On Wolves, manager of the year, the triangle offense and stadiums

My latest Series of Random Thoughts:

-I went to the Wolves game tonight. I don't know why. I need professional help.

One interesting recent development has been the Wolves' braintrust assuring us that they are not planning to use the Triangle Offense exlusively. While Kurt Rambis and David Kahn have tried to explain that the Triangle is just one way to get into an offense, especially when trying to push the ball up the court, what has become very evident is that the players aren't too comfortable with the offense. If they know the offense. I think most of them are playing the rhombus.

Seriously, the worst thing a coach can do is confuse his own players. Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe the Wolves are so bad that they might as well learn a new offense, because they wouldn't win anyway. But what I see is a young point guard already frustrated by his offense, a young point guard who knows that Brandon Jennings is being coached by a point guard and getting to light it up, a young point guard who looks lost half the time he's on the court.

What is most interesting about this process is that Rambis talks as if he has a 10-year contract. He is very confident for a man with one victory.

-I know Jim Tracy is a logical choice for NL manager of the year, but I don't know anyone in baseball who thinks he's a good manager.

Sometimes, just making a chance can shock a team into playing better. I'm still not sure that Clint Hurdle isn't as good as or better than Tracy.

Similarly, I think Mike Scioscia is an excellent manager, and I think highly of Ron Gardenhire, and I voted for Gardenhire over Scioscia this year because, simply, Gardenhire had far less to work with. The Twins had no business making the playoffs with the lineup and rotation they were featuring in September.

-Stop complaining about Target Field lacking a roof. I would have loved to watch outdoor baseball this week, or last week.

-I know some of you don't want to pay for Access Vikings, but I wrote about Brad Childress' perception of public perception of him for the Wednesday paper. Yes, we still put out a paper.

-I agree with the Wilfs in their dispute with the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission. Threatening a team that may have reason to look to Los Angeles is a really bad idea.

Let's skip the cliched arguments about billionaire owners and millionaire players getting subsidized by the public. Eventually, the choice will be simple: Finance a new stadium to some extent or lose the team.

The problem with making the argument that we should let the team leave is that acquiring a new team to replace the Vikings would be much more expensive than finding a stadium solution for the current franchise, and you have to be smart enough to know that if the Vikings left, Minnesota would eventually try to acquire a new team, just like Baltimore and Cleveland did.

Upcoming: I'm heading to Iowa to cover the Gophers game this weekend. I'm writing about the challenges facing the Gophers athletic department for the Friday paper. I'll be on KSTP Friday from 7-8 p.m. I'm on with Reusse at 6:40 am Thursday and Friday morning, and on WJON at 7:14 those mornings.

You can follow me on Twitter at SouhanStrib.

Now I'm going to spend some time collecting my thought.