Wolves v. Celtics Preview

Injuries:  Wolves: AK47 out, Ricky Rubio out, Chase Budinger out, Brandon Roy’s knee dead.  Celtics: Avery Bradley out, Rajon Rondo reinstated.

Line:  Boston by 6.  Over/Under 190.  On the sports betting site I go to SportsBetting.ag, the public is picking Boston -6, the experts are leaning toward Minnesota +6, and the O/U is split right down the middle  (Extra gambling nugget:  The Wolves are 4-0 against the spread when 5+ point underdogs this season).

TWolvesBlog Forum Game Thread

CelticsBlog Forum Game Thread

Ever since the Dollar Bill for Loose Change trade, this matchup is bi-annually anticipated with great excitement by many Wolves fans.  I personally love KG and will always go to bat for the guy, but I know at this point many in Wolves Nation have not only moved on from Garnett, but have vilified him.  However, there is also still a big section of TWolves fans who feel forever grateful and indebted to the man who gave his all to this franchise for 12 years, putting Timberwolves Basketball on the map, and providing endless moments of excitement, passion, and dedication for all to see. 

The Wolves have yet to beat the Celtics since the Garnett trade.  I was at the game in Boston in 2008 when they almost pulled this feat off.  Somehow, our inspired Jaric/Telfair backcourt (true statement, not a typo) almost defeated the would-be champion Celtics on their court in front of a frenzied crowd.  However, the Wolves left defeated in the end, losing 88-86.  Garnett did not play in that game, but a month earlier was the infamous Celtics/Wolves matchup at Target Center, where the Celtics eeeked out a 1 point victory, concluding with Garnett popping his Celtics jersey and losing many of his former Wolves fans’ loyalty in the process (My take on this: he is a passionate guy who gives everything for his team.  The Wolves traded him.  Therefore, his team changed, which means his loyalty on the court changed.  We should not fault him for putting on for his new team with the same KG-like passion we celebrated and loved when he had our jersey on.  After all of the years, we know how he works, we know what he is about.  But unfortunately many Minnesota fans have that one of us mentality, and once a player leaves, whether it was their decision or not, they get turned on. I don’t agree with it, and frankly I find it embarrassing and simple-minded).

Last year, Boston completely creamed the Wolves 100-79 in Target Center, and KG showed KL that he may not be truly elite yet.  Elite means that you can dominate the game with your presence alone.  Love seems to be in the class where he needs to put up big scoring numbers in order to dominate.  Although since his first week back, in which he played like a bit of a shot happy diva, he has seemingly reinstated more concentration on boarding, passing, defense, and playing solid team basketball.  However, the stopping after a botched offensive play to cry to the refs while the other team runs a fast break routine HAS to stop.  Love is first in the league with 3.18 of these a game, leading Dwight Howard by almost 1 full CTTRWOTRFB.  JJ Barea has also now entered the top ten, averaging 1.34 CTTRWOTRFB per game.

Regarding the Wolves/Philly matchup last evening:  YES.  It was a total team win, featuring fantastic bench play, great ball movement (shockingly even from your guy, JJ Barea), heady defense, and concentration.  It was great to have a pretty, blowout win.  I will leave you with a few more assorted thoughts on last nights game and subsequent postgame show:  If Lou Amundson is a 1-Tool NBA Player, than that tool is fouling…SHVED! He is looking more and more like our SG of the future each game…Speaking of Shved, Tom Hanneman called him “Sexy Alexi” postgame. This really happened…Weird looking at the box score and seeing all three of our shooting percentages in the 50’s (FG: 53%, 3P: 52%, FT: 59%)…Jim Peterson, donning a heavy pinstripe suit, during the postgame show:  “My suit must have inspired them, because they were playing like gangsters.  We just had to give Alexi Shved a tommy gun out there.”  Okayyyy Jim, thank you for that!...Malcolm Lee: career high 10 points for the zillionth time this year…Kevin Lynch’s heavy Minnesota accent drives me nuts…If Josh Howard can play that well every night, it would be huge…Royal Ivey was 1 rebound away from a 2 trillion…Dante CunningHAM’s mouthguard, which has a black streak down the center, makes it look like he is missing his front teeth, which I think is the point, which is glorious…Final Wolves/Celtics game prediction:  Celtics 98, Wolves 90, (for those keeping track at home, that’s Celtics and the Under) and Rondo with 18 assists in his return from suspension…Stay funky, Wolves fans, Ricky is lurking...

Discuss tonight's game here as you wish.

Injury update: AK47 is out again, and Love is questionable due to "food poisoning." I have a feeling he will tough it out, but that is an unknown at this point. In other, better news Ricky Rubio was cleared for practice yesterday and all signs point to him starting his season well before Christmas.  My prediction remains Rubio makes his debut next Friday against Cleveland in a self-esteem boosting blowout win. But then again I am about 0/586 on random predictions this year. 

Rather than do bullets for this, I'll have you guys write this preview by leading with a few questions:

-Will the Wolves play a single game this season at full health?

-If the Wolves win with Love out of the lineup, what implications should we draw? 

-Is there concern with rushing Rubio back because the team is underperforming these past 8 games?

-Who should Derrick Williams be traded for?

-What defensive adjustments should Adelman make against yet another dynamic back court in Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings?

-Do you have any Mafia connections, 10 grand laying around, and a dislike for Barea's recent play as much as I do? If so, let's talk.

Prediction: I have a good feeling about tonight. Someone is due for a big "statistical anomaly game" and hopefully it's Shved. I want that young man to get as much confidence as possible his rookie year. Wolves should win this one.

Two straight back to back's on the road will create a fatigued team, and the Wolves are leaving the best for last heading into LA tonight to battle Vinny Del Negro and the equally struggling Clippers.

Talk about the game here as you wish.  Some thoughts:

-CP3. Do we put Malcolm Lee on him? How to contain the man? It is no mystery that all opposing teams are attacking from the perimeter and exploiting the porous defense of the Wolves' back court "defenders." Chris Paul is arguably the best PG in the league and is probably eating a wholesome lunch today thinking about how he is going to make mincemeat of Luke Ridnour tonight. The key will be preventing the lobs and providing ample help on the penetration. Luckily ace defender Kevin Love is back in the lineup to help out there.

-West Woes. Both the Wolves and the Clippers have recently come back to earth. As we all know, the Wolves are losers of 6 of 8 games (hello Rhombus era!) and the Clippers have dropped four in a row themselves. That being said, the Clippers are very unlikely to coast through this game and a bounceback effort at home should be fully expected. Furthermore, Blake Griffin, off to a slow start this year, scored a career low 4 points the other night against the Hornets. Against Ryan Anderson. He is not going to take this game lightly and is sure to have one of those nights that just makes your blood boil. Have we seen a player become so unlikable so quickly in this league?  

-Getting used to Love. Against the Kings, the Wolves generally looked a lot smoother on offense. An offense tends to when playing the Kings. Most notable was that Adelman tightened his rotation considerably, relied more on the starters, and  the Wolves' actually got some real offense from both starting guard spots for the first time this season. Love seemed more eager to move the ball, and was more active in running the offense outside of the left elbow, as he did ad-nauseum against the Warriors over the weekend. As a result, better ball movement created better shots and looks all around, as production and scoring was well-balanced throughout the roster. What has really plagued the Wolves thus far has been perimeter shooting. Love sans hand brace will help this over time. Now, should the Wolves' guards come up flat again tonight vs. the Clippers, we are in for an ugly night.

-Prediction. The Clippers are a playoff team, and a highly seeded one at that. With Rubio last year, the Wolves sunk this team a few times but marginal improvements from the guards will not be enough to withstand the depth of the Clippers. Sadly, the Wolves will likely head back home tonight with their tails between their legs, especially coming off a back to back in which the starters logged huge minutes. The Wolves will get 3 more attempts later on this year to right the ship. 

Things are in disarray.  How long they will stay that way is the question weighing on everyone's mind.  After Saturday's loss to Golden State multiple Timberwolf players stated that one win is all they needed.  One win to begin a positive streak and one win to steady the ship.  In the NBA it's all about one game at a time but as fans were often concerned more with future than present and take each sign of failure to be systematic instead of isolated.  For the sake of this preview and to the benefit of our sanity let's take tonight's matchup as just one game.  One game, that doesn’t speak to our playoff chances, but instead one game of 82 for an evolving team.

Backcourt woes:  A lot is being said about the dismal play of the Wolves' backcourt and for good reason.  Consider this stat- Ridnour has been shooting 17% in the 4th quarter, Barea 27%.  Both of them average a mere .8 assists in the final quarter and last game they were outscored 44 to 2 by Klay Thompson and Steph Curry.  If you aren't startled enough by those numbers feel free to dive deeper into the terrific article from which they came, written by Britt Robson and located here.  The fact that isn't mentioned in this article is that not only are our point guards getting torched on the defensive end but they are also entirely unable to produce their own offense against poor defenders like themselves.  Tonight they will go up against another group of defensive liabilities in Aaron Brooks, Isiah Thomas and Jimmer Fredette.  Rubio's return will have a great impact on both Barea and Ridnour's offensive output but unfortunately with a 5 game losing streak there's simply no more time to waste.  In our first game of the season Barea scored 21 ponts against the Kings and Ridnour was respectable in his play as well.  While neither is likely to match their previous performance I still expect a bounce back from what we've been seeing.  Over the past two days the team has stressed communication on the floor, both JJ and Luke will need to start raising their voices.

Where has your Love gone?:  When Love threw his hand brace angrily to the sidelines the other night it was clear he’s as frustrated physically as he is with his leader status.  Love’s high volume shooting lately exemplifies his willingness to get back into game shape but it also demonstrates a kind of desperation to ‘be the man.’  Mind you, he should be.  Problem is, right now he is not at his best .  Love spoke to his rehab postgame on Saturday: “(The hand brace) is very restricting…I have no feel for the ball…It has a lot to do with it.  It’s tough having no feel for the basketball.”  

I don’t doubt that Love feels he isn’t playing to his full capability but whether that is a consequence of his brace or his conditioning is irrelevant to how he can affect the game through his leadership.  Love needs to accept that coming back weeks early from rehab places him in a position where he won’t be able to be the player he wants to be instantaneously.  The sooner Love takes advantage of his ability to draw double teams and find the open man, the better off this team will be.  His best 3 games he assisted on 2, 1 and 2 shots, this number needs to increase while he’s ailing.   Still, I expect to see more of his visible confusion and agitation tonight.  Love needs to heal but with that may also new to develop a new brand of leadership and one that does not come naturally.

Shved you be interested?:  Yes.  Shved is energy.  Not without flaws, the crafty Russian produces more good than bad.  His ability to drive to the line and produce high percentage shots and assists can at times be Rubio beautiful.  This team, depending on the lineup, can quickly develop a bad habit of going scoreless for long periods of time- minutes at a time.  At these moments, Shved provides a kind of spark (at times a fire) that develops a new pace on the floor.  With the struggle of his fellow guards lately, Shved more than ever deserves more minutes on the floor, he currently averages 22.6 MP according to basketball-references.  His ability to shift the attitude of his teammates and create a more dynamic offense is worth his sometimes questionable three point shooting and occasional defensive lapses.   Adelman seems to acknowledge his talents but still be experimenting.  With hope we can begin to see more activity from Shved until Rubio returns.

Prediction:  This team watched 40 minutes of film today on defensive breakdowns.  They know the need the change they need starts tonight.  I think they’re due for a win.   What can I say I’m an optimist?  I expect this team to play well enough, if only for three quarters to pull this one out.

Final:  Wolves 96  Kings 86

MVP:  Kevin Love, 26 PTS, 15 REBS, 3 AST

Losers of four games in a row, our 5-6 T-Wolves visit the 7-6 Warriors tonight. Despite the heroic early return of Kevin Love to the basketball court, it hasn't yet paid dividends in the win column. Hopefully that ends tonight, but Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are probably going to eviscerate our terrible defensive backcourt. Ridnour and Barea are truly dreadful on the defensive end, and anyone that can dribble a basketball stands a good chance at getting whatever they want on that end of the court. And unfortunately for us, almost everyone in the NBA can dribble a basketball pretty well (except you, Lessly Johnson.)

It might be a close game, and the Warriors are only favored by 3 points, but I don't think we pull this one out tonight. Maybe something like a 104-101 defeat.

But come chat with us in this game thread during the game, or at least drop by the TWB Forums, it's always a good time!

Steve McPherson of A Wolf Among Wolves reminded everyone on Twitter this morning that while we reel from the recent loss to the Nuggets, last year fans were celebrating .500 like it was 1999.  That’s the amazing thing about basketball, as quickly as momentums shift in a game so do our expectations and feelings about a team’s potential.  The first ten games of this season have offered glimpses of how good this team can be even in the midst of all their injuries.  For this reason, it seems reasonable to see a team better than 5-5 even if the past held a different standard.  But hopes and dreams aside, .500 is a fitting mark for the Wolves’ season thus far.  Good play has been matched with bad luck.  Love’s surprise return only adds to the mixed feelings of anticipation and caution.  Tonight the Wolves will look to take one more step to develop their chemistry, overcome their physical setbacks and learn their sets to become the better than .500 team we believe they can be.

Love’s Return:  Safe to say no one predicted that Love’s homecoming would include anything more than a Thanksgiving dinner with the fam.  Yet here’s Love after 5 weeks of rehab and coming off a 35 point, 14 rebound debut ready to show off for his home state.  While his play on Wednesday was impressive, Love admitted to feeling sore the morning after, signaling their my be more rust to his game than his numbers against the Nuggets alluded to.  It’s also worth noting that Love’s recent performance resulted in less plays designed for AK and Pek.  Love will have to learn quickly how to operate with his teammates on the court if this team is to succeed on the road.  Tonight’s game may point to how long or short this process will ultimately take.

AK vs Batum:  Batum has been great this season, so has Kirilenko and at this point it seems hard to say if the Wolves ended up with right guy.  Kirilenko’s do-it-all game and defensive prowess has been key in keeping this Wolves squad competitive.  However, Batum has shown he can be a total game changer as well with strong performances as seen recently against Houston and Chicago.  Batum currently averages 20.1 PPG and 6.0 RPG and will need to provide a line similar to that in order to get a win tonight.  While those kind of numbers aren’t out of the question, it’s likely Kirilenko will prevent Wolves fans from wishing the Frenchmen was on this team.  I expect Kirilenko to prove why he is such a valuable commodity and the reason why this team is 4^th in the NBA in defensive efficiency instead of 30^th where Portland currently sits.

Who to Fear?:  If AK does in fact shut down Batum then Portland will need big offensive contributions from either Lillard or Aldridge in order edge closer to their Northwestern Division rival.  Lillard has dazzled thus far and will likely continue his impressive streak tonight with Ridnour too slow to contain the ROY candidate and Barea still reeling from his mid foot sprain.  It’s not crazy to think Lillard could be the one to bring home a win if the Wolve can’t generate their own offense.  Aldridge on the other hand has yet to find his sweet stuff, shooting within 30-35% on multiple occasions this season.  In the past Love and Aldridge have traded off fantastic performances, however this game does not feel like a great opportunity for either one to break out.  Both seem to need more time to return their elite status making tonight’s matchup more of a stalemate than a true battle of talent.

Prediction:  Even if with all the questions marks surrounding the Wolves a win against the Blazers is certainly within reach.  Come tomorrow morning we will be sitting pretty above .500 once more.

Final Score:  Wolves 106 Blazers 94.

MVP: Kirilenko 16 PTS, 11 REBS, 2 BLKS, 5 ASTS

                                                   ?????

The last week or so has almost felt like a mini-offseason. The Wolves haven't played a game since last Friday, where we saw the Wolves lose their 2nd game in a row and 3rd of the last 4. Five or so days of rest, practice and rehab time later, the Wolves remain at home to face an underachieving-to-date Denver squad. Some bullets:

-Injury Report. The good news is that the Wolves may actually be able to almost field a full roster for tonight's game. 11 whole players! Call it something of a Thanksgiving miracle. Nikola Pekovic is set to return and JJ Barea is likely and also eager to give it a go after suffering yet another very painful paper cut. Pek will be an enormous boost for this team, and may actually make the game winnable. While Greg Stiemsma has been generally fantastic off the bench this year, he was nothing short of atrocious as a starting center going against the first teams. Greg was murdered on the glass, and generally looked highly overwhelmed playing in a role that is anything other than a sparkplug bench energy guy. Not to be overly harsh on the guy here, he is a sound bench center playing 10-15 minutes a game where he is less of a liability, and easily replaceable with other bigs should he be having a rough night. Greg back in said role, being replaced by our current go-to scorer is a welcome adjustment indeed. Other than that, Budinger, Roy, Rubio and Love are all out  of course. 

-Inside Battle. Speaking of Pek's return, it was basically mandatory for any chance of victory tonight. The Wolves were absolutely destroyed the other day on rebounds (50 to 34 to be exact) and 2nd chance points against Golden State and, despite another encouraging and ferocious 4th quarter rally, again fell short.  Denver has a solid trio of bigs that will present themselves as formidable foes: Kenneth "Fried Nugget" Faried, Kosta "Toucan Sam" Koufos, and JaVale "Lloyd Christmas" McGee. If Golden State's successful game plan is any indication, George Karl is pining those three to crash the offensive glass as much as possible and create problems for the Wolves. If Denver is to emerge victorious tonight, it will probably be by virtue of inside play given the somewhat shaky starts offensively for their perimeter players. This is also how Denver won in Memphis. Get will soon, K-Love. It's been 5 weeks!

-Depth Perception. Thus far in the season, and before the injury bug really hit, the Wolves have won games with their depth, getting contributions from the bench and manhandling the opposition's 2nd units. Denver presents a challenge here because, while the team lacks a go-to "star" player, just about every rotation player on the roster is potentially a starting caliber NBA player. Denver's bench features a primary rotation of Andre Miller, Corey Brewer, and JaVale McGee, in addition to a stacked starting 5 full of producers (including former Wolf Kosta Koufos). These 3 will go up against Shved, Barea, Cunningham, Howard and Stiemsma who all expect to see significant minutes. Keep a keen eye on the game flow when the 2nd unit steps out onto the floor, as Barea and Pek's returns make things easier on everyone. And most importantly, we likely have your first Shved vs. Brewer matchup of the year! Last and not least, Anthony Randolph returns, however given he has only played five total minutes this season, his appearance in a game is unlikely ("but he still has SO MUCH POTENTIAL!" :eyeroll"). 

-Prediction:  The return of Pek and Barea make this game interesting. The Wolves have played surprisingly well against the Nuggets at times and even won a game against them shorthanded last March (although we can pretend Love wasn't playing in that game and his 30-20 had nothing to do with it). Given the Nuggets lack a star, it will all come down to consistency yet again. Despite the fact that Denver is coming off of a road win against the 8-2 Memphis Grizzlies, and in honor of the holiday, I'm taking the homer route and predicting the well-rested Wolves pull off the upset against this sub-.500 division rival at home. 

Have a great holiday.

Breaking news on the latest with Brandon Roy's knee, and it's not good folks:

"Brandon Roy will undergo arthroscopic knee surgery this week, the seventh knee surgery of his career. Roy fatefully banged his knee in the Wolves' final preseason game, which led to ongoing soreness and caused him to miss the past four games. His upcoming surgery is another sad if predictable chapter in his NBA career, and could very well signal the end of his season, if not his career."

Soooooo, yeah. Pretty much turns out he was a failure signing. It was nice to see him try to get back on the court and all, but it does appear that he's done-for. Little wonder not many other teams were trying to sign him last off-season, and certainly not lining up to pay him the $5 million per year Kahn offered.

Bummer, especially as the Wolves are just insanely decimated by injuries.

The 4th Google Image Result for "David Lee Fail" and thus the obvious photo pick.

After a gut-crushing Kemba Walker game winner the other night, the Wolves take on the undermanned Warriors tonight at Target Center, the last game in a busy stretch before an extended break through next Wednesday. The Warriors are not a very good team, but the Wolves will still have quite the mountain to climb to emerge victorious, with the amount of injuries to date still remaining comical. Don't look now, but the Warriors are a quiet 4-4 and remain a concern for the playoff race down the stretch. As such, this is a quasi must-win statement game, even if it is early in the season. Some bullets:

-Josh Howard's debut. Josh Howard is officially signed, sealed and delivered. He naturally passed his physical this morning, which is clearly quite the task for our training staff, who would likely clear Betty White for major minutes with the Wolves (I can hear Gregg Farnam yelling to Adelman now, "Hey Coach! She's good to go!"). What does he have left in the tank? Can he provide size and defense off the bench? Can he shoot better than Wes Johnson could have? I am intrigued, and it might be the most interesting story line of the evening. If for any reason than to provide closure on 9-years of bitterness for the notorious selection of Ndudi Ebi.

Perimeter D and Alternate Dimensions/Universes. Malcolm Lee again has a sizable test tonight, guarding Klay Thompson and/or Steph Curry. With David Lee not exactly blowing out the box scores early on in the season, the Warriors will rely on their back court for much of the scoring load. Lee's pesky, annoying efforts on D are going to be a big key to maintaining the possibility of a victory. There is an alternate universe with Curry (being correctly picked over national boob Jonny Flynn) on the Wolves and Mark Jackson coaching the squad, which is notable, especially if you are trying to make a game preview a little bit longer in length. If you really want to get deep on the alternate universe theory, perhaps there is even one where Kahn flips Love to Golden State for Anthony Randolph and a pick (as was actually rumored), and then signs David Lee in 2010. Kahn did, after all, bring him to town when he was a free agent and took him to a Twins game. Can you bloody imagine? While Kahn did a helluva job this summer, this man is still your President of Basketball Operations.

-Rookie Spotlight: Harrison Barnes. Speaking of alternate universes, there is certainly one where Harrison Barnes ended up entering the 2011 draft and was picked by the Wolves over Derrick Williams at #2. Cripes, you are looking at a situation where the Wolves could have had nearly the same exact core as the Warriors do today. Prior to the draft, Barnes had been hailed by some as a bust-in the making, not exactly demonstrating an ability to score efficiently at the NBA level. Thus far, Barnes isn't scoring a tremendous amount, just under 10 a game, but his shooting percentages are sound in 8 games. He has shown he can adjust his game to the NBA level, not being a focal point of the offense, and remains the most intriguing player to watch on the GS roster.

-Steemer Redemption. The other night, Greg played a terrible game and there is no other way to put it. Let's root for Greg to make the most of his extended minutes and dominate the interior D, helping D-Will contain David Lee. It might be interesting for Rick to keep Stiemsma on Lee for defensive reasons, allowing D-Will to guard the offensively inept Festus Ezeli, filling in for the oft-injured Andrew Bogut. 

-Prediction. In a vacuum, the Wolves will win this game. However, the problem with having basically every one of your consistent scorers out means one must rely on bench players to will the win. The Wolves' woefully up and down shooting percentages have been an issue to date, and should they fall into another 5-6 minute rut with no FG's, Golden State will run away with the win. If the Wolves can stay consistent, they will win. If not, it likely will not be pretty. Get well soon, everyone.

                                           Your Newest Minnesota Timberwolf

Chris Broussard seems to have first reported, but odds are it was a smaller source first and Broussard, per usual, replaced "(insert local reporter's name)" with "sources." The Wolves, after working him out in Dallas earlier this week, have signed 32-year old NBA veteran Josh Howard to a 1-year deal for the veterans minimum. All signs point to Will Conroy being waived to make room, but such news has yet to be reported. UPDATE: Conroy has indeed been waived.

Howard brings a scoring touch and defensive ability to the team as a guy who expects to log minutes immediately. Doogie Wolfson reports he is flying in today to take a physical (which, if the Wolves training staff are involved, he will obviously pass (sorry, below the belt shot...couldn't help myself)) and will be in uniform tomorrow night against Golden State. What he has left in the tank will again be up for us all to discover together. Howard played some decent ball in Utah last season averaging 8.7 points and 3.7 rebounds in 43 games. However, Howard isn't exactly known for being an NBA iron man himself, having missed major time over the past several seasons. His 2012 season with Utah was cut short due to knee issues. However, what this team needs at this point are able bodies, and Howard is apparently an able body at this point in the season. Sometimes it's as simple as that when you have nine healthy bodies, one of which was Will Conroy, who isn't exactly what you would call an NBA-caliber player. 

With the addition of Howard, Wolves fans will continue to enjoy some redemption of a few of the team's most notorious draft-day moves (or non-moves in Howard's case). In addition to getting Roy back this offseason, Howard closes yet another circle. McHale famously picked Ndudi Ebi over Josh Howard in the 2003 draft, which was, well, an interesting decision at the time. Ebi of course never even played out his rookie deal in Minnesota, while Howard went on to become an excellent player and All-Star for the Dallas Mavericks. He certainly brings a wealth of experience to the team.

As for the move itself, I guess I have to say "approved." Howard can play. Hopefully. Some of the remaining free agents are still question marks or too young to take on such a critical role. Pietrus was allegedly unwilling to take the minimum to play here, so Kahn went with the next next option, which was most certainly Howard. He can come in and play the wing position for 20 minutes per game, and help give AK47 a rest so he does not over extend himself. He will be a welcome addition to what is simply a very awkward time for the team. What the major factor is (AGAIN), is whether he is healthy enough to play a regular role until Budinger returns in February. And whether he fits with the "win at all costs" mentality this team has developed.

Thoughts?