Wolves Unfiltered: Ryan Gomes
By Stephen Litel
November 9th, 2008
For those still unfamiliar with my coverage of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx, I will, at times, present features such as this. As a situation presents itself, I’ll interview a player, coach or front office person and post it here at The Exchange.
What you may notice is the absence of an article written around the interview, instead leaving it as an empty-ended piece. The choice present these “unfiltered” pieces in this manner is to allow you the opportunity to read what was said and make your own determinations regarding it, rather than reading my opinion of it, as well as my opinion as to what to omit from the piece. Presented in their entirety, these interviews can hopefully spark conversation regarding their thoughts and the team as a whole.
In the first Unfiltered interview of the season, Ryan Gomes sat down for a chat prior to Wednesday night’s double overtime loss to the San Antonio Spurs. Here are his thoughts...
What are your overall impressions of team’s play early on?
"Overall, we have to get better, stay focused and get better at closing out games. We need to know that the plays that happen in the first, second, third and especially the fourth quarter are important. You do not want to look back at the game and say, “If that would have happened, it would have been a whole different game.” That is how we have to look at it."
"Like you said, it is still early, but all these teams in the NBA are very, very good and they have special things that they do. We have to make sure we key on the right things and what are defensive schemes are. If we get beat by them off things we were supposed to be doing, then we’re just going to have to shake their hands and know we followed what we were supposed to do, but they came out with a victory."
"Offensively, we have to get everybody involved. Randy (Foye) hasn’t been shooting the ball well. Randy just has to continue to be aggressive while being a point guard at the same time. In my opinion, Mike Miller hasn’t gotten three open shots this season so far. That’s giving credit to the defense and due to us not getting him open. It goes hand in hand, but we have to do a better job. We got him in this trade for a reason. He can put the ball in the basket, but if you look at his statistics early, I don’t think he’s attempted over nine shots. That shows we have to get him the wide-open looks he’s used to getting and things will turn out better for us as a whole."
"Personally, I have to pick my rebounding up. I’m not getting to the free throw line and that shows I’m either settling for shots or I’m not getting offensive rebounds. Those are things we have to clean up and everyone in this locker room has to look at themselves first. If you make yourself better, everything else trickles down. We all have to work because we don’t want a reoccurrence of last year. We have to go ahead and take it to someone else and finish out games."
Are the players on this team still figuring out what their individual roles are on this team or are they pretty clear-cut?
"I think it’s clear-cut. We all know our roles and what we’re supposed to do. I think the main issue with our team right now is we have to get our second guy, which is Mike Miller, get him the ball in places where he can be a playmaker and knock a shot down. That’s what he does best and we haven’t done that yet as a team. You credit the defense because they know we have Al (Jefferson) and we have Mike. At the beginning of games, they make a decision on whether they’re going to double Al and if Mike gets going, he gets going."
"We know our roles, but we have to stick to our schemes defensively and make sure we’re following the direction we were given before the game. We can’t try to be creative by ourselves and say, “Next time, they think I’m going to do it this way, so I’ll do it this way.” That’s what it’s mainly about right now. We are not a young team anymore. We know what we have to do, we know our players, but we have to stick to the script."
So, to put you on the spot a bit then, how do you define your role on this new look Wolves team?
"What I was told by the coaches is I’m one of our best help defenders, so I’m out there, trying to clog things up. I’m not the tallest guy at the four position, but certain nights that may work in my favor. Against certain lineups, it might work in their favor too. When we have seven footers out there and I’m playing the power forward position, I just try to stretch it out defensively for us, knock down some shots and take guys off the dribble. Most of the time, I have the mismatch due to the fact that guys are bigger than me, so I have to use my quickness. Like I said, I have to box out guys and get my rebounds up, make plays for us and set random screens because it’s not all about the point guard getting Mike going. It’s about everyone doing it."
"I like to play the game within the game. Look out there and scout a little bit, see what areas you can help your team get better and your teammates get better. That’s what I’m trying to do."
There are positives and negatives playing you at the small forward and power forward positions, respectively. Do you have a preference towards either position?
"The four is good for me some nights and the three is good for me some nights, but Corey (Brewer) has been doing a great job of defending, getting on the boards and doing things like that. He’s helping our team out, so now everyone else has to pick it up because he’s been a good defender, makes plays in transition and the rest of us will. We have another guy in Rodney Carney at the three, so I’m sure certain matchups against guys like Carmelo Anthony or Ron Artest I’ll play more of the three."
"Dirk Nowitzki is more of a perimeter player, so that’s a good matchup for me. Nick Collison got a lot of rebounds against me, so that didn’t work in my favor. I think I have good quickness to guard certain guys who are away from the basket, so we’re kind of similar. Those are the nights I’ll play the power forward."
For the next few weeks, this team will play a lot of road games. Is that a good thing for this team as everyone still attempts to get on the same page?
"I don’t want to say it will be a positive, but in order to be a good team, we have to learn how to win on the road. Our test is going to be against some really good teams, so those games will be games when we really need to come together as a team and get things done. Possessions are even more valuable on the road because if you turn it over, they’re going to try to put you in the ground. That’s where we have to become a better team because last year we didn’t do a good job of winning on the road. We have to value each possession, stick to our schemes and that will give us a chance going in there."
This summer brought new players, new uniforms and a new court to this team. Even with the rough start, it seems there’s also a different “vibe” as well. Can you explain that?
"Looking back to last year, we played well at the end of the season and I think that’s why we came back with a different kind of attitude. Coming into last year, we didn’t know what to expect. Everyone’s goal is to win, we all want to be a good team, but we all have different personalities. We didn’t know Coach Wittman, he didn’t know us, we’re learning his system after coming from another system and we were all feeling each other out."
"After the All-Star break, we played well, so that’s what the vibe was coming in. Everyone was excited for this year because we were going to be good because we know our roles and we know what Coach Wittman expects.” “Now, with the new uniforms and new court, it’s a little bit different. If we didn’t have either one of those, we would still have the same kind of confidence because of how we finished up last year."
There were so many unknowns last year, it almost seemed as if there weren’t any expectations either. Now, with the familiarity with each other and Coach Wittman, what is a realistic expectation of this team this year?
"My expectation would be that we double our win total from last year. Last year, we won 22 games, so 44 should be a number we can get to. I’m not going to say we know we can come out and win the championship this year, but, of course, we always hope to do that.” “Realistically, if we get into the forties in our win total, that would be a big, positive step in the right direction. Once we get to that, then you start processing other goals. Maybe in the last 15 games or so, we have a shot at getting into the eighth spot of the playoffs and we shoot for that. As of right now, we have a positive vibe that we can be 0.500 or above 0.500 this year."
