Going To The Game

I'll be in attendence for tonight's game. They're selling student tickets for $10. It'll be the first time I've been to a game this season, mostly because most of my friends are too broke to afford tickets.

If you're watching on TV, you can look for me. I'm the white guy with dark curly hair who will be sitting in sections that the cameras won't be shooting.

Quit Teasing Me

So after a very nice win against Phoenix, the Wolves come out and completely dominate early against the Cavs, building a 15 point lead in the 1st quarter. Then, the have to go and blow it...again.

Rather than gripe about the game, I'll instead look at some of the interesting things that have happened to the Wolves since the trade.

1. Marcus Banks

He's been spectacular since coming over. Some people thought that in the first couple of games that we might be showcasing him for a trade. This seems quite unlikely to me however, since at this point he's started logging significant minutes. Others have complained about him not getting enough assists. I think it would be a mistake for Casey to try and force him into that kind of role. That's exactly what happened in Boston and I don't want the Wolves to make the same mistake. He's always going to be a shoot first point guard.

2. Marko Jaric

He's now gotten a "DNP-CD" for two consecutive games. After the first one, I thought Casey might just be trying to light a fire under him, but now I'm beginning to think they might be in serious trade talks about him. At the beginning of the season, I remember being impressed with him because he was always running around trying to get steals. Now he doesn't seem to be doing much of anything when he's out there except bringing the ball up the court.

3. Mark Blount

I figured he would be a key point in this trade. For the first few games, he looked like a guy deserving of a very nice contract, but has since reverted to a Kandi-like state of ineptitude. This is quite concerning for me, as I'm not sure I can handle another 47 years of a Kandi clone.

I'm sick of this

For the second straight game, the Wolves didn't hit 60 on the scoreboard until late in the third quarter. The game before that they didn't get there until the 4th I had a bet going that the Wolves would hit 70 by the end of the game.

Tonight they played a team that gives up almost 100 points per game and couldn't manage 80.

Say what you will about the team having new players that need to adjust and KG not having enough support, but I don't think that's the real problem. It's pretty obvious from watching the Wolves this season that Casey is a defensive minded coach. Now, it's becoming clear that he has no idea how to run an offense.

The Wolves looked really lost on offense tonight. Now maybe this is because of the new guys, but I know I've seen some of it before. Our new go to option seems to be Trenton Hassell in the low post. Why does it seem like we never run a post play for KG anymore? Why does it seem like his primary offensive role is setting high screens? Why are people running through screens toward the perimeter instead of towards the basket? Why have we gotten 20 shots blocked in the past two games?

The answer is simple. The offensive scheme that the Wolves are currently using sucks huge donkey dick. We're not running good plays. Most of our plays are designed to get people open jumpers. When we're not running a play like that, we're running a simple post up play which is easily thwarted by the defense because everyone on the defensive end knows that if it's not KG posting up, the poster will shoot and not pass.

The result of this type of offense is that a team can often go into prolonged scoring droughts, which is exactly what happens to this team. They'll be hanging in there and looking good (like they did during the beginning of both Pistons games), then all of a sudden, they hit a spot where nothing falls and the opponent will go on a 15-2 run.