a new coach!? i think this is good....?

There's a lot on my mind today, as I reflect on the blazers game last night and Randy Wittman's first game as head coach. I'm having trouble getting over Jaric's never-ending blunders, but I feel as if I've spoken on him enough. I would like to reference his pass into the arms of the Blazer front court and his shimmy-ing defense on the fast break on Jarret Jack though.

One of my major points of contention with the team and management has always been its poor handling of the Flip Saunders situation, and its poor replacements (McHale and Casey). After a year and a half Casey had yet to teach his team to defend the pick-and-roll, or how to space the floor on a fast-break. I'm glad to see this change, but it really doesn't make much sense. Rick Bucher and practically all other NBA analysts continue to remind me that the Wolves were supposed to be a sub-.500 club, so the fact that they're the 8th seed in the playoffs right now is quite an achievement by the coaching staff. However, in the McHale press conference, he accurately pointed out that the club lacked any kind of consistency. Going 7-1 to start January, including victories over Detroit, San Antonio and Houston was great, but following it up with a loss to a decrepit Atlanta team days later are proof enough.

McHale is finally right to realize that they're something bigger going wrong in the organization, something above the players. Coaching has been a major deficiency since Flip left, and since he's left he's exposed some serious problems above the coaching stratosphere. Maybe next time it'll be owner Glen Taylor who's at the podium saying his GM is a great teacher, but a terrible GM.

A coaching move motivated by inconsistency seems overdue. In the post-Flip Saunders era the team has never really played at a consistent level, or with a singular identity. The Wolves are no longer an offensive club, but aren't really the slow tempo defensive team that I think Casey has tried to make them (I would say this didn't happen because the Wolves have no halfcourt sets). Casey's offense was usually a high screen set by KG and nothing more. The fact that they never established an identity makes them the NBA's first chameleon--the team that plays to the level of their opponent, or usually one step lower. We could run with the Suns (as we did Monday) for about three quarters, we could bang with the Pistons into OT (twice in January), and we could still get blown out by the Hawks. The Hawks?

I hope that Wittman can create halfcourt sets that allow KG to get the ball in the post (instead of the 3-point line), sets that utilize spacing and screens to let our guards get to the paint and find wide-open shooters for 3, and sets that don't just burn shot clock time. We'll see soon enough.