Open Thread: Phoenix Blowout and Player Suspensions

• This is what I find most interesting/disheartening about Wolves management: From the AP- Moments before McHale told reporters of the suspension, Wolves coach Dwane Casey said he "did not know" if there would be disciplinary action against Davis. When told that McHale made the suspension public, Casey said it was a mutual decision made by himself, McHale and owner Glen Taylor. McHale and Casey couldn't even get their stories straight for the press. McHale also trapped Casey in an out and out lie. Was this intentional by McHale? Why wouldn't they have discussed what they would tell the press? Moments later, McHale blows Casey's cover? This is very interesting to me as a fan, and I come here because Britt finds things like these interesting too and reports them in an appropriate manner. Last time I checked the City Pages was free, this site is free to visit, and the Wolves were about the 6th popular sports team in town. I think the sensationalism call was ignorant. Keep up the excellent journalism, Britt, the vast majority of us appreciate it immensly.

• See yesterday's thread for my view on Brit's work pertaining to Ricky Davis and the Detroit game. The only thing I agree with Jackson on is that management will usually, in the interest of preservation and marketing, downplay any internal strife within the team. But I'm not ready to buy-in and downplay Ricky's attitude, nor do I believe that Brit's work is just to generate spin. When your second best player - one that we all wish would take the next step and become an All-Star - is leaving the damn game, despite the seven million a year, just because he got pulled, IT IS NEWSWORTHY, IT IS NOT SENSATIONALISM. Most of the readers here understand that we need one of two things to happen. Either Foye OR Davis must join KG and become an elite NBA player or Foye AND someone else (most likely Davis, Blount, McCants or James) both need to play at a near all-star level to help KG. Or, even more rare in NBA circles, the entire team needs to be a truly competent collection of egoless players working a system to perfection. Even Jerry Sloan with two hall of famers couldn't win it all with a combination of all these recipes. So when our hopes so clearly center on Ricky Davis and he abandons the team, how do we know that this doesn't go downhill, ala Sprewell or worse yet J.R. Rider? Once a problem like this emerges, how do we reverse course and get him playing like Rip Hamilton or Manu Ginobli? What the H-E-double toothpicks are we following the Wolves and Davis for if this isn't news? If this is sensationalism, then I may as well be a Knicks fan, where overpaid, talented players are par for the course and the fans are resigned to the lottery.

• Well I apologize for writing so rashly. I did read your thoughts on the game Friday and that is what motivated me to write in the first place. You seemed upset that Casey would lie to you. I was just surprised by that as it seems a matter of course for sports organizations to lie these days. I thought that you with all your experience would expect that. I shouldn't have said that the Wolves job is to reduce spin and damage. I meant to say that their job is to reduce negative spin and damage. They are going to spin like crazy to make it look like everything is fine and boring and no one made a mistake. I did not mean to claim that you would spin or fabricate. You have impeccable journalistic standards and I was definitely no trying to cast aspersions. I am just not as good of a writer as I'd like. I was following up the idea that Casey has an interest in things being boring, and journalists have an interest in things being exciting. So the very nature of your two vocations are inherently opposed. With that said, it is pretty clear that Casey is straight-up lying to your face, but I guess I expect that. If Casey or the Wolves make some embarrassing mistake it is only a matter of course that they will hide it as much as they can. There is nothing for them to gain by being honest if it reveals their own incompetence. And that is only to be expected. The truth is that we will probably never know if Ricky refused to go in or if Casey was holding him out, unless you can get a big confession from Ricky or Casey, which would be pretty impressive. I definitely appreciate this site and your work. it is great stuff. I wouldn't give it up for the world so please don't block my ip address or anything crazy. I'll do your dry-cleaning, windows, whatever.

• Furthermore, This is a story in any NBA town. What Ricky did is the same thing Spreewell and Sammy did to Flip. They quit on him and McHale had to fire Flip because of it. Once a coach loses the attention and respect of his players it is over. For that reason I understand Casey wishing to downplay this incident. It reflects on his job and could mean the end of it. THere is almost no winnable way out accept to forget about it and hope the Wolves can start winning again. Unfortunately, the rest of the Wolves season will hinge on the Detroit game and either Casey or Davis (or maybe even both) will lose out from it. Call me sado-masochistic, but I truly am looking for explanation. I'm a TWOlves fan who wants to see them win, mostly because I love KG as a player. If Ricky quits on the team, I want to know why because I'd like it to get fixed as fast as possible if it can. That is only fair to the team and the fans. If that means we have to get rid of Casey or Davis over this, then the sooner the better.

• I remember KG was ejected shortly after halftime in a game versus San Anton four or five years ago with only 8 points. If it weren't for that ejection, he'd have something over 700 consecutive double-digit scoring games. That's on some Wilt, MJ ish! Any of you web savvy statisticians able to find the actual number of games?

• Jackson- The first rule of good public relations is not to lie. Lying only makes it worse. Friday, Casey said it was a "bathroom break." By Sunday morning, both local dailies had articles about Davis' suspension for attempting to leave the court and then refusing to re-enter the game. Casey didn't have to say anything about the situation at all. Instead, he chose to lie to the media, who he has to work with 82-plus times a year. If you don't see the problem there, or at least justification for (as you call it) "righteous indignation" ... well, I don't know what to tell you. You are correct that the media's and coaching staff's goals do not always mesh. But, like it or not, the media is one of the team's most important conduits to the public. Being dishonest with a reporter is the same thing as being dishonest with a customer. Bad business. As I wrote in the last thread, Casey was under no obligation to tell the whole story. But it isn't like lying was his only choice.

• Jackson-- I resent you claiming that the team is minimizing spin and that my job is to generate as much spin and hype as possible. My job is to report what happened as accurately as I can. I mistakenly assumed that the team had a responsibility to confirm the accuracy of my reporting, rebut the accuracy of it, or claim "no comment" and let the chips fall where they may. On the night Davis was benched, the head coach told me that his leaving the floor was for a bathroom break. He also refused to confirm what I had heard from a couple of reliable sources--that Davis refused to go back in. Later on, of course, Davis was suspended for "going to the bathroom" (something he has done previously without penalty) and neither Davis nor Casey nor anyone else associated with the team would explicitly deny that Davis refused to go back in to the Pistons game. You must not think there is any distinction between a coach benching a player for a lack of focus the entire game and a coach being unable to reinsert a player into the game because that player refuses to play. I do. I think if Casey chose to teach Ricky Davis a lesson by benching him regardless of KG's ejection and the fact that a winnable game went two overtimes, then that puts a certain perspective on Casey's coaching methods. If Casey was unable to reinsert Davis and chooses to protect that disobedience--he was quoted in today's paper as saying "I love Ricky Davis"--then that says something else about Casey's coaching methods. Why do you come to this site, Jackson? Because we cater to openly curious people who want something beyond the company line. If the second most talented player on the Timberwolves gets a mere game suspension for refusing to go back in-- openly defying a coach who has consistently played him major minutes despite his extremely inconsistent caliber of play this season--and is then mooned over by the coach the very next day, what message does that send to Randy Foye and Craig Smith, if not the rest of the ballclub? I'm curious about that, as I imagine most of my readers are. But we can't even have that conversation unless we are all aware that Davis was disobedient. And I can't put people on that page unless I fully and faithfully divulge the reasons why I believe that to be the accurate version of events--a job made more difficult when the team tries to spin it differently. I am spending this much time and space explaining this so you know why I am insulted by your claim that I am the one "spinning" this story (to sell newspapers, you claim, and yet I have put more than a dozen three-pointers up for free here online since my last Wolves related story saw print) while the Wolves are the innocent party trying to reduce spin and hype. Jackson I am beginning to think you never read what I wrote about the game Friday night. Go back and read it. Then read all the press coverage of the Wolves' reaction to Friday night since then. Then tell me who is spinning and who tried to provide the fullest available version of the truth.

• Nate, Marko has hit the open jump shot this year. His shooting percentage is respectable. He does other things besides shoot that make him valuable as you are aware. I agree that he is not a good finisher around the basket. I also think his shot is going to suffer a bit until is thumb is fully healed. However, I think it is too premature to say we should give Bracey and McCants, Marko's minutes. They need to be played and we need to know what kind of potential is worth pursuing in both cases. There is no guarantee that either of them will pan out into great, or even good players in the NBA. McCants in particular, has some issues that make holding a position for him risky-even if he has some promise. Both of them have promise, but neither has the same promise or potential that could be immediately percieved in Foye. And, at this point, neither of them can be relied upon to fill a much needed role in the rotation that Marko can do-especially when he is healthy. Advocates for handing the reigns over to McCants or Bracey Wright remind me of the same people who always think the untested backup quarterback should be starting next Sunday. There is a lot to learn before someone can exploit mathups and not be exploited in return on the defensive end. Bracey and McCants are still on that learning curve and they are also small for their positions, unlike Marko.

• Marko didn't help strengthen those trade winds with his performance last night. Granted it's his first game back but he sent out the most important message about his game: "can't hit an open jump shot and has trouble finishing at the hoop." Thankfully the Pistons value defense, so hopefully we can still move him. We really need another big man. I wonder if when Griffin is gone if the wolves will sign fan favorite Paul Shirley? I was hoping Mike James would play well last night but he looked pretty much the same. It's too bad KG wanted a veteran point guard from free agency. Perhaps a better move would have to been to spend most of the mid-level exception on Jackie Butler (who signed with the Spurs for half the exception). Butler is a young big man who looks pretty good compared to Eddie "The Stroke" Griffin. We'd have one less guard signed to a long contract, and trading Marko would free up even more playing time for McCants, Foye and Wright.

• Why would anyone wish for a lengthy article expounding on how one player lost his cool? That sounds a little sado-masochistic to me. Ricky lost it, was upset, and now he is over it. We know that he is a hot-headed player so where is the story? There isn't really one. The recent troubles of the Wolves don't look so good but there is reason to believe that better days are ahead. The Wolves have been playing very well this year overall. Griffin is going to be bought out in the next week or so. McCants will come back in the next couple weeks. Jaric could be traded in the next few weeks, bringing us a new big. If all these things happen, and most of them will, then we could be in a really good place as a team very soon. We will have a new big, a new McCants, and resolved a troublesome issue(griffin). I don't really understand the righteous indignation about the Ricky Davis incident. What do you expect the team to do? Their job is to make the team successful and to minimize spin and hype and damage. You job is to generate as much spin and hype as possible in order to sell newspapers. You are a business and so are they. It is just that your respective paychecks hinge upon different criteria. Diametrically opposed criteria at that. So don't be so morally outraged when Casey tries to downplay the negative aspects of Ricky's pouting. That is only to be expected.

• Can we expect a lengthy article in city Pages this week on the Davis incident, Britt. I hope so. I made some comments on the other thread about what this means in terms of a trade for a big man suggesting that Davis demonstrates that even with our surplus of Guards, we don't really know yet, which ones, other than Hassell are long term answers for this team. Marko shouldn't be thrown off the bus before ahy of the other guards, including Davis and James. As far as the Suns Game last night, I felt pretty good for Peyton Manning.

• If chemistry is the difference between this team being a low playoff seed on the rise or a lottery team in need of a makeover, last weekend may be the tipping point. The Griffin/Davis/Jaric/Casey situations, a soon-to-return McCants and a bizarre three-game losing streak don't bode well. I hope the Wolves can regroup and pull things together ... but I'm skeptical.

• gotta throw some props to Hudson, who played for the first time in what seems like ages and scored 22 points off the bench. I actually thought during the OTs versus Detroit that Casey should've put him in the game, since the Wolves had nothing going offensively. The guy can score in bunches..... maybe they should throw him in a trade deal.

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