No NBA fan is excited about the lockout, nor are any of the players. Money is something that will always get in the way of professional sports, and it’s something we’ll all have to deal with.
It’s possible that the Wolves could “deal with” the situation better than others.
Obviously everyone would prefer to see the Wolves players develop in a game situation, but it might actually be for the better if some of the guys who will be the core of this team to hone certain aspects of their games.
Ricky Rubio
Ricky is a guy that everyone is hoping will not only be an upgrade over the starting point guards over the past few years, but a huge one. Granted that’s not the biggest jump in production possible, it’s a good start. Nobody is worried about his court vision, he has shown numerous times that he will be a floor general out there next year. As most know, he needs to work on his shot. Once his obligations with the Spanish national team are fufilled, what time to go to the gym and shoot jumpers until your arms fall off would be better than right now? That along with adding some muscle to his thin frame, and he could use his first full offseason to improve parts of his game that he has struggled with since he entered the ACB league so long ago.
Kevin Love
Other than a brief period with Al Jefferson, the Wolves have never had a dependable player in the post. Love is pretty clearly a perimeter player, and that’s fine. The idea of a pick-n-pop system between Rubio and Love is a good idea, but you the idea of Love with multiple ways to score could be dangerous for defenses around the league. It’s times like this that I wish Kevin McHale was still involved with the Wolves in some way (which leads to another question: not that it would ever happen, but can an NBA coach work for a player if it’s not a player on his team). The idea of him being Kevin Love’s personal coach, perhaps in the same way the Magic brought in Patrick Ewing to (unsuccessfully) help him work on his post game, is interesting. The other thing is to continue to work on his body. He’s done a solid job of that since coming into the NBA, but the better shape he gets in, the better he’ll be able to move around. The better he can move around, the better his defense becomes.
Anthony Randolph
There has been a report or two that some of the coaches were grooming Randolph to play some center next year. If that’s the case, he needs to add some serious muscle to his frame. It’s really that simple. Along with working on his mid range game, and his post game if he plans to play center.
Brad Miller
Bring the cornrows back.
Wes Johnson
Ball handling, ball handling, ball handling, maybe some work on his physicality, and more ball handling. Wes can shoot, he’s extremely athletic, and he’s proven to be a solid defender. He proved to the NBA world that he was not one of those players who grew up with a basketball at his side at all times. That is unless he carried it like a football everywhere.
Michael Beasley
I have a feeling that, barring injury, Beasley is set to have a breakout year next season (whenever that is). If that is going to happen however, he needs to develop a sense of what is going on around him. Everyone recognizes his scoring ability, but he basically became a black hole by the end of the season. He needs to sit down and watch some tapes of guys like Magic Johnson. I’m not expecting or wanting him to play Magic style of basketball, but studying film of a guy with vision like his, and applying it to the court could work wonders.
Derrick Williams
He’ll be a rookie, he just needs to keep doing what he has been doing in preperation for his first year. He hasn’t played in the NBA yet, so he has nothing to go off of. As long as he works on everything, he should be fully prepared for his first season.
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