Chris Paul Deserves the MVP Award This Season...

Word on the street is that Kobe Bryant will be winning his first ever league MVP award this season.  Do I think this is the correct choice?  Hell and no I don't.  In a season where you could make legitimate arguments for four different players (KG, LeBron, CP3, Kobe), Kobe would have been my last choice out of the "Big Four."  Of the said stars, here's how I personally ranked them with my Blogger MVP/ROY vote:  1) KG, 2) CP3, 3) LeBron, 4) Kobe.   It's not so much that I hate Kobe Bryant, but I just don't think he deserved it this season (more on that later.)  I would like to say, I voted before the regular season was over, and was slightly swayed by Bill Simmons "KG4MVP Love Fest" article.   Upon further review and if I could do it again, I think I would now go Paul first and KG second.  Regardless, any of these four guys would have probably won the award the past 3 seasons... that's how amazing they all have been playing.

Apropos of nothing, today is Chris Paul's 23rd birthday.  What does this have to do with anything you ask?  Well, first off, I can't believe this young stud is only 23 years old.  He plays like an established veteran, and gun to my head, I'd say he's the best PG in the entire league.  Also, it happens to be "Chris Paul Appreciation Day."  So, I am comprising this article in honor of his birthday, and making a case as to why Kobe Bryant is the wrongful MVP on the Association.    

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College Wolf and Bonk's first Co-Podcast Ever!!!!!!!

Unfortunately we are not bringing everyone our first co-podcast under better circumstances, such as a Celtics series clenching win, but we'll have to make due. The Boston Celtics lost a heartbreaking Game 6 tonight down in the dirty, dirty ATL to the Hawks, 103-100. CW and Bonk have all the hard-hitting insight and analysis coming through your speakers. It looks like the series will be heading back to Boston on Sunday. As a bonus, we've got analysis of the last first round games, as well as predictions and insight for all the Round 2 matchups. Check us out.

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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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Blogger MVP/ROY Rankings Round 8

TWolvesBlog was honored to host this round's NBA MVP and ROY Blogpoll. The rankings are comprised of votes by a highly esteemed panel of bloggers who throw darts to determine their picks every two weeks.  Points are granted for each vote in a descending scale thus a first place vote in the MVP rankings counted for ten points, second place was good for nine points, third place counted for eight and so on. In the ROY rankings a first place vote counted for five points as only five rookies are ranked.  Second place gets four points, and so on.

Our esteemed panel:

College Wolf from TWolves Blog (Bonk from TWolvesblog is voting and commenting in my stead for this edition, being that I am running things.)
Lee and Dave from The Dream Shake
David from 20 Second Time Out
Adam from Raptors HQ
Spartacus from 3 Shades of Blue
Seth from Posting and Toasting
Don from With Malice...
Tom from Sactown Royalty
Josh from Dinosty
Steve and Tom from CelticsBlog
Mike from Bullets Forever
Ben from Third Quarter Collapse
Jeremy from Pick Axe and Roll
Brett from Queen City Hoops
The scholars from We Rite Goode
Matt and Corndogg from Hardwood Paroxysm
Tom from Indy Cornrows
Jeramey from The Bratwurst
Ricky from Sixers 4 Guidos (He tried to participate but his votes/emails kept getting swallowed up in a mystic blogospherial void.)

The man, the myth, the legend... Alex from Brew Hoop

MVP voting is done on a 10 point scale, for the rookies its 5 points.  We had a total of 20 participants for this eighth edition.

To check out previous rounds of voting, and the results:

Round 1: Hosted by Brewhoop
Round 2: Hosted by Clips Nation
Round 3: Hosted by 3 Shades of Blue
Round 4: Hosted by Sixers 4 Guidos
Round 5: Hosted by Pick Axe and Roll
Round 6: Hosted by Hardwood Paroxysm
Round 7: Hosted by Celticsblog 

(Click on the "Read More..." button to view the rankings and results for this Eighth Edition of the MVP/ROY Rankings)

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  College Wolf's Open Mailbag...

I’m stoked to be bringing this to you all again. Thanks in advance to everyone that submitted questions for this edition of the Mailbag. Keep em coming and I will gladly answer. Anyhow, as usual there is a very diverse variety of topics from: HOW do we improve this team’s future, Does Chris Richard have a place in our team’s future, Foye or McCants, Big Al vs KG, NBA2K 2008, Baron “The Bearded One” Davis, the hotter supermodel, and… Who Wins a Timberwolves Royal Rumble!  Until next time…

Feel free to leave any comments and/or email me questions for the next Mailbag. ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it )  

(Click "Read More..." to dive into the MailBag.)

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T-Wolves -vs- Cleveland Cavaliers (2.29.08)

 



BOXSCORE:

http://www.nba.com/games/20080229/MINCLE/boxscore.html  

FORUM THREAD (Click Me)

http://www.TimberwolvesToday.com

It was a close game for the most part, but the Wolves just ran out of gas in the end.  Well, either that or some guy by the name of LeBron James took over.  Truth be told, it was a combination of both.  The Wolves trailed by as much as 15 points in the fourth quarter, but the first three were actually much closer on the scoreboard.  In fact, with a tad under five minutes to go in the game, the Wolves were only trailing 79-75.  Of course LeBron was always in control, never willing to let this game slip away to a sorry squad they haven’t lost to in quite some time.  ‘Bron is only amazingly 23 years old, but plays with the maturity of a 10 year vet.  I was wondering if he was even going to play at all, seeing that he was a “game-time decision” after he sprained his ankle in Wednesday’s loss to the Celtics.  He showed no ill effects, just barely missing his 7th triple double of the season with 30 points, 13 dimes, and 8 boards.  How’s that for returning from injury?

The Wolves couldn’t buy a bucket to save their lives, missing 53 shots while shooting 39% from the field.  There was a particularly brutal stretch in the second quarter when it took the Wolves nearly five full minutes to score 4 points. The missed shots, free-throw attempts discrepancy, and inability to contain LeBron James were the hits that sunk the Wolvies battleship tonight.

(Click "Read More..." for thoughts and analysis.)  

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M M M M M M Mailbag Time!!!

Time for the next TWolvesblog Open Mailbag for anyone that is interested in sending any questions and/or thoughts, and I'll anwer them as soon as I get a sufficient amount of submissions. Don't be afraid to send stuff in (I don't want to have to make stuff up!) Heck, I promise that I'll even answer them all... I'm like an Equal Opportunity Employer.

There's tons of things to talk about at this point in the season:  The Wolves roster, our awesome record, the Head Coach/Front Office situation, any previous or upcoming games, what you like or don't like, nights out on the town, random crap... the possibilities are endless!

Or you can just email me and tell me that I suck. It's all good.

Email all inquiries/Mail Bag questions/comments/hate mail to: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

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Gerald Green got his wish yesterday when he was traded to the Houston Rockets before the trade deadline.  He was “traded home” to the Rockets for 24 year old guard Kirk Snyder, a 2010 second-round draft pick, and “cash considerations.”  Snyder is in his fourth NBA season, with career averages of 6 points, 2 rebounds, and 1 assists per game.  He is an alumnus of the University of Nevada, drafted by the Utah Jazz with the 16th overall pick in the 2004 draft.  He has also appeared with the New Orleans Hornets before appearing in 9 games this season for the Rockets.  He averaged 3.8 points and 1.3 rebounds in 9 minutes per game.

Gerald Green’s option was not picked up this past pre-season, which made it glaringly obvious to most of the fans that this would be his only season with the T-Wolves.  Our VP of Basketball Operations Kevin McHale had this to say about Gerald’s game: “[GG] is probably the furthest away from readiness to play in NBA games of all of Minnesota's young talent.”   Green appeared in 29 games this season for the Wolves, averaging 5.1 points, 2.1 rebounds, and 1 assists in roughly 12 minutes per game.  Coach Randy Wittman elaborated further about why he was traded yesterday: “We had kind of a logjam with the same type of player, with (Randy) Foye coming back into the mix; we didn't have a lot of time there to play all those guys."

The trade was not a disappointment at all to the former Celtic and T-Wolf.  In fact, Gerald Green was quite pleased:  "It's like a dream come true. Never in my life did I think this would happen.  I am on cloud nine."  This marks the second time he was traded in the past calendar year, but it was best for all parties involved.

Why the Wolves did the trade:

In January, Gerald Green “requested” a trade (through his agent.)  Since the Wolves declined his option this pre-season, he was unrestricted and free to go wherever he wanted after this year was over.  Thus, we were going to lose him anyways and still got something out of the trade.  Namely, a two month look at Kirk Snyder and a future second round pick.  Not bad, especially considering some of the moves this organization has made over the past 10 or so years.  Low risk move by the Wolves, yet little to no reward.  An ok B-

Why the Rockets did the trade:

There are several reasons as to why this trade makes sense for the Rockets.  First off, they cut nearly $1 million dollars from their team salary.  This also puts them under the Luxury Tax for this season, which is a very nice move in and of itself.  Secondly, they are taking a very low risk chance with a “hometown” player that is known for having a massive amount of potential.  Whether or not he will ever fully realize that potential is another story.  From what I’ve seen, he can’t really play basketball at the professional level; at least not yet.  He can dunk and shoot (if left wide open), but that is about it.  Well… he can shoot.  He’s never had a problem hoisting the rock, but making the shots is what ails him.  Regardless, the Rockets got rid of a player that has only played 9 games while saving money and getting a raw prospect in return.  You can’t really fault this move by the Houston Front Office.  If Gerald doesn’t show them anything in the next two months, they simply let him walk away and owe nothing.  Well, they owe the Wolves a 2010 second round pick, but the value in that pick will be very minimal at best.  Before he was drafted, Gerald Green was being compared to Tracy McGrady… now it’s only fitting that they are both on the same team.  A solid B+

As much as the truth hurts, the Wolves are pretty much going nowhere this season, and had basically nothing to lose in this trade.  Considering that Gerald Green was going to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, I guess it’s a bonus that we received anything back at all in return for him.  He wasn’t playing, and it was quickly becoming apparent that he was not part of our future plans.  Whether it was a good decision or not to decline his paltry contract extension, the trade itself was good.  The Wolves get a 2 month lease on Kirk Snyder to see if he brings anything to the table, and another future second round pick.  My hope is that they can eventually parlay this pick and a combination of other second round picks (or expiring contracts/etc) into a more useful asset (such as a pick higher in the draft… perhaps an additional first rounder?)  I have no complaints about the trade itself, but the way Gerald Green was handled by our Front Office during his tenure in Minnesota is another story entirely.

CW

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