Howlin' T-Wolf A Fresh Perspective and Completely Biased Blog About Everything Minnesota Timberwolves

Is a couple games off to reflect all it took for Big Al to give us a throwback game?

Of course a Big Al throwback game comes with pluses and minuses. On the plus side Al did pretty much what he wanted to on the block and finished 15-21 from the field and was the first Wolf to break 30 points this season.

The minus of course was that no one else really had a good game on offense. (Other than Sessions but we’ll get to that.)

The difference in this one was the Mavs zone defense. It frustrated the Wolves who couldn’t shoot over it and also helped force them into 25 turnovers, including 8 from Jonny Flynn. The Wolves actually did well to keep it somewhat close in spite of the 17  turnover difference.

On to the Wolves related notes:

• Miracle of miracles, I saw not one but 2 great passes from Big Al out of the post. Even better was the fact that they were all to Wolves players cutting behind the zone to the hoop. One was to Sessions and the other to Gomes. It was beautiful basketball, I just wish I wouldn’t be so shocked to see it.
• Oh Jonny. What are we going to do with you? Your defense is far from David Kahn’s prediction of first team NBA. Sure you had 4 steals. But I counted at least 4 other “gambles” that left the Wolves with 4 players guarding 5. On offense, how many 3’s do you need to shoot with 18+ seconds left on the shot clock? How many times can you avoid getting the ball right away to Big Al when he’s not being stopped? I really want to be on board with you as the Wolves point guard. I do. But it’s getting harder and harder to stay on board.
• Ramon Sessions was 5-5 from the floor with 2 assists (and 2 turnovers). He only played 18 minutes to Jonny’s 30. His +/- was -7. Jonny’s was 1 better at -6. This is an example of when advanced stats make my head hurt.
• Hey coach can you please play Sasha Pavlovic some more? He’s only, you know, awful. His adjusted +/- on the season is only -12. Last night you played him 21 minutes and the Mavs outscored us by 20 during that time.
• Corey Brewer’s shooting is regressing. Sure he’s hit a 3 in 28 straight games which is remarkable. But he’s not the shooter we saw in January. He’s broken 50% shooting just twice in the last 15 games going back to the start of February.
• I know he couldn’t put the ball in the hoop down low, going 1-7, but only 12 minutes for Senor Amor?
• Ryan Gomes did quietly have a nice game with 12 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists and a 0 +/-.
• Shawn Marion showed once again why the Wolves need an athletic guy like say Rudy Gay or Wesley Johnson to swing from the 3 to the 4. Marion finished with 29 points, 14 boards, 3 steals.

Next up the Wolves host the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday night. Let’s hope they bring the same energy they brought when they snapped that 15 game losing streak way back at the end of November.

Wolves Record: 14-48

What is it about the American Airlines Center that the Wolves love so much? Is it the sell-out crowd that is always into the game? Is it the friendly rims that gave the Wolves a handful of “shooter’s” bounces? Was it just the team bringing a lot of energy after 3 days rest? Or lastly could it be the team rallying together to play well without Big Al Jefferson? I’d say it was all of the above. The Wolves shot the ball well, rebounded the ball well, and were surprisingly aggressive and as a result got the to line well. Those 3 things usually add up to a nice big W. Last night however the Wolves Achilles Heel, turnovers, hurt them in a big way and cost them the win. But as a suffering Wolves fan I was happy that a) the Wolves played hard for seemingly 48 minutes (other than being a little bamfoozled by the Mavs zone during a few stretches), b) they played with energy and did a great job both pushing the ball up court and taking it to the rim aggressively, and c) they played enough D and rebounded well enough to keep it close down the stretch and make it an exciting game. I will be happy to watch these type of losses the rest of the way as opposed to the stinkers they’ve been dropping like last Saturday’s game against Portland.

Other observations:

• Is it just me or the did the paint feel a lot more open last night? It’s amazing what Flynn and especially Brewer were able to do with some room down there. It’s been a long, long time since we’ve been able to watch our team take it to the hoop. I think since Marbury was around 14 years ago!
• Along with that even with the extra space the Wolves still out rebounded the Mavs by 15 including 16 offensive boards.
• Brewer did have 6 turnovers but he finished +6 as a result of being aggressive going to the basket. Yes he was only 6-16 from the floor but if you watched the game a lot of those misses came at the end of the shot clock when he was forced to create his own shot. This is the difference between Brewer and say a top of the line shooting guard like Wade or Roy for instance who can create a much higher percentage shot with less than 7 seconds left on the shot clock.
• Can we all just agree that Ryan Hollins is good for about 10-15 minutes a game but not 36? Ok done and done.
• Ryan Gomes again showed that he can play much better as a stretch 4, especially with Jonny Flynn, than he can when plays at the 3.
• Anybody else jealous that the Mavs have spark plug Roddy Beaubois?
• Really is a Jonny Flynn drive our best end of game play? Can’t we get the ball to Love on the roll for a 3 or Brewer in the corner off a pin-down?
• Coach Rambis, please stop playing Sasha Pavlovic. He’s not good. At all.

Just a quick recap heading into the weekend:

• The Al Jefferson we’ve come to know over the past couple weeks played the first 3 quarters and was just as bad as he’s been, particularly bad on defense. He made two of the dumber fouls you can make, one fouling Durant on the fastbreak but barely touching him so he could still lay it in for the and-one, and two on a close out in the corner he left his feet. After looking better on defense earlier in the year it just hasn’t been working as of late.
• The good news for Wolves fans is that good ol’ Al from yesteryear appeared to show up in the 4th quarter and ripped off 8 points like he used to. Let’s hope he can carry that into next game.
• Corey Brewer is officially a 3-point shooter. Man it feels like forever ago I had to post his Hot Spots chart just to show you how awful he was shooting.
• Darko was a -14 tonight in +/- but I’ve just got to say that he looks like a real bonafide NBA basketball player out there. And by that I mean there were a few times where I saw little glimpses of the talent that made him the #2 pick oh so long ago. 2 of those flashes were great quick “hot potato” touch passes to Love who dropped them both out of bounds he was so shocked by them. These were exactly the type of passes we would never see Al make.
• Also am I the only one to be surprised by Darko’s size? He’s like a legit NBA Center. I know, new concept for the Wolves.
• And on one last Darko note, have you been watching the screens he sets. They’re like real screens. Cool.
• Jonny shot the ball great, going 5-7 from the floor, and he had 5 assists! Oh yea he also turned it over 4 times (one was an awful entry pass to Al straight out of bounds) and was -24 in +/- on the night. Maybe that’s a result of Russell Westbrook doing whatever, whenever he wanted to on his way to 18 pts, 15 asts, and 8 rebs.

Next up: Portland Tonight at 8:00pm EST.

In statistical analysis there can be a lot of noise in small sample sizes, you know for instance when looking at just one game. Regardless of that fact I feel compelled to explain to you that for the 19 minutes that new Timberwolf Darko Millic was on the court last night the Wolves outscored the Thunder by 35, yes 35, points. Meanwhile during the 29 minutes that Al Jefferson was on the court the Wolves were outscored by the Thunder by 37 points. Even in a small sample size like just one game, a 72 point differential between two players is worth talking about. But I took the day to fully marinate my thoughts on it because last night I was ready to sign Darko to a long extension and ship Jefferson straight out of town for whatever we can get on the wing. Snap judgments come naturally to a fan of weaker team like the Wolves and especially to guys who blog about them. It’s how things like “#Darkogasms” come to be.

Getting back to last night’s game though some may argue that Darko did his damage on court against the Thunder’s bench, however for 15 of those 19 minutes that Darko and the Wolves outscored the Thunder, Kevin Durant was on the floor as well. I’d also like to point out that although Nenad Kristic starts at Center, backup Nick Collison is just a good or better and definitely a better defender and rebounder. He played about 9 minutes against each and mostly against Collison down the stretch.

The real question after the game was what Stop-n-Pop over at Canis Hoopus tweeted:

What other team’s best player gets yanked down the stretch for an out of shape replacement on his first day with the new squad?

This really is unprecedented in my opinion and is something that could only happen with our beloved Minnesota Timberwolves. Did Jefferson play poorly last night? On offense? No. He was 5-11 for 10 points along with 6 rebounds and no turnovers. On defense he even chipped in 3 blocks. But while he was on the court the Wolves got badly outplayed by the Thunder. The verdict: we need to see more from both Jefferson and Darko. One game is just not enough. The other thing that no one has mentioned is that Darko and Big Al didn’t play a minute together. There is certainly the possibility that Darko could complement Jefferson just as well as he did Love.

The good news we do know is that I don’t think Darko could have played any better in his Timberwolves debut. And to think this is the “out of shape, I don’t want to be here” Darko Millic. He looked bigger than I remember, like a legitimate NBA center. He looked fluid in the triangle offense easily moving and playing at either the high or the low post. Best of all he was alert and aware on defense. Overall he looked the opposite of Ryan Hollins (who always looks awkward), like he really is a basketball player who belongs out there.

In the end us Wolves fans have something to hope for and be encouraged by for the last 25 games. We can hope that in our complex and messed up little franchise Darko Millic can find a home and that in him we can find a legitimate center to complement our 2 good power forwards.

This is an article titled “Kevin Love and His Outlet Passes” written by Sebastian Pruiti of NBA Playbook.

Give him credit for great video analysis of Love’s outstanding and precise, 3/4 court passes. Nice job Sebastian.

From ESPN First Take: Flynn Enjoying Life In The NBA

For those of you who haven’t heard, Kurt Helin, formerly of the TrueHoop Network blog Forum Blue & Gold, has started ProBasketballTalk for NBC Sports. It is an all encompassing blog covering the entire Association. With a who’s who of bloggers from the Truehoop Network chipping in, John Krolik, Rob Mahoney, and Matt Moore, it’s sure to be worth a daily visit.

Already Kurt’s got some advice for Wolves fans:

Kahn gets that rebuilding is a process, especially since the team committed to Kurt Rambis and the triangle offense. While they have let Flynn break out of it more as the season has gone on, it still remains their core offense, and anyone that has run it will tell you it takes half a season to sort of get used to it. A full season to really grasp it.

The Wolves are getting healthy at the time they are becoming more comfortable with the offense. It’s starting to come together. Maybe they do need to shake up the core, but being patient to see how all these pieces can work together over time is the prudent thing to do. There will be trades that can be made this summer or next year.

Panic-induced, quick-fix trades is how you end up with the Knicks roster. Trust us, Minnesota fans, you don’t want that.

Great outing for the Wolves last night. They came out and stepped on the Clippers’ lowly hearts, just as I proposed they do. Way to go guys! Now let’s just continue that play into tomorrow night versus the New York Knicks, whom beat us badly on the 26th. Revenge anyone? Here are today’s Wolf Tracks:

Timberwolf Tracks:

• To the surprise of many, including me, Ryan Hollins made the start last night. It worked out quite nicely as he put up 19 points, tying his career high.
• The Wolves have had difficulty putting fans in seats but their new ad campaign contains billboards admitting to this year’s troubles.“An honest assessment of the past. A plan for the future”.

Truehoop Tracks:

• Take a look at Kevin Arnovitz’s take on last night’s butt-whooping of the L.A. Clippers.
• The match-ups between Boston and Atlanta this season have been great entertainment. Crawford stepped up big for the Hawks last night.
• A great game last night with the Bulls and Hornets resulted in a great finish. “And as you can see from the play-by-play, the game ended with a steal by Rose”.

Other Tracks:

• More on the Hawks-Celts game, it was actually a season sweep for the Hawks. That would be a fun pairing to watch in the NBA Playoffs.
• The Nets came so close to having an actual win streak going but a jumper from Earl Boykins with .4 seconds left buried any chance of that happening.

Wow. Wolves fans if you missed this game, I’m sorry. That was fun to watch, easily the most fun I’ve had watching this team all season. Can we play the Clippers every game? I don’t think I saw a mistake the entire first 6 minutes of the game!

The 34-20 Timberwolves on top of the Clippers first quarter was by far the best of the season with the only blemish being Al Jefferson’s 3 turnovers.

Take a look at the Box Score. Every single Timberwolf who played at least 10 minutes (Sasha went 0-2 in 7 mins.) had a great game. There isn’t a bad stat line anywhere to be found. It’s unheard of! I mean Ryan Hollins had a significant impact on the game. Corey Brewer continued his tear. Jonny Flynn looked like a legit NBA point guard and a guy who can run a damn good game from the point.

I can’t say enough about how good the Timberwolves play, especially early and late, was in this game. Other than Baron Davis willing the Clippers back into the game in the 3rd quarter with 23 points the Wolves dominated the rest of the game. The Clippers got to within 5 in the 4th quarter before the Wolves ripped off a 14-5 run to put it back out of reach. I was glad it got close because it tested the Wolves mettle to not give up the lead. And they succeeded.

I’ll have more thoughts later tonight but just wanted to get this up this morning.

I can’t wait to see what the “New Wolves” can do in their rematch with the Knicks tomorrow night!

From Chat with David Thorpe -ESPN:

AKA a Wolves chat with questions on other teams sprinkled in… Has to be a record for most Wolves related questions in a chat!

Torrey (Minnesota)

Corey Brewer’s been playing the best ball of his professional career the past few weeks. His confidence seems at an all time high. What do you think his ceiling is?

David Thorpe

(12:20 PM)

Been watching them a lot. He’s been playing much better since late November. I see him as a 14-17ppg guy who is also a good teams best defender and energy guy. He’s also their best passer in the triangle offense. Needs to be a tighter dribbler, but 48% from 3 this month? C’mon!!

Shawn (La Habra)

Mr. Thorpe. Coach Rambis should slide Brewer to 3 and start Ellington at 2. That will spread the floor and will make them much more potent on both ends! What’s your take?

David Thorpe

(12:31 PM)

Considering Brewer has been a 3 most of his life? I totally agree. And I like Ellington more than most others do.

Chad (Minneapolis, MN)

I know a lot of John Wall questions out there, but the Wolves have the 2nd best shot at getting him. Question is that I know he’s the best in years, but with that said, the Wolves would have to trade Flynn or Rubio’s rights for sure, and who would have more value and who should they trade if by a chance they land the #1 pick.

David Thorpe

(12:41 PM)

They’d trade both is my guess, though I love Flynn in Lawson’s role off the bench, as more of a scorer.

Greg (San Diego)

Rubio is going to be unbelievable, can we get him on the Lakers?

David Thorpe

(12:43 PM)

That would be sick.

dylan (alaska)

think the twolves traded the wrong point guard to the nuggets? (they should have kept lawson)

David Thorpe

(12:45 PM)

Without doubt.

Sergio (Madrid)

Not sure if you watch international tapes… but do you think OKC and SAC will one day regret not picking him Rubio?

David Thorpe

(12:47 PM)

OKC no, they have Westbrook, maybe Sacto. But Memphis? Yes. Rubio is 27-2 over there, maybe 27-3 now, and is 3rd in assists in the Euroleague behind two guys who are at least 10 years older than him.

George (NY)

come on, there’s no way Ty Lawson wins games on the T Wolves. it’s easy to be pure energy off the bench when you play 23 mins a game. cut Flynn a little slack.

David Thorpe

(12:49 PM)

That’s not my job. Calling it like I see it.

Casper (Minneapolis)

If forced to choose, do you move forward with Kevin Love or Al Jefferson if you're the Wolves? Or do you think they can make it work defensively if they can get the team scheme down like OKC has (surprising 5th in defensive rating)?

David Thorpe

(12:56 PM)

I’d move Al.