Coming into the year we were pretty sure Kevin Love a borderline All-Star, we really really hoped Ricky Rubio was the real deal and we were quite sure Michael Beasley could score a ton of points if he was properly focused.  Well a month has passed and we know some things.

The good news is that Kevin Love isn't going to let us pencil in Blake Griffin in at 1st team All-NBA PF for a decade. Ricky Rubio has been one of the top 5 stories in the NBA. He's living up to every optimistic hope we had on draft night. Finally, finally we aren't screaming at asinine rotations we've been subjected to for this entire rebuild, I still can't believe we have a real coach. Oh and DID YOU SEE THAT CLIPPERS GAME! Wow!

The bad news is the Mike Beasley might as well not have existed, he's been such a non-factor. Wes Johnson has been drastically worse than that (he did decide to show a bit of a pulse this last weekend, don't be fooled). Darko, *sigh*, he'll poke his head out every-so-often but he is still the most embarrassing player on the roster. 

The rest, Luke is back in the role as off-guard/pg along side a rookie that is apparently his calling in life. He's earning his money. JJ looks like he should be a guy we can trust with the ball, but who really knows. AT and Pek give maximum effort and are great guys for Derrick "Charge" Williams to be around. Williams shooting hasn't been great but he looks to have a natural finishing ability along with flourish for dunks that leave me optimistic. 

Anyways I've compiled my own rankings along with 7 of my closest TWB contributors and am sharing this wonderful data with you. For the purpose of adding a comparison to expectations I made up a preseason top 15 that seems pretty reasonable. 

Charles Barkley recently called Kevin Love on InsideTheNBA, “the best power forward in the world.” That is large praise from a large man, although less large since he joined WeightWatchers. It is possible to take it a step further: Kevin Love should win Most Valuable Player this year, but he won't.

Love worked on his body this summer, and it shows. He looks strong and healthy this year, and can use his body in the paint more effectively than ever after playing volleyball all summer. He looks bouncy, tan, and dangerous; he has probably never been in better physical shape in his life. He reportedly lost 25 pounds, and it will serve him well in this lockout shortened year; he has not looked winded in any game this year and somehow he is averaging 39.9 minutes a game(#1 in the league). That is more minutes than at any point of his career and it will serve him well statistically.

Love also wins MVP points for fan accessibility. He recently offered to pay for any Wolves fan's ticket to the Detroit game if they bought a ticket to the Kings game. Granted this is a much more sentimental argument than a fact-based won, but it doesn't hurt to point out that Love is doing every single thing that he can do to win basketball games. He'll rebound, score down low, shoot the 3, buy your ticket to the Detroit game, sweep the floor, and all the while he'll be smiling at Ricky Rubio: his new favorite player.

Rubio is the second reason Love should win MVP. Rubio has reinvigorated Love's enthusiasm for basketball; Love obviously played well last year, but if not for Rubio there is not a guarantee that Love would have stayed in Minnesota beyond his rookie contract. There were certain press conferences last year where Love sounded morosely disappointed in what his teammates brought to the table, but Love wouldn't dream of leaving now. Rubio is actually the main reason Love should win MVP, because Rubio has fully unleashed Love's potential. Any idea what Kevin Love is averaging since Rubio became full-time starter? 29.2 points and 14 rebounds a game. If he averages anywhere near that the rest of the season and the T-Wolves finish in the top 5 in the West it will be hard to deny Love. And if he doesn't win MVP in that scenario it means LeBron or Kobe somehow scored more than 30 a game and also scored with efficiency higher than 50 percent. LeBron is an outside shot to manage this, but very unlikely.

Burke Nixon (sounds like a name of a future mid-1st round draft pick) of Dear Dikembe was kind enough to share a link with us to his open letter to Ricky Rubio. His blog is very creative and is operated under the concept of open letters to players, GM's and the like. Everyone loves open letters! 

Here is a link to the letter.

A brief excerpt (but click above to read the real thing) and read/comment on his blog!

Dear Ricky Rubio,

First of all, I'm not gonna worry about the language barrier here. You speak decent English, judging from this strange clip I saw on YouTube where you get interviewed by Drew Gooden (?) on what appears to be the set of a fake news show while wearing some sort of sweater that only a Euro could pull off. And anyway, the subject I wanna talk to you about knows no language barriers. I'm talking about delight, Ricky. Or we might refer to a related term: beauty. You know as well as anyone that the most consistently delightful, purely beautiful action in basketball is a nice pass. When people fall back on that old metaphor of basketball-as-jazz, they're not thinking of dunks or blocks or Carmelo holding the ball for almost the entire shot clock and then taking a jumper. They're thinking of nice passes. There’s nothing better than a nice pass, nothing more delightful than watching a great PG improvise beauty. And ever since news came across the Atlantic about a Spanish kid playing pro ball in Europe at the age when we get driver's licenses in the States, we'd heard that you, my friend, were a purveyor of nice passes.

This picture appears on the front page of ESPN NBA, where long time Timberwolf-hater John Hollinger ranks Rubio #2 in the ROY race behind Kyrie Irving. 

Can you find David Kahn? He does lurk...everywhere.

And on that note, how insane is it that the link to the article cannot be posted because it is an ESPN Insider, paid article? While I am a subsciber (thank you, $10 Groupon), how shady is it that in order to read one man's opinion, usually laden with snide, holier-than thou remarks, you need to pay a fee? Never understood it. Alas.

On a brighter note, Rubio is due for more minutes and a starting role soon. Things are looking very good for a Ricky of the Year trophy. 

PS...vote him into the All-Star game! Text the word "Rubio" to 69622. Do it. Now. Just do it. 

Since joining the Timberwolves, David Kahn has had a mixed history with player personnel decisions.  Kahn's moves have been a lot like going to a hole in the wall deli in some out of state destination.  You never know what you're going to get, and that diner you found in Cincinnati with the kickass Chili has no positive affect on the crappy tuna sandwich you just choked down in Tulsa.  In other words, past performance seems to have little, if anything, to do with future results.

Let's take a look:

Foye and Mike Miller for #5 Draft Pick.  Pick unexpectedly turns out to be Rubio.  ...You sit down at a diner in the middle of rural Arkansas.  You ran out of gas and are starving and only have $11.47 to your name.  You order "The Special" not knowing what it is, because it costs $5.99- enough to tip and buy gas to get to civilization.  "The Special" turns out to be the most delicious pit barbecue pork sandwich you've ever had, and comes with bottomless sweet tea.  You have hit the jackpot at the most unexpected of times and the most unexpected of places, and you paid less than you should have.

Passing up Steph Curry and drafting Jonny Flynn right after Rubio.  ...You look at the deserts, see a very tasty-looking apple pie, but you decide to get cute and order the creme brulee, knowing full well that this is an apple pie joint.  Creme brulee is undercooked and you get food poisoning.  You find out that it was undercooked in the first bite, but you finish the whole thing out of stubbornness and sheer hubris.  The apple pie turns out to be award-winning and you missed a once-in-a-lifetime chance to have a really terrific combination in an out of the way spot.  The apple pie is subsequently featured on "Diners Drive-ins and Dives."

Big Al Jefferson to Utah for heavily protected picks.  ...You skipped breakfast and knew that you should not have done that.  Now you are in the middle of North Dakota and are famished.  You may drive your car into a bridge abutment if you don't get food.  There is nowhere nearby that looks like it serves safe food.  You stop at a gas station that smells like old cigarette butts and buy an egg salad sandwich that the clerk tells you was homemade that very day by none other than herself.  She smells like rotten cabbage.  The sandwich costs $8.49, and makes you vomit for two days.

2nd round draft picks for Mike Beasley.  ...You are working out of town, don't know the area, and just need a sandwich to fill you up.  You skipped breakfast and are starving once again.  You find a cheap local place and expect that the turkey sub will be disappointing even though it is billed as the best sandwich in town.  It tastes alright, but you can tell they're trying a little too hard and the sandwich just doesn't have enough substance to it.  As a snack it would be fine.  As your primary means of sustenance?  It barely holds you over.  Good thing it only cost $2.

Derrick Williams pick with #2 pick.  ...That last turkey sub still haunting you, you stop in a place that pretty much only sells roast beef and turkey subs.  They are all out of roast beef.  You order the turkey because getting cute has only made you sick in the past.  The turkey sub is actually pretty good and just the right amount.  Not overwhelming, but not disappointing either, and the sub roll is actually really good, surprisingly.

The Timberwolves host the San Antonio Spurs tonight at 7:00pm at Target Center.

Critical questions will need to be answered:

Can the Timberwolves end their 16-game losing streak against the Spurs?!?
Is this team for real?!?
Will grown men faint at the sight of a Ricky Rubio cross court pass!?!

Find out tonight! And be sure to discuss the game with us in the forums.

Also, be sure to check out the Q&A we did over at Project Spurs.

After last night's great showdown with the always entertaining OKC Thunder, the T-Wolves next home game could be another epic clash. We (already!) play the Miami cHeat, in what is shaping up to be a pretty brutal opening schedule in this compressed season.  Luckily we'll have a few days off after tonight's game, before having to take on LeBon, Wade, Bosh and company. Unfortunately for the Wolves, they are a completely different team with a healthy Haslem. Too bad Mike Miller won't be playing huge minutes, because as we all know, he sucks.

TWolves Blog's ticket partner TiqIQ has a special deal for fellow T-Wolves fans: Using the ScoreBig "make an offer" feature, fans can pick their price to see Kevin Love battle under the boards. A "2 star" ticket that usually sells for $145 (after shipping and handling fees) can be had for around $99 a ticket. But this deal expires on Wednesday, so y'all need to move fast to get this special deal. To make an offer today PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Santa Kahn. Kahnukkah. Kahnza. Las Kahnadas. Saint Kahn's Day. 

The Holidays are here in full force. Kahn is back and is oddly quiet as can be. Rubio is in town being escorted around in his mother's Tahoe. Kevin Love is looking like a bonafide, athletic NBA player. Beasley lowered his ears. Barea is running around wreaking havoc. Anthony Randolph is confused. Pekovic may have murdered someone. Adelman is grumpy. Darko is sensitive.

The Wolves and their plethora of humorous idiosyncrasies are back in town. And before we dive into this, let's all relish together in a merry thought we can all agree on: it feels great. 

So where does this team go from here? What is next? After a satisfying pre-season containing a fast-paced blowout followed a few days later by 46 minutes of disaster and 2 minutes of never-could-have-imagined-level Wolves basketball vs. Milwaukee, the only real answer is: I have no idea. This team is tough to predict. 

On a topline level, the Wolves have re-tooled nicely this offseason. Ousting one of the worst NBA coaches in the history of the league (who shall remain nameless) and replacing him with one of the best in legendary Rick Adelman, is a dramatic change previously unheard of throughout Timberwolves history. The team also added three promising rookies and free agent JJ Barea, former x-factor of the 2011 NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks. But where do we go from here?  Well, there is a lot of be excited about, and some not. We'll touch on both. More after the jump.

CLICK READ MORE TO CONTINUE

Check out the excellent site Hickory-High for a team-by-team breakdown of Holiday wishes here. A great read with contributions from several notable NBA bloggers and writers. 

The TWB submission:

For Christmas this year, I would love nothing more than Santa Kahn to deliver a freshly-wrapped, certified, high-quality NBA starter to the Wolves via trade.  The Wolves’ could assure themselves future success by taking the Celtics and Clippers approach to rebuilding: selling youth for experience. The team has acquired a set of nice, young players, but the roster and rotation is horribly imbalanced, mismatched, and built around nothing of skillsets and fit, but the principle of youth alone. It is time to trade a few young pieces for an established player such as Andre’ Iguodala, Pau Gasol, pre-scandal Monta Ellis, Kevin Martin, etc. Doing so would propel the Wolves forward to a +.500 record, and would turn Wolves fans over-attached to mystique, allure, and draft picks toward the only thing that matters: a winning team. Happy Kahnukkah!

 I brainstormed several different titles for this post. All of the following probably would've sufficed:

"Get Ready for One Heck of a Season"
"Ricky Rubio Made Me Cry. Four Separate Times."
"Watch as I Overreact to a Preseason Blowout"

But instead, I went with "Why This Team is Special" -- because the culture of losing we've become so accustomed to is finally over.

Last night the Timberwolves defeated the Bucks 117-96 in their first game of the preseason. Yes, it's the preseason, but it was an impressive showing nonetheless. 

I'm going to go out on a limb here. Call me a homer. Call me naive. Call me whatever you like. But this year's T-Wolves team is going to sneak into the playoffs with a 36-30 record. I'm calling it right now. BOOK IT.

Click here to read why I'm so optimistic!