Posts Tagged ‘Ricky Rubio’

< Older Entries

Hot List: Top 10 Restricted Free Agents

May 9, 2013  ·  12:22PM





HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Unlike their unrestricted free agent peers, this summer won’t be the fresh start some of this summer’s most notable restricted free agents are hoping for.

Their current teams have the right to match any offers they receive, meaning that the lucrative, long-term deal some of these guys are looking for might come with strings attached. Brandon Jennings of the Milwaukee Bucks plays a marquee position in a market that doesn’t seem to fit his persona or personality.

He turned down a $40 million extension in the fall, making clear his intention to push for a bigger deal or an eventual departure — he could play the 2013-14 season on a qualifying offer and become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2014 — from Fear The Deer territory.

As always, Jennings isn’t the only restricted free agent of note this summer. The full list of them can be found on our handy-dandy Free Agent Tracker.

Jennings is the headliner on the Top 10 Restricted Free Agents list, but hardly the only notable name …

Brandon Jennings, G, Milwaukee Bucks

Status on July 1: Restricted free agent
What he’s selling: A first-team All-Rookie pick in 2010, Jennings solidified his credentials as a starting point guard in four seasons with the Bucks. He started 289 of the 291 games he played in and helped guide the Bucks to the playoff twice in his first four seasons. A big time scorer, Jennings has the charisma and personality to help you win games and sell tickets.
What he’s not saying: He’s still barely 170 pounds soaking wet. There are still some front office types who think he’s more of a poor man’s Allen Iverson instead of the young Mike Conley they hoped he might be at this stage of his career.
What he’s worth: Jennings believes he’s worth every penny of a max deal somewhere. Remember, he famously boasted that he was better than Ricky Rubio and has gone about the business of trying to prove as much night in and night out. But a max deal is out of the question in Milwaukee and probably anywhere else. The Bucks aren’t going to bid against themselves for a player who has made it clear that he is interested in playing in a bigger market. He’s already turned down a four-year offer with $40 million, making it clear that he intends to become an unrestricted free agent next summer and let the market set his value.
Likely landing spot(s): The Bucks have the right to match any offers. Any interested teams know that all they have to do is wait this situation out and pursue Jennings in the free-agent summer of 2014.

Jeff Teague, G, Atlanta Hawks

Status on July 1: Restricted free agent
What he’s selling: Teague is coming off of his best season as a pro, having averaged career highs in points (14.6) and assists (7.2) while asserting himself as a true lead guard for a playoff team. He’s only scratched the surface of his potential and, at 24, is still young enough to project major upside in the coming years.
What he’s not saying: Teague is not a great defender at what is easily the deepest position in the league. And his assist numbers (3.0) in 29 career playoff games suggest that he might not be on track to become the elite facilitator a team needs in a point guard.
What he’s worth: The Hawks didn’t do him any favors by not even offering him an extension on his rookie contract before the Halloween deadline. Making that pill even tougher to swallow for Teague is the fact that the two point guards drafted directly ahead of him in 2009, Philadelphia’s Jrue Holiday ($10 million a year) and Ty Lawson ($12 million a year), both agreed to terms on four-year deals at the deadline. If they’ve set the bar — Holiday blossomed into an All-Star this season while Lawson had an equally strong case but missed out in a deep crop of Western Conference point guards — Teague is in a tough negotiating spot with the Hawks.
Likely landing spot(s): Teague needs a team desperate for a young point guard to present an offer sheet that exceeds what the Hawks might be willing to pay (anything near $10 million a year would be a bit of a shock). Utah is still searching for a long-term answer at point guard and could poke around and see if the Hawks will let Teague walk. But the Hawks are likely to keep him on a qualifying offer and he’ll become an unrestricted free agent next summer.

Tyreke Evans, G, Sacramento Kings

Status on July 1: Restricted free agent
What he’s selling: A Rookie of the Year and at one time considered the future face of the franchise in Sacramento, Evans averaged 20 points, five rebounds and five assists in his first season. A super-sized point guard, he used his size and skill to his advantage in that role with the Kings. He’s most definitely selling the Tyreke Evans we all saw his rookie season.
What he’s not saying: While he didn’t experience the steep statistical drop off in his next three seasons, Evans is fighting the perception that he bottomed out during those three seasons. The Kings certainly seem to have moved on from Evans being a franchise cornerstone during these past three seasons, hence the absence of an extension offer. Isaiah Thomas supplanted him at point guard and Evans has played out of position ever since.
What he’s worth: This is where things get tricky for Evans, because some team with cap space to work with is going to eyeball Evans and remember that he’s a 6-foot-6, 220-pound combo guard with an ability to run a team and calculate the risk of snatching him away from an uncertain situation with the Kings. If Darko Milicic got $20 million from the Minnesota Timberwolves, someone has to be willing to offer Evans a similar deal.
Likely landing spot(s): Dallas and Atlanta are both in full-blown roster-rebuild mode and could use a talent like Evans at a reasonable price to help get things rolling. He could be the steal of the summer if someone makes a play for him and waits to see if the Kings will match the offer or let him walk.

Nikola Pekovic, C, Minnesota Timberwolves

Status on July 1: Restricted free agent
What he’s selling: With the eternal premium on productive big men, Pekovic showed flashes of being an absolute nightmare in the low post for opposing teams. A 7-foot, 300-pound block of granite, Pekovic averaged 16.3 ppg and 8.8 rpg last season and held it down in the Timberwolves’ frontcourt without Kevin Love available for the majority of the season. He’s got a size/skill-set combination that makes him a rarity in a league that treasures big men who can play high impact basketball on both ends of the floor.
What he’s not saying: The only problem with Pekovic is the 174-game sample size teams have to work with in evaluating the upside of a big man who is 26 and perhaps already deeper into his physical prime than you want a third-year player to be.
What he’s worth: The Houston Rockets used a three-year, $25 million offer sheet to pry Omer Asik away from the Chicago Bulls last summer. An offer like that could work similar wonders for someone trying to slip into the Twin Cities and sneak out with a starting center.
Likely landing spot(s): Minnesota can’t afford to let him walk, not with the regime change and whatever other roster changes Flip Saunders and his new crew have in store. Plus, Pekovic has become a cult favorite in Minneapolis.

Tiago Splitter, F/C, San Antonio Spurs

Status on July 1: Restricted free agent.
What he’s selling: A three-year apprenticeship under the great Tim Duncan can’t be a bad place for a big man to start when resume building. Splitter’s third NBA season turned out to be the charm, as he finally showed some signs of being the low-post factor he was billed as when the Spurs made him their top Draft pick in 2007. The Brazilian big man finally earned a regular spot in Gregg Popovich‘s rotation, another sign and seal of approval, averaging career highs in points (10.3), rebounds (6.4) and minutes (24.7). He made 58 starts this season, 52 more than he did in the two previous season combined.
What he’s not saying: Those previous two seasons mentioned were less than stellar. Splitter has ideal size for a NBA big man but didn’t leave a large footprint early on, the transition from Spanish League MVP to NBA regular being much tougher than anyone anticipated for him.
What he’s worth: Like almost every skilled big man, Splitter is going to be worth more than a man half his size with better credentials. That’s just the way things work in this league. He’s due for a significant raise from the $3.9 million he’s earning this season. In fact, he should have no trouble doubling that in a free agent market (for unrestricted and restricted free agents) that is relatively light on centers.
Likely landing spots: The Spurs have the right of first refusal and will exercise that right if the offers come in at the right number. But Dallas and Atlanta have to have him on their short lists, with several other teams focusing in on him early on in the process.

THE NEXT FIVE: Gerald Henderson, Charlotte; Darren Collison, Dallas; Timofey Mozgov, Denver; Tyler Hansbrough, Indiana; Chase Budinger, Minnesota.


Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Free Agency 2013 / Comments (29) /

It’s Now Or Never For Derrick Rose

May 9, 2013  ·  12:12AM

a

MIAMI – The Derrick Rose Watch is in its final hours, so all that huffing and puffing that the Chicago Bulls and the Miami Heat heaped onto Game 2 of their Eastern Conference semifinals series at AmericanAirlines Arena wasn’t all for naught.

It served to move Wednesday night closer to Thursday morning, which gets everything more quickly to Friday’s Game 3 tipoff, the point at which this long rehabilitative sideshow ends once and for all. Either the Bulls’ injured point guard goes for something Hollywood and steps through the darkness onto the court at United Center to a booming embrace … or he emerges again after another pregame shooting session in a suit and sits his way straight into the offseason.

Truly, it is now or it is never. There can be no middle ground.

The “never” part of that equation should have won six weeks ago but has shown itself to be a tough out. Months of daily talk shows and Twitter timelines keep alive the chatter of Rose coming back. This weekend will officially become 12 months after surgery to repair the ACL in his left knee.

The waiting game sucked most of the air out of the Bulls’ regular season – remember, the conventional wisdom suggested Rose would be back in late February or early March – and here it is, still laying claim to what at times has been a remarkable postseason precisely because of his absence.

But it all ends Friday night. Fortunately. (more…)

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in 2013 Conference Semis: Heat-Bulls / Comments (220) /

Bucks’ Need More Than Bravado To Beat Heat

April 21, 2013  ·  10:18AM





MIAMI – Brandon Jennings is fearless. The Milwaukee Bucks’ point guard always has been and probably always will be. And it’s hard not to admire that trait in him.

You don’t skip college for pro ball in Italy, declare yourself better than than international teen sensation Ricky Rubio and then back that claim up with four fantastic NBA seasons and have an ounce of fear in you.

But that fearlessness alone won’t be enough to propel the Bucks in their first round playoff series against the Miami Heat. They’ll need All-Star work out of Jennings and equal doses of fearlessness and spectacular play from the entire roster just to make this thing as interesting on the court as it has been in the build up to Game 1 here tonight at AmericanAirlines Arena. (On TNT, 7 p.m. ET)

Thursday night at the Wisconsin Sports Award ceremony, where he was picking up an award for his work in the community, Jennings uttered these famous words: ”I’m real confident. I’m sure everybody is writing us off but I see us winning the series in six.”

That’s a playoff guarantee even Rasheed Wallace could appreciate. And while Jennings said later that he was making that prediction after joking about it with Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, his words took on a life of their own. If he was attempting to put the pressure on the Heat instead of him and Monta Ellis or Bucks coach Jim Boylan, it’s not clear whether that mission has been accomplished just yet.

There is, however, recent evidence that a No. 8 can actually pull this off.

Two of the five instances in league history when a No. 1 seed has been upset by a No. 8 have come in the past two seasons. The Philadelphia 76ers did it last year against the Chicago Bulls, but only after Bulls All-Star Derrick Rose tore his ACL in Game 1. And the Memphis Grizzlies stunned the San Antonio Spurs the year before that.

This Heat team, however, is a far superior outfit to either of those aforementioned upset victims. They won 66-games this season, including that monster 27-game win streak, and have been vetted like few other great teams when you consider all that has gone on with this Heat crew the past three seasons.

“We don’t feel we can be beat in a series,” Heat center Chris Bosh said. “We say that in the most humble manner possible. We’ve been humbled already. I think before, all those other teams [upset], they were either injured or just caught slipping or they were in a five-game series. We’re not in that predicament so it’s a little different.”

The Bucks also have to contend with a rested and hungry LeBron James and Dwyane Wade, two stars who have welcomed all challenges since joining forces with Bosh here in Miami.

Jennings might very well have the advantage in his individual matchup against Mario Chalmers, though the ultra-confident Chalmers would love to argue that. And the Bucks have the same fighting chance any No. 8 seed does before the games actually begin. But it’s not like the Heat don’t see the challenge coming. They’ve been on guard for three years running now.

That would explain the reaction of Bosh, Wade and the rest of the Heat. They’ve seen and heard it all before (you remember the Indiana series from last year or the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals last year?). All that’s left is to play the games.

“We’ve been in every situation where it’s happened,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We’ve been up in a series and it’s happened. We’ve been down in a series and it’s happened. It’s happened, so what? [Sunday] night, bring it. That’s the only thing we can control.”

It’s going to take more than a healthy dose of bravado for the Bucks, or anyone else for that matter, to beat the Heat.


Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in 2013 NBA Playoffs / Comments (54) /

Blogtable: Who Bounces Back in ’13-14?

April 17, 2013  ·  10:55AM




Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes to weigh in on the three most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.

Week 25: Sacramento or Seattle? | Lottery team leap next season | Top 4 seed ripe for upset

Which non-playoff team makes the biggest leap forward next season?

Steve Aschburner: I’m giving Minnesota one more try. Injuries absolutely pole-axed a roster that had “playoff berth” written all over it. It wasn’t just that the losses of Kevin Love, Brandon Roy, Chase Budinger, Andrei Kirilenko, Ricky Rubio (at the start) and the others cost the Timberwolves the 15 victories or so they would have needed to claw into contention – it’s also that they wouldn’t have gone 1-13 against their primary competition (Lakers, Jazz, Warriors, Rockets) for a lower seed. Or 8-32 (with one left) against the 11 teams ahead of them in the West, compared to 22-19 against the rest of the league. Forget Roy, unfortunately, going forward, but Love needs to come back with a vengeance. And assuming they get one more season out of coach Rick Adelman, the Wolves could be revved by the sense that it’s 2013-14 or never .

Fran Blinebury: Of course, it will require the basketball gods to finally grant them good health, but a lineup with Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio available to play a full season with Andrei Kirilenko back in the fold and Rick Adelman back on the bench should put the Timberwolves into the thick of the West playoff race.

Jeff Caplan: In the West I think the most obvious non-playoff team to make a major leap next season has to be the Timberwolves. I picked them to finish sixth this season, but injuries derailed that instantly. Given full health (and re-signing Nikola Pekovic), the Wolves are primed for a big move. In the East, give me a healthy, young and talented Cavs squad that still has draft picks to make.

Scott Howard-Cooper: The Trail Blazers. It may not be the biggest leap in terms of win total, although they are doing everything possible the last few weeks of the season to make that a relevant conversation as well. But Portland has clearly positioned itself as a team of the future, with a foundation in place, a lot of spending power in the summer to get some much-needed depth, and a smart GM. Whether the Blazers begin 2013-14 with a path to No. 8 in the West  depends on moves other teams make.

John Schuhmann: I look at the team with the best young star on its roster, and that’s Cleveland. After a summer of development, Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters should all come back as better players next fall. Obviously, it’s hard to count on a full season of Anderson Varejao after he’s played just 81 games over the last three, but a coaching change could help the Cavs take a step forward. This is the only team that has ranked in the bottom five defensively for each of the last three seasons, and they need someone to point them in the right direction. If they can just play average defense next season while taking a natural step forward offensively, they can be at least 10-12 games better.

Sekou Smith: Without an easily identifiable superstar in the 2013 Draft class, it’s hard to hypothesize about the sorts of leaps and bounds a team can make if they acquire the top (or one of the top three to five picks) in the lottery. That said, the Washington Wizards showed me glimpses (once John Wall got healthy and comfortable) of being a legitimate playoff contender next season if they have all of their main rotation players healthy. The climb’s a little steep in the Western Conference for teams like Minnesota, Utah and Portland. But in the East, the bottom half of the playoff mix should be wide open. And the Wizards, one of the top defensive teams in the league, should have a chance to fight their way into the mix next year if Wall and Bradley Beal are healthy and in attack mode.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Blogtable / Comments (41) /

Still No Maravich, But Rubio’s Shooting Improves

April 4, 2013  ·  6:54PM

a

a
Through the first 89 games of Ricky Rubio‘s NBA career, he launched 158 3-point attempts and made only 47. That’s a dreary 29.7 percent. And by the numbers this season (15 of 64, 23.4 percent), the Minnesota Timberwolves’ effervescent point guard seemed to be getting worse.

In Rubio’s 90th game Wednesday night at Milwaukee, though, he shot five times from behind the arc in the first half. Made all five of ‘em. Rubio finally missed one in the fourth quarter but it didn’t matter – the Wolves were in control en route to a road victory over the playoff-bound Bucks.

Rubio’s single-game high in 3-point field goals, prior to Wednesday, was two. He’d done that 13 times previously, but only three times so far in 2012-13. In his first 31 games back from knee surgery this season, the mop-haired playmaker shot 4-of-28 on deep balls.

So where did that come from in Milwaukee?

“He’s in better condition,” Minnesota coach Rick Adelman said. “He feels better about his knee, he’s more confident. He is playing more like he was last year before the injury. … He’s not a great shooter but a lot of guys aren’t in this league. He is a kid that is going to work hard at it and eventually he will be more than good enough shooting the ball. But right now he is doing everything on the fly.”

Even though it took Rubio some time to get his legs and gain confidence in his repaired knee, he was able to work on his shot some in the late stages of his layoff. He knew the second-biggest rap on him coming into the league in 2011 was his shooting. He had dispelled most of the concerns about his defensive skills before he got hurt in March 2012 and he wanted to do the same with some consistent accuracy.

“Since I’m a professional, I haven’t been a good shooter,” he said Wednesday. “I’m trying to work as hard as I can.”

Over his six most recent games, Rubio is hitting 44.1 percent overall (30 of 68) and 64.3 percent on 3-pointers (9 of 14). He’s seeing some results from work prior to games and on off-days with Wolves assistant Terry Porter.

“I just try to point out some of the things that are important when it comes to getting a consistent shot: Arc, legs, getting the ball in the right shooting spot,” said Porter, the former NBA point guard who played 17 seasons and shot 41.6 percent from 3-point range over the final five of them. “Once he got clearance to get back on the floor, we started doing a lot of just ‘form’ shooting, to get comfortable with where the ball sits, to use his legs and stepping in. He’s been great.”

Rubio finally logged enough appearances this season to move into the official league leaders in assists (7.5 per game, eighth) and steals (2.4, second). The Wolves are better off when Rubio has healthy teammates to make shots after he has delivered the ball. Still, he can benefit from keeping defenders honest, opening up more space for cutters and lanes for himself and those marvelous Rubio passes. If he can reliably boost his marksmanship.

“It’s not that hard,” Porter said. “There are a lot of guys who come in this league and don’t shoot good – I didn’t shoot that good coming in. I’m aging myself but we didn’t have 3-point shots in college [NAIA University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, '85]. So I had to learn how to get that.”

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in HT News / Comments (8) /

Blogtable: Who’s Let You Down?

March 20, 2013  ·  11:30AM

Each week, we’ll ask our stable of scribes to weigh in on the three most important NBA topics of the day — and then give you a chance to step on the scale, too, in the comments below.

Week 21: Miami at Boston lessons | Who wants Bynum? | Player, coach, team that’s let you down?

Kobe Bryant has been stellar, but the Lakers still have been a letdown. (Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images)

Kobe Bryant has been stellar, but the Lakers still have been a letdown. (Fernando Medina/NBAE via Getty Images)

Name a player, coach or team who has disappointed you this year.

Steve Aschburner: Disappointment doesn’t necessarily require blame, so my choice is the Minnesota Timberwolves. For the first time since about 2004, there was a real buzz in the Twin Cities as the Wolves opened training camp, owing to the improvements in 2011-12 under Rick Adelman, positive updates on Ricky Rubio‘s knee-surgery rehab, some smart off-season roster moves and the continued development of Kevin Love as one of the game’s elite, and highly watchable, power forwards. Then Brandon Roy (predictably, frankly), Chase Budinger and worst of all Love went down – went down hard – with injuries. A rash of others, including rejuvenated Andrei Kirilenko and Bond villain Nikola Pekovic lost time as well. Even Adelman had to miss games while attending to his wife’s health issues. Rubio, after an inconsistent couple months back, has regained his don’t-blink-or-you’ll-miss-it form. But from Love’s opt-out in two years to Adelman’s commitment to Pekovic’s market value this summer and more, the clock be ticking in Minny.

Fran Blinebury: Philadelphia due to the guy in that other question. I didn’t think Bynum would miss the entire season and be on the verge of a career washout. The Sixers’ grand plan to step up into contender’s class has blown up in their faces. Now they have no Iguodala, no Nikola Vucevic, no Maurice Harkless … nothing to show for the gamble. It seems the franchise has been set back for years.

Jeff Caplan: This is as equally disappointing as it easy to pick: The Minnesota Timberwolves. Injuries ruined this team since Day 1 with Ricky Rubio still rehabbing and Kevin Love breaking his hand doing knuckle push-ups. No need to get into the rest of the injury list here, it’s just too long, but before the season I picked the Wolves to finish sixth in the West. I’d have said that they’re 23-42 record would have been reversed had health prevailed.

Scott Howard-Cooper: Removing the injury considerations (Timberwolves, Bynum, others), it’s still the Lakers in what has to be an open-ended question until the end of the playoffs. If L.A. finishes as badly as it started, then we have an answer. If your favorite dysfunctional family reaches the postseason and has a nice run, though, a respectable showing gets the Lakers off the hook. That means reaching the conference finals or a good playoffs before losing in a competitive series to the Spurs or Thunder.

John Schuhmann: The Lakers are still just 36-33 and still very much in danger of not making the playoffs, so they’re obviously at the top of the list. It’s great to see Dwight Howard finally looking more mobile and I understand that injuries have been an issue all season, but this team still isn’t playing the defense it needs to play if the Lakers want to win more than a game against one of the top five teams in the West. In fact, they rank just 15th in defensive efficiency since the All-Star break. This team was supposed to be a title contender, and they’ve never looked anything like it.

Sekou Smith: Nothing but sunshine around here as usual, huh? There are plenty of candidates in each category, as we all love to nitpick the performances of specific players, coaches and teams. Even with a few good weeks since the All-Star break, the Los Angeles Lakers remain one of the most disappointing teams in recent memory. And you could go with the Lakers across the board here, Dwight Howard or Steve Nash in the player spot, Mike D’Antoni at coach and the Lakers as the team. Barring a miraculous playoff run, they’re going to occupy the entire page in the Hang Time yearbook for the biggest flop of the season. The best part, though, is they still have a chance to rewrite the ending to this story. They have the potential to provide the most drama in a first round playoff series, just by showing up in either San Antonio or Oklahoma City.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Blogtable / Comments (19) /

Rubio’s Rise Will Again Raise Hope

March 13, 2013  ·  1:36PM

.

HANG TIME SOUTHWEST – Nothing can change this lost season for Ricky Rubio and the Minnesota Timberwolves. His first career triple-double Tuesday night reminded what might have been, but more importantly, what’s still to come.

Look no further than Chicago and the ongoing road to full recovery for Derrick Rose to understand the complications and fears associated with a return from reconstructive knee surgery. While Rose still has yet to make his season debut, Rubio is three months into his return from a torn ACL in his left knee that short-circuited the end of his 2011-12 season and the start of this one.

It’s been just the last four to six weeks that the 22-year-old Spaniard, who acknowledged early on the mental strain of coming back, has started to resemble the tantalizing floor magician who awes fans and inspires teammates.

He pulled a rabbit out of his hat and more Tuesday in a blowout win against the San Antonio Spurs, producing season-highs with 21 points and 13 rebounds, plus 12 assists. He was playing with full confidence, dribbling behind his back to beat defenders into the paint, dropping no-look passes, firing baseball passes, lobs and spotting cutters with lightning-quick bounce passes that somehow skip into the hands of his target.

“That’s the first one of many to come in his career,” teammate J.J. Barea said of Rubio’s triple-double.

The first was just a matter of time. Over the last 15 games, Rubio has eight double-doubles. He twice missed a triple-double by two rebounds and once each by three rebounds and one rebound.

“Yeah of course,” Rubio said afterward when asked if it feels good to notch the triple-double. “It’s good to have a triple-double, but especially a win against [the Spurs]. I know they got Tim Duncan, [Kawhi] Leonard and Tony Parker out, so a lot of players, but they are a great team and we played great.”

Before anybody discounts Rubio’s performance and the Wolves’ 107-83 win against the shorthanded Spurs, let’s just remember that this was a Minnesota team playing without Kevin Love, Nikola Pekovic, Andrei Kirilenko, Chase Budinger as part of an injured list that keeps on going. It’s been a carousel of devastating injuries since the start of the season and the result is a 22-39 record when a return to the playoffs was the predominant offseason forecast.

On Tuesday night, starting along with Rubio was Luke Ridnour, Mickael Gelabale, Derrick Williams and Greg Stiemsma, mostly a decent lineup of backups on any other team, in fact, on this team with a full roster.

That won’t happen until next season when playoff hopes will again rise. Rubio’s gradual improvement and more recently his sudden leaps are the greatest hope of all. In the last 15 games he’s averaging 13.6 ppg and 9.0 apg to lift his season averages to 9.2 and 7.3.

The most gratifying number, however, just might be 34.9. That’s his average minutes in that span, raising his season average to 28.9 mpg. Since Feb. 1, Rubio has logged at least 30 minutes in 14 of 19 games and at least 35 minutes nine times. Prior to Feb. 1, when he was often limited by a minutes restriction, Rubio hit the 30-minute mark twice (30 and 31 minutes) in 17 games while averaging 23.9 mpg, much of it coming off the bench.

“He is playing with such resolve trying to get us over the hump,” Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman said. “He has had that effort but we had so many people step up [against the Spurs]. It really made a big difference. I thought he was going to expire in the third quarter when I took him out. He just played so hard in those first six minutes.”

With this disappointing season winding down, nothing can be more meaningful to the Wolves than Rubio’s rise.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in HT News / Comments (9) /

Adelman Back, Hopes To Brake Wolves’ Slide

January 28, 2013  ·  8:54PM

Kevin Love‘s return was premature; his injured right hand due for more trauma and more repair before long. Ricky Rubio‘s return proved anticlimactic; that burst-of-adrenaline game in mid-December followed by a series of fits and starts, cockeyed shooting and meager assists totals.

The Minnesota Timberwolves thus are hoping that the return of coach Rick Adelman can be one of those third-time-is-a-charm things.

Adelman returned to the practice court Monday after three weeks away, his absence triggered by his wife Mary Kay’s hospitalization and treatment for an undisclosed illness. She is home now in the Twin Cities, her condition believed stable enough to allow Adelman to work the six-game homestand that begins Wednesday against the Los Angeles Clippers at Target Center.

“I think everybody has their own situation in all walks of life – the difference between mine is it’s more public,” Adelman told reporters after Monday’s workout. “But I think the important thing is we’re going to move forward in a positive manner and, hopefully, I can come back and get our team going in the right direction. This group has played very hard. I felt bad for them, felt bad for the coaches, everybody. It’s a tough situation.”

With assistant Terry Porter taking over while Adelman was out, the Wolves went 2-9. That’s worse than their record without Love this season (8-15), worse than their mark without Rubio (13-12).

There has been a cumulative effect, for sure, accompanying the Wolves’ sag to 12th in the West and to the bottom of the Northwest Division. Love’s re-injury and hand surgery, Rubio’s halting progress and injuries to Chase Budinger, Brandon Roy, Josh Howard, Malcolm Lee and, most recently, Nikola Pekovic and Alexey Shved have taken their tolls mentally as well as physically.

Still, the Wolves have missed Adelman’s stable hand, his swift decisions, his ability to diagnose and fix problems on the fly and his court-of-last-resort status in terms of disagreements. It’s inconceivable, for instance, that Rubio would have griped at Adelman the way he did at Porter last week when he was yanked from a loss to Brooklyn.

Porter and Adelman go way back to their Portland days, so the former NBA point guard had his boss’ full support. Adelman attributed the flare-up to the frustration of losing and Rubio’s tortuous comeback. He kept in daily communication with Porter and son, David Adelman, another Wolves assistant, but didn’t try to steer the team via remote control.

“I’ve learned, if you’re not there, you have to let the guys just do it,” he said. “The coaching staff is a good coaching staff, and it had to be their decision. That’s why, if I was coming back, it had to be, I was coming back. I wasn’t coming back for one day or two days and leaving again. That wouldn’t be fair to anybody.”

Eventually, more Wolves will return to the pack. Pekovic and Shved reportedly practiced Monday. Love is eyeing a March return. Budinger hopes to be back sometime that month, too, and so on.

The organization, in the meantime, has to determine what it realistically can accomplish in 2012-13: Chase a playoff spot, a goal that seemed a no-brainer when Rubio returned against Dallas Dec. 15 and helped the Wolves reach 12-9? Or regroup for yet another lottery finish – it would be Minnesota’s ninth straight – and approach the league’s Feb. 21 trade deadline accordingly?

Said Adelman: “We’ve got half the season left and … even though it’s been a lot of things thrown our way, life moves on and you’ve got to find way to get yourself energized and focus on what you can do right now.”

The six teams coming into Target Center were a combined 152-115 heading into Monday’s action. Mary Kay Adelman already has an important home stand underway but her husband Rick is facing a pretty vital one too.

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized / Comments (5) /

Kirilenko Invaluable To Wolves, Shved

January 16, 2013  ·  2:37PM

.

DALLAS – Andrei Kirilenko has been a godsend to the Minnesota Timberwolves and Russian rookie Alexey Shved during this strange twist of a season.

It’s a minor miracle that the Wolves are still sniffing playoff contention considering their barrage of injuries. One major reason is Kirilenko, the 11-year NBA veteran who is in his first season with the Wolves after a decade-long run with the Utah Jazz. He spent the 2011-12 season enjoying a one-time homecoming in Russia, playing before family and friends during the NBA’s lockout and shortened season.

The versatile, 6-foot-9 forward was always going to figure in as a major piece to the rotation, but he’s been invaluable in the wake of long-term injuries to forwards Chase Budinger and Kevin Love, among multiple other injuries such as to Brandon Roy and Malcolm Lee that have thrust the surprising Shved into a starter’s role at shooting guard.

“We had some seasons when we had a lot of injuries, but this is something crazy,” said Kirilenko, whose scoring (13.4 ppg), rebounds (6.8) and minutes (34.8) are all his best since the 2005-06, and his 50.8 shooting percentage ranks as a career high. “We never played together [with a full roster] for even one game. It’s tough to play that way, but I guess this is the reality of NBA basketball.”

Then there’s been the big brother role Kirilenko’s embraced mentoring Shved, who turned 24 last month. But with a baby face and a mouth full of braces, some might say Shved could could pass for, well, a 12-year-old. Which is exactly how old he was when he first met Kirilenko and asked Russia’s No. 1 basketball player to sign a picture for him.

“He’s a great guy and he has a lot of bright moments in front of him,” said Kirilenko, who turns 32 next month and beams at Shved more like a proud papa than a big brother. “I think he started the season well and he can really be a great contributor to a team.”

Two-thirds of Russia’s NBA contingent play for the Wolves. Timofey Mozgov, currently buried on the Denver Nuggets’ bench, is the other. Kirilenko and Shved know each other quite well now after playing last season together for CSKA Moscow, and the two fashioned quite a dynamic duo on the Russian Olympic team that put hoops back on the map in their country by taking bronze in London.

They were gearing up for the Games when Shved, signed as a free agent by Minnesota in July, got word that he would continue on as Kirilenko’s teammate in Minnesota.

“He is the best player in Russia,” said the 6-foot-6 Shved, whose game (10.8 ppg and 4.7 apg) has emerged quicker than his grasp of the English language, which he speaks softly and carefully. “He is smart, he plays hard. Everybody wants to be a player like this.”

Just as Spanish-speaking J.J. Barea (from Puerto Rico) aided the Spain-born phenom Ricky Rubio last season in his arrival stateside, having Kirilenko around to show Shved the ropes of the NBA and American life has been invaluable.

And who knows, perhaps soon Shved will serve a similar role to another wide-eyed countryman that makes his way to the NBA.

“Sergey Karasev might be the next [one],” Kirilenko said of the 6-foot-7, 19-year-old shooting guard who averages 18.7 points and 6.3 rebounds for Triumph Lyubertsy in the Russian Professional Basketball League. “He might be joining us soon.”

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in HT News / Comments (9) /

The Collapse Of The Wolves’ Defense

January 15, 2013  ·  12:55PM

.

HANG TIME NEW JERSEY – As we continuously debate and wonder whether or not the Los Angeles Lakers will make the playoffs, another team is making it a little easier for them.

On Dec. 16, the Minnesota Timberwolves stood in sixth place in the Western Conference at 12-9, even though Ricky Rubio had just played his first game of the season and Kevin Love had shot just 35 percent in his 11 games.

Since then, the Wolves are 4-10 and sinking fast. Rubio has been in and out of uniform and has played just 20 minutes per contest in the 10 games he’s played. Love, meanwhile, reinjured his right hand and is out 8-10 weeks. So, yeah, in a race with Houston, Portland, Utah and the Lakers for the two final playoff spots in the Western Conference, the Wolves are in a tough position.

The Wolves survived that first month and a half because they had a top-five defense. They ranked fifth in defensive efficiency through Dec. 15, allowing just 98.6 points per 100 possessions.

Since then, the Wolves have a bottom-five defense, allowing 108.2 points per 100 possessions.

Timberwolves efficiency, 2012-13

Timeframe W L OffRtg Rank DefRtg Rank NetRtg Rank
Through Dec. 15 12 9 100.8 16 98.6 5 +2.3 11
Since Dec. 16 4 10 98.9 28 108.2 26 -9.3 29

OffRtg = Points scored per 100 possessions
DefRtg = Points allowed per 100 possessions
NetRtg = Point differential per 100 possessions

That is one heck of a turnaround, and not an easy one to explain.

What’s crazy is that the Wolves are the No. 1 defensive rebounding team in the league over the last month. They’re also keeping their opponents off the free throw line. But they’re not forcing any turnovers and they’re not forcing enough missed shots.

Timberwolves defense, 2012-13

Timeframe OppeFG% Rank DREB% Rank OppTmTOV% Rank OppFTA Rate Rank
Through Dec. 15 47.9% 9 74.4% 7 15.6% 12 .240 3
Since Dec. 16 53.1% 29 77.6% 1 13.8% 26 .227 6

OppeFG% = (FGM + (0.5*3PM)) / FGA
DREB% = Percentage of available defensive rebounds obtained
OppTmTOV% = Opponent turnovers per 100 possessions
OppFTA Rate = FTA / FGA

The Wolves’ defense has been at its worst in the paint, where they’re allowing opponents to shoot 58.4 percent since Dec. 16, the highest mark in the league.

The problems seem to start with big man Nikola Pekovic. The Wolves have allowed an atrocious 110.6 points per 100 possessions in Pekovic’s 436 minutes since Dec. 16. But they haven’t been any better (110.4) with Greg Stiemsma playing center either.

One thing to note is that the Wolves’ schedule has been pretty tough. Nine of their 14 games in the last month have been on the road and 10 have been against teams above .500. Overall, they’ve played the fourth-hardest schedule in the league this season.

But you don’t go from fifth-best to fifth-worst because of the schedule. In the last four days alone, the Wolves have allowed the sub-.500 Hornets (19th in offensive efficiency) to score 104 points and the sub-.500 Mavs (17th) to score 113 in a pair of slow-paced games.

It’s clear that the Wolves’ problems are about more than their opponents. And they’re about more than Love or Rubio, because they were doing fine without them early.

What’s also clear is that if the Wolves can’t defend, their season is over.

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in NBA.com/Stats / Comments (9) /

< Older Entries