What's been going on with your squad? We talked to Randy Wittman, Al Jefferson, Corey Brewer, Greg Buckner and Ed Pinckney after Wednesday's practice to fill you in.

Wolves Head Coach Randy Wittman
Q: On if there are any set rotations yet:
A: Not with Randy and Sebastian not playing. I'm starting to get a better understanding of guys and how they're playing, (and) with whom. That's getting better. Without (Telfair and Foye), who have to be part of the mix, it's still a little difficult. We're looking at different combinations with the bigs and playing Al (Jefferson) some at the five. We started him and Craig (Smith) last night and I liked some of the things I saw there. Like I said, we're going to have a little bit of a rotating starting lineup all year long, depending on the matchups. Atlanta posed a little bit of a difficulty because you have Josh Smith playing at the four, who is really a perimeter player. You don't want to put Al where he's 25 feet from the basket and take away from what he can do rebounding (the ball). We'll be doing that kind of stuff all year long. You're beginning to see some consistency. I think Rashad has strung together some good performances, not only in the games but in practice, and that's a big step for him. To make that step as a player you have to have consistency with the play that you perform with and he's done a good job with that.

Q: On if the point guards have fallen behind:
A: It's not ideal. I know Randy a little bit more than obviously Sebastian, but what are you going to do. I don't want to get in the situation where I put them on the court when they're hurt and looking at down the road and not having them. It's more important to get them healthy. I think Randy is probably closer than Sebastian (to coming back).

Q: On putting in the young kids in the fourth quarter last night in Atlanta:
A: I think that's how they teach kids how to swim now. They throw them into the deep end. But that's what these games are for. I'm not going to do it in a regular season game. We're going to go for the win. This is a perfect time to do it. That group battled back to six. I think we were down ten going into the fourth quarter. What better chance to throw the young guys in than when they would have made something, they're playing to win the game. It was a bad feeling because we didn't perform well, but it's a good experience.

Q: On how it is for guys like Chris Richard and Corey Brewer to take some losses, something they haven't done a lot over the last few years:
A: I don't care what program you come from, this is a whole other level. I'm sure they're seeing certain athletes that you might only face once or twice a year in college; you're facing them every night.

Q: On concerns heading forward:
A: Execution. Obviously one of my main concerns right now is our handling of the basketball. We had 27 turnovers last game. We're averaging 23 I think.

Q: On high turnovers being a result of having no point guard:
A: That's an excuse if we use that. Buck's (Greg Buckner) done a great job. He's not coming in throwing the ball all over the place. We've got to value the ball more. We threw two passes into the third row of the arena that had no chance of being completed. We've got to eliminate those. So that's a concern of mine is how we handle that. I'm going to play guys that I can trust with the ball.

Q: On how you handle these guys during a tough stretch like this:
A: You've got to pump them back up, which we did today. We watched a little bit of it and came back out here and said, hey, that's life in this league. First back-to-back. You fly from Memphis and get into Atlanta and lose an hour and you're getting into the hotel at 3:00 in the morning and have to get up in the morning. It's an experience.

Q: On having Buckner back up at point once Foye and Telfair come back:
A: Oh yeah, he's proven something to me. Did I foresee playing him there? No. He's given me some good things there that I know now that you can change a little bit if you want to go a little bit bigger. He's done a good job.

Q: On any other injuries besides the two point guards:
A: Ryan (Gomes) didn't practice today. He's closest probably than anybody.

Wolves Forward/Center Al Jefferson
Watching the film today, it was a totally different team in the first half and the third quarter. We weren't focused on offense or defense in the first half, and I missed a lot of shots I should have made. I let my offense take away from my defense. Coach came in and got on me, and all of us about the way we played in the first half, and we took it upon ourselves to step up in the third quarter and cut that lead down and let the other team know that we were out there too.*
*Jefferson had 14 points and nine rebounds in the third quarter against Atlanta.

I was playing poorly in the first half (offensively), but I knew if I couldn't do anything else I could block shots and grab rebounds. My offense came in the third quarter.

Wolves Assistant Coach Ed Pinckney on Jefferson
He's ridiculous underneath the dotted line rebounding the basketball. Sometimes it seems like the ball just comes to certain people and always goes into their hands. He just has a knack for finding the ball in a crowd of people and putting it back into the basket.

Kevin McHale has talked to Al a lot about double-teams, trying to get people deeper in the post, and those are some of the things I try to reinforce with him on the road and here in practice. Al's pretty quick in terms of translating things from either film session or a half-hour session we'll have with him before or after practice. We try not to overload him, but he's pretty good about that.

He can score in so many ways. He has a knack for finding the open spaces between the arms, and just knows how to get it in the hole. He's double-doubled a couple of times already for us, and I think teams are going to focus on finding different ways to stop him. He has to make sure the offense works for him, and he's not just wrestling against opposing defenses all the time. McHale has talked to him a lot about that, because he faced that often in his career.

Wolves Guard/Forward Corey Brewer
It was a back-to-back game, but we have to go hard every night. We were a little lackadaisical out there, and in the fourth quarter we gave up a lot of easy stuff. You can't do that if you're going to win.

You gotta play hard. You can't let up any time. During the third quarter, we were executing really well last night. If we can play like that last night, we're going to be a tough team.

I need to keep working on everything right now. I'm trying to learn the system. I've never had a system in my whole life, I've just been up and down, up and down.

If I'm not getting it done offensively, I just have to play defense and do everything else well.

Fred Hoiberg has really been helping me. If you want to be a great shooter, it's going to take time, but with a guy like Fred helping me, I feel like I'm going to be just fine. As the season goes on, I think my shot will keep progressing.

Wolves Guard Greg Buckner
We've got a young team and have some injuries right now. Guys have got to step up and be ready to play. I haven't played point guard in a long time, but it's fun and I'm learning something new.

I'm not going to get out there and try to get fancy like Steve Nash. I'm going to get out, get our offense going, get guys in the right places and see what happens.

Wolves Forward Chris Richard
Corey's (Brewer) always a hard worker. He comes in ready to go, especially in practice everyday. Both of us still haven't got a lot of feeling for games yet. Hopefully by the 2nd (Nov. 2nd season opener) we'll have everything under control and be ready to go.

I see it as if you're going to make a mistake, anytime, as long as you doing it 110 percent, it's a lot better than just going in and seeming kind of scared and intimidated and stepping back rather than going full speed. I'd rather make a mistake going hard.