Even though he lost those 30 pounds, he hasn’t regained the explosiveness or confidence that he showed all last season.
Jefferson has played 25 minutes in each of these first two games and still is trying to find the rhythm and assurance that made him one of the league’s best low-post scorers.
Most NBA coaches would stress going inside more, but Al Jefferson is still working his way back from major knee surgery last season and Achilles’ tendinitis, and forward Kevin Love is out with a broken hand.
The Wolves’ outside shooting isn’t good enough to make the inside game more effective, so that’s not much of an option. In two games, the Wolves are 4 for 21 on three-point attempts.
Out of necessity, Rambis said his best option is to keep things simple and not introduce more plays until the team makes significant progress with the basics of his triangle offense.
“We’re going to have to expand our games and our minds in order to make this offense work,” Wolves forward Ryan Gomes said.
So far, they are not nearly there yet.
Not after two games in which the Wolves have shot a combined 39.1 percent. In Wednesday’s opening comeback victory over New Jersey, nobody had more than two assists. In Friday’s home loss to Cleveland, nobody had more than three.
Kahn respected them enough to interview Laimbeer for Minnesota’s head-coaching position during the summer. But he ultimately decided Laimbeer could use some NBA experience as an assistant.
“I called Bill to tell him that I would not be interviewing him a second time,” Kahn said. “He was very close, and very capable of being a head coach. But I thought he should be an assistant in a culture outside of the Pistons and learn some of the other ways of doing things.
“When Kurt got the job, I said, ‘No pressure, but I interviewed Bill for the head position and I told him he should be an assistant, and if you’re interested in talking to him…’ It caught me by surprise when he decided he wanted to hire him.”
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