Rating Coach Scott (WE WANT WITTMAN BACK !!!)

[KB]

Brian Shaw and Michael Malone are still available. Hopefully they stay available until after next season but I have 2 questions.

1. Kyrie is in love with Scott and even has called him his "basketball dad" so how will Kyrie take it?
2. Going into the offseason of 2014 how can we get a superstar to sign if we have no known coach all the while having such a young team?

Probably about as well as Chris Paul took it....

 

[Triplethreat]

What was Scott thinking. His rotation tonight was embarrassingly bad.

Zeller was tearing up and he only gets 20 minutes? That's a travesty, and it literally drives me nuts when I'm watching these games, and when you blow a 27 POINT LEAD. In 15 minutes all you had to do was not let them out score you by 28 POINTS and they couldn't do that? Unbelievable, no coach should let that happen. Just an all around embarrassing night for our young team and city.

FIRE SCOTT! FIRE SCOTT!

 

[Silky Smooth]

Probably about as well as Chris Paul took it....

So not well. I just hope Kyrie doesn't demand a trade out after 2 years like Cp3 did.

 

[Rich]

What was Scott thinking. His rotation tonight was embarrassingly bad.

Zeller was tearing up and he only gets 20 minutes? That's a travesty, and it literally drives me nuts when I'm watching these games, and when you blow a 27 POINT LEAD. In 15 minutes all you had to do was not let them out score you by 28 POINTS and they couldn't do that? Unbelievable, no coach should let that happen. Just an all around embarrassing night for our young team and city.

FIRE SCOTT! FIRE SCOTT!

Whether we would have won or not, the city embarrassed itself on its own.

 

[Rich]

I know I come off as a Scott defender. Next year is when I seriously judge him. But ladies and gentlemen, did you see how damn awful Gibson was in FOURTEEN minutes. He totally destroyed us, IN FOURTEEN MINUTES. Yet, he basically forced into action because of injuries. But how can a coach stop a team killing asteriod like Gibson tonight? That's a roster problem, not his.

When the roster is better, I'll make judgments.

 

[Triplethreat]

Whether we would have won or not, the city embarrassed itself on its own.

And then the team added to that embarrassment by blowing a 27 point lead. I don't think anyone likes the media attention this loss is already getting. Sucks.


OT: This is one of those things that makes me feel a lot of professional sports may be scripted. I don't really, but sometimes the way it goes just makes it seem it's not even possible a city can have that bad of luck..

 

[Rich]

And then the team added to that embarrassment by blowing a 27 point lead. I don't think anyone likes the media attention this loss is already getting. Sucks.


OT: This is one of those things that makes me feel a lot of professional sports may be scripted. I don't really, but sometimes the way it goes just makes it seem it's not even possible a city can have that bad of luck..

Well, everyone saw that out of bounds call at the end. It was off of LBJ. Even if the argument is it was "too close to tell" then call a jump-ball. That's allowed when you can't tell. Yet, somehow, they went to the replay and came away that it was off of Cleveland.

Refs are either incompetent or corrupt. Neither are good choices.

 

[Bill Walton.]

BRING BACK FRATELLO!!!

 

[MoFlo]

I think it's important to sit & think about things for a minute.

I'm not advocating Scott or his rotations tonight, but Rich has a terrific point. As players, how do you let that happen?

No doubt the rotations should have changed as the game was going on, but when you're one of the worst teams in the league with your top 3 guys out, there's not much you're going to be able to do to keep one of the best teams in the league with 2 stars & 1 all-star on a 23 game winning streak from making a huge comeback.

Let's be realistic here guys. Livingston-Ellington-Gee-Thompson-Zeller got out to a 27 point lead against one of the best teams in the league. Hell, 2/5 of our starting lineup wasn't even on our roster on the 1st day of the regular season. Yes, it's beyond horrible from a coaching standpoint that they lost a 27 point lead, but let's not act like we had any sort of consistent scorer on the floor at any point tonight that would've allowed us to sustain a run from Miami.

Again, I'm not giving Byron an out or an excuse here, this is definitely inexcusable, and he's been wildly inconsistent this season. Hell, I'm not even saying he definitely should stay. However, this game should not be used as a major barometer to determine whether or not he should stay, either.

 

[DW3]

I think it's important to sit & think about things for a minute.

I'm not advocating Scott or his rotations tonight, but Rich has a terrific point. As players, how do you let that happen?

No doubt the rotations should have changed as the game was going on, but when you're one of the worst teams in the league with your top 3 guys out, there's not much you're going to be able to do to keep one of the best teams in the league with 2 stars & 1 all-star on a 23 game winning streak from making a huge comeback.

Let's be realistic here guys. Livingston-Ellington-Gee-Thompson-Zeller got out to a 27 point lead against one of the best teams in the league. Hell, 2/5 of our starting lineup wasn't even on our roster on the 1st day of the regular season. Yes, it's beyond horrible from a coaching standpoint that they lost a 27 point lead, but let's not act like we had any sort of consistent scorer on the floor at any point tonight that would've allowed us to sustain a run from Miami.

Again, I'm not giving Byron an out or an excuse here, this is definitely inexcusable, and he's been wildly inconsistent this season. Hell, I'm not even saying he definitely should stay. However, this game should not be used as a major barometer to determine whether or not he should stay, either.

I am not a genius, but you got a 27 point lead, rest some guys, the lead start dwindling, wouldn't it be prudent to call TOs and bring those guys back in instead of staying with a strict player X must play Y / rest Z minutes? You think that if it was Miami blowing a 27 point lead Lebron, Wade, Bosh and etc. wouldn't be sub back in right away.

 

[MoFlo]

I am not a genius, but you got a 27 point lead, rest some guys, the lead start dwindling, wouldn't it be prudent to call TOs and bring those guys back in instead of staying with a strict player X must play Y / rest Z minutes? You think that if it was Miami blowing a 27 point lead Lebron, Wade, Bosh and etc. wouldn't be sub back in right away.

Again, as I said, I'm in no way, shape, or form excusing Byron from his rotations tonight...

And again, there's a big difference between having LeBron, Wade, and Bosh come in early from their rest and having Shaun Livingston, Tristan Thompson, and Tyler Zeller come back early from theirs...

 

[DW3]

Again, as I said, I'm in no way, shape, or form excusing Byron from his rotations tonight...

And again, there's a big difference between having LeBron, Wade, and Bosh come in early from their rest and having Shaun Livingston, Tristan Thompson, and Tyler Zeller come back early from theirs...

Maybe, not for the season, but for this one game, it would have made a huge difference. Today, a tired Livingston, TT or Zeller playing well would have been 10X better than fresh legs with Boobie and Walton. We only lost by 3 and the +- player point differential tells the whole story.

 

[Zone]

This one is odd to me. There is a team that actually wanted to make the playoffs this year, paid money like it, and yet have 23 wins. One more than us.

Yea, they've had injuries, big ones. But, ugh, so have we. So why does Adelman get a pass on this but Byron doesn't?

There's also the health of his wife, which may have negatively affected his focus...

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8...esota-timberwolves-says-wife-dealing-seizures

MINNEAPOLIS -- Minnesota Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman has been trying to keep a lid on his wife's health issues that caused him to be away from the team for three weeks, preferring to deal with the situation privately while keeping his eye on the team from afar.

Mary Kay didn't seem to understand why, so Rick Adelman relented on Tuesday, one day after he returned to the team from his hiatus. Rick Adelman said his wife is suffering from seizures and doctors still haven't figured out what has been causing them.

"It's just a process now," Adelman said after practice. "We don't know why. We have no clue why it happened. No one can figure it out. Now it's a matter of finding it out. How do you manage it? What do you do with it? How do you go forward? ... The good thing is she's home."

Rick Adelman missed 11 games to be by Mary Kay's side as she went through treatments and met with doctors. For a man who has spent more than two decades in the NBA diagnosing what is going wrong on the court and trying to figure out how to fix his teams' problems, it's been a frustrating process of searching for answers that have yet to come.

"They have no idea why," he said. "There is no rhyme or reason as to why she had it. Usually you bump your head sometime or something happened or you're sick. They have no reason. That's been the hardest part, is not knowing why."

Mary Kay's situation appears to have stabilized enough now so that the coach feels comfortable returning to work. He will coach on Wednesday night against the Los Angeles Clippers, the first time he's been on the bench for a game since Jan. 5. The Timberwolves went 2-9 in Adelman's absence, with injuries continuing to cause problems for a team that has dealt with them all season long. The Wolves are 17-24, in last place in the Northwest Division and have lost four straight games as they prepare to open a challenging six-game homestand that also includes games against the Lakers, Spurs, Trail Blazers and Knicks.

"We've got to figure something out," he said.

The Timberwolves expect to get center Nikola Pekovic and guard Alexey Shved back from injuries as well, giving them a glimmer of hope that they can turn things around and get back into the Western Conference playoff picture.

Their biggest reason for renewed confidence may be Adelman's return. The coach is widely considered one of the best in the league and helped revive a long-suffering franchise when he came aboard last season.

"He's our coach. He's the main guy and I know that there's a lot more confidence in the guys and with everything with him on the bench," Pekovic said.

The Wolves re-signed Chris Johnson and Mickael Gelabale on Tuesday, the second 10-day contract for both players. Johnson especially has been a pleasant surprise, giving the team some athleticism and energy in the paint. At the end of their contracts, both players will either have to be signed for the remainder of the season or let go.

Neither player was around before Adelman left the team on Jan. 7, and point guard Ricky Rubio was still coming off the bench while the Wolves eased him back into action coming off his torn left ACL. So Adelman will have some adjusting to do as he prepares to take over again.

"I've got to figure out how I want to play, who I want to play out on the court, figure out what the matchups are and talk to the coaches," he said. "I don't think it'll take too long. I really don't. "

 

[Rich]

Maybe, not for the season, but for this one game, it would have made a huge difference. Today, a tired Livingston, TT or Zeller playing well would have been 10X better than fresh legs with Boobie and Walton. We only lost by 3 and the +- player point differential tells the whole story.

People are going hindsight on Walton. He's been playing pretty damn well, and no one has complained about him being in the rotation the past 3 months. You didn't know he was going to play poorly, until he actually played poorly. He didn't get much burn in the fourth, which he normally does. I mean, if Scott could predict the future and knew Walton was going to go out there at the 4 minute mark of the third and play awful, then yea, I'd blame him for playing Walton. Unfortunately, he doesn't have that power.

 

[KI4MVP]

I went over this in the game thread, but it's worth repeating here

Thompson did not sit at all in the 3rd quarter yet people keep complaining about the coaching because of how much he sat in the 3rd. Check the game logs. Zeller got in foul trouble, Walton went in for him. Speights went in for Tristan to start the 4th. Who else are we supposed to play? Do we keep Zeller in with 4 fouls?

Miami basically made their comeback in two separate 2 minute runs.

run #1 - We had a 20 point lead late in the 3rd when Walton scored. We had only 3 possessions after that before the heat cut the lead to 10. Walton had a turnover, Tristan missed a shot, Boobie missed a shot. As quick as that, the lead was cut to 10. The key to that run was Battier hit back to 2s (and was 1-5 from 3 otherwise). We ended the quarter down 9.

run #2 was just as quick and took the same number of possessions. LeBron scored 11 points on 4 shots in 2 minutes.

Those two runs completely erased our halftime lead. We then fell down by 9 with 3 minutes left, we fought back to cut it to 1 with the ball and a chance to take the lead in the final seconds. We missed the shot but should have had another chance when LeBron knocked the ball out of bounds.

If people are going to rib Byron Scott for those two heat runs, shouldn't he get some credit for getting the lead in the first place and in then battling back to nearly win the game? Most teams fold in that situation.

With 3 of our 4 best players injured, we took the 2nd hottest team in the history of the league to the final possession and a missed out of bounds call. We had no business at all being in that game. Instead we nearly win and the coach get ripped.