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Minnesota Timberwolves bullets: How good are these guys?

November 11, 2012

Nice choice, BallinEurope readers. The Minnesota Timberwolves, selected as BiE’s NBA home team for the 2012-13 season, are early darlings in the big league, managing to get off to a respectable 4-2 start (“Their best start in 11 years!” went the hype after the Wolves’ win over the Indiana Pacers) while Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio and at present J.J. Barea are down to injury.

BallinEurope checks in this morning with those fantastic Eurowolves, bullet-style with video and an Official Fearless Prediction™ or two below.

• The best bit about watching the Timberwolves from the BiE perspective: This is the most Euroesque of all NBA teams this season. Aside the maddening “inability” to run the floor (more on this below), the pick-and-roll plays, the ball movement, the distribution of minutes (well, relatively, given how shorthanded the ‘Wolves are right now), the lack of a “Big 3” – these all resemble our beloved version of the game. And can’t you just see Luke Ridnour suiting up for Maccabi Tel Aviv someday?

• As good as Ridnour has been in managing the offense (and performing well above expectations in place of Rubio), BiE likes to give disproportionate credit to NBA rookie Alexey Shved. Waking up against the Brooklyn Nets in game three, Shved suddenly attacks the basket and/or gets things moving outside the perimeter in a half-court set like an old hand – nice offseason addition here.

• Timberwolves Plays of the Week? Easy: Check out Ridnour with the inbounds to Andrei Kirilenko who demonstrates that miraculous wingspan of his on a dish to the cutting Chase Budinger for the game-winner on Friday night against Indiana.

Ridnour-to-Budinger connected again for a nice three in the third quarter against the Bulls the next night, giving the ‘Wolves a 52-49 lead, but Budinger gets props here for his fearlessness in the first quarter of that game.

• Depending on this team’s record in January, Rick Adelman may deserve a few words in this year’s Coach of the Year discussion – though he’ll ultimately lose out if Phil Jackson indeed returns and pulls off the miracle in Los Angeles.

On one hand, the Wolves have only seen two playoff-caliber teams (Brooklyn Nets, Indiana Pacers) thus far, there is of course the subsequent reintegration of Love and Rubio to come. If the former performs again on his post-summer 2010 levels and Rubio is as ready to play as when he got his first NBA start, well, where would you put the ‘Wolves? No. 6 in the Western Conference? No. 5, maybe?

• Benjamin Polk of ESPN TrueHoop Network site A Wolf Among Wolves, forecasting in his pre-Bulls game column, reckoned in part that the Wolves’ “best offensive moments have come either when the team is fluidly executing Rick Adelman’s sets or when a guard, be it Brandon Roy, J.J. Barea or Alexey Shved, has taken it upon himself to break down the opposing defense…

“Adding to the problem is that the Bulls have real matchup advantages in the frontcourt … Joakim Noah is the kind of long, active center that gives Pekovic fits (observe the way that Hibbert disrupted Pek’s offensive game [against the Pacers])…”

Polk’s assessment proved about 50/50. Four PFs aside, game high-scorer Pekovic still went for 35 minutes and the Pek/AK-47 combination held its own on the offensive side with seven ORs combined. Distressingly, however, Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson controlled things for Chicago with eight offensive boards of their own plus another four from Nazr Mohammad who distressingly handled Minnesota’s second string in his eight minutes on the court.

As for Adelman’s sets and the Bulls’ neutralization of any opposing five, the latter won out over the former by slowing things to a crawl. BiE’d like to see the advanced scoring stats, but here’s to thinking that the Wolves’ success rate declines as the 24-second clock does.

• Is BiE crazy or does this team look ready to run? And yet, the Wolves have been good for just 10.5 fast break points per game over the last four. Presence of Pekovic aside, the loss in Chicago indicates early on that this Minnesota team could lose the grittier matches this year –
so why not open the floor? Again, BiE supposes, we’re just waiting for Ricky…

• Token Official Fearless Predictions™: Since Love and Rubio won’t be back until 2013 and the Wolves’ complexion will change dramatically when these two return, BiE’ll take a stab at the record through December – yeesh, look at that run around Christmas: at Miami, vs Oklahoma City, at New York, vs Houston – and say the Wolves will be 12-9 on January 1.

• Next up: Timberwolves at Dallas on Monday night.

Nov 11, 2012ballineurope
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This post was published on November 11, 2012
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Comments: 13
  1. NBA < Euroleague
    12 years ago

    They will be worse when Rubio and Love come back. Rubio cannot shoot and is a liability on offense if you play the passing lanes. Love is a horrific at defense and only plays for personal stats.

    They are better right now because they are focusing more on guys like Kirilenko and Pekovic.

    ReplyCancel
    • Gabe
      12 years ago

      You are an insane troll. Forget about Rubio who was the 2nd best rookie in the year last year. Love is arguable one of the top 5 players in the world and the best power forward. By personal stats you mean scoring and rebounding. Not only was he one of the top players in the NBA last year he was also the main center for Team USA which went undefeated and won gold.

      ReplyCancel
  2. Hoophead
    12 years ago

    WTF are you talking about, are you insane, mr. euroleague lover? You probably are one of those trolls inhabitating this site. I can tell that by your username.

    So now Love plays for personal stats? God, some people are really dumb. Either that or they just don’t watch basketball AT ALL..Love is a fantastic player and a team guy. Have you ever watched the guy play? Where do you guys get your infos?

    Also, it’s worth noting that the Timberwolves were a playoff team last season until when Rubio went down with his season-ending injury. It’s just unreal how quickly people forget!!

    ReplyCancel
    • Greg
      12 years ago

      Love can’t play defense and he is a stat padder. Rubio can’t shoot and is a liability whenever the opposing defense decides to stop showing on his pick and rolls.

      ReplyCancel
      • Gabe
        12 years ago

        By stat padder you mean being 4th in the league in scoring and 2nd in rebounds?

        ReplyCancel
  3. mike
    12 years ago

    The comparison of PF’s last year was Griffin vs. Love. Love had better stats, but Griffin was on a more consistent winning team. I’m not hating on Love, but the chink in the armor is the fact that he has played on losing teams his entire career, except for the Olympics and Worlds. You know what they say, it’s easy to put up numbers on losing teams(this is why you can’t take the stats of players against USA at face value.) Also, Love doesn’t command double teams yet(I could be wrong on this), in the way that Griffin does in the low block.

    Really, as I have said in the past, Rubio was the one who changed the equation in Minny last season. When Rubio came in, everything changed and the Wolves started winning some big games. Love, despite putting up huge numbers, sometimes 20 and 20, could never lift Minny to win, until Rubio came in.

    ReplyCancel
    • Gabe
      12 years ago

      1st off, Griffin was playing with Chris Paul. But Love with Paul and see what happens. Also I wouldn’t cal UCLA a losing team.

      ReplyCancel
  4. Vincent
    12 years ago

    Griffin is a flawed player. Average rebounder for his size ability, good scorer on dunks and some midrange stuff, poor free throw shooter, huge flopper, and lazy defender.

    Love is much better.

    ReplyCancel
  5. mike
    12 years ago

    Blake is a poor FT shooter, but he’s a career 21.5PPG , 11.5RPG, 52% FG is nothing to sneeze at. This season his numbers are down for some reason. I really haven’t watched enough Clippers games to know the reason for this.

    ReplyCancel
  6. DallasTexasSaqartvelo
    12 years ago

    that game happened over a month ago….

    ReplyCancel
  7. DallasTexasSaqartvelo
    12 years ago

    and the debate between Love and Griffin is no contest for Love in my opinion. If you ever watch Blake, he spends WAY to much time cutting to the basket for ally-oops and trying to make Sportscenter and not enough time working on his free-throws and passing….. Love dominates in so many ways, he can hit threes as well as anyone, he rebounds better than Griffin, he shoulders the load on his team where Griffin plays second to Chris Paul, and he isn’t a liability in the fourth quarter for his team…. Griffin sometimes looks lost out there honestly.

    ReplyCancel
  8. DallasTexasSaqartvelo
    12 years ago

    Like, I watch Love and see him naturally effecting the game for 48 minutes and leading his team doing so….. when I watch Griffin, I wait and wait getting more and more frustrated until he jumps over someone and gets on youtube….. He’s a fantastic player, but without his highlights, is isn’t a conversation imo….. a highlight and a lay-up are both two points.

    ReplyCancel
  9. mike
    12 years ago

    Minny has lost Chase Budinger for about 2 months due to meniscus tear. That is a big loss. Was he Minny’s most reliable 3point shooter?

    ReplyCancel
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  1. Minnesota Timberwolves bullets: How good are these guys? – BallinEurope | Rocking Chairs
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  2. Minnesota Timberwolves update: Timberwolves 92, Kings 80... - NBA Team News
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12 years ago 15 Comments More, NBA/NCAAAlexey Shved, Andrei Kirilenko, basketball highlights, Brandon Roy, Brooklyn Nets, Chase Budinger, Chicago Bulls, fearless predictions, Indiana Pacers, J.J. Barea, Kevin Love, Luke Ridnour, Minnesota Timberwolves, NBA, NBA 2012-13, Nikola Pekovic, Rick Adelman, Ricky Rubio
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