T-Wolves -vs- Seattle Supersonics (3.14.08)

BOXSCORE:

http://www.nba.com/games/20080314/MINSEA/boxscore.html

 
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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  

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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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T-Wolves -vs- San Antonio Spurs (2.08.08)

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http://www.TimberwolvesToday.com

Well… it was a very fun game tonight.  Definitely an exciting one to be at, as the Wolves played with a lot of energy for the most part.  Coincidentally, tonight’s game was also the game that us lucky Bloggers got to attend on the Wolves Organization’s dime, due to our participation in the “Battle of the Bloggers” contest this past pre-season.  If you click the link and check out the results, you’ll see that I finished fifth out of seven people.  I had my reasons that I could pinpoint for not winning, but there’s no point in rehashing them.  Complaining is for losers anyways, and it was a very cool experience to be able to participate in.  On behalf of my fellow Bloggers, I’d like to thank Mike Trudell and the Wolves Organization for a fun experience tonight. 

As part of our participation, the original plan was to attend a game as a group with free “Club Cambria” tickets from the Wolves.  Stephen Litel was not covering the game tonight, and Alex Halsted did not show up either. Our very own DeRok lives in New Jersey, so it’s understandable as to why he wasn’t there.  I got to meet another TWolvesBlog columnist, Anthony Hall, for the first time.  It was a pleasure… and it was good to finally meet.  Anyhow, the remaining four of us met up with Mike Trudell at about 6:30 and went up to the Club.  While the view itself is not spectacular, let me vouch for the pre-game buffet.  I now understand why my boy Jack McCloskey has Club Cambria season tickets.  Good for him.  They had a nice spread of Barbeque chicken, au gratin cauliflower (I think that’s what it was), home fry potatoes, roast beef, some crappy vegetable stuff, and simply magnifico cornbread.  Ahhh, the cornbread.  Delicious.  I could go for more of that cornbread right now in fact.  I wish they sold it in the concession stands.  The view wasn’t the greatest because the seats in Club Cambria are actually “assigned”, like any other season tickets.  To right a wrong, Trudell graciously procured us much better tickets.  We ended up sitting in the middle of a section at midcourt.  I think everyone was happy with the very kind gesture and appreciated the hospitality. 
 

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CW & Bonk's 07-08 Slam Dunk Contest Recap

     It's the All-Star weekend event that we've all been waiting for, the Wham Bam Thankyou Mam Slam Dunk Contest.  Bonk and I will presenting you the drunken ramblings very educated and insightful analysis from Saturday night's contest in all it's glory.  Who had the goods and truly measured up?  If you are reading this, you already know who won... but were they worthy of being crowned champion?  After meeting the contestants, we've got our very own recap of last night's festivities below.    

(Click "Read More..." for our review of this year's Slam Dunk Contest.)

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Here's video from last night's game, showing Kevin Garnett's first return to the Target Center as a member of the Boston Celtics:

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T-Wolves -vs- Boston Celtics (2.08.08)

BOXSCORE: 

http://www.nba.com/games/20080208/BOSMIN/boxscore.html

POSTGAME PODCAST:

http://www.TimberwolvesToday.com

If we could only win ONE game this entire NBA season, tonight’s game was the game I would have wanted us to win.  It was a wild and entertaining ending to a very memorable night.  Alas, as we all know, the ending was a heartbreaker.  Leon Powe scored the put back bucket as time expired, to give the Celtics the 88-86 victory over our young TimberCeltics.  We probably should have lost regardless, as Ray Allen was hacked pretty badly on his final shot with time winding down.  Fortunately for Celtics faithful, Powe was in position to grab the rebound and quickly layed it back in for the win.  If Powe wouldn’t have made the basket, I would agree with anyone stating that Jesus Shuttlesworth deserved to shoot free throws for getting hacked on his shot.  With that said, I still think the Wolves deserved to win the game, based on how the two teams competed for the majority of the game.  The Celtics came out flat and appeared to be coasting through much of the game.  The Wolves were hustling and playing very hard, as you could tell they desperately wanted this win.  Either way, we lost another thriller to the Boston Celtics this season.  That’s probably why they have the best record in the NBA, and we have 10 wins. 

KG’s return stirred some mixed emotions.  First off, it was pretty cool to see him again.  I thought maybe we’d all clap and cheer and that would be it.  However, as soon as he walked out onto the court I got goosebumps.  I couldn’t hear a single person booing him, nor did I see anyone *not* cheering for KG, as some had hypothesized might happen.  I had wondered if KG would just come out for this introduction because he was obligated, or because he truly did care about the fans here in ‘Sota?  Would he stare at the ground and wait for the cheering to be over, or would he acknowledge the fans?  After seeing a replay at home, it appeared like some tears were welling up in KG’s eyes.  It was an incredible moment.  KG looked genuinely happy to see everyone while waving and looking around.  KG displayed emotion… but in a touching way.   It’s been a while since we fans have seen that here in Minnesota.  Even though he was not able to play in the game as most fans had desired, it was still decent closure to the KG era.  I think it will help a lot of fans to move on and eventually get behind the new youngsters on our squad. 

A few things that I didn’t like about how they did KG’s appearance/tribute:  1) They did it too early in the introductions.  Due to the unnatural conditions of the walkways and entrances in Target Center (aka an actual sellout), people were still trying to file in when KG walked out onto the court.  There were quite a few empty seats, because many people had not been able to get to their seats in time.  That was a shame, and I wish they could have waited a little longer.  However, I do understand that it’s not easy (or usually allowed) to switch around the player introductions and a game start time. 2)  Couldn’t they have allowed the fans to clap and cheer for more than one measly minute?  I mean, come on.  Seriously?  We could have cheered for him longer if they wouldn’t have ushered him off the court.  Then again, I guess this goes back to actually starting the game on time.  Would anyone really have cared if the game started five minutes later?  Perhaps the TV people might have cared I guess.  Regardless, it was a good appearance, but it just seemed sort of rushed.  Also, they didn’t really announce it too well, as KG just suddenly appeared walking out of the tunnel before anyone really knew what was happening.  I guess I’m nit-picking though.  It was certainly much better than him not making the trip at all.  Last thing about KG, there were infinitely more Boston KG jerseys than Minnesota KG jerseys.  I just thought that was pretty interesting.
 

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