Author: Britt Robson

This will not be a comprehensive or otherwise definitive take on the current state of the Timberwolves. I’d like to think that anyone who read the 60 or so Three-Pointers I put out this year has a pretty good glimpse into what I think are the strengths and weaknesses of the team. And what should be done about it is out of my hands.

Trades? I can dream stuff up all day: So what?

Fire McHale? I assumed it would happen more than a year ago, and today’s announcement indicates that he’s still on board. Why wasn’t McHale fired was one of the first questions I asked owner Glen Taylor when we spoke *last October*. Since then, the franchise has canned its coach for a 20-20 record, seen his replacement go 12-30 and express a desire to bring him back, and *deliberately lost* basketball games for the better part of two weeks, if not longer. Maybe sometime after the May 22 draft lottery or after the summer draft pick I can begin to tolerate serious thought about this franchise again. But right now, quite frankly, there are better things to do in life and I suggest we all start doing them. If you want to add your comments to this thread, I may respond, but I must tell you that right now I am more interested in looking at the NBA playoffs, or starting to talk about the Twins and baseball, or even get into a little hockey if the Wild win again tonight.

In other words, that is not a good day for sober analysis. On the other hand, it seems like the right time to get a few things off my chest.

* Mark Blount should be ashamed of himself. His “effort” over the final three months of the season was provocatively half-assed, making Michael Olowokandi look like a poster boy of professionalism by comparison. At least two or three times a game, and sometimes up to half a dozen, a smaller player would drive the lane where Blount was situated and score the layup with impunity, without worrying about a hard foul, block, or any consequence to him or his team. These things get around the league–you don’t need scouts on the sideline to have the word spread that someone is chickenshit beneath the hoop–and had a lot to do with the Wolves collapse on the defensive end during the second half of the season.

* Ricky Davis and Blount care far more about making snide, snarky comments and feeling put-upon in a dual pity party than they do about improving themselves or this basketball team. Davis is a talented player who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the greater good of team, and he’s so pathological about it that I really don’t think he can change. Justin Reed occasionally joined this cancerous little clique, making the Boston trade an outright disaster even if Wally Szczerbiak never plays another minute. Davis needs to go. Blount is probably untradeable, but if I were the Wolves, I’d bring a very nasty banger into training camp next year and force-feed Blount to him. It would do wonders for team chemistry.

* Today, about the only thing Kevin McHale could say in support of Randy Wittman was that he was a taskmaster who runs a tight locker room and would demand discipline and responsiveness from his team. McHale has spread a lot of bullshit in his time at the Target Center, but this may top the list. The idea of Wittman commanding respect from his troops is evidenced by….what? Who got called out most blatantly during Wittman’s 4 months on the job? Not Davis, who got more minutes under Witt than he did under Dwane Casey. Not Blount, who played far far more minutes than he deserved from the All-Star break on, when rookie Craig Smith and energy guy Mark Madsen were blatantly better options. McHale also said today that in the current NBA, a guy like Smith can play the 4, that the game is gravitating to smaller and quicker front lines. He also stated that this team will get bigger and bang more, but more likely at the forwards than at the center position because of a lack of options. Well then, why didn’t Wittman sit Blount down and start grooming Smith for that role? Yeah, he eventually did it, about three weeks after the most casual fan could see it had to be done. Bottom line, Wittman continued giving Blount and Davis heavy minutes, even as complained about selfish play and a lack of chemistry, and affirmed that he would make players pay for lack of effort. Then McHale comes along and says Wittman will be back because he is a taskmaster who will get the players’ attention. How stupid do these people think we are? Meanwhile, the two players Witt really slighted were Trenton Hassell, who got benched for a perceived lack of hustle longer than anyone on the team–nearly two straight games–and then only grudgingly was allowed back in the lineup; and Kevin Garnett, who heard his coach say there wasn’t enough locker room policing going on–a direct rip on KG, the de facto leader of the team. Maybe McHale and Wittman see a different game than I do, but Trenton Hassell and Kevin Garnett are not among my top 6 things wrong with this wretched franchise. In fact the VP of Personnel and the Coach rate much higher on my “could be upgraded” list than the team’s two best on-ball defenders.

* Big Disappointment # 3, behind the listless, soft, quit-on-his team Blount and the narcissistic, unreliable, doesn’t-understand-what-it- takes-to-win Davis, is Mike James, who proved rather decisively that he can’t handle the pressure of being a key component of a quality team. Once the onus of meaningful games was lifted, James became similar to the player he was in Toronto–capable of scoring in bunches, and bringing energy to the offensive end (he defense remained awful). Last year it was Marko Jaric who demonstrated that he is not to be trusted when the game is on the line, but at least Jaric restricted his chokes to crunchtime. James cannot be trusted as long as his team means to contend and he is more than a bit role player in the proceedings.

* There is not a single player on this team that had a really good year. Not one. Garnett is showing signs of slippage, especially on defense, where he can’t scramble and recover or casually outjump and snatch rebounds or deter penetration the way he did in his prime. Davis is the team’s most fraudulant stat-stuffer since Micheal Williams. Randy Foye was inconsistent to a fault, even for a rookie looking an important, unfamiliar position. (McHale said today that he envisions Foye playing “off the ball” more in the backcourt next year.) Hassell and Jaric provided offense the way November or March occasionally provide a warm sunny day. Mark Blount provided a first 45 games of hustle and quality shooting that made his last 35 or so games all that much more abominable by comparison. James is a flunky, a sidekick, pure and simple. And so on, down the list.

There. End of rant. Time to start remembering why I enjoy basketball so much–I’ll do some thumbnail playoff series impressions and picks in the next post.

A Small Appreciation of Bracey Wright
First off, thanks to those who gave me feedback on how to handle this disheartening point of the season, when the only intelligent thing for the Wolves to do is lose. Which is a bittersweet bit of good fortune, because about the only thing this squad is capable of doing is losing.

But game analysis is a broken record, especially with the departure of Garnett for the season. There are only so many times I can bash Davis-Blount-James before it feels less like insight and more like a grudge. I’ve tried to go out of my way to praise this troika when they’ve done well, but since I think they are all still overvalued in the eye of the casual fan (but probably only the most masochistic of the ones who are my readers), and since I don’t want to simply echo conventional wisdom, I still wind up hammering them more than is necessary.

Let’s get positive for just a second then, and talk about Bracey Wright. Word is the Wolves drafted Wright largely on the enthusiasm on then-assistant GM Rex Chapman, and I confess to being bewildered at the choice at the time, before remembering Kevin McHale’s history of throwaway second-round picks–since remedied by Craig Smith. And, belatedly, Bracey Wright. No one denied the kid could shoot, and certainly not after he finished 4th in scoring in the D-League at better than 21 ppg last year. It’s just that he’s relatively frail, not very quick, not very athletic, really; an undersized ‘tweener guard of the sort who’s upside is making close to six figures in a European league.

The sad part of this tale is that I still don’t see him being anything more than someone at the end of an NBA bench. But all that said, if you paid attention on his quick cameoes, including last night’s loss to the Nuggets in Denver, you can’t help but be impressed with Wright’s poise. Once he finally joined the Wolves in Minnesota last season, he jacked up jumpers whenever he was open, then endured a brief experiment when the braintrust tried to turn him into a point guard–which could well have been camouflage for tanking.

This season he’s played a grand total of 175 minutes and is shooting less than 40% from the field. Even his most impressive stat, a team-best +49 (KG is second at +10 and Rashad McCants’ +6 is the only other positive), has been accomplished almost exclusively in garbage time or the substitute-rich middle periods of the game. But what catches your eye is that Wright has been feverishly polishing the important “little” things about the game, like fostering ball movement (a totally lost art on this dysfunctional squad), making sound judgments on defensive rotations, not trying to extend himself beyond his skill set with foolish passes or showboating, and generally displaying a consistent effort with a generous attitude despite the circumstances. Last night he played a season-high 26:29 and canned 13 points (5-11 FG, 1-5 3P, 2-4 FT) with 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a pair of steals versus one turnover. Playing on the floor with the NBA’s ultimate jitterbug in AI, with absolutely no interior defense behind him, he once again didn’t embarrass himself. Most likely two or three years from now he’ll be a vague footnote in our collective memory banks, but last night and during a disastrous three-month stretch where the Wolves have compiled the second-worst record in the entire NBA (only the Milwaukee Bucks, at 11-33, undercut Minnesota’s 12-33 mark) Bracey Wright has instead been a minor but not unappreciated grace note. Good for him.

2. The Great Brittons
You know the blog ethos has gone to my head when I start naming award picks after myself (full name: Paul Britton Robson Jr.) in a desperate bid to break the monotony. Anyway, the virtual statuettes go to:

Coach of the Year
1. Jeff Van Gundy
2. Sam Mitchell
3. Jerry Sloan
Van Gundy weathered injuries to Yao and McGrady and has his team primed to be the foe nobody wants to face in the playoffs. Mitchell likewise has contended with injuries, early-season rumors about his own firing, and a slew of rookies, to post more than 45 wins, albeit in an inferior conference. Sloan has mixed and matched his talent with an unconventional front line and produced perhaps his most creative season. Honorable mention to Don Nelson, Flip Saunders, Avery Johnson, and, as Steve Aschburner astutely pointed out on Sunday, Dwane Casey.

6th Man
1. Leandro Barbosa
2. Manu Ginobili
This really is a two-person contest. The Suns’ high-powered offense actually kicks up a notch in speed and productivity when Barbosa enters the game. Ginobili is an erstwhile stud-starter who has sacrificed a bit of ego for the good of his team. Former contenders Ben Gordon and Mike Miller are starters this year. Honorable mention, way back, goes to Jerry Stackhouse, Antonio McDyess, and Earl Watson.

Rookie of the Year
1. Brandon Roy
2. Jorge Garbajosa
3. LeMarcus Aldridge
Roy is so far ahead of everyone else here that he should be a unanimous choice. Garbajosa is the already mature foreign export crucial to the Raptors’ early rise, who blew out his leg in brutal fashion. Aldridge is going to be really good and make Joel Pryz expendable in the process. For the record, I’d put Randy Foye and Craig Smith 4th and 6th, respectively, surrounding Rudy Gay.

Defensive Player of the Year
1. Shane Battier
2. Tayshaun Prince
3. Bruce Bowen
My rules: Blocks and steals are overrated; rotational help coupled with stolid on-ball defense is paramount, with versatility also important. Battier and Van Gundy is a match made in hell for opposing swing men. Prince helped restore Flip Saunders’ defensive reputation by leading the Big Ben-less Pistons to top five finishes in fewest points and lowest FG% by opponents. Bowen needs (or at least gets) six or seven more minutes of rest than the other two, which about the only reason he’s third. Honorable mention: Ben Wallace, Marcus Camby, Tim Duncan.

Most Improved
1. Deron Williams
2. Al Jefferson
3. Kevin Martin
Another no-brainer. In Year Two, Williams has become the MVP of a typically tough Sloan-coached team, leap-frogging Chris Paul and stamping himself as most likely successor to Nash as the NBA’s premiere point guard. Jefferson’s second half has been phenomenal beneath the radar due to the Celts’ miserable season–pairing him with Oden or Durant would put them in the second round, minimum, next season. Martin is an overachiever who has probably now reached his ceiling, but you’ve got to admire the doubled-scoring average, especially on a team with shoot-first cohorts like Bibby and Artest.

MVP
1. Steve Nash
2. Dirk Nowitzki
Another two-person race. For two straight seasons I really grimaced at Nash getting this award, firmly believing it belonged to Shaq and then LeBron, respectively. Now, in what has so clearly been Nash’s greatest season, one of the most stunning point guard displays in the history of the NBA, Nash will be denied the award because voters don’t regard him as luminous enough to be placed alongside Bird, Wilt, and Bill Russell as three-time winners. And he isn’t. But he is the MVP of 2006-07, hands down. Notwitzki would be a mediocre choice even without Nash in the running, but gets extra credit for sublimating his stats for the good of a 60+ win team. Honorable mention to Kobe Bryant, the anti-Nash in that his legend will always be larger than his collection of MVP trophies, LeBron James, who will demonstrate why this award is best voted on after the playoffs, and Tim Duncan, the ultimate glue guy.

3. Rockets-Jazz Playoff Preview
This is the playoff series I am most looking forward to watching. Here are a few reasons why.

* Sloan vs. Van Gundy
Two of the league’s best coaches. With his multiple screens, weakside cuts and various picks and rolls, Sloan puts meat-and-potatoes offense on the court as well as anyone in the game. The Jazz ranked second only to Phoenix in team FG% this season, despite finishing next-to-last from beyond the arc. What that means is a bevy of high percentage shots developed through physicality, guile, and unselfish ball movement, all hallmarks of Sloan teams. And this outfit is his most talented since the days of Stockton and Malone. Meanwhile, Van Gundy is one of the NBA’s better defensive tacticians, always landing his teams among the top handful is lowest opponent FG% and leading the league this year with a .429 mark. JVG, too, has his most talented team since he took the Knicks to the NBA finals.

* Aces in the hole
The Jazz don’t really have an answer for Yao Ming. Their starting center, Mehmet Okur, is an outside shooter–the team’s only real three-point threat–who is smart and has a nose for the basketball in the paint, but is hardly a defensive stopper and doesn’t even play as large as his 6-11 height, which is a good half-foot shorter than Yao. Their power forward, Carlos Boozer, has brawn but is perhaps generously listed at 6-9.
Expect Sloan to double-down on Yao from a number of angles and try a variety of different players and looks on him. He certainly has some compelling pieces. Swingman Kirilenko is a defensive beast but will probably spend almost all of his time occupying Tracy McGrady. Backup center Jarron Collins is physical and disciplined, perhaps Utah’s best answer if the plan is not to front or double Yao too much. Shooting guard Derek Fisher is wily and experienced at doubling down and will be a Yao pest. Backup small forward Matt Harpring is nearly as large as Boozer and plays a tough, physical game.
In any event, the plan most likely will be to deny Yao touches whenever possible, and collapse on him immediately when he does get the ball. Yao is prone to turnovers not only due to footwork but bringing the ball up to the 6-6 level of his chest. But once he catches and squares to the hoop, he’s a deadly midrange jumpshooter with a quick release.

But the Jazz have their own ace in point guard Deron Williams, and it is to their advantage that point guard is where Houston is weakest, with Rafer Alston running the show. Alston shot 37.4% from the field and dished out only 5.4 assists per game. Both stats are a little unfair because more than half his shots were treys (and he made more than 36% of them) and his assist total is deflated because McGrady dominates the backcourt ball possession. But Alston is hardly John Paxton to T-Mac’s MJ; he’s the opposite of ice water, a streaky, emotional player who makes only 74% of his free throws. But Houston has no viable second option: Alston led the team in minutes played this season.

More importantly, Alston is no match for Williams when the Rockets are on defense. Williams is not only an inch taller but 30 pounds heavier than Alston, and through the tutelage of Sloan and John Stockton (who always played bigger and heavier than he actually was) has learned to excel at shielding the ball with his body on drives and passes. Alston is 16th in the league in steals, but Sloan and Williams are generally too smart to present many opportunities for that.

More likely, Van Gundy will figure out ways to bump Williams off stride, perhaps mixing in a matchup zone and trapping the corners. One advantage for Houston is that with the likes of Yao or Mutumbo underneath, they can gamble and press up on the perimeter. Another intriguing possibility is putting Shane Battier on Williams. (Battier could also find himself guarding Okur on the perimeter while Yao contends with Boozer. That Battier is a plausible option on both the center and point guard attests to his value.) It could backfire–Williams is obviously quicker–but it also might throw a huge monkey-wrench into the best thing the Jazz have going. Put simply, the Jazz don’t win unless Williams has a superb series.

* Battle of the boards
With a pair of leviathans in Yao and Mutumbo, a pair of capable forwards off the bench in Juwan Howard and energy guy Chuck Hayes (who may not play much), and a pair of large swingmen in Battier and McGrady, *and* a defensive that generates more missed shots than anyone in the league, Houston grabs a lot of rebounds–43.5 a game, good for second in the NBA, a tenth of a rebound behind the Bulls. But despite its relative lack of size, Utah parlays Sloan’s fundamentals into being titans on the boards, owning the largest rebounding differential by far–more than 5.3 per game–of any team in the league.

*Kirilenko on McGrady
It is amazing that only now are we getting around to McGrady. The guy had a fabulous year, averaging 24.6/5.3/6.5 in points/rebounds/assists. Who guards him? Not Derek Fisher–too short and probably too old. Not Gordan Giricek, who is rangy but usually a defensive liability. One interesting choice would be Ronnie Brewer but he’s a rook–expect foul trouble if he’s on T-Mac. The best bet is obviously Andrei Kirilenko. In fact he’s probably the ideal McGrady foil; the problem is, who guards Battier at the other forward spot? Between Yao and T-Mac, not to mention three-point specialist Luther Head off the bench and Battier and Alston also bombing from outside, Sloan is going to have to do a lot of rotating and switching on defense anyway. Whether Kirilenio–a marvelous, Swiss army knife kind of defender, like a more wiry Kevin Garnett–can be as much of a disrupter on D as T-Mac is an igniter on O will be another key to Utah’s chances.

* Prediction
I love the Jazz and have great respect for Sloan, but this isn’t a good matchup for this team. The six weeks or so Yao sat out with an injury only rested him a bit and made the Rockets more dangerous by gaining confidence from the wins generated in Yao’s absence. The Jazz have to figure out a way to fluster both Yao and McGrady–possible, but hardly probably. They can exploit Alston, but the streaky point guard will also be a positive factor at least once. On top of everything else, Houston has earned the home court advantage. The Rockets in five or six.

Game #79, Home Game #40– San Antonio 110, Minnesota 91

1. Wittman is Without Defense

We are now 79 games into the season–40 of them coached by Dwane Casey, 39 by Randy Wittman. I suppose we could wait until after Sunday in Golden State to make an exact, 40-40 comparison of the two coaches, but with KG out and the team in full tank mode, these next few games aren’t really going to tell us anything about anybody. Everyone just wants it to be over.

Thanks to Wolves stat guru Paul Swanson, I have the breakdown on team performance under the two coaches, and what is interesting in many cases is the similarity of the numbers. Kevin Garnett, for example, averaged 22.1 points, 12.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists in 39:12 per game under Casey, and 22.8, 12.9, and 4.0 in 39:38 under Wittman. Per 48 minutes, KG numbers under the two coaches were exactly the same in steals and turnovers, .4 apart in assists, .1 away in rebounds, and .6 apart in points. That’s reliability. About the only thing that is revealing there is how quickly Wittman reneged on his pledge not to play guys extended minutes–he rode Garnett and Davis slightly more than did Casey.

But there is one stat that jumps off the page: Team Defense. Under Casey, the Wolves permitted just 96.7 points per game; under Wittman, that swells to an unsightly 101.4, a huge 4.6 point differential that swallowed the measly .4 bump in offense under Wittman (from 95.6 to 96 ppg). One reason for that is the Wolves played a more wide-open game under Wittman, attempting 95 more treys–more than two per game–than they did under Casey. Meanwhile, Wolves opponents shot 198 more three-pointers in 39 games coached by Wittman than they did in the 40 coached by Casey, and made a higher percentage (.353 to .346).

Well, maybe that was because the Wolves were packing the paint down low to discourage penetration and to box out for rebounds? Nope. Opponents shot a better two-point FG% versus Wittman’s Wolves (.495) than Casey’s (.483) and reversed the advantage the Wolves had on the boards under Casey. Rebounds per game declined just a titch under Wittman (from 48.8 to 48) but the opponents’ rebounding total went way up (from 46.8 under Casey to 50.5 under Wittman). Minnesota also registered 50 more blocks under Casey (more than one per game) than they did under Wittman.

Not all the “fundamentals” have been worse under Wittman–turnovers are down with Wittman on the sidelines–but I think it is fair to say that when your squad sacrifices that many more points while getting beaten more regularly both on the perimeter and in the paint, without getting a commensurate bump on the offensive end due to a higher tempo or something, than the team simply isn’t playing as well. That could mean less intelligently and/or less energetically–I would argue both. Remember, this is almost exactly the same personnel, except that Casey didn’t have the benefit of the then-injured Rashad McCants.

Sure, there are some mitigating factors: Mark Blount decided to mail in the rest of the season after the All Star break, and for the past month or so, the team certainly appears to be trying not to have its most synergistic combos on the floor in order to keep its draft pick. But Wittman controls Blount’s minutes, and hasn’t really cut them very much compared to Casey. As for the “tanking with vets,” well, Casey never really was embraced by this franchise–be it Taylor or McHale or KG–the way Wittman was, and is. And those are the folks who created the sorry mess that has provoked this tanking. McHale initially wanted to hire PJ from SA; Casey originally wanted to hang on to Roy, not Foye. Neither one got their way. One would hope, if nothing else, that McHale and Wittman are at least on the same page. Because the next housecleaning–sooner rather than later would be nice–should be very very thorough.

2. More Fun With Numbers
Another way to look at the Casey-Wittman figures is as a progression throughout the season. In other words, regardless of who was in charge, did the rooks develop during the course of the season? Did the vets tank? Did anybody flourish or wither?

The good news is that Randy Foye slowly but surely became a classically more effective point guard in the second half, and under Wittman. Under Casey, Foye’s totals per-48 minutes were 5.3 assists and 4.3 turnovers. Under Wittman they were 6.4 assists and 3.3 turnovers, a much better ratio (his point total declined negligibly under Wittman, from 21.4 to 20.4). Smith’s points went up a bit, from 18.5 to 19.4 under Wittman, but his rebounds per 48 declined from 13.5 to 12.2. In the other categories (assists, steals, turnovers per 48) he was marginally more effective under Casey than under Wittman, but that just may be because he tired a bit, or was better scouted or adjusted to, in the 3+ more minutes per game he got under Wittman.

One player who took a big hit in minutes was Hassell, who went from an average 32:03 under Casey to 26:25 under Wittman, which helps explain the more porous defense. Mike James experienced a more severe decline, from 29:06 under Casey to 21:38 under Wittman. Yet the lost time didn’t affect James that much during the time he did play–he averaged 19.1 points and 7.2 assists per 48 under Wittman and 19.2 points and 6.5 assists under Wittman. Hassell’s rebounds went down slightly under Wittman, but his scoring per 48 remained almost exactly the same (from 11.3 to 11.2).

3. The Tank Race
For those still interested in the gory details of Friday’s blowout, the Wolves got blasted late in the first quarter and it lasted through to halftime, turning a tie game with 3:44 to play in the first into a 16-point halftime deficit. Mike James looked mahvalous, nailing 10-14 FG and posting a superficially impressive 23 points in just 26:31, which would have given him at least 30 with a typical starter’s 32-38 minutes played. Of course he also would have been even worse than the -17 he registered on the popcornmachine.net calibrations, meaning the Wolves were just -2 in the 21:29 he sat down. Wittman knows this–that defense and ball movement (James had just 2 dimes) also count for something–but continues to go with the vets. Thus, the worse plus/minus according to the popcorn was Mark Blount at -19, followed closely by Ricky Davis at -18 and James at -17: See a pattern here? The hustle guys, the fundamental guys, like Mark Madsen (+7 in 18:26) and Rashad McCants (zero in 21:39) fared a little better.

There will be no Three-Pointer after the Golden State game Sunday. I’m still trying to decide whether to bother with any after Denver or Memphis, or simply to start previewing playoff series. I’m solciiting opinions on which you’d prefer.

On a final, positive note, Seattle and Portland play each other tonight, meaning that one or the other will match Minnesota’s 32-win total. Gentleman, start your coin flips.

Game #78, Home Game #39–Dallas 105, Minnesota 88

1. KG “Hurt”–And Gone for Good?

For the first time in a dozen years, there is a distinct possibility that the Minnesota Timberwolves will not take the floor with Kevin Garnett to start the year in the 2007-08 season. Garnett has been put on the shelf with a right quad injury that everyone knows would not prevent him from performing if it were beneficial to the Wolves future to win rather than lose games at this point in the season. He has an opt-out clause in his contract at the end of next season, meaning that for the Wolves to get full value in a trade, they would probably have to move him during this off-season. Then there is the question of whether even KG’s patience has finally run out after three straight pathetic seasons out of the playoffs.

My gut feeling, right now, is that Garnett stays, at least through the mid-point of next season. That assumes the team will keep their draft pick and be choosing among the top 7-8 teams in the lottery this summer. But, hey, I’m only guessing and so is everyone else. The point is, like the rest of us, Garnett is sick of this season, tired of the same old April bullshit, tired of hearing for the past 12 months that all the team needed was a tweak or two, then that all the team needed was some consistency, then that all the team needed was better chemistry–and when all that dense delusion was exposed as being clueless wishful thinking, THEN hearing that McHale and Wittman were probably coming back.

Seriously, what can anyone from the front office tell the fan base with a straight face at this point in the proceedings? It already almost too late for people to do the honorable thing and resign.

2. The Usual Suspects

Dallas had nothing to play for, having already secured the top record in the entire NBA. They sat their MVP candidate, Dirk Nowitzki. They sat their starting center, Erick Dampier. They sat their starting point guard, Devin Harris. They sat their 6th man, Jerry Stackhouse. They had Austin Croshere and Devean George in the starting lineup and gave rookie Maurice Agar the second-most minutes of anyone on the team. They also were outscored in the second and fourth quarters and tied in the first.

Ah, but the third quarter. With 6:36 to go, the score was tied at 63. At the end of the period it was 66-86. And who was on the court for most of that blitzkrieg? Mark Blount, Ricky Davis and Mike James, with Craig Smith and Marko Jaric along for most of the dysfunctional ride. So, what happened Coach Wittman?

“Ball domination. I think we had two guys score. I just thought our offense was terrible, which led to bad defense.”

Yes, indeed, Mike James had 11 of the team’s 15 points for the period, taking 6 shots and earning zero assists. The other four points belonged to Mark Blount on 2-4 FG. Davis had the club’s only two assists of the period but missed all 4 of his shots. Smith likewise was 0-4 and Marko was 0-1–ditto Randy Foye and Rashad McCants, who came in in the last 2-3 minutes and couldn’t stop the bleeding.

It is good to know that the veteran tankers did not let up with the decision to waylay Garnett. And good to see that Wittman didn’t chance fate but subbing in hustle, fundamental guys like Hassell and Madsen. Philly beat Boston tonight, so that draft pick is a wee bit more secure.

3. Consolation Prize

The game’s two high scorers for their respective teams, Croshere with 19 and Justin Reed with 17, got tied up under the boards and nearly came to blows at the other end, each earning a technical. Bracey Wright demonstrated admirable restraint by attempting just one shot in 12 minutes of play–the entire garbage time 4th quarter in a garbage time point of the season. Wright must believe that everyone knows he can shoot, and concentrated on grabbing three boards, doling out a dime and playing decent defense.

Hassell played 11:13 and was +1 in a 17-point loss. Madsen played 10:57 and was even.

Regular Season Game #77, Home Game #38: Toronto 111, Minnesota 100

1. The Kids Are Alright, Part 729

For a variety of reasons I wasn’t able to make it to the Target Center until 4 minutes were left in the third period tonight and the Wolves were up four. Since there was no television coverage, this will be an abbreviated trey. Comments are welcome, and for a change of pace I’ll use point three to address some of the questions from respondants in the previous post.

Shortly after I’d arrived and was straining to catch up with the ongoing flow and nuances, all the things that accrete when you see the whole game (which is why it’s so important to catch it from tap to buzzer), there was a moment that made me feel good about the future. Craig Smith and Rashad McCants were fighting each other for a defensive rebound and contested the ball out of bounds. An exasperated Smith sternly told McCants something to the effect that, “I was telling you I had it!” and was about to launch into a second sentence when McCants just casually put out his hand in apology. Smith just as casually grabbed it for a second, stopped talking and let it–the hand and the subject–go. The very next possession, Davis was on the low left block (the KG spot, except he was on the bench) and Smith cut baseline and got the feed. At the time, Smith was 8-9 FG and having a marvelous game, so the Raptors bum-rushed his baseline penetration from all angles. Smith teased it right until he was under the hoop–and then zipped a pass to a wide open McCants in the corner, who promptly buried the three-pointer.

Neither Smith nor McCants are perfect players. Tonight, and increasingly throughout the season, Smith has become a drama queen when he believes he isn’t getting calls from the officials (as if an undersized rookie who is fond of drawing charges and using his big butt for textbook box-outs is going to have it easy with the refs). For McCants’s part, he was scoreless until 1:24 remained in the 3rd, and then erupted with a series of impressive drives and jumpers (for their strength, agility, and savvy) to rack up 11 points over the next four minutes. But during and shortly after that marvelous spurt, he played some of his worst defense of the year, frequently forgetting to close out his man in the corner (ditto Ricky Davis–Trenton Hassell was the only one who did, although I didn’t see any of Marko’s minutes). I’m hoping that as McCants retrieves his sublime athleticism, he doesn’t forget the superb D that has made him so valuable despite not being 100 percent physically. But seeing the way Smith and McCants handled their little misunderstanding, that was a comfortable sign of mutual maturity.

2. Sam Mitchell Would Make a Nice Timberwolves Coach, eh?

When the final horn had sounded and the Raps had rung up 38 points in the final quarter to beat the Wolves for the sixth straight time under Sam Mitchell (he has never lost to his former team), Wolves owner Glen Taylor scurried over and gave Mitchell a warm handshake and spoke with him for a minute or so.

It would be nice to start a rumor that Taylor wants Mitchell to come run the Timberwolves. After all, Mitchell is a free agent after this season, and had to endure lots of speculation about how he would be gone by Christmas this season, if not before, pushed out by new Toronto GM Colangelo, who would obviously want his own man. People remembered Mitchell’s run-in with Rafer Alston and his hard, abrasive ways with last year’s team. They figured he was on his way out. Now Mitchell will get some consideration for coach of the year, having guided the injury-wracked Raptors to 45 wins and counting, with a favorable matchup with the depleted Wizards a distincts possibility in the playoffs. It is Mitchell’s time to call the tune in Toronto and it might be delicious to take a lucrative deal somewhere else… like in his old stomping grounds of Minnesota, guiding his most renowned protege, Kevin Garnett, who frequently cites Mitchell as an invaluable mentor when the two were teammates.

It almost certainly won’t happen, of course. This franchise seems committed to Randy Wittman, Mitchell knows and likes his current team after a tumultuous first couple of years, and Mitchell and former Raptors GM (and current Wolves assistant GM) Rob Babcock weren’t the best of buddies during their stint together up north. But one can dream…

Anyway, I hadn’t talked to Mitchell since he came to town in his rookie year as coach two seasons ago, and then only briefly, so I figured I’d skip the Wolves post-game and shake his hand and offer my congrats on his stellar season. I do my best not to feign friendships with millionaire athletes because I loathe jock-sniffers and also worry about it compromising my coverage. But I’d covered Sam Mitchell’s long tenure with the Wolves for all but the first year he was in town, and, like everybody else, had a pleasantly contentious back-and-forth with the guy over the way I’d ask questions or apprach the game. And he had a habit of confirming suspicions or theories I had about the internal workings of an often dysfunctional franchise without actually coming out and saying so–he was a smart and good source. Besides, there was another sportswriter who wound up being very good friends with Mitchell, to the point where Mitchell was the best man at his wedding. And on two occasions, including a Roy Hargove gig at the Dakota, we all went out and socialized.

Anyway, Sam came out and gave a gracious postgame media chat, praising his team for sucking it up in the fourth quarter of a back to back, and indicting the Wolves perimeter D by lavishly lauding his own players, TJ Ford and Jose Calderon: “TJ and Jose: 29 points, 17 assists and 3 turnovers from the point guard spot. What can I say?”

Then the Q&A was over and Sam offered hearty greetings to Tom Hanneman and sports columnist Larry Fitzgerald, and Terrell, the former PR liaison for the Wolves who had stopped by, and former Raptors assistant coach cum Fox Sports commentator Mike McCollow. A couple of times his eyes flitted my way, almost enough for me to extend my hand and congratulate him, ask him how the kids were doing, the usual. But it soon became obvious to me that Sam couldn’t place me; that he might be having this nagging feeling he knew who I was, but had forgotten at least my name if not the entire context by which he might know me, and just thought it better to ignore me. And I was trying to figure out how to still congratulate him without embarrassing the hell out of the both of us. I got my chance shortly after Mike James (who played for Mitchell last year) and his wife came by and had warm, playful words. I just stuck out my hand, said, “Britt Robson, Sam, and I just want to congratulate you on your season,” and split.

Every now and then it is good to get your ego deflated a little bit, so you’ll remember who exactly you are, as compared to the famous athletes and coaches you rip or praise, and glean a smidgen of notoriety by association from along the way. I’m serious. It helps you concentrate on the things that matter, the passion and quality of what you have to say. So, it was awkward, but I don’t have to be buds with, or even recognizable to, Sam Mitchell to admire what he did as a player and what he has done as a coach. Congratulations, Sam. Wish you were here.

3. Comments and Queries

Shawn in Rochester asks if I think KG and/or Wittman agree with me that “KG + the kids” is the team’s best lineup. I think Garnett does. I suspect Wittman does. I know that Dwane Casey used to go crazy behind the scenes about Ricky Davis and yet still play him copious minutes. Davis has been even more inconsistent under Witt than he was under Casey. For instance, tonight he was fabulous, not only leading the team in scoring and assists, but warning KG that he had to go cover the baseline shooter in rotation–and sure enough, a Raptor squeezed off a trey a split second before KG arrived there after heeding Davis’s words and flying over. The part I don’t know is whether anyone within the franchise can see the forest for the trees after 77 games.

Right on cue, Nate asks why the organization show more “tough love” on Davis. You’re preaching to the choir with that question, Nate, and it baffles me too. But maybe the answer is that RD is what he is, and you have to accept it. After all, he’s been dealt three times already. I know there is a large segment of fandom in Boston who really like Ricky’s game, and I daresay a similar, though perhaps smaller, throng of folks feel that way here. Maybe Davis isn’t teasing with his inconsistency–he’s just one of those guys who explode in a good way every now and then, and if you think there can be anything more, you’re deluding yourself.

Born To Be Hated….(a name obviously connoting a McCants lover, since it is Shaddy’s tattoo saying) wants to know what kind of off-season moves this squad will make, and helpfully chimes in with the notion of getting rid of Mark Blount and getting something for Trenton Hassell. Quick answer is, I don’t have a clue what the franchise can do. First off, find out whether or not you have a draft pick. Second, find out, right after the final game, whether KG is still committed to the franchise, and, if not, how uncommitted he is–in other words, is making moves to placate him a doomed strategy? The draft pick and KG are two variables that determine every other move.

Bottom line, Blount is untradeable but this squad cannot go another season without securing a reasonably good banger, whether or not KG stays. Hassell could fetch a decent player in return, and probably should go, unless Jaric is more highly valued. Finally, a decision has to be made on whether Randy Foye is this franchise’s point guard of the future or not. If so, maintain a crash course and stop supplementing him with shoot-oriented points like James and Huddy; get a quality mentor either on your roster or your coaching staff. If the conclusion is that Foye can’t be enough of a quality point guard to hold down that position, then either he or McCants need to be dealt and a point needs to be acquired. Time is a-wastin’ and KG isn’t getting any younger.

Patrick thinks we’re playing the vets to showcase them. I think scouts are smarter than that. I firmly believe that Davis, James and Blount are all worth much less right now than they were on opening day. And I don’t think all the minutes in the world will appreciably boost their stock, and may very well hurt it.

Regular Season Game #75, Road Game #39, Minnesota 99, New York 94
Regular Season Game #76, Home Game #37, New Orleans 96, Minnesota 94

1. Hitting The Semi-sweet Spot

Timberwolves fans and management couldn’t have choreographed a better game than Saturday night’s entertaining loss to the Hornets. At this point in an already collapsed, disheartening season, where if the club falls out of the top ten picks in the draft it forfeits it to the Clippers via the terms of the Jaric trade, the unspoken goals in the remaining games are not to degrade yourself and the game by tanking, not to ruin your short-term chance at a quality collegian by winning, and to feel good about the way you are building for the future. That’s a convoluted, occasionally contradictory trifecta, especially for this team, whose better pieces to place around the superstar are kids. Improving the Foye-McCants-Smith axis with copious minutes, especially alongside KG, might also bag some inconvenient wins, and lose an another important building block that could otherwise entice Garnett not to opt out.

This situation puts Wolves partisans in the awkward position of rooting for a bevy of good and great individual plays that reveal promise, improvement, and hope for the future, all the while inwardly urging that they don’t add up to a victory. And Saturday, the game unfolded exactly along those terms.

The Wolves bomb home 14 treys in 23 attempts, deliver 27 assists on 35 baskets, put six players in double figures, with McCants and Foye 1-2 as scoring leaders, and wow the crowd with a fabulous second quarter in which the team goes 15-18 FG…and they still lose in the end. But not without a spirited attempt to snatch a victory. McCants and KG hit treys in the final 10 seconds, and Craig Smith’s prayer from 3/4 court clangs off the iron as the buzzer sounds. Perfect.

And necessary, because the previous night the Wolves beat the Knicks, pulling ahead of them record-wise, and thus behind them in the draft pick sweepstakes. With the Knicks losing to Milwaukee in the second half and the Wolves up by six at the half, things looked grim for those who count ping pong balls as they go to sleep and dream about Oden, Durant and the rest in white, green, and blue. When it was over, the Knicks had triumphed in overtime to the more obviously tanking Bucks, and the Wolves had eased back into a tie with NY by dint of their very elegant second half fade.

And how was that accomplished? Coach Randy Wittman did what many commentators-cum-tank-enablers in this space had urged him to do, and were perplexed that he wasn’t doing earlier: Playing Garnett fewer minutes. KG sat down with the squad down a point with 1:22 to play in the third. Even when Mark Madsen picked up his 4th and 5th fouls in the first 5 minutes of the 4th, KG stayed put–this after getting only 15:16 of burn in the first half. There were other subplots: Fox Sports had the bad timing to put an iso-camera on KG for the entire game, and his multi-year streak of consecutive games scoring in double figures was in jeopardy. When he finally checked in with but 5:42 to play, the Wolves were down 6, 80-86. It was barely enough.

2. Mike James, Human Sieve

No one can accuse Minnesota’s starting point guard of sabotaging the squad’s chance at bagging that draft pick. Mike James had a wonderfully energetic first quarter Saturday night, blowing up for 13 of the team’s 21 points via 5-9 FG (3-5 from trey land), and twirling up three dimes besides. In other words, James had a hand in all but two of Minnesota’s points in the game’s opening 12 minutes. This came on the heels of a 7-point first quarter versus the Knicks on Friday, when James helped propel the squad to a 14 point lead before sitting with a minute and a half to go in the first.

Yes, let’s keep starting Mike James. And then sit him down for the other three quarters. The guy’s defense is Troy Hudson terrible, and that, folks, is very bad. James doesn’t usually play in the second quarter, nor the fourth, properly ceding it to Randy Foye. But that third quarter….Friday night against the Knicks, Nate Robinson came out and just torched James for 15 points on 5-5 FG in 8:57 of play, the main reason why a 18-point halftime lead shrunk to 6 before Wittman mercifully subbed in Foye. For the remaining 15:03, Robinson scored 6 on 2-6 shooting.

Coincidence? On Saturday, Chris Paul was 5-5 FG in the 23:12 James played him, and 1-7 the rest of the time with Foye the primary opponent on D. In the past two third quarters, point guards have scored 25 points and shot 9-9 FGs in the 20:09 James was supposed to be guarding them, and the Wolves were -19 during that stretch. One way to look at it is that James’s nonexistent defense is costing his team a point for every third quarter minute he plays. It wasn’t too hard to figure out the main source of KG’s ire when he said after the Knicks game, “I don’t know how many first-teamers want to play defense out there, but I know I’m one of them.”

3. Silver Linings

A couple months back I openly wondered if Foye and McCants could juggle their egos well enough to coexist synergistically in the same backcourt. The answer in the past two weeks has been a resounding yes. Latest evidence: Saturday’s 36-point second quarter blitz that saw Shaddy and Foye each go off for a dozen on 9-11 FG (4-5 from 3), a combined 6 assists and 2 turnovers.

Nice to see Trenton Hassell at least somewhat escape the doghouse over the weekend with a pair of strong efforts. Hassell was the third leg in the triangle with Foye and McCants in the third period on Saturday, getting 10 points on 5-6 FG. He and McCants were tied with a team-high +16 for those two games. I wonder if Randy Wittman defenders will spin Hassell’s resurgence as a response to the coach’s discipline, specifically his sitting him for all of the Orlando game, 3/4 of the Miami game, and putting McCants ahead of him in the second-line rotation when the starters rest. If so, may I suggest Witt try it with Ricky Davis, who after blowing up for 36 points in a stirring victory in Orlando has gone -35 over the last three games, a span in which the Wolves as a whole are -10. That’s -35 in the 85:02 Davis played the past three, versus +25 the 58:58 Davis sat. But by all means, bench Trenton Hassell.

Finally, kudos to Garnett for stepping up big time and guarding centers when Wittman wisely goes to the younger, smaller roster at crunch time. His defense on Eddy Curry cinched the game and led to a bevy of Curry fouls and turnovers. His play on Marc Jackson and just his low-post shot-blocking presence in general on Saturday compensated for his scattershot offense.