Chase Budinger really, really likes playing for Rick Adelman. He openly gushes about the opportunities Adelman’s corner offense creates for him, and how the principles of Adelman’s system mesh perfectly with his ability to shoot 3-pointers and make decisive cuts.
With all the talk today after Mike Brown’s firing, it’s hard not to look at the Timberwolves early success with a certain level of awe. Even with no Ricky Rubio and Kevin Love (and Brandon Roy for the second half due to knee soreness), Adelman just continues to plug and play, and the Wolves keep winning games with good passing and smart play off the ball, even though they’re severely lacking in individual talent in the traditional sense. No one can break down a defense, they only have one post threat (Nikola Pekovic) and their bench is a hodgepodge of journeymen (Dante Cunningham) and unproven young guys (Alexey Shved). Despite all that, it’s clear that this is a roster that has fully bought in, which is more than you can say for about half of the teams in the league, it seems.
Back to tonight. After Indiana’s George Hill hit an incredible, step-back 3-pointer to tie the game, the Wolves were left with four seconds to make something happen. These are the situations where a coach can truly shine, and there isn’t a better coach at drawing up a sidelines out of bounds play with the game on the line than Adelman. It helps when a defender falls asleep, but it’s hard not to give Adelman credit for ingraining that principle in Budinger’s head — if you see the back of your defender’s head, go. And that’s just what Budinger did to win the game for the Wolves on a beautiful, heads up play:
