Game 7: The rotation riddle

After sitting in the Target Center stands on Friday night and watching last night's mess at Portland, I find myself curious about the Rambis Rotation.

As I look at this Timberwolves team, the one thing I don't see is an overabundance of talent, a long list of guys who are swimming in awesomeness. I see one star in Big Al, a couple of guys who have a chance to be very good in Flynn and KLove and then a collection of role players of varying degrees. Corey Brewer and Ryan Gomes are decent players, but would they start on a really good team? 

After that, the roster is littered with guys who either are young and unproven or old and get by on their grit.

What does this mean? It means I wonder why then have there been times when Rambis has a team on the floor without a single starter?

I'm not sure the Wolves could have beaten Portland the way the Blazers played last night, but when Rambis went to the bench at the end of the first quarter and beginning of the second, all hope of victory was lost. Late in the first quarter and early in the second, the Wolves were outscored by 8 points when they had the group of Ryan Hollins, Wayne Ellington, Nate Jawai, Ramon Sessions and Sasha Pavlovic on the floor.

I wonder why. Maybe it is because none of those guys are go-to scorers and are all supporting scorers? You think.

On Friday night's loss to Milwaukee, the Wolves lost significant ground in the second half when they had Brewer, Hollins, Sessions, Sasha and Wilkins on the floor.  

I get the cat-and-mouse game that is played between coaching staffs and that it might be smart to sit Al when Nate McMillin takes Greg Oden out of the game. But I'd like to see a way for Rambis to rotate his roster so that there is always a scorer on the floor. 

How do you do that? I realize it is a challenge. But if there's one thing that the Wolves have going for them, it is the fact that the roster is filled with young guys. You don't want to run them into the ground, but its possible for the younger guys to play a few more minutes in spurts.