Team Tryouts Continue

The Wolves weren't on TV or the radio last night, so the only thing to gauge their performance against the Grizzlies is the box score and what's written on various media outlets. Injuries to Foye and Telfair required Marko Jaric to play 35 minutes at point guard, a situation I hope does not repeat itself in the regular season.

<-- If you're going to shoot these, you might as well bang down low, slash or get to the line.

Taking a look at this box score, I see one statistic that continues to haunt this team: free throw disparity. The Wolves got to the line 19 times while the Grizzlies accumulated 33 attempts. This team has had an identity as a jump-shooting team every season since the Stephon Marbury trade. The jump-shooting strategy is not necessarily a bad one, but I cannot recall a jumpshooting team winning the championship, or even getting to the finals, since I have been following basketball. The farthest a jump-shooting team has gotten is each conference's respective finals with the 2003-2004 Timberwolves and the 2000-2001 Milwaukee Bucks that got jobbed by the refs in game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals, ultimately losing to Iverson's Sixers in 7. However, the jump shooting strategy fails when you lack a key ingredient, namely consistently making jump shots.

I have stated several times that the only player on this roster historically capable of consistently hitting an open jumper unfortunately doubles as a center, a position coaches generally favor to be played by someone near the basket. One of the misfortunes our coach has is his experience assisting in jump shooting offenses. With no consistent jump shooting, I would prefer a game played closer to the basket through the likes of Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes and Craig Smith, with drives and CONTROLLED finishes at the rim. I see too many of our "slashers" (and I use that term very liberally when applies to this team) driving to the lane and throwing up high-angled shots at the backboard with the prayer that it bounces off with the correct trajectory required to get into the rim. J.R., Isaiah, Isaiah JR, whatever he liked to be called, perfected the requisite move to jump stop and get a shot off in the lane (although I really thought the liberal travelling rules in the NBA allowed him to do this), but I don't see Foye and McCants getting down into the paint and drawing the big men into the air with a fake. They often drive down and, at full speed, execute the aforementioned backboard-prayer layup.

I don't think its ever fair to fans to call a season a rebuilding one, and you always want to strive for wins and exceed expectations, but I think this is truly a franchise that has to look past this season. With that said, I think Rashad McCants has to get a lot of minutes. I am unconvicnced that he has the game to play shooting guard on a night-to-night basis in the NBA, but then again, he hasn't really had a fair shot. I want to see if any of McCants' college explosiveness has returned and if he has improved his jumper. I think from an organization standing, you have to determine if he's worth exercising the team option next year.

More on the possible identity of this team later this week.

Some other notes based on the Box Score:

- Al Jefferson had 17 and 15. This is what I want to see night after night. 6 for 9 shooting (maybe double the attemps and makes - 12 for 18, that would be ideal; perhaps a little too optimistic) and he made 5 of 7 at the line.

- I would prefer Ratliff at starting center to begin the season. The poll to the right wasn't "who should start" , it was "who do you think will start." As to who should start, clearly Tecmo Bo is the right asnwer. I had expected Witt to use Blount more, but I'm happy to see that's not the case. One thing I do not want is Jefferson as the center. I think he has the skill and size to be a dominating power forward and I would prefer he stays there.

- I like the Brewer start. 3-11 is not good, but I'm glad he chucked them up. I guess I don't know what manner of shots he took, but if he was open and he was taking open shots, I'm all for it. Also encouraging: only one three point attempt by him. As they say, you have to crawl before you walk.

Another game tonight, we'll see who plays, who does what, etc.

OTHER NEWS:

- Finally a decent Vikings game. I think between the first four games of the season, I fell asleep approximately 20 times. That's a 5 nap per game average. Additionally, for a town that lost it's "face" athletes, Kevin Garnett and soon-to-be-gone Torii Hunter, this state needed that performance out of All Day. I can't believe how fast he can reaccelerate after making that cut.