss to Andrew Luck and the Colts, it was a huge statement to beat the 49rs at home on Sunday. Not only did they win the game but they had control. The defense caused problems for San Francisco and the offense limited mistakes. Little more could have been asked of this team last week.

Much talk has been going around in the sports world about the Vikings statement win. Besting on both sides of the field the team that comfortably beat NFC North offensive powerhouses Green Bay and Detroit is certain to do this. The only thing that would have made this a bigger shocker was if this game was played on the west coast.

Of course what the Vikings players and coaches have been talking about early this week was the great execution of good game plans drawn up by Coordinators Bill Musgrave and Allan Williams, but what I was most impressed by the was the way that individuals won their match ups. It is possible to execute and still lose. The truth is that last sunday the front seven of the Vikings, both on offense and on defense beat 49rs on the other side of the line. The Vikings beat the Niners at their very own game; tough running & flawless tackling. More over, it is amazing that this came from a vikings team without leading tackler Erin Henderson and, for much of the game, much improved Mistral Raymond.

This is the base of "Ball Control Football". On offense use all of the play clock, run the ball down hill, complete high percentage passes, convert on third down and accurate field goal kicking. The vikings are not looking to light anybody up, maybe individual players are when the opportunity comes, but that's not the Vikings offensive personality. Ponder said it himself saying essentially: why should I throw the ball down field into coverage if I can dump it down to guys like Percy and Adrian and they can make plays. The vikings are building a ball control offense. On defense "Ball Control Football" requires active covering and tackling and pressure. When a ball control offense is humming the defense gets time to rest and it can come out and fly around and make plays.

Last year, Ponder was unable to prove anything throwing the ball. He made some plays but only completed 55% of his passes and was pretty much brutally ineffective on third downs. So far Ponder is proving that he can throw the ball. Many times last year, and whenever I watched his highlights from Florida State University, I was worried by the Christian Ponder touch pass. Last week he threw some amazing balls. Unfortunately I cannot help but note a couple of instances in every game where Ponder got away with some really bad throws that fell harmlessly incomplete. So far he is doing well and this last game was fantastic.

Hopefully with the addition of Jerome Simpson, this week the offense can get to the next level. The speed and rout running abilities of Simpson should be drastically more effective than the likes of Michael Jenkins and Stephen Burton. Then we still have one more weapon when Jarius Wright gets healthy.

One other thing to note was how impressive our offensive line was. "Ball Control" starts at the line of scrimmage. The Viking's run attack had the Niner's Nose Tackle playing a foot off the line for most of the game. That means that the Offensive line is getting really good push. It's amazing how much the trenches can effect a game. QB's and positions players, LBs and Tacklers make all the flashy plays that appear to win games but so much comes down to what happens right at that line of scrimmage. Alex Smith was never able to get comfortable because the Vike's front seven was constantly able to get pressure.

BRING IT ON LIONS! EAT TURF SHAUN HILL & MATTHEW STAFFORD!

SIDE QUESTIONS & COMMENTS for discussion:

Who gets cut to make room for Simpson? is it a wide out? or possibly a TE? Stephen Burton or Allen Reisner?

How did Alex Smith, Vernon Davis and crew not torch the Vikings Secondary? Did we cover THAT well? Did we really get THAT much pressure on Alex Smith? Did we REALLY dominate? or did the Niners Choke BIG time?

BRING IT ON LIONS! EAT TURF SHAUN HILL & MATTHEW STAFFORD!

SIDE QUESTIONS & COMMENTS for discussion:

Who gets cut to make room for Simpson? is it a wide out? or possibly a TE? Stephen Burton or Allen Reisner?

2012-13 Wolves Season Simulation in the Works, Help! (Poll)

Michael C. Boosalis II — Tue, 24 Jul 2012 15:14:40 -0000

Over the past month, I've been playing around with whatifsports.com in an effort to simulate a Timberwolves season with various potential rosters. Now that the wolves roster seems to be pretty solidified for this up coming season I though I would begin my official simulation. Before I do this I want to get some agreement with CH on what we want to see. Taking into account the following observations I have made regarding Rick Adleman's coaching and minute distribution I have come up with a couple possible rotations to use for my simulation.

With this simulation, I plan to record the stats and record of the 2012-13 Timberwolve's roster as they play against the Timberwolves 2011-12 NBA competition. This puts them up against legitimate NBA competition and the 66 game season is a large enough number for a projection, but significantly less tedious than a 82 game season.

If you are not familiar with whatifsports.com it simulates games based on the stats of individual players in specific seasons giving anyone the opportunity to match up, say Jordan's Bulls against this last seasons Heat team, or to replace Lebron with Jordan and see if the 2011 Miami Heat would be better.

The Daily Norseman did something similar to this back in anticipation of Brett Favre's first season with the vikings, to attempt to illustrate how the combination of Favre and Adrian Peterson would actually benefit both players. Kind of got the idea for this from that.

The roster I've created uses individual stats from recent years. All returning wolves play will be based upon last years play. Andre Kirilenko will be played by 2010-11 Kirilenko. Chase Budinger will be played 2010-11 Budinger as that season he played in Rick Adelman's system. Alexey Shved will be played by the rookie Manu Ginobili, who seem in someways to be relatively similar players. I then took some optimistic license in using 2009-10 Brandon Roy, as he now claims to feel much better than he did in the 2010-11 season, but do not expect his 21.5 PPG to repeat itself because he will be budgeted considerably less minutes. And there we hit the point where I ask for help. I cannot decide how I want to ration out the minutes for this roster, so I have come up with two options for 2012-13 rotations that I would like you to choose from ... but first, I want to share something regarding the great Rick Adleman.

{If you get too bored with this go ahead and scroll down past the jump and put your two cents in on the poll}

Adleman has never voluntarily played with a rotation of players that was more than 8 or 9 players. Last year we saw an anomaly in what wolves got minutes because of injuries and the condensed season. Looking back at three of Adelman's best seasons as a coach, the 1991-92 Trail Blazers, the 2001-02 Kings, and the 2007-08 Rockets we can see a similar distribution of minutes. We also se a similar cast of characters. I'm not saying these characters are identical in name, skill or style but their roles are very clearly defined. Basketballreference.com provides the tables regarding minute distribution and player production.

The 1991-92 Trail Blazers:

This team finished the regular season with a 58-24 record and lost to Michael Jordan and the bulls in the NBA finals.

Totals

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Rk	Player	Age	G	GS	MP ▾	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Terry Porter	28	82	82	2784	521	1129	.461	128	324	.395	315	368	.856	51	204	255	477	127	12	188	155	1485
2	Clyde Drexler	29	76	76	2751	694	1476	.470	114	338	.337	401	505	.794	166	334	500	512	138	70	240	229	1903
3	Jerome Kersey	29	77	76	2553	398	852	.467	1	8	.125	174	262	.664	241	392	633	243	114	71	151	254	971
4	Buck Williams	31	80	80	2519	340	563	.604	0	1	.000	221	293	.754	260	444	704	108	62	41	130	244	901
5	Kevin Duckworth	27	82	82	2222	362	786	.461	0	3	.000	156	226	.690	151	346	497	99	38	37	143	264	880
6	Clifford Robinson	25	82	7	2124	398	854	.466	1	11	.091	219	330	.664	140	276	416	137	85	107	154	274	1016
7	Danny Ainge	32	81	6	1595	299	676	.442	78	230	.339	108	131	.824	40	108	148	202	73	12	70	148	784
8	Alaa Abdelnaby	23	71	1	934	178	361	.493	0	0		76	101	.752	81	179	260	30	25	17	66	132	432
9	Robert Pack	22	72	0	894	115	272	.423	0	10	.000	102	127	.803	32	65	97	140	40	4	92	101	332
10	Mark Bryant	26	56	0	800	95	198	.480	0	3	.000	40	60	.667	87	114	201	41	26	8	30	105	230
11	Wayne Cooper	35	35	0	344	35	82	.427	0	0		7	11	.636	38	63	101	21	4	27	15	57	77
12	Ennis Whatley	29	23	0	209	21	51	.412	0	4	.000	27	31	.871	6	15	21	34	14	3	14	12	69
13	Danny Young	29	18	0	134	16	40	.400	3	10	.300	10	14	.714	0	9	9	20	6	0	5	6	45
14	Lamont Strothers	23	4	0	17	4	12	.333	0	2	.000	2	4	.500	1	0	1	1	1	1	2	2	10

This shows that seven players (from Terry Porter to Danny Ainge) played nearly all 82 games and more that 1500 minutes, while three others (Alaa Abdelnaby to Mark Bryant) played a number of minutes that puts them in, clearly evident second category.

The 2001-02 Sacramento Kings

This team finished the regular season with a 61-21 record and lost to Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'neil and the Lakers in the Western Conference finals.

Totals

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Rk	Player	Age	G	GS	MP ▾	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Doug Christie	31	81	81	2798	338	735	.460	90	256	.352	206	242	.851	74	300	374	340	160	25	164	209	972
2	Mike Bibby	23	80	80	2659	446	985	.453	51	138	.370	155	193	.803	37	185	222	403	87	15	134	133	1098
3	Peja Stojakovic	24	71	71	2649	547	1130	.484	129	310	.416	283	323	.876	72	301	373	175	81	14	140	120	1506
4	Vlade Divac	33	80	80	2420	338	716	.472	3	13	.231	209	340	.615	205	466	671	297	79	94	158	229	888
5	Chris Webber	28	54	54	2071	532	1075	.495	5	19	.263	253	338	.749	150	396	546	258	90	76	158	181	1322
6	Hedo Turkoglu	22	80	10	1970	290	687	.422	63	171	.368	167	230	.726	63	300	363	163	57	31	81	184	810
7	Scot Pollard	26	80	29	1881	197	358	.550	0	0		115	166	.693	188	377	565	53	70	76	68	202	509
8	Bobby Jackson	28	81	3	1750	334	754	.443	79	219	.361	149	184	.810	82	169	251	164	73	11	93	145	896
9	Lawrence Funderburke	31	56	1	722	115	245	.469	0	3	.000	34	56	.607	76	122	198	32	11	18	33	65	264
10	Gerald Wallace	19	54	1	430	75	175	.429	0	7	.000	23	46	.500	49	40	89	27	19	6	22	46	173
11	Mateen Cleaves	24	32	0	153	30	68	.441	2	8	.250	8	9	.889	1	7	8	25	7	0	27	9	70
12	Chucky Brown	33	18	0	92	10	27	.370	0	0		1	2	.500	10	23	33	6	2	4	5	12	21
13	Brent Price	33	20	0	89	9	27	.333	4	15	.267	9	13	.692	4	4	8	9	3	1	10	13	31
14	Jabari Smith	24	12	0	71	6	21	.286	0	1	.000	6	12	.500	2	12	14	6	2	4	2	12	18

This teams shows a cut and dry 8 man rotation in which those 8 players all played over 1500 minutes, and with the exception of Chris Weber's 54 games, this group played in nearly every game that season.

The 2007-08 Houston Rockets

This team finished the regular season with a 55-27 record and lost to the Utah Jazz in the First round of the playoffs

Totals

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Rk	Player	Age	G	GS	MP ▾	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Shane Battier	29	80	78	2907	265	619	.428	139	369	.377	75	101	.743	131	276	407	155	77	90	78	196	744
2	Rafer Alston	31	74	74	2526	364	924	.394	143	407	.351	98	137	.715	28	232	260	392	98	18	160	139	969
3	Tracy McGrady	28	66	62	2440	548	1307	.419	86	295	.292	245	358	.684	42	297	339	387	68	30	160	91	1427
4	Yao Ming	27	55	55	2044	432	852	.507	0	2	.000	345	406	.850	172	422	594	129	25	111	183	171	1209
5	Luis Scola	27	82	39	2024	345	670	.515	0	3	.000	157	235	.668	174	351	525	106	60	19	105	235	847
6	Chuck Hayes	24	79	44	1575	113	221	.511	0	3	.000	11	24	.458	132	295	427	91	85	43	62	212	237
7	Luther Head	25	73	17	1379	206	477	.432	79	225	.351	66	81	.815	18	117	135	138	44	9	70	75	557
8	Bonzi Wells	31	51	7	1124	175	412	.425	8	38	.211	111	174	.638	63	197	260	80	51	24	76	113	469
9	Carl Landry	24	42	0	711	135	219	.616	0	1	.000	72	109	.661	96	111	207	21	17	7	26	98	342
10	Dikembe Mutombo	41	39	25	619	43	80	.538	0	0		32	45	.711	68	131	199	5	11	48	17	55	118
11	Aaron Brooks	23	51	0	608	93	225	.413	36	109	.330	42	49	.857	13	43	56	87	13	5	44	69	264
12	Mike James	32	33	1	537	79	226	.350	24	74	.324	33	42	.786	11	41	52	54	17	2	29	44	215
13	Bobby Jackson	34	26	5	498	88	210	.419	28	82	.341	24	32	.750	10	61	71	63	13	2	28	37	228
14	Steve Novak	24	35	0	264	49	102	.480	34	71	.479	3	4	.750	4	31	35	6	2	3	4	17	135
15	Steve Francis	30	10	3	199	19	57	.333	4	17	.235	13	23	.565	8	15	23	30	9	5	14	25	5

Even though this was a team that had issues with injury (Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming) the base of an around eight man rotation is certainly there.

What does this tell us? Nothing we didn't really know, right?

That's kind of true, This isn't rocket science after all, it's just me showing my evidence for my assumptions. From these teams and tables we also can assume/assign players roles.

The eight man rotation appears to be what Aldelman generally goes for. This is most perfectly evident in the 2001-02 Sacramento Kings. From this I combine the assumptions made by the people at EA Sports when creating the NBA2K series, of what defines minutes break down of the Star, Starter, Sixth Man and Role player roles.

In my experimenting with NBA2k11, NBA stars expect at least 36 mins/game, NBA Starters at least 30 mpg, 6th men at least 22 mpg and role players at least 10 mpg.

A thing that is interesting to note, is that it Adelman assigns significant playing time to a certain kind of player: the Terry Porter, Doug Christie, Shane Battier type player. Of course in all of these seasons the teams star(s) played limited minutes (Drexler missed games, so did Stojakovic & Webber, so did McGrady and Yao), but still I think my slightly intentional data manipulation proves a point. The "role starter" is something that Adelman has valued.

So rotations look something like this:

Pos.	Trail Blazers	Kings	Rockets	Wolves
Gaurd	Terry Porter***	Mike Bibby	Rafer Alston	Ricky Rubio*
Wing	Clyde Drexler *	Doug Christie***	Tracy McGrady*	Brandon Roy
Wing	Jerome Kersey	Peja Stojakovic*	Shane Battier***	Andrei Kirilenko***
Post	Buck Williams	Chris Webber*	Luis Scola	Kevin Love*
Post	Kevin Duckworth	Vlade Divac*	Yao Ming*	Nikola Pekovic
6th	Cliff Robinson **	Bobby Jackson**	Luther Head	Chase Budinger**
7th	Danny Ainge	Hedo Turkoglu **	Bonzi Wells	Alexey Shved
8th	Alaa Abdelnaby	Scot Pollard	Dikembe Mutombo	Luke Ridnour
Bench	Robert Pack	Laurence Funderburke	Carl Landry	J.J. Barea
Bench	Mark Bryant	Gerald Wallice	Aaron Brooks	Greg Stiemsma
Bench	Wayne Cooper	Mateen Cleaves	Bobby Jackson	Derrick Williams
Bench	Ennis Whatley	Brent Price	Steve Novak	Dante Cunningham

*= star player **= important bench player ***= workmanlike-defensive-minded-unselfish-ball-handler

What sticks out to me is how stacked the Wolves appear. Roster Spots 5-12 (outside Rubio, Love, Kirilenko and Pekovic) are fighting for playing time. Not many teams are this deep to the twelfth man, am I right?

It could be that I just don't know how good Mateen Cleaves and Ennis Whatley were, but with my 22 year old eye, Cunningham and Willaims are pretty good #'s 11 & 12.

What is Rick Adleman going do with this depth? Does he stick with a 8 man rotation? It's tough for me to think he would do anything different. However, the depth of this Wolves team gives him some ridiculous versatility, in match ups and different line ups.

{If you get too bored with this go ahead and scroll down past the jump and put your two cents in on the poll}

The 1991-92 Trail Blazers:

This team finished the regular season with a 58-24 record and lost to Michael Jordan and the bulls in the NBA finals.

Totals

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Rk	Player	Age	G	GS	MP ▾	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Terry Porter	28	82	82	2784	521	1129	.461	128	324	.395	315	368	.856	51	204	255	477	127	12	188	155	1485
2	Clyde Drexler	29	76	76	2751	694	1476	.470	114	338	.337	401	505	.794	166	334	500	512	138	70	240	229	1903
3	Jerome Kersey	29	77	76	2553	398	852	.467	1	8	.125	174	262	.664	241	392	633	243	114	71	151	254	971
4	Buck Williams	31	80	80	2519	340	563	.604	0	1	.000	221	293	.754	260	444	704	108	62	41	130	244	901
5	Kevin Duckworth	27	82	82	2222	362	786	.461	0	3	.000	156	226	.690	151	346	497	99	38	37	143	264	880
6	Clifford Robinson	25	82	7	2124	398	854	.466	1	11	.091	219	330	.664	140	276	416	137	85	107	154	274	1016
7	Danny Ainge	32	81	6	1595	299	676	.442	78	230	.339	108	131	.824	40	108	148	202	73	12	70	148	784
8	Alaa Abdelnaby	23	71	1	934	178	361	.493	0	0		76	101	.752	81	179	260	30	25	17	66	132	432
9	Robert Pack	22	72	0	894	115	272	.423	0	10	.000	102	127	.803	32	65	97	140	40	4	92	101	332
10	Mark Bryant	26	56	0	800	95	198	.480	0	3	.000	40	60	.667	87	114	201	41	26	8	30	105	230
11	Wayne Cooper	35	35	0	344	35	82	.427	0	0		7	11	.636	38	63	101	21	4	27	15	57	77
12	Ennis Whatley	29	23	0	209	21	51	.412	0	4	.000	27	31	.871	6	15	21	34	14	3	14	12	69
13	Danny Young	29	18	0	134	16	40	.400	3	10	.300	10	14	.714	0	9	9	20	6	0	5	6	45
14	Lamont Strothers	23	4	0	17	4	12	.333	0	2	.000	2	4	.500	1	0	1	1	1	1	2	2	10

The 2001-02 Sacramento Kings

This team finished the regular season with a 61-21 record and lost to Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'neil and the Lakers in the Western Conference finals.

Totals

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Rk	Player	Age	G	GS	MP ▾	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Doug Christie	31	81	81	2798	338	735	.460	90	256	.352	206	242	.851	74	300	374	340	160	25	164	209	972
2	Mike Bibby	23	80	80	2659	446	985	.453	51	138	.370	155	193	.803	37	185	222	403	87	15	134	133	1098
3	Peja Stojakovic	24	71	71	2649	547	1130	.484	129	310	.416	283	323	.876	72	301	373	175	81	14	140	120	1506
4	Vlade Divac	33	80	80	2420	338	716	.472	3	13	.231	209	340	.615	205	466	671	297	79	94	158	229	888
5	Chris Webber	28	54	54	2071	532	1075	.495	5	19	.263	253	338	.749	150	396	546	258	90	76	158	181	1322
6	Hedo Turkoglu	22	80	10	1970	290	687	.422	63	171	.368	167	230	.726	63	300	363	163	57	31	81	184	810
7	Scot Pollard	26	80	29	1881	197	358	.550	0	0		115	166	.693	188	377	565	53	70	76	68	202	509
8	Bobby Jackson	28	81	3	1750	334	754	.443	79	219	.361	149	184	.810	82	169	251	164	73	11	93	145	896
9	Lawrence Funderburke	31	56	1	722	115	245	.469	0	3	.000	34	56	.607	76	122	198	32	11	18	33	65	264
10	Gerald Wallace	19	54	1	430	75	175	.429	0	7	.000	23	46	.500	49	40	89	27	19	6	22	46	173
11	Mateen Cleaves	24	32	0	153	30	68	.441	2	8	.250	8	9	.889	1	7	8	25	7	0	27	9	70
12	Chucky Brown	33	18	0	92	10	27	.370	0	0		1	2	.500	10	23	33	6	2	4	5	12	21
13	Brent Price	33	20	0	89	9	27	.333	4	15	.267	9	13	.692	4	4	8	9	3	1	10	13	31
14	Jabari Smith	24	12	0	71	6	21	.286	0	1	.000	6	12	.500	2	12	14	6	2	4	2	12	18

The 2007-08 Houston Rockets

This team finished the regular season with a 55-27 record and lost to the Utah Jazz in the First round of the playoffs

Totals

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Rk	Player	Age	G	GS	MP ▾	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Shane Battier	29	80	78	2907	265	619	.428	139	369	.377	75	101	.743	131	276	407	155	77	90	78	196	744
2	Rafer Alston	31	74	74	2526	364	924	.394	143	407	.351	98	137	.715	28	232	260	392	98	18	160	139	969
3	Tracy McGrady	28	66	62	2440	548	1307	.419	86	295	.292	245	358	.684	42	297	339	387	68	30	160	91	1427
4	Yao Ming	27	55	55	2044	432	852	.507	0	2	.000	345	406	.850	172	422	594	129	25	111	183	171	1209
5	Luis Scola	27	82	39	2024	345	670	.515	0	3	.000	157	235	.668	174	351	525	106	60	19	105	235	847
6	Chuck Hayes	24	79	44	1575	113	221	.511	0	3	.000	11	24	.458	132	295	427	91	85	43	62	212	237
7	Luther Head	25	73	17	1379	206	477	.432	79	225	.351	66	81	.815	18	117	135	138	44	9	70	75	557
8	Bonzi Wells	31	51	7	1124	175	412	.425	8	38	.211	111	174	.638	63	197	260	80	51	24	76	113	469
9	Carl Landry	24	42	0	711	135	219	.616	0	1	.000	72	109	.661	96	111	207	21	17	7	26	98	342
10	Dikembe Mutombo	41	39	25	619	43	80	.538	0	0		32	45	.711	68	131	199	5	11	48	17	55	118
11	Aaron Brooks	23	51	0	608	93	225	.413	36	109	.330	42	49	.857	13	43	56	87	13	5	44	69	264
12	Mike James	32	33	1	537	79	226	.350	24	74	.324	33	42	.786	11	41	52	54	17	2	29	44	215
13	Bobby Jackson	34	26	5	498	88	210	.419	28	82	.341	24	32	.750	10	61	71	63	13	2	28	37	228
14	Steve Novak	24	35	0	264	49	102	.480	34	71	.479	3	4	.750	4	31	35	6	2	3	4	17	135
15	Steve Francis	30	10	3	199	19	57	.333	4	17	.235	13	23	.565	8	15	23	30	9	5	14	25	5

Even though this was a team that had issues with injury (Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming) the base of an around eight man rotation is certainly there.

What does this tell us? Nothing we didn't really know, right?

That's kind of true, This isn't rocket science after all, it's just me showing my evidence for my assumptions. From these teams and tables we also can assume/assign players roles.

In my experimenting with NBA2k11, NBA stars expect at least 36 mins/game, NBA Starters at least 30 mpg, 6th men at least 22 mpg and role players at least 10 mpg.

So rotations look something like this:

Pos.	Trail Blazers	Kings	Rockets	Wolves
Gaurd	Terry Porter***	Mike Bibby	Rafer Alston	Ricky Rubio*
Wing	Clyde Drexler *	Doug Christie***	Tracy McGrady*	Brandon Roy
Wing	Jerome Kersey	Peja Stojakovic*	Shane Battier***	Andrei Kirilenko***
Post	Buck Williams	Chris Webber*	Luis Scola	Kevin Love*
Post	Kevin Duckworth	Vlade Divac*	Yao Ming*	Nikola Pekovic
6th	Cliff Robinson **	Bobby Jackson**	Luther Head	Chase Budinger**
7th	Danny Ainge	Hedo Turkoglu **	Bonzi Wells	Alexey Shved
8th	Alaa Abdelnaby	Scot Pollard	Dikembe Mutombo	Luke Ridnour
Bench	Robert Pack	Laurence Funderburke	Carl Landry	J.J. Barea
Bench	Mark Bryant	Gerald Wallice	Aaron Brooks	Greg Stiemsma
Bench	Wayne Cooper	Mateen Cleaves	Bobby Jackson	Derrick Williams
Bench	Ennis Whatley	Brent Price	Steve Novak	Dante Cunningham

*= star player **= important bench player ***= workmanlike-defensive-minded-unselfish-ball-handler

It could be that I just don't know how good Mateen Cleaves and Ennis Whatley were, but with my 22 year old eye, Cunningham and Willaims are pretty good #'s 11 & 12.

I give you Two Options to collectively choose from:

Option 1: The "Eight" Man Rotation

Before Rubio (first quarter of simulated season):

PGs: mins SGs: mins SFs: mins PF: mins C: mins

Ridnour: 24 Roy: 26 Kirilenko: 26 Love: 34 Pekovic: 34

Barea: 16 Shved: 8 Budinger: 18 Kirielenko: 6 Love: 6

Shved: 8 Budinger: 8 Roy: 2 Williams: 3 Stiemsma: 8

Barea: 4 Shved: 2 Cunningham: 3

Cunningham/

Williams

Totals: Love (40mins), Pekovic (34mins), Kirilenko (32mins), Roy (26mins), Budinger (26mins), Ridnour (24mins), Barea (20mins), Shved (18mins), Stiemsma (8mins), Williams (3mins), Cunningham (3mins)

With Rubio

PGs: mins SGs: mins SFs: mins PF: mins C: mins

Rubio: 28 Roy: 26 Kirilenko: 26 Love: 34 Pekovic: 34

Ridnour: 16 Shved: 12 Budinger: 18 Kirielenko: 6 Love: 6

Shved: 4 Budinger: 8 Roy: 2 Williams: Stiemsma: 8

Barea Barea: Shved: 2 Cunningham:

Cunningham/

Williams

Option 2: The Deep Bench Rotation

Before Rubio (first quarter of simulated season):

PGs: mins SGs: mins SFs: mins PF: mins C: mins

Ridnour: 24 Roy: 26 Kirilenko: 26 Love: 34 Pekovic: 28

Barea: 16 Shved: 8 Budinger: 16 Kirielenko: 4 Stiemsma: 16

Shved: 8 Budinger: 8 Cunningham: 6 Williams: 8 Love: 4

Barea: 4 Shved: 2 Cunningham: 2

With Rubio

PGs: mins SGs: mins SFs: mins PF: mins C: mins

Rubio: 28 Roy: 26 Kirilenko: 26 Love: 34 Pekovic: 28

Ridnour: 16 Shved: 8 Budinger: 16 Kirielenko: 6 Stiemsma: 16

Shved: 4 Budinger: 8 Cunningham: 6 Williams: 8 Love: 4

Barea Barea: Shved: 2 Cunningham: 4

This rotation essentially just balances the minutes a little bit more, specifically putting Greg Stiemsma on the Court more.

Please help me choose which option to use on the poll below:

Side conversation topics:

In my experiments, I do not see much room for the likes of one of the Ridnour/ Barea back up PG duo, or of Derrick Willams in this rotation. While these players would not make a trade that would be loaded with Value for the Timberwolves, would you think it may be in the Timberwolves best interest to move on back up PG and Willaims for a future pick?

What line up are you most excited for this season? Rubio/Bud/AK47/Love/Pek? That's just one awesome option!

Poll

Which Option would you rather see as the rotation used in a 2012-13 Minnesota Timberwolve's Simulated season?

Option 1

31 votes

Option 2

27 votes

58 votes | Poll has closed

Why so much waiting for the wolves FO!?

Michael C. Boosalis II — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 22:34:40 -0000

Our beloved Timberpup FO is certainly being quiet. At least we've heard of the offer nearly certain to land backup center Greg Stiemsma, but why haven't we heard anything about officially signing Brandon Roy and Alexey Shved?
I wonder if they are working on attempting some kind of trade that would take on a lot of contract? Doesn't seem like there would be any other reason that they wouldn't at least be signing the guys they already agreed with.

Our beloved Timberpup FO is certainly being quiet. At least we've heard of the offer nearly certain to land backup center Greg Stiemsma, but why haven't we heard anything about officially signing Brandon Roy and Alexey Shved? I wonder if they are working on attempting some kind of trade that would take on a lot of contract? Doesn't seem like there would be any other reason that they wouldn't at least be signing the guys they already agreed with.Discussion!

Carlos Delfino looks like a good pretty cheap option

Michael C. Boosalis II — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 22:23:14 -0000

Carlos Delfino looks like a good pretty cheap option

Today Defino played for Argentina against the USA's greatest. What I saw from him was a confident stroke and a good head.
Why would the wolves not look into Delfino? I certainly hope that they are going to give him an offer. He's got length, strength and a good outside shot. What do we think?

Batum/Iggy Wolves News

Michael C. Boosalis II — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 18:53:46 -0000

Batum/Iggy Wolves News

Interesting the Wolves would be interested in Batum's Contract and not Iggy's. Not sure I understand that. Anyway, cool that this is getting pub.

What about Malcolm Lee!?

Michael C. Boosalis II — Fri, 06 Jul 2012 18:10:57 -0000

Do we think Malcolm Leezy can crack the SG rotation ...
I was surprised he didn't play more SG last year. He looked okay playing PG last year. He made some plays.

What do we think ...?

Do we think Malcolm Leezy can crack the SG rotation ... I was surprised he didn't play more SG last year. He looked okay playing PG last year. He made some plays. What do we think ...?

Right on "Shved"ule ...

Michael C. Boosalis II — Wed, 04 Jul 2012 05:41:37 -0000

Right on "Shved"ule ...

Don't know how wolves SG rotation could look more open. Especially if the wolves move Ridnour/Barea in a sign and trade Batum and/or trade for Gasol, then we could give Shved mins at PG and SG.

Thoughts?

Possibilities, Possibilities, Possibilities; If , Then & __

Michael C. Boosalis II — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 22:46:00 -0000

So, here comes the draft. We here at Canishoopus have been doing our best to try to "Group think" our way to a "consensus" (or whatever), and how we have to sit back and wait and see what Kahn, Adelman and crew decided to do. We all know what the team needs. At the most basic need, the need to get better at all positions not PG, PF and atleast on the offensive side of the ball C.

We must understand that last year, this team was contending for the playoffs before all of the injuries derailed the successes. We must also understand that this was a young team with a new (and much better) coach that started the season without of a pre-season at all. Plus, they barely had anytime to practice because of the condensed season.

In comparison to what we Wolves fans have endured, that 2011-12 season was wonderful! Competition, Derrick Dunking, K-love cashing threes and crashing boards, Pekovic and he tattoo being a beast scaring people, Ricky Dazzling, Adelman actually playing the most Effective line ups. What a great thing to see. But we also know that a lot of it still sucked.

Unfortunately for us, that "most effective line up" occasionally had three point guards in it. How that ever worked, I don't understand. That's prolly why Rick Adelman is an NBA coach and I will never be. But breaking down the 48 mins of wolves basketball played at each position (to me) we see that:

PGs: played above average (Ricky Rubio, Luke Ridnour, and JJ Barea all played very well at times adding up to, without considering injury, very solid contributions at the point)

SGs: played below average (Barea, Ridnour flashed the brightest and they are back up PGs, Webster ... last second fast break dunk when we were down three :P ... yuck. Ellington played admirably but ... below average ... Wes Johnson ... ya know ... he Wessed it up big time. Malcolm Lee seems to be being trained as a PG for some reason)

SFs: played below average (Beasley, Tolliver, had there moments of averageness but Johnson's excessive mediocrity (to be kind) left the production level very low there.

PFs: Played above above average (Kevin Love is a beast, and a superstar. He showed with his weighloss, that he can hustle all game and still make big shots. His range is amazing and he proved he can at least occasionally get his own shot, hitting step back Js like a big SG. His minutes were superb, his backups' were average. Defensive struggles at times stopped the play quality from reaching superbness)

C: Played above average (Pekovic proved to be as beastly as he looks. Killing the offensive glass, mopping up missed jumpers. Kevin's minutes at center were good too. Defensively this group struggled, but like the rebounding beastlieness basically (in my opinion) evens out the defensive sucky "groundedness".)

We know that the consensus and the group think all know that we need to get help on the Wings and help in the form of Post Defense. The question is how are the Wolves going to go about that, and as we have seen over the last month, Wolves fans can come up with a myriad of many different, really good ideas. Now after the jump I will give it a go to put together my "If ____ Then____" ideas for the wolves offseason process.

PGs: played above average (Ricky Rubio, Luke Ridnour, and JJ Barea all played very well at times adding up to, without considering injury, very solid contributions at the point)

SFs: played below average (Beasley, Tolliver, had there moments of averageness but Johnson's excessive mediocrity (to be kind) left the production level very low there.

"With the 18th pick of the 2012 NBA draft the Minnesota Timberwolves pick ....... ________!"

Other than "are you still beating your wife?" this are the most interesting words that will ever come out of David Sterns mouth. What will Kahn and crew do with that pick ... s*** idk. What I know is that they are going to do there very best (however bad we think there best is) to build a better basketball team.

With the rumors, mock drafts and ideas we've come up with my "If____, Then ____'s" .... So here we go!

To me one of the most interesting rumors I've heard is this talk of Alexey Shved (that may be an odd place to start but ...I gotta start somewhere)

If the Wolves sign or believe they will/can sign Alexey Shved, Then @ the Draft;

Option #1- Look to deal #18 for a topline defensive wing player, toss it in with a package for Andre Igodala or Luol Deng ... idk even Meta World Peace ... someone solid (kinda joking about Ronny World Peace ... but only kinda)
Option #2- Trade up with #18 and try to grab wings Michael Kidd-Gillchrist or Terrence Jones (feel like I haven't heard anything about this guy) or even Moe Harkless (if we really like him).
Option #3.1- Draft Will Barton @#18 (seems to be a hard working kid, solid offensively and defensively)
Option #3.2- Draft Moe Harkless or Terrence Ross or Jeremy Lamb @#18 (worthy options, but probably gone already, anyway Barton seems to be just as good for the Wovles, and projects better at SF)
Option #3.3- Draft Quincy Miller @#18 (bit of a gamble, but not too much of a stretch at #18. Could be a great deal if he blossoms like he could)
Option #3.4- Trade down and try to gather an extra pick and draft wings Barton/Miller if they're still around, or Jae Crowder, (deep breath, and really only if we get another on this list) Austin Rivers, Draymond Green, Doron Lamb, John Jenkins, Jeffery Taylor ... post/wing Royce White or posts Fab Melo, Mason Plumlee (or which ever brother it is), Kyle O'Quinn ...Festus Ezeli, Henry Sims, ect ....
Option #3.5- Draft Royce White @#18 (could work out to be a huge steal)
Option #4- Trade up with #18 and try to grab posts Andre Drumond, Meyers Leonard, Tyler Zeller, John Henson (seems to me like this is a stretch), and I don't think this makes much sense because they'd be drafted so high only to sit on the bench behind Pek and Love.)
Addendum option: trade Wes Johnson for pick (somehow this was brought up as a viable option by someone here, heck if anyone will take him why not try it). Try to drop him off when we trade up for MKG or TJ, or Trade for proven Defensive wing.

If Wolves can sign Alexey Shved and if they use the above options #1,#2,#3.1,#3.2,#3.3, Then in 2nd round.

Draft Best Player Available slightly prioritizing big men.
Euro Stash!
or trade pick for future or $$$.

If Wolves can sign Alexey Shved and if they use options #3.5 or #4

Draft Best Player Available prioritizing Wings.
Euro Stash!
or trade pick for future or $$$.

If Alexey Shved is just a rumor for the Wolves then @ the Draft:

first use above "Option #1" with added targets of SGs (Kevin Martin, Thabo Sefalosha & Anthony Morrow)
if not then use above "Option #2" with added targets of SGs (Bradley Beal & Dion Waiters)
then above "options 3.1-4" with slightly more interest in Terrence Ross, Jeremy Lamb (gasp) Austin Rivers.

If Shved is a rumor then with second round:

Basically the same thing as if he was around except more interest in wings

So ... this is a tedious process. I'm tired of thinking ... so, I'm glad I'm not David Kahn and have to deal with a bunch of fans who get pissed off when I do my job to the best of my abilities. I mean, just looking at this shows me how much has to go into what these guys are doing. If____ then_____ really is what balancing and NBA roster is about ... maybe I'll comeback later and think about free agency.
What say yall?
-Sincerely, a Tired MCBII

Intriguing Euro Prospects

Michael C. Boosalis II — Sat, 23 Jun 2012 05:36:15 -0000

While there's already been a post about Evan Fournier, and I just posted a fan shot regarding Nemanja Bjelica, I thought I'd take a look at some other Euro Prospects.

I know we've all probably heard of this guy by now, but Alexey Shved is really an intriguing prospect.

http://dunkingwithwolves.com/2012/05/22/draft-watch-shvedding-the-defense-alexey-shved-cska-moscow/

Oddly enough this site has him listed at 161 pounds ...? While his Wiki has him at 190

He doesn't look like THAT much of a twig in this highlight video ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=1z4ADVvJK_g

I think it's amazing what we see here. Splashing contested NBA range threes. Handling the ball, pushing the pace, finishing lay ups after contact and showing off some impressive bounce. Somebody will sign him and ... as they are rumored to be interested, it might as well be the T-Wolves. Some of his moves actually kinda look like Ricky out there.

Another intriguing prospect is Kostas Papanikolaou. It could be my Greek American heritage that's got me excited about this guy, but ... he's 6'8" also has NBA 3 point range and displays a competitive fire and intensity that has been rare among Greek Ballers. While like most Euro SFs he seems to have slower feet than ideal, but his athleticism will surprise. Take a look at some highlights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma_R5ekMKdM&feature=related

Big question THAT highlight reel brings, is how many steps has Andrei Kirilenko lost?

There there's the Giant of the Draft 22 year old Dusan Cantekin. 7'4" Serbian Center. Apparently he's a big raw athlete. How can that size not merit a second round pick ... ?

The only video I could find of him ... looks like old footage, he doesn't look 7'4" ... but anyway it's a fun play.

http://www.addiscast.com/sma%C3%A7__5whkM1PbgAY.html

While there's already been a post about Evan Fournier, and I just posted a fan shot regarding Nemanja Bjelica, I thought I'd take a look at some other Euro Prospects.

I know we've all probably heard of this guy by now, but Alexey Shved is really an intriguing prospect.

http://dunkingwithwolves.com/2012/05/22/draft-watch-shvedding-the-defense-alexey-shved-cska-moscow/

Oddly enough this site has him listed at 161 pounds ...? While his Wiki has him at 190

He doesn't look like THAT much of a twig in this highlight video ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=1z4ADVvJK_g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma_R5ekMKdM&feature=related

Big question THAT highlight reel brings, is how many steps has Andrei Kirilenko lost?

http://www.addiscast.com/sma%C3%A7__5whkM1PbgAY.html

Nemanja Bjelica not looking half bad. . .

Michael C. Boosalis II — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 22:13:07 -0000

Nemanja Bjelica not looking half bad. . .

Yeah that might just be one play. But the guy can move and he can shoot. He doesn't seem quite as slow footed as I thought I remembered. Anyways I remember Kahn saying something about taking a look at the Euro Guys that the wolves have and Nemanja seems like the best of the group, including Paulo Prestes and Henk Norel. IDK if any of these guys could fill roster spots ...

Report Card: Wolves @ Rockets

Michael C. Boosalis II — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 03:46:08 -0000

Well, our Wolves are a pretty capable team aren't they? Here's the box score for your convenience.

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES (10-11)
FIELD GOALSREBOUNDS
	POS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	+/-	OFF	DEF	TOT	AST	PF	ST	TO	BS	BA	PTS
W. Johnson	G-F	20:20	2-7	0-2	0-0	+8	0	3	3	0	2	1	6	0	1	4
K. Love	F-C	35:43	10-15	2-4	7-8	+20	2	5	7	0	2	2	1	0	0	29
N. Pekovic	C	18:49	4-6	0-0	0-0	+14	4	3	7	0	3	0	2	0	1	8
L. Ridnour	G	34:58	5-11	0-3	1-1	-5	0	4	4	5	2	0	1	0	0	11
R. Rubio	G	37:47	6-10	2-3	4-4	+22	0	8	8	11	1	1	3	0	0	18
A. Randolph		14:09	2-3	0-0	1-2	-7	0	3	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	5
M. Beasley		32:28	10-14	2-3	12-12	+4	1	2	3	1	1	1	2	0	2	34
W. Ellington		09:35	1-3	0-1	2-3	-6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4
D. Williams		06:46	0-1	0-0	0-0	-8	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
M. Webster		22:13	3-4	0-1	1-1	+12	0	3	3	1	5	1	3	2	0	7
B. Miller		01:41	0-0	0-0	0-0	+6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
A. Tolliver		05:31	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	2	2	0	3	0	0	1	0	0
D. Milicic	NWT - ILLNESS
Total		240	43-74	6-17	28-31		7	33	40	18	21	6	18	3	5	120
			58.1%	35.3%	90.3%		TEAM REBS: 5			TOTAL TO: 18

Now on ward to the grades. I admit that I wasn't able to catch the whole game tonight but ... here we go.

Well, our Wolves are a pretty capable team aren't they? Here's the box score for your convenience.

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES (10-11)
FIELD GOALSREBOUNDS
	POS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	+/-	OFF	DEF	TOT	AST	PF	ST	TO	BS	BA	PTS
W. Johnson	G-F	20:20	2-7	0-2	0-0	+8	0	3	3	0	2	1	6	0	1	4
K. Love	F-C	35:43	10-15	2-4	7-8	+20	2	5	7	0	2	2	1	0	0	29
N. Pekovic	C	18:49	4-6	0-0	0-0	+14	4	3	7	0	3	0	2	0	1	8
L. Ridnour	G	34:58	5-11	0-3	1-1	-5	0	4	4	5	2	0	1	0	0	11
R. Rubio	G	37:47	6-10	2-3	4-4	+22	0	8	8	11	1	1	3	0	0	18
A. Randolph		14:09	2-3	0-0	1-2	-7	0	3	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	5
M. Beasley		32:28	10-14	2-3	12-12	+4	1	2	3	1	1	1	2	0	2	34
W. Ellington		09:35	1-3	0-1	2-3	-6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4
D. Williams		06:46	0-1	0-0	0-0	-8	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
M. Webster		22:13	3-4	0-1	1-1	+12	0	3	3	1	5	1	3	2	0	7
B. Miller		01:41	0-0	0-0	0-0	+6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
A. Tolliver		05:31	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	2	2	0	3	0	0	1	0	0
D. Milicic	NWT - ILLNESS
Total		240	43-74	6-17	28-31		7	33	40	18	21	6	18	3	5	120
			58.1%	35.3%	90.3%		TEAM REBS: 5			TOTAL TO: 18

Now on ward to the grades. I admit that I wasn't able to catch the whole game tonight but ... here we go.

Wesley Johnson-

Well folks, this is classic Wesley Johnson version crap. 2-7 FGs, one of them a dunk, the other make, a long two. Combine that with missing treys, and passing up treys and a whopping six turn overs. The box score speaks for itself this was not a great game for Wes. I could've sworn he blocked a shot but they didn't give him credit. Anyway, this guys not playing like a starting SF or SG. A surprising drive and dunk though, so that rolls it up.

Grade: D (Not an F because he managed to land a +/- of +8, proves he didn't get completely burned)

Kevin Love-

So what, he didn't get a Double Double. So what Ricky out rebounded him. He scored 29 points on 10-15 shooting. Kevin Love really wasn't joking that he was going to get on a hot streak eventually. It wasn't a lights out complete Kevin Love box score stuffer, but it was a good sold well played game.

Grade: A (Hitting shots this effectively is worth an A-

Nikola Pekovic-

Well, he's a beast, and he continues to prove it. Pek can score on the block and rebound, and he did that tonight. He does exactly what he's supposed to do: set picks and get boards. He's looking much more consistent than good ol' (non-super) Darko.

Grade: A-

Luke Ridnour-

Finally he hit some shots. He's been shooting cold lately, but to day it was better. Still not great, but adequate. He got to the rim nicely once I remember splitting the D for a lay in. He's also seems to be doing well with that little floater (a la shot over Diondre Jordan).

Grade: B+ (His grade rises if he hits more of his threes)

Ricky Rubio-

This was a great game for Ricky. He took it to the rim, hit his shots, hit threes. Ricky rolled tonight (oh my Rick Roll? weird). 18-11-8 is really filling the stat sheet up & a +/- of +22. Just a great game.

Grade: A+

Anthony Randolph-

Ho hum. It wasn't bad. It wasn't good. I want to see Anthony block some more shots.

Grade: B-

Michael Beasley-

Boom! Beasley sighting! I think I posted something about Beasley lighting it up. Yep, a couple of videos of him doing just that last year. This highlight reel would look quite similar. I think he's finally starting to understand the whole take it to the rim and draw fouls ideal, and it appears that the refs are starting to notice that he's actually capable of that. I for see a move into the starting line up coming soon (agree? COMMENT).

Grade: A (not a A+ because he didn't do much else than score)

Martell Webster-

He'd getting back into the action and he looks like he's moving pretty good. It seems like he's accepting his current role. Really liked the way that he sprinted to the rim on that lob.

Grade: B

Others: Not enough minutes or impact to deserve a grade.

Anyway, good win for the wolves.

Until next time,

peace yall

Waiting for M&M to Heal; Video Reminders of the Wolves Injured Offense

Michael C. Boosalis II — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 05:16:35 -0000

This team is struggling offensively. Without Super Darko, the Wolves wouldn't have been able to stick with the Clippers enough for Ricky and Kevin's heroics to mean anything. Against the Jazz, we simply couldn't stick with some hot shooting from a capable division rival. Against the Rockets tonight, the same thing, we couldn't stick with the team.

It was nice to see Kevin play well tonight, and Ricky made some plays but I can't help but notice that it seems like they were forcing things. Kevin can force it inside and draw contact, that will work for him, but it's when he's forcing passes and jump shots that things get kind of rough. Ricky needs to play with in himself, when he begins forcing things he starts trying to make the 90% percentile difficulty pass in his huge bag of magical-unicorn-wizard-ball-distributer tricks that he begins to have trouble. Both of these things result in possessions leading to forced shots, or bad turn overs.

But my thought here is not that this makes Ricky and Kevin bad players. I believe it puts them in the category of "Role Stars". If that makes sense. I mean that Ricky is a potential star as a pass first point guard, and a ball distributer, while Kevin is a beast on the boards, can work the post and hit open shots. Ricky's ability makes everyone else better. Kevin's skills allow him to fill up a box score; he works his ass of and provides a good offensive option. So they have roles, roles that they excel at. Like a Ray Allen or Reggie Miller type, being Jump Shooter Role Stars opposed to a Kobe, D-Wade, LeBron, Derrick Rose, Dirk type of "Star" who had the ability to freakishly make crazy things happen in a way that leads their team to victory. I think think makes sense.

{Side Note/IDEA: many Role Stars playing together can become a champion ship caliber team, such as the Big three in Boston or Manu, Duncan, Parker with the Spurs. Then True Stars, combine with a Role star or solid team mates (Kobe, Shaq), (Jordan and Crew's) (even LeBron in Cleveland). Both can lead to some great teams.}

Currently however these two guys are the wolves offense. Barring another super Darko, Lucky Luke, Wayne Storm, Tolly Time [ect.] sighting we will be seeing these guys make these type of mistakes (my theory). K-Love and Ricky need to step up and try to put the team on there back and attempt to make any play that they think they can swing. Why? Because they are the face of the team, they are the best we have, they are the alfa males of the year so far.

So I cannot fault them for there miscues against Houston. I'm optimistic that they can continue to grow as players and may eventually grow to make better decisions in those situations. The good news is, if they could be surrounded by the right "Role Players", I believe these "Role Stars" could be the base of a very successful team.

I dare to say that some of our injured shooters could be able to fill those "Role Player" roles (if not more).

We all remember what JJ Barea can do, and we've been able to catch a glimpse of that this year.

But I want to focus on Michael Beasley and Martell Webster: M&M (not skittles sorry Beasley)

Here are some videos where Beasley are Webster show what they can be capable of:

Michael Beasley 42pts vs. Kings (11.10.2010) (via VCmysterio619)

Michael Beasley 33pts + Game-Winner vs. LA Clippers (11.17.2010) (via VCmysterio619)

Michael Beasley 30pts vs. Hornets (12.27.2010) (via VCmysterio619)

We see here, the big showings that Beasley gave us last year. He was ballin in these games, well passed the level of a "Role Player", but my point is that sometimes it seems like we are writing Beasley off as a guy who the wolves are looking to move at the dead line and criticizing him for jacking up long twos. When Beasley hits a streak he can flat out SCORE!

This also shows, really that last video against the Hornets, that he can do more than score, we see in these videos, that when Beasley's shots start to fall, not only does he get in a rythm but he draws defenders and then, on occasion, make the right play and get a guy and easy bucket.

Then in a random Youtube search after seeing Martell Webster get a nice little dish from Michael "Mr. Skittles" Beasley, I found this

Martell Webster scored 24 PTS in a quarter vs Jazz 20080105 (via iverigma)

Wow, guy can shoot. We could use that. This then reminded me of when Anthony Tolliver lit up the T-pups from three point land when he was with the Warriors, but I couldn't find that video.

But hey, Tell me those guys wouldn't be nice to have back sometime too. Be excited and optimistic about the possibilities.

In <><

Peace, Minny T-Pups Fanatics

I dare to say that some of our injured shooters could be able to fill those "Role Player" roles (if not more).

We all remember what JJ Barea can do, and we've been able to catch a glimpse of that this year.

But I want to focus on Michael Beasley and Martell Webster: M&M (not skittles sorry Beasley)

Here are some videos where Beasley are Webster show what they can be capable of:

Michael Beasley 42pts vs. Kings (11.10.2010) (via VCmysterio619)

Michael Beasley 33pts + Game-Winner vs. LA Clippers (11.17.2010) (via VCmysterio619)

Michael Beasley 30pts vs. Hornets (12.27.2010) (via VCmysterio619)

Then in a random Youtube search after seeing Martell Webster get a nice little dish from Michael "Mr. Skittles" Beasley, I found this

Martell Webster scored 24 PTS in a quarter vs Jazz 20080105 (via iverigma)

Wow, guy can shoot. We could use that. This then reminded me of when Anthony Tolliver lit up the T-pups from three point land when he was with the Warriors, but I couldn't find that video.

But hey, Tell me those guys wouldn't be nice to have back sometime too. Be excited and optimistic about the possibilities.

In <><

Peace, Minny T-Pups Fanatics

Poll

Which Video do you think is the most exciting to watch as a wolves fan about the possibility of these guys returning to the floor.

Beasley vs. Clippers

15 votes

Beasley vs. Cavs

1 votes

Beasley vs. Hornets

6 votes

Webster's (aka Spider Man (a nick name I will continue to advocate for)) 24 point quarter

25 votes

47 votes | Poll has closed

Report Card: Wolves @ Clippers

Michael C. Boosalis II — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 18:56:04 -0000

So the quality of that Game (at least the entertainment, not always the play) made me feel like I needed to put some extra attention on this Report Card. I hope we CHers are still interested in this Report Card idea. I think it is really great, I encourage anyone to sign up to write one, the guidelines are pretty clear and creativity is welcome (I assume this is what you were hoping for bsg007).

Any way onward to the game.

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES (7-8)
FIELD GOALSREBOUNDS
	POS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	+/-	OFF	DEF	TOT	AST	PF	ST	TO	BS	BA	PTS
W. Johnson	G-F	23:57	2-6	1-1	2-3	-3	1	0	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	7
K. Love	F-C	36:21	5-16	2-3	5-6	-5	2	12	14	3	2	1	0	0	2	17
D. Milicic	C	34:21	10-15	0-0	2-5	-9	5	2	7	2	6	0	3	2	0	22
L. Ridnour	G	37:44	3-11	0-4	7-9	-1	0	3	3	6	3	0	1	0	1	13
R. Rubio	G	32:22	1-11	1-3	6-8	+2	0	6	6	6	4	3	3	1	1	9
W. Ellington		30:31	6-9	1-2	0-0	+9	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	13
A. Tolliver		18:50	1-1	1-1	0-1	-4	0	1	1	1	1	2	3	0	0	3
D. Williams		14:24	4-8	0-1	1-1	+17	1	3	4	2	2	0	1	0	1	9
N. Pekovic		11:29	4-4	0-0	0-0	+9	1	1	2	0	3	1	0	0	0	8
J. Barea	NWT - SPRAINED LEFT ANKLE.
M. Beasley	NWT - RIGHT MID FOOT SPRAIN.
A. Randolph	DNP - COACH'S DECISION
Total		240	36-81	6-15	23-33		10	29	39	21	22	8	11	3	5	101
			44.4%	40.0%	69.7%		TEAM REBS: 11			TOTAL TO: 11

First of all, I went a different direction with this Report Card. I started with everyone huddled around the grade which I deem bear minimum acceptable. I understand others would be more or less frustrated with a B-, but that is my minimum for an acceptable grade. Then, through the course of the game I made a note of moments of when a player made a positive or negative impact. The overall compilation of positive and negatives then would correlate to the final grade swung around the center point of a B-. Also I'd say the fourth quarter is kind of like a daily double, as it is crunch time. So, onward to the grades.

Ricky Rubio -

Negatives: Quick Fouls, air-ball, air-ball, ice cold shooting

Positives: Dish to Darko, Dish to Darko, Game tying three, Defense on "Big Shot",

Off Court Considerations : Composure +

When Ricky started off so cold, I envisioned having to give him an awful grade and using the phrase "Pobre Pobre pistola", but man did he turn it around. This game showed the composure of Ricky Rubio. He was frustrated and right fully so. He got into foul trouble and couldn't hit any thing from the field, and his whole game looked out of wack until the fourth quarter. Ricky made some plays happen in the fourth quarter and hit the big three when it counted. To be able to confidently step into that three and knock it down in that situation is huge. 9 points, 6 reb, 6 ast, 3 st, turns, and a +/- of +2, is a pretty remarkable stat line for a guy who shot 1-11 from the field

Grade: B+ (might look high but his fourth quarter and clutch performance makes up for the negatives is a big way)

Luke Ridnour-

Negatives: Cold shooting

Positives: Smart Play, deceptive defensive effectiveness, floater over diondre, dishing to Darko, getting & hitting FTs,

Other consideration: Leadership +

Ridnour played a pretty good game. He, like Ricky, was ice cold from the field (they combined for 4-22 from the field) but that performance was really just a bad shooting night. Luke ran the offense well and did an admirable job while Ricky was on the bench. The only negative was his cold shooting, but he was taking shots the way that the wolves expect and need him too. Really with Beasley and Barea hurt the wolves really need Ridnour to shoot, it's not ideal, but many of the shots he took tonight where good shots.

Grade: B+ (He played a great game, just couldn't get the shots to fall)

Wesley Johnson-

Negatives: Passing up open shots, fumbled pass, missed layup,

Positives: Went hard to the rim, hit a three

Other consideration: Inconsistency - , lack of confidence - ,

Wes once again had a poor game. He didn't lock down defensively. He didn't take open shots. He missed the shots he took (except for that three). At least when he passed up the open shots he took the ball hard to the rim with the intent to draw contact, but he simply doesn't demonstrate enough control to get the foul calls when he draws contact.

Grade: C-

Kevin Love-

Negatives: Looked a little bit out of control to start, cold shooting

Positives: Slick up and under move, Great dish to Darko, 3pt Buzzer Beater

Other Considerations: General effort and tenacity +

Even when Kevin Love shoots poorly, he doesn't let that change what he does. Kevin rebounds the ball and fights all game long. While it was a rough game for Love, he, like Ricky, stepped it up when he had to. I don't know if I even have to mention that game winning shot.

Grade: B+

Darko Milicic-

Negatives: Stupid touch pass TO, trying to flop on Griffin, bad pass

Positives: hitting lefty hook, multiple dunks, two blocks on BG, smart defense (other than the flop)

Other Considerations: Seemed to be engaged in this game at a different level then normal +

Darko almost looked like a second over all pick tonight. He was, dare, I say kind of dominant. He did his job and then some. Interesting to see if Darko could ever repeat this performance. Has Darko finally understood what he's capable of? What a big serbian puzzle he is ...

Grade: A (who'd a thunk it? Giving Darko an A.)

Wayne Ellington-

Negatives: Moments of questionable shot selection,

Positives: Good instant offense off the bench,

Wayne did what he was supposed to do tonight, and he caught a hot streak but other than his hot shooting and timely scoring he really didn't do anything else. It was all well and good of course but I would like to see some dishes, rebounds, or defensive flashes in the future. Really cuz he can't stay that hot from the field forever.

Grade: B+

Anthony Tolliver-

Negatives: 3 Turnovers, missed Tech FT

Positives: Hit catch and shoot three

Not a great game for Tolliver at all. The turnovers he had didn't hurt too much as the wolves actually won the turn over and fast break battle. I think Tolliver can get lost sometimes and the good things that he does are less than obvious. As a role player, it seems like this night was not a night where his "role" was really needed. There wasn't a SF who needed to get offensively shut down.

Grade: C

Nikola Pekovic-

Negatives: Nothing notable

Positives: Good inside play, made his shots.

What a beast. I'm glad they got him in the game. I think his quickness is actually impressive for a guy with his size. He's not just a rock in there, he know's what he's doing. I like the fact that Adleman has given him a chance recently. He made the most of his minutes tonight.

Grade: A (He stood out, He did more than we ever expected from him)

Derrick Williams-

Negatives: threw up two early bricks, forced it a couple of times, air ball, moving the ball,

Positives: Big driving 3pt play, two big dunks, scored all his points in the 4th

Other considerations: High effort +,

Derrick was excited to play and it showed itself in some wild play. He pulled it together though. Great job swinging the ball to Ricky on the game tying play. That extra pass was huge. Really gave the team a boost in the 4th with his effort and sudden scoring.

Grade: B+

Team-

What a win for this team. I really think they played great defense all game long. The Clippers really shot the ball well. I'm very impressed by the way that this team mans up in the forth quarter and make things happen. Adelman has turned an incredibly awful defensive team into a stellar one. Never would have believed that I would have been writing about this wolves team being a defensive stopper, but they are showing a defensive will that can only be explained by the up grade of Adelman over Rambis.

Game Comments-

The Clippers have really good guards. CP3, Big Shot, Mo Williams are or can be game changers and even Foy is competent.

Blake Griffin is good, but Kevin Love is better, at least for now. Kevin is a far more developed player than Blake Griffin. They are different types of players of course and Blake has a bit more star player #1 option potential. Anyway, just a comment

Good signs for the wolves: Somehow Darko and Pekovic helped us Dominate the points in the paint. We won the turnover battle. Great second half Defense.

Top Dogg- Darko

Goat- Wesley/Tolliver/Complaining Clippers

Go Wolves! Now take out the Jazz!

Any way onward to the game.

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES (7-8)
FIELD GOALSREBOUNDS
	POS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	+/-	OFF	DEF	TOT	AST	PF	ST	TO	BS	BA	PTS
W. Johnson	G-F	23:57	2-6	1-1	2-3	-3	1	0	1	1	1	1	0	0	0	7
K. Love	F-C	36:21	5-16	2-3	5-6	-5	2	12	14	3	2	1	0	0	2	17
D. Milicic	C	34:21	10-15	0-0	2-5	-9	5	2	7	2	6	0	3	2	0	22
L. Ridnour	G	37:44	3-11	0-4	7-9	-1	0	3	3	6	3	0	1	0	1	13
R. Rubio	G	32:22	1-11	1-3	6-8	+2	0	6	6	6	4	3	3	1	1	9
W. Ellington		30:31	6-9	1-2	0-0	+9	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	13
A. Tolliver		18:50	1-1	1-1	0-1	-4	0	1	1	1	1	2	3	0	0	3
D. Williams		14:24	4-8	0-1	1-1	+17	1	3	4	2	2	0	1	0	1	9
N. Pekovic		11:29	4-4	0-0	0-0	+9	1	1	2	0	3	1	0	0	0	8
J. Barea	NWT - SPRAINED LEFT ANKLE.
M. Beasley	NWT - RIGHT MID FOOT SPRAIN.
A. Randolph	DNP - COACH'S DECISION
Total		240	36-81	6-15	23-33		10	29	39	21	22	8	11	3	5	101
			44.4%	40.0%	69.7%		TEAM REBS: 11			TOTAL TO: 11

Ricky Rubio -

Negatives: Quick Fouls, air-ball, air-ball, ice cold shooting

Positives: Dish to Darko, Dish to Darko, Game tying three, Defense on "Big Shot",

Off Court Considerations : Composure +

Grade: B+ (might look high but his fourth quarter and clutch performance makes up for the negatives is a big way)

Luke Ridnour-

Negatives: Cold shooting

Positives: Smart Play, deceptive defensive effectiveness, floater over diondre, dishing to Darko, getting & hitting FTs,

Other consideration: Leadership +

Grade: B+ (He played a great game, just couldn't get the shots to fall)

Wesley Johnson-

Negatives: Passing up open shots, fumbled pass, missed layup,

Positives: Went hard to the rim, hit a three

Other consideration: Inconsistency - , lack of confidence - ,

Grade: C-

Kevin Love-

Negatives: Looked a little bit out of control to start, cold shooting

Positives: Slick up and under move, Great dish to Darko, 3pt Buzzer Beater

Other Considerations: General effort and tenacity +

Grade: B+

Darko Milicic-

Negatives: Stupid touch pass TO, trying to flop on Griffin, bad pass

Positives: hitting lefty hook, multiple dunks, two blocks on BG, smart defense (other than the flop)

Other Considerations: Seemed to be engaged in this game at a different level then normal +

Grade: A (who'd a thunk it? Giving Darko an A.)

Wayne Ellington-

Negatives: Moments of questionable shot selection,

Positives: Good instant offense off the bench,

Grade: B+

Anthony Tolliver-

Negatives: 3 Turnovers, missed Tech FT

Positives: Hit catch and shoot three

Grade: C

Nikola Pekovic-

Negatives: Nothing notable

Positives: Good inside play, made his shots.

Grade: A (He stood out, He did more than we ever expected from him)

Derrick Williams-

Negatives: threw up two early bricks, forced it a couple of times, air ball, moving the ball,

Positives: Big driving 3pt play, two big dunks, scored all his points in the 4th

Other considerations: High effort +,

Grade: B+

Team-

Game Comments-

The Clippers have really good guards. CP3, Big Shot, Mo Williams are or can be game changers and even Foy is competent.

Good signs for the wolves: Somehow Darko and Pekovic helped us Dominate the points in the paint. We won the turnover battle. Great second half Defense.

Top Dogg- Darko

Goat- Wesley/Tolliver/Complaining Clippers

Go Wolves! Now take out the Jazz!

My Thoughts regarding Anlmart1's post ("THE LIST": Report Card Style)

Michael C. Boosalis II — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:48:47 -0000

(yes, I took the spaniards homework assignment)

I think Anlmart1 has come up with a very good list of what it would take for Ricky Rubio to show us, and THE WOLRD that he is a top tier PG. This is how I think he is doing on these levels, Report Card style:

[FEEL FREE TO DISAGREE WITH ME IN THE COMMENTS, I LIKE DISCUSSION AND CRITICISM]

1st- Offensive playbook:

The wolves right now have to be working on a very limited play book. The couldn't have had enough time to really hammer out a full offensive play book in the shortened offseason. Plus, they really haven't been practicing so much in this condensed season. To me, Ricky does a remarkable, simply creating offense. When he's on the floor with the second unit, he essentially becomes the offense. Moving the ball, penetrating the lane, and running the simplest, and I would say unmatched in its effectiveness, play in basketball, the pick and roll to near perfection.

The way he and AR were Picking and Rolling last night was awesome. Kevin and him have also had some really good Pick and roll plays. Pick and roll with Rubio running the point just opens up so many options. I think the analysts have done a really good job explaining this. He has an uncanny ability to find open guys, no matter where they are on the court. Of course sometimes this results in turn overs or, in Kevin Love's case, getting knocked in head. Ricky is playing very well offensively, Twitter tells me he's #1 in the nba in Points per possession (pts+ast). That's remarkable.

Although I don't think we have a full playbook, I don't think Ricky will have any trouble at all. I think we will have a pick and roll package for Ricky that will look very much like what we are seeing right now inside of a larger framework of an offense that will maximize on the players potential when Ricky's not on the floor. (That's another thing Ricky does that's amazing. He makes the other players on the court better. See AR. See AT. I mean he puts them in the place where they are the most effective.)

Over all grade for Offensive Playbook: A (very solid)

2nd- Defensive play book

I have been happy with Ricky's start to the season defensively. I really think he's adapted admirably to NBA officiating and it's tendency to open up the perimeter. I was worried he was going to get called for a lot of touch fouls on the ball and that pulling back on his reaching tendencies that he got away with more in spain would make his on ball defense fall apart. To say this short, Ricky Rubio is a smart defender, who is plenty athletic enough to play rock solid on ball defense against 80% or NBA guards (my opinion).

The one area that I think he has to get better at his recognizing when to fight through a screen to the shooter. We saw that last night a couple of times with Derrick Rose. I think he played it the right way though, against the MVP. You can't let Derrick penetrate off of that screen, if you do it's easy buckets for the Bulls, you need to make him shoot the ball. Unfortunately, this year Derrick Rose is showing that he can hit that trey ball and like Ray Allen and Reggie Miller before him showed, consistently made three is greater than a made two, and really makes it easy to close out an opponent.

Toss in the trail blocks, some solid steals by jumping into the passing lanes, and a charge or two. Ricky's doing pretty well defensively. He's surprising me how he's adapting to the NBA defensively (Offensively I always thought NBA perimeter officiating would open his game up, and even he says "there's more space".) and proving that Defense will not be the whole in his NBA game. I can only see him get better.

Over all grade for Defensive Play Book: B+ (Solid)

3rd- Scouting opposing teams, especially opposing PGs

I think that Ricky knows a lot about how certain guys like to ball. I mean, he's a basketball geek like me (of course, he's a basketball geek who can actually play, instead of just write and wiggle my thumbs on a Xbox controller). I think he knows pretty well what these guys like to do, and I think it has shown. He challenged all of his buddy Calderon's shots with out biting on pump fakes (of course there more history there), he laid off Russel Westbrook, Rose, and Tony Parker to limit there penetrating abilities, and challenged old man Jason Kidd's trusty three ball. He looks good to me here too. He doesn't seem to be surprised by that many people. T.J. Ford surprised him a bit, but who thinks to scout T.J. Ford? For real?

Over all grade for Scouting: B (completely satisfactory & I don't for see any problems)

4th- Reacting to being scouted against

Ricky's been doing very well in this category too, at least to far. I don't think the NBA have gotten the best sample size of what his tendencies are so this will probably be an on going thing. I think he has over all reacted pretty well to every thing they've thrown at him, except for being manned up by LeBron. But seriously, that's LeBron, a world class athlete, if not "history of the world" class athlete.

The tricky thing with Ricky is that he can make so many different plays anytime he has the ball. His court vision, and passing accuracy allows him to put passes on the open man regardless of where the open man is. It's pretty incredible. We saw Ronnie Brewer play the Rubio's passing lanes pretty well picking off that one pass, but I'll take that if it continues to give Kevin Love , or the others, open three pointers.

Overall grade for his Reaction to being scouted: B- (He's doing pretty well, well see though as time progresses)

5th- Shot

Well, can't say I haven't been impressed in this regard. It seems to me he's been on a pretty good hot streak thought. This will also be a pretty fun to see how he progresses. It just means growing his game. I want to see the kind of progression that Jason Kidd had. He was not a great shooter at all, and he's progressed into being a pretty good shooter. I want to see Ricky make his shot a quicker. He takes a lot of time to load up that flick. I really liked the little leaner that he hit last night though after dribbling around Loul Deng. Also when Ricky goes up for lay-ups he does a really good job using his length to draw contact still get his shot off. I hope he can find a way to use that length more ... somehow ... (I guess I don't know what I mean here, but for some reason I think it makes sense)

Overall grade on his Shot: C+ (It's pretty good, good enough to be effective, not good enough yet to be a superstar)

6th- Taking Care of the Ball

In comparison to the rest of the team. Ricky looks really good. There have been a couple of times when his decision making has been questionable. Specifically times when he has unwisely pushed the ball up court. Most of the time, though, he his making many more play, than turn overs. That definitely shows in the Points per possession catagory that I mentioned earlier. He's taking care of the ball pretty well and his mistakes, we can live with because he's making that same play much of the time. The tricky part will be when teams and players start to get a better grasp of how he plays. Can he keep this production up and continue to improve his and the teams ball control? This is certainly connected to how he reacts to being scouted and we definitely effect whether or not he becomes a NBA histroy top tier point guard.

Over all Grade on Ball Control: B (It's been satisfactory, can it get better?)

7th- Can he hold up with the minutes he will play and the number of games that the NBA plays?

Is he durable enough? It seems like he's been playing well but will he still have the spring in his step late in the season or during a future playoff run? How does his game hold up later in his career when his athleticism and quickness wanes?

Over all Grade on Durability: ? (We can't know right now, he hasn't played enough)

8th- Will he disappear if the wolves acquire a "Navarro" like ball handling scorer who needs the ball and is effective?

If he disappears when he's not running the show, that will definitely change things.

Grade: again that's a big ?

COMMENT AWAY YALL

[FEEL FREE TO DISAGREE WITH ME IN THE COMMENTS, I LIKE DISCUSSION AND CRITICISM]

1st- Offensive playbook:

Over all grade for Offensive Playbook: A (very solid)

2nd- Defensive play book

Over all grade for Defensive Play Book: B+ (Solid)

3rd- Scouting opposing teams, especially opposing PGs

Over all grade for Scouting: B (completely satisfactory & I don't for see any problems)

4th- Reacting to being scouted against

Overall grade for his Reaction to being scouted: B- (He's doing pretty well, well see though as time progresses)

5th- Shot

Overall grade on his Shot: C+ (It's pretty good, good enough to be effective, not good enough yet to be a superstar)

6th- Taking Care of the Ball

Over all Grade on Ball Control: B (It's been satisfactory, can it get better?)

7th- Can he hold up with the minutes he will play and the number of games that the NBA plays?

Over all Grade on Durability: ? (We can't know right now, he hasn't played enough)

8th- Will he disappear if the wolves acquire a "Navarro" like ball handling scorer who needs the ball and is effective?

If he disappears when he's not running the show, that will definitely change things.

Grade: again that's a big ?

COMMENT AWAY YALL

Report Card - Wolves @ Raptors

Michael C. Boosalis II — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 00:15:25 -0000

Well, what else can I say, this is was bad basketball again. I'll let the box score do the talking

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES (3-5)
FIELD GOALSREBOUNDS
	POS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	+/-	OFF	DEF	TOT	AST	PF	ST	TO	BS	BA	PTS
W. Johnson	G-F	19:12	0-5	0-3	0-0	-12	1	0	1	1	0	2	2	1	0	0
K. Love	F-C	36:16	3-16	2-4	5-10	-20	5	9	14	1	4	0	1	0	3	13
D. Milicic	C	17:32	3-8	0-0	0-0	-11	3	2	5	0	3	0	1	1	1	6
W. Ellington	G	22:58	2-6	1-3	0-0	-21	1	0	1	0	2	1	1	0	0	5
L. Ridnour	G	29:45	6-9	1-3	0-0	-31	0	0	0	1	3	1	2	0	0	13
D. Williams		28:22	4-11	0-3	5-5	+7	3	5	8	2	3	1	2	1	1	13
A. Tolliver		24:15	0-3	0-2	2-2	+14	0	1	1	0	6	0	1	0	1	2
R. Rubio		29:30	2-9	1-2	5-7	+1	1	3	4	6	1	3	2	0	3	10
J. Barea		17:24	5-9	2-4	4-4	+21	0	1	1	3	2	0	2	0	0	16
A. Randolph		14:46	2-4	0-0	5-5	+2	1	3	4	0	2	0	1	1	0	9
M. Beasley	NWT - NOT WITH TEAM
M. Lee	NWT - NOT WITH TEAM
N. Pekovic	DNP - COACH'S DECISION
Total		240	27-80	7-24	26-33		15	24	39	14	26	8	15	4	9	87
			33.8%	29.2%	78.8%		TEAM REBS: 15			TOTAL TO: 16

33.8% shooting, 14 ASTs - 16 TOs ... yeah, FAIL. Moving on to the player grades.

Wesley Johnson: Positives: NOTHING!! Negatives: 0-5 FGs ... ... 2 TOs .... Yuck

Grade: F

Wes, sorry man, I like ya, but you failed again tonight. It's horribly discouraging. I mean, he looks about as credible as Rasual Butler. But even Butler blocked two shots and, gasp, didn't turn the ball over. Wes did nothing well. Nuff said. #4 pick!? what!? (when did Rasual Butler get drafted?)

Kevin Love: Positives: 2-4 3pt, 5 OffRebs Negatives: FGs 3-16 Fgs, 5-10 FTs, 4PF, Too many complaints!

Grade: C-

It's hard to believe that I can feel like I'm being generous with a C- when a guy finishes with a double double, but Kevin Love definitely made that possible tonight. He couldn't buy a bucket, except for that little stretch when Ricky came in the game when he hit two threes. Was he tired? Must have been. Was he inexcusably diva-ish? Yes! That commercial about Kevin Loves first word should include something about throwing temper tantrums when another kid bumped into him. How does he go 5-10 at the charity stripe. Then there's Bargnani. Can Kevin do anything to stop him?

Darko Milicic: Positives: 1 Blk Negatives: 3-8 FGs, 5 rebs,

Grade: D

Darko really confuses me. He seems like he should be good, he'll shine randomly like he did in the first quarter against Cleveland, and then tonight he'll fumble passes, miss dunks and get torched by the likes of Amir Johnson. Thankfully he didn't fill the box score up with TOs or he might have got a "Wesley" (aka an F)

Wayne Ellington: Positives: Well I guess 1-3 3ptFGs, Negatives: 0 AST & 1 Reb in 23 mins

Grade: C-

Wayne did nothing incredibly bad. He even played admirable Defense (which is something I've seen all year from him), against DeRozan. He simply didn't do what you want to see from a NBA guard. I mean in 23 mins we should have see something.

Luke Ridnour: Positives: 6-9 FGs, BLK on Barg??? Negatives: 1 AST - 2 TO

Grade: B

I mean I love Bs. But this one for Ridnour needs to be better. He shot well, but eventually he has to understand that he's currently the teams best SG (tied with Barea) and he has to learn that as his role. I don't understand why we would want to see Ricky out there on the wing and Ridnour with the ball. Please swap those roles.

Derrick Williams: Positives: Effort, 8 Rebs, 3 OffREBs 1 STL, 1 BLK Negative: 4-11 FGs, 0-3 3pt FG,

Grade: B+

Derrick did what he is supposed to do. He came in, brought the effort, brought the boom on that dunk. It was definitely a solid game for him. It wasn't great with 2 TOs and 0-3 from three point land, but at least. I think Derrick also played some of our best defense against Barg.

Anthony Tolliver: Positives: umm Nothing, Negatives: 0-3 FGs, 6 PF,

Grade: D-

Couldn't play Defense, resorted to fouling. Couldn't hit his shots. Not good. I really like what Tolliver brings the Wolves, but this was not his night. He only escaped "Wesley" (a failing grade) because FTs are tougher than Lay-ups.

Ricky Rubio: Positives: 6 ASTs, 7 FTAs, Negatives: 2-9 FGs,

Grade: B

Ricky runs the show. When he came into the game the Wolves got back into the game. His 6 ASTs against, 2 TOs (at least one of them in garbage time) is a good sign. He did what we expect now and that earns him a B. I did like it that he tried to go up and dunk though.

Jose Juan Barea: Possitives: Just about everthing Negatives: 17.5 mins

Grade: A

J.J. Barea is awesome. He carried the team when he was on the court. Hit shots, drew contact. 16PTS, 3ASTs in less than 18 mins. That's basketball. This little guys a gamer, too bad he couldn't stay on the court longer.

Anthony Randolph: Possitives: 5-5 FTs, 9PTS, Negatives: 15mins?

Grade: B

Anthony played a good game. I think he did very well getting to the FT line. It's great to see him run the court and finish with that big dunk. He did very well in his 15 mins, unfortunately, this time it was only 15 mins.

Rick Adelman:

Grade: B

People were complaining about the minutes given out, but he's been given a tough job. Really with injuries and this condensed season. We saw K-Love and Rubio both appear to be dogging it at the end of the game. JJ and Tolliver both are banged up and we some how have to play CHICAGO tomorrow night? He needed to give some guys a rest. Too bad some guys are just too bad to put on the court. We cannot start blaming Adelman for losses like this. The rotations aren't set because they didn't have a dang training camp and then there were injuries!

Now your coming back home Wolves. Rest up, Ice up, do what you gotta do so we can fight the bulls tomorrow night, maybe we'll surprise people. It would help if we could hit some shots.

Okay, I kind of liked how that worked out, not the game of course, but the way I picked to start with the ugly and end with the Good. Over all I give the team a solid D- on this game. Somehow they stayed in it, and that says something, I'm not sure what, but it's something ... It would have been a EPIC ("Wesley") FAIL if it wasn't for the efforts of Dwill, Anthony Randolph and JJ Barea.

May I suggest adding the "Alpha Male" award and the "Goat (nothing to do with Corey Brewer) of the Game" Award to the end of the Report Card.

Top Dogg tonight was: JJ Barea!

Goat: is Wesley Johnson. It would have nearly been as effective having Corey Brewer's Goat start the game at SF.

That's all I got,

Peace out Hoopers

-Mikey B

PS - I really hope Wesley can find a way to do something positive for this team. Cuz he's not gunna net us nothing in any kind of a trade (unless Ras Butlers on the blocks ... jk ... I think).

Well, what else can I say, this is was bad basketball again. I'll let the box score do the talking

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES (3-5)
FIELD GOALSREBOUNDS
	POS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	+/-	OFF	DEF	TOT	AST	PF	ST	TO	BS	BA	PTS
W. Johnson	G-F	19:12	0-5	0-3	0-0	-12	1	0	1	1	0	2	2	1	0	0
K. Love	F-C	36:16	3-16	2-4	5-10	-20	5	9	14	1	4	0	1	0	3	13
D. Milicic	C	17:32	3-8	0-0	0-0	-11	3	2	5	0	3	0	1	1	1	6
W. Ellington	G	22:58	2-6	1-3	0-0	-21	1	0	1	0	2	1	1	0	0	5
L. Ridnour	G	29:45	6-9	1-3	0-0	-31	0	0	0	1	3	1	2	0	0	13
D. Williams		28:22	4-11	0-3	5-5	+7	3	5	8	2	3	1	2	1	1	13
A. Tolliver		24:15	0-3	0-2	2-2	+14	0	1	1	0	6	0	1	0	1	2
R. Rubio		29:30	2-9	1-2	5-7	+1	1	3	4	6	1	3	2	0	3	10
J. Barea		17:24	5-9	2-4	4-4	+21	0	1	1	3	2	0	2	0	0	16
A. Randolph		14:46	2-4	0-0	5-5	+2	1	3	4	0	2	0	1	1	0	9
M. Beasley	NWT - NOT WITH TEAM
M. Lee	NWT - NOT WITH TEAM
N. Pekovic	DNP - COACH'S DECISION
Total		240	27-80	7-24	26-33		15	24	39	14	26	8	15	4	9	87
			33.8%	29.2%	78.8%		TEAM REBS: 15			TOTAL TO: 16

33.8% shooting, 14 ASTs - 16 TOs ... yeah, FAIL. Moving on to the player grades.

Wesley Johnson: Positives: NOTHING!! Negatives: 0-5 FGs ... ... 2 TOs .... Yuck

Grade: F

Kevin Love: Positives: 2-4 3pt, 5 OffRebs Negatives: FGs 3-16 Fgs, 5-10 FTs, 4PF, Too many complaints!

Grade: C-

Darko Milicic: Positives: 1 Blk Negatives: 3-8 FGs, 5 rebs,

Grade: D

Wayne Ellington: Positives: Well I guess 1-3 3ptFGs, Negatives: 0 AST & 1 Reb in 23 mins

Grade: C-

Luke Ridnour: Positives: 6-9 FGs, BLK on Barg??? Negatives: 1 AST - 2 TO

Grade: B

Derrick Williams: Positives: Effort, 8 Rebs, 3 OffREBs 1 STL, 1 BLK Negative: 4-11 FGs, 0-3 3pt FG,

Grade: B+

Anthony Tolliver: Positives: umm Nothing, Negatives: 0-3 FGs, 6 PF,

Grade: D-

Ricky Rubio: Positives: 6 ASTs, 7 FTAs, Negatives: 2-9 FGs,

Grade: B

Jose Juan Barea: Possitives: Just about everthing Negatives: 17.5 mins

Grade: A

Anthony Randolph: Possitives: 5-5 FTs, 9PTS, Negatives: 15mins?

Grade: B

Rick Adelman:

Grade: B

Now your coming back home Wolves. Rest up, Ice up, do what you gotta do so we can fight the bulls tomorrow night, maybe we'll surprise people. It would help if we could hit some shots.

May I suggest adding the "Alpha Male" award and the "Goat (nothing to do with Corey Brewer) of the Game" Award to the end of the Report Card.

Top Dogg tonight was: JJ Barea!

Goat: is Wesley Johnson. It would have nearly been as effective having Corey Brewer's Goat start the game at SF.

That's all I got,

Peace out Hoopers

-Mikey B

PS - I really hope Wesley can find a way to do something positive for this team. Cuz he's not gunna net us nothing in any kind of a trade (unless Ras Butlers on the blocks ... jk ... I think).

So Who Starts Now?

Michael C. Boosalis II — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:56:45 -0000

I'm wondering what you guys think Adelman does to fill up Beasley's Minutes. I think the big story that hasn't really been talked about hear much in how much injuries have effected what Adelman has to work with. Webster, Lee, Barea, Miller, now Beasley, and even Tolliver is playing with a sprained wrist and sore back. That's a lot of injuries for a team to deal with. We came into this year excited about Beasley, Love, Rubio, then Barea, and optimistic about Johnson and Milicic making some strides. I think we missed how much the guys like Miller and Webster meant to this team, at least in the rotation that Adelman wanted to put together.

I also think that we know why the Wolves gave Malcolm Lee a three year contract. He's not going to play much this year, hopefully they think he can bounce back and perform when he is healthy.

Adelman has spoke about the positives of Miller and Webster.

But back to the actual topic of this post. Who Starts Now? Who gets Beasley's minutes?

We might be looking at a rough stretch for the Wolves, not like we shouldn't be used to that, but I'm sorry to say, if you think about it, our roster is in trouble.

1. Does Adelman start Rubio & shift Ridnour and Johnson Down?

2. Does Adelman start Tolliver at SF?

3. Does Adelman start Ellington?

4. Does Adelman start Williams at SF?

I'm not sure.

I'm also interested in what people think of what Webster, Miller & Lee might mean to the roster if and when they return.

Comments yall! please!

I also think that we know why the Wolves gave Malcolm Lee a three year contract. He's not going to play much this year, hopefully they think he can bounce back and perform when he is healthy.

Adelman has spoke about the positives of Miller and Webster.

But back to the actual topic of this post. Who Starts Now? Who gets Beasley's minutes?

We might be looking at a rough stretch for the Wolves, not like we shouldn't be used to that, but I'm sorry to say, if you think about it, our roster is in trouble.

1. Does Adelman start Rubio & shift Ridnour and Johnson Down?

2. Does Adelman start Tolliver at SF?

3. Does Adelman start Ellington?

4. Does Adelman start Williams at SF?

I'm not sure.

I'm also interested in what people think of what Webster, Miller & Lee might mean to the roster if and when they return.

Comments yall! please!

Poll

Who Starts Now?

Rubio starts, Ridnour, Johnson move down to SG and SF

43 votes

Tolliver starts at SF

21 votes

Ellington starts at SG, Johnson moves down to SF

29 votes

Williams starts at SF

60 votes

Other (explain in comments)

3 votes

156 votes | Poll has closed

Rookie Ladder

Michael C. Boosalis II — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:20:43 -0000

Rookie Ladder

Look at that, Ricky's #2, but the Wolves could have had Marshon, and at one DID have Norris Cole. Just interesting.

SBNation.com User Blog: Michael C. Boosalis II

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The 1991-92 Trail Blazers:

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The 2001-02 Sacramento Kings

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The 2007-08 Houston Rockets

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So Who Starts Now?

Who Starts Now?

Rubio starts, Ridnour, Johnson move down to SG and SF

Tolliver starts at SF

Ellington starts at SG, Johnson moves down to SF

Williams starts at SF

Other (explain in comments)

Rookie Ladder

Rookie Ladder

Possibilities, Possibilities, Possibilities; If , Then & __