The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

Espn says that Pat O'bryant will be an unrestricted free agent in 2008, so it's a question of where he wants to go to camp and who he wants to play summer league ball for. He's from Blaine, maybe he's happy to be out of minnesota with some space from his parents. Or, maybe he'd be willing to come back here to try to put his career back on track with the support of local family and friends. It's hard to tell. He's seems too laid back during games when he doesn't have the ball though, from the limited amount I've seen him play. Chris Anderson of New Orleans also will be an unrestricted free agents. I think he's had some problems testing positive for marijuana, but he could also be a taller version of mark madsen with better hands. (Sometimes I wonder if Mark Madsen would be better off high anyway. He's so tense. It's good to be amped up, but it gets to the point where he's like a non coffee addict after two pots of coffee. Too shaky to control the energy.) It'll be interesting to see how much Toronto is willing to pay unrestricted free agent Jose Calderon since they start tj ford when he's not injured even though Calderon has played great when he's been given minutes. I suppose we couldn't get him with a mid level exception anyway. I love the question about perimeter defense. How do the TImberwolves manage to make getting to the rim look so easy? The free throw desparity that's plagued the wolves for so very long, might have a little to do with the porous perimeter. I also wonder what the allowed 3p percentage the wolves are giving up is. So, working from my limited knowledge, I'll ponder the perimeter defense problem. In 2004, thanks to Garnet's insane ability to motivate veterans to play D, the Wolves had pretty damn good defense. Then after an injured cassel lead to a Lakers postseason triumph over the Wolves, the league got rid of/or placed significant limitations on hand checking, and it made sam cassel and latrell sprewell look pretty old. Even after seeing first hand what this change meant for slightly slow footed guards(granted to be an nba guard, you probably need to posses some damn quick feet) the wolves traded a first round pick and cassel for Jaric, a player who would have been much better in 2004 than in 2006. So, the wolves drafted mccants and foye figuring that, what the heck, we've learned our lesson, without hand checking, you're better off with a lighting quick 6'3'' guard than a tough 6'5'' guard. Can you blame them for being scared to hold on to Brandon Roy when it seemed like the Dwayne Wades, Chris Pauls, and Chauncy Billlups types were taking over the league? The last guy who seemed to have an overall balanced game that wasn't spectacular in any one way that they invested in, Marco Jaric, didn't exactly pan out. Turns out, so far McCants and Foye might have the quick feet to guard the perimeter, but they lack either an appreciation for its importance or the required instincts while Roy doesn't need to hand check to keep his man under control. It doesn't help that both have had major injuries in the past two seasons. Again, my knowledge is limited, but it seems that the pick n roll has killed us for a very long time. Even with Garnet, one of the best pick n roll defenders playing the forward position, the wolves struggled against teams with an effective pick n roll offense. Now we have Jefferson who's never going to cover the ground Garnet could in an effort to help out with pick n roll defense. Gomes, when playing power forward, should be able to help out a little better against the pick n roll than jefferson with the catch that he'll struggle in the post against players bigger, taller and stronger than him. That's part of the reason Garnet should be defensive player of the year, he's the rare player who can defend the pick n roll, defend in the block, and dominate the defensive boards. McCants, with his brute strength, should be able to defend decently against the pick n roll because he should be able to muscle through the pick. Maybe Foye is still recovering, so naturally he'd be a bit hesitant to force the issue. Either way, I'm pretty sure they've both looked silly against the pick n roll. Is this the result of Wittman's ineptitude, player's without the instincts of veterans, or lazy defense? It's hard to tell. I guess if I played in Deron William's division and Chris Paul's conference, fixing the pick n roll coverage would be a pretty high priority. Let's see, there's also Baron Davis, who we always look terrible against too. And, Tony Parker. Then there's Manu, ugh, we look like idiots againsts Manu. Manu might be the reason we drafted Corey Brewer. I would probably make a terrible NBA coach, but against the spurs, I would keep Brewer on Manu as much as possible unless he started failing so badly he started to feel helpless. Then I guess maybe I'd throw Jaric at him. Oh Manu.