No More 'Hero Ball'

Dear Kevin Love,

Frustrated?  Me too.

Thank you for demonstrating how much you love your team and teammates by rushing to their rescue weeks before you were expected to return to action. Showed a lot of heart.  But you are shooting .400 (24-60) from field, .188 (3-16) from 3-point range and .647 (22-34) from line.  And yet you are fourth in the league in scoring by averaging 24.3 points a game.  That means you are taking and missing a lot of shots!  I know I know...small sample size.  But your team has lost all three of the games you have played in and has frankly looked very stagnant and sluggish, the opposite of how it looked in the first 9 games it played without you. 

This makes some sense.  They exerted so much energy just trying to compete during the first injury plagued short-handed 9 games of the season, when you returned, they took a deep breath, relaxed and deferred to watching you.  This is not okay.  And you, as their leader, can fix it.

You learned a lot from Lebron and the other all-stars you played with on the Olympic team, right?  Why not try to take a page out of their book.  Why not try to make your teammates better?  They don't need you to score 40 points and have 25 rebounds per game.  They were playing great basketball before you returned and tried to do it all yourself.  Your shot will come back.  But when you are in a slump like this and need time to get back into basketball shape and get your shot back, why not take the next step and become an elite player? 

Here is what I am thinking, take a look at this play from your college days:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rJKIZAa71w .  Nothing flashy about that play but completely effective.  You set two picks to free up the wings and hit the slashing big man for an open lay-up. 

Can we have some more of that?  Can you try moving with your teammates?  Try passing to the open guy instead of forcing shots?  Try being the guy who makes the hustle play and the defensive stop?  Step up and play some help defense.  Will you get in foul trouble every now and then, maybe.  But your teammates will follow suit and your team will start to win, a lot.  When that happens, I promise you will finally be a legitimate MVP candidate.

Now is the time!  Your presence has thrown a wrench in what was a good thing.  You have the power to change that.  Take a few less shots, make a few more passes, move a little more on offense and defense and let's see what happens!!!

Thank you.

Casey

Heat and Soul

The Wolves will be good by the end of the year.  And that is assuming that Roy can't contribute consistently (if at all) and Ricky doesn't come back until sometime in 2013.   It is also assuming they don't give up like they did last year.  And they won't.

The wolves were blown out of the past two games (as well as the Brooklyn game) and could have backed off and saved energy for the next one.  It's a long season after all.  Yet they made furious and unbelievable comebacks in the fourth quarter of both games.  Clearly they are a gritty bunch that will hustle until the end.  With the exception of Kirilenko and Ridnour (who could very well be a back up if everyone gets healthy) the wolves are competing in NBA games with second and third stringers.  Role players like Stiemsma, Cunningham and Amundson who have made careers out of playing harder than most to make up for their minimal skills are filling the shoes of Pekovic and Love.  Shved, Lee and Williams are too young and raw to define yet they are holding their own in the big roles they've been thrust into.  As a group, on paper, these guys do not match up with any team's starters but they yet they are competing.  This group has led the Wolves to the second best defense in the league.  And a winning record.  Those things happen when guys play together, for each other and play hard.  When guys do that, they maximize their talent and their contribution and they win as a team.  

People knock the NBA because too often players do not give 100% until the fourth quarter or until the playoffs.  And without Love, Ricky and Pek last year the Wolves fit that mold and were nearly unwatchable.  They showed no heart, no chemistry and no hustle.  At times this year, the under-maned and under-skilled wolves have played as hard as a Cinderella team in the sweet sixteen.  They've shown moments of fatigue but that is to be expected when a team only has nine players to suit-up.  That leads to the a major question...will the wolves keep up this hustle and grit when they have more bodies?  When they have more talented bodies?  The evidence says they will.  Kevin Love has made himself into one of the top ten players in the league by using hustle and a high basketball IQ to get way more rebounds (and second chance points) then he should be able to get.  And the Wolves will get him back, soon.  They will also get Pekovic, Barea, Buddinger, and Rubio back.  All guys with reputations of playing hard and long on both ends of the court.  They aren't perfect, but they are better and they play just as hard as their understudies.  So, the Wolves will win and will make some noise.  There will be days they succumb to a more talented team, but that won't happen most nights, not even against more talented teams.

During the offseason Kevin Love asked for a better team.  He asked for more talent.  Not only did he get more talent, he got better basketball players.  They aren't all prototypical NBA players but they will win.  If the Wolves get health and stay healthy, they will make the playoffs and make noise.   And along the way, they are going to be a lot of fun to watch.  For any basketball fan, not just an NBA fan.     

OKC Rolls the Dice

The James Harden trade could be genius.  Surprisingly, almost all the experts think Oklahoma City has essentially conceded the Western Conference Title to the Lakers.  The experts point to chemistry and rapport between the core OKC players, most notably Harden, Westbrook and Durant as the key ingredient to the winning formula that OKC developed.  Typically, I agree.  Chemistry is crucial.  But it is not the only element that matters.  Particularly in the NBA.  In the NBA, having the right pieces to run a system and having enough talent can make a team great.   Great enough to win a championship once the requisite amount of chemistry develops. 

Harden is a great player and had great chemistry with the second team as well as Durant and Westbrook.  But with Harden, OKC did not have the right tools to beat the Heat.  Harden and Westbrook were too similar.  Harden is at his best driving to the rim and putting up reckless lay-ups.  The same is true for Westbrook.  When he is on, they go in.  When he is on, defenders cheat and allow the outside shooters a few extra feet outside of the three point line in order to clog the path to the basket.  When that happens and Westbrook and Harder are on on, OKC made a lot of 3-pointers and was virtually unstoppable.  However, reckless contested lay-ups and three pointers are low percentage shots and with the right defense OKC would be forced into "going cold" and would have trouble scoring. 

Consider last years Finals.  The Heat pummeled OKC largely due to Harden's ineffectiveness.  Harden wasn't on when it mattered most.  And OKC crumbled despite the fact that Westbrook played out of his mind.  Few performances can rival his game 4 performance.  In that same game, Harden went 2-10 from the floor while playing 37 minutes, much more than his regular season average.   The Heat sunk in on defense, locked down Durant, let Harden shoot from the outside and knew that Westbrook alone could not beat them.  The Heat would continue to beat OKC so long as the core pieces reminded the same for each team.

Kevin Martin is a different player and will bring a different element to OKC's offense.  His strongest asset is shooting well off the dribble or catch.  If Scott Brooks can revamp his offense such that pick and rolls with Durant/Martin and Westbrook/Martin become a main stay that opens up everything.  That pulls the bigger defenders away from the rim in order to help create space at the rim for Westbrook, Durant, Martin and Ibaka.  Martin's ability to shoot quickly and effectively off the catch means defenders won't be able to cheat and sink in.  Plus, he is big enough to set effective picks.  And, if defenses are able to stop the pick and the role the third superstar will be floating around with the ability to find the open space, get to it and beat that defense by shooting, driving or moving the ball again.  Finally, since Serge Ibaka will no longer by a main pick and roll component that leaves him closer to the basket which is where he is a more effective scorer and rebounder. 

Of course OKC will only challenge for the Western Conference title and the NBA title if Kevin Martin develops Harden like Chemistry with OKC.  That won't happen overnight.  As we learned from the Heat two years ago and last year, it takes more than a big 3, it takes a big three plus chemistry and the right pieces (unless you have Lebron James who can play five positions and make any pieces look like the right pieces).  If Sam Presti, who is widely recognized as one of the best GMs, thought that OKC didn't have the right big three I think there is more to it than the 4 million dollar salary dispute.  Sam Presti saw a problem.  OKC had the chemistry but not the right pieces to make it a championship contender.  Chemistry is something that naturally grows and develops.  But if the pieces don't fit together in a way that can overcome an opponents strengths, it does not matter how much chemistry a team has.  Now OKC has an opportunity to get to the next level, the championship level.  Kevin Martin has physical attributes that Harden did not.  He brings an element to the offense that Harden did not.   Right now OKC has opportunity. Time will tell if it develops into a reality.  But Sam Presti has to get some credit for taking a calculated unpopular risk.  One that actually gives OKC a chance to de-throne the Heat.