Howlin' T-Wolf

Ok so maybe it wasn’t so funny that the Wolves gave up the most points by an NBA team all year. But in reality the “lighter” side of this season hasn’t showed itself at all in the last 17 games while the Wolves have tallied a 1-17 record with a lone win in Miami during that span. Needless to say it’s been the dog days of being a Wolves fan. It hasn’t been this bad since oh probably back in the Isaiah “J.R” Rider days before the Wolves drafted Kevin Garnett. It’s a tough, tough place to be as a Wolves fan right now. I’m not going to sit here and sugarcoat it even though part of me wants to tell you all about the bright future the Wolves still have with their assets and this coming offseason. The other part of me wants to rant and complain about all the frustrating things the Wolves did that got them here and second guess the decisions they made that put them in this hole. But what I don’t really feel like talking about is what the Wolves have been doing on the court. It’s been bad. Really bad. Like cover your eyes before they are permanently damaged by the sight of it bad. The Wolves have nothing good going for them. Nothing on offense, nothing on defense. They don’t even have a single player that has been playing well. Even Kevin Love is playing awful right now. The Suns game was just the epitome of the awfulness that the Wolves have been showing on the court over the last month and a half. In any case I’m going to try and break down this awfulness and see if the Wolves have any light at the end of the tunnel and what the steps might be to get there, even still in this increasingly frustrating season.

Al Jefferson is far from the 20/10 machine he was last year. The one good thing that can be said about last year’s team was at the very least the dump it in to Big Al strategy at least produced some points and made Al a valuable player on this team. Lately the team will watch him go 4-4 to start the game and then decide he’s done touching it and start chucking jumpers. Would it be too much to ask for them to keep going to him until the other team tries to stop him? Step #1 for the Wolves to get out of this slump is to start going to there “go-to” man on offense.

Jonny Flynn is neither a triangle offense point guard or even a “system” point guard. It’s time that Kurt Rambis and the coaching staff come to terms with this reality. If Jonny Flynn is going to be your starting point guard then you better give him an offense he can actually use. Let this team run the pick and roll on the weak side if Jefferson can’t go to work. Let Jonny run it with Gomes and play the pick and pop. Let him have Ellington on the weak side wing to kick it too off of his drive. Let Flynn run the high pick and roll with Love at the top of the key. Let him run it with Darko at the high post. The funniest part about this is that Gomes, Love and Darko are all very good at this play. Why not let Jonny go to work? I truly believe the triangle can be run in the NBA without necessarily needing a Jordan or a Kobe. But it can’t be run by Jonny Flynn. Nor Ramon Sessions for that matter. Step #2 is running the right offense for this team and it could not be clearer that means running the pick and roll with an uptempo pace.

Speaking of Ramon, can we get him some more playing time and can we let him run the pick and roll too? He used it in Milwaukee to dish out 24 assists on a team that wasn’t all that much better than this one. He also used it drop 40+ points taking it to the rack and getting to the free throw line. Jonny Flynn has shown he is nowhere near the “elite” NBA defender David Kahn thought he could become. Instead Ramon has shown himself to be the premier backcourt defender. As a result step #3 would be for him to get the lion’s share of the minutes at point guard.

Damien Wilkins is not the answer at small forward. Neither is Ryan Gomes. Gomes is the perfect backup power forward that can come in and score as a stretch 4. The answer for the Wolves at small forward is currently playing shooting guard. Yes Corey Brewer needs to move to the 3. Why? Because the only other effective wing is Wayne Ellington and he’s coming off the bench. Step #4 is getting the rotations right. Rambis needs to start Ellington with Flynn and Brewer. And while we’re on the topic of small forward, it would be great if they just permanently moved Sasha Pavlovic to the inactive list.

Last but not least step #5. Maybe the most important step to see some improvement and win a few of their last 24 games. Play defense. Talk on defense. Learn how to actually: 1) Rotate on the perimeter after helping, 2) close-out on shooters before they get off an open look, and 3) take charges instead of trying to block shots.

These #5 steps seem simple enough. The biggest problem over the last 20 something games is that the Wolves have honestly been regressing instead of showing improvement. In my humble Timberwolves blogger opinion the coaching staff needs to take a cold, hard look at their personnel and be honest about what they can and can’t do on the basketball court. Because right now all I’ve been seeing lately is what they can’t and as a fan of this basketball team it’s not even worth watching. I don’t care about the wins so much as they are doing good things and showing improvement. If they can do that they’ll be worth watching and that’s all a fan can ask for from a team that is rebuilding.