Timberwolves 2011-2012

[Scott K]

A few things the Wolves have this year, that they didnt last year, are, the desire to win, a coach that can draw a play and make it work, and the capability to finish the game strong in the 4th quarter. This team could easily be 4-0 right now. It was exciting to see them bring it back strong, after Dallas came back and made a game of it.

But we have to remember, this isnt the Mavs of last year, and they have been struggling them selves this year, but regardless, the Wolves won the game. You can sure tell the difference in coaching. I think they could sneak into the playoffs this year. It will be interesting to see what ESPN will say about them now.

[Scott M]

It is nice to come out of a timeout with a plan, or have a side out of bounds or under the hoop inbounds with a play that has multiple options. Loved the double screen against OKC outta the timeout.

[cjac]

Was at the game tonight, Rubio not only runs the show on the floor he runs the arena, everyone in the building feeds off him.

It's fun.......been a long time since you could say that about a Wolves home game. Time will tell, but Rubio is really in control both of his game and the team. Love is a big time player, no question.

[wormdunker]

OK so temper this reply as you will. I hate the game and especially hate the pro game. However, Doesn't Rubio's early success make you question the quality of the NBA considering he struggled in the Euro leagues? Apparently he is the next Super star by most accounts. I find this very curious.

[Scott M]

Interesting to look back at the 2009 draft. Flynn appears to be a bust and Curry an all star. Decision do-ever needed.

Rubio thread

I stand by what I wrote back then...Rubio's teams were wildly successful while he was in Europe and won titles. He became physically stronger. His shot mechanics improved. I believe his stats were low because he was told to focus on certain aspects of his game, like a MLB player sent to the minors to work on hitting opposite field hits, trying alternate defensive positions, or pitchers learning to pitch to contact. Rubio has been a professional basketball player since he was 14 so the translation has been an easy one. He is going to have tough nights though, those will come. I've been impressed with the A/T rate. Some of the turnovers were the result of guys not being ready for passes and in one turnover instance tonight, I thought he was hacked. The hyperbole was that he doesn't make flashy plays unless he needs to and so far, I think its true.

We're only 4 games in but I can see a little White Chocolate, Nash, and Pistol Pete in him. The angles he sees are unbelievable. He dropped 3 dimes in a row in the 4th tonight that blew my mind. The high bounce to K love for a dunk on a screen and roll, the corner bounce pass through Dirk's legs to Tolliver...That was against the defending world champs. The court vision on the skip passes...I'm not sure I've seen a player do what he's done before. I mean, when you watch a screen and roll defended, in the professional game mind you, during the switch or the recover, depending on how it's defended, the passer has a fraction of a second to make the pass. Miss the window and it's over. Rubio sees that window in slow motion and can make it work in any angle. And when he's in transition, or penetrating....he knows where everyone is. We have something really special here in Minnesota, that much you can tell in 4 games. 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.

[Scott K]

Well, I watched ESPN last night, not much word about how good the Timberwolves looked, just how bad Dallas has become, and how they are showing their age. Oh well, the media thing doesnt bother me near as much as the star calls from the refs against the Wolves.

Although, Love may not be getting all the calls called, he sure does whine a lot to the refs that he is being fouled, with no call.

[Snag]

Ricky is going to own this town. He makes the rest of the team much better. I like Williams too. Just need to get rid of Beasley and Johnson for a decent 2 guard. Randolph has to try and be like Tyson Chandler and only take open jump shots. I like Tolliver's defense, but I wouldn't give him a green light on offense. Against the Heat, he thought he was Ray Allen or Dell Curry.

I'm going to get some tickets this week and go to some games this year.

[FutbolGuru]

Is Rubio legit? Will K Love's weight loss help his game? Will Adelman be able to harness our talent and turn our team in the right direction?

How awesome is it that the answer thus far to all of these questions is "yes".

If you haven't been watching the games... you've been missing out. This squad has lived up to all of their offseason buzz, and then some.

[Scott K]

Another good performance by the Wolves! Tonight they seemed like they didnt have the dagger to finish them off, and let the Spurs hang in there. Hopefully it was just an off night, if not, I would like to see them make a trade and get that third piece of the puzzle, someone that will compliment Rubio, and Love. Some one that will give us a consistent 20+ points a night. If they can find such a player, I think they coud be a mid seed in the playoffs.

To start the season, I looked at the schedule and thought, if we can pull of 2 wins out of the first 5, we were in good shape, because after this, the games should get easier for the Wolves.

[Scott M]

Caught the 106-96 win on a NBA League Pass Free Preview tonight. Had to endure the Fox Sports Southwest Broadcast team of Danny Ferry and somebody complain about officiating and the T-wolves shooting the lights out. Well guys, it's the NBA. If you don't guard the three point line and give up open looks, these guys are going to make them. It's like they expected the Spurs to turn it on at any minute. They finally piped down in the fourth quarter when the differences in execution by that point were glaringly obvious.

Minnesota starters really played well and contained the Spurs all game. The Spurs should be a playoff team if they don't get hit by old age and injury. Don't forget they were the number one seed in the west last year. Ginobli fractured his 5th metacarpal right before halftime, so who knows what will happen in this short season, maybe they'll end up being stinkers.

Beasley got 19 on 15 shots, Love had 24 and 15 against rebounding studs DeJuan Blair and Tim Duncan, 19 on 10 shots and 9 assists for Ridnour, Wes' stand, catch, and shoot netted him 14. Darko submitted 10 points. Ricky's shot wasn't falling tonight while others' were, and he finished with 6 points and 3 assists, including a nice lob to Derrick Williams for a reverse dunk (Williams was 3 for 3 with 7 points in 12 minutes). Wolves 3 point and all around field goal percentage was 57%, so they got some good looks at the basket.

I wish this team had beat Milwaukee and they'd be right where they needed to be. Memphis, yet another playoff team, comes to town Wednesday night. It's going to be fun to watch this team play a down team like Washington, New Jersey, or Charlotte. Then you will see some flash I would expect. Still, it's fun to watch the team and expect a competitive game.

[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!