[Soulrebel15Participant]

http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_20457491/tom-powers-j-j-barea-calls-out-wolves?IADID=Search-www.twincities.com-www.twincities.com

By Tom Powers

J.J. Barea has had enough. The Timberwolves walked onto the court at Target Center, took their medicine quietly and left with their 12th loss in 13 games.

"We’ve got problems here," Barea said. "We just got a lot of guys that don’t care. When a basketball team got a bunch of players that don’t care, it’s tough to win games. It’s going to happen until we get players in that care: care about winning, care about the team, care about the fans."

In a flashback to the Kurt Rambis Era, several of the Wolves clearly didn’t give a flip. They coughed up a 21-point lead late in the first half to the woeful, banged-up Golden State Warriors in a game that reflected badly on coach Rick Adelman, the Wolves organization and, most of all, the players themselves.

The "who cares?" attitude was evident in the lack of defensive effort, the erratic shot selection and the sometimes selfish play. And when Barea made his postgame remarks, he wasn’t hiding in a corner. He was sitting in front of his locker and within earshot of several of his teammates.

"They just come in here after the game like nothing happened," Barea said. "That’s what happens to a losing team."

Barea, a member of the championship Dallas Mavericks last season, says he will try to keep yapping at them. With every other Wolves point guard injured or, in Malcolm Lee’s case, throwing up, Barea played all 48 minutes against the Warriors. It wasn’t his best game. But he appeared to be giving it his all.

"There’s a bunch of us, too, that care and play hard," he said. "But there’s a bunch that don’t care, and we just got to change that.

"I’ve been noticing it. But today you can really notice it. It was a brutal second half. Nobody fighting, nobody getting mad at nobody. After a game like that you got to have problems. You got to argue with your teammates. But nobody cares so we’ve got to change that."

For the past three weeks the most interesting thing that has happened to the Timberwolves has been Kevin Love’s haircut. Oh, and shave. That bit of grooming has resulted in more buzz than anything the team has done on the court since it came apart at the seams awhile back.

That’s probably not a surprise because the past four weeks of any Wolves season always represents the team’s personal Heartbreak Hill. Come April, the team collectively starts sucking wind and wobbling at the knees. The Wolves have run off some amazing losing streaks during this time of the season.

Now they are finishing with another dull thud. This has been a sorry three weeks. Yes, there have been injuries. But there’s a difference between being short-handed and just playing bad basketball. An awful lot of early-season good work is being flushed here. A lot of hard-earned respect is slipping away.

Anthony Tolliver, a free agent after Thursday’s season finale, didn’t exactly agree with Barea. But he sounded pretty close.

"I would say that there’s some guys in here that have been more worried about other things," Tolliver said. "It’s not necessarily that they don’t want to win. Sometimes the team concept just goes out of the window."

Adelman appeared disgusted after the game.

"It’s the attitude, like I said. The game was easy in the first half, we were scoring and things were going good," he said. "Then in the second half we acted like it was going to be that way the whole game without working at it."

It’s a sorry finish to a season that held so much promise for so long.

"Got a lead. Got comfortable. They got it going," Michael Beasley said.

Beasley is a restricted free agent after the season, and the Wolves have a big decision to make on him. His defense was awful Sunday. But it’s like that a lot and probably isn’t the result of a lack of effort. Asked if he agreed with Barea’s assessment, Beasley said:

"It’s always a problem. Do I agree with him? Maybe. But until you point those guys out one by one, it doesn’t really matter."

I thought these guys were supposed to call themselves out in the locker room and not wait for someone to do it in print.

"I’m disappointed," Beasley said. "Especially about guys that don’t care. But we got one more left. Those who don’t care won’t be here next year."

That was the most encouraging thing I’d seen or heard all day.

 

 

[M-EazyParticipant]

He should’ve known what he was getting himself into when he signed with them this summer…I know he’s regretting it now!  Going to be a looong offseason for him.

[M-DYMESParticipant]

BS.  He’ll be fine and was probably looking forward to the offseason so he can use the absurd amount of money he received in that contract.  That’s why he came to Minny anyway.  I don’t like Barea and really hated the contract he got.  Basketball will be the furthest thing from this dudes mind when he’s blowing stacks this summer.  

[JoeWolf1]

 Boo F**** Hoo.  You left a team that won the title the previous year, a team that has a tradition of winning, to sign with a team that won 17 games the previous year.  What did you think it would be like there? 

[Taylor Gang MikeParticipant]

 i guess the money wasnt good enuff

[benny15Participant]

im probably gona get a bunch of negs for defending barea, but i dont care, like some of his teamates.

the guy was direct and he said the right thing. it was an honest oppinion that had to be said. i believe in tough love for that team. when you bring in a Coach like Adelman, a key member of a championship team in Barea, as well as a highly touted rookie in Rubio, you’re not just signing personell, you’re trying to change the culture of the franchise. i for one am very happy that they forked over the money to bring in these people if that was the only way they could go about it. It gives them a positive direction if they are able to do it. And having one of those people speak out and complain is part of the reason he was given that money. i’d be dissapointed at the guy if he signed his deal, then adopted their old culture without putting up a fight to change it. then you know that it was a bad signing. in any buisness or company when youre not doing well, you dont bring someone in to go through the motions or just simply join the group and maintain what they’re doing. No, you bring those people in to shake things up and if needed, force things to be done correctly.

nobody wants to loose. i get that, and im sure Barea does as well. but thats not enough to not want to fail, you need to have the hunger to succeed. you look at the big picture and not just arround you. you look at the team’s wellfair as well your teamates because you are being paid enough to do so if not anything else. you give your best and when you have, you give more.

[kngojcParticipant]

 While I agree that the Wolves have been needing a kick in the butt to get going for the past 3 years, JJ Barrea is most certainly not the answer to that. Yeah he played a big role for the Mavs, but he was exactly that, a scoring, change of pace, SHOOTING GUARD (in his sub 6′ body too) role player. While the message is needed for the Wolves… It shouldn’t be coming from Barrea. Ever since Rubio went down for the season, Ridnour got hurt, and Malcolm Lee had to slide over (and not very effectively) to the PG spot, Barrea has become probably one of the most ball dominant players on that team. I went to the Memphis-MN game a week ago or so and when it was close, he would take the ball out dribble around for 20 seconds demanding picks and then throwing up some bull sh*t shot at the end of the shot clock. Then he would let his man blow right by him on the other end widening the gap. He ended up with something like 30 points but he also had to have the ball in his hands 90% of that game to do it. At this point, he isn’t concerned with winning either, just getting his. 

[TheArtistPaysthePriceParticipant]

If a spark plug, microwave guy best at scoring in bunches off the bench is the "team guy" who lets it be known some guys on the team are selfish, then your team lacks leadership. They got problems and they need a professional stoic type of veteran on the roster.

Not that they need a undersized stretch 4, but Jamison has been great for the Canvs in that role, so has Parker. Glue guys who know how to act like Udonis Haslem are hard to find.

Side note… What would Minny look loke with Ginobilli next to Rubio.

[benny15Participant]

i get what youre saying. but how is that any different than how he played last year for the mavs? as far i can see, only the ammount of minutes differed. in fact, thats how he’s played this season because thats his game. is he ball dominant? yes. is his role to inject offense in the game? yes. does he get everyone involved, not all the time. and most of the time, its not enough time on the clock for others to create with the ball. Im not pegging JJ as a Jason Kidd, Steve Nash or Chris Paul type player. Not even saying he’s a Mike Conley, Jose Calderon or even Raymond Felton type. He’s a 6th man guy who enters the game to make an impact. A lesser level version of a Bobby Jackson, a Jason Terry or Leandro Barbosa. guys that are best comming off the bench since they are plug-in point guards who are more suited in being aggresive wheather that results in their own buckets or for a teamates.

now he’s forced to play extended minutes due to injuries to his teamates. I dont expect him to change his game to what it should be, he’ll be playing his game, his role but just doing more of it, the good and the bad. And thats because thats the best you could get out of a player. By letting him do his thing instead of reinventing him.

[river09Participant]

 Honestly I’m fed up with JJ Barea.. As soon as he took over the reigns at PG after the injuries to Rubio and Ridnour, the Wolves have absolutely tanked.. I didn’t like the fact the wolves brought him on board in the first place.. They needed a legit SG not a 5’6” PG who is a little too careless with the ball and doesn’t defer to his teammates at all…

[Raef LaFrentzParticipant]

@river09

I feel the same way. I have season tickets and the way Barea acts is downright funny. He seriously acts like his shit doesn’t stink. I’ve seen him and Kevin Love get into it on a number of occasions. This midget thinks he can tell the best player North of Oklahoma City not named Derrick Rose how to play basketball? Ridiculous. Whenever JJ is in the game it honestly looks like the other players don’t want to be out there with him. That is the complete opposite of how is was/is when Rubio is on the court. Or even Ridnour for that matter. JJ just needs to stop worrying about other people and trying to tell them how to "care." This dude’s girlfriend? She’s Miss Universe. She’s smokin’ hot. They have a baby together. But what does JJ do? Goes off and tries to get it on with a friend of mine. I realize how retarded and stupid that sounds, and it is probably not even my place to write it (especially on the internet to people I don’t know very well), but it’s the honest to God truth. Sorry for the rant, fellas. Just a fan who got a little protective when a tiny tiny midget decided to open his mouth and spew hypocritical garbage.

[Tongue-Out-Like-23Participant]

Aside from all the hate to JJ Barea (which I dislike him as well) the Minnesota Timberwolves have underachieved as well.  We learned a lot from the T-Wolves this season.  

What we learned:

• Not even Rick Adelman could get these guys to play.  
• They’ve got so much talent and they can’t win any games.  
• Kevin Love proved he’s in between being a 1st-option and 2nd-option.  A stat-stuffer on a terrible, terrible team.  We can’t say if he’s a superstar just yet, until he has a group of players that actually want to win will we find out.
• Pekovic and Rubio were pleasant surprises.  
• T-Wolves have no idea what they want to do with Derrick Williams and Michael Beasley.  
• Wesley Johnson doesn’t have a position.
• Outside of Love, Beasley and Ridnour, nobody on this team can make a jumpshot.
• Outside of Kevin Love, Nikola Pekovic, and Ricky Rubio, nobody has a set position.They need to make some changes this offseason to fix this mess they’ve made.

They need to make some changes this offseason to fix the mess they’ve made.  Thank goodness they don’t have any legitamate draft picks this off-season, Kahn would have probably drafted Perry Jones and Draymond Green just to add more tweeners.

[TheArtistPaysthePriceParticipant]

Dont know who negged you but those were great points. Ussually whenever a guy uses bullet points and supplies a few good ideas he should be supported.Go figure with some of the lame on this site.

A gunner at the 2 will always be a ire in the side of a quality 4. JJ and Love, Billups and Blake Griffin. All the smirks Blake was given Billups at the beginning of the season made me come to the realization I m no longer a griffin fan. It showed he was a actor. Hopefully Love doesnt fall from grace, but that why dont I get a contract that will damn the franchise move was close.

[TheArtistPaysthePriceParticipant]

Kahn might go Marquis Teague because he reminds him of Jhonny Flynn.

Diet Dr. Kahn tastes just like regular Dr. Kahn

[BigDParticipant]

JJ Barea has won a championship and was a key component of it, so regardless of how good the others are, like K-Love etc, they haven’t even made the playoffs, they should probably be listening to what he has to say.

[Johnny Chill]

Money cant buy wins…Wolves suck. Shoulda signed for less somewhere else.

[NbanflguyParticipant]

Money cant buy wins…Wolves suck. Shoulda signed for less somewhere else.

Wolves were 21-19 before Rubio went down. Had a +1.8 scoring margin with Rubio. Never had a full healthy team the whole season.  Wolves dont suck

[Tongue-Out-Like-23Participant]

Lol… proud of being 21-19 and a +1.8 scoring margin?  

Sometimes I think people forget what success is like.

[NbanflguyParticipant]

Lol… proud of being 21-19 and a +1.8 scoring margin?

When you have been the joke of the league for years…. yeah thats amazing improvement and is something to be proud of.  We were improving and had yet to play our best basketball. Also we didnt have our whole team healthy for 1 GAME this year. 1.8 scoring margin would be better than the Lakers, Magic, Dallas, Utah, Phoenix, and the same as Memphis. We were 3-0 against the Clippers, 2-0 against the spurs, 2-1 against the mavericks, and 3-1 against the Rockets. Yeah you can say we were not great, but cant say we sucked.

[HaleParticipant]

 "What we learned:

• Not even Rick Adelman could get these guys to play.
• They’ve got so much talent and they can’t win any games.
• Kevin Love proved he’s in between being a 1st-option and 2nd-option. A stat-stuffer on a terrible, terrible team. We can’t say if he’s a superstar just yet, until he has a group of players that actually want to win will we find out.
• Pekovic and Rubio were pleasant surprises.
• T-Wolves have no idea what they want to do with Derrick Williams and Michael Beasley.
• Wesley Johnson doesn’t have a position.
• Outside of Love, Beasley and Ridnour, nobody on this team can make a jumpshot.
• Outside of Kevin Love, Nikola Pekovic, and Ricky Rubio, nobody has a set position.They need to make some changes this offseason to fix this mess they’ve made."

1. Not really true. I hate the Wolves, but they were competitive as f*ck and would’ve been a tough out for anyone in the playoffs.

2. They were winning with Rubio, overall their talent level is solid but I wouldn’t say they have loads of it.

3-8. Pretty much

"Lol… proud of being 21-19 and a +1.8 scoring margin?

Sometimes I think people forget what success is like"

It what they had success? No. But it’s giant step forward for them, and if Rubio comes back healthy more likely then not they will be a playoff team next year and they are still a really young team.

 

 

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