It’s no secret that heading into what is expected to be an active and highly productive off-season for Minnesota, the team’s biggest needs are a legit big man to defend the paint and a more capable all-around point guard. Every now and then, Telfair teases you into thinking that with a little more seasoning–he’s just 23, after all–he might be able to emerge as that complete player at the point. At worst, he seems to be a capable backup, and a relative bargain for the $4.8 million he’s getting for this year and next (with a player option for $2.7 m the year after that). But then he starts fancying himself a scorer, or goes into one of those funks like he did in the turnover-filled second quarter against Memphis, or Saturday night’s third period versus Augustin and the Bobcats, and the doubts re-emerge. All that said, no player on the Wolves’ roster has so dramatically improved his stock over the past two years. And no player has a greater opportunity fulfill a vital need on this ballclub in the next two years.
At first glance, it’s a bit hard to understand how the Wolves lost on Friday; they seemed, in Kevin McHale’s words, to play “solid” defense, outshooting the Knicks 42.5%-39% and holding them six points under their season average. But in actually watching the game, it was pretty obvious that the Wolves gave a sluggish, uninspired showing. The offense was off-kilter and unbalanced, especially in the second half. Ball movement was tentative, they committed turnovers and the wrong people took shots. Mike Miller again abused his self-appointed playmaker role by taking only four shots in the second half, again deferring to less accurate teammates (Sebastian Telfair shot 11 timesduring that same time) and turning the ball over four times. Wow, am I tired of writing that sentence.
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