Timberwolves 2011-2012

[fishersofmen]

Things are looking good. If we plan on keeping Beasley on this team we need him to be consistent and play well, he is the most talented offensive player we have. Hopefully the new coaching staff will have a solid impact on him. Love is proving to be an all star once again. Outside of defense he is better than Garnet ever was (scoring and rebounding). I am excited to get back to Target Center!

[Brady4]

Look good so far. Love can really stroke, just needs to learn to play and not complain. Beasley is a whole nother story. We need to trade him and Ridnour or Darko for a SG and/or a 1st round pick. Why do we need 3 PG's in Rubio, Ridnour, and Barea? Why not get something for one of them. Should be a fun season to watch.

[Scott K]

Looks like the Wolves will get a little break tonight playing a Randalph less Grizzly team. It would be nice to put a winning streak together going into some easier games.

[Scott M]

90-86 Wolves lose. They were just in a slumber for too long. Rubio led a couple nice rallies and finished with a double double. Grizzlies really had a nice defensive game plan, you have to give them credit. Wolves never got comfortable and had to scrap for everything. Another nice game by Love. Wes was a bust and the bench did little. Hopefully Barea comes back soon.

[Scott K]

They need to figure out how to hold on to the ball better. Last night they were taking a bunch of stupid shots as well. Beasely shouldnt be a starter, and only use him off the bench, I swear every time he touches the ball, he chucks it at the basket, or turns it over. I think if I was Adelmman, I would spend the entire day today making everyone of them shoot free throws for 8 hours today.

[schmitty3]

Tough game last night. They looked a little like last year, going cold at the end of the game. Beasly was awful last night. Turning the ball over, and throwing up whatever he could. The other players gotta hate playing with him. Everytime he gets the ball it's just him throwing it up. It's too bad cause he's got some skills, and could be a good player. I'd like to see him drive a bit more, and maybe work on his inside game to post up some. He's pretty good on the boards as well. But he still thinks he's in the league with Kobe and Lebron and can make anything he looks at. Ridnour was better last night on the offensive end of the floor, but still looks lost defensively. Overplaying backcuts, and not being able to stay in front of his player on drives. Hopefully Barea isn't out too long, he is a big help not only for the team, but for Rubio. Love's game has really looked good so far this year. I wasn't sold on him last year, but he has proven to be one of if not the best power forward in the game. Wes was ice cold last night, but still felt the need to throw up knuckle ball threes. I felt like the got too comfortable with the three point shot after the san antonio game. Schedule gets a bit easier now, and hopefully they can get some more W's.

[Scott K]

Another reminder of last years team

[Scott M]

Yep, it was ugly tonight. Bad shooting at the line and from the field. First truly forgettable performance. I thought the same thing 4WE, this is last year's team.

[Scott M]

Nice road win against a terrible Wizards team. Rubio shines with 13 pts, 14 assists off the bench. Love with a ho hum 20-16. He's in the top 6 in the league in scoring and is putting up numbers that put him in the conversation with Moses Malone. It's time to get this max deal done, I'm a believer.

14 for Derrick Williams including 4 treys and 7 boards, 11 for Tolliver, and 13 for Wayne Ellington.

Good start to the road trip. 3 of the next 4 on the road. Two games in the next two nights.

Beas is out for a few games with a sore fooot

[Scott M]

New Timberwolves looking for more than same old Beasley

by Steve Aschburner, NBA.com

As the Minnesota Timberwolves' hopes and prayers of the recent past give way to expectations and real, concrete plans, it will be telling to see how Michael Beasley fits into it all.

Among the range of possibilities, "not at all" remains very much in play.

Beasley, young as he is (he turns 23 Monday), already seems like a relic of a Timberwolves age gone by. He is a holdover from and, after just 18 months and 79 games with Minnesota heading into its clash with Cleveland on Friday, a remnant of sillier, more scattered time.

Impetuous, undisciplined and still so raw in talent and potential at a sleek 6-foot-9 and 235 pounds, Beasley can be entertaining on court. But that might not be enough anymore now that Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio and Derrick Williams are the core of something truly and, for all the right reasons, exciting.

Beasley was OK a year ago for the Wolves of Jonny Flynn, Sebastian Telfair, Kosta Koufos and coach Kurt Rambis. But that might not be good enough for the group assembled and legitimately coached by Rick Adelman.

"With a guy like Rubio or even Kevin Love at times, the good outweighs the bad," one Wolves insider said this week. "With Beasley, the bad outweighs the good."

Hard as it might be to imagine, after four years of post-Kevin Garnett flailing-about, Minnesota is hot. Beasley, however, is not. Oh, he still fascinates with his skills and what-might-be upside. His history and his free-spirit personality qualify him as one of the reasons the Wolves are a must-see on NBA League Pass these days.

But the way he plays, the way Beasley approaches his craft and his teammates, soon could disqualify him. Again.

It happened in July 2010, when the Miami Heat aimed higher, way higher, than Beasley ever could take them. The Heat brought together its Big Three -- LeBron James and Chris Bosh jumping aboard Dwyane Wade's team -- and sacrificed Beasley to the cause, gifting him to Minnesota for a couple of second-round Draft picks so they could use his salary space on shooter Mike Miller.

Beasley, already a disappointment in south Florida as the No. 2 pick in the 2008 Draft, thrived in the Wolves' land of green lights and zero expectations. Under Rambis, Beasley did his thing offensively and, as usual, did little at all defensively. He averaged a career-best 19.2 points to rank 20th in the NBA, hit 45 percent as an unleashed volume shooter and led the team 28 times in scoring.

In a six-game stretch in November, Beasley averaged 31.3 points and scored at least 25 each night against the Kings, Knicks, Hawks, Bobcats, Clippers and, yes, even the Lakers. And the Wolves won half of them. He topped 30 points eight times and his team, on its way to a 17-65 season, went 4-4 in those games.

Rambis tolerated Beasley's inattention to defense and most other details, and indulged him as his end-of-game option, because he needed him. But the losses mounted and it didn't last. From Jan. 1 to the bitter end, Beasley averaged 17.0 points on 42.8 percent shooting and just 5.2 rebounds.

Then, over the summer, Beasley got noticed for even worse reasons: In late June, he was stopped in suburban Minnetonka for speeding and cited for possession of marijuana, only his latest brush with that drug. In early August, at a summer league game at New York's Dyckman Park, Beasley "mushed" a heckling fan, a moment of dumb caught on cellphone video that night.

Enter Norm Nixon. The former Lakers guard was enticed to counsel Beasley by Wolves basketball president David Kahn, who had seen Nixon's influence as an agent on Jalen Rose back when Rose and Kahn both worked for the Indiana Pacers.

"Michael is like my son now, like one of my kids," Nixon told the St. Paul Pioneer Press last month on a visit to the Twin Cities during the Wolves' quickie training camp. "We have that kind of a relationship. If things happen, he lets me know."

The off-court stuff seems good for now. Beasley spent extra time in the gym, even returning to the practice facility at night with Nixon in tow.

On the court, a post-lockout, scrunched-together season might seem perfect for a player whose game seems to suffer from a basketball ADHD. The more games (and fewer free nights), the better, right?

Except that Beasley has been awful.

He scored 24 points on opening night against Oklahoma City but needed 27 shots to get them. He dallied away most of three quarters, in foul trouble and seemingly distracted, before locking in late for some helpful buckets. In the Wolves' first real glimmer of excitement, the near-upset of Miami on Dec. 30, Beasley was on the bench for the entire fourth quarter. He split open the index finger on his shooting hand (five stitches) in the team's victory over Dallas on Sunday, scored 19 in 43 minutes as the Wolves beat San Antonio a day later ... and then shot 5-of-16 with five turnovers in their flat performance against Memphis on Friday.

Beasley's PER rating, a mediocre 15.5 in 2010-11, is down to 7.8. Rubio, Williams, Anthony Tolliver, Wayne Ellington, Anthony Randolph and J.J. Barea all have better plus/minus numbers through six games.

Beasley remains the Wolves' only threat to create his own shot. He can collapse defenses when he ventures into the lane. But he too often launches from deep-two territory and mostly passes when he's ready to give up the ball, rather than when a teammate is in position to receive it. He's averaging a career-worst 2.8 turnovers, along with 13.5 points and 4.7 rebounds while shooting 40.2 percent.

This is a pivotal season for him. His peers from the 2008 Draft -- Derrick Rose, Love, Russell Westbrook -- are being fitted for or already have received lucrative contract extensions. Beasley (like No. 3 pick O.J. Mayo) looks headed toward restricted free agency and, from there, even more uncertainty.

Beasley's ability to help a team with a real, earnest agenda remains in doubt. Adelman and Kahn provided a lesson for him by inviting to camp 35-year-old Bonzi Wells, another talented guy whose own knucklehead ways sent him to China, Puerto Rico and out of basketball completely in the years since 2008.

Wells, who bounced through five franchises in 10 NBA seasons, said during his brief trial in Minnesota: "I mean, everybody makes mistakes when you're young."

Beasley is still young. Yet the question lingers: As the Timberwolves move up, can Beasley keep up?

******************************

They'll let him become a RFA and walk I think. His minutes are going to diminish if he doesn't step it up after the injury.

[schmitty3]

I am beyond ready to see Beasley go. He has a poor attitude, and IMO isn't that good. He's got the potential, but just doesn't seem to wan't to put the work in. Seems like every game this year he has been yelling at he coaches when they take him out after he picks up a foul. I'd like to see the wolves dump Beasley and pick up a good spot up shooter. That seems to be one thing this team is lacking.

[EBass]

Why can't we play the Wizards every night? That team just quit on Flip. In the 4th with 5 some mins to go they were walking up the court with no sign of urgency. Yeah they were loosing, but c'mon.

[Scott M]

Nobody could handle Bargnani tonight, he springs for 31. Adelmann outcoached himself tonight. His bench brought the team back from big deficits to take the lead on two separate occasions and he didn't give them the nod in the fourth. Tolliver is a good intangibles guy but shouldn't be starting. Would be nice to trade Beasley for a project 4 with length that plays decent defense. Poor shooting plagues the Wolves, they missed like 10 straight to close it.

Wolves lose 97-87. Derrick Rose in town tomorrow night, that'll be a fun one to watch but I don't see the Wolfies even sniffing anything close to a win.

[fishersofmen]

Yea that was disgusting. Had that nice comeback from 12 down and I thought they would be able to finish them off. How long were they stuck at 80pts.....seemed like forever. You miss 10 straight shots at the end of the 4th quarter in a close game and you will lose every time. Its times like that where we need a guy who can create his own shot and take over if need be. (Beasley??)

[Scott K]

I sure hope Adelmman sees the obvious, that the starters are loosing the games, and the bench is doing everything possible to keep us in the game. Now is the time to change up that starting rotation. Maybe we can package a deal together with Beasely, Wes, Ellington, and maybe get a real guy on the wing that can score 20 a night, and can fall back on defense. I think a trade for a good player would sure make it easier for Love to sign that contract. If we dont do something, we stand the risk of losing are best player we have had on this team for many years, or even forever. Sorry KG!

[Scott M]

I heard on KFAN that it's a matter of when not if Love signs. Panic if it isn't done two weeks from today. Deadline is Jan 25 I believe.

[schmitty3]

I sure hope Adelmman sees the obvious, that the starters are loosing the games, and the bench is doing everything possible to keep us in the game. Now is the time to change up that starting rotation.

I hope it doesn't take long. It's everygame the starters get down early, and the bench players come in and get the team back in the game. Ridnour has picked up his game on offense, but can't play a lick of D.

[Scott M]

I missed last night's game. Box score shows the bench toasted the starters again. They can play with anyone but can't win. 3-7 to start the year, if they would have beat Cleveland and Milwaukee they'd be where I expected them to be, instead they had moral victories with all the playoff teams they couldn't knock off.

[Scott K]

All I can say is UGH!

I plan on going to a game next week, and hopefully they can get things figured out by then, because I really hate going to games when they get blown out, and it puts a bad taste in my mouth to go to other games until they start winning again. Although, they are giving some great deals on tickets, if you are interested in going to games.

[Scott M]

[Scott K]

Ha, interesting

[FutbolGuru]

Wolves need to get a legit 2 guard... we're consistently getting scored on from our oppenent's 2 guards and we aren't getting scoring from our 2 guard position. With as much potential Beasly has, you have to think about dealing him should an opportunity present itself...

As for this year we only have to worry about 2 things and winning games isn't on the list: 1. Resign KLove 2. Build some team chemistry

I predict a solid showing next season. It should be the wolfies coming out party.

[Scott M]

I expect this week or next you are going to start seeing national media articles on him, but only if Adelman gives him the minutes.

Getting schooled by Ricky Rubio

by Michael Wilbon, ESPN

The men who truly know the game of basketball globally, from little towns in China to little towns in Indiana, weren't really worried about Ricky Rubio successfully transitioning to the NBA. They weren't daunted by the number of times he'd score zero points and get only an assist or two in an entire game playing in Europe. They looked at his hands, his ability to throw pinpoint passes, his fearless creativity, and they knew the point guard from Spain was going to be better here, in the U.S., than he was on his native soil.

Magic Johnson, the man who probably knows more about the passing game than anybody in the history of basketball, saw Rubio go 0-for-5 shooting with three assists in an exhibition victory over the Lakers nearly two years ago, and still he came away certain Rubio would be at the very least a good NBA point guard. I told Magic the Timberwolves were nuts for wasting the No. 5 overall pick in 2009 on this kid who kept putting up zeros in international competition. Magic said, and I quote, "You're going to be wrong. Listen to me on this kid. He'll be better in the NBA than he is in Europe because our guys are more athletic and they run to the rim. In Europe, guys don't really run the break; they fan out around the 3-point line, they pump-fake, they look to score in other ways. Our guys are going to see a dude who can pass it like Rubio and run like hell to the rim. Trust me."

I didn't. I was a fool.

Rubio's game, just as Magic promised, is better suited to the NBA than any league in Europe. It's clear the kid can find an open teammate like very few rookies in recent years. Rubio is averaging 7.9 assists even though he's played more than 30 minutes in just three of 10 games. In four of his last eight games, he has reached double-digits in assists. And his creativity on the move is much more Steve Nash than John Stockton, which has made the Timberwolves worth watching for the first time since Kevin Garnett left.

"There's a difference," Magic said by way of explanation, "between making a pass to somebody and creating a shot for a guy. Rubio creates a shot. He's got instincts, great instincts."

Tony Ronzone, a former assistant GM of the T-Wolves, scouted Rubio extensively. Ronzone, who has coached teams in New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and China, saw Rubio's game translating beautifully to the U.S. even before Magic had caught a glimpse. Rubio was a teenager when Ronzone saw a kid who "would be much more effective in the U.S. because guys run to the rim ... and they run harder when they play with a guy like Ricky."

Ronzone was working with the U.S. Olympic team in Beijing, where in a game against Spain, the U.S. threw a trap at Rubio with LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony or LeBron and Dwyane Wade or Anthony and Wade. Whatever the combination, "Ricky would split it, or find a teammate so fast," Ronzone recalled. "He'd split the pick and roll and throw a phenomenal pass to the weak side. You can't teach that. ... In 2010 in the World Championships in Madrid, we're playing this exhibition against Spain and Ricky took the ball off Derrick Rose in two of the first four possessions. In another game, the kid had to go against Chauncey Billups and Russell Westbrook, and they couldn't take the ball from him."

Sure enough, Rubio had 12 assists for the T-Wolves against Rose and the Bulls on Tuesday night, after getting 12 against LeBron and the Heat on Dec. 30. Magic, bless him, didn't hit me with "I told you so."

"What got me about Rubio," he said, "was that international players often back down when the level of competition jumps, but [Rubio] didn't. The thing that really set him up was that he was smart enough, at 17 years old, to wait and keep playing in Europe. He got bigger and stronger. He already had that beautiful footwork, the movement. Gasol has it; Ginobili has it. They're what I call attackers. When challenged, they go forward, not backward."

Ronzone, having spent so much time abroad, where soccer is king, said, "I call it having a soccer mentality. It's pass-first. It's unselfish. And most of all, it's about not turning the ball over much because turnovers in soccer kill you. Soccer is so much about controlling the game. He can definitely control the game."

And because he can, Rick Adelman is already at the point where he's considering putting Rubio into the starting lineup ... not that there's much of a decision to make. Simply put, Rubio is ready to be an NBA starter. Already, he's shown he can be a closer. Rubio's 11.6 minutes per game in the fourth quarter are No. 1 in that category among all NBA players, not just rookies.

With two days' rest, which usually means a chance to practice, the kid is averaging 12 assists. Even with one day's rest, he's averaging 9.0. Surely, he -- like just about every other rookie in the history of the league -- will hit the proverbial wall, but so what? Think the Knicks wouldn't mind having such a problem? How about the Wizards, who passed on drafting Rubio and instead dealt for Randy Foye and Mike Miller, neither of whom is on the club's roster any longer. Talk about making a killer mistake. That amounts to a spectacular failure in judgment. A sportswriter misses on that evaluation, he writes an apology column. But when a GM (in this case, Ernie Grunfeld) misses, it's no wonder his team winds up with less talent and fewer wins than any other team in the league.

Not only is Rubio better than I could project, he's better right now than John Wall, the No. 1 pick of the very next draft. Wall can't shoot as well, can't run a team as well and has virtually no chance of passing the ball as well. Wow, talk about misery loving company.

In a sport where it seems to be a requisite for every player to remind us of somebody who came before, people already are making their Rubio comparisons. Nash. Jason Kidd. Rubio is a pass-first point guard in an era of shoot-first point guards. Even so, the kid is shooting 46 percent, 47 percent from 3, pretty good for a kid who simply doesn't care about scoring. He has borrowed one of Magic's favorite lines: "I'd rather make two people happy than one." Which is sort of the passer's credo.

Magic and Ronzone both say Rubio will get better as he plays with better athletes, like rookie teammate Derrick Williams. Rubio seems to have survived the very thing I thought would crush him: expectations. Ronzone doesn't seem to be exaggerating when he says, "One of his best attributes is nothing fazes him."

Still, it simply didn't seem reasonable for the Timberwolves to make Rubio the face of the franchise, given that the team had so far to go to just reach respectability. After all, even with Kevin Love playing out of his mind and Rubio throwing passes with Drew Brees accuracy, the Timberwolves were 3-7, tied for last in the Western Conference. Fortunately for them, Ronzone knew he and the team weren't getting a prima donna, but someone who told the staff he didn't really want to start as a rookie, that he wanted to learn the game and earn both his keep and a spot on the floor. He didn't particularly want the pressure of what the franchise was asking him, but he didn't shrink from it, either.

"The last five years, people were coming after that kid every single game," Ronzone said. "And he's just a buck-80."

His talent, of course, is much bigger than his frame, and from what we've already seen, his impact could be bigger than his tangible talents. Only 10 games into his NBA career, I find myself for the first time in years sneaking a peek at Timberwolves games to see if Rubio is going to throw a pass that makes me hit rewind. If you're going to be as dead, stupid wrong about a position as I was about how good Rubio would be in the NBA, at least let it happen quickly while there is still standing room on the back of the kid's bandwagon.

[Scott K]

He sure brings excitement to the team, something they have lacked recently. Fans go to the game just to see him play. He is also quickly becoming the kids favorite player on the team. I went and shot hoops with my son a couple days ago, and my son had more fun trying to make quick tricky passes, and alley oops to me, then he did shooting the ball. He would yell Ricky Rubio, and make a bullet pass to me, as I was driving the hoop. Unfortunately I am not able to finish like the players Rubio passes to, but it was still fun.

They just need to figure out why they or loosing at the end of every first quarter, and not have to try to overcome a 15+ point deficit, to come back and make the game interesting at the end. I am sure Adelmman will figure it out soon, since I think every fan already has

[EBass]

Quote:

He would yell Ricky Rubio, and make a bullet pass to me

Ha!

[Scott K]

We will be at the game tonight, hopefully they can win, I will be bringing 4 kids, my 2, and 2 of their friends. The other 2 kids have never been to a professional game before, and when the Wolves are winning, it can be a awesome experience in Target Center, but when they are losing, it can be very boring, with a quiet audience.

[Scott K]

And looky what I just found

Quote:

Every fan who buys a ticket to the Wolves' home game on Monday will receive a free ticket for Wednesday's game, compliments of Kevin Love.

The move is both generous and great PR for Love, who is presumably angling for a max-money extension in the next 10 days. The Wolves play the Kings tonight, with the Pistons visiting on Wednesday.

I love Love!

[fishersofmen]

Nice win for the Wolves, a game they should have won. Ridnour is playing solid ball right now. I look forward to Love being on this team for years to come.

[Scott K]

It was a great game by the Wolves, there were a few shaky moments, but they got it back on track when it counted. Rubio could have easily gotten a triple double, but was content with what he gets.

[Scott M]

Shoulda beat the Hawks after leading all game, they would be where we optimistically projected them if they finished a few more games. I like the new starting backcourt.