Love Rules in Minnesota

Power forward Kevin Love has had his detractors, but from this corner the questioning of his NBA talent never made much sense. His body was NBA ready last season before he began his rookie campaign, and now in his second year with the Minnesota Timberwolves Love looks even better. His frame seems leaner and mind a little cleaner, especially after suffering through a delay to start this season courtesy of a left hand injury that kept him sidelined until game number 17.

 

“I try to rub through the scar tissue a little bit because it will get tight on me,” said Love about his repaired left hand in a recent interview with SWAY Sports. “Luckily – knock on wood – it’s not a leg or hip or knee or ankle or something like that where you really have to get it loose before the game. I don’t have to do too much before the game.”

 

Love doesn’t necessarily toot the horn of unreasonable expectations either. In fact, nobody in the Timberwolves can sugarcoat what a rocky ride this season is going to be as the organization completes the bridge that takes them from the past (the Garnett era) to the future.

 

“I feel like I’m in 7^th or 8^th grade when we used to play up,” said Love, referring to competing in the NBA alongside such a young squad. “When I was 8^th grade we used to play up in 17 and under (basketball leagues). That’s kind of how I feel, like everybody is 3,4,5,6 years ahead of you. We only have a few veterans on the team.

 

“It’s tough. This year’s going to be real tough because of the youth alone. So many new guys…”

 

Since returning in a December 4^th affair versus the New Orleans Hornets Love has recorded a double-double in all but one contest, averaging 14.5 points and eight rebounds per game over that span. He also registers 49.6 percent from the field and 56.3 percent from three-point territory, showing no ill effects from the surgery to correct his broken mitt. Part of the successful return is due to good advice well applied.

 

“When you’re coming back from an injury just kinda let the game come to you,” says Love recounting the guidance dispensed to him by the coaches and remaining veterans. “Get in where you fit in so to speak. As time goes on your role will be more defined.”

 

More important to the big picture is that Love suddenly finds himself at the forefront of a huge youth movement in Minneapolis thanks to new GM David Kahn, whose back-to-back drafting of point guards Ricky Rubio and Johnny Flynn and moving out of veterans like Mike Miller, Mark Madsen, Jason Collins and Kevin Ollie signaled a new beginning. Flynn is the real deal and so is Al Jefferson, the oft-injured T’Wolves center set to make an impact after returning from an injury of his own. Youngster Corey Brewer is on the radar too, giving rookie head coach Kurt Rambis lots to work with and as much working against him (namely experience - including his own). As part of the future of the frontcourt, along with Jefferson, Love is expected to add I.Q. and leadership to help build a formidable force up front to battle with the western conference’s beefy bigs. 

 

“Obviously you gotta grow up pretty fast and set aside some of your youthful characteristics a little bit,” Love said. “ Brian Cardinal and I like to joke around a little bit but there’s a time and a place for everything. I’d love to take that role.”

 

Love stops and thinks a bit longer, his mouth open as if the sentence - though grammatically timed for a period - is unfinished. The word ‘leadership’ hangs like an isolation play in mid-air.

 

“I’d love to take that role,” Love repeats. Ah, the relish. The topping that is meant to make you believe. If Love can help the Timberwolves achieve anything beyond the basement-dwelling preseason predictions it will be hard not to.

NBA TAKE 5: The Jennings Effect

1. POISON IVEY?

Allen Iverson’s collision course with Philadelphia – again – was the one nobody saw coming – again. Now the only thing anybody knows is that this stay will be decidedly shorter. Just long enough to make the city of Philadelphia forget about what a bust Elton Brand has been and how this team, despite the presence of the serviceable Lou Williams, misses the days of Andre Miller already. Did they miss Iverson as much? All said, the obvious ploy here is the same as it was with the Memphis Grizzlies… A.I. is being brought in to sell tickets to the dwindling spectator numbers showing up to 76ers games. O.K., now that we are only the 43^rd outlet to point out that fact we can move on to the other part of the equation which is that the 76ers, much like the Grizz, are not a very good team. The difference of course is that Philly still has a shot at being somewhat relevant in the eastern conference whereas Memphis looks to be on their annual course of becoming irrelevant in the west by December 15^th. Don’t discount that as a big part of the reason Iverson never bothered to fulfill his obligations to the Grizz – it is much easier to come off the bench for a team with a predictor’s chance (don’t tell that to Detroit) than one synonymous with losing. Besides, the Grizzlies have their own version of A.I. in O.J. Mayo while the other A.I – as in Andre Iguadala – hasn’t exactly panned out in the franchise player department. Either has the power forward Iverson never had in Brand, who was already considered an off-center addition to the Sixers. Throw in Iverson and it’s a bag of tricks, one with no discernable payoff, unless you are including the bean counters in Philly who will be the biggest winners of this deal. Maybe Iverson wins too, able to avoid a Marbury-like fate and cherry-top it by bowing out in the town where it all started, the one where he is most loved. He played in 38 minutes in his Sixers debut after a month away from the game. Philly is the one place where he will always be given a hero’s welcome. That parade was supposed to come when he retired, when he entered the Hall of Fame as a Sixer or returned, through some other twist of fate, as a champion. Instead it comes at the tail end of a career that could only be prolonged by the city that made him famous. The real question is will they love the new Iverson in return? The proof will be in the ticket sales for a team that has relegated itself to second tier status on the big four sports scene in Philadelphia. Iverson may or may not be too involved in calling his own shots to truly see the motives of the organization but the most beautiful thing about him and, even with some of his speed and agility gone and some pride that is late in doing the same, what always shone through was his desire and ability to play basketball like it was life and death and especially when everything else seemed so uncertain.

2. BROWN DOING IT AGAIN

Don’t look now but the Charlotte Bobcats, in just their second season under project king Larry Brown, are for real. To those who follow L.B. his trademark is tackling nose-diving teams or those struggling to get to the next level. He is your over-the-top guy but his way comes with a lot of head banging and expectation. Check! Now for the result… The Bobcats currently sit in the seventh seed in the eastern conference, a position they are mostly unfamiliar with even in December. While they are one of the lowest scoring teams in the league with an equally abysmal field goal percentage to boot, they only allow the opposition to score 90.6 a night, good for second best in the league. Their 43.7 field goal percentage allowed is good for fourth best in the L. They also outrebound opponents by 2.75 boards a contest, the fifth best differential among the 30 teams. Numbers don’t tell the whole story but for the Bobcats it represents entry into the next tier of competition after languishing at the bottom of the standings since their inception. The addition of Stephen Jackson adds another big playmaker to the distribution core of Raymond Felton, D.J. Augustin and Boris Diaw. With Jackson, Diaw, Gerald Wallace and Tyson Chandler together there is serious stopping power in Charlotte, and it is the biggest reason to believe that Brown is well on his way to pulling off another successful renovation. Add Flip Murray and suddenly the young bobbers are a group of seasoned veterans, and that’s half the battle isn’t it?

3. THE JENNINGS EFFECT

So now that Brandon Jennings has successfully circumvented the NBA’s ban on drafting players straight out of high school, will his chosen path be hailed as a viable alternative or the exception to the massive risk he took? Maybe it wasn’t a risk at all. Maybe Jennings just knew he was ready and bided his time in Europe and got paid and gained man-league experience that helped him make a seamless transition into the NBA. Maybe, no, be assured there will be others. And why not? While completely understanding the NBA’s stand on too-cool-for-school drafting - in which mostly unprepared teens are tempted early by the riches by the media, family, friends, agents, coaches, scouts, etc… when the reality is that 85 percent of them would be better off with some college burn – we are also down with anybody positioning themselves career-wise at any age to enter any job they are qualified to perform (dare we say that there are some among us better suited to entering the workforce than an institute of higher learning?). Basketball is a job and the straight-outta-high-school hopefuls are more aware of that fact than you probably think. That said, count on their being a healthy exodus of high school grads to Italy and Spain and Argentina and anywhere else that is less discriminatory than the NBA in regards to age. There will be pressure stifle it; with colleges just beginning to get back some talent after the NBA ended high school eligibility. The NBA itself won’t like to feel as though it’s been back-doored and the growing relationship between North American and European basketball bodies could be scarred in the process should the overseas leagues, desperate to bolster their product, promote and encourage the defections of America’s young basketball prodigies. Virtus Roma of the Italian League and its head coach Jasmin Repesa share credit in developing the explosive lefty guard and Jennings’ people were comfortable with the professional tutelage is there to be had in Europe. Tapping into that resource is now on every agent’s option list and it softens the blow to any teenager bent on bypassing college or going undrafted out of school. Does this re-inflate the balloon of dilution, miseducation and underdevelopment the NBA cited as justification to implement the age restriction in the first place? How could they ever justify penalizing straight-outta-high-school players for putting in their one-and-done work overseas instead and getting real paper for it? Jennings worked a deal that gave him a cool $1M over three years with a player out option after each season. The kid even signed an endorsement deal with Under Armour while he was there, putting himself on the radar as a talent to market. In a world shrinking under the network of an ever-expanding communication jungle, professional North American players begun their slow-trickle of a journey to overseas options long ago. Now that the door has been swung wide open for the kids, Jennings and his dealmaker Sonny Vaccaro can be charged with seriously changing the game.

4. WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO…?

When Rodney Rogers, the respectable ex-Denver Nugget, was paralyzed in a dirt bike accident last winter there was an outpouring of affection and prayers and shock. There is an extra kick when an athlete takes a hit like this, a robbery of many of the faculties that make them famous and rich and adored by faithful fans of sport and culture. Rogers was harder to forget because even being financially set he continued to work in North Carolina for the public works department, simply because he loved to operate the heavy machinery. In fact, many of his co-workers didn’t even know just how well off Rogers was, or that he worked simply because it was his in his upbringing to contribute. To not stand still. Now at 37 he is paralyzed from the shoulders down after breaking his neck in the fall. The diagnosis of paralysis isn’t final and Rogers holds out hope that he will walk again and while there are many part of him that remain broke, his spirit isn’t one of them. Rogers played for seven NBA teams over 12 years after being drafted out of Wake Forest (where he was ACC player of the year) and captured a Sixth Man of the Year award in 2000.

5.THE ODEN DAYS

Greg Oden’s season-ending knee injury is a tragedy. Going down (or up) hard versus the Houston Rockets last week sealed it and all the players – Blazers and Rockets alike – stood up as he was wheeled away on a stretcher. Both teams shouted encouraging words, touches on the shoulders and bowed heads in remorse. Such was the impact of seeing one of the nicest kids in the NBA continue the only streak he’s managed to put together in the NBA; absences. Word up. Or down. Or across. From the day Oden appeared on basketball radars all across America much was made of his most obvious trait - his size. A man-child at 6-9 then 6-10 then 7 feet… his density, his rawness, his awkwardness, his limp, his back misalignment, his knees… You see that? The talk eventually got (and always gets) around to Oden’s physicality and its possible limitations, Oden even looks aged beyond his years, face hardened like an experienced cowboy, only he is just 21. He has been compared as much to Dwight Howard as he has to Benjamin Button. None of it ever stopped the Portland Trailblazer from dominating high school and college and it seemed this year, in his second official pro season, Oden was finally taking steps to doing the same in the NBA. Then another knee injury, another surgery, another season-ending nightmare. Alas, the only thing that has been able to stop Oden is a body that continues to betray him. In his lone season at Ohio State he suffered a s wrist injury that bit into his effectiveness, though he was still the Blazers’ first overall pick the following draft. Before playing a single game for the organization he blew out his knee and missed the entire 2007-08 schedule. His return in 2008 was watched by the basketball world with great anticipation. While Oden did good in averaging 8.9 points and seven rebounds over 61 games in helping lead the Blazers back to the playoffs, it was clear his development had been stalled, especially since he missed an additional 21 games that season. And now just a quarter way through the 2009-10 campaign Oden is out again with a broken kneecap and he will not be back for an entire year. Another 300 days or so until he might possibly be NBA fit when we will witness the third reset on a career that shows less promise with each restart. Not only does he follow in a long line of Blazers injury riddled including centers like Bill Walton and Sam Bowie, he has also come to live out what many unreasonably predicted at the outset of his NBA journey. Oden may not be built to last after all and given the glimpses of defensive prowess and commanding big man presence we’ve seen, the entire basketball nation is at a loss.

Raptors Sinking in Reality

‘Face the music’ said Toronto Raptor Antoine Wright for any attentive ear to hear in the locker room after Tuesday night’s crushing 106-102 home loss to the up-but-mostly-down Washington Wizards. It was the fourth defeat in a row for the Raptors and not everybody was anxious to stand up in front of the microphones. The comment was clearly meant for Hedo Turkoglu, the struggling Raps forward who had disappeared into the back bowels of the change room. His extraction required from behind the scenes required team personnel and no doubt a sigh or two. After another night of watching an opportunity to perform in the clutch vanish and with it a possible victory, the Raptors’ prize off-season acquisition was taking an uncommon amount of time returning to his stall to engage with the usual throng of media waiting… and waiting. Only when the impatient mob shifted its mass over to an always-ready Jarrett Jack did Turkoglu emerge; prompted, stirred but not quite rattled by the mounting losses.

 

“Tomorrow’s a new game,” said Turkoglu of the losing ways. “I can’t really think about it much. If I do what happens? It becomes tomorrow again. I know what I did bad and I should take my time… those kind of situations you just learn from and move on.”

 

The Raptors provided yet another bizarre box score in that the ways in which it continues to lose games vary, the strongest sign the team just cannot pull it all together. They are good some nights on fixing the flaws of a previous outing only to spring a leak on the other side of the ball. Against the Wizards the Jekyll and Hyde act was blatant. With a 50-43 rebounding edge the Raptors coughed up 17 turnovers and after dominating with points in the paint through the first three quarters the squad allowed the Wizards’ bigs and board-crashers to own the offensive key with 16 points down low in the last Q. the three-point shot they so desperately rely on has left them (7 for 28 versus Washington). Right now they are running out of fingers and toes to plug the holes.

 

“It’s always rough however the turnovers go,” said Jack. “What’s been killing us is a lot of live ball turnovers, which equates into transition baskets and that’s when it really hurts you. Not to say turnovers are a good thing but if you are going to have a turnover you would rather have a dead ball when the ball goes out of bounds and you are able to set up your defense and they don’t have numbers.”

 

What should be of some concern is Turkoglu response to an inquiry about possible frustrations he might feel after not being able to make more crunch time plays, something he has built a career on and the biggest reason he was pursued by Toronto last summer.

 

“We haven’t been in that situation yet,” said Turkoglu of his lack of crunch time success in Toronto. “It can’t be just my situation. As a team we have never been in that situation. One I know I missed against Phoenix and (Washington) was the second one out of 20 games. I know in my life I’ve hit many shots and I’ve missed shots too. As a team we cannot just rely on a last second shot to win or lose. We’ve got to pull ourselves together and try to do a better job before we get into that situation.”

 

Bingo! Performing in the clutch doesn’t necessarily mean performing well in the last two or three minutes of the game. It also account for crucial moments – game changing plays and momentum that define wins and losses. These plays can take place in any quarter of the game, though the second half and impact to start the third and fourth are critical. Waiting to pull one out of the hat isn’t clutch. Turkoglu and the rest of the Raptors have been in plenty of situations like the one he describes. What they haven’t done on most nights is execute.

 

After a strong show by Chris Bosh in the second quarter – an 18-point effort – he mostly disappeared after that, mustering just four more points the rest of the way under the manners of Washington forwards Brendan Haywood and Antawn Jamison. Bargnani stalled at key points defensively (at one point he had to be substituted in the crunch) and while the guard play was solid offensively, the perimeter defense was giving and the Wizards attacked the paint relentlessly when they went off in the final frame.

 

“Fourth quarters are when you really need to make it a little bit more difficult for your opponent,” said Jamison. “You’ve got to throw something at them and you’ve got to get some buckets in the basket.

 

“They kind of got a read on what we were doing but that’s when you’ve got to attack and be more aggressive.”

 

A night later versus the Atlanta Hawks the Raptors got shellacked in a beat down reminiscent of the one that got Sam Mitchell fired from the job around the same time last season. Triano isn’t facing that firing squad just yet but the running theme under both bench bosses is undeniable; The Raptors shrink when push comes to shove and for all the obvious talent they have struggled to put together a cohesive for the past three seasons, this one included. Versus the Hawks Toronto was in tough and seemed to still be sputtering from their loss against Washington the night before. By halftime in the ATL the Hawks had dropped 75 points on the visitors and dismissed them with a 145-115 final.

 

That would be another 100 plus point game as well, running the current consecutive streak to 11 in that department, making it their 15th of the season with 13 of those being losses. If alarm bells are ringing in the expected deafening proportions nobody connected to the team has cracked just yet. The problem may lie within the combination of the starting line up, a collection that despite starting off games well offensively sets very little tone on the defensive end. Teams such as Boston and Phoenix have tested Toronto’s physical and mental mettle this season and with no growth to be seen from it a change could be the best thing. The Hawks had nine players reach double-digit scoring on Wednesday. There is no significantly above average defender in starters Turkoglu, Bargnani, Jose Calderon and DeMar DeRozan and Bosh is a good – not great – defender. Alas the reserves haven’t exactly proved invaluable as defensive prowlers, particularly at the swingman slot where Wright, Marco Belinelli and seldom-used Sonny Weems haven’t been the answer. Head coach Jay Triano downplayed the possibility of a shake-up on the horizon, though a mini one started in Atlanta with Weems seemingly being given a shot at the sparkplug role Wright was supposed to supply from the bench. Wright was a healthy DNP in Georgia.

 

“I don’t think so,” said Triano if he considered a lineup change in the wake of the loss to Washington. His reply took a hearty pause. “I mean we didn’t get off to a bad start. I don’t know if it’s our starting line up.

 

Still, with the afore-mentioned lack of options on the roster as-is and defender Reggie Evans still more of a question mark than not heading further into December. Outside of a lineup change roster movement possibilities might be worth mentioning. Why put off the inevitable until a February drop-dead date? Until that option becomes real team must continue to adapt and perhaps the biggest test of that ability will come during their current three-game road trip when the play the Wizards again. With a 2-8 road mark the Raptors are at an early-season crossroads, nearing that quarter-season mark where teams start to round into what they are more or less. Not even riding out the heat in the showers while the media hordes loiter at your locker can change that. If a move, either to the line-up, the combinations or the roster itself aren’t made soon, the only music the Raptors will be facing is to the chin and Turkoglu, like the rest of the team, is getting a glimpse into what life will be like if they continue to live under a blanket just as invisible as their defense.