IF Glen had picked me...

This is rough and some of the stuff might be wrong, but I've done a lot of research and believe that this is how my team should look come Friday morning.

Trade Miller for Camby, gain 2 million dollars in the process. Go with a rotation of Jefferson, Camby and Love at 4 and 5.
Trade Foye (3.5 Mil and qualifying next year) Gomes (3.8 Mil expiring) and Madsen (2.8 Mil expiring) and 18th to Washington. Washington Gives us The 5th pick and (maybe) Andre Blatche. With the 5th pick we select (1)Tyreke Evans or (2) James Harden.
Take the 6th pick and trade it to the Knicks for their 8th pick and Wilson Chandler. We Basically give them their choice of PGs, which is what they want and gives us a reliable SF in return. At 8 we make a choice about Stephen Curry, Jonny Flynn, Brandon Jennings and Jrue Holiday). Most likely Two will be gone. My guess is Knicks take Stephen Curry and maybe The Warriors go with Jennings. That is fine with me, I kind of want Flynn as my PG with Evans at 2. Feel free to add the 28th or either of the 2nd rounders if the other teams won’t quite bite yet. NY may need a 2nd rounder in return for Wilson.

Maybe package other 2nd rounder and 28th to move up to the early 20s for one more prospect. Austin Daye is my #1 target and will most likely be around, but Eric Maynor, Sam Young, James Johnson, a sliding Earl Clark or Gerald Henderson or possibly another Euro Stasher to go along with Pekovic for future reserves.
Do Not Pick up team option on Sheldon Williams. Do pick up Rodney Carney’s option.
A shade under 60 mil is the cap this year. As is the Wolves clock in at 50 mil, the Wiz at 75 mil and NY a shade under 70 mil. Dallas (at 22) is at 69 mil, New Orleans (21)is at 72 mil, Utah (at 20) is at 72 mil, Philly at 17 and already a stretch is 2 mil under.

Depth Chart looks like this by game 42
PG- Flynn (or other rookie)- Bassy
SG- Evans (or Harden)- Carney
SF- Wilson- Brewer
PF- Big Al- Senior Amor
C- Camby- Blatche

Bench- Brian Cardinal, Craig Smith, Bobby Brown and Austin Daye (fingers crossed).
That makes 14 and cost a bit over 46 million. We shaved 4 million and became way more competitive. The following year Camby and his 7.6 and Cardinal and his 6.7 mil come off the books, that is good trade bait.

Blatche has 2 more years at around 3 mil each, Chandler has 2 more at 2 and 3 mil. Love has got 3 going to 6 mil. Brewer has 2 going to 5 mil, but the last year is a team option. Bassy has one more at 2.7 And carney at 3.6 after the signing. Big Al and Love are currently the only people on the roster going into 2013

Down Goes the Season

That collective gasp you may have heard came from the folks down at 600 First Avenue. In one fell swoop, the season has come to a screeching halt. In one play, people may have lost jobs. With one bad turn of the knee, there is no more, "Man, this team is playing some great basketball lately." In one crash to the floor, Al Jefferson's season is done.

The Wolves' superstar power forward (not Center) went down for the year with a Torn ACL. This ends Big Al's best season so far in the NBA and may have just doomed us to another couple months of turning the channel whenever you see the grainy channel 45 broadcast.(I hear they have amazing cameramen though) The Wolves had started to prove people wrong who thought that this team was destined to be the worst team in the NBA yet again but starting January 10-2 and becoming competitive in every game while also playing some exciting basketball. They were doing it the right way. Letting the young players, that they had put so much faith in, actually play large quantities of semi-meaningful minutes. Even though they had lost 6 of 7 prior to the injury, the future seemed a little brighter for many Wolves' fans around Minnesota.
With the injury though, the team will struggle to win any games at all, while getting obliterated most nights. People who disagree might say, how much difference can one player make?? Umm.. a lot! When you have one great player and a bunch of mediocre, at best, players around him, you can't afford for that player to go down. When you run your entire offense through this player, the whole team takes a major hit. So get ready fans of the Black, White, Green, with a lil Bright Green, and some other colors(?), in looking at the schedule, it's tough to find more than 4-5 wins the rest of the year.

There is a silver lining, however, to this basketball catastrophe. The younger Wolves will get ample run to see what we actually have on this team for next year and subsequent years. Kevin Love will assume a starter's role and hopefully start to develop some offensive skills to complement his obvious defensive and rebound prowess. Randy Foye will get his chance to prove to all us doubters(and with good reason) that he is better, or on the same level as Brandon Roy. (On a side note, OH My God I still can't believe they did that!) Rodney Carney will get some more extended minutes to see if these flashes of brilliance can continue. On top of all that though, the best reason to lose all those games and be that crappy for the rest of the season... To get a top three pick, if not (gasp!) #1 overall.





The hottest chick in school that everyone is trying to bang this year is Blake Griffin. Ok, not literally but you get the point. ( Maybe literally. Hell, its Oklahoma, so who knows) The best player in college basketball by far is also the best NBA prospect coming into this year's draft. He's currently averaging 22.3 Points per game and 14 rebounds a game this season, and by first hand account, when you're watching him play it seems like a lot more than that. This guy's got the NBA ready body while also having the hops to get over bigger players that he will encounter in the NBA, even though he won't have too much to overcome as he still stands 6'10". The problem with Griffin though is actually two-fold. Being too short to play Center and too tall and big to play Small Forward, he would be stuck at Power Forward. This isn't a problem for most teams but the Wolves, as already mentioned, have an Elite Power Forward already in Jefferson. I suppose you could play them both but then we are back to the same interior defensive problems that have plagued this team for years. The second problem is that Griffin will almost undoubtedly go #1 overall and it's an unspoken rule that the Timberwolves will never get the #1 pick. David Stern will make sure that Griffin finds his way to Washington, making them really, really good or to Oklahoma City; both because it's the whole Travis Kieffer "Hometown Hero" story and also to apologize for having to move the team from Seattle a month before season.

Good thought, but not worth much time. As Sean Connery said, "Losers always whine about doing their best, while winners go home and fuck the prom queen." I'll let you guess which category do you think the Wolves fall into more often then not...


A more likely scenario is getting a top 3 pick and having a shot at the likes of Rickey Rubio, Hasheem Thabeet, or James Harden. Rubio, is an 18 year point guard who looks more like the 12 year old kid next door to you that your overly aggressive son beats up after school then a franchise point guard. But don't let the face fool you. Rubio wowed scouts and viewers in the 2008 Olympic games as the starting point guard for the Spanish team that featured Pau Gasol and Rudy Fernandez. He is drawing comparisons to Pistol Pete Maravich, but that could be solely based on the fact that the look almost identical and happen to play the same position. Either way, this lad looks like he could be the real deal out on the court. He lacks speed, size, and quickness but makes up for that with high basketball IQ, instincts, and hard work. Wow, sounds like every description I've ever heard of any white-skined player, ever. Cool

Thabeet is a 7'3" center from UCONN who could fill an extreme need for the interior-soft Timberwolves. Thabeet is extremely raw on the offensive end but plays like a seasoned vet on the defensive end by intimidating shooters and swatting away more shots then John Daly. Thabeet is averaging 13 points per game and 10 rebounds, while also blocking 4.1 shots a game. He is also the main reason that Connecticut fields the nations top defense, allowing under 40% opponent field goal %. That means that he affects almost every shot taken by his mere presence in the lane. This would be a nice consolation prize for missing out on Griffin. It would be like missing out on the prom queen only to end up convincing both of her almost-as-hot friends to double up on ya at the end of the night. Ok, I promise, no more sexual innuendos.

The last player of interest is James Harden, a 6'5" shooting guard from Arizona State. Again, this would fill a major need for the Wolves, providing an potentially explosive shooting guard to compliment Big Al underneath. Harden is a one man team this year for the Sun Devils, averaging 21.3 points per game. He can shoot the deep ball but can also blow by you the next second. This would be like missing out on the prom queen, getting slapped by her two hot friends for suggesting a double up, and finally settling on the town bicycle that can, literally, score from anywhere. Now I'm really done.

Either way, the Wolves will have some flexibility this year with multiple first round selections. This is probably a moot point, however, as they will do something to mess that up. Just one word of advice, LOSE...!! You have had to opportunity to do so in the past, only to try and impress people by winning a couple of meaningless games that no one cared about anyways. This year is different. You need to swallow your pride and go out there and stink the place up EVERY single night to guarantee yourself a top 3 pick. At least its harder to piss those draft picks down your leg.

Yeah! Wait... What? No!

As you all know by now there is both good and bad news in the land of snow and mediocre sports teams. The good news is that Randy Wittman is out of a job. The bad news is that Kevin McHale is now the leader of this ragged band of malcontents. The good news is McHale is no longer the G.M. or "V.P. of basketball operations" or whatever title they used for the job of the dude in charge of throwing the franchise's future down the drain. The bad news is the trapezoid of idiocy is still intact and in charge of makeing all of the wrong descisions off the court while McHale handles the on-court part.

I think Sam Mitchell or Eddie Jordan would have made for better coaches and an actuall GM would have been nice. I don't know why McHale gets the Isaiah Thomas treatment. Worse yet we didn't even get the satisfaction of public ultimatum like James Dolan gave Thomas. Glen taylor might actually think this is a good idea and not just a way to justify something that the rest of the world thought was already justifiable. McHale should have been out the door with Whittman.

So far McHale has twice replaced a coach with a worse one. For all of our sake I hope he goes 3 for 3 in that particular category. These players need to go 0-62 the rest of the season if they want the ineptitude of this team to end. Al Jefferson needs to study tape of KG's career, but he needs to focus on the stuff that happened off the court and realize the reason(s) why a player so great could only get past the first round once in Minnesota. Losing tonight was a start, Al, but you and your boys have a long way to go if you want to win in the future.

My dream is that Glen Taylor rip out the entire front office (sans secretaries, ect.) and start from scratch. If he wants he can keep Fred Hoiberg as Assistant GM, but only as long as he gets a real GM to come and work for him. We need someone who has a coach in mind (someone who can invent a system in which the players we have play to and beyond their full potential) won't deal with mediocre players under the table, won't constantly draft a better player and imediatly trade them away and someone who actually has a plan for the future that doesn't include sweater shopping and fishing at the top of the list.

Randy Wittman and his career .326 win percentage (which got worse every year he coached) is gone and Kevin McHale has (presumably) lost his decision making power, so the team is moving in the right direction. If they want to get me to think about buying an actual ticket to one of these games they need go all the way and blow up the front office and start from scratch. If they take that last sentance literally I will buy a ticket.

I may write again. I may not. Just couldn't fully wrap my head around this conundrum and needed to put it down somewhere.

There is still hope

Bassy will be back

Fuck You NBA and Possibly Fox Sports Net Too

Today during one of the first 28 Home runs that Josh Hamilton hit I realized that tonight was the Wolves first summer league game. Then Bez informed me that I could watch the game for free on NBA.com as IT WOULD NOT BE BROADCAST IN THE TWIN CITIES.

After signing up for the service and telling them the truth about who I am and where I'm from I was informed that:

This live webcast is not available in your area. Please check your local tv listings for broadcast info on this game.

Uhh, Fuck you NBA. Who in their right minds wants to watch a shittier version of the wolves except for maybe me and 3 other dudes? And who told you that this game was being broadcast somewhere where it was definitely not. All I want to do is take a look at what Kevin Love can do against bad compatition and get a feel for who our next back-up PG is going to be. (I'm afraid Bassy is so gonzo that even Hunter S. Thompson can't understand)

What can I watch instead of my beloved and shitty Wolves? O.J. fucking Mayo and the Memphis Grizzlies play the Fake Lakers. Thats some shitty shit, man. Did you plan this? Are you mocking me assholes? Whats the deal with letting me watch the player I wanted play for the wrong team but not the right team with the wrong player?
I hate everyone responsible for what occured tonight. I even tried to pretend I was from Idaho even though I knew it was a feutal attempt to see my team.

P.S. Kevin Love had 16 pts and 11 rebounds last time I looked which doesn't mean shit.

P.P.S. Amazingly Justin Morneau won the home run derby by some loophole in the rules where the man with the best proformance doesn't always get to win. Congratulations of the money and the car if you got one, but we both know Hamilton got robbed. He put on a crazy show that put my jaw on the floor for what felt like a good half hour.

Could This Deal Have Been Done With Foye?

I think this latest draft day trade marks the end of my tenure as Wolves fan #3267. I sick of McHale fucking with my world. I'm sick of Taylor just sitting there and allowing his team to be run by a buffoon. I'm sick of Hoiberg's heard condition keeping him from ever pulling a Shawn Chacon. If I ever see McFail on the streets he's getting a face-punch. We were promised Mayo.

Look, this trade did some good in getting us a decent swing man in Mike Miller and trading away two bad contracts and a bench player in return for one bad contract and a back-up center. My problem is that O.J. Mayo is going to be a star in this league and Kevin Love will be nothing more than a solid player and McHale love slave. The Wolves trading Mayo away cements his greatness in the league. Ray Allen, Brandon Roy and now O.J. Mayo. What gets me is that Memphis is just as notorious as the Wolves for making horrible decisions. Did we even attempt to offer Randy Foye instead of Mayo? Telfair-Mayo-Miller-Love-Jefferson would have been beautiful. Then you've got a bench consisting of McCants, Gomes and Corey Brewer plus whatever is left after all is said and done.

We could have convinced the Griz that Foye was just as exceptional a player as Mayo is and known that this team would be fielding 2 potential all-stars instead of just Jefferson. This team as it is now is just going to put up 35-40 wins and leave us with the tenth pick for the rest of our lives. We had the 3rd pick in a 3 star draft and messed it up. Give me Mayo and another year of futility, another high lottery pick and a set foundation. Love-Jefferson is not a foundation.

Randy Foye is not a point, was a bad trade and this team refuses to admit it. The trade probably would have been good for Foye, too. He could have started over and relinquished that combo that everyone attaches to him. Telfair would have blossomed as a point with Mayo as his back court counterpart. McCants might not have been so agitated by his being the 6th man if there was less confusion at his position. Love and Jefferson are going to play the same position- 4 and a half. On offense Love and Jefferson will be good together with love's passing and range and Jefferson posting up but defense is another situation. Mayo would have been the defense and a few years down the road may have taken it upon himself to enforce the defensive philosophy on his teammate. Now we have a team with no real point since they'll stick with Foye through thick and thin and no true center... we've just got 2-4 covered really well.

They will flounder, just not well enough for us to ever put ourselves in the position where we can draft a potential superstar that high in the draft. Keeping Mayo might have broken the cycle of everything. I would have been the first time since 1995 that we made the right decision on draft night and kept it. That might have in turn tempted fate to allow us to move up in a draft for once. I needed Mayo more than I needed to rid this team of 'toine and Jaric.

Fuck McHale and his love for Love. A trade like this could have been made in the next month using something other than Mayo as prime piece of real estate and returned the exact same type and quality of players. Foye has trade value. Mayo has the ability to become a superstar. What we got in return is not what we needed.
I am now a Blazer's fan. They are THE FUTURE and they do it right.

Check that; he's still an Idiot

Two league sources told ESPN.com that the Wolves have reached an agreement in principle with the Memphis Grizzlies that will send the draft rights to Mayo, Marko Jaric, Antoine Walker and Greg Buckner to the Grizzlies in return for the draft rights to Kevin Love, Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal and Jason Collins.

We did unload some huge shitty contracts but, if Mayo turns out too be good this will be the worst thing ever.

I feel like I want to throw up. From all acounts the draft party down at the Target center was great, and they were all talking up Mayo, the fans were loving it. Then Kevin goes and does this shit.

All I can say is Ray Allen, and Brandon Roy.

I don't know what else to say.

I think we may not have messed that up

Pic created by undrcrwn for Adidas and found here

The Wolves successfully did not draft Brook Lopez or Kevin Love tonight. We took O.J. Mayo with the 3rd draft pick, Center Nikola Pekovic out of Mentenegro with the 1st pick of the second round and Point Guard Mario Chalmers a few picks later. This Pekovic dude is supposed to be really good. Top 10 good if not for his having signed a huge contact over in Europe. He'll be over there for a minimum of 3 years and We'll have to prove that our team is playoff caliber to lure him away from another contract over there. (The euro is killing the dollar in the market and makes it hard for the NBA's rookie scale to work while buying out a contract) If worse comes to worse his contract may be worth something to another player and it doesn't count against our cap.

Sounds like Chalmers is going to Miami for some more second round picks and cash. I don't get the Chalmers thing... I would have liked to grab DeAndre Jordan. Jordan could have turned out to be another Gerald Green, but he was worth a flier with the 34th pick or whatever it was. I've got to think that Mayo's selection signifies the end of the McCants era in Minnesota.

In Minnesota we consider not falling the same as winning.

I can't tell you how excited I got when the NBA had named the teams up to the 3rd spot in the lottery and the Timberwolves had not been called yet. I was sure that we would end up with the 5th pick. Picking 5th in itself wouldn't be that bad seeing as there is no solid 3rd best player behind Rose and Beasley, but knowing that we can trade out, get something extra and still get our guy is good to know. This will of course blow up in our face (see Roy v. Foye and Allen v. Starbury) but writing it down gives me peace of mind.

The player that I would select for the T-wolves with the #1 pick is Derrick Rose. The player that fits the Wolves best after Rose and Michael Beasley are off the board is in my opinion Brook Lopez. The thing is that one of the teams right behind us might O.J. Mayo or Jerryd Bayless badly enough to trade up. The last thing we need is another J.R. Ryder type personality (Mayo) or Foye backing up Foye (Bayless). Rose is a horse of a different color and good reason to turn Foye into an undersized shooting guard and then move McCants somewhere else.

The Grizzlies would make the most sense as trading partners assuming they want O.J. Mayo that badly. That would move us back to the 5 spot I was talking about and put Seattle between us and selecting Lopez. Having a division rival between the pick we've been given and the pick I've facetiously traded scares me, but I think that the Sonics have many big men on their squad and would go for Bayless as their PG. That allows us to select the guy I want on our team and hopefully would give us a third second round selection.

I'd like to turn around and trade 2 of those 3 for somebody in the 20's of the first round if he fits. I have no clue who or even what type of player we'd go after since we need so many different things. (Stephen Curry, Joe Alexander, Russel Westbrook, Ty Lawson, Kevin Love, Joey Dorsey?) This is all speculation of course... we'll probably end up taking Mayo at 3 because of the McHale/Hoiberg ties even though I don't want him and I don't think we need him.

When Hoiberg pulls a Tonya Harding

Imagine for a second that Kevin McHale didn't exist, or that Mchale wasn't Glen Taylor's secret lover. That Mchale was expendable within the Wolves franchise and said franchise had finally become willing to terminate his handshake agreement. It was blissful, wasn't it?

The reason for this mental exercise is simple- no McHale mean no Randy Whittman. No career .333 win percentage. Between Cleveland and Minnesota Wittman has won 96 games, lost 192 and never sniffed the playoffs. Whittman never should have risen above assistant coach in the NBA. I'd be fine with him being the head coach of Tulsa University or Coppin State, but a high profile gig does not suit a man of his basketball prowess.

You wanna know who has been to the playoffs 47 times and doesn't have a job? Avery Johnson... former undrafted role player who hit the championship clinching shot against the Knicks in 1999. Johnson has a career .735 win percentage and has won 23 of those playoff games he has coached in. The "Little General" would be the perfect man for the job... I can see him barking orders at our young lineup in his raspy voice, whipping them into shape. He wouldn't be taking orders from the vice president of who gives a fuck at this point. He'd listen, but he wouldn't play the puppet.

Wanna know who else may or may not be free next season? Mike D'antoni and his career .608 win percentage and has won 26 of the 51 playoff games he has coached in. The man who brought the European style of basketball stateside and had his teams drop bucket after bucket on the opposing team until they said enough and just gave up. His teams never really bothered with defense and that seems to be one of our weaknesses. We lack size, we're young enough to build up conditioning to function at a fast pace, don't we kind of sound like the Suns when D'antoni took over?

I know that this team does not possess the skill of either team that these two coaches previously ran, but either would most definitely be a step up from Whittman. Minnesota is used to getting the short end of the stick, win that 23rd game and we'll be happy. There will be no firings after the front office trades away a quality young player and team cohesion for a monster veteran contract that backfires. Chili's problem in his first year was that his team took a step back, I don't really have so much of a problem now that I see the team is headed in the right direction. I still can't believe that Tubby accepted his position and somehow hasn't bolted for a better opportunity. Bring in one of these two and I just might start watching the games again... hell, I might even go to one or two.

I almost forgot... no McHale would also mean a proper draft selection. Can't wait to figure out how he'll muck this one up.

How bout a nice warm glass of SHUT THE HELL UP

I was going to say that this was a response to what muck-up wrote but it's really more of a piling on.

Taylor who never has the balls to rip anyone in his organization while they're here, once again showed he's a spineless pussy. He has yet to hold anyone who is actually at fault to any accountability. He either gets rid of the wrong guy (see: Flip Saunders & Dwayne Casey) or waits till the person leaves the club to rip them (see: again Flip Saunders and Garnett).


(hat tip for the image: 10000takes)


I don't know what he was expecting to accomplish by opening his mouth this time, but fortunately Garnett didn't fall for it. Here's the video from his game last night against the Rockets.



Thank you for being a bigger man Kevin. I hope Glen Taylor lost lots of money this week in the whole Bear Sterns debacle, if not, maybe he's invested heavily in something else that will fail in the near future, forcing him to sell the club. I know they have a bunch of picks in the upcoming loaded draft, but I don't trust the ass-holes running the club. I hope something changes in the near future for this team.

Theo Ratliff has Flown the Coup

The Wolves have waived Theo Ratliff. According to The Detroit News he'll be picked up by the Detroit Pistons and have an opportunity to get his ring before his ever looming retirement. Unfortunately for Antoine Walker, it was not Antoine Walker who was given his walking papers. Walker is also having trouble understanding that you don't need a passport to enter Ohio.

This was bound to happen knowing that Ratliff was in the last year of his huge contract and would be holding back the development of Chris Richards in terms of actual game play over the last 30 games of the season. It would be silly to expect that Richards end up as the starting center, and I'm pulling for out lottery pick to be a center* so we can move Big Al to power forward, but its good to get him into the game more.

Best of luck to Ratliff in his quest for a championship and thanks for opening up that gaping hole in our cap space. TWolves Blog is the best place to find out more on the deal.

*unless Derrick Rose is available

Gerald Green Brings his Cupcake to Houston

The Wolves traded Gerald Green to the Houston Rockets For Kirk Snyder (Above), a second round pick in 2010 and some cash. Green was the odd man out in the core of young players we received from Boston for KG. Its too bad that somebody as athletic as Green couldn't translate that onto the court with the Wolves. The team did the right thing in trading him for a pick and some cash, but I'm afraid that somewhere along the line somebody will be able to teach this high school pick how to play at this level properly. Green played High School ball in Houston and said that the trade was a dream come true.

Snyder, a 6-6 guard, hasn't had much of an NBA career averaging 15 minutes, 2 rebounds, 1 assist and 6 points while playing for the Jazz, The Hornets. He lead the Nevada Wolf Pack to its first ever sweet sixteen in 2004 after beating Gonzaga and Michigan. That season he averaged nearly 19 points, 6 rebounds, 3.5 assists and a steal per game. Most likely Snyder will be gone from the team when the next season begins, but hes still got about 30 games to prove that he belongs on a team with very few certainties.

Gerald Green's Birthday Cake Dunk

Here it is Ladies and gentlemen, The Wolves one and only appearance in the All-Star festivities. Gerald Green may not have won the contest, but this was pretty good.

Too bad Big Al won't get to play in the All-Star game tomorrow... pretty sure he got jobbed because our team sucks.

Friday: KG's in town. Saturday: Hockey

Unless you live under a rock or in Nepal, you know Kevin Garnett is going to be in town on Friday. He will be making an appearance on the floor before the game but will not be playing. I expect him to get a very large ovation, but it's a shame that he won't be playing, because the fans here in Minneapolis were really looking forward to having him back in town.
The Wolves ticket reps have based their whole ticket sales plan around this game. They had many of the tickets only available in packages. So with Garnett not playing the Wolves are giving every person who comes into the building will be getting a voucher for another ticket to a wolves game.

In response to the likelihood of former Timberwolves player Kevin Garnett not being able to participate in Friday night's game between Minnesota and Boston, the Timberwolves announced Thursday that all fans in attendance will receive a voucher redeemable for one ticket to an upcoming Wolves game. The gesture is in recognition of the special circumstance of Garnett's return to Minnesota, the fan sentiment surrounding this game and also serves as a thank you to loyal Wolves fans in attendance.

I think it's funny that the title of that story is Wolves Thank Fans with Ticket Voucher. Yeah thanks for buying into our ploy to sell more tickets, and because you don't get what you paid or and because we have so many tickets left this year, we'll give you one, thanks for coming.

Anyways, I'm going to the Wild game on Saturday for Hockey Day in Minnesota. I plan on being at Alary's by about noon, and in rare form by game time, wish me luck. I don't know much about what Hockey Day in Minnesota entails besides lots of hockey, so here's a great video from tnabacg.



Jon over there claims to have a ridiculously long preview of Hockey Day in Minnesota. So go check that out tomorrow, I'm sure it will be well done.

Also on Saturday, the Hawks are in town to whoop up on the rodents. I'm guessing the line will open around 5 in favor of the gophers. I like the way the Hawks are playing, especially on D, so hopefully they can pull that off. Well i'm off have a good night, i'll leave you with some more links.

A real life Shawshank Redemption.

Thanks to the guy who does the most work here I was able to read this story on Garnett. It's a really interesting point, and I believe he may be on to something.

The guys at www.firejoemorgan.com.com are no longer anonymous. Turns out one of them even writes for the Office.

If you were unable to attend Twins Fest you need to see the Stadium Model and here is a great review of it.



Stubled across this today I think you'll thank me for sharing. The 50 Hottest Women in Sports. Here's a taste, I have a new found appreciation for synchronized swimming.

When will a Minnesota team Play for the present?

(I know how Matt feels after hearing that Johan is gone)

The owners in this town have been breaking my heart for as long as I can remember and its a bunch of bullshit. Stop telling me that we're a small market and its impossible to make money off of the respective teams. You don't continue running a business for 10 plus years that is always in the red unless you're already loaded and can use it as a tax write off. Once, just once, I want one of these teams to really go for the glory. I'm sick of losing stars because of ownership and management.

You're probably saying that the Timberwolves did it back in KG's MVP year. You're right, but when everything want down the drain the next year the team fired it's coach instead of the stars causing all of the trouble. Then they got rid of the stars causing all of the trouble almost immediately. This last year they got rid of the one man I associate with the team. I know this was the right thing to do under the circumstances and we got some value out of the deal, but if Kevin McHale had never been the VP of whatever the hell his title is this would not have needed to happen. Flip was the scapegoat.

McHale bet on Starbury, gave KG the biggest contract the NBA had ever seen, cost the Wolves 5 picks over Joe Smith and gave undeserved contracts to a handful of players including Troy Hudson. Is the future bright after the last 5 or so games we've seen from the Wolves and the knowledge that Al Jefferson didn't take a max contract? Yes, but the future is always bright in this frozen godforsaken hell hole. (I don't really mean that, its just so cold out right now)

Maybe you argue that the Vikings are doing things the proper way now through the draft and have the future best running back of all time. (knock on wood) Agreed, unfortunately the defense that is best against the run and has it's passing numbers inflated because of that is getting older by the day. Pat Williams, Darren Sharper and Antoine Winfield- all pro-bowl caliber players, are not getting any younger and the defense can only score so many points a game. We need sacks and we need an air game and those positions don't usually produce at a high level in their first year. We have nothing to show for letting Randy Moss go and all we got for Culpepper was Ryan Cook, the weakest link in a strong offensive line. They probably give me the most hope for a championship in the near future, but they won't be playing the Patriots this time next year.

Maybe you're saying that the Wild blah, blah, blah... you gotta understand I don't follow hockey, I watch it when its on. You want some solid analysis of the teams chances to bring me a trophy to celebrate you should go and ask Bez. He likes that shit... I just think its pretty and bloody and sometimes its pretty bloody.

Same goes for that Lacrosse team, and that women's basketball team, and college doesn't count because everything is too unpredictable.

Maybe you're saying the Twins have consistently made the playoffs or come close since the turn of the century. Carl Pohlad has 2.6 million dollars. If he signed Santana for $200 million for an 8 year contract (more than he wants) that would be less than one percent of our owner's total worth... he would have kept this contender together into his brand new stadium which we paid for. I realize that the salaries in Baseball are out of control, but we're talking about the best pitcher in baseball. I know Santana wanted to be on a bigger stage, but money like this could suade him to stay.

He's gone and its too late. Now my problem is the choice of packages. I wanted to take the Yankees deal with major league ready talent to go along with a team that is pretty good minus the greatest pitcher playing today. The World of B makes a good point about those who say that deals for star players have worked out for this team in the past. This is not A good player... this is THE greatest player in his prime. We should have been able to get more than what we got. Wait one week and maybe we get one or more of these teams to throw in that last piece we've been asking for.

I can't bring myself to wear a Yankees cap just to ensure that I get to celebrate a championship once every decade. I can't watch the Celtics without watching Allen and KG together and thinking about what would have happened if they'd started playing together back in the 90s on my team and changed the course of history. I won't be able to watch this Sunday's game without thinking that Joe Buck has something to do with Randy Moss being a Patriot and not on the Viking's sideline as part of a very explosive offense to go along with that dangerous defense. ( I know that is crazy far fetched and Red McCombs is really to blame, but I hate Buck and I hate how he handled that FAKE moon in Lambeau and how McCombs used it as reasoning to get rid of a hall of fame caliber receiver)

I just can't handle losing another phenomenal player. I've decided to brace myself for Adrian Peterson's departure today. I'm not doing this again. On behalf of Minnesota sports fans I say Fuck you world. Stop stealing my joy.

Ain't no stoppin' us now

Watch out NBA, here comes the Timberwolves.

Wolves Might Lose Fewer Games in the Future

Randy Foye has been cleared to work out.

I know that doesn't matter because the team is a steaming pile of shit being lead by three blind men with a cumulative IQ of 42, but I've wanted to see what this team was supposed to look like all season. Foye stated earlier this year that he felt he would be ready to about 5 games after given the go ahead. That would place his return on the 18th or 19th of December against Phoenix of Denver. My guess is that he will take longer than that to get back into game form and would only have a minimal role for the first few games back seeing as the team has a snowballs chance in hell of doing anything but accumulating the most ping pong balls for that crazy lottery that should only take 5 minutes but ESPN stretches out into an hour.

Foye has been out all season with a stress reaction- that's jibba jabba for a few millimeters from needing micro fracture surgery. That's a bunch of bullshit Randy, I remember this great runningback who tore a ligament in in his knee and hit the ground running two games later. His knee Randy! Runningbacks need their knees just as badly as point guards. You're not even a real point guard, the three headed beast just shoved you into that role.

I'm just playin'. It'll be good to possibly win 2 games a month instead of the 1 that we have become so accustomed to. We might even be able to challenge the Heat, Knicks and Supersonics on a semi-regular basis. Watch out world, here come the T-Wolves!

On a quasi-related note Bracey Wright is averaging 15.5 points, 2.8 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1 steal and just under a steal in 30 minutes for Aris TT Bank in Greece. The team has a 6-4 record and have 4 more games to go in the regular season. I have no clue how basketball works in Europe but there are three different groups so I think its like soccer and goes on forever as long as they keep on winning.

It might be time for the Triple B- BRING BRACEY BACK. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't see Theo Ratliff again this year and thought there is no place for him on the team it wouldn't really matter as long as someone can stand on the court for a couple of minutes while we get beat.

They'd still suck but...

I've been thinking about the Wolves lately and I feel that I've relegated them to the back of the blog for too long. I chose the old wolves logo because that is what this team reminds me of- The Pre-KG not talent all-stars. I remember going to Wolves games with my father shortly after the birth of the franchise and cheering on Felton Spencer, asking Luc Longly for an autograph (I still have it around here somewhere, Tom Gugliota's too), and most of all that long wait for the first in-person win. I swear it took a good 3-4 years of going to a handful of games a year to finally see a victory.

The thing is that I believe in this team way more than I did in those teams. I believe in Randy Foye and Craig Smith. I believe that one day Al Jefferson will make us forget about KG. I believe that all Marko Jaric needed to get his game jump started was some Brazilain supermodel NaNa. I believe that the player everyone more or less thought was a throw in to help even out money issues could be our point guard for years to come. I'm beginning to think that this team should move Foye to his natural two spot and use our lottery pick on O.J. Mayo or Derrick Rose and put them behind Sebastion Telfair for a while. I'm leaning towards Rose because I have a feeling that Mayo would do like Eli Manning or like Kobe and never step foot in Minnesota.

I don't want to stray too far from the reason I even began writing this, the fourth quarter free fall. It didn't happen tonight, though they still lost, but this team seems to keep me entertained and keep my hopes alive through the first three quarters only break my heart in the final 12 minutes. I did a little research and found that this team would be 10-16-1 if the game only lasted 36 minutes. We held the lead in all four of our actual wins against The Kings, The Hornets, The Suns and The Pacers. We had the lead against Atlanta twice, The Spurs, The Nuggets, The Heat and The Wizards in a game which included a healthy Arenas (scored 27 that night).

If we had that record our team would be better than New York, Chicago, Miami, The Clippers, Memphis, tied with Charlotte and Seattle would be below us in our own division. I'd like to know what Kind of affect "Fourth Quarter" Foye would have on this teams record or what will happen when hes back on the floor and in good health. I'd also like to see what a steady rotation would do for this team. I guess the only real difference would be seen in draft position, the difference between picking Derrick Rose or Roy Hibbert if we really turned it on in the next few months.

I guess I'd just like to see this team play an entire game instead of just watch their opponents take over. I guess I'd just like to see the team play more like the teams that this logo reminds me of.

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.