The WGOM

2008-09 Game 9: Wolves @ Nuggets

November 16th, 2008 by SBG

<SBG> Last night, our friend GreekHouse posited that the Wolves would drop a home game to a team on the back end of a back-to-back when the Wolves were rested. That's a measure of how bad the Wolves have been playing. Nope, that didn't happen. The Blazers looked sluggish, but at money time, they cleared their collective head and dispatched the Wolves. Somehow, a 20 point loss might have been easier to take.

I didn't get a preview put together for last night's game. I had intended to write something fairly positive. Last year, the Wolves were one of the very worst teams in the league offensively and defensively. So far this year, the Wolves are one of the worst team in the league defensively, but surprisingly are kind of a middle of the road team in terms of offensive efficiency. I think this is a testament to a good start offensively by Mike Miller. The guy can shoot and he's off to a great start throwing the rock in the hole. He's shooting almost 51% overall and 42% from three. That puts him at 1.31 points per shot and a true shooting percentage of 60.5(!). In case you think this is some kind of fluke, each of those numbers are right about where he was last year. Miller is never going to be a superstar, but he provides value and would be an excellent addition to a good team. Unfortunately for him, he's stuck on this club. I guess he'll have to console himself with his millions.

It's too bad that Rashad McCan't and Randy Foye have been sucking so much air. Foye is producing well less than a point per shot (0.82) and McCan't isn't much better (1.03). Combined, these two are taking over 23 shots a game and converting about 35% of those shots. Oy. Watching Foye suck is really painful when Brandon Roy comes to town.

Speaking of pain, O.J. Mayo continues to look like he's going to be a helluva player. Through ten games, he's logging almost 40 minutes a game and is throwing in 21.0 points per. He's also efficient (55.1 TS%). He is putting the shoot in the position of shooting guard (2.4 assists per 40 minutes), but hey, it's not like he's dragging down his club like McCan't or Foye. Meanwhile, Kevin Love has been okay, but he's only getting 25 minutes. Mayo is The Man on his club. Love is forcing The Man on this club to play out of position. Yep, the Wolves also got Miller, who's not chopped liver, but this isn't about finding complementary players, it's about finding franchise building blocks. Mayo would have been a great addition to BAJ. Instead, we have Love, a poor man's BAJ (who can pass).

Close your eyes and imagine -- BAJ at the four, Roy at the three, Mayo at the two. This club could be in position to go forward. Instead, we'll be lost in the wilderness for a couple more years.

Tonight, it's Denver. They just picked up Chauncey Billups to go along with Carmelo Anthony. I'm not a big fan of Anthony's, but I do like Billups paired up with him as opposed to Iverson. I like Denver by a lot tonight.</SBG>

This entry was posted by SBG on Sunday, November 16th, 2008 at 6:00 pm and is filed under 2008-09 Wolves Game Logs. It is one of 2471 entries by the author. We are no longer accepting Letters to the Editor on this post.