Training camp, Day 2: Moving beyond “fairly awful”
Posted on September 30th, 2009 – 3:04 PMBy Jerry Zgoda
The Wolves went about an hour beyond their scheduled practice time on the second day of training camp this morning, partly because they lifted weights and were delayed in hitting the floor, partly because Kurt Rambis spent extra time trying to smooth what were very rough edges on Day 1.
Al Jefferson participated fully, showing no signs of knee trouble after practicing twice on Tuesday.
“Al looks terrific, he really does,” Rambis said. “He’s energized. He’s excited. I really thought this morning he’d be sore and tired, but he said he felt good and he was ready to go. He’s the leader out there in terms of his energy. He know he has to push himself to get in shape.”
Rambis spent part of the morning practice encouraging players to shoot when they’re open. That’s one big question — Who’s going to make an outside shot? — that must be addressed in the preseason.
“I want to see guys shoot the ball,” Rambis said. “I’m just trying to give them the confidence where if they’re open, shoot it. Then it becomes my decision: If you’re playing poorly or just not making your shots, then I make a substitution. But if you’re not shooting the ball and you’re open, then you’re screwing up the offense everybody’s expecting you to shoot when you’re open.”
Rambis is installing his offensive concepts in the morning, then turning his focus to defense in camp’s evening session, which he has designated as the daily contact session he’s allowed with players by NBA training-camp rules. They’ll scrimmage again in this evening’s session, which starts at 6 p.m.
“Hopefully, they’ll be better in tonight’s scrimmage than they were yesterday,” Rambis said.
I’ll check in later after it’s over with some impressions.





