Quick work today
Posted on December 18th, 2008 – 1:21 PMBy Brian Stensaas
Timberwolves players had to participate in a mandatory league-sponsored session after practice today. That meant little access for reporters. Seconds after the team huddle signaling the end of practice, players were shooed off the court lightning quick. We were lucky to snag a few seconds. So there’s really not much of an update.
Coach Kevin McHale said he and the team were still pretty tired after last night’s game, but promised tomorrow’s practice (two off days in a row!!) would be much more intense.
Hopefully we’ll be able to talk with a few more players afterward and for longer than 45 seconds, too.
30 Responses to "Quick work today"
Jerry, do have any idea why the team, and Foye in particular, has been so listless lately? Is it just the losing, or is something else going on? I thought Foye and Love would blossom somewhat under McHale.
Shawn
This post was written by Brian Stensaas.
Actually, Foye has been more spirited under McHale. But the parameter shooting is the worse I’ve witnessed from an NBA team. McCants can’t hit a shot, Foye shot poorly last night, etc.
What is parameter shooting?
[…] On the Wolves – […]
One thing I’m noticing is that when Jefferson misses there’s only one person there to rebound (usually either Love or Smith, sometimes Gomes). Hence I’m not a big fan of our offense and #1 shot taker being our center/pf. On most teams the main shooter is the off guard leaving more rebounders. Shots are going to miss. Miller needs to continue to step up and go back to his slasher style.
I think that Kevin McHale is a much better coach than he was a VP/GM…
and he’s Zero for December… that pretty much says exactly what I think of his ability to put together a team.
However on a positive… I do like how he is trying to nurture the players.
On a negative… what did Telfair do to not get any playing time for so long?
Coach Kevin McHale said he and the team were still pretty tired after last night’s game, but promised tomorrow’s practice (two off days in a row!!) would be much more intense.
Yep, I imagine that 14 point quarter was the culprit. Poor fellas.
SINGIN DON’T WORRY….. BOUT A THING….. CAUSE….?
Brian or Jerry, if you could do the honors and finish the next line. I think it would make all of us wolves fans… be happy again and give us hope in these most depressing times.
This guy would’ve made a great locker room guy.
Since this is a blog, it’s a good place to point out that McHale’s blogger comment is getting some nice run:
What’s going on with the Twolves rotation? Telfair didn’t get any clock against the Cavs and neither did Carney. Unless there were some injuries I’m not aware of, those two should have definitely saw some clock. The thing I noticed the wolves were lacking the most on Wednesday, and the entire season, was athleticism. Carney is probably the most athletic guy we’ve got and besides probably McCants he’s the only guy who can really attack the middle.
As far as our interior…..Jefferson is a black hole and although he puts up good numbers, he’s not a guy you can build your team around. He would be a great compliment to a potent offense but that we don’t have. Love continues to disappear. Sure, he’s been rebounding great but we need him to be a scorer. Granted he’s only 19 and has a lot to learn, a lottery pick needs to have some impact on the court.
mike miller has been a disappointment. He was the main reason why McHale traded Mayo and now he’s not much better than Jaric. I’m amazed at how scared he is of shooting the ball. This team desperately needs a solid no. 2 scorer and Foye is too inconsistent and Miller to is too scared to shoot. McCants has potential but he does not make an effort to play D at all. It’s going to be a long year and I hope the Wolves clean house at the end of the year. The only guys I see that are worthy of keeping are AJ and Love…everyone else needs to go
I don’t think Love and Jefferson will ever be able to co-exist on the defensive end of the floor. We should keep Love until the end of this year. He should be averaging 12 pts 12 rebounds a game by seasons end, assuming he gets a starting role by midway through the season.
He’s in a major scoring slump right now. I wouldn’t be surprised if hes averaging 14 and 12 once he starts knocking down the shots he normally does. Yup… tried not to go on a rant and failed. We should trade Love after this year for a top 7-10 pick or a solid player at any position except power forward.
I was looking at the draft pick situation for 2009, since this season can’t get over quickly enough. It looks like our 2nd round pick, which may end up being the first or second pick in the second round, goes to Detroit for the great Ronald Dupree trade. With a pick at the very beginning of the second round, we could have been looking at picking up some talented player that slipped out of the first round for some reason. But, as we did with the Mario Chalmers pick (and I don’t want to hear any lame talk about how this very talented team didn’t need Chalmers if the Mayo trade had not gone through at that point) we would probably be trading the pick for cash considerations and some picks at the very end of the 2nd round picks in return. The Front Office of this team needs to be completely purged !!!
Tim
The 2009 draft has absolutely no depth. The 2008 draft had some unbelievable depth which makes trading the Chalmers pick even worse than it first appeared. Even if the Wolves didn’t want Chalmers there were some players with great value still available now they have two picks that will be in the 50’s in a draft that only goes about 10 deep. Not a good trade no matter what the other situations were.
We should clean house and take Blake Griffin and Package Jefferson, Love, and another first rounder for a top 10 pick and take a dynamic guard to go with Blake Griffin, maybe Rubio, but I would like Brandon Jennings.
I’d rather have Jefferson and Griffin. Blake is the same player as Al except 4 years behind and without the midrange jumper. He’s a little more athletic, but not enough to make a difference since his skillset isn’t tailored to take advantage of it. And his defense is even worse than Al’s. We’ll see what strides he can make the rest of the year here, but given the choice now, I’d much rather have Al.
By the way, are we all enjoying watching Brandon Roy drop 50+ on the Suns tonight? Thanks a million Kevin McFail. I sure enjoy watching Foye chuck it up, you certainly got the better player in that deal, right? RIGHT???
I was just going to post about how good Roy is playing. How often does a guy get 52 points and 6 assists and NO TURNOVERS. Wow, he is a special player and only getting better.
But who are we to complain, right? Foye got us 7 and 3 last night, and McHale’s record as a coach is stellar!!
I hope McFailure was watching that game. That’s as big a slap to his face as watching Target Center cheering for LeBron last night.
I like you Bryan, but not in that way, lol. But seriously, I think McHale is going to quit soon. I could see Ainge giving him a job as a scout or special assistant to work with the Leon Powe, Kendrick Perkins, and etc.
McHale doesn’t need to work. He’s a multimillionaire who, very soon, will be able to kill and grill animals to his heart’s content. My only wish is that he was an avid ice fisherman so he would quit sooner to go enjoy sitting on ice.
So this morning’s Strib article had McHale bemoaning our terrible outside shooting. He mentions that they get the shots but they don’t go in. He says that they make them in practice. Um, Kev, they go in in practice because the shots are taken against your own non-existent defense. It’s likely that other teams play just a wee bit better on the defensive end of the court.
I was going to post on Roy’s performance last night, but I couldn’t type with puke in the back of my throat.
Hang a banner in Target center:
We’re no good, but we don’t play hard.
Until we get someone in the front office that can critically evaluate talent, we are stuck with “projects” like Foye, McCants and Love. Brandon Roy and OJ Mayo are doing quite well in other teams’ uniforms. We overpay and pamper our prima donna players and wonder why they don’t want to put out the energy to win. I was at the San Antonio game last week and was shocked at the total lack of effort.
jdb””u forgot to mention little corey brewer…., but,I agree about everything else you said thou
Hire Avery Johnson as the coach and get better players! Its obvious that we kept Mchale, got Love and Miller because they are white. Im white to but why on gods earth would Taylor have kept McFail so long. Answer-He is the Minnesota son of his. Taylor needs to catch up to the times if this franchise is to become competitive. Its obvious. Its 2008 Taylor!
sportsjunkie:
I somewhat agree on Brewer, but he may still be a Trenton Hassell type of player - great defender and average over 10 points a game. Every team needs one, I only hope his ACL injury doesn’t slow him down….
Trenton Hassel was picked up after being waived by the Bulls. Those type of players are a dime a dozen. They need an upside if they’re going to stick…Brewer was a waste of a #7 pick with his very limited upside….lets hope he gets healthly and continues to improve….
Brewer has tons of upside. It’s just whether he puts in the work and gets the opportunity to be better. Brewer has more ability than Hassell for sure….more athletic, bigger skillset. I see him more as a Malik Sealy/Trever Ariza type of player, with the potential to be up at Tayshaun Prince’s level with a couple more years of steady improvement. It’s too bad the injuries derailed him. He was making big strides this year.
Yes, Brewers play had been like night and day since last year. His game is still very lacking and I don’t see him as being all that athletic. The best thing he has going is his heart and desire. Lets hope all the money doesn’t change that like it has soo many others. McCants definently should take note…
