What Would the IMU Do?

So I'm getting pretty stoked about this draft tonight and I'm been talking to Bez while he slacks off at work. He asked me where I thought everyone would go because I was telling him I though Chad Ford's latest Mock Draft was pretty shitty. It started because of a handful of players being in what I thought was the completely wrong place in the first round, but also because He has the Wolves taking two international players and keeping them over seas in the second round. I've already stated that I think the Wolves should move up, which I'll talk about at the bottom of this, but should they keep those picks what good is it to keep players away from this team when backing up our Power Forward turned Center are Micheal Doleac and Chris Richards who is shorter than Jefferson. Our Power Forwards are all too small as well. Gomes and Smith are 6-7 and Madsen is not only nothing more than a glorified cheerleader, but also a 6-9 player who tends to mop up in the 5 spot more than the 4.

Anyways... Here's how I see the Top Ten going down.

1. Chicago takes Derrick Rose. Easy.
2. Beasley goes here. If Miami doesn't take him they trade the pick to either Seattle or Memphis. From Seattle they get Chris Wilcox and the 4. From Memphis They get Mike Miller and the 5. I'm sure there would be other current NBA players involved in this trade for money purposes, but I'm not going to bother figuring that sort of stuff out.
3. The Wolves take Ovinton J'Anthony Mayo. Please take him. Please take him. Please take him. God strike McHale down before 6 PM. ( you don't have to kill him, just incapacitate him during our picks)
4. Jerryd Bayless goes here either to the Heat or to Seattle.
5.The Grizzlies take Kevin Love or The Heat take Russell Westbrook.
6. I think the Knicks take Westbrook or D.J. Augustine Lets face it... the Knicks could use everything and Ford has them leaning towards Danillo Gallinari. I think they want Westbrook to fix that Starbury problem. I'm not sold on teams digging that European Point-Forward bullshit after they all seemingly flop unless they are named Dirk (who just chokes in the clutch)
7.I think the Clips take D.J Augustine. If he is not available they pick Eric Gordon.
8. The Bucks take Joe Alexander. This seems pretty set in stone.
9. The Bobcats will take Kevin Love if he isn't selected at 3 (no please) or 5. If he is gone they take Brook Lopez so that they can move Emeka Okefor to Power Forward.
10. The Nets take Danillo Gallinari at 10.

I think Ford has Bayless way too low, Lopez and Galinary too high, and Augustine and Westbrook slightly lower than they should be. This is a Guard's top 10 and a Center's mid section.

Now. About that trade I want the Wolves to make to jump into the middle of the first round. It looks like The Warriors at 14 are our best hopes if we try to package this years two second rounders and/or Antoine Walker. The Warriors have Andris Biedrins and Monta Elis as restricted free agents and could use Walker's salary off the books to help sign one or both along with not having guaranteed contracts for second rounders. The Sixers are in the same boat as the Warriors at 16 as they have Andre Iguodalla as a restricted free agent this season. If the combination involves the first rounder we got from Boston there are more options... probably the The Wizards who need to figure out a way to get Gilbert Arenas and Antwan Jamison back on their team. My guess is they'll only get Gilbert back.

I'd rather not bother giving up a first rounder and ending up lower with the Wiz, but it may end up happening and that Celtics pick won't be too many spots above the one Miami gave us any way. I want to figure out a way to get rid of Antoine Walker, Marko Jaric, Rashad McCants and Craig Smith are on my chopping block. Bassy and Gomes are very reluctantly there as well. There are worse players that are obvious choices to go, but I don't think they'd be wanted unless contracts don't match up. If you want to know who I'd like us to pick up for a big man its either Kosta Koufus or DeAndre Jordan leaning towards Koufus.

UPDATE: It looks like the Sonics and Clippers will swap the 4 and 7 picks if Mayo is off the table by then. Sounds like the Clippers wanted Eric Gordon even more than I thought they did(I'll go ahaed and take half a point when this thing goes through). I still think Seattle will be looking for a PG.

"This one's for 'sota"

Those were among the first audible words out of Kevin Garnett's mouth when Michelle Tafoya attempted to interview him after he won his first championship. Things like that are why I love KG so much... he knows it's not the fan's fault that the GM of the Timberwolves is Kevin McHale. He knew that he needed to win a championship and that just wouldn't happen here, but he never forgot us and we never forgot him. I know its only been a year and it would be hard to forget any athlete that quickly, but I mean that as of August 1st, 2007 the state of Minnesota probably had more Boston Celtic fans than it had Minnesota Timberwolves fans.

I wish that things had gone differently and he could be celebrating that championship with a Wolves jersey on, but they didn't. Congratulations Mr. Garnett, you've made us all proud.

Chuck Klosterman Gives the Cocoa Puff Treatment to KG

Chuck Klosterman is one of my favorite writers of all time. He took the Hunter S. Thompson route to fame focusing newspaper columns, magazine articles and publishing books that are nothing more than a combination of the previously mentioned articles and essays on everything pop culture. The dude covers everything, and I mean everything. Today he authored a fairly large article about Kevin Garnett and the Boston Celtics and what a difference a year makes. Do yourself a favor and click here.

If you enjoyed that you should go out to your local bookseller and purchase "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs", "IV", "Killing Yourself to Live", "Fargo Rock City" (He is from North Dakota), and look out for "Downtown Owl: A Novel" which should be out sometime later this year.

Lunch Break: Boston Cream Pie edition

Boston, Boston, Boston. The Sawx are 8-0 in World Series games under Francona, The Pats are destroying teams and helping me out in fantasy (Thank you Mr. Brady) and The Celtics are about to open the season with possibly the best trio of all-star players ever assembled in history and with the man who has lead my team since I was in grade school. Oh yeah, and Boston College is still ranked #2 in the BCS.
Minnesota? We’re gonna lose Torri Hunter. Our football team has the most explosive back to hit the league running since LT, but no semblance of a passing game. Our basketball team is going to wreak (but we do have talent and draftpicks). Hell our college football team can’t even beat a team from North Dakota. At least our Hockey team is better than anything in Boston.

Kevin Garnett talks to Dime Magazine about his friendships in the association.

Glen Taylor gives two goll-darn interviews where he talks doody about anyone and everyone who is no longer with the team.

The Wolves have decided to pay Juwan Howard not to play for the team. (and probably end up as a member of the Celtics)

Do not hunt with this man and his dog.

Marrisa Miller has her own Fathead… which makes way more sense than an athelete.

UND is gonna get all PC, and still probably pound the Gophers for the next 10 years.

A-Rod won’t be playing for the Yankees, and Peter Gammons calls him out on his impeccable timing.

The Twins pick up Joe Nathan's option. Totally unexpected, totally.

FreeDarko (probably the best Basketball blog ever) predicts what every single NBA player will do this season. I wish that I’d had time to put up the Wolves roster because they are killer and spot on.

Holy Crap the Hawks won.

Ricky Buckets, Largest Small Forward in the League No Longer Have to Play on our Shitty Team

It looks like the Wolves traded Ricky Davis and Mark Blount to the Miami Heat today. In return we'll get Antoine Walker, Micheal Doleac and Wayne Simien, but don't worry because Doleac and Simien have expiring contracts. According to ESPN we also get a future first rounder. For those of you keeping track at home that's some good shit... 3 expiring contracts next year, 3 1st round draft picks, one less year on Walker's contract than Blount's and a bunch of young kids with promise down the road. As far as the 1st round draft picks go I'm not sure what year the Heat's will be and technically one of the Celtic's picks was originally ours.

With Blount and Buckets gone I think the team will put up more assists, grab more boards and have a higher 3pt percentage. That won't translate into more wins this year, but hopefully this sort of play will become a theme of the new look Wolves. I think it will also help with team chemistry... I don't know for a fact that Ricky Davis has a bad attitude but I always sort of got that feeling and I heard that Blount and Big Al have had something going ever since their days in green.
For those of you who don't know Doleac is a Center who averages 3.4 rebs and 5 points. Simien is a forward who averages 2.9pts and 1.4 rebs. Antoine Walker's production has been steadily decreasing over the years, but that will probably pick up a bit on a team full of kids. Last year he averaged 8.5 pts and 4.3 rebs but his career average is 18 pts almost 8 rebounds and 3.7 assists. I don't know what this will do to the roster seeing as we already have too many players. This most likely makes Rashad McCants our starting Shooting guard and moves Chris Richards up in the depth chart.

If I were McHale my first move would be to buy out Simien's contact, which is just a shade under a million. My second move would be to sign the shit out of Al Jefferson... Lock that kid up, but in a non franchise crippling way. My third move would be to trade that gimpy Mark Madsen back to the Lakers for a hot Cheerleader. I don't like when my cheerleaders are 6-9, 250 lbs and have a set of balls.
I'm so excited for basketball to begin. Seriously. The Wolves may suck, but there is finally a good reason for it. We'll get to see some really talented kids lose on an almost daily basis and all of that yummy cap space we've been piling up over the summer will allow us pick and choose who we want to keep on our team and who we want to try and lure into the snow.

If you want more literature on the trade go here, she finds it all.

KG Looks Weird in Green

I couldn't find any video of the game that took place between our Timber Wolves and The Boston Celtics but here is a highlight of the Celtics first game featuring the "Big Three"... individually known as Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen.

Ray Allen did most of the scoring (28 Pts). My Favorite Timberwolf (I will continue to call him this regardless of jersey) had 9pts, 6 rebs,2asts, 3 blocks. Ricky Davis was the high scorer for the T-wolves which angers me as he is probably my least favorite player on a team full of players that I don't even know.

The former Celtics did ok; Bassy had 9pts and 3 asts, Ratlif had 6pts and 2 blocks,Gomes had 9pts and 4 rebs, Green had 4 pts and the most interesting piece we got in return had 5 pts, 2 blocks and 6 rebs in the 92-81 loss in London.

Rashad McCants had 11 points and 4 rebounds which hopefully means that his knees are back at 100%. Randy Foye, however, had no points in 8 minutes. Hopefully they just wanted to start figuring out the backup PG position and he isn't injured.

Get ready for a lot of losses this year. Hopefully this team can still put an exciting product on the court.

P.S. I'm going to miss Trenton Hassell.

Blog, I forgot all about you

Blog,
I'm sorry I have been gone for so long. You have been neglected. It's just that things haven't gone well in my sports universe lately. It has been hard, Iowa football sucks (some may say they always have (I won't be one of them)), The Twins sucked the season away, not that I care, but the Vikings blow (actually that's funny), and The Wild are just getting going (they got some help from drunk me, and friends Saturday).

I know I have made promises before to come back more often, and that usually is short lived, so this time I'm not making any promises, but I will try. I may need some motivations so here are a list of things a few things that make me happy:

1. The Yankee's season was only 4 games longer then the Twins. Go Indians.
2. I don't live in Chicago, suck it Bears, bring back Rexy already.
3. Ozzie Guillen will back next year.
4. Lists.
5. The Wild.
6. The NBA is back soon, which seems to give me plenty to write about.

That was short and sweet.

Anyway, If one doesn't work tomorrow afternoon, I suggest in tuning into ESPN2. Timberwolves vs Celtics in preseason play from Italy.

I Want 10 Million to Not Play Basketball

Obviously T-Hud took my advice and accepted the buyout from the Timberwolves. He'll probably end up as a Celtic since they'll be needing a backup point guard and he a Garnett are good friends. I bet Danny Ainge won't offer Hudson 30 million dollars. I bet the Celtics get him for 1-2 million per season and I'm sure that will be fine considering he already has about 10 million bones in his back pocket and will be joining a newly made elite eastern division team.

He should not, however, take the second part of my advice. It seems that hip hop aficionados are not exactly feeling Undrafted. Even if Hudson can make a dollar off of each CD sold, which would be a deal only the Kevin McHale of the recording industry would make, he would still only pull in about 78 bucks a week. I guess that Carbondale won't become the new rap capitol of the world anytime soon. Below is an Excerpt from his Myspace page-

An avid music writer, Troy also has written over two thousand original songs in his music career. In 2004, Troy formed NuttyBoyz Entertainment Group, which has evolved into Troy E. Hudson Enterprises, with Troy at the helm as Chief Executive Officer. Featuring a full range of music labels and production capabilities, Hudson Records and NuttyBoyz Records began actively recording and publishing music in 2005 at his newly built Hudson Studios, a private set of state-of-the-art music studios located in North Minneapolis.

It also says that he is "an outstanding guard known for his quickness, Solid defense and accurate shooting" - that is not the back-up's back-up that I know. On the plus side you could win a $50,000 chain through the myspace page. Seeing as the album was suck a big seller in its first week I'm guessing you odds are way better trying to win the chain than they are with a scratch off worth the same.

Man is he lucky that he got this whole not playing basketball career to fall back on.

Castillo Leaves State, Bracey Leaves Country

Yes, every one knows that Kevin Garnett is no longer a member of the Minnesota Timberwolves, but he was not the only sports figure to get a little time in our posts to say goodbye...

The Twins also traded one of their better players in Luis Castillo away for 2 prospects. Those prospects are Drew Butera a catching prospect and son of former Twin Sal Butera and outfielder Dustin Martin. The catcher makes me wonder because it seems like the Twins have a ton of catching prospects that are going to sit behind the All-star caliber and hometown hero Joe Mauer. This organization had better turn right back around and trade a couple of prospects (like their AAA catcher) or Rincon or Silva or a combination for a bat that works properly. The problem is that they have about a half an hour to do this.

Castillo's bat worked properly... he had a .304 average. We've lost the fastest man with a limp in the MLB, the man who stated they year with about 12 straight infield hits, the man who regularly beat out bunts and the guy who seemed to be the only one getting on base a while back. As far as defense goes it sounds like we'll be bringing Brian Bruscher in as the everyday 3rd baseman, moving Punto to second and bringing Alexi Casilla back to the bigs as a speedster and utility infielder to groom as our everyday 2nd baseman. As much as I dislike losing a 3 time all-star and 3 time gold glover this seems logical for the future... I'm just still thinking about the present.

As for Bracey, he recently signed with a greek team called Aris TT Bank. I didn't manage to look up the stats on Bracey's summer league stint with Denver but I can't imagine that they invited him back. Too bad, I honestly think the guy has enough talent to be a solid six or seventh man and possibly even end up as a starter. Of course this isn't the end by any means and there are tons of players who went to Europe for a couple years to hone their game before hitting the Association again. If I can find time between work and looking for a new truck I'll ask him about his new team and his thoughts on the KG trade. I know I've said that before, but seing as he'll be leaving the country soon and he is the only person I semi-sort-of-know with any insider information on the Wolves and the NBA so I'll make sure to do it soon. Good luck Bracey.

Done Deal

Although when it first went up Gerald Green wasn't on the list, the deal is done and just how it was talked about yesterday afternoon. Have fun KG, we're going to miss you. I'm going to go get in line for tickets to the Wolves/Celtics game this season, see ya there.

A league source just confirmed that the Celtics and Timberwolves have finalized a deal that will bring Kevin Garnett to Boston in exchange for Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Sebastian Telfair, Theo Ratliff and two first round draft picks.

Garnett is expected to arrive in Boston this afternoon for a physical.
Garnett has agreed to a three-year extension with the Celtics beyond the two remaining on his contract, guaranteeing that he will be a Celtic for the next five years.

One reason for prolonged negotiations was the Celtics’ attempt to lessen the luxury tax hit this team will take next year, with Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen scheduled to earn a combined $54.4 million - the highest of any three-player combo in the NBA.

This will involve finding a way to lessen the impact of a 15 percent trade kicker in Garnett’s contract.

Link

KG to the Celtics?????

Draftexpress is reporting it's almost a done deal.

Multiple sources close to the situation told DraftExpress Sunday that the Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves have come to terms on a trade exchanging Kevin Garnett for a package including Al Jefferson, Gerald Green, Sebastian Telfair, and Theo Ratliff. The exact details of the trade aren’t known at this point, but it is believed that the deal will be completed shortly with similar parameters.

Stay tuned for developments...