Another loss, another one goes down for the Wolves
Posted on December 4th, 2008 – 1:08 AMBy Jerry Zgoda
Two days after the Wolves learned Corey Brewer’s out for the season, Mike Miller’s ankle twisted badly when he landed on Ryan Gomes’ foot while reaching for a rebound in tonight’s 100-89 loss at Orlando and he went down in a heap.
It was enough, Randy Foye said, to make his heart drop.
Helped off to the locker room eventually by Mark Madsen and Brian Cardinal, Miller limped back to the court after xrays taken at Amway Arena showed he didn’t break the ankle. He played another two minutes, but then Randy Wittman pulled him for the night.
It was a two-point game when Miller left a minute into the third quarter. It was 18 points shortly after he returned.
He will have an MRI done Thursday morning in Orlando. He said after the game that he won’t know just how bad the sprained ankle is or isn’t until that is done, or until he wakes up in the morning and see how swollen or stiff it might be.
Will update after practice on Thursday before the team flies to New Jersey for Friday’s game against the Nets.
14 Responses to "Another loss, another one goes down for the Wolves"
Well, the Magic exposed all of our weaknesses all in one game. But that’s not surprising and a lot of it is stuff that comes up in every game we pay these days. So instead, I want to comment on something else I got to thinking about watching highlights of the Memphis/Atlanta game.
Waaayy back when we drafted Foye (all of three years ago), one of the comparisons that was made was that he played like Dwyane Wade. Which he obviously doesn’t, and I’m not sure where that comparison came from, but the POINT is that the coaching staff and McHale said he was athletic like Wade, aggressive like Wade, and could draw fouls and get to the line like Wade. All untrue. Foye isn’t overwhelmingly athletic, doesn’t have the quickness or first step to go flying by his defender, and doesn’t have the body control to draw fouls going to the rim.
No fast forward to this year’s draft. We trade Mayo away, and when asked what they didn’t like about him, the front office said he’s not overwhelmingly athletic, doesn’t have a quick first step, and doesn’t get to the line.
Huh.
SO….does the front office not really know what they want? Or are they just bad at judging talent? I say both.
Further evidence McHale needs to be fired. And if he would please take Jim Stack, Rob Babcock (who was equally at terrible as the Raptors’ GM), and all his college and Eruo scouts with him, that would be much appreciated.
Also…I’m sick of not seeing Carney get any burn. What the hell is the deal? He doesn’t even get in for garbage time!!
[…] On the Wolves – […]
I just wish Witt would stop with the 12 man rotations and give Love more run time than he currently is getting (36-40mins). What can it hurt we get more ping pong balls?
I just don’t think they could pay me enough money to write a game story on these under-achieving mutts.
Al Jefferson is obviously looking to get traded. He sees what Garnett saw in Foye.
Stack your expense reports Jerry!!!
I’m thinking that any more injuries may harm the wolves playoff run.
It would be a shame to break the streak of long runs in the playoffs with this historic franchise.
Bryan has hit on the point that some of us have been saying for quite a while. There doesn’t seem to be an overriding plan here.
This team’s best player — Jefferson — is surrounded by a bunch of players ill-suited to run the half-court game that best fits his abilities.
Foye, Telfair, McCants, Brewer, and even Love would probably benefit from more of an up-and-down less-structured system that would reward the fact that some of these guys aren’t optimally sized for the positions they play. But when you slow it down, having an undersized frontline and backcourt (if the decision to make Foye a two-guard is final) kills you in a traditional style of play.
If you’re going to build around Jefferson, then you need to get the right guys around him. That means a traditional center so he can play his true position and a play-making point guard who can initiate the offense.
I wish we could get lucky with our draft picks like Portland did with Brandon Roy, he is having a clutch hand this year … or as AOL Fanhouse noted, O J Mayo has had four 30 plus games and ten 20 plus games, dude looks to be able to create space with those slow feet on a comparable bad team, and he averages more steals per game than anyone on the Wolves.
If we could have drafted one of those guys, we might have been able to put enough threat in the backcourt to give Jefferson some real breathing room.
Yet, I have full faith in McHale’s vision that we all see forming. Foye & Love will be still be NBA All Stars when these “flash in the pan” moments are over for Roy & Mayo … they just lucky is all.
My patient in McHale will prove out as it always has before!
Jerry,
I’m sure you asked this question or something similar to Wittman, but can you please ask him how playing Ollie almost 10 more minutes than Telfair helps this team now or in the future?
Witt, while intriguing once in awhile, has made too many boneheaded mistakes this year. Telfair deserves more than Ollie (and I like Ollie) and not giving ANYTHING to Carney (whose got talent coming out of his ears and can jump out of the building) even when both Brewer and Miller are out makes me think he is just sticking to his guns for no reason.
Like Sean said, this team has the tools to get up and down the floor, but they (and rightfully so) try to run through Jefferson. Problem is, they aren’t built to run a half-court offense.
They are once again back to square one. Let’s hope the team can turn things around before the fans stop forgiving them
Carney can’t shoot and takes more ill advised shots than 10 McCants, for someone with such “ridiculous athleticism” he never tries to get to the rim…he has Gerald Green disease in the sense that he wants to prove he is more than a leaper.
Plus Carney looks lost in all offensive schemes.
16 & 12 for Love last night in 26 minutes ? Just a little over half a game ? Thats means if he played all 48 he’d get 32 & 24 ! Thats the MVP my friends.
Love > Mayo
Way to go McHale !
Swan, I suggest you get on the Horn and call McHale and tell him you’ve got the solution to his problems. He needs to play Love’s big flabby butt 48 minutes a game.
Problem with that is if you played Love that many minutes he’d die of a coronary due to total lack of conditioning and athletic ability.
^successful troll is successful
