With another preseason game tomorrow, people just want to know what Flip Saunders plans to do as far as the rotation goes.
Not so fast. It’s not that Saunders doesn’t want to tell us. It’s that he’s not sure exactly what the rotation is quite yet, and for Wolves fans, that’s probably a good thing.
After Thursday’s practice, Saunders said he probably knows the front of his rotation, but he still has some decisions to make regarding the final rotation spots.
Something else that comes into play is the team’s upcoming schedule. Starting tomorrow, the team will play five games in eight days.
“I don’t want to wear our guys down because the beginning of our season,” Saunders said. “What you have to look, for the next two weeks we’re basically going to be on the road a lot… You don’t want to wear your guys out.”
Saunders already said that Kevin Martin (left adductor strain) and Shabazz Muhammad (right Achilles) will likely miss tomorrow’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks in Cedar Rapids. That’s not exactly a surprise being both players were limited throughout the week.
Expect the youth of the team to get plenty of run tomorrow. Saunders said that he expects some veterans to rest. Expect one or two players besides Martin and Muhammad to sit out.
Managing Pek’s Minutes
It’s no secret that center Nikola Pekovic played too many minutes early last season. It ended with Pekovic being shut down early. The plan this season is for Pekovic to play somewhere between 24-27 minutes per game.
Pekovic is all about that plan.
“I love it. I’m not greedy and I think basically everyone has seen that I’m not greedy for stats. I think helping me with the minutes will help with my health,” Pekovic said. “I’m a big guy and I get banged up every game — that’s how I play, I play hard. It’s been tough when I play 35 or 36 minutes and then we’ve got 10 games I get really tired. You’re not focused on some things and that’s how guys get hurt. I hope that will help a lot with my health.”
That likely means second-year center Gorgui Dieng will take some minutes from Pekovic, and could also mean there will be more Anthony Bennett action when the team goes small.
The team tips off against the Milwaukee Bucks tomorrow at 7 p.m. The game is listed as a home game, but the game will actually be played in Cedar Rapids, Iowa at the U.S. Cellular Center.
A Slimmer Muhammad Back At Practice
By Dane Mizutani
Shabazz Muhammad was back at practice Thursday sans his walking boot for the first time all week. He was in the walking boot nursing a sore Achilles, and said he feels great after taking a few days to rest the ailment.
“I'm ready to go,” he said. “I just needed those two days for precautionary reasons. They held me out of practice, and I wanted to go.”
Muhammad said while he felt like he could have gone live at practice Thursday, the trainers told him to wait. He participated in basic noncontact drills and looked comfortable moving around the court without his walking boot.
Saunders said he doesn’t expect the second-year forward to be ready play Friday against the Milwaukee Bucks, and also made it seem like a long shot that the he would be ready for Sunday against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Muhammad missed the entire week of practice and Saunders said that’s never a good thing for a player trying to crack the rotation. Muhammad, however, said even though he missed the last few practices, he doesn’t feel too far behind the eight ball.
“I feel [I've] pretty much grasped [everything],” he said. “I've been paying attention. I've got all the plays down, and I've been with coach looking at the plays on film and stuff like that, making sure I know the plays so when I get out there I can be ready for whatever they throw at me.”
While it’s clear he knows the schemes at this point in the season, and Muhammad has also found a way to slim down more despite being in a walking boot for the last few days. He’s dropped six more pounds and said he’s down to 215 pounds now after topping out at 242 pounds last season.
Muhammad has noticed the differences in his game now that he’s dropped nearly 30 pounds.
“I'm really fast and explosive right now,” he said. “I couldn't get off the ground like I can now last year. I'm so fast, and with the new guys, with Zach and Andrew and all those guys, I kind of like where I'm going.”
Ricky Rubio will more often than not run with those guys in transition, and said he’s seen a shift in Muhammad’s mentality this season on top of his evident weight loss.
“He controls more,” Rubio said. “He used to attack, attack, attack, and now he’s learning how to be patient and attack at the right time. Sometimes players like him need to learn that. He’s still really aggressive and that’s great for us.”