Howlin' T-Wolf

As you may have heard, the NBA 2K12 ratings leaked on a shaky video which you can find on your own with a simple Google search (if you are truly interested, the Wolves are at 1:37). 2K Sports criminally underrates Dirk, Rajon Rondo is almost as good as Derrick Rose, blah blah blah. You have heard this and every other piece of basketball news 400 times, thanks to the bored-as-hell lockout wasteland that is the NBA blogosphere.

If you plan to buy 2K12 (and really who doesn’t?), and you plan to play as the Timberwolves…well…for your sake, I hope you are a very talented player.

Kevin Love: 81
Michael Beasley: 78
Wes Johnson: 70
Martell Webster: 70
Luke Ridnour: 68
Ricky Rubio: 67
Darko Milicic: 62
Anthony Tolliver: 60
Nikolai Pekovic: A gentleman’s 56

I know what you are thinking. “HOW DARE THEY RATE PEKOVIC LOWER THAN STEPHEN GRAHAM (57), WHO WAS 443 ON ESPN’S NBARANK?!!”

I agree. That was my first thought as well.

But otherwise, while we all hope that these ratings get significantly adjusted through the year as the TIMBERWOLVES GO ON A PLAYOFF TEAR, (*ahem* sorry, I’m back from the brink of optimism) I personally don’t have any real beef with 2K. K-Love is clearly the best T-Wolf. Beasley’s defense gets a D for the perimeter and a C- for the post (yowza…), while his offense gets an A- and a B+ for the same categories, respectively. I might argue that Tolliver deserves a better ranking than Darko, but it’s hard to deny the shot-blocking presence Darko will provide in the game. Rubio’s performance in the Eurobasket championship confirmed that a 67 is quite what he deserves.

All in all, while teams around the league may feel that their players were judged harshly, the game was quite consistent in its harshness. Minnesota fans should remember that it could be worse: we could be the Raptors, whose best player appears to be Leandro Barbosa, just one rating ahead of Wes Johnson with a 71.

And if that doesn’t encourage you, just pick up a copy of WNBA 2K12 (note: not a real game), where Minnesota fans can shoot mid-range jumpers and make the smart pass all the way to the Finals! That’s why we play the 2K franchise, right?

For those of you interested:

The trophy presentation was a requisite affair, except maybe for the location. The Minnesota Lynx poured into an empty practice gym at the US Airways Center, hooting, hollering and hugging after they clinched the WNBA’s Western Conference title with a 103-86 win over the Phoenix Mercury.

Our very own Minnesota Lynx have quickly established themselves as a dominate force in the WNBA. Their success model correlates awfully close to that of OKC’s Thunder success: Lose a lot, then build and win in the future. It’s a model based off of draft success and the Lynx have been truly blessed with that. But, perhaps the most valuable player to the Lynx didn’t come via the draft, rather Lindsay Whalen scurried back to Minnesota after playing in Connecticut for six seasons, only to be welcomed back home with open arms and has certainly been a deciding factor in this magical season.

It’s been a fun and entertaining season to watch and it can only get better. A title run is well underway in Minnesota.

In light of this lockout (you may have heard something about it), it’s time to embark to Youtube to find classic NBA games that catch my attention. With that said, we will begin a series called Blast From the Past by recapping some of the greatest games the NBA has ever seen to both relive the greatness of the moments and also remind us of what we’ll potentially be missing next season.

First up, the 1995 Western Conference Finals, Game 6.

VIDEO

BOX SCORE

In today’s game, full of post players as big as Mount Everest and as ripped as professional wrestlers, it’s easy to look at Hakeem Olajuwon and wonder how he could dominate the NBA in the mid 90’s. Slender and tall, but not overwhelmingly so for a post, Hakeem from a distance looked more like Jeff Green than Dwight Howard.

And yet, David Robinson (who, incidentally, was built a lot more like Dwight Howard) spent the 1995 Western Conference Finals getting systematically destroyed by a pissed off Olajuwon, (hopefully) making the MVP voters of 1995 feel like numbskulls. Game 6, the clinching game which propelled the 6th seeded Rockets passed the top seeded Spurs and into the Finals, was a prime example.

On offense, Olajuwon consistently went straight at Robinson attacking him with both turnaround and face up jumpers, quick head fakes, step through moves, and a couple nice spin moves. In stark contrast, Robinson refused to attack the basket when he was guarded by Olajuwon, who spent the game (and really, most of his career) gleefully swatting away players with the audacity to slash toward his basket. Robinson’s first touch in the post came with 2.6 seconds left in the first quarter, when Hakeem had been given a rest for the remainder of the quarter. Robinson made a strong spin move to the basket and threw down a hard dunk, though he was fouled before the shot. But it was indicative of how much Hakeem had dominated Robinson, and broken his spirit, that when Olajuwon began guarding him again in the second quarter, Robinson’s only baskets came off a few mid range two’s.

The most interesting thing about Olajuwon’s game (to me) was illuminated by Bill Walton (who spent most of this game talking with his fellow color announcer Snapper Jones with what sounded like badly hidden contempt). Hakeem had just put the ball on the floor and pulled up, draining a 15 footer over Sean Elliot, when Walton breathlessly commented  “Olajuwon ignores the big guys when he’s watching tape…he watches the guards and mimics THEIR moves.”

In light of the high profile players like Howard and LeBron going to Olajuwon and asking for help in the post, it’s interesting to hear that what Hakeem did was watch guards and try to learn how they operate. But honestly, it makes sense. At 17:56 on the video, Hakeem catches the ball in the post with Robinson guarding him. Instead of attacking Robinson straight up and trying to shoot right over him, Hakeem turns and pump fakes, getting Robinson up in the air, before stepping around him with his non-pivot foot, and flipping a finger roll in off the glass. It’s a beautiful play, and a perfect demonstration of Hakeem’s skill set, but it’s a guard’s move; the kind of play made by a much shorter player compensating for his lack of height by using his speed and brains to get by the giants around him.

Olajuwon played with an unsurpassable skill, intelligence, and grace, rather than the raw force of strength and athleticism that we see from Dwight Howard in today’s NBA. Honestly, I believe it made for a more beautiful game. But it seems unfair that critics have deemed Howard’s work with Olajuwon a failure because Howard hasn’t developed Olajuwon’s repertoire of spin moves and turnarounds. Guys? They play entirely different styles of basketball. Howard can’t maneuver around opponents any more than Hakeem could power straight through David Robinson.

LeBron, however, has the potential to be a different story. How fascinating would it be if LeBron could pick up Olajuwon’s post finesse? LeBron’s game would be built around contrasts: a wing who slashed with force, and a post who moved with finesse.

The former has already been proved unstoppable, when LeBron is on his game. I’m betting the latter, given LeBron’s size and speed, would prove the same.

Two bullet points about the game itself:

• It’s easy to forget how much of a winner Sam Cassell was. But man…he contributed to some excellent teams. The Rockets during their championship years. The Bucks who made the Eastern Conference Finals. The Timberwolves during the Kevin Garnett apex. The Clippers during that one weird stretch where they were good. The Celtics of ‘08. This guy was a few wins away from being another Robert Horry.
• At 34:08, Rodman commits a flagrant foul on Sam Cassell that the announcers vehemently agree with, saying he clearly wasn’t playing defense on the ball, but rather on Cassell’s body. But to me, Cassell appeared to dress up and dramatize the play. Certainly, Rodman fouled him, but Rodman was faked high into the air, and Cassell, already a much shorter player, ducked down as Rodman came down, absorbing the entire weight of the jump. It looked bad, but a close observer could see that Rodman never “grabbed Cassell’s neck” as the announcer insisted, but rather attempted to grab Cassell to keep him up on his way down. And he appeared to be attempting to make a play on the ball by blocking the shot. Rodman argues his case, then goes to the bench to pout, and yanks his shoes off in disgust, tossing them in the general direction of the court. I forgot how much I miss Dennis Rodman. Congrats on the Hall of Fame, you strange, strange man.

Why Kevin Love looks so happy to be locked out is a MYSTERY to me

This lockout feels like the first hour of a very long shift at a job you hate. At this point, you haven’t missed out on anything yet. But looking ahead, everything appears so bleak and discouraging that you have to complain about it.

However, I think it’s clear the owners are getting somewhere.

After all, the players are obviously reeling. Turning a bunch of millionaires loose with nothing but time on their hands? They are locked out of their practice facilities. They can’t have trainers and coaches screaming at them all day. In fact, they can’t talk to their trainers or coaches. The horrors. How awful for them. They are like a direction-less bunch of sheep; sheep with nothing to do but plank Porsches and hang out on the beach with women so hot they were listed as a threat to the planet in “An Inconvenient Truth”.

I know you just clicked that link and you are wondering the same thing as me: “are those women really really tall, or is Kevin actually a lot shorter than he is listed?” I wish I could tell you.

But seriously, Kevin? Shaving your head into an awesome bro-hawk? Signing with Jose Cuervo as a sponsor? Taking up professional beach volleyball? Can you try to at least LOOK like this lockout is bumming you out? Just for the rest of us who are stuck here in the midwest fantasizing about the next time we might actually get to see you in uniform. And I’m not talking about a Cuervo uniform, either, unless you can somehow convince the NBA to broadcast your beach volleyball games on League Pass.

Love was having so much fun, in fact, that it became necessary to bring him down a couple notches. WHAT’S THAT YOU SAY, KEVIN? PLAYERS IN THE NBA WERE CHEERING AGAINST THE HEAT?! KEVIN LOVE HATES THE HEAT, EVERYBODY! HE SAYS THEY ARE AWFUL PEOPLE! SPREAD IT AROUND!

(Sigh) I shouldn’t even have to do this, but Kevin’s exact wording:

[Did people around the league enjoy seeing Miami lose?] Oh yeah, great amount of joy out of it. Plus, for me, they say nice guys, good guys finish last. But Dallas, they just had a slew of great guys and veterans on their team that made for just a great team. It wasn’t just two, three, four guys on the team, like Miami I kind of felt it was. Around the league, it was kind of a consensus that guys were happy.

No, really? Guys were happy because there were some great guys in Dallas who finally won a championship…and because the Mavericks were a team rather than a group of talented individuals? That sounds ridiculous! That sounds like…the rest of America. How absurd to find that players are human beings too.

This lockout is turning us all into idiots. Actually worse…this lockout is turning us into junior high gossip girls.

So you know what? This stuff is unequivocally awesome. You know that long-ass shift I mentioned above? Love is like the coworker who makes it all a little less crappy. If this lockout manages to bum out Kevin Love, we will have a truly serious catastrophe on our hands.

Ignore all of us, 42. Party on.

Anticipation is fun. I miss basketball.

Remember last year? That was pretty awesome, huh. Between the Heatles debut, Phil Jackson’s last shot at a 3-peat, the Celtics’ closing championship window, the rising Thunder, and the impending lockout chatter (*singing* one of these things is not like the others…), the preseason drama was unlike anything I’ve ever seen.

And the release of the schedule definitely contributed. From the first game of the season, which the NBA wisely slotted as Miami vs Boston, to the Christmas Day matchups (Boston/Orlando and Los Angeles/Miami drew the afternoon ABC billing), the best matchups of the schedule dominated SportsCenter highlights when it was released and sparked the imaginations of NBA fans.

This year? Not so much.

Add the 2011-2012 NBA Schedule release to the list of things the lockout has ruined, a list which already includes

• Off season free agent discussions
• Crazy draft night wheeling and dealing, thanks to owners afraid to mess with their cap status
• The NBA’s popularity momentum after an incredible season with an amazing ending
• My perception of owners as something other than money hungry whores who don’t know how to spend their cash wisely

And, in all honesty…

• MY ENTIRE #*%$@ SUMMER!!1!!!!1!

*Taking a calming breath*. Curses. Anyway, continuing my campaign of intentional ignorance, in which I pretend that the lockout is actually a very bad dream (one that will go away if I lie in bed long enough to wake up), I refuse to let this momentous event be ruined.

In honor of the schedule release, I picked 5 games from the upcoming season that I will absolutely witness in person, and that I recommend to you as well. I intentionally left out some games that I will be attending for other reasons, like the Heat (to see LeBron), the Lakers (to see a contender), the Celtics (…shut up), or the Clippers (you know damn well why).

These games are interesting from a Timberwolves fan’s perspective. They offer interesting matchups for some of Minny’s younger stars, and could prove to be exciting, competitive measuring sticks of Minnesota’s progress.

November 9 vs Phoenix- The 3rd game of the season features a matchup that feels a bit like a changing of the guard. You know, from one floppy haired, foreign born, ultra creative point guard with obscene court vision and basketball IQ to another. While Rubio will almost certainly not be acclimated to the NBA game by this point, it should be fun nonetheless to watch these two compete.

November 25 vs Houston- No, seriously…the Timberwolves are going to play a nationally televised game on ESPN2. Clearly, ESPN expects to see a pissed off and jilted Jonny Flynn/Brad Miller showdown. I anticipate Jonny going for 20/20 (20 points, 20 turnovers) and Brad Miller tearing Houston’s defense to shreds with a devastating display of flat-footed set shots from 15 feet away.

Seriously though, when I attend a game, I love watching it later on TV to see what other people (in this case, at LEAST 13 of them) saw from their point of view. I recommend it for you as well. So make an EXTRA big sign incorporating the letters “ESPN” (perhaps “bEasley Smokes comPetition Now”) and you too can look like a gigantic fool on national television.

See you there!

December 26 vs Oklahoma City- Last time Oklahoma City visited the Target Center, Minnesota was one Kevin Love baby hook shot (which bounced around the rim and rolled out) away from winning a thriller at the buzzer. Instead, the game went to overtime, en route to Kevin Durant dropping 47 and leading the Thunder to a 118-117 heartbreaker. Minnesota got better by adding better players. The Thunder got better by making the Western Conference Finals. This game has some potential.

But more importantly, the Thunder are the model every small market team (eg. Minnesota) are trying to follow, if they are wise (eg. not run by David Kahn). Last season, OKC coach Scott Brooks told reporters that Minnesota was exactly where the Thunder were two years ago, and that they will be competitive very soon. We sure hope so, Scott. Using the Thunder as a measuring stick might not be a bad idea.

February 10 vs Chicago- Games against elite point guards will prove fascinating this season, as we watch Rubio adjust to the NBA game. Derrick Rose might not be the best PURE point guard in the NBA (go look at Tom Ziller’s graph of pure point guard immediately or your day will not be complete), a distinction I personally continue to reserve for Chris Paul, but Rose is almost certainly a more gifted player, one of the best in the NBA.

Scouts have reported that Rubio is an excellent defender, but only an average athlete. Will he be able to keep up with an opponent of Rose’s caliber? More importantly, don’t you want to find out in person?

(As an added plus, I may have mentioned, those who attend this game get to see Derrick Rose in person.)

April 4 vs Cleveland- Yeah, I said it. Cleveland. I’ll be there.

Why you ask? Is it to see if Derrick Williams will punish the team who passed on him in the draft? Mmhmm. A closer look at the player Minnesota “missed out on” by not getting the first overall pick? You betcha. But, possibly more important, if the Timberwolves are mired in another tough season, this game might be an opportunity for an encouraging late season win for the young T-Wolves.

Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that, yeah?

So, to answer the question — Can the fastest get any faster? — in its most simplistic and existential form: Yes. How you get to that point?

Zach Lowe takes a stab at it here:

Minnesota played at the league’s fastest pace, but it rarely got out in transition.

Go on, explain.

The Wolves turned the ball over a lot — more often than any other team, in fact. When you cough the ball up a lot, possession changes happen fast, and a team’s number of raw possessions increases. This can make it look as if a team is playing Nellie-style, fast-break ball when they are really just dribbling the ball off their feet.

Lowe also goes on to explain another reason for the Wolves’ speedy woes last season was their lack of clock management skills. All too often the Wolves heaved up inefficient shots from all over the court just way too early in the shot clock. Part of that is due to Luke Ridnour’s minimal abilities at the starting point guard spot. He ought to feel more at home on the bench behind Rubio instead of being the on-court general for more than 30 minutes a contest. Another reason you can blame our poor clock management on was Kurt Rambis’ philosophy and strategy itself. The Wolves often tried setting the pace of their half-court offense by lobbing the ball into Darko on the low block. That seemed to be a dead end that usually resulted in; A) A turnover; or B) Poorly executed running floaters in the lane, usually going sliding to his left because he couldn’t go to his right hand. Those two results clearly loop back to Lowe’s point: The Wolves ultimately played fast because they never made the most of their possessions by turning it over or chucking up a contested shot, regardless of the spot on the floor.

Upon hearing that, now, you just have to ask yourself if David Kahn’s vision of an up-tempo squad is really going to succeed. Or even give the fans what they want to see.

Zach Harper states his opinion:

Where I disagree with Kahn’s assessment that Wolves fans want to see up-tempo basketball is in the word “want.” To say Wolves fans just want to see up-tempo basketball seems to be extremely shortsighted. I think Wolves fans are willing to settle for up-tempo basketball if the wins aren’t going to be pouring in any time soon. If up-tempo basketball is going to make the Wolves more competitive than they were last season, I think it’s something we’d all settle for.

Isn’t it time to settle down? Even if it means just steady improvements on a year to year basis — 25 next year, 30 the next, etc. — instead of an unlikely giant leap in victories, I feel most fans would be on board. This team has been such a loser for the past five years that they’ve officially lost their homebase as well as their dignity. And all the rebuilding with no secure hope until recently doesn’t help the cause one bit. Watching a fast-paced team does, and will, put fans in the seats, but it comes down to the Wolves’ will to win in the future that will help solidify that fanbase to where it once was. It doesn’t happen overnight, ya know.

So although a faster-paced team is Kahn’s desired future, and it may seem “shortsighted,” but until they learn the ways of winning, it’s what we need to settle for. Until they learn to put together quality offensive possessions that are sprouted from terrific team defense — See Miami Heat, — a fast-paced, offensive juggernaut will hold over fans in the meantime.

I have a feeling Don Nelson doesn’t have that same type of defense-creates-fast breaks, open-courts and-efficient offense philosophy. Hmm, lots to ponder.

This from ESPN:

Woodson is also a candidate for the Detroit Pistons and his defensive mindset would seem to be a much better fit there than in Minnesota, where Kahn has said he wants a coach with an “up-tempo DNA.”

Woodson does have experience with rebuilding projects, having helped the Atlanta Hawks rise from the bottom of the Eastern Conference to become a playoff team before he was replaced by Larry Drew.

Here’s the unfortunate part:

The Timberwolves laid off at least 11 business side employees on Tuesday, many of them in the sales department, as the effects of the NBA lockout start to sink in across the league.

A person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press of the moves. The person requested anonymity because the Timberwolves are not discussing personnel matters. So far, the basketball side of the operations have been spared, with president of basketball operations David Kahn bringing in Mike Woodson on Tuesday to interview for the head coaching opening.

Let’s start this by wishing Kurt Rambis farewell. He always seemed to be a nice enough guy who just happened to be playing checkers while everyone else was playing chess.

To be fair, the T-Wolves’ struggles weren’t entirely Rambis’ fault. He inherited a very bad team when he took over. The following season, that team’s personel went from very bad to very young and injured.

But he wouldn’t give up on that damn Triangle offense, even while it clearly wasn’t working. He was so obstinate about that particular set that it really seemed like he didn’t know any others to run. I’m sure he does, of course. (I hope.) So if we are going to celebrate the coaching change, let’s celebrate the exodus of the Triangle. Thank goodness. That evil offensive set has been banished back to the hell it came from. (You know, Los Angeles.)

Now David Kahn is faced with the unenviable task of finding a replacement.

Despite their lack of success in recent years, Minnesota’s roster should be surprisingly attractive to potential coaches. Their best player is a likable young star in Kevin Love. Their incoming rookies are both potential stars, Rubio and Williams. Their record last year was so bad that, barring some horrible injuries, a new coach seemingly could only improve record-wise (as I knock furiously on every piece of wood within reach.)

The problem, of course, is that Kurt Rambis has been dragged through the mud over the past few months, and many experts are wondering if any sane coach will want to work for a boss like Kahn.

Don Nelson, coach of the Golden State Warriors for roughly 250,000 seasons, reportedly is one coach unfazed by the exit wounds inflicted upon Rambis, and he seems like a strangely logical candidate, considering that Kahn wants Minnesota to play faster. This proposed strategy hasn’t been incredibly popular, as critics point out that Minnesota already plays very uptempo, and they proved last year that they don’t have the veteran leadership to pull it off. But the numbers are a bit deceptive, as pointed out by the intelligent men from A Wolf Among Wolves. Last year, the T-Wolves were first (or is it last? Whichever means “they were awful”) in turnovers and second in field goals attempted, while being 27th in field goal percentage.

Boiled down? The young Wolves turned the ball over way too much and took a lot of bad shots, pushing their possessions per game through the roof.

These numbers will improve considerably if Ricky Rubio proves himself to be a competent starting point guard. The two most-used point guards on the Timberwolves roster (Flynn and Ridnour) had an assist to turnover ratio of 13/7. That’s a decent amount of assists….and a rather incredible amount of turnovers. Ricky? All we are asking from you is competence at first; we aren’t asking you to be a savior. (Though if you feel like, you know, saving and stuff…that would be pretty cool too.)

But something needs to be done about that defense (30th in the NBA in opponents points per game, and 27th in points per 100 possessions), and Don Nelson is probably not the coach to do it. In his last four seasons with Golden State, the Warriors were last in opponent points per game every single year. Guys? We saw what that looked like last year, and it looked like 17-65. Not a lot of fun.

That being said, I don’t necessarily disagree with Kahn that Minnesota needs to run on offense. Rubio is rather famously an open-court style point guard. Beasley, Johnson, Randolph, and Williams are all fast and very athletic. Kevin Love might be the best rebounder/outlet passer since Wes Unseld. This team is pretty clearly built to move fast.

So how should they balance the two, from a coaching standpoint? According to SI’s Chris Mannix, my suggestion isn’t being considered. (How typical?) To the surprise of no one who knows me: I present Celtics assistant coach Lawrence Frank.

For starters: in case you forgot, the last Celtics assistant coach who went on to become a head coach was this year’s Coach of the Year Tom Thibodeau in Chicago. If Frank came to the Timberwolves he wouldn’t have the star power of Derrick Rose that Thibodeau had to work with, but he would have arguably more talented pieces.

Frank spent the last season working with Doc Rivers, a mastermind of egos, rotations, NBA defenses, and plays out of a timeout. Frank himself knows NBA defenses; his first three years as an NBA head coach, his teams were in the top 6 in opponents PPG. And, as hard as it is to believe, the Timberwolves are actually going to have some talent next season. For the most part, with great talent comes tremendous egos, and having someone like Frank to keep things in check would be an excellent start.

The stain on Frank’s record? He was fired after the Nets started off 0-16 in their 2009-2010 campaign; a season in which, according to Basketball-Reference.com, Courtney Lee was their 3rd most productive player (seriously, go look it up), and injuries plagued them all year. But apparently, New Jersey’s players never quit on Frank, even while they were losing horribly.

From the New Jersey Star Ledger:

When a team is mired in an historic losing streak, the coach’s firing is hardly unexpected. Still, the Nets claimed they had not quit on Frank, who had a career 225-241 record, and he was largely a victim of injuries that had the team playing with as few as eight players some nights.

“I’m sure they’d like to fire some of the players if they could, but they did the easy thing and fired the coach,” Rafer Alston said. “We didn’t get it done. I take full responsibility for some of the games. The coach can’t put on the uniform and chase down the rebounds. We had to do it and didn’t get it done.”

Obviously, we are all hoping that the Wolves will be a much better team this year. But if they hired Lawrence Frank, it would be encouraging to know that even if they lost a lot of games, the players might stick by their coach the way New Jersey stuck by him.

Ultimately, it’s difficult to project how successful any coach will prove with a team, especially when the roster is as young as Minnesota’s. One can never really predict how a team and a coach will gel together as a unit. A coach provides the lineups, the rotations, and the plays, while the players do the performing. Only players can win games, but a coach can sure lose them.

Especially when the Triangle is involved.

I joined Tyler Pyburn on The Pulse Network for the Sports Buzz show to talk T-Wolves:

We haven’t even started the (coaching) process yet.

That’s what David Kahn had to say during his press conference yesterday, where he finally, and so politely, relieved Kurt Rambis of his duties as the head coach here in Minnesota.

It’s sorta comical, ain’t it? But you shouldn’t expect anything less from Kahn. After all, he’s Kahn, one of the league’s most outspoken, clumsy, awkward, passive-aggressive and downright open and honest GM. Which is exactly why this Rambis situation, as baffling and unethical as it may appear from the outside, was Kahn’s doing and you couldn’t have expected it to be handled any differently. Calling coaches while Rambis was still hired, allowing the news of the firing to leak over a month before it actually happens, it’s all on Kahn.

But we have to digress; it’s time to move on, yet again, and not allow our haunted past affect our bright future. It’s time for yet another coaching search.

So let’s look at the candidates. Lorenzo Romar, Lawrence Frank, Larry Brown, Don Nelson, Bernie Bickerstaff all seem to be potential candidates. But, unfortunately, since it’s so late in the coach choosing game, names like Quin Snyder, Kelvin Sampson and even our very own, J.B. Bickerstaff, have already snatched up assistant coaching jobs elsewhere.

It’s plain and simple to see what the Wolves need in a head coach: Defense, leadership and experience. Let’s go through potential coaches and see whether or not they live up to those standards and if they’d be a good choice for Kahn and the Wolves.

Lorenzo Romar: Romar is currently the head coach for the Washington Huskies. He’s turned around what was a bad program into a viable contender each and every year in recent years. He has a knack for coaching some solid players both on and off the court. Brandon Roy, Quincy Pondexter and Isaiah Thomas come to mind, both tough players on the court with a can-do attitude paired with a sense of humility and humbleness off.

Although Romar has turned Washington into a great basketball school, you can’t ignore the fact that he’s still just a college coach. Predicting his success as he moves from college to the pros is very difficult and a jump that not many coaches make, probably for many obvious reasons. He runs a more up-tempo type of game, which is what Kahn is looking for. But still, it’s hard to disregard that he has no NBA experience, coaching wise, and isn’t a perennial winner, despite his success at Washington.

Romar will not be the next head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves. The fit isn’t quite there and he seems overjoyed in Washington, anyways. Especially after inking a pretty sweet deal not too long ago, guaranteeing him over $1 million a season plus bonuses.

Lawrence Frank: I’m as surprised as you are that Frank hasn’t received more calls this Summer about open head coaching spots. He’s one of the most experienced available coaches out there and has a special knack for defense. He led the New Jersey Nets to four playoff appearances out of six seasons and was fired after losing their first 16 games in 2009. But don’t let him take the blame; that team was atrocious.

Anyways, Frank is currently an assistant for the Boston Celtics, meaning he’s had a little time to learn from one of the game’s bests in Doc Rivers. His tutelage is certainly worth something, just ask Tom Thibodeau. Frank could be a great fit here for the Timberwolves. His offenses may not have run as much as Kahn hopes for in 2011-2012, but will push this team’s offense to the limits when he needs to. And after coaching Jason Kidd for those years in New Jersey, what better coach to come in and mentor Ricky Rubio?

Frank deserves another chance. Do I think he’s a world-class coach? No, but he’ll certainly bring in enough firepower, discipline and hopefully some defense to win us some games next season. Seems like a solid option when you add it all up.

Larry Brown: This one’s beyond me. At what point does a man as old as my Grandfather get sick of these young ballers’ attitudes and egos? Somehow, someway Brown keeps wanting more and more of the NBA to the point where he’ll coach to his grave as long as he has the shot.

Brown’s most recent project, the Charlotte Bobcats, never really succeeded. Charlotte made the playoffs in 2009-2010 but that’s really because they actually had a good team. And even in Brown’s hayday’s in Detroit he was given a team stacked to the brim with talent.

He certainly has the experience and the defensive schemes to make this team improve on that end, but maybe, the most important aspect, is having a relatable coach for these young players that will help them grow. We all saw what Brown did with Tyrus Thomas: Nothing. Do we really want Anthony Randolph’s growth stunned by Brown? Or how about Kevin Love, for that matter? It’s too big of a risk for the Wolves to go that old with this young of a team. I just don’t see it happening.

Don Nelson: Woah, Nellie! Marc Stein of ESPN dropped this bomb shortly after the official news of Rambis firing broke networks. And I think Anthony Randolph has been struck dead upon hearing this news.

Nelson’s last coaching gig was with Golden State, where he was fired after the front office blew up after some turmoil. One described that situation to me as Nellie as the lone man running the entire show. Sounds awfully familiar here in Minnesota… But I digress.

Kahn wants speed, sheer speed. He’ll certainly get that with Nelson. Nelson is infamous for his up-tempo offenses in the past, even in Golden State. But what’s special about the idea of Nelson on Minnesota’s sideline is his winning ways. The NBA’s most winningest coach in history has, well, won a lot of games. The Wolves’ young roster is in desperate need of a coach who has been there, done that and can use his experience in big moments and games to show this team some winning ways.

There’s only one major flaw with Nelson as our head coach. The man is 71 years old. The Timberwolves are the youngest team in the league. Just like the situation would be with Larry Brown, the fit really isn’t there because younger players need a coach who they can relate to in order to catch on to his philosophies and winning ways. Oh, and not to mention, our defense certainly wouldn’t get much better, if any. Just throwing it out there.

Although Nelson seems like a good fit, I’m just not so sure he’s the coach we need. Now, that’s not to say I wouldn’t mind having him because I feel he’d be a certain upgrade over Rambis, but if we want to get picky in the process, — which we really shouldn’t be — there’s another candidate that must be a better fit.