The 600 Project

The most difficult thing is the teasing

2009-12-20T18:36:00.004-06:00

As I sit here on a late Sunday afternoon, the Timberwolves are currently getting their collective asses kicked by the Boston Celtics. In many ways this doesn't really bother me. The C's, after all, are one of the three best teams in the Eastern Conference. They are two years away from winning the title. And they have a helluva lot more talented than the Baby Wolves.

But it caps a week that demonstrates to me just how tough it is to hang with a team through rebuilding.

The tough part isn't knowing there are games when your team doesn't have a shot and will need something close to a miracle to win. What's tougher is simply the teasing.

The teasing? Yep.

Let's look back at the past nine days or so. Last Saturday they get stomped at Sacramento, losing by 20. Monday night they respond by getting a very nice win at Utah. They come back Wednesday night and show not nearly enough effort in a bad loss to the Clippers. And then they lead tip-to-horn in the rematch against Sacramento and win. Tonight, the Wolves are simply overmatched and that could be the case again Tuesday against Atlanta.

Maybe I'm not patient enough for the reality of NBA rebuilding, but I'd like to see more consistent play. I know there are a large number of teams that are flat-out better than the Wolves, but I'd like to begin to see the elimination of the really bad performances.

The Wolves, as bad as they are, aren't 20 worse than Sacto. They shouldn't fail to show up for a winnable home game against the Clippers.

I get that 82 games is a lot of games. Maybe this doesn't have much of a point, but I'd like to see a few of the bad games vanish. I also know this isn't simply a Minnesota problem. Oklahoma City has run into a little of this. Sacramento has done the same as has Milwaukee. Even Portland -- albeit the injury-riddled Blazers -- have struggled with this.

I am happy that this team is getting better. Waiting for the the Wolves to make another small step is difficult.

I love eBay/what to expect tonight.

2009-12-16T15:18:00.004-06:00

I just walked back to my desk from the printer. In my hand is the printout of two tickets for tonight's Wolves-Clippers game. I bought them off of eBay. $100 worth of tickets that I scored for $18.30. How good is that? For less than the price of going to a movie, I'll get to see a number of good young NBA players. Will I see a playoff team? Probably not, but it should at least be interesting.

What exactly will I see this evening? The team that got crushed at Sacramento? Or the one that made good plays (with Gomes out) down the stretch in Monday night's win at Utah?

While the Timberwolves still have but four victories this season and are last in the Western Conference, there are some good things out there. A look at them:

- The biggest thing is that the Wolves simply have a better clue as to what Rambis wants offensively. There looks to be less confusion and less standing around.

- JFlynn, in the process, seems to have a better sense of what he wants to do and is playing with more confidence. His play at the end of the Utah victory was strong. I didn't like the early-in-the-clock three with a couple of possessions remaining. But the way he beat Deron Williams off of the bounce on the winning basket was very good. That is especially the case considering that the screen to get him loose never really got Williams.

-I'll be interested in seeing Corey Brewer tonight. He played his best game of the season against Utah in that he played a bunch of minutes, scored 22 points, shot better than 50 percent from the floor, had two assists for every turnover and took a great charge in the final 45 seconds on Carlos Boozer. While I didn't see the Sacramento game, he shot better than 50 percent in that game as well. I hope that he has figured out the magic of good shot selection. If that is the case, that would be significant for the Wolves.

-Has Big Al finally returned? On the recent road trip, Big Al averaged 24.3 points and 12 rebounds per game. He scored 23 or more points in each game, marking the first time this season he has gotten 20 in three straight games. Maybe the knee is starting to feel good. It will be interesting to see what he can do against Chris Kaman tonight. Al only had 13 points against the Clippers earlier this season while turning the ball over eight times.

FLYNN FOURTH: If you have ESPN insider access, you can read David Thorpe's analysis of the rookie class at this point. Thorpe rankes Flynn fourth behind Tyreke Evans, Brandon Jennings and Omri Casspi. I totally get the first two. I'm not as sold on Casspi, but I can't totally argue either as the native of Israel is having a fine rookie season for the Kings. At the same time, he doesn't have nearly the responsibilities as Flynn either.

That's it for now. Looking forward to an evening at Target Center tonight.

Dead Freakin' Last

2009-12-14T15:39:00.003-06:00

That is where Marc Stein has the Wolves now in his weekly power rankings. You can see it here.

I'm not sure the Wolves are last as they have played better since Love's return. That said, I only saw the first half of Saturday night's butt-kicking from Sacramento. It appears as if keeping the wife happy was a good move because that thing got UGLY.

Tonight at Utah? Would love to say that I'm optimistic.

I do have an eBay bid on some tickets for Wednesday night against the Clippers. Will know by the end of the night if I'll be in Target Center for the big game.

Also, make sure you check out the New York Times story on the Triangle offense. It is some good stuff.

That's it for now. I might be tweeting during tonight's game, so make sure you're following @the600project.

UPDATE: Timberwolves.com says Gomes isn't going to play tonight after tweaking his knee. He can walk and should be fine, but won't play tonight. Audio link here

Thoughts on Lakers and Kings

2009-12-12T11:46:00.004-06:00

Well, let's get the most interesting item of last night out of the way. Here is the link to the Corey Brewer total facial of Derek Fisher from last night. It is nasty.

The game itself wasn't nearly as awful as I expected it to be. The Wolves actually played pretty well against a Lakers team that is, frankly, way better and way more talented. It was a one-point game at halftime and finished as a 12-point loss to the team that is clearly the best in the West.

I really thought this was probably Al Jefferson's most complete game this season, especially considering the level of competition. Big Al finished with 24 and 13 while shooting better than 50 percent from the floor. While everyone would like to see the pre-knee injury Al from last season, that hasn't always been the case. But against the Lakers, there were more glimpses of it.

In addition, Sessions was very effective, especially in the second quarter as the Wolves kept this from being a total ass kicking.

As I posted yesterday, that brings us to another challenging game tonight at Sacramento. I know what you might be thinking: Sacramento, they suck. Wolves will win for sure.

I'm not sure that I agree with that line of thinking. The Kings, in my estimation, have exceeded expectations as much as any team in the Association. Sacramento, after all, won only 17 games and current Wolves assistant Reggie Theus was fired just 24 games into the season.

This season, Sacramento has won nine games despite playing without its best player -- Kevin Martin -- for much of the year. I truly thought when Martin went down that the Kings were again going to be the worst team in the West.

Exactly what has happened under new coach Paul Westphal is difficult to completely explain. Rookie guard Tyreke Evans has been very good (20.2 ppg) and really might end up as the best rookie in the league (even despite Brandon Jennings going for 55 earlier this year). In addition, second year big Jason Thompson has shown significant improvement.

I have taken to watching the Kings a little bit at night on League Pass and one thing that has been fairly consistent is that Sacramento really plays hard. Effort is sometimes easier to see than it is to quantify, but here's one area where it shows -- the Kings are outrebounding opponents by 40 for the season in 21 games.

While the Kings are better, this is the most realistic opportunity for the Wolves to get a win on this road trip. It won't be easy, but it also isn't impossible. It will be interesting to see how the Wolves respond to the second night of a back-to-back.

On additional note: There was an interesting CBSSports.com story yesterday that discusses NBA attendance/revenue. This might not be a shock to anyone who has been to Target Center this season, but Ken Berger says that the Wolves revenue is down 24.4 percent over a year ago. That, my friends, is fairly scary.

If there is some good news it is that the Wolves are not in the bottom five in PAID attendance per game. Memphis is last in the league, averaging only 6,879. Sacramento, Milwaukee, Philly and Charlotte all also average less than 9,000 paying customers per game. The Wolves are 21st in announced attendance (generally tickets distributed) at 15,077 per game. It is very unclear what the paid number is.

One other tidbit from the story shows that the Wolves are among teams bringing in less than $500K in revenue/game.

"Compared to full-season figures for 2008-09, the number of teams netting less than $500,000 in gate receipts per home game has grown from five to eight, with the Sixers, Kings, and Bobcats joining the Grizzlies, Timberwolves, Bucks,Pacers, and Hawks in the under-$500K club."

Will Sessions be moved?

2009-12-11T13:42:00.002-06:00

That's at least a possibility according to ESPN.com's Marc Stein.

He lists Sessions as one of the players most likely to be moved in this piece.

Does that make sense? It's not a crazy idea. With Jonny Flynn appearing to get more and more comfortable, it certainly looks like Sessions' minutes are going to go down as we get further into this season.

That, however, does create some issues. The biggest of which is who the hell would back up Flynn? Obviously they could get a backup PG in a deal or sign somebody from the D-League or something. Some of that could make sense if the hope is to get John Wall.

Anyway, food for thought. Just wanted to pass it along.

A couple of quick items

2009-12-11T10:02:00.002-06:00

Semi short of time here this morning, but wanted to throw out a couple of things for my faithful readers (seriously, I love the comments).

In this morning's Star Tribune, it was pretty clear that Jerry Zgoda went to Lakers practice yesterday.

A couple of the highlights:

- The last four Wolves losses have come by an average of 2.7 points. The previous 11 losses were by an average of 18.8 points.

- Phil Jackson on the Wolves: "They look like they started to get it about a week and a half ago. They're starting to play better. It's nice to see his team starting to play well and be competitive. They've gotten over the hump, so to speak, so I'm warning our guys not to take them lightly."

My thoughts:

1. I expect the Wolves to get their asses completely kicked tonight at Staples Center. If we have learned anything in the first six weeks of this NBA season, it is that the Lakers are in a different universe from the rest of the teams in the West. Eight of the Lakers 17 victories this season have been by 15 or more points. They beat Utah the other night by 24 points. They have a 19- and a 20-point win over Phoenix. They beat the Bulls by 15, Oklahoma City by 16, New Orleans by 16, Memphis by 16 and Golden State by a whopping 33. Basically I'm going with no expectations and if the Wolves make it somewhat competitive, I'll be thrilled.

2. If the Wolves can win one game on this three-game road trip, that would be a pretty good feat. I'm guessing, however, that it will be an 0-3 trip. Winning at Sacramento seems like the most obvious place to get a win, but the surprising Kings are 8-3 at Arco this season (losing only to Miami, Chicago and Atlanta). In addition, guess who doesn't play tonight? Yep, Sacto. And Monday night in Utah? I say no chance. The Jazz are going to want to give the Wolves a serious beatdown after losing here last Saturday.

3. Here are a few things I'll be watching for on this trip: How long can Rambis keep bringing Love off of the bench? How will the minute distribution between Flynn and Sessions evolve? How will Ellington adjust now that teams have some film of him playing legit minutes?

That's probably it from here today. Please chime in whenever in the comments. I am happy to hear from you, even if you disagree with me.

The perfect game?

2009-12-10T12:11:00.002-06:00

The email was on my BlackBerry when I woke up this morning. The sender was a friend of mine who loves all things Minnesota sports. The Wolves aren't his favorite team, but he watches a good number of games and has a decent sense as to what is going on.

His take was simple: Last night's loss to New Orleans was the perfect game for the Timberwolves.

I'm not sure that I believe with that, but I do get his point. The Timberwolves played very well for 2 1/2 quarters and still had a chance to win the game in the final minutes. Jonny Flynn set a career high in assists, KLove was again solid and Big Al put up good numbers.

And they lost.

My buddy says he's now on the bandwagon for the Wolves to lose as many games as possible so they have the best chance at winning the lottery and landing John Wall. The way he puts it, "the difference between 15 and 22 victories is irrelevant, but if that means we can get just one more ping-pong ball, it's worth losing."

My take has been that the Wolves need to eliminate this culture of losing and at least establish a culture of improvement. I was disappointed that the Wolves had awful offensive execution in the second half that was littered with turnovers and predictable play. I was bummed that Flynn lost CP3 on that last inbounds play. Because while New Orleans isn't what it was a couple of years ago, it is still a decent team. I would like to see the Wolves win some games -- like the Saturday win over Utah -- against teams that are at least in the conversation for the playoffs. I'd also like to have them show some improvement so that they might be on the radar screen of more people in the Twin Cities. Because eventually this whole economic model of no one showing up will collapse.

What are your thoughts? Should people hope for loss after loss? Or should they try to squeeze out every possible victory?

The worst job in sports?

2009-12-09T10:33:00.003-06:00

There are certainly bad jobs out there in the sports world. You could do the laundry of large NFL linemen. You could be one of those goofy guys with the flags at the Vikings. You could be Tiger Woods' PR guy right now.

But is there a tougher job in sports than to be someone trying to make a living by selling tickets for the Timberwolves?

These poor folks -- who can't be making all that much money -- have to try to find a way to get people to buy tickets from the team to see a team that is off the radar of way too many people in town.

Tonight the Wolves host New Orleans. I don't have corporate or vendor tickets for tonight's game. Now I realize I should probably go home after work, deal with the snow in my driveway and curl up in front of my TV to watch the game. But there is something about watching Chris Paul in person that has me at least considering another option.

It is amazing how little you can get into a game for now at the Target Center (can you really go more than about 48 hours without receiving some sort of ticket email from the team?). A quick glance at Craigslist/StubHub/eBay/Ticket King has pairs upstairs for less than $10. Downstairs tickets can be had for very little as well. I can only imagine what scalpers are getting outside. Can't be much.

This leads me to something of a moral question: Do you ever feel like you should buy from the team? That way the Wolves don't lose as much money, people might not lose jobs, the team can't use the 'we're losing money so we can't get better' card.

I am sometimes torn on that. I'm cool with buying from the team, but I need to look out for my own pocketbook as well. A cheap or free ticket that happens to end up in my lap is always a good thing and, obviously, I'm going to buy a beer or two and something to eat at the game.

Anyway, still considering ticket options. Maybe I'll see if somebody on Craigslist gets desperate by the end of the afternoon and I can grab some good seats for peanuts. Otherwise, I'm probably going blow snow and watch on TV.

And if you are someone trying to sell tickets in this market, I feel for you. I think the product isn't bad and is worth watching, but this is the biggest problem with the start of the seasons. The Wolves can no longer sell hope to the public and that is not a good thing.

Perhaps progress at the quarter pole

2009-12-07T12:00:00.003-06:00

OK, I know that 82 games isn't divisible by four. But for the sake of this little blog post, I'm calling 20 games into the season to be the quarter mark.

For the Minnesota Timberwolves, the first fourth of the season hasn't been terribly pretty. There was a 15 game losing streak. There were lots of new faces. There was little Kevin Love. There was Al Jefferson, but not at 100 percent.

But on Saturday night, there were brief signs of life. A murmur. A little something. If the NBA season was a Grey's Anatomy episode, the Wolves would still be on the operating table and Christina would be bitching about something while Derek attempted another impossible surgery. On second thought, maybe I should quit the Grey's Anatomy reference since Seattle couldn't even keep its NBA team.

But as I sat in Target Center on Saturday night, I couldn't really believe what I was seeing. The Wolves played with confidence. They, largely, made good decisions down the stretch. They knocked down open shots. And they beat Utah for their first home victory since opening night.

While Utah is more middle-of-the-pack than great, the Jazz do still have some nice pieces. They have a great PG in Deron Williams, they have a system and they usually don't beat themselves.

At the end, I don't really care that the Wolves won on Saturday. I do, however, care about how they won. They won, in large part, by going young. Over the final 5-plus minutes, Rambis went with this lineup:

Big Al, KLove, Gomes, Flynn and Ellington.

Or 24 years old, 21, 27, 20, 22

Or sixth year, second year, fifth year, rookie, rookie

This, to me, is progress. I understand that making the Wolves competitive is going to be a process. I get that it is going to take time. And I'm cool with that. I'm cool with them losing if it means truly playing guys who have a chance moving forward.

What I'm not cool with is playing the guys who aren't part of the longer term future. I don't want to see Pecherov on the floor at the end of games. I don't want Jawai. I certainly don't want to see Brian Cardinal.

I say play the kids and see what happens. I'm cool with a little bit of Damien Wilkins, but not a ton. I don't think Ryan Hollins is really an answer, so I want only small doses. I am also not super excited to see Corey Brewer on the floor during the final minutes because he simply isn't good enough.

One more thing. Less Sasha Pavlovic would be nice.

To me the return of KLove and the improved play of Ellington helps greatly in this area. Against the Jazz, neither Pecherov or Jawai saw the floor and Hollins played less than 13 minutes. We all know that Kevin Love has a chance to be a very good player in the NBA. He may never be an All-Star, but he is very, very solid. He rebounds like crazy, he starts the team's transition game and he makes very few mistakes. After all, he has two double-doubles in two games. What's wrong with that?

But as important as Love's return is to the Wolves, the emergence of Ellington in the past week can't be overlooked. Part of the reason why I like Ellington is that he seems to have a good understanding of what he can't do and he tries to find ways to do what he is good at. He's a good outside shooter, he's a pretty good passer and he's kind of sneaky good as a rebounder.

Over the past three games, Ellington has averaged 26 minutes, 3 rebounds and 10 points per game while shooting .619 from the floor and averaging more assists than turnovers. Let's compare him with Corey Brewer. Over Brewer's past five games (easy stats on espn.com), he is averaging 25.8 minutes, 3.4 rebounds, 8 points per game while shooting .372 and turning the ball over more than getting assists.

Corey Brewer seems like a nice guy. He seems to be in good shape after missing almost all of last season with a kneed injury. And he's a good dunker. But Wayne Ellington is way more efficient offensively, doesn't make as many dumb plays and doesn't need as many shots to score.

The biggest difference to me is that he seems to know his limitations and avoids things he isn't good at while Brewer either doesn't know or doesn't care that his range is about four feet from the basket. He also tries for the impossible a little more than I'd like and that leads to turnovers.

Anyway, this thing has gone in about 12 different directions, but I think the combination of KLove returning and Ellington seeing more late-game minutes is a step in the right direction.

Returning from injury. And what might have been.

2009-12-04T12:03:00.002-06:00

When Wolves play tonight at New Orleans, much of the focus will be on Kevin Love. Jerry Zgoda just tweeted that Love will play tonight for the first time this season after breaking a bone in his hand during the preseason.

But I keep thinking back to last Feb. 8. That was the night that Al Jefferson went down in a heap near the end of a loss to the Hornets. You know the rest of the story: Torn ACL, out for the season, Wolves go into a total tailspin.

The Wolves had just gone 13-9 over the previous 22 games, but would go a brutal 7-25 the rest of the way.

Even now, I don't think Al is fully healthy. He's played, but hasn't looked like himself. He's been great at times and then vansished at other times. It might be another month until he's fully the Al we once knew.

But what happens if Al isn't on the floor in the final 30 seconds at New Orleans Arena? How many more games do they win? Another five? Another 10? What does that do to the team's draft position?

Do they make the move with the Wizards? Do they end up with Rubio and Flynn? Do they end up with someone like Tyreke Evans or Brandon Jennings?

Back to Love. I am interested to see how much he plays tonight and, as a result, how much he plays tomorrow night at Target Center against the Jazz.

As Phil Miller wrote in the Star Tribune this morning, the Wolves should be able to take advantage of Love's ability to outlet the ball quickly and play faster. There is reason to believe that one of the slowest offenses in the NBA will speed up and get more easy baskets.

I don't think this is going to be an immediate fix for the Wolves. Love needs to get in a little better game shape -- working out is not the same as playing in a NBA game. But I do think the Wolves are going to get better.

How much better is a question. Just as it is interesting to think about what could have happened if Big Al had had a better last trip to New Orleans.

Entering a cold winter

2009-12-03T16:35:00.002-06:00

Thanks to some corporate seats, I was about 12 rows up on the side from Ramon Sessions when he missed the first of two free throws last night. All he had was an opportunity to last night's game in the closing seconds and potentially force overtime against the Memphis Grizzlies.

I watched the Wolves melt down, again, in the third quarter and give up control of a game that they owned in the first half. I watched defense -- especially on Rudy Gay and Zach Randolph -- become super soft.

A postgame beer later, I walked out into a brisk night and it hit me: This is all we've got. The Timberwolves are a bad team and even though Kevin Love could be back as soon as Friday night, I'm not sure things are going to really change.

Because let's be honest. If you can't beat a bad Memphis team that was playing the final game of a five game road trip at home, how good can you really be?

I tried to be optimistic even as the Wolves won game after game. I thought it was the schedule and that the home losses weren't really all that bad. But nobody is going to confuse Memphis with the Lakers or the Celtics. While the Grizzlies do have a few good players, there doesn't seem to be a big team concept going on there.

And if you can't beat a Griz team with an injured point guard, who are you going to beat?

It has been five weeks since the Wolves won their home opener. When are they going to win again at Target Center?

I truly thought this team would be improved over a year ago. Damn was I wrong. And it's going to be a long, cold winter.

KLove back by the weekend?

2009-12-02T16:02:00.002-06:00

Jerry Zgoda blogs about it here. Love says he's hoping for Saturday against Utah. But Tuesday at Toronto could be the date as well.

The month ahead: December

2009-12-01T23:39:00.002-06:00

The Wolves enter December on a win-a-month pace. They won once in October and then, 15 losses later, won the final game in November. Here's a look at where they are, how that compares with a year ago and what to expect over the next month.

Overall record: 2-15

November record: 1-14

Record through November last season: 4-11

December record last season: 2-14

What to expect: While the bar is admittedly quite low, it seems quite unlikely that the Timberwolves will be as bad in December as they were in November. The team should be gaining a greater understanding of the Kurt Rambis' offense and get a better sense of what the head coach wants. In addition, Kevin Love -- who hasn't played since breaking a bone in his non-shooting hand during a preseason game at Chicago -- should return by mid-month at the latest.

And there is the schedule. The December schedule is easier. Much easier.

After a November that saw the Wolves make three separate trips to the West Coast and have double games with Phoenix, Portland and Denver (along with the Clippers), things are much different.

The Wolves only have one West Coast trip in the month, they have eight home games instead of seven and the multiple games are against Utah, New Orleans and a surprising Sacramento team.

In addition, there are simply more games that you look at and say, "They might be able to win that." That starts Wednesday night with a home game against Memphis. In addition, there are two games against a banged up New Orleans team, two with the Kings, a home game against the Clippers, a game at awful New Jersey and a home game against Washington.

What's realistic: The Wolves should win at least four games this month and five or six isn't completely crazy. Five wins in December would put the Wolves ahead of their victory pace at that point a year ago. That, however, is a bit deceiving as the McHale led Wolves went 10-4 in January.

Game worth seeing: I am a big fan of two things. I like teams on the rise and I like catching teams from the East that only make one trip to MSP. Because of that, I'm calling the Dec. 22 game against Atlanta as the one to go to. The Hawks are an example of why NBA fans need to have patience. Five years ago, Atlanta went 13-69. Since then the Hawks have steadily increased their win total, going from 26 to 30 to 37 and 47 a year ago. They are currently 12-5 this season with two wins over Portland, a win at Boston and a win over Miami. Plus the game is a chance to see Joe Johnson in person. After the uber-elite of LeBron, DWade and Bosh, Johnson will be among the most interesting free agents available this summer.

Three Random Things

2009-12-01T11:04:00.002-06:00

Maybe I'll make this a regular part of the blog. We'll see I guess. But here are Three Random Things going through my mind when it comes to the NBA.

1. My biggest weakness has become the Golden State Warriors.

Some people love chocolate. Other people can't stop smoking. I can't stop watching the Golden State Warriors.

I know that the Warriors are totally flawed and dysfunctional. I know that Monta Ellis said on the first day of training camp that there was no way that he and Steph Curry could play together. I know that they were dumb enough to sign S-Jax to a big deal and then trade him away for not a whole lot. I know that Don Nelson does crazy things like not play Anthony Randolph enough minutes.

But, man, are they fun to watch. The ball moves like crazy. Ellis attacks the rim like he's twice the size that he is. Anthony Morrow might be the best three-point shooter in the Association. And they can run it up on almost anybody.

It has reached the point for me that if I'm flipping around the League Pass offerings and the Warriors are play, I'm probably watching. Hell, I'm considering trying to buy one of those sweet "City" T-shirts. Last night's game against Indiana was a perfect example of why. The Pacers had no clue as to slow down Ellis. He finished with 45 despite fouling out with about six minutes left on what I thought was a crap block/charge call.

Tonight, the Warriors play Denver and I'll probably watch again. Nothing like a little late night up and down.

2. What doesn't get talked about regarding Brandon Jennings

Upon my return from Thanksgiving, I found Sports Illustrated sitting in my mailbox. In it was a nice piece on Brandon Jennings. While I've seen him mentioned a little bit in stories on Jennings, this piece quoted former Oklahoma and Indiana coach Kelvin Sampson at length.

I really think that Sampson's role on the Milwaukee staff has helped Jennings greatly. Sampson was one of those college coaches that forced his guys to work. He was a cheater, but he got his guys to work, play hard, defend and get after it. Sampson has worked hard with Jennings on his outside shooting -- what many people thought was his biggest weakness. He has repeatedly worked him out, put him through drills and given him confidence.

Plus almost all of Sampson's coaching career has been spent dealing with players around Jennings' age. He understands what a teenager is like, what a teenager wants and how to get through to them. That can only be a bonus.

3. My new reading material

Over the weekend, I picked up the still pretty new Bill Simmons' The Book of Basketball. First, you have to love Costco. The list price for this massive 700-page epic is $30. I saw it at Target for $21. I bought it at Costco for $16 and change.

I'm not super far into the book, but it seems as if it is going to be a good read. Simmons is funny and I had no idea about his history of going to Celtics games at Boston Garden. The book seems cool so far and the footnotes are hilarious.

I'm sure there will be more updates down the line.

That's three items. And I'm out. Look for a post later about the month ahead for the Wolves.

Yes, amazing does happen.

2009-11-30T14:55:00.002-06:00

Yes, cue up the Kanye West.

The Minnesota Timberwolves won a game. On the road. Against a good team. It is quite amazing.

I thought the Wolves were destined for an 0-for-November streak when they entered Sunday night's game at Denver. Minnesota, after all, was playing a Nuggets team that defeated it by 13 points at home just a few nights earlier. And that final score was closer than how the game really played out.

If you look at the Wolves 15-game losing streak, the numbers are pretty staggering. Only four of the losses were by single digits. There was a 41 point loss at Golden State, a 28 point loss to Portland and a 25 point loss to Phoenix. The average margin of defeat in this stretch was by 15.13 points.

So how did they beat a Denver team that has been very solid so far this season? I know this sounds extremely lame and the stats geeks aren't going to like it, but the Wolves shot the ball well over the final three quarters, they played good defense and they never freaked out.

After an awful first quarter, the Wolves made 32 of 59 shots over the final three quarters. They shot better than 50 percent in the second and third and shot exactly 50 percent in the fourth quarter. We haven't seen that this season. Even after last night's victory, the Wolves still rank 29th in the NBA in offensive efficiency and effective FG% percentage according to Knickerblogger's stat page.

On the other end of the floor, Denver shot poorly. While it's difficult to really know if this was crooked shooting by the Nuggs or great defense by Minnesota (maybe a little of each?), Denver shot 41.7 percent for the game and was only 4-19 as the Wolves got back in the game in the fourth quarter.

The Wolves also showed some poise for maybe the first time this season. They were below their season average for turnovers (which means Jonny Flynn played more under control than in the past), they never got rattled when Denver rallied down the stretch. They continued to defend and run their offense. There weren't a ton of forced shots or early in the clock shots in the fourth quarter. Those are good signs.

One thing that I liked while watching the game and really liked when looking at the Popcorn Machine gameflow was how Rambis managed his bench. As I've blogged about in the past, I don't think the Wolves can just go and put in the second unit all at once. There is too much of a dropoff.

Last night, there wasn't a single time in which there wasn't at least one starter on the floor. After halftime, there were at least two starters on the floor at all times. That, to me, is important. The Wolves aren't good enough to just slide in five new guys, especially offensively. There were times in the losing streak in which Rambis would put a lineup of guys on the floor that simply couldn't score. That, for once, changed.

Now here's the big question: Can the Wolves win two in a row? With an average Memphis team coming in on Wednesday, I don't think it's impossible. While it may not happen, at least now that is a possibility. Sure beats saying that the losing streak was crawling toward 20.

Negativity on Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T16:25:00.004-06:00

A few things on this Turkey Day.

1. Many apologies for a recent lack of blogging. I haven't given up, I've just been a bit busier than I would like in my work life. I do so hate when work gets in the way of other things. I did have most of a post written after last week's loss to Houston, but it never quite got finished. My take was that I want to see more Ramon Sessions and less Jonny Flynn.

2. I'm out of town this weekend so I didn't see a single second of last night's loss to Denver and, barring something really strange, won't see any of tomorrow night's game against Phoenix. From looking at the box score and seeing some video highlights on nba.com, it seemed like more of the same: missed shots, little defense and a fourth-quarter rally against the other team's reserves to make it look closer than it really was.

3. I do wonder exactly when the Timberwolves are going to win another game. I knew this season was going to be a challenge and that became an even greater challenge once KLove broke his hand in the preseason, but I didn't think it was going to be this bad. I thought we were looking at a 25-win season or something in that ballpark. So we're sitting here on Thanksgiving and the Wolves are 1-14 and they are really very close to being 0-15. Last night's loss makes it official that this is the worst start in Wolves history.

Think about that for a second: Worst start in Wolves history. That really is saying something. We have seen a good amount of bad basketball here in the Twin Cities. Hell, the didn't get to 20 wins in either 92 or 93 before following that up with 20 wins in 94 and 21 wins in 95. But all of those teams recorded more than one win in the first 15 games of the season.

I can't see the Wolves beating Phoenix tomorrow night or winning at Denver on Sunday. That will make them 0-for-November. That, friends, is brutal.

There is one thing I'm thankful for on this day, however.

1. I am thankful that we do have a NBA team to watch, despite the recent sucking of the Wolves. I recently saw a friend from Seattle who was in town for work. He talked about how once the Seahawks are through, there isn't all that much to get excited about until the Mariners start in April. Yes, there is college hoops, but it isn't the same.

So we do have that.

I'm talkin' about practice. Not a game. Practice

2009-11-16T21:18:00.002-06:00

So as the Memphis Grizzlies and Allen Iverson parted ways for good, the Minnesota Timberwolves got back to work. Al Jefferson was supposed to be back in the Twin Cities and Kurt Rambis worked his team in the bowels of the Target Center.

On Tuesday, they'll do the same thing. And this is very good.

Because since this season began, there has been very little time for the Timberwolves to actually practice and actually work to improve.

Prior to the current stretch of three days between Saturday's loss at Memphis and Wednesday night's home game against Houston, the Wolves had not had consecutive days off this season. They'd had three back-to-backs and two trips to the Pacific time zone, but no consecutive days off.

So instead of having opportunities to really focus on themselves and work on the details of the triangle offense, Minnesota's options were pretty much play, prepare for the next game and play again. For a team with as many new players and coaches and players (whoops, seen the commercial too many times), that isn't a good thing.

Now two practices aren't going to turn the Wolves into the MJ-Pippen Bulls or the Kobe Lakers, one would hope that there will be at least a little improvement. After all, the Wolves are about as bad as they could be offensively. According to John Hollinger's advanced stats on ESPN.com, Minnesota is 28th in the Association in offensive efficiency. The Wolves are scoring only 91.6 points per 100 offensive possessions. Only winless New Jersey and Charlotte are worse offensively. At the same time, they are giving up 106.3 points per 100 possessons (20th). And you wonder why they've lost 10 in a row.

Because of a multitude of real world responsibilities, I probably won't blog again until Wednesday morning. But the time we get to that point, hopefully the Wolves will be looking a little better.

And maybe they will have signed AI. (Kidding).

What is David Kahn thinking today?

2009-11-15T11:32:00.003-06:00

Oh how I would love to get an honest answer of what's going through David Kahn's mind today.

After all, let's look at the past 48 hours or so.

- The Wolves lose to Dallas (not a surprise).

- Kahn sends out his 'I know we suck, but hang with us' letter.

- Wolves, without Big Al and KLove, lose the battle for last place in the West at Memphis. The Timberwolves have now lost 10 in a row and are in DFL in the West.

And if that wasn't enough, enter Brandon Jennings to rub a little salt in the wound.

If you haven't heard, Jennings dropped a smooth 55 on Golden State on Saturday night. And he did it after going scoreless in the first quarter. He made 12 of 13 shots in the third quarter, scoring 29 points in that 12 minute span. He broke the Bucks single-game scoring record for a rookie, which might be that big of a deal except for the fact that it was previously held by a dude we all know as Kareem. It was the most points by a NBA rookie since Earl the Pearl dropped 56 in 1968.

The result is a whole ton of second-guessing of Kahn. After all, Kahn is the guy who passed on Jennings not once, but twice in June's NBA Draft when he took Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn. Was he a fool? Will Rubio/Flynn over Jennings become to Kahn what Ebi over Josh Howard or Brandon Roy for Randy Foye became for Kevin McHale?

I was in Target Center a couple of weeks ago when the Bucks were in town. What we saw that night was Jennings worst performance of the season. He went 4 for 16 and finished with only 9 points. Flynn outscored him that night and things looked just fine for the Wolves.

But in his other six games this season, Jennings has scored 17 points twice, 24, 25, 32 and, now, 55.

What does all of this mean? It's far to early to know. But early returns aren't great. Brandon Jennings certainly looks like he has the potential to be very special.

What do you think Kahn is thinking today?

UPDATE: Very nice Brandon Jennings story from Yahoo! writer Adrian Wojnarowski here. Worth the read.

Note from Kahn

2009-11-14T14:45:00.003-06:00

Jerry Zgoda just posted this note on his blog from GM David Kahn.

There isn't anything too earth-shattering in it. But it is probably good to try to have some direct conversation with fans.

I, like the GM, was happy to see some fight against Dallas. And I'm cool with Hollins getting tossed out. It shows that the players at least care.

Can they beat Memphis tonight? I guess it's possible, but the combo of no Big Al and the second half of a back-to-back seems difficult to overcome.

Forgot one thing

2009-11-13T17:39:00.002-06:00

Meant to add this to the post below, but there is some good news for Wolves fans.

This morning's Star Tribune featured a piece by Phil Miller, who has been hired part time to help Zgoda on Wolves coverage. This is really good news on several fronts. Miller, who was most recently the Twins beat writer at the Pioneer Press before being laid off, is very good and experienced in covering the NBA. Before his time in St. Paul, he was the Jazz beat writer for the Salt Lake Tribune.

But, to me, it also means that the Timberwolves has some value to editors at the paper. Last season, the Pioneer Press quit sending a reporter to road games and began hiring freelancers in road cities who may or may not have known a whole helluva lot about the Wolves.

For the Star Tribune to ensure that Zgoda gets help (important with all the travel and the back-to-backs) is a good things for those of us who are interested in the team.

A few thoughts entering a two-loss weekend

2009-11-13T12:49:00.002-06:00

I guess I might as well get the Wolves-related item out of the way: I can't see the Timberwolves winning anything this weekend, with Big Al at home for personal reasons. The only question is how bad they'll get beat.

First of all, I hope things turn out all right for Al and his family. Certainly that's more important than a couple of games. But I'm guessing anybody who has Dirk, Dampier or Marc Gasol on their fantasy team is looking forward to big games. I'm guessing that Nate Jawai and Ryan Hollins aren't exactly going to scare anybody.

Now onto a few other items:

1. I think Mark Cuban is a cool dude (at least sometimes)

Yes, he's loud, brash and kind of a jerk at times, but there is something kind of endearing about Cuban. While I totally disagree with the stuff he said about Kenyon Martin last year during the playoffs, the dude scored some points with me last night.

Not a shock here, but Cuban is big into the interwebs. He blogs like crazy and he's a Twitter fool. But he also gets the social part of social media. What do I mean?

Last night, a Twin Cities Twitter group had a tweet-up at the Bulldog N.E. in (duh) Northeast Minneapolis. So what happens after the Mavericks got to town for tonight's game? Yep, Cuban showed up. That, in my book, is totally cool. There were pictures of Cuban with normal folks all over Twitter last night. Apparently he was great.

Could you see Glen Taylor just showing up at a bar and talking to 20- and 30-something Wolves fans (I'm talking age, not numbers)? He just doesn't seem like a normal guy in the way that Cuban does. On the list of NBA owners who I would like to have a beer or eight with, Cuban is certainly near the top.

Imagine the loyalty Cuban builds with Mavs fans by being a fan? Imagine how excited people would be if Cuban, for example, showed up in a bar with 30 Mavs t-shirts and handed them out? Those people would have a great experience and very well could become big-time brand loyalists.

2. I hate Thursday nights

I know Howlin' T-Wolf tweeted yesterday how he thought last night's TNT games were going to be great. Maybe I'm a bit too cynical, but the last thing I really need to see is more Cavs and Lakers.

There is nothing that irritates me more than watching the same teams over and over and over on national TV. Clearly teams like Boston, Cleveland, Orlando, the Lakers and San Antonio are good, but the league does have 30 teams. That is pretty much the entire reason why I bought the NBA League Pass. I like watching teams try to get better, I like team basketball rather than superstar basketball and I get board with the overhyped.

Aside from the Wolves, I enjoy watching Portland and Oklahoma City more than any other teams. I'm cool with Denver and Atlanta and the Sixers. I'll even watch Charlotte by choice. And there is nothing better than getting in bed and watching those crazy Golden State Warriors for a quarter or so before crashing for the night.

That's why Thursday's are so brutal. Last night, there wasn't another game on the schedule so the options were the overhyped or Grey's Anatomy with the lady. Clearly I watched Meredith and Derek and the rest of those Crazy Kids at Seattle Grace.

3. My biggest surprise

This kind of fits in with the last post, but how about giving it up a little bit for the Sacramento Kings? They lose Kevin Martin and get better? I would not have thought that. I watched much of the second half the other night of Kings-OKC and was very impressed. Jason Thompson was very solid. Beno Udrih has been good as has Tyreke Evans. The Kings are destined for the lotter again, but there might be a little more talent there than I originally thought

That's it for now. No regular TV on the Wolves the next couple of games. Not sure if I'll get them on my League Pass. I hope so, but if not, at least I won't miss anything of great note.

We aren't alone

2009-11-13T07:32:00.002-06:00

Nice column this morning in the New York Post by Mike Vacarro on the sorry Knicks.

The Wolves are certainly not alone in feeling helpless in Novemeber.

My favorite part of the column:

"They are simply an awful basketball team. They are outmanned. They are outgunned. They are a beaten-down eight-track player in an iPod world, an analog throwback in an NBA that went digital years ago. You want to be angry. You want to be appalled. You want to be disgusted.

And then you take another look at the team on the floor.

And it all makes sense."

You can read the rest of it here.

More later with some random thoughts for a Friday.

Game 9: Do I need to revise my expectations?

2009-11-12T11:42:00.004-06:00

I don't think my initial expectations were unreasonable for this Timberwolves team. I was quite certain this team had no chance at making the playoffs. I didn't even think they would get to 30 wins. But I did think they would be improved over a year ago.

I know that KLove is going to be coming back and that Al still has work to do. But I guess I didn't expect a team that really wasn't going to be competitive on many nights.

I thought 25 wins was very realistic. I thought something close to 30 was possible if things went well.

I didn't watch as much of last night's loss to Portland as I wanted to. I watched the first half at home, but then went out for a little while last night and the bar didn't have the game on. By the time I got to the bar, I saw on Twitter that the Blazers were pulling away and it didn't really matter.

So as the Wolves prepare for Friday night's game against Dallas, they sit here at 1-8. They are tied for the fewest victories in the West. And if it wasn't for the the hella comeback on opening night against New Jersey, these would be your winless Wolves.

While that is certainly bad, it is even worse when you play the what-if game. Let's just say, for fun, that the Wolves would have gotten a couple of fourth-quarter breaks in the early part of this season. They would have beat Boston. And they might have won either at Phoenix or the Clipp Joint. So there's two more wins. That's the sad thing, if you look back, the best you can say they deserve to be is 3-6.

Other than that, it has been disaster after disaster. Five of their losses have been by 15 points or more and only two have been by less than five points.

The Wolves have 10 more games this month: Dallas, at Memphis, Houston, at Portland, at Clippers, Nuggets, Phoenix, Memphis, at New Orleans and Utah.

How many of these are really winnable?

Dallas? Nope, not even at home.

The game at Memphis seems like a possibility, but the problem is that it is the second half of a back-to-back for the Wolves and the Griz have two days off before that.

Houston at home? I guess maybe if they play well.

at Portland? Considering what we've seen this month, no chance.

at Clippers? Not unrealistic at all.

Denver? Nope.

Phoenix? Not against the biggest surprise so far in the West.

Memphis? Probably the best chance for a win the rest of the month.

at New Orleans? Big Al's first return to where he got hurt. I don't love the Hornets, but they are better than the Wolves.

Utah? Surprised the Jazz have struggled the way they have. This, I suppose, is possible.

So where does that leave us? Is this team going to struggle to win 20 games? Are they going to win fewer games than the Gophers men's team?

If you haven't read Jerry Zgoda's game story from this morning in the Star Tribune, you should. It was pretty good. Loved the honest from Big Al.

What will adjustments look like?

2009-11-11T10:36:00.002-06:00

Let's be honest about Kurt Rambis' life as a NBA assistant coach: He's led a pretty charmed life.

He's coached in four NBA Finals as a Lakers assistants. He was on the staff of two teams that won championships. He is used to winning.

That winning part means that, at least most of the time, the guys on his bench were better than the guys on the other bench. That means that getting better results means needing the Lakers to execute better on the floor. Maybe it meant changing up some defensive assignments.

We're talking little things. Not big things.

That's part of what I'm most interested about with tonight's Wolves-Blazers game. Tonight is the first time in the Rambis era in Minnesota in which the Wolves will play a team for the second time. How will the Wolves mix things up against a team that mopped the floor with them on Sunday night.

I can't imagine that Rambis is simply going to roll out the same guys and attack the Blazers the same way. Because the last way didn't work.

Here's what I'd like to see: More Big Al and Ryan Hollins together against the Blazers. Portland is a very difficult matchup for the Timberwolves because of Greg Oden and Lamarcus Aldridge. Oden is a monster, a total load inside while Aldridge is long, lean and athletic. Oden posts up like crazy, Aldridge runs the floor like crazy.

If we learned anything in Sunday's loss, it is that Pecherov can't keep up with Aldridge. Just can't happen. I don't think the Wolves can go small because the 6-11 Aldridge seems like he would simply post up, say, the 6-7 Gomes.

I expect the Wolves to get mopped up again, but I am interested to see how Rambis adjusts.

The wheels have fallen off....

2009-11-10T18:17:00.002-06:00

Do you remember the good ol' days? You know all the way back to last Wednesday?

Remember when Al Jefferson made that shot with 9:50 to go in the third quarter against the Celtics? The Timberwolves led Boston, 56-45. Target Center was jumping. That smug punk Kevin Garnett was, hopefully, going to take himself to Boston with a loss. Things were great.

It seems so long ago now doesn't it?

Because what we've seen since then has been beyond awful.

Over the final 21:50 of what would be a one-point loss to the Celtics, the Wolves were outscored 47-35. They followed that up with a no-rebounding 87-72 loss to Milwaukee. Next up was a 116-93 loss at Portland and last night's 146-105 embarrassment at Golden State.

Add that up and the math is really ugly. Over those 3-plus games, the Wolves have been outscored 396-305. Yes, they have been outscored by 91 points over a little less than 166 minutes.

How is that even possible?

In the losses to Milwaukee, Portland and Golden State, opponents shot 49.8 percent from the floor and 44.8 percent on 3s. That, my friends, is defense that can be best described as close to zero. Or less than zero.

While I can accept the loss at Portland, I have a far harder time with the Milwaukee and Golden State losses. These are not playoff teams. These are not rosters filled with talent. These are peers of the Timberwolves. And if this is how the Wolves measure up with teams like them, it is going to be a long winter in the Twin Cities.

A couple of other things:

1. Remember that Oleksiy Pecherov dude? He played six minutes against Golden State. Yes, six. I understand that the way that the Warriors spread the floor doesn't really fit Pecherov's ability. But this is the same guy who really dominated KG less than a week earlier.

2. ESPN.com's John Hollinger and Chad Ford wrote an interesting piece today in which they did power rankings for where the 30 NBA franchises are based on the next three years. They looked at player, management, money, market and upcoming draft picks. The good news is that the Wolves weren't last. The bad news is that they are in the bottom third, ranking 22nd. The team was dinged for management (26th), the market (28th, and weather was used against us) and current players (21st). The good news is money (8th) and draft (7th). The overall ranking was 10th in the Western Conference.

I thought a couple of the results were interesting: Portland was first, Oklahoma City was 4th and Phoenix was 27th. Certainly worth a read. And the franchises the Wolves were ranked ahead of: New Orleans, Washington, Memphis, Golden State, Phoenix, Sacto, Milwaukee and (drumroll, please) Charlotte.

Quick update

2009-11-10T15:48:00.003-06:00

Yes, I watched last night. No, I haven't given up on the blog.

Call it late night, early morning, day full of meetings. Will blog more later.

Until then, feast your eyes on this New York Times story. Read it and each time you see the word Knicks, replace it with Wolves. Basically it is about how even when the eyes are on the future, there is still this pesky 2009-10 season that has to be played.

Will blog a bit more later.

Mr. True Hoop checks out the Wolves

2009-11-09T14:14:00.001-06:00

Henry Abbott, the genius behind the True Hoop blog (now on espn.com), checked out the Wolves-Blazers game last night. He had five quick thoughts.

You can read about them here

Just wanted to share.

Game 7: The rotation riddle

2009-11-09T09:21:00.002-06:00

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.

Don't know what to say

2009-11-07T12:10:00.003-06:00

A friend of mine and long-time Wolves season ticket holder summed up last night's loss to Milwaukee simply: "That was the worst game I've every seen"

He might not have been to far off.

As we walked out of Target Center and to a First Avenue watering hole, he was livid.

I realize that there are going to plenty of nights when the Wolves get thrashed. That's the reality of a young, rebuilding team. I get that and can accept that.

What I can't really accept is the Wolves getting their asses kicked by an average at best Bucks team that no longer has Richard Jefferson or Charlie V and one that doesn't have a healthy Michael Redd. I also can't accept the Wolves apparent fear of rebounding. And the ball movement was crap.

How bad were the Wolves last night? The easiest way to sum it up is that Luke Ridnour was the best guard on the court. For real.

When this week started, I thought the Wolves could win two games. I thought winning at the Clippers was very possible and I was certain they would beat Milwaukee at home. Neither happened and the Wolves are now 1-5 and play at a Portland team tomorrow night that looked pretty good in a win over San Antonio last night. I can't see a win there, but maybe Monday night's game at Golden State is a possibility.

I'm cool with the reality that progress will be slow. But I would like to see some effort.

That's all.

Update: The Target Center looked like the TC of last year. Lots and lots of empty seats. The good news was that I got two $50 tickets for a total of $39. Still I feel a bit ripped off.

The point guard situation

2009-11-06T10:50:00.002-06:00

In the wake of Wednesday night's come-from-ahead loss to Boston, I had two people separately say that they were disappointed that Jonny Flynn was on the floor at the end of the game. Maybe I should rephrase that, they were disappointed that Ramon Sessions wasn't on the floor.

There certainly is room to make that argument. And until Kevin Love returns and Kurt Rambis has to figure out how he wants to carve up frontcourt minutes, point guard may be the most interesting position to watch.

In Flynn and Sessions, the Wolves have two very different point guards. Flynn brings more energy and has a greater potential to do things that make you say wow. But he also has a far greater potential to do something stupid or make a mistake. Sessions is far more steady. He seems to run at the same temperature regardless of what is happening. He's less flashy but more experienced and steady. He's very solid and makes way more good decisions than bad.

Frankly both of them could learn a little bit from the other.

I understand why Rambis doesn't play them together. To do that makes the Wolves very small -- especially defensively. It also means that CBrewer moves to the 3 and Gomes plays the 4 (assuming they are both on the floor). I think Brewer can play either the 2 or the 3, but the early parts of this season have shown that Gomes is far more comfortable at the 3 than playing power forward.

All of this leaves Rambis in a little bit of a bind at point guard. Let's look a little closer to minutes/rotations/productivity in the second half.

With the Wolves leading by 8 at halftime, Rambis went for his original starters to begin the second half. The PG breakdown goes like this:

Third quarter

- Flynn plays the first 9:02. The Wolves as a team are -7 in this stretch. At the same time, Boston PG Rajon Rondo is in the midst of scoring 14 points over the first 10:36 of the third quarter.

- Sessions enters the game with 2:58 to go in the third quarter and plays the rest of the way. The Wolves are -1 in this stretch and the game is tied at 72 after three quarters.

Fourth quarter

- Rambis sticks with Sessions to start the fourth. He scores four points, grabs two rebounds and dishes out an assist over the 4:58 of the quarter. He goes to the bench and doesn't play again. The Timberwolves lead by 1 when Sessions leaves the game. However, Rondo is not in the game at this point.

- That means Flynn enters the game with 7:02 left and plays the rest of the way. He enters the game at virtually the same time that Rondo checks in. Flynn doesn't take a shot over the final 7:02 and dishes out one assist. During this time, the Wolves are -3. In addition, they have their most difficult stretch of getting good looks at the basket. Down the stretch, Minnesota gets about two easy looks. Everything else is tightly contested.

In terms of plus-minus, Flynn is -10 after halftime while Sessions is even. Flynn doesn't score a point and takes only one shot in 16:02 of action while Sessions scores four points in just under eight minutes. Some of this is apples and oranges as Flynn and Rondo were on the court together almost the entire time while Sessions and Rondo guarded each other for only about a minute. Is that a factor? I think it is. Rondo, for the record, scored 16 points after halftime.

I love Jonny Flynn. I love how hard he plays, love his smile and energy and love that he wants to be in Minneapolis. But taking only one shot and getting only one assist after halftime doesn't cut it for me. That said, the only way Flynn is going to get experience and get comfortable is to get minutes and play when the game is on the line. I'm guessing that Flynn learned something from Wednesday night's loss. At the same time, if one of the goals is to establish a culture of winning and show improvement, maybe Sessions needs to play more and play at more important junctures of the game.

That, in a roundabout way, brings me to tonight's game against Milwaukee. This is a game that I think the Wolves can win and maybe should win, especially with Michael Redd being out because of a strained tendon in his left knee. My question is how the Wolves two point guards are going to react. I fear that Flynn is going to try to do too much in his first regular season matchup against Brandon Jennings. I fear the same thing about Sessions as he plays his old team for the first time. The Bucks didn't match the Wolves offer for him over the summer and basically drafted over him by taking Jennings.

Watching point guard play and minutes at that position develop will be interesting. There is certainly a case to be made that Flynn get the ball as much as possible and make Sessions a backup. But it can also be argued that Sessions needs to play more. We'll see what happens moving forward.

That wasn't what I expected (both in terms of outcome and who was making jumpers)

2009-11-05T08:34:00.002-06:00

As I posted yesterday, my expectations for the Wolves last night against Boston were low. OK, they were barely off the floor low. I had some things that I needed to get done after work last night, so I got home about 8:30 and started watching the game on my DVR.

I expected to watch until it got out of hand and I was willing to just shut it off at some point. Well, that never really happened. I totally get that the Celtics were in the second half of a back-to-back and that the Wolves were a little rested. But I still didn't expect Minnesota to lead by double digits at a couple of points and give Boston all they wanted.

There's much that can be talked about from this one -- Pecherov finishing with a career high, the Brewer "jump ball" at the end of the game, the fact that KG is still a loud-mouthed punk, that Rajon Rondo was the best player on the floor when Boston closed the gap in the third quarter and more -- but I have one major takeaway from this game.

That is that Big Al was ventured outside of what Jim Petersen likes to call "the painted area." I'm not sure if he needed some sort of visa or needed to renew his passport, but we saw Big Al in some very different spots on the floor. He made three jumpers in the 19-20 foot range, one in each of the first three quarters. He took three more in that same range (excluding the shot at the buzzer).

This to me was clearly the biggest positive moving forward. Because while the loss seemed inevitable (which it was), I am interested to see if Al continues to take and make shots from outside of 15 feet. If it happens, he is going to have an easier time getting to the basket. There was one play when Al caught the ball on the wing about 12-14 feet from the basket. He pump faked, Kendrick Perkins bit and cruised past him for a layup or dunk. If Al hadn't made a couple of longer jumpers, there is no way that Perkins falls for the pump fake. He holds his position and the ball quite possibly gets rotated out.

While Al has struggled with his health, we're starting to see (at least I think) more of what will be the real Al. He has averaged 35 mpg over the past three games and averaged 21 ppg in that span. He has also shot the ball a little better from the floor.

What will happen from here? That's difficult to tell. Friday night's home game against Milwaukee is very winnable and pretty crucial in my mind. But if Al can continue to make a few jumpers per game, both he and the Timberwolves are going to be better.

Two road losses and a game that doesn't matter to me

2009-11-04T16:53:00.002-06:00

So we are about two hours away from a Timberwolves game that doesn't matter to me one bit.

There are people -- especially those in the Wolves marketing department -- who think that the Boston Celtics' only appearance of the season at Target Center is a big deal. I am not one of those people.

Why? First, I don't heart KG. Second, I truly don't care what happens tonight. And I don't think anyone should. The Celtics are in a far different stratosphere than the Timberwolves right now. They are shooting for 60 wins and a title. Aspirations here are quite different. I'd take 25 victories from the Wolves and run. I'd jump for joy for a 30-win season. The Wolves are young and inexperienced. The Celtics, well, aren't.

I expect that the Wolves will get dominated tonight. I think it will be much like last Friday night's game against Cleveland. I don't think it will be close. I don't think there will be a miracle. And I don't expect there to be anything of the sort. Now would I be thrilled if the Wolves made a game of this like OKC did last night against the Lakers? Certainly.

But I am more concerned about seeing improvement and seeing the Wolves win games that they could and/or should win. That's part of why the Phoenix-Clippers back-to-back was kind of disappointing. While I know that the Wolves best player still isn't 100 percent and their second-best player has a broken hand, I think they should have been able to win one of those two games.

Phoenix has been one of the biggest surprises of the first week of the season to me. They are doing a nice job spreading the court and Channing Frye is a difficult matchup because of his ability to play on the perimeter. When he's out of the paint, that means teams either have to play off of him or Amare is left with more room to move inside. That is called damned if do, damned if don't. And then Nash is a total pick-and-roll freak with great vision. Like usual, Phoenix will struggle to defend teams that are bigger and stronger inside, but the boys in orange can run and score almost at will.

The best part of the loss to the Suns was the biggest letdown against the Clippers. Big Al was great -- especially early -- against Phoenix. He played big in the post, he wanted the ball, he looked like the Al of January 2009. He did almost anything he wanted.

While he scored 24 points a night later against the Clippers, he only grabbed four rebounds and Chris Kaman got 25 and 11. I know Kaman is better than most people know, but if Big Al is truly an elite big guy, he can't get outplayed by that guy. It just shouldn't happen.

Also, the Wolves shouldn't be outscored in three of four quarters by the Clippers.

What does all of this mean? It means the Wolves will be 1-4 by the end of the night and Friday night's game against the Bucks is big. More about that later, but right now, I'm going to go watch a game that I don't really care about. Because the Wolves have zero chance to win.

The Wolves Week: Can they win two?

2009-11-01T18:47:00.003-06:00

As I type this, the Wolves are about 15 minutes away from tipping off Game 3 of the season at Phoenix. Most of the time, a NBA week is considered to be a Monday-Sunday proposition. Tonight, I'm going to cheat a little bit and have this be a Sunday-Sunday proposition.

That means the Wolves will play five times between tonight and next Sunday night at Portland. There is tonight's game at Phoenix, tomorrow night at the Clip Joint, Wednesday night at home against KG and the team in Green, Friday against Milwaukee and next Sunday at Portland.

Here is what I would like to see: Two victories. And I don't think that is unrealistic, despite the fact that three games are on the road and one of the home games is basically unwinnable.

This is a very different season than a year ago. I acknowledge that. New GM. New Coach. A ton of new players. An actual point guard. And on and on.

That said, I want this team to prove early in the season that things are different. A year ago, the Wolves beat Sacto in the season opener. And then lost eight in a row. It was the beginning of a 4-24 start to the season. It got Randy Wittman fired, but it also made the team largely irrelevant in the Twin Cities. Yes, there was a nice run in January, but the hole was very deep.

Hence, a two-win week would go a long way toward washing away the fear of another brutal start. I don't have outrageous expectations of this team. I know the Wolves won't be going to the playoffs. I know 25 victories would be a good season and 30 wins would be amazing.

Can they get two? I don't think it's impossible.

Tonight at Phoenix: The Suns aren't what they are were. They aren't an elite team and they aren't an automatic playoff team. But they aren't bad. Jason Richardson is back from suspension and Channing Frye has been an interesting addition. When the Wolves won in Phoenix last January, I thought it was one of their best outings of the season. This Suns team is better, but so are the Wolves.

Monday at Clippers: If the Wolves lose at Phoenix, this becomes a very important game. The Clippers are the Clippers (as seen by the fact that Blake Griffin couldn't even make it to the season opener before getting hurt), but they are better. They still have Baron Davis, Eric Gordon and Marcus Camby. Those are three pretty good players. They no longer have knucklehead Zach Randolph and I think that's a good thing. And I'm guessing the Rhino is going to want to play well against his former teammates. I'd like to think the Wolves can win this game, but it does scare me a little bit.

Wednesday vs. Celtics: Not much to say here. I expect this to be a lot like Friday against the Cavs. The Wolves might play hard. They might do some good things. But I expect them to get their asses kicked.

Friday vs. Bucks: This might be the most important game of the week for the Wolves. The Bucks are not significantly better than the Wolves, especially now that Charlie V and Richard Jefferson are gone. Hakim Warrick was a nice pickup and I think that Brandon Jennings will be good, but I do think the Wolves can win this game. This game is also important to me because I would like to see the Wolves make a step this year. To me, that is being able to beat most teams that are equal or a little better at home. A win here would go a long way toward showing that.

Sunday at Portland: There is no non-Wolves team in the NBA that I enjoy watching more than Portland. I love the depth and potential there. I am in the camp that says Greg Oden is going to be a great player. I still hate the Roy-for-Foye trade and think the Wolves would be a very different franchise if that move isn't made. LaMarcus Aldridge is wonderful. I can't believe Steve Blake is as effective as he is. There's the Fake Thug. I could keep going. I do wonder how they are going to keep everybody happy -- especially with Andre Miller there now. While this team might not make as big of a leap forward as some think, this is still a playoff team that plays well at home. I'll be very surprised if the Wolves can win here. If they do, it will be because they played very well.

Summary: Two wins -- including a home win against the Bucks -- would be a big step. I think it can happen. Worst case scenario is that the Wolves win one and hang very close in a couple others. A winless week? That would be a disaster.

Back at it

2009-11-01T18:31:00.002-06:00

New season and a new resolution to blog. I'm hopeful that I can gain some good momentum and keep it through 80 more games.

As this Timberwolves season is in its infant stages, I am intrigued. I wasn't initially thrilled with the hiring of David Kahn as Wolves GM, but as he got to work -- and reworked the lineup in the process -- I became more excited.

The good:

- I love Jonny Flynn. I think he is going to be very, very good. I like that he plays his ass off. I like that he is cool with being in Minneapolis. I like the big smile.

- I like getting rid of Randy Foye. I did like Randy Foye when he was a Wolf, but I never saw him really fitting in here. He can't play the point. He has a hard time guarding the better 2s in the league. He's a much better fit in DC where he can come off of the bench and not have the responsibilities of playing 30-plus minutes. I hope he plays well for Flip -- and he has so far -- but he wasn't going to help the Wolves in the long term.

- Rambis. I like the hire. I like a guy who was worked for a winner. I like that he's not a screamer who guys will turn out. I like that he's pretty chill, but with a mean streak. And somewhere deep inside of me, I like that he knocked McHale on his ass back in the day.

The bad:

- Loved the Rubio pick at the beginning, but I don't think he will ever play for the Wolves. Obviously he could be a nice piece to deal, but he was the one guy I was most excited about in this draft class. This certainly isn't the biggest deal breaker, but kind of a bummer.

- This team needs some luck in the health department. Love is out for at least a month. Al is limited now. It would be wonderful for things to get better from here. The Wolves clearly need a season of better-than-average health if for no other reason than to see what they've got. Can Corey Brewer be a player in this league? How will Al and KLove play together?

- The biggest bummer is that this team is still going to lose a lot of games. And I mean A LOT of games. If the loss total is less than 55, it will be a really good season for the Wolves.

Am I a glutton for punishment?/Do I really want season tickets

2009-03-11T09:43:00.002-05:00

I just returned to my desk after a trip to the printer. In my hand are two printed out tickets for tonight's Wolves-Memphis game. The seats are crappy, but the two tickets cost me all of $4.95 on eBay. Yes, that was the total for the both tickets. That's $2.47 each to see a NBA game.

Now, I realize there are many people in the Twin Cities who might say that seeing a March game between the Timberwolves and Grizzlies isn't really a NBA game. After all, the two teams combined 34 victories are less than the win total of 10 individual NBA teams. Throw in that it doesn't look like either Foye or Hot Rod Carney are going to play and there isn't a ton of reason to expect anything other than the Wolves' 12th straight home loss.

While I would expect that I'm going to see far more Kevin Ollie than I would like to tonight, I'm all right with going to see a game in which the home team seemingly has little chance. I'll be in the house for Saturday's game against the improving Bobcats as well.

This brings me to the topic of the never-ending Glen Taylor commercials. You know, the ones where he says he never thought he'd own a NBA franchise, etc.

When the announcement on season ticket prices was made last week, I was initially very excited about the possibility. $5 per game gets you in the door, $15 per game gets you a seat downstairs. It is a very good value, there's no question about that. You can get two seats for every game for less than $500 total. Two seats for every game downstairs is less than $1,300 and the team will let you pay for it in nine interest-free payments.

But is that really enough for the Wolves to turn me into a season ticket holder for the first time ever? Probably not.

The more I think about it, the more I think I'm going to just keep doing what I'm doing. Go to two or three games a month and watch a bunch on TV. My reasons are pretty simple.

Even though going to games is very easy for me. I already have parking downtown and I live within 15 minutes of Target Center, I'm not sure that I want to commit 41 nights of my winter. There are other commitments, there are work things and there are times when I'd just rather not go.

Then there is the whole where to buy seats thing. I wouldn't say that I'm cheap, but I'd be inclined to buy upstairs tickets. I don't mind the seats up there and it is super easy to move downstairs to a better locale for the second half. I often go to games with my girlfriend. She'll play along, but it is clear that she doesn't enjoy the chase of the free upgrade nearly as much as I do (for the record, I may never see my upper deck Row V seats tonight). If I was to buy season tickets, she kind of indicated that she would prefer me to get downstairs seats.

I get her point and it is nice to not worry about getting bounced from your seats or getting stopped by an usher. But then you move into a price point where if the tickets don't get used, you'll feel like you're throwing away cash. If you toss away a pair of $5 tickets, that's one thing, but throwing away $30 a pop is another story. And it's pretty clear that some tickets just won't get used.

It does appear on timberwolves.com that there is going to be a super saver 10 pack where you can get downstairs seats for $175. I realize the opponents won't be terribly sexy and the nights of the week might not be awesome, but I think that is what we'll do. We'll end up with reserved seats downstairs for a good number of games and I actually like seeing the non-marquee teams. I see enough of the Lakers, Celtics, Cavs, Magic, Suns, Spurs and Mavs on TV. (An aside, I'm twisted enough that I'm bummed that I'm going to be out of town when the Wolves host Oklahoma City down the stretch because I would totally go see the Thunder).

So I think that's what I will do. I'll get a 10-game pack and then catch probably another 5-10 in other ways. Sometimes I get expensive work tickets. And there are always tickets available on eBay. I got a pair for the recent Portland game that were downstairs for $29 with shipping. I saw New Orleans earlier this season for $8 for two seats upstairs.

As much as I enjoy watching the NBA -- there are amazing players and amazing plays at almost every game -- I still don't think there is enough demand to warrant buying season tickets. Tonight, I'm afraid, will prove that. I expect to see acres of empty seats.

Fairly amazing to be honest

2009-03-10T10:55:00.003-05:00

What in the name of Bill Blair is happening?

As futile as the Timberwolves have been during certain parts of their 20 years in these Twin Cities, they had never lost 11 consecutive home games before last night's loss to a horrible Washington (or as the mother of a childhood friend of mine would say, Warshington).

The last time the Wolves won at home was the Jan. 25 overtime victory over the Bulls. That was back when the Wolves were among the hottest teams in the NBA and back when this Minnesota team had both a healthy Al Jefferson and a lot of promise.

I do still think this team has promise and some good young parts. Al is tremendous, Randy Foye is a nice player, I like Kevin Love, Ryan Gomes has shown promise of late and the team has a boat-load of draft picks.

But last night was bad. Because if you can't guard the Washington Wizards -- a team that has very few true NBA players, has been horrible on the road and was finishing up a four-game road trip -- who can you guard?

That's it for now. Must do my real job. Will have more of a take later.

A few items.....

2009-03-09T09:59:00.002-05:00

1. Still very undecided of what to think about Jim Souhan's column last week in which he says McHale needs to go. There is part of me that agrees that a fresh start is probably needed, but I also wonder what that will really accomplish. There will be new plays to learn, a new system to install, new roles to be defined. I still think my preference would be for McHale to actually start a season and go from there. In neither appearance on the bench has McHale gotten a training camp and the ability to start from scratch.

I'd like to see him take a healthy Corey Brewer and, hopefully, a healthy Big Al and see what happens. I say that because the Wolves have been better under his watch despite the horrible run of late. They've been more entertaining (for sure), they've played harder (most of the time) and there are players who have improved (Bassy, Gomes).

2. This week is a big one for me. I think everyone understands that the Wolves are going to have a difficult time competing with the top teams right now because of their injury issues. That's much of the reason why this team has won only two of its last 19 games. That said, how many truly bad losses were there in that stretch? The loss at Washington was bad. And how the team lost to Golden State last week was discouraging. Should they have beaten Indiana at home or won one of the games against Toronto? Perhaps. But other than that, the Wolves have had a high-protein diet of playoff teams.

That's why I would like to see something change this week. There is Washington tonight, Memphis on Wednesday, the Knicks on Friday at the Bobcats on Saturday. All at home. None of those teams are playoff teams right now, but the Bobcats are still in the mix in the East. What's realistic? I'd like to see two wins this week. Will it happen? I don't know.

3. A little reading material. Britt Robson, who knows a whole lot about this team and is at virtually ever home game, penned a very good piece for his blog here. It's certainly worth a few minutes of your time.

4. Trying to decide if I should go see the team early this week. I have tickets to the Charlotte game on Saturday. Tonight is probably out, but am considering either Wednesday against Memphis or the Knicks on Friday. There are certainly plenty of good seats available.

A little morning after exercise

2009-03-04T08:13:00.002-06:00

So what do you on the morning after a brutal 24-point loss to a below-average Golden State Warriors team?

Well, after catching up on a bit of NBA news this morning on espn.com, I made my way to the Lottery and Mock Draft simulator there. Because what else is there after as poor of a performance/effort as I have seen this season.

How many tries would it take for me to get the Wolves their first-ever No. 1 selection? Who would be the most likely selection according to the ESPN lotto gods?

I spun the wheel (OK, hit the refresh button) 20 times and this is what I came up with:

- It took until the eighth try for the Wolves to win the thing and get the No. 1 overall pick.

- The average of the 20 pulls was a draft position of 5.95.

- I got the top pick once and the second pick twice.

- Wake Forest point guard Jeff Teague and UConn center Hasheem Thabeet were the "winners" in terms who the Wolves will select. Teague was the selection on eight occasions and Thabeet was selected seven times. The other five picks broke down like this: Oklahoma combo guard Willie Warren (2), Spanish PG Ricky Rubio (2) and Blake Griffin once. Not sure if Rubio is actually going to enter the draft.

Will any of it happen? Who knows. But it is better than thinking about that nonsense at Target Center last night.

Yuck

2009-03-03T20:55:00.000-06:00

Went to the gym after work. Figured I'd get home in time to watch 2 1/2 quarters or so of Wolves-Golden State.

Got in the car after the game, turned on KFAN and heard the Warriors score to go up 53-23.

30 points. In the second quarter. Are you freakin' kidding me.

Ugh.

More Bobby Brown please

2009-03-03T13:07:00.002-06:00

So I subscribe to the Timberwolves feed on Twitter. A little while, news crossed that Bassy is going to miss his second consecutive game with a groin issue and that Kevin Ollie was going to start his second consecutive game at PG tonight.

One word: Why?

Another word: No.

I don't know Kevin Ollie at all. He might be a nice, upstanding guy. Might kiss babies and pet dogs and walk little old ladies across the street. But Kevin Ollie is as slow as I am. And, trust me on this, that's pretty darn slow.

After being in attendance for both games over the weekend -- a completely wretched performance against Portland that required many beers to get through and a better effort against Houston -- all I want to see is more Bobby Brown. He's quick, he can get into the lane, he makes adequate decisions, he forces the defense to react and, in turn, get out of position.

While he freaks me out because he looks a little too much like McCants with the head band, arm sleeve and that he wears No. 1, I like me some Bobby Brown. He did some nice things in garbage time against Portland and he was clearly the Wolves best point guard against Houston.

A quick check of the Popcorn Machine shows Ollie at minus-14 against the Rockets and Brown at only minus-2. So, large man with the bad sweater collection, can I have more Bobby Brown please. It really is My Prerogative.

This did seem inevitable. Or, when will they win again?

2009-02-26T10:53:00.003-06:00

I think everyone realized that the fortunes of the Timberwolves had changed the moment Al Jefferson landed on the floor of the New Orleans Arena, his knee blown up. The team's overall talent level simply isn't high enough to lose a should've-been All-Star.

But the results have been pretty staggering.

Barring a victory tomorrow night against Portland, the Wolves will finish February with two victories. That, for the record, is one less than they registered in November and the same number as they had in December. And that was back when the Wolves were, you know, crappy.

This team hasn't won a home game in more than a month -- since that late January OT win over the Bulls -- and have lost seven in a row at Target Center.

The thing is, this team really hasn't played that poorly of late. Ryan Gomes has started to score more and looks more and more like a guy who could contribute for a good team. Bassy has shown improvement and is playing with more confidence. Randy Foye has fewer moments where you wonder what he was thinking. And Kevin Love is getting some much needed experience in a non-pressure situation.

But the Wolves simply don't have enough bodies. The past two nights have shown that. The Wolves hung in there against Toronto for much of the night and had a lead late in the third quarter on Wednesday night against an improving Utah team. Last night was especially difficult to watch down the stretch as the Wolves simply weren't deep enough (or tall enough inside) to win.

This folks isn't going to change this season. Al Jefferson isn't coming through that door. Neither is Corey Brewer. Shelden Williams and Bobby Brown aren't the answers. So what do you do? I don't know. The easy thing is stay away from the arena and save your money. The easy thing is to not watch the games on TV. But I'm hoping there are reasons to watch down the stretch.

It will be like pounding your head against the wall a little bit, I'm sure. Because, let's face it, there aren't a lot of options for wins left.

When Jefferson went down, my prediction was that they Wolves would win eight games after the All-Star break and get to 25 victories. They have gone 1-5 since the break. I might have been a bit too optimistic. This weekend, despite a pair of home games, doesn't look terribly optimistic. Portland and Houston - despite their injuries - simply have far more talent than the Wolves. Golden State at home next weekend seems like a possibility, but the Warriors have played better of late. Monday, March 9 against Washington might be the next chance for a win.

If it happens before that, that would be great. I just don't see it happening.

This wasn't going to be easy or all that much fun. But we knew that.

Do newspapers matter?

2009-02-24T18:52:00.002-06:00

I guess that's my question as the Wolves play at Toronto tonight.

This morning, I saw nothing in my morning Star Tribune about the Wolves with the exception of a preview box. That is not standard operating procedure. I would expect to see very little in terms of Wolves news on the front page of the sports section.

If things hold to form, the St. Paul Pioneer Press won't have Don Seeholzer at Air Canada Center tonight. That paper has quit traveling with the team on the road and has, instead, hired freelancers to cover the game.

Does this matter to you? It does matter to me. I can watch the game and figure some stuff out. I can listen to McHale's postgame session on FSN, but I would like more answers from other folks.

I understand that the newspaper business pretty much sucks but this is disappointing. I already feel like I need to go to another source to get national sports news. I'll be very disappointed if the Star Tribune pulls back further on Timberwolves coverage. But if the St. Paul paper doesn't go on the road, what reason is there for the Star Tribune to do the same.

The loser in all of this: The readers and the fans of the NBA in this town.

The Wolves Chose Winning

2009-02-19T23:27:00.005-06:00

For every team in the bottom half of the NBA, each season features a crossroads. Sometimes it isn't obvious, but sometimes it is crystal clear. Regardless, there's a point where a team and its fans have to decide whether it is better to win? Or is it better to lose?

For the Wolves, that moment came as soon as Al Jefferson's MRI revealed torn ligaments in his knee. While this team was probably never going to make the playoffs this season, a hot January led to increased buzz about the Wolves. But Jefferson crumpling to the floor changed that in an instant.

So then what is better for this franchise? Is it better to win games? Or is it better to lose and, in the process, have better odds in the NBA Draft Lottery? Certainly the coaches and players are going to always say that they want to win, but fans certainly find themselves in that situation and if you caught a member of the team's front office, I think you would find the same thing.

I have heard from several friends either on the phone, via e-mail or on the Facebook status updates talk about how the Wolves need to lose early and often the rest of the way this season. I, for one, completely disagree. I think the Wolves need to try to win -- lottery be dammed -- as much as they can.

That's why I was so happy when they traded Rashad McCants and Calvin Booth to Sacramento earlier today for Shelden Williams and Bobby Brown.

At the end of the day this move might be little more than 'Garbage in, garbage out.' It might be the rearrangement of the deck chairs on a messed up ship. But I still like the move. To me, more than anything, it shows me that while the Wolves aren't going be stupid, they still want to win basketball games.

I listened to the audio of Jim Stack's conference call with reporters and it was clear that this trade -- while fairly insignificant in the short term -- was made to address current glaring needs. Williams gives the Wolves another body inside as they attempt to piece things together without Jefferson. And Brown is another ball-handler who can give Bassy a blow and keep Randy Foye from having to play the point.

I find it tremendously laughable that the crazy old man from the Star Tribune would say/could say that the Wolves gave up too much to make this deal. McCants wasn't going to play more than a bit role the rest of the way. He is a head case with an inflated sense of his worth and who doesn't want to guard anyone. Booth played all of 40 second this season, but he did always look pretty good in a suit.

What they got in return is a hopefully guys, as in 'hopefully these guys can be better.' Sometimes picking a guy up off of the scrap heap works for a team, sometimes it doesn't. Three years ago, Williams was very highly thought of coming out of Duke. He went fifth overall to Atlanta and was taken before either Foye or Brandon Roy.

He is in some ways like the rest of the Wolves healthy bigs as he isn't really big enough to play the 5, but he isn't a bad guy. He's probably an upgrade over Jason Collins or Mad Dog.

Brown was a summer league star and signed with the Kings. This season, however, the rookie did little in Sacramento. Best realistic case is that he blossoms into a useable bench player similar to what Rodney Carney has become. I don't think he's ever going to beat out Bassy and start at PG. Worst case scenario is that he doesn't play. Considering what the Wolves gave up, there's not a lot of risk involved.

Now let's get back to this whole winning thing.

I think the Wolves need to win every game they possibly can the rest of the way -- lottery position be damned.

Why? For the long-term health of this team, the Wolves need asses in the seats. They need people to buy tickets. They need a little demand for their product. While the current demand is great if you are a buyer -- hell, I just won two lower level tickets for next week's Portland game for $29 with shipping on eBay -- it isn't great for the franchise.

What the Wolves need is the ability to sell hope. That, frankly, has been missing for several years. It's hard to sell and market a product when you know that the home team has little chance. The Wolves, especially since the first of the year, have tried to sell the opposition. You can do that for a while, but eventually fans need a reason to come out on a regular basis.

If the Wolves could get to, say, 28 wins this season and have something close to a .500 record in the games after Christmas, then there's a little hope that can be sold. There's an OK core that played well down the stretch, Al Jefferson will return next year as will Corey Brewer. Considering the sketchy state of the U.S. economy -- and that the Twins are selling hard for their new park -- the Wolves may have a tougher time selling corporate stuff for next season (tickets, sponsorship, signage, etc.). If they can point to an improving product, that would certainly help.

Moral of the story is that I like the move they made. The Wolves got addition through subtraction when it came to McCants. They got a big body in Williams and maybe he needs a change of scenery. And maybe they got something in Brown.

But to me, the biggest thing this trade showed me is that the Wolves really want to win. They aren't going to simply throw in the towel for the last two months. And that is something I can respect and get behind.

The run continues...

2009-02-19T17:21:00.003-06:00

While there is much talk about the trading deadline and what teams did and didn't do, I will quickly return you to regularly scheduled ballin'.

Could the Wolves win two in a row? Well, the odds have increased as Indiana forward Danny Granger is out up to three weeks with a torn something in his foot.

That certainly gives the Wolves a better chance against the Pacers than if Granger was healthy.

Granger, an Eastern Conference All-Star, went for 28 when the teams met at Conseco earlier this month. It also continues a pretty good run for the Wolves of catching teams at less than full strength.

McCants, Booth to Sacto. Hello Shelden Williams and Bobby Brown

2009-02-19T11:04:00.003-06:00

Here's a little news from the Sacramento Bee.

I am, frankly, thrilled that McCants is gone. Bad guy. Selfish guy. Etc. I have no love for him.

Haven't gotten far enough into this to have an opinion on Shelden Williams -- once a lotto pick, but has been a typical Duke pro -- or PG Bobby Brown.

Will dive in later. And maybe there will be more news as well.

Reversing a trend (at least for one night)

2009-02-18T22:43:00.003-06:00

When Al Jefferson landed awkwardly an fell into a heap on the New Orleans Arena floor, it was a massive blow to what had already been a horrible fourth quarter against the Hornets.

If you remember correctly, the Wolves led a pretty decent New Orleans team by three points with 5:01 to play in the fourth quarter. Minnesota, however, was outscored 16-9 the rest of the way and made only three field goals in that stretch.

Each of the two games since then featured poor late-game execution.

A quick recap:

The Wolves led Toronto by three with 6:30 to play in the final game before the All-Star Break. Down the stretch, the Wolves again managed only three field goals and were out scored 24-13. The result was a 110-102 loss.

On Monday night, the Wolves led Washington (I have a hard time not automatically adding an adjective such as bad, horrible or crappy any time I type Washington or Wizards) 96-91 with 4:03 to go. The result was wretched. The Wiz outscored the Wolves 20-7 down the stretch and the Wolves again lost.

In those three games, the Wolves were outscored 97-66 in the fourth quarter, a fairly amazing margin when you think about it.

That's why Wednesday night's 111-104 win at Miami was important. It certainly wasn't pretty as the Wolves were again outscored in the fourth, but at least the Wolves reversed a recent trend. Despite leading by nine at the start of the fourth and by as many as 11 early in the quarter, Miami clawed their way back into this game. When Mario Chalmers -- he who was the property of the Wolves for about 34 seconds back in June -- scored to give the Heat a 99-97 lead with 2:28 to go, I thought this was going to be a fourth-straight crap fourth quarter for the Wolves.

But on the next possession, Bassy found Foye for a three. After Jermaine O'Neal missed on the other end, Bassy made a three of his own and the Wolves were up four with 90 seconds or so left. That was the ballgame and after losing five in a row the Wolves had their first win in more than two weeks.

Things we learned:

1. This isn't exactly rocket science, but the Wolves are much better when they move the ball like they did for much of the night against the Heat. Twenty-four assists on 37 field goals is very nice. It's a far cry from Randy-with-his-head-down down the stretch against the Wiz when the Wolves had 19 assists on 35 hoops.

2. D-Wade is really, really good. Wow he is fun to watch. He can get his own whenever he wants, but he also distributes well.

3. What's the deal with these slow starts. Another night, another big hole to start the game. That has to change and that's a blog post for another night.

I'll be back at you tomorrow. Maybe there will be some real news. Who knows.

A couple of quick thoughts...

2009-02-18T17:57:00.003-06:00

... before I head home to watch Wolves-Heat.

1. Will the Wolves have an answer for Jermaine O'Neal? It was only a little more than a week ago when JO'Neal went for 22 and 8 against the Wolves in Game 1 A.A. (After Al). Now he's traded Toronto for Miami and will play his first game for the Heat. How is that going to work?

2. What kind of jump will the Wolves have tonight? The last 30 games of the season are going to be difficult because of injuries. I know that. You know that. Everybody knows that. But I'm all right with it if the Wolves continue to play the right way. I want to see them play hard, fight and not let losing become OK. Tonight's the first true test of that. Last night should have been a Wolves victory, but instead a horrible Wizards team. I don't want to see that linger into tonight's game. If there's effort and a loss, I'm cool. If there's laziness, I won't be thrilled.

3. Wolves say that Al's surgery went well. I expected them to say nothing else. We'll know a whole lot more in September than we do now. Here's hoping the big load on the block turns out OK.

That's it. I'm hitting send and getting out of here.

Reflections 12 hours later. Or Why I'm tired of Randy Foye playing PG

2009-02-18T09:36:00.003-06:00

Hung up a little bit with work, I got in my car just as the first quarter was ending last night. That's when I heard how the Wolves were lucky to be down just 11 points to the worst team in the Eastern Conference.

I drove home, turned on the game and watched the Wolves climb their way back into the game in the second and third quarters. I thought as the fourth quarter began and the Wolves took a lead that they just might pull out a come-from-behind victory over the lowly Wizards.

Normally this wouldn't be cause for celebration, but considering the absence of Big Al, any victory is a good one.

There was, however, one major problem: Randy Foye tried to do too much.

If there was anything we learned during November and December, it is this: Randy Foye isn't a point guard. I like him as a person. I like him as a shooting guard. But when he has to handle the ball for extended periods of time, the Wolves offense turns far too much into 1-on-5 or 2-on-5.

That's exactly what happened in the last five-plus minutes against the Wiz.

Because even though Bassy was on the floor, it was like he didn't exist down the stretch. Bassy would dribble to halfcourt, pass the ball to No. 4 and, on several possessions, would quite literally go to the right wing and stand and watch.

It was confusing while watching it in real time. When I went back and watched it again off of the DVR, it made me want to pull my hair out.

There is clearly more pressure on Foye to score in Jefferson's absence, that is not in dispute. Maybe the natural reaction is to give him the ball in the fourth quarter and let him drive. But to me, that doesn't seem to make any sense in the least. Part of what made Foye so dangerous during January was his ability to get the ball on the perimeter after Bassy penetrates and pithches.

From there Foye could shoot or he take it to the basket against an offense that had just adjusted to a Telfair drive. That is a whole lot different than driving the ball against a defense that is set. The path to the basket isn't nearly as clear in that case. The opportunities to get the ball to a big guy with a dump down aren't as plenty.

Just as damaging is that Foye doesn't get anybody else involved when he runs the offense from the outset. Looking at the Popcorn Machine game flow from last night, two things stand out in the fourth quarter.

1. KLove re-entered the game with 5:16 to play and didn't attempt a field goal (though he did get to the line for two free throws). Really? Seriously? While some of that is on Love, I put most of that on Foye.

2. Mike Miller took one field goal in the last 6:34 and that was a three after the outcome was pretty much decided. It has become pretty clear that other NBA teams know the reality when Foye is in the game: Stop 4's drive and he'll try to force something because he probably won't find the right open guy in the right spot.

Perhaps the highlight of the night came when Adrian Woj at Yahoo posted a piece that indicated that the Wolves are potentially interested in a three-team deal that would send Kirk Hinrich to Minnesota. Considering the potential deal would cost the Wolves little more than Jason Collins' expiring contract, I love it. This would be a serious upgrade for the Wolves at point guard and would move Bassy to a backup role. I like Bassy, but I'm not sure that he's good enough to play 30-plus minutes a night. Last night was further evidence that McHale doesn't trust him when the game is on the line.

I like securing Hinrich rather than going for a PG in the draft for the simple reason that Bassy and a rookie would be a position battle next fall. With the exception of Ricky Rubio, I don't know that there is a PG in the draft that would be immediately able to come in start from the onset. Hinrich, while certainly not an All-Star, would immediately create a pecking order at PG.

And clearly establishing a true depth chart at PG is a priority. The loss to the Wizards proved that.

What can be expected now? What are reasonable expectations?

2009-02-17T17:44:00.003-06:00

I do hate when real work and real life gets in the way of this blogging pursuit. I'm hoping life is somewhat back to normal now. No guarantees, but there is hope.

The Wolves are about 15 minutes from beginning the post-All Star Game portion of the schedule and, in some ways, the post-Al portion of the season. Yes, there was the game against Toronto before the break, but I think that was a sort of what-is-this-really-like 48 minutes.

As things stand, the Wolves are 17-34 with 31 games left to be played. That is the known part of the equation. For me, the unknown is what really can be expected as the Wolves maneuver through the final two months of the regular season.

When the Wolves were playing well in January, I thought this team could recover from 4-23 start to the season and get to the 30-win mark. I thought that even 35 wins would be possible. But now? I really have no idea what to expect.

Of the final 31 games this season, 20 are against teams that are in or close to being in the playoffs. For the sake of this argument, that group includes 10 teams from the East and nine from the West. That leaves 11 games against non-playoff variety teams. There two against the Wiz, two against an improving Golden State team and one each against Indiana, Memphis, the Knicks, Charlotte, Oklahoma City, the Clippers and the season finale against crappy Sacto.

How many of these games will the Wolves be favored in? Clearly that depends on health and whether they can get anything going the the short term without Big Al.

How many will they win? Realistically, this has the potential to be a long couple of months. With Al and Corey Brewer out, the Wolves are without two of their top seven from the beginning of the season. Throw in Mike Miller not being in a groove and there might not be more than a couple of nights the rest of the way where you look at the lineups and say, 'Yeah, the Wolves should win this.'

This is a total guess, but I'm going to go with 8-23 the rest of the way. That would give the Wolves 25 wins for the season. That would actually be better than six years in Wolves history, but also a small improvement over a year ago.

This morning, Jerry Zgoda did a nice job looking at the post Al era in the Star Tribune.

He talks Lottery positioning, the development of Kevin Love, whether Randy Foye will able to assume more of the scoring load. In other words, all of the usual topics. My feelings aren't all that different than Jerry's to be honest.

My wish list:
1. Play someone at center other than Kevin Love at least part of the time.

My fear is that McHale will simply move KLove into Big Al's spot and play the Rhino at power forward. I get the strategy behind that. But I don't want to see KLove having to guard centers on a regular basis and get dominated on the defensive end of the floor. Even if it costs the team some wins, I'd rather see Mad-Dog or Booth play some minutes at center. I'm not sure we're going to see that, however. I think we'll see Love at center, Rhino at the four and Cardinal rotating in for one of the two.

2. Randy Foye should never play PG.

I've been on this before, but I want to see McHale keep Foye at the 2 at all costs. I understand a few minutes here and there until Kevin Ollie comes back, but Foye needs to prove he can be an effective shooting guard. Or at least he should get the chance to see if he is an effective shooting guard. Foye is going to see different defenses and more attention than he has ever gotten now that one of the best low-post scorers in the league is on the shelf. So how will Randy react?

3. The departure of somebody

If they can get something for Mike Miller, make the deal. If they can three used balls and pair of old sneakers for McCants, make the deal.

4. I suppose more losses.

This is the hardest part of the Big Al injury for me. For too long over the past two years, the Wolves have been a total afterthought in the Twin Cities sports market. The past two months have been fun. There has been a buzz about the team, the Wolves have come up in regular conversation, there have been signs of life. When they had most of their pieces, it was easy to pull for this team to win games even if the playoffs were an unattainable goal. Now, they need to lose. They need good odds in the lottery.

5. Some resolution about McHale's future

I dislike the guy as a GM, but I like him as a coach. I like how he tries to instill confidence and doesn't scream like a mad man. I especially like that he doesn't stomp his feet like the last guy. But I also don't like the uncertainty. Either commit to the job or move along. I'd like him to stay because I think he does a nice job. And some stability might not be a bad thing.

That's it for now. Time to go watch the rest of this thing unfold.

Well, this really sucks

2009-02-09T13:51:00.002-06:00

Big Al has a torn ACL. Insert your own bad word here.

I'll write more later when I'm not at the real job. Zgoda writes about it here.

Ugh.

Can they take advantage?

2009-02-08T18:13:00.002-06:00

As I sit here on my couch, watching the early moments of the Wolves game at New Orleans -- Bassy just buried a shot-clock-beating three -- I see no Chris Paul. Nor do I see Tyson Chandler.

Much was made in January about how the Wolves constantly caught teams when they were missing stars and starters. I get that criticism, I really do. But the flip side of that is that the Wolves were able to take advantage of the situation.

The reality is that injuries are part of the deal in the NBA. Would the Wolves be better if it had Kevin Ollie to play some PG minutes at this point? What about having a healthy Corey Brewer? I say yes.

I say this because I'm not sure the Wolves would have been able to beat short-handed teams earlier this season.

The Wolves had a chance to steal a victory last week when Atlanta played at Target Center without Joe Johnson. To me, that was an opportunity lost. While the Wolves are getting better, it is difficult for them to matchup against legit playoff teams and win. They simply aren't at that level. But maybe they've reached a point where they can sneak out a win against a short-handed playoff team.

I didn't anticipate that the Wolves would be able to win at New Orleans when I looked at this stretch of games leading into the All-Star Game. But now they have a chance. Beat the Hornets and beat Toronto at home and the Wolves can go into the break on a positive note.

I will admit that I didn't see a second of Saturday night's loss at Houston. I was at a party where the television sets were dominated by Gophers puck and hoops. Sounds like I missed a helluva Big Al show.

So I've got no insight for you other than the obvious one that KLove needs to play a lot better. One field goal in 33 minutes simply isn't going to cut it. And Minnesota as a team has to rebound the ball better. That the Wolves not named Jefferson grabbed only 17 rebounds in 201 minutes of action is just not acceptable. I can't even believe that stat: 17 rebounds in 201 minutes. Damn that is bad.

Anyway, there are about three minutes to go in the first quarter here. Must get back to the television. I'm out.

Well, that wasn't all that great

2009-02-04T21:58:00.003-06:00

I'd love to say I was surprised by tonight's loss to the Hawks, but I'm not.

A night after having to rally to beat Indiana, the Wolves played an Atlanta team that is both pretty good and was in Minneapolis while Minnesota was still at Conseco Fieldhouse.

I tend to think that the Hawks are pretty good. I like Marvin Williams. I like Josh Smith. I'm kind of surprised that Mike Bibby killed the Wolves the way he did.

Entering this back-to-back, I didn't like the Wolves chances to win both. That's part of the reason why the win at Indiana was so important.

Don't know what to think of no Rhino. Not sure what to think about McCants playing for the first time in forever. I hope neither is a regular situation.

Love to say I was shocked. But I'm not.

A big test for McHale

2009-02-03T13:24:00.002-06:00

Would love to blog more today, but am up to my eyes in work (in a Bassy trying to guard Big Baby Davis sort of way). I do have one thing I need to get off my chest.

I consider the next 48 hours to be the most important so far of this second McHale tenure.

The first long losing streak seemed unavoidable to be honest. There was a long road trip. There was little in terms of practice time. He needed to cleanse the players of the stench of Wittman.

But now? These Wolves have had some success and January was the team's best month in several years. But as the Wolves prepare for tonight's game at Indiana, McHale's guys have a smooth little three-game losing streak. There's no shame in that considering they came to Detroit, the Lakers and Boston.

Tonight's game is the first of a back-to-back as tomorrow night the Wolves will host Atlanta. I want to see how the Wolves respond. Are they tired of losing like they say they are? Or will they fall into the old trap of lose six, win one.

Looking ahead to the schedule before the All-Star Break isn't that pretty. After these two games, there is a weekend back-to-back at Houston and New Orleans. There's also a home game with Toronto before the break.

This five-game stretch is important because the Wolves can't afford to let this three-game losing streak become an eight-game skid. If that happens, much of that momentum from January vanishes.

I would like to see at least two and preferably three victories from the Wolves in this stretch. I don't really care where they find these wins, but I don't see them winning this weekend on the road.

Hence, the Wolves need to start playing better. Starting tonight.

What's up with these injuries?

2009-02-02T23:47:00.002-06:00

First the Lakers lose big man Andrew Bynum to a blown up knee.

Then Magic point guard Jameer Nelson goes down with a shoulder injury.

Finally, New Orleans PG Chris Paul -- CP3 according to the cool kids -- develops one of those nasty groins.

What does all this mean?

I truly thought the Lakers were head and shoulders above everybody in the West. The Bynum injury impacts that. Even if he's back by the beginning of the playoffs, will he be the same? What will happen when he tries to work his way back into the lineup?

Does this mean San Antonio or Denver has a chance in the West? Portland even?

For Orlando, I think this is an injury that slides them back and makes the East the two-team race that everybody thought it would be. I just don't see them having the long-range firepower of either Cleveland or Boston. Writing that just means that Orlando will now roll.

Haven't heard much more about CP3, but this seems to be the least severe of the injuries. Regardless, this has been an eventful few days.

McHale is West Coach of the Month

2009-02-02T14:23:00.003-06:00

This little nugget supplied by Star Tribune beat writer Jerry Zgoda here.

Good for McHale. He wasn't much of a GM -- at least at the beginning -- but maybe he has found his calling.

He has made the Wolves interesting, something that didn't seem all that possible back around Thanksgiving.

Well, so much for that blog post or KG isn't playing today against the Wolves

2009-02-01T10:56:00.005-06:00

I was all set to write a pregame post about Garnett. I even had a fancy title "I Don't Heart KG." But then I saw this from Jerry Zgoda

KG is not in the house fro the Celtics today because of a fever and the flu. This is an interesting development as the Wolves have played the green and white tough in recent meetings. Generally, however, KG pulls them through at the end.

I still don't think this is a game that the Wolves can win. The Celtics -- like the Lakers on Friday night -- are just too good. The Celtics, after all, have won 10 in a row.

Sorry I didn't post after Friday night's loss, but frankly I didn't have a whole lot to add. I didn't see the first half and was surprised to see that they were only down four at the break. I watched the second half while at a bar. No sound, a couple of beverages, etc.

The outcome was about like I thought. The game flow at Popcorn Machine, confirmed what I figured would happen: The Wolves struggled against the Lakers big lineup. With Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum on the floor early in the third quarter, the Lakers went +14 before making a move.

Why the next two games don't matter

2009-01-30T10:23:00.002-06:00

OK, every game matters a little bit. Even in an 82-game NBA season. But this isn't a referendum.

There seems to be this buzz out there that tonight's game against the Lakers and Sunday's game at Boston will be this true test of whether the Wolves have truly improved. Are they better? Or has the gaudy January record been the result of the Wolves catching teams when they are missing players and the like.

There is certainly some of that. Milwaukee didn't have Redd or Bogut; the Clip joint didn't have Camby, Zach Randolph or Caveman Kaman and New Orleans didn't have Tyson Chandler or David West.

But to me, the next two games won't give us any indication of whether the Wolves have gotten any better. It doesn't matter how much the Wolves have improved of late, they simply don't have enough talent to really try to measure themselves against two of the top five teams in the Association.

It's possible that the Wolves could beat the Lakers at home. But Charlotte didn't do the Wolves any favors by beating the Lakers in double OT on Wednesday night. Kobe and Co. have only lost consecutive games twice this season. The first was losing at both Miami and Orlando. The second was earlier this month when the Lakers lost at San Antonio and at home against the Magic. Throw in the fact that a Wolves team without a center has to try to defend two 7-footers at the same time in Gasol and Bynum and this is a really tough matchup.

I truly think the Wolves have zero chance of beating the Celtics. While Boston isn't quite as dominant as it was early in the season, the Celtics have four players in Garnett, Pierce, Allen and Rondo who deserve to be All-Stars. The Green and White enter tonight's game at Boston on a nine-game winning streak and the seven most recent of them have all been by double digits.

My point to all of this is that if there really is a referendum about whether the Wolves are improved, it comes next week. Because after this difficult weekend, there is a back-to-back on Tuesday and Wednesday, first at Indiana and then at home against Atlanta.

Those are the games in which I want to see improvement. If the Wolves do lose both games this weekend and travel to Indy with a three-game losing streak, I don't want to see it extend to five. I want to see the Wolves continue to play well, push the tempo a little bit and get lots of guys involved.

The sprint to the All-Star break is a difficult one for the Wolves. Lakers, Celtics, Pacers, Hawks, Rockets, Hornets, Raptors. That's seven games against teams that are at least playoff contenders.

I expect two losses this weekend, but would like to see the Wolves show some improvement before the break.

Two things....

2009-01-29T18:06:00.001-06:00

1. As I predicted below, at appears that Big Al won't be an All-Star and Shaq will be. That's what Yahoo is reporting here

2. There are also reports out there that Lakers big man Andrew Bynum will not be suspended for the hard foul on Charlotte's Gerald Wallace. That means he will be on the Target Center floor tomorrow night for the Lakers.

All-Star Game = No Howls

2009-01-29T16:20:00.002-06:00

After the obvious one of whether the Wolves can keep this going, the biggest question around The 600 Project of late has been: Will Al Jefferson be an All-Star?

Well, we're about two hours from finding out that answer. My hunch is that the answer will be a resounding 'No.'

I truly hope that isn't the case. Big Al has been tremendous during the first half of the season and is certainly deserving of being an All-Star. He has 24 double-doubles on the season and 20 games of at least 20 points and 10 rebounds. He had that little 39-point night against the Bulls. And he has done it all while being the clear focal point of the Timberwolves offense.

Imagine how much better he would be if he always got help from a couple of teammates, something that didn't happen until more recently.

Why don't I think Al will make it? Because of the Shaq factor. Shaquille O'Neal often takes of one half of back-to-backs, has more help and worse numbers than Big Al. But this, after all, is the NBA. With the game in Phoenix, the NBA is going to want O'Neal and his mega-watt smile in attendance. The league is going to want to create even more buzz. And maybe more importantly, the league isn't going to want any lingering chatter in Phoenix about how O'Neal deserves to play.

And the best way to ensure that is to screw Big Al.

I pretty much always thought that Big Al was going to have a tough time making the team -- and the team's GPS idea is totally lame as Portland did it a year ago to pump Brandon Roy -- but seeing what happened to Love makes me more certain Big Al will have the weekend off.

A case can be made against Big Al, especially when you factor in players from all positions. Being an All-Star in the NBA isn't easy. This isn't Major League Baseball or the NHL where you can be an All-Star just because you're the best player on a crap team.

But that Kevin Love isn't in the rookie-sophomore game is, in the words of McHale "utterly ridiculous." The UCLA rookie himself reportedly called the move "bullshit."

John Hollinger of espn.com clearly isn't pleased either. I am clearly not a super stat geek and know how to figure PUR and the like. But I do know this: The assistant coaches in the league should know better.

How many times a game to assistant coaches bark at their players about rebounding? How often do they get on their own guys about the importance of boxing out? The number is too high to count.

So what do they do? They leave out the player who leads all rookies in rebounds per game and rebounds per 48 minutes. Love, without question, had a rough first six weeks or so this season. But he has totally come around of late.

To me, the whole thing is a moving target. Consider:

If this is about sheer performance, then shouldn't 9.0 points and 8.4 rebounds and playing in every game be worth more than 9.0 points and 7.4 rebounds and missing six games? Those, by the way, are numbers comparing Love and Portland rookie Greg Oden.

If it is about contributing to a team's success, then why the hell does Memphis have two players on the team and Love not make it?

Who shouldn't have made it? I'm going to go with either Marc Gasol (11.0 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 30.4 mpg) or Eric Gordon (13.8 ppg, 32.2 mpg). Both are simply the products of being on teams that are so bad that they have to play rookies extended minutes.

Maybe I'll be wrong, but I think Big Al is going to have the weekend off. And if the Wolves aren't represented in Phoenix, it will be a shame.

Pistons 98, Wolves 89: Items to consider

2009-01-29T10:23:00.002-06:00

Sorry for the late post on last nights game. A couple too many $6.50 Target Center adult beverages and an early morning = late post.

Because of that, we'll go with some quick hits here:

1. This game should be Exhibit A as to why the Wolves need to make an addition at point guard over the summer.

Why? With Bassy still dealing the bruised thigh he suffered Monday night at Milwaukee and getting in foul trouble from trying to guard Mr. Practice A.I., Randy Foye played point guard over the final 10:15. That, my friends, still isn't a good thing. It isn't a coincidence that Foye's numbers have gone up ever since he has been moved primarily to the 2.

Foye replaced Bassy with 10:15 to go in regulation and the game tied, 76-76. From that point, Foye missed both of his field goal attempts and scored one point. When was the last time he was that ineffective in the fourth quarter. Some of that credit goes to the Pistons, but it was a perfect example of why the Wolves need to do something at PG.

I would like to see them draft a PG with their first pick or sign or trade for a starter and keep Bassy. I think Telfair really is better. While there are a couple of stupid turnovers or horrible shots a game, the does a lot of things well. He gets the game moving at a faster pace, he does a nice job penetrating and then pitching out to open shooters on the wing and he does a nice job feeding the post when the defense is off balance. In a perfect world, I'd like to see him split time next year with a new guy and at least play 15 minutes a night.

With Foye running the point, the Wolves looked sluggish and never really got into a flow. They only scored 17 points in the fourth quarter and only 13 after Foye moved to the point.

This truly was a winnable game for the Wolves, but it turned into an opportunity lost.

2. Did he really say that?

How about the quote after the game from Rasheed Wallace. "I think we needed it more than them," Wallace said. "They were pretty hot her in the month of January. I think we just wanted it a little more to get off of this damn slide we've been on."

Did you ever think that the Pistons would say that after a game with the Wolves? I could see 'Sheed saying that after beating, say, the Celtics or Cavs, but the Wolves? I guess it shows how far Minnesota has come in the past six weeks.

3. 'Sheed really can play

It's easy to simply call him a thug or a whiner, but Wallace really can still play. And he's a smart cat. How he attacked the Wolves on the offensive end was a perfect example of that. When Rhino or K-Love guarded him, Wallace immediately went inside and overpowered his defender on the block. But when Big Al tried to guard him, Wallace used his quickness to his advantage. He took the bigger Jefferson out to the perimeter and bounced it past him or shot three-pointers.

That was the case down the stretch where 'Sheed scored seven in a row as Detroit finished the game on a 13-3 run.

4. Thoughts on A.I.

While the moody No. 1 is getting older and he doesn't totally attack the basket on every play, he still can motor at spurts. When he wants to, A.I. can blow by almost any guard in the league and get into the paint.

The other thing that is amazing when you sit close to the floor -- as was the case last night -- is that he really isn't very big. It's like he could be simply snapped in half by a big guy.

While I can understand the people who don't really like him and think he's a total punk, I totally respect him. He plays hard all the time and he's totally fearless. Nothing wrong with any of that.

5. A view from the not-so-cheap seats

Sat in some corporate seats a few rows up from the Wolves bench for the first time since the coaching change. The difference was staggering. It was so much more peaceful.

It's been very clear that McHale has a much more laid back personality during games than Wittman. That is clear from some of the other seats I've sat in and from watching on TV. But sitting up close, it's amazing how quiet it is. McHale isn't calling out plays all the time, he doesn't stomp his feat. He gets on the officials a little bit and yells almost exclusively encouraging things at his team. He doesn't freak when they make a mistake. It's totally refreshing.

That's it for now. Will post later on my thoughts about K-Love, Big Al and the All-Star Game.

Off to the Target Center

2009-01-28T17:27:00.002-06:00

Thanks to a work colleague who had a customer cancel at the last minute, I'm off to the Target Center and will sit in some stupid-good seats tonight.

It will certainly beat buying cheap tickets and sneaking downstairs at halftime. I didn't just write that, did I?

And if you read this, feel free to drop a note. Or comment. Would love to know if anybody is reading. Or entertained.

So Pistons, when did you become crappy?

2009-01-28T09:11:00.002-06:00

I'm guessing the best place to watch tonight's Wolves-Piston games would be in front what I can only assume is some massive flat screen in the Medina compound of one Phil "Flip" Saunders.

Saunders, after all, was fired by Detroit last June after the Pistons lost to Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals. I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure that group in green wasn't bad. Saunders run in Detroit went like this:

05-06: 64 wins and a trip to the East finals

06-07: 53 wins and a trip to the East finals

07-08: 59 wins and a trip to the East finals

That's why watching tonight's game with Saunders would be so fascinating. He coached both teams -- after all, McHale's first run as Wolves coach came after Saunders was fired here -- and the Pistons have seriously gone backwards this season.

Detroit is an awfully average 24-19 for the season and the Pistons have been the anti-Wolves this month. While Minnesota has won game after game in January, Detroit is guaranteed to have its first losing month since 2004 and has lost eight of last 11 games.

The Pistons are probably still a playoff team in the east, but there won't be another long run to the East finals this season. The A.I. experiment has been a mess and has seemed to have created rotation/lineup issues -- I mean, I certainly wouldn't bring Richard Hamilton off of the bench just to keep A.I. happy.

For a deeper look at the once mighty -- and now kind of old -- Pistons click on this analysis of the team by Booth newspapers beat writer A. Sherrod Blakely. It talks about how the once mighty defense of the Pistons has become extremely soft. After all, the Rockets lit up Detroit for 39 in the first quarter on Sunday. In consecutive losses to Dallas and Houston, the Pistons gave up 112 and 108 points respectively.

In addition, first-year coach Michael Cooper is certainly going through some growing pains. There has been much talk about him wanting a significant amount of structure -- and, hence, control -- in the Detroit offense. That seems to be kind of Wittman-like, doesn't it?

What does all of this mean for the Wolves? It means that this suddenly looks like a winnable game and that's important considering the Lakers are at The 600 Project on Friday night and the Wolves appear to be nothing more than a Super Bowl appetizer at the Celtics on Sunday. For that to happen, the Wolves need to continue to move the ball and push it when the opportunity is there. Get the Pistons running, jump on them early and grab control. This certainly won't be as easy as the early-season (and shocking) butt-kicking the Wolves put on the Pistons early this season, but this doesn't look nearly as tough as it did before.

Two other things:

1. I now know how the Wolves won at Detroit by 26 points back in November -- McCants didn't play in that game either.

2. Anybody watch that Lakers-Bobcats game last night? Very entertaining. My question, however, is whether Andrew Bynum will be suspended for his cheap shot on Gerald Wallace late in the fourth quarter? Wallace was driving to the hoop and Bynum cracked him hard in the ribs. Wallace had to be taken to the hospital because of a potential collapsed lung. It was a total goon play.

One quote that sums everything up

2009-01-27T15:35:00.002-06:00

Gotta love Randy Foye. This was from Jerry Zgoda's game story this morning and about the change in attitude.

"The way we were playing, we weren't even playing mediocre basketball. Basically, we were playing win one, lose six, win one lose six. Every time we won a game, it felt like we won the championship. But now, if you look around here, we win these games and it's like we're supposed to beat these teams. We're supposed to come out every night and win."

He continued:

"When we lose, we're mad, we're upset. Before, it was like we were supposed to lose. It's a different attitude now with the Timberwolves."

Yes, yes it is. And that's a good thing.

News flash: K-Love can rebound

2009-01-27T12:32:00.003-06:00

That's what you'll find here at Henry Abbott's TrueHoop blog.

Despite not starting and not playing mega-minutes, Love currently leads the Association in offensive rebound percentage and is fifth in total offensive rebounds.

Good to see the big rook get a little attention.

Wolves 90, Bucks 83: A little more like it

2009-01-26T21:55:00.003-06:00

To truly understand the importance of Monday's 90-83 victory at Milwaukee, you have to look back at Sunday night's come-from-behind victory against the Bulls.

Because as much grit as the Wolves showed in the overtime victory over Chicago, it had to much of an early-season feel to it. You know, kind of a Wittman feel to it. Why? Because there was too much Big Al for my taste.

The 39 points were great and there are going to be nights when a player gets hot. But it seemed that there were times when the Wolves offense could be summed up like this: Throw the ball to the big fella, stand around and watch him.

So that brings us back to Tuesday night and the second half of a back-to-back at the Bradley Center. Which Wolves offense would show up? The share-the-ball-and-zip-it-around Wolves of the past six weeks? Or the stand-around-and-watch-Big-Al-while-Wittman-stomps-his-feet Wolves?

Maybe it is simply paranoia that the recent play under McHale is simply a dream and eventually someone is going to say, 'Ah, this was all just a big joke, your team is still horrible.'

Well if that is going to happen (and it still seems possible), it didn't happen on Monday night. Instead of going back in time to early December, the standing around appeared to be a one-night event.

This was far from a perfect outing for the Wolves. There were turnovers, there were missed shots and there was a crap fourth quarter, but there was a third quarter that gave a look at how the Wolves have progressed.

The scoring for the Wolves in the third went like this:

Bassy 3, Al layup, Gomes layup, Al jumper, Al dunk, Bassy jumper, Smith layoup, Smith dunk, Foye FTs, Love FT, Smith hook, Gomes FT, Love FTs, Gomes.

If you're counting, that is six different players scoring. It was a quarter that let the Wolves stretch their lead from four points to 14.

Other items of note:

- How about Mike Miller actually making a three-pointer that meant something, buring one in the fourth quarter that stretched the Wolves lead from six to nine.

- Gomes' 22 points were a season high.

- The Wolves are now 12-12 under McHale, a fairly amazing feat considering they lost eight in a row after Wittman was fired.

- Minnesota has won 10 games in a month for the first time since March '05.

- I liked J.B. Bickerstaff's look of the argyle sweater and no tie under his jacket. Very solid.

Monday midday

2009-01-26T12:49:00.002-06:00

We're about t-minus six hours until the Wolves and injured-as-hell Bucks take the floor in Milwaukee. Hopefully the team in blue won't eat too much cheese or drink too much beer between now and then.

Anyway, a few items:

Getting to .500?*

This needs an asterisk because it isn't exactly really that .500 we're talking about. At 15-27, the Wolves have a long way to get to .500 for the season (and frankly, going 26-14 the rest of the way seems like a stretch).

But a Wolves victory tonight would get Minnesota to .500 under Kevin McHale. Despite the fact that the coach with the horrible fashion sense lost his first eight games in his return to the bench, the Wolves are now 11-12 in the post-Wittman era.

A 10-win month?

Sunday night's come-from-behind win over the Bulls was the ninth in January for the Wolves. They now have three chances -- tonight at Milwaukee, Wednesday against Detroit and Friday against the Lakers -- to win a 10th game in January.

To put that into context, the Wolves haven't won 10 games in a month since March '05. They needed a victory at the Lakers on the last day of the month and some dude named Garnett went for 23 and 12 that night.

A little further context: In March '05 Corey Brewer was a freshman at Florida, Al Jefferson was averaging 6.7 ppg as a rookie for the Celtics, Kevin Love was a sophomore at Lake Oswego High School in Oregon and Mark Madsen was the only current Wolf on the roster.

See ya Mike Miller

Well, I guess this means Mike Miller really is out of here. This morning, Star Tribune columnist Sid Hartman wrote that Miller isn't going to be traded. I have two thoughts on that.

1. Considering the track record of the old man, is there any reason to believe that Miller isn't totally gone? Because usually reality is about 180 degrees removed from what he writes.

2. I guess I don't get the sourcing on the piece. Sid quotes McHale saying Miller isn't being shopped and won't be moved. That's cool and all, but there is a small problem with that: McHale allegedly isn't involved in player moves. His front office days are allegedly done and he's just the coach.

Item two I don't get

Also this morning, Jim Souhan pens his second Wolves column in three days. But his lead is totally flawed. He says that "The Chicago Bulls and Minnesota Timberwolves made the two most dramatic decisions in the early rounds of the NBA Draft." He then talks about how the Bulls were smart to take D-Rose first and the Wolves did the right thing by shipping Mayo to Memphis for K-Love.

The thing is, the Bulls were never going to take Michael Beasley. As soon as they won the draft lottery, they were going to take Rose. While Beasley might turn out to be a star, I think he is kind of a guy without a position as he isn't really big enough to play the 4, but can't guard 3s in the NBA. Rose is an elite PG prospect. My understanding from a friend with the Bulls is that there really wasn't a choice to be made. It was that clear cut.

Thoughts on the Bucks

It will be interesting to see how Milwaukee responds tonight on several fronts. This will be the Bucks first game since guard Michael Redd was lost for the season Saturday night with a knee injury. The Bucks were already very much in a battle for one of the last playoff spots in the East and this certainly doesn't help.

Will the Bucks play hard and try to prove they can win without Redd? Or will they still be feeling sorry for themselves? That's very much an unknown. In addition, Redd told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that PG Luke Ridenour has been repeatedly apologizing for accidentally stepping on Redd's foot, something that may have been a factor in the injury. How will Ridenour respond tonight?

The Wolves won the second meeting against Milwaukee a year ago so they will attempt to extend their winning streak over the Bucks to three games. The Wolves haven't won at the Bradley Center, however, since 2004. The Wolves are also 2-10 this year in the second half of back-to-backs, but both wins have come this month.

Wolves 109, Bulls 108: Don't forget Bassy

2009-01-25T22:33:00.000-06:00

The easy angles are as follows:

1. Wolves miss their first 11 shots, trail by 16 points at one point and come back to beat the Bulls in OT. Heck the Bulls led by seven with less than five minutes to go.

2. Big Al was a total monster, going for 39 and nine. Helps solidify his case to be a Western Conference All-Star

3. K-Love continues to get better. He plays a career-high 33 minutes. His 19 points are one off of his rookie best. His 15 rebounds equal his best.

But I don't want to talk about any of that. Some of it is because there will be plenty of places where you can read about Big Al killing. But some of it is that the Wolves don't win this game without Sebastian Telfair.

No, I'm not crazy. Here's why:

Bassy played very good defense both at the end of the regulation and at the end of overtime. With the ball and a chance to win at both the end of the fourth and overtime, Bulls PG Derrick Rose had the ball on both occasions. And why not? Barring injury, Rose seems to be a lock for rookie of the year, he's super quick and is strong enough to get to the hole.

At the end of regulation, Bassy contested Rose's 17-footer. While he got some help on the play, Telfair had his had in Rose's face and forced the rookie to take an off-balance shot. At the end of overtime, the stronger Rose tried to post-up Bassy on the right block. Bassy forced him to go left where Rose had to deal at least a little with the backboard. The shot didn't fall and after the ball bounced around a little, the horn sounded and the Wolves won for the 10th time in their last 14 games.

But Bassy's contribution was about more than helping to hold Rose scoreless over the last 5:10 of regulation and all of overtime. He also kept them in the game early. Telfair scored all nine of his points in the first quarter and played a big role in keeping the Wolves in the game. He seemed to be the only guy who had any jump and without him, the initial hole would have been even deeper.

Big Al and K-Love were very good against the Bulls and deserve a ton of credit. But the Wolves probably don't win without Bassy.

Monday = No Redd, perhaps no Bogut

2009-01-25T17:52:00.000-06:00

This is bad for the Milwaukee Bucks, but good for the Timberwolves: Bucks gunner Michael Redd is done for the season.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

"The Bucks have confirmed that guard Michael Redd will be lost for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. Redd suffered the injury in the third quarter of Saturday's game against the Sacramento Kings."

When the Wolves beat the Bucks on Jan. 10, they extended their winning streak to five games. And they did it despite Redd going off for 32 points. Redd was averaging about 25 ppg in January before the injury.

While the game will be the second half of a home-road back-to-back for the Wolves, this will be Milwaukee's first game without Redd since he came back from an ankle injury. When Redd missed 14 games earlier this season, Milwaukee went 5-9.

Charlie Bell started in Redd's absence earlier this season, but Bell is out now with a right ankle injury. It's unclear what Scott Skiles will do in terms of a starting lineup, but point guard Ramon Sessions will likely see minutes at the 2.

The Bucks might also be without center Andrew Bogut, who has missed six in a row with back spasms. According to the Journal Sentinel, the hope is that Bogut will be back for the Wolves game, but it isn't certain.

Why this? Why now? Am I late to the party?

2009-01-25T16:59:00.000-06:00

In other words, this is an introduction.

As I write this, the Minnesota Timberwolves are only about an hour from tipping off for their 42nd game of this 2008-09 season. As Kevin McHale's Project 600 prepares for what seems to be a winnable game against the Chicago Bulls, the Wolves are suddenly luke warm.

Considering where this franchise has been for the past, say, four years, that's pretty good.

Despite a season that has seen Randy Wittman get fired and the Wolves lose 23 of their first 27 games, there are finally signs of life in these Timberwolves. Since Christmas, Minnesota has won 10 of 14 games and that building at 600 N. First Ave., is starting to come to life a little bit.

So why am I here?

It's a combination of things really. I have had something of a love/hate relationship with the NBA. There have been times when I've really loved the game, but other times when I had much more interest in the college game. But I've started to gain a much greater appreciation for the NBA. The league has the best players in the world, there is far more coaching going on than most people realize and almost every team has somebody worth watching.

As far as the Wolves go, I guess I'm like a lot of Minnesota sports fans. I want them to have success, but have been repeatedly frustrated. There have been the countless lottery disappointments, the first-round exits, a list of knuckleheads ranging from Rider to McCants. There was the Joe Smith disaster, the failed experiment with Spree and the Alien and the complete dismissal of the second round of the draft.

But as I say that, there is no other pro team in town that I would rather invest myself in. I realize that sounds crazy, but it comes down to this for me: The Wolves appear to be headed in the right direction, they have a young core, they play hard and it's easy to walk out of Target Center after a game feeling like you got a very good return on your investment.

I realize there are other Wolves blogs out there and that's cool. I'm not out here to "compete" with any of them, but I hope to complement what is going on at twolvesblog.com and canishoopus.com. I'm not going to link as much as the twolvesblog folks and I don't have a message board. I'm probably not going to get quite as much into stats and math as canishoopus, but I do like some of that stuff.

My hope is to provide some context, some entertainment and create a place that features some reasonably smart writing, some interesting stats and a little bit of humor. I hope you enjoy.