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TWolves Blog - Minnesota Timberwolves News and Articles
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Written by SG
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Tuesday, 18 March 2008 13:37 |
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The Minnesota Timberwolves have been criticized in
recent seasons for tanking down the stretch to try to improve their
draft position. But owner Glen Taylor strongly disagrees, especially
with what happened at the end of last season.
"It was more like, I'd say, K.G. tanked it," Taylor said today.
Taylor said Garnett took himself out of the lineup with five games to
play last season for what the team called an injured quadriceps muscle.
“The other guys still wanted to play and stuff like this here,” Taylor
said. “But it sure changed the team. It didn’t make us as (good). We
wanted to play Randy (Foye) and some of the other younger guys. But
this year, if they win, they win.”
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Written by SG
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Tuesday, 18 March 2008 00:57 |
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Wittman said he hopes point guard Sebastian Telfair can practice next week if his sprained left ankle heals.
But the coach doesn't expect Telfair to play in any games this week.
Telfair has missed the past five games, including Monday night's
meeting with the Los Angeles Clippers.
"I've still got some soreness in about three spots
in my ankle and foot, but it's getting a lot better. I'm able to walk,"
said Telfair, adding he hopes he soon will able to shed the protective
boot he has been wearing.
Closer to home, Wolves coach Randy Wittman will hand the whistle over
to assistant coach Jerry Sichting for Thursday’s practice so he can fly
to California in the morning to watch his son, Ryan, play for Cornell
that afternoon against third-seeded Stanford in Anaheim. Then Wittman
will catch a red-eye flight for Indianapolis, where he is scheduled to
arrive in time for the team’s Friday morning shootaround before that
night’s game against the Pacers.
Veteran center Michael Doleac was back on the bench with the team after
the two-game Western road trip. He and his wife, Shannon, still are
awaiting the birth of their child, due any day.
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Written by SG
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Tuesday, 18 March 2008 00:38 |
The Wolves didn't play their best but did enough
Monday night, beating the struggling Clippers 99-90. They've won four
of their past six games.
"If we want to become a better team, a playoff team
one day, we definitely need to win games we're supposed to win," Wolves
guard Marko Jaric said. "That's the difference (between) now and us in
the beginning of the season. In the beginning of the season, yes we
were hyped up and we beat Phoenix (and) New Orleans, but then the games
we were supposed to win, we flopped. Now we're realizing that these are
the games we need to win."
With their 16th victory, the Wolves (16-50)
surpassed the 1991-92 Minnesota team, which will keep the worst record
in franchise history — for at least another season — at 15-67.
Wolves record: 16-50
Imploring Jefferson to play with as much attention to detail at one end
of the floor as the other with repeated words and a nine-minute
benching Friday in Seattle, Wittman watched Jefferson block four shots
by halftime Monday on a night when the Wolves pick-and-rolled the
Clippers into submission by game's end.
Their efficiency in that standard-issue play contributed to 24 assists
-- 10 of them from Marko Jaric, six from Rashad McCants -- and
Jefferson's 16 second-half points. But Jefferson called his team's
offensive execution secondary.
From Mike Trudell/Timberwolves site:
The game was tight until Minnesota scored eight of the fourth quarter's
first 10 points to pull away from the Clippers, who never seriously
threatened the margin from that point on in a 99-90 win.
The stats don't tell the true story of this game. Again, it looks as if Al Jefferson led Minnesota's charge tonight, but it was actually Rashad McCants and Marko Jaric. Jefferson finished the game for the Wolves, putting the final dagger in the hearts of the road-weary Clippers.
Minnesota won for the fourth time in six games and moved past Seattle into fourth place in the Northwest Division. Jefferson has 48 double-doubles, trailing only Orlando's Dwight Howard, who has 60, for the league lead.
His four first-half blocked shots were just as significant as his 48th
double-double -- 22 points and 14 rebounds -- of the season.
Wolves coach Randy Wittman said he had challenged forward Al Jefferson to play better defense, so he liked what he saw during tonight's 99-90 win over the Los Angeles Clippers at Target Center. Wittman said Jefferson's helped his teammates when there was a breakdown, and that's what he has wanted from Big Al.
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Written by Derek Hanson
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Monday, 17 March 2008 22:02 |
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It's 2003-04 all over again for KG and Sam I Am
This article appears on www.DeROK.Net/wolves
At the risk of sounding like a total hypocrite after writing my piece about contract buyouts, I am extremely happy to see Sam Cassell once again paired with Kevin Garnett. I certainly don't like the way Sam I Am weaseled his way out of L.A. and over to Boston, but I won't let those circumstances stop me from enjoying what's to come. The biggest regret of my life as a sports fan is that I never got to see the 2003-04 Timberwolves win the NBA Championship. Ask any Minnesota fan and they'll gladly tell you how amazing that season's squad was. They were simultaneously the biggest underdogs and yet the most formidable opponent. They loved playing together, they came up big in the biggest of moments, and they collectively took the most downtrodden fanbase in the league and lifted them to unimaginable heights. In my entire life, I have never loved a team like I loved that team or enjoyed as season like I enjoyed that season.
And it was all thanks to Sam Cassell.
Continue Reading...
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Written by SG
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Monday, 17 March 2008 00:08 |
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Wolves coach Randy Wittman vows the same franchise that sat Kevin
Garnett out in seasons' final days and had Mark Madsen hoisting
three-pointers to keep their draft pick has one objective in mind down
the stretch.
Just win.
"No, not with this group," Wittman said when asked if he'll ponder
lottery ramifications in the season's last weeks. "We've got to
continue to let this team grow and learn and play. And that's what
we're going to do. We're going to try and win. That's exactly what
we're going to do."
Young enough: Foye, a former lottery pick, knows a
high draft pick in the upcoming draft isn't a guarantee of an immediate
turnaround. That's why the Wolves aren't worried about hurting their
odds of winning the lottery with victories down the stretch this
season. They're focusing on improving and winning.
"We're young enough," Foye said. "I don't think
young is going to help us that much. I think we just keep on playing
hard and keep building for next year."
From Empty The Bench: Why the Timberwolves Are Far From the Worst Team in the NBA
"He really worked hard this summer," UNC product Marvin Williams of the
Atlanta Hawks said of McCants, his friend and former teammate.
McCants, who left UNC after his junior year, was taken in the first
round of the 2005 draft by Minnesota as the 14th overall pick. (No. 32
at Carolina, he adopted No. 1 for his T-wolves jersey.) He has no
regrets leaving Chapel Hill after his junior season.
"There was nothing left for me to prove at the college level after winning the championship," he said.
Bnei Hasharon won for the fifth time in six games on
Sunday, defeating Ironi Nahariya 84-81 behind Ndudi Ebi's 24 points and
eight rebounds.
Previews of tonight's game against the Clippers:
Click here for the forum's game thread
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Written by Derek Hanson
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Sunday, 16 March 2008 11:31 |
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Note: This article appears on www.DeROK.Net/wolves
With the Timberwolves already mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, I'm severely limited in the number of angles I can approach the team from. I suppose I could wax poetic about trying hard and building momentum towards next year, but I feel that topic has been beaten to death. Instead, I'm going to touch on a topic that covers the NBA a little more broadly, but has still had a noticeable effect on this year's Wolves: Contract Buyouts. Since the Kevin Garnett was traded away, the Timberwolves have bought out three players, and would have made it four, had they fulfilled Antoine Walker's request for one after the trading deadline passed. In the case of the Timberwolves' first buyout candidate, Troy Hudson, the franchise was able to cut ties with a disgruntled veteran who did not fit into the team's plans, had several years left on his deal, and was practically untradeable. The situation was clearly a win-win for both sides. However, the following two buyouts did nothing to improve the team and only served to save Glen Taylor some cash and "free" some aging veterans from the Wolves' difficult season.
Continue Reading...
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Written by SG
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Sunday, 16 March 2008 03:15 |
But the drop-off from the 24-win Boston Celtics
to the Timberwolves has been considerable, with Minnesota on track win
18 games. "It's a learning process," Jefferson, the centerpiece of the
deal that sent Garnett to Boston last summer, said in a telephone
interview. "And nobody's going to give you nothing. If you want to eat,
you got to work for it."
Jefferson said the rest of the league had better get its licks in now
because it won't always be like this. "You look at the good teams. At
one point in time, they was in our situation," said Jefferson, one of
five players averaging at least 20 points and 10 rebounds this season.
"You got to build and you got to start from nothing. But I feel in a
couple of years, we're going to be there. We're going to be one of the
top teams in the West, too. We coming -- most definitely."
Jefferson apparently has made an impression on McMillan – who
believes Jefferson is a throw back post player and grouped him in with
some pretty impressive company.
"He's a legit old time power forward…Karl Malone, Charles Barkley,
Buck Williams. I think he'll get better as the team matures. I think
he's one of the best power forwards or center….or whatever he is in the
league. He can get his shot off pretty easy when he's down there by
himself. I think if you put him with another big guy, then you have a
legit low post presence."
Somebody asked Wolves coach Randy Wittman if Al Jefferson's "tweaked"
ankle that caused him to miss a practice but no games might soon become
sore enough to shut the big guy down for the season.
"We're not shutting anybody down," he said.
One of the many scouts who attend games at Target Center talked the
other night about how Jefferson is a better player now than Kevin
Garnett was at the same stage, and if he was the general manager of the
Wolves, he wouldn't trade Jefferson for Garnett. The Celtics are
playing for this year, and the Wolves are playing for the future.
What Wolves coach Randy Wittman likes about Jefferson, who is only three years out of high school, is his great upside.
Timberwolves coach Randy Wittman didn't like what he saw defensively Friday night in Seattle.
So he made a key change early in the third quarter,
replacing his best player, Al Jefferson, with rookie Chris Richard. The
Wolves trailed by seven points when Richard came into the game with
about 9 minutes left in the quarter. Richard played so well defensively
he finished out the quarter and helped the Wolves take a nine-point
lead into the fourth.
Wittman said Saturday he was hoping the focus on defense would rub off on the other players.
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Written by SG
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Sunday, 16 March 2008 03:01 |
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There was a disheartening story in the Strib this week about Craig
Smith--not the Rhino himself, of course, who is something of a
feel-good tale, albeit one that won't totally turn the frog into the
prince. No, the head-slapping part was how the braintrust has told
Smith they want him to work on his midrange game so that when he slots
in alongside Al Jefferson in the frontcourt, they won't be ruining each
other's spacing in the low block. The implication, of course, is one
that the Wolves have been making in a dozen different, equally
perplexing ways this season--that they foresee Jefferson as their
center of the future.
Mike Trudell/Timberwolves site documented the team's roadtrip to Seattle and Portland. During the trip, he asked the players who among them is the best trash-talker:
Mark Madsen, whom everybody loves talking to, said that guys
will often rib him about who's better 1-on-1, or who gets more minutes.
BUT ... "I just ask them one question: How many rings do you have?" In
the NBA, that's the trump card, Mad Dog. You got it. "There's no good
answer for that one," Dog concluded.
But there was a sign of progress in at least one area for the Wolves: Brewer's shot.
"He works at it every day," Wolves coach Randy
Wittman said. "I'm not too worried about that. I think it's going to be
a situation where he's going to be a reliable open shooter. That's what
we've got to have."
A consistent jump shot would take pressure off Brewer moving forward in his career. It would complement his hustle on defense and make him a more well-rounded player.
Clearly, the Timberwolves were disenchanted with Green because they
needed one month to decide not to extend him for a fourth year, making
him an unrestricted free agent. Wolves coach Randy Wittman and Rivers,
backcourt mates with the Hawks in the 1980s, talked about Green more
than once.
All Rivers would say was, "He frustrated Randy quite a bit. The
difference between Randy and me was that Randy didn't feel the need to
play him. We played him anyway."
Blumel and his buddies went from Bulldogs to sponges as they soaked up
the wisdom of Foye, who is in his second NBA season after starring at
Villanova.
"He really took my game to the next level," Blumel said. "He taught me
ball handling and shooting drills. He taught me how to stay mentally
tough after missing a couple of shots. He taught me how to keep my
head, not fold and not get mad at myself.
Wittman will be watching when the NCAA men’s basketball tournament
field is announced today to see where Cornell and his son, Ryan, are
headed. He is hoping the Ivy League champs are assigned a site that
plays first-round games on Thursday, so Wittman possibly can get to the
game in person before the Wolves play Friday at Indianapolis.
The Wolves watched their third chance for their season's first
three-game winning streak slip away with Tuesday's home loss to
Portland, where they got a reminder that they once had Brandon Roy.
They got back to winning at Seattle on Friday, propelled by Ryan Gomes'
23 points and 15 rebounds. The week concluded with a 107-96 loss at
Portland on Saturday night.
Postgame quotes from the win in Seattle.
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Written by SG
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Sunday, 16 March 2008 02:05 |
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The Wolves' three-game road winning streak -- yes, you read that right
-- ended with a third-quarter blitz propagated by two Trail Blazers
players selected five picks apart in the 2006 draft.
Aldridge, the former University of Texas forward taken second overall
that summer, and Roy, the former University of Washington guard picked
sixth by the Wolves and then dealt to Portland, combined to score 51
points and shoot 55 percent from the field Saturday.
Wolves record: 15-50
The Blazers also completed a four-game sweep of the
Timberwolves (15-50), marking the first sweep of Minnesota
since the 1998-1999 season. It was also the first time the
Blazers had gone 4-0 against a team since the 2002-2003
season, when they swept Golden State and Seattle.
It wasn’t until the third quarter — when the
Blazers’ defense finally started slowing the Timberwolves’ drives —
that Portland was able to seize control of the game, storming back from
a five-point deficit with an 18-4 run that pushed Portland’s lead to
74-65 with 4:46 remaining in the third quarter.
Minnesota was 2 of 7 from the field in that
stretch, while Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge combined for 14 of the
Blazers’ points during the run.
Minnesota never got closer than six points after that run, though, and trailed by double digits for most of the fourth quarter.
Marko Jaric scored 19, Al Jefferson had 18 points and 11 rebounds, and Ryan Gomes had 16 points for the Timberwolves, who are last in the Western Conference but had won three of four entering the game.
Corey Brewer had 12 points and seven rebounds, and Randy Foye, traded for Roy in a 2006 draft day deal, had nine points, 10 rebounds and nine assists for the Timberwolves.
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Written by College Wolf
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Saturday, 15 March 2008 06:01 |
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T-Wolves -vs- Seattle Supersonics (3.14.08)
BOXSCORE:
http://www.nba.com/games/20080314/MINSEA/boxscore.html
FORUM THREAD (Click Me)
So I was going to watch the game last night and do one of my typical "Musings of a Wolves Fan" articles. However, that was not going to be happening since apparently college hockey takes precedence over the NBA. Granted, it was a playoff game going into overtime... but still. How many people watch the NHL, let alone college hockey? I was going to say something about the low viewership ratings, but then again, multiple Wolves telecasts have recieved less than 1 market share this season. For the record, 1 market share is only approximately 16,000something people. So, it's not the like the Wolves have been attracting huge crowds either. Even with all that said, I can't believe we were forced to watch college freakin hockey last night instead of the Wolves. The game tonight against Portland isn't on TV (and I knew that), so it was doubly pissing me off. Also, some posters in the forum informed us that apparently they couldn't watch the Wolves game last night either, even on DirectTV League Pass. I'm no technician, but I'm about 99.999% sure that was directly related to the fact that I was sitting at home in my living room trying to stay sane while watching nearly 30 minutes of exceedingly boring overtime college hockey. In the downtime between the first and second overtimes of the hockey game, they showed the Wolves game on a very small picture in picture. The other box on the screen besides the Wolves? A screen showing the fans sitting in their seats waiting for the second overtime to start. What a complete farce. Couldn't they have just shown the Wolves game fullscreen for the 15 minute overtime (or however long it is?)
When the el-lamo college hockey game was finally over, it switched over to the Wolves with about 7 minutes remaining in the third quarter. At this point I was half-awake and it was extremely tough to really get into the game, being that I had missed the first 30 minutes. I didn't focus on the game as raptly as I typically would, because I was undecided about whether or not I would actually do this article. The more I got thinking about it, the more mad I was that we missed so much of the game for some lame college hockey game. Also, there is no game on TV tonight... I might write my congressman.
The game was somewhat close what I finally got to start watching. Personally, I didn't think a whole lot of defense was played in the second half, but from what I read by one of our forum posters and a short game recap, apparently the first half was the "no defense" half. Still, the teams scored a combined 117 points in the first half compared to 120 total points in the second half. It doesn't look like there was much defense being played at any point in the game. It wasn't long after I started watching in the third that the Wolves pulled away. The Sonics were in foul trouble and we were abusing them at the free throw line. The Wolves attempted 16 total free throws in the third quarter alone. According to the recap, the Wolves scored 10 straight points from the line at one point. The Sonics made a half-hearted comeback attempt at the very end of the game, getting within 5 or so at one point. Typically I wouldn't have been worried about that, except they did come back and beat us Sunday night under the exact same premise.
With the win, the Wolves no longer have the worst road record in the league... and also avoided a season sweep by Seattle that would have been the first in 11 years.
(Click "Read More..." for thoughts, analysis, and Lottery Pick Odds.)
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