First of all, I apologize for the inactivity vis a vis On The Ball, and once again offer my kudos to my dedicated commenters who are proving perfectly capable of continuing intelligent discussion without me. That said, I owe readers a little heads up about how I'll be handling postseason posts.
I went to the Wolves press conference with McHale yesterday morning and will offer up my thoughts on the state of the team moving forward--but probably not until Monday. I just needed to decompress from the season a bit; plus there were three interesting music gigs in the Twin Cities, concluding tonight with Eric Bibb at the Dakota, that I felt like writing about over at my music blog, Hear Hear.
Sometime this evening or night, I'll post my picks for various NBA awards--I still haven't made up my mind on MVP and Coach of the Year, two unbelievably competitive races--and do previews and picks for the playoff series that begin on Saturday. On Saturday night I'll do my previews and picks for the playoff series that begin on Sunday. And on Monday I'll have my Wolves' season recap and review.
Somewhere in the midst of all of that, I also want to take up commenter AK's suggestion that we coordinate playoff series to view and dissect. In fairness to folks who don't have cable, I want to say that I'll definitely talk about and provide a forum for the network games this weekend, which are San Antonio and Phoenix on Saturday afternoon and Denver and the Lakers on Sunday afternoon. The other series I know I am catching this weekend are Houston and Utah on Saturday night and Boston and Atlanta on Sunday night. I'm still not clear how I'm going to set up shop for this playoff thread, at least initially, as you notice that I've also set myself up with quite a bit of writing otherwise over the weekend. But rest assured that as the field winnows and the pivotal games and series become more apparent, there will be a place here for both me and my reader/commenters to chime in and kick stuff around.
Meanwhile, I notice that there are some discussions continuing apace beneath my past On the Ball submission. Feel free to extend it there or transfer it over to this one. And know that, for better or worse, you'll be reading quite a bit more of my hoops reactions in the days ahead.
Thanks for your patience and your participation.
Here's a snippet from the Pioneer Press today:
Briefly: Wittman emphasized his desire to add a center this summer so leading scorer Al Jefferson can play power forward, his natural position, more often.
Good to know that Wittman also prefers Al at the 4.
I listened to the whole thing and the most important part indeed was when someone asked (was it you Britt? :D) if he was comfortable with Al at the 5 and Gomes at the 4.
What I understood was that he did like to have the ABILITY to do that when matchups dictate it BUT that it's not the kind of thing you want to do for 30+ minutes a night.
So without saying it with too much words he would like to add another Big Man because Al is 4-5, not a 5-4. So he would like to have someone there.
HUGE relief!
Yup, that was me.
I believe I asked three questions:
Beyond the seasoning of existing personnel, what does this team need?
Are you comfortable with an ongoing status quo of Jefferson at center and Gomes at power forward?
Why has this franchise never been able to play perimeter defense?
Britt,
I absolutely love your last question. Love it!
Did they attempt a thoughtful answer?
It was just McHale--Wittman was elsewhere in the building. I think McHale said something along the lines of "I've with you brother; I'm disgusted by it too." That's probably a paraphrase. But the quote I do remember accurately from his answer was that perimeter D is "a huge concern" going forward.
I think it's as important a reason as any that they haven't been in the playoffs since they stopped letting people hand-check. Did he give an indication whether that would be handled with new personnel and/or new coaches?
I'm going to bookmark this page for when they draft Kevin Love to play center. Viva the Timbersmurfs!!!
OK, so I might be a little dazed by the end of the season and already looking to the next and we have discussed the need for a defense minded center through out the year so that when I ran across an article from the west coast that the Warriors probably would not invite Pat O'Bryant back I thought about the Twolves. I know he hasn't got a lot of burn the last two years in Oakland, but could he be a viable option to the center position. I faintly remember him when he played at Bradley. It seemed he had a nice touch and while not overly aggressive, was a presence in the paint.
Just a thought...
See the following stats for D-league numbers, where he actually got to play:
D-LEAGUE HIGHLIGHTS WITH BAKERSFIELD JAM:
Appeared in 25 games (24 starts) for Bakersfield Jam of the NBA Development League, averaging 12.0 points, 9.6 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 2.88 blocks in 29.6 minutes...Scored 10-plus points 14 times...20-plus points five times...Grabbed 10 or more rebounds 14 times...15-or-more rebounds twice...Blocked three or more shots 15 times including five games with five-or-more blocks...Registered 10 double-doubles with two streaks of four straight from 2/6/07-2/13/07 and 3/21/07-3/27/07.
PS I was right the first time
Sorry, my statement should have read last year, not last two
I don't see why he was not worth a shot. It is hard to say at this point if he is not cut out to play NBA ball or if he just is not cut out to play within Nelson's system. Since Wittman's style doesn't mimic Golden State's and since we were short of young centers this year, I don't understand why we didn't make a trade for him. I would have even considered Green for O'Bryant instead of Snyder from Houston, because it would have been nice to find a center. THere might have been someone else out there too. But, if he can't play-he can't play. You can't teach 7 foot, but its been shown over and over again that you also can't teach every seven footer to play.
Still, he would be worth offering a place in camp.
I'm all for bring O`Bryant to camp, as long as the wolves don't have to give him a guaranteed contract.
interesting O`Bryant stat:
99 minutes played this season, 27 personal fouls. One foul every 3 minutes and 40 seconds. Ouch! Looks like we should acquire at least two of him so that they can played a combined 37 minutes per game.
Don't forget - O'Bryant's a Blaine boy, homegrown mofo.
Let's not get too carried away with O'Bryant. Granted, the next quote I'm going to post is from a guy who hates centers, but...well, take a look:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20070125/ai_n17165586
OAKLAND --Warriors center Patrick O'Bryant's rookie NBA season appears to have ended early.
Warriors coach Don Nelson indicated Wednesday that O'Bryant, the ninth overall pick last summer, likely would not be recalled from his assignment with the Bakersfield Jam until the NBA Development League season concludes on April 14. Golden State would have three regular-season games remaining at that point.
O'Bryant, the only NBA lottery selection to receive the D-League treatment, is averaging 6.1 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game in seven games with the Jam but has fouled out twice and shot just 40 percent.
"I told him if he goes down to the D-League and isn't a dominant player, there should be red flags all over the place, and he should be the first to notice," Nelson said. "He's not only not dominating, he's not playing very well. He's a long-term project. I really liked him the first week of training camp, but I assumed there would be great progress. ... He hasn't gotten better one bit.
...they may as well go with Kris Lang from the D-League. He and Shaddy could swap Tar Heel stories.
O'Bryant did 100% better during his most recent D-League stint near the end of this season:
8 Games
57 FG%
83 FT%
10.1 Rebounds
3.5 Blks
17 Points
Not the greatest competition in the world, but not chopped liver either. I get the impression he's a soft shotblocker - the type of guy that gets his hands on some balls, but ultimately gets outquicked and outmuscled more often than not. He's worth a look though....
Perhaps we should compare Chris Richard's D-League numbers with O'Bryant's. Are Richard's numbers any better, worse? That could tell us *something*.
His stats aren't on the D-League team's site anymore, but I looked them up while he was there. If I remember correctly, it looked like he was getting about 20-25 minutes a game and averaged around 12-14 rebounds/game during his stint there. I think he was also at about 9-10 pts/game and 1-2 blocks. I think if he'd have played there the whole year, those numbers would've been higher.
As for O'Bryant, it's tough to judge him on what he's done with the Warriors for the reasons stated above. He might be worth it, but I think the Wolves should only go for him if he's a good interior defender. At this point, they have a very good post scorer, so that's less important than improving their defense.
Espn says that Pat O'bryant will be an unrestricted free agent in 2008, so it's a question of where he wants to go to camp and who he wants to play summer league ball for. He's from Blaine, maybe he's happy to be out of minnesota with some space from his parents. Or, maybe he'd be willing to come back here to try to put his career back on track with the support of local family and friends. It's hard to tell. He's seems too laid back during games when he doesn't have the ball though, from the limited amount I've seen him play.
Chris Anderson of New Orleans also will be an unrestricted free agents. I think he's had some problems testing positive for marijuana, but he could also be a taller version of mark madsen with better hands. (Sometimes I wonder if Mark Madsen would be better off high anyway. He's so tense. It's good to be amped up, but it gets to the point where he's like a non coffee addict after two pots of coffee. Too shaky to control the energy.)
It'll be interesting to see how much Toronto is willing to pay unrestricted free agent Jose Calderon since they start tj ford when he's not injured even though Calderon has played great when he's been given minutes. I suppose we couldn't get him with a mid level exception anyway.
I love the question about perimeter defense. How do the TImberwolves manage to make getting to the rim look so easy? The free throw desparity that's plagued the wolves for so very long, might have a little to do with the porous perimeter. I also wonder what the allowed 3p percentage the wolves are giving up is.
So, working from my limited knowledge, I'll ponder the perimeter defense problem. In 2004, thanks to Garnet's insane ability to motivate veterans to play D, the Wolves had pretty damn good defense. Then after an injured cassel lead to a Lakers postseason triumph over the Wolves, the league got rid of/or placed significant limitations on hand checking, and it made sam cassel and latrell sprewell look pretty old. Even after seeing first hand what this change meant for slightly slow footed guards(granted to be an nba guard, you probably need to posses some damn quick feet) the wolves traded a first round pick and cassel for Jaric, a player who would have been much better in 2004 than in 2006. So, the wolves drafted mccants and foye figuring that, what the heck, we've learned our lesson, without hand checking, you're better off with a lighting quick 6'3'' guard than a tough 6'5'' guard.
Can you blame them for being scared to hold on to Brandon Roy when it seemed like the Dwayne Wades, Chris Pauls, and Chauncy Billlups types were taking over the league? The last guy who seemed to have an overall balanced game that wasn't spectacular in any one way that they invested in, Marco Jaric, didn't exactly pan out. Turns out, so far McCants and Foye might have the quick feet to guard the perimeter, but they lack either an appreciation for its importance or the required instincts while Roy doesn't need to hand check to keep his man under control. It doesn't help that both have had major injuries in the past two seasons.
Again, my knowledge is limited, but it seems that the pick n roll has killed us for a very long time. Even with Garnet, one of the best pick n roll defenders playing the forward position, the wolves struggled against teams with an effective pick n roll offense. Now we have Jefferson who's never going to cover the ground Garnet could in an effort to help out with pick n roll defense. Gomes, when playing power forward, should be able to help out a little better against the pick n roll than jefferson with the catch that he'll struggle in the post against players bigger, taller and stronger than him. That's part of the reason Garnet should be defensive player of the year, he's the rare player who can defend the pick n roll, defend in the block, and dominate the defensive boards.
McCants, with his brute strength, should be able to defend decently against the pick n roll because he should be able to muscle through the pick. Maybe Foye is still recovering, so naturally he'd be a bit hesitant to force the issue. Either way, I'm pretty sure they've both looked silly against the pick n roll. Is this the result of Wittman's ineptitude, player's without the instincts of veterans, or lazy defense? It's hard to tell. I guess if I played in Deron William's division and Chris Paul's conference, fixing the pick n roll coverage would be a pretty high priority. Let's see, there's also Baron Davis, who we always look terrible against too. And, Tony Parker.
Then there's Manu, ugh, we look like idiots againsts Manu. Manu might be the reason we drafted Corey Brewer. I would probably make a terrible NBA coach, but against the spurs, I would keep Brewer on Manu as much as possible unless he started failing so badly he started to feel helpless. Then I guess maybe I'd throw Jaric at him. Oh Manu.
Good post. I wanted to add a couple of things. First, I think previous experience on defense should've been factored in more when they were drafting. In college, McCants was guarding opposing 3s, and Foye was guarding 3s and 4s because Villanova played a 3 or 4-guard set. Conversely, Roy was playing point guard and probably had to guard some, even if Nate Robinson was his backcourt mate until his senior year. One of the things I've noticed about Foye is that he's more comfortable guarding taller players and can hold his own if he's posted up. Also, McCants has been better off when guarding 3s than 2s. That seems like a technique and instincts issue that might take them a while to learn.
Also, I think the Cassell and Sprewell issue is spot on. Throw in players like Hudson and Wally getting regular minutes, and I think that's the most underrated reason why they went from conference finalist to out of the playoffs. Remember, they started winning more once Anthony Carter was put in the starting lineup.
The thing that I'm not sure about is KG's prowess as a PnR defender. It's possible that it's a different story this year, but last year, Mark Blount was a much better PnR defender. I don't believe everything Jim Petersen says, but he pointed this out repeatedly during games, and it looked like it was accurate. Blount was usually in good position to slow down or stop the guy coming off the screen. The only problem was that most teams realized Blount couldn't block shots and was better guarding the PnR than KG, so they usually had KG's or the Rhino's guy set the pick.