K.G. comes back, Celtics at Wolves tonight
Posted on November 4th, 2009 – 5:25 PMBy Jerry Zgoda
Kevin Garnett tonight returns to Target Center for the third time — the second time to actually play — since the July 2007 trade with the Celtics.
Al Jefferson and Ryan Gomes remain Timberwolves from that deal.
Theo Ratliff, Gerald Green and Sebastian Telfair are long gone, waived or traded away in moves that have brought back salary-cap space, Houston’s second-round pick next summer and the Wolves’ own future first round pick that they had given the Celtics that Ricky Davis-Wally Szcezerbiak deal.
More than two years later, how do you think that deal looks? (Of course it looks good for the Celtics, who just might be favorites this season to win their second title in three years).
On another topic, Kevin Love says he will stitches removed from his fractured hand tomorrow and will have his hand x-rayed in a little more than two weeks from now. The results will be sent to the New York City doctor who performed the surgery and Love said he’s hopeful the hand will have healed sufficiently by then for him to resume practice.
That would be about Nov. 20 and certainly on the lower end of the six-to-eight week time frame estimated when he broke the hand Oct. 16 at Chicago. It’d take him some practice time to get into playing shape even if the OK comes on the 20th.
48 Responses to "K.G. comes back, Celtics at Wolves tonight"
Eh…the KG deal looked terrible even when it happened, but what choice did we have? McHale painted the franchise into a corner.
Maybe if we had held out for Rondo…
BTW I still laugh about all the Wolves fans who tried to convince us Gerald Green was the next TMac.
Happy for KG. He’s in a good place for him. He’s always been a Scottie Pippen type not a M J or Kobe. With Paul P. as the finisher KG can relax and play his role. His only problem was with his salary people wanted him to be Larry, Kobe or M. J. His salary was not his fault, they offered…. he accepted. Wolves won’t break 80 tonight.
Bryan,
That is a good way to put it. I agree with that. If KG was still here then there would have been another contract extension to eat salary as well as lower draft picks due to a few more wins each year. …and more desperate attempts to upgrade the roster through bad trades.
That’s the point, Bryan… if we could only get Rondo from that trade I guess we would all feel a little less damaged… but I’m happy for KG.
KG is no longer the player he was. If we had kept him, and resigned him to an extension, we’d be even more hamstrung now. We’d have a declining superstar with an outrageous contract. As much as it was a bad deal at the time, we’re better off now than if it hadn’t happened at all, and so are the Celtics (obviously). Is there really any team that right now would rather have KG than Al?
I always wonder if we held out a couple more weeks would Rondo have been added instead of Telfair or Tony Allen instead of Green? Although we don’t know if Rondo would have developed here as well as he did in Boston, McHale probably would have traded him for another Madsen or something.
Ed:
I think the Lakers, Spurs, Blazers, Magic and Cavs would take KG right now over Al. Any team that would be rebuilding or not a contender would probably take Al.
Canis Hoops got an inside discussion with Rambis about the Flynn vs Sessions debate:
http://www.canishoopus.com/2009/11/4/1114905/quick-takes-with-rambis-and-gomes
Q: What are your primary criteria when it comes to evaluating your point guards?
Kurt Rambis: I’m probably going to need to give Johnny just as much time as I can before someone else, just to give him the experience out there. But he’s got to do the right thing.
Q: You gave him a little bit quicker hook in the first half tonight than previously. Was it something you saw specifically?
KR: There was one sequence where he went out of the context of the offense and tried to dribble too much, turned the ball over and then jogged back on defense. That, definitely, if you turn the ball over you better bust your ass as hard as you can to get back and try to make up for the play. It is not one of his teammate’s responsibility to get his back when he does something wrong and turns the ball over. So those types of situations. [When he’s] making dumb mistakes, I’ll have to sit on my hands a lot and just figure he has to go through these learning experiences. But lack of hustle and lack of effort; that’s something that he shouldn’t tolerate.
Q: And what about during garbage time, when he turned the ball over twice in a row. Is that a circumstance where you de-emphasize the mistakes a little bit just because of the circumstance?
KR: No. That’s him. It is good for him to know that if he goes out there and tries to do too much, then they take the ball from him, or that he looks silly out there. It is good for him to learn that what he was able to get away with in college right now he is not able to get away with.
Q: Have you talked to Ramon about minutes or lack thereof?
KR: No, I don’t talk to him about minutes. I’ve just talked about the responsibilities of the job–to both of them, about what I expect of them.
Q: But you don’t anticipate any problems? He’s got a four-year deal and just should understand what you are trying to do here?
KR: I don’t anticipate any words about that. They knew the situation coming in here. My door is always open and players can come in and talk if they have any questions. As the season goes on and Jonny or any player is learning more and more and more, if repeated mistakes continue to be made, then the hook will be quicker. But there is a point where I will accept a certain amount of mistakes and there is a learning curve that goes along with that.
Q: But the team is committed to youth and making some decisions on that basis?
KR: It is a year. We’ve got time and we are going to try and get both of them as much experience as possible. It’s just that right now we are trying to catch Jonny up.
We need to get over Rondo, if we would have gotten him we would have released him by now anyway.
I will wager that the Wolves will break 80 and not win… I think it will be a closer game due to Boston in a back to back. We will lose in a close one… 91-86
[…] On the Wolves » Blog Archive » K.G. comes back, Celtics at Wolves tonight blogs2.startribune.com/blogs/wolves/2009/11/04/kg-comes-back-celtics-at-wolves-tonight – view page – cached Kevin Garnett tonight returns to Target Center for the third time — the second time to actually play — since the July 2007 trade with the Celtics. […]
Tell me when it’s safe to look. I predict a slaughter but would be happy to be shown wrong.
Jerry, isn’t K-Love doing some cardio and keeping in some semblance of playing shape while he is laid up?
I suspect Jonny’s ego is mush right now. He can’t rely on the pick-and-roll and must work to make his team mates better. It certainly isn’t a lack of talent and ability, so he must be 130% mental.
Marty - yep. Rambis actually specifically brought up the pick and roll after the Suns game.
“I’m making it very difficult on him. I’m not letting him go out there and run pick-and-rolls all the time, which is what he wants to do. I’m challenging him to step out of that zone. He’s still learning to make accurate decisions, and in those situations, that’s when I have to go to a more stable point guard in Ramon.”
Obviously Flynn is going to default to a pick and roll when he wants to create a play, because that’s what he did at Syracuse. So it definitely looks like the hurdle right now is just getting Flynn to think of the offense differently.
More Flynn analysis…great! He’s going to play his fifth NBA game. He’s made mistakes, he’s done well, and our coach is paying attention and coaching him. Somebody tell me he really sucks and will never be anything, and at least that would be something worth reading. Tell me he can’t go to his left or that he’ll never be able to defend or that his shot has a defect.
Otherwise, just shut up and wait for him to grow into an excellent PG instead of analyzing all the development minutiae any 20 yr old other than Magic would go through as if this is a problem or news.
Is the game on TV tonight?
Twinstalker: STFU
McFly-
Why don’t you make like a tree……..and get outta here
I can’t wait to see Love handling the PF spot in the triangle. If Brewer could just shoot and finish around the rim he could be an All Star.
I cringe everytime Brewer shoots.
game is on 45 Bryan.
Jefferson is DOMINATING his old team. Gomes is looking very confident too. he might be that scoring wing that the team needs right now…
just heard they waved off Al’s shot that beat the buzzer. it was very close, i can’t say for sure. it was an amazing shot nonetheless.
Daniels looked ok in that 1st quarter coming off the bench/ might have been a good guy to pick up for us.
the benches are emptied for the 2nd quarter..interesting.
sweet, seimone augustus is on the radio as a guest.
maybe the wolves could sign her to play the 2…she’s that good.
The Wolves are so much more competitive this year, finally we have a respectable coaching staff, they actually know what they are doing.
best half of basketball i’ve seen in ages from this team…
Rambos needs to work on the rotation. That second group off the bench really struggled scoring.
That’s where they really miss Love. With him back it will strengthen the starters and the bench.
That was a foul on KG, thats the one thing that bugs me about the NBA, Superstar preferential treatment. Its so anoying.
go Ramon
boy that pecherov guy sure can play. good thing we picked up that option..o wait..
i know that’s a knee jerk, but seriously, the better he plays, I bet he’ll get that on the open market next year.
offensive rebounds are killing this team. can’t miss Love enough.
ref’s workin great tonite..
that was a solid game. i made the comment about pech earlier, but he along with gomes ended up costhign us the game with poor shot selection down the stretch.
I now hate the Celtics, nice no calls for the away team refs. The celtics play kinda dirty, from Garnett to Rondo, they get away with too much.
On the brite side the Wolves were in it the whole game, but somebody needs to tell Brewer he’s not the #1 option on the team, his shot selection sucks. This team has a lot of upside.
If Pecherov was on the team when KG was here he would have been punched twice already, lol
love that one of our best j shooters is inbounding the ball…
Wow, that was heartbreaking. And kind of questionable at the end….
Great game tonight, I think what we saw towards the end was a young team not getting the calls a little. I have to admit that I’ve already watched more of the Wolves this year than I did the last two years combined.
Just a couple quick observations
1. Rambis was absolutely the best man for the job IMO.
2. Is it just me, or does Pecherov look like a grown up version of Stewie Griffin?
maybe Rupert(his stuffed bear)
But I agree, I think Rambis was a great hire. I don’t care what his record ends up this year, He just looks like he knows what he is doing, and being a Wolves/Lakers fan, I know Rambis was always a great hands on teacher.
I missed the game, I saw that Pech put a bunch shots and made them. Thats great, did he play any D? or was he like normal?
Yes he looks like Stewie but he has an accent.
Pecherov is decent on D. He looks like he uses his size and holds his position well, he doesn’t get cheap fouls trying to hack at the ball, and he’s willing to hit the boards. Most important, the guy is a willing and able perimeter shooter on a team that lacks both, who can for the most part get his shot off without much difficulty due to his size and quick release.
Obviously tonight was a career night, but so far I like what I’ve seen. He’s going to be starting every game from here on out at least till Love gets back, so we should get to know a lot more about him in short order.
Brewer did end up taking some bad shots tonight that you’d like to have back, but I still like the overall improvement and his impact on the game. As other guys step up and find their comfort spots on the floor, his shots should decrease, but hopefully not too much.
Pech’s got good skills, just not very good awareness. He doesn’t seem to know where anyone is on defense…that’s really what hurts him on that end.
Getting Love back will help immensely with moving Pech to the bench, when he can be an instant offense type. He and Wayne Ellington, once Ellington’s game pans out, can score some serious points in a hurry for us…God knows our bench needs some scoring punch right now.
I agree with Bryan from what I have seen of Pech he get lost on D a lot. I have really seen him keep his man off his spot. Kaman had his way with him last game. I was thinking that going against lighter opponents (KG was never the heaviest guy) that he might fair better. That is more of what I was asking is did he look lost on rotations and help D.
Analysis of the Wolves’ loss to Boston, Oleksiy Pecherov’s big night, why I can cheer against KG now, and more:
http://mnhowl.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/yup-i-can-cheer-against-kg-now/
Wow! That was a very fun game to watch. I’m betting the Celtics won’t sleepwalk through the first half on this court again anytime soon.
The Wolves played pretty good on both ends, but actually looked better on D than they have so far this season. Brewer was so active on taking away Pierce’s drives in the lane and the quick double teams really frustrated Boston.
A little better officiating and the kids might have stolen one from the Celts.
I’m really liking the team and coaching and looking forward to improvements as the season progresses.
