EXHIBIT 1:

EXHIBIT 2: Michael Beasley May Have Broken His Wrist

Luckily for us, he may just end up being OK. But seriously, could anything else go wrong for him this off-season?  Wait... don't answer that.

But really David $tern, what are you doing you greedy tyrant?  The NBA is (was?) at the peak of it's popularity, and yourself and the other crotchety old owners are holding out, in a not-so-blatant attempt to absolutely crush the Players Union? This "cash grab" by the Owners is really just sickening to me.  Yes, I realize the CBA is flawed and needs to be fixed, but the demands by the Owners are unreasonable and insulting.  I mean, really asking for billions of dollars from the players over the next decade?  NBA players are probably overpaid as a whole, but that is the CBA that was AGREED upon during the last negotiating sessions.  The players are asking for NOTHING more than the status quo, again, which was agreed upon by both parties. 

Dear readers can google articles to form their own opinions, or just go read everything in this thread.  Either way, it's pretty apparent what's going on here.

David $tern, this nonsense needs to end now.

Zgoda reports

Great news! Report indicates Taylor will be in the interview as well. This basically all but implies he is willing to front the money needed to hire this superb coaching candidate.

This seems to explain the holdup, as Kahn is doing what it takes to convince Mr. Adelman to come to town. Would be a hard sell, but a worthwhile one. Hopefully more on this as it comes. 

(Actual evidence of Mitchell showing good rapport with players, even of Spanish heritage)

Per the always humorous Jim Souhan, Sam Mitchell has emerged as the front runner for the Wolves head caoching position.

I'm hearing that Sam Mitchell has emerged as the frontrunner for the Timberwolves' head coaching position.

To me, this is a sign that Glen Taylor has exerted his influence on the hiring process. Mitchell is an old favorite of Taylor's, and in the absence of a sure-thing candidate like Rick Adelman (who appears to be ready to sit out next season), Mitchell, with his local ties and tough-guy persona, makes a lot of sense.

I completely concur with Souhan that this is Glen Taylor influenced. Maybe not a bad thing.

Per the update from Pants below, the list of candidates overall was none too impressive. Of the 'lower tier' candidates, Mitchell would probably be my #1 choice. This hire wouldn't have me jumping through the roofs, but Sam has had a decent history and did have a solid run in Toronto. Hiring a recent coach of the year winner certainly isn't a bad thing.

Question arise though, of a rough falling out in Toronto, along with his style of play as being a fit. His hard-nosed attitude may not mesh well with a group clearly in need of coddling. Lot's of question marks. But the Minnesota ties are there and the fans would believe in him for awhile. However Minnesota people are not loyalists. That only lasts so long (just look at McHale).

Sam was a massive veteran prescence for the Wolves during the glory years. He has had measured, recent success as a coach of a young team. Of the 'cheap' hires, this is the one to buy into. He isn't Don Nelson, but he is a familiar face to look into coaching this team long term. And anything is better than Rhombus.

I also bagged his groceries a few times... long ago.

As part of our summer Roundtable series, College Wolf and myself took the liberty of answering four questions that.....we developed ourselves.  You can check out Part 1 about the NBA Lockout HERE.

1.Why do you think Kahn waited so long to fire Rambis? Was the backlash he received deserved?  

College Wolf: I think that might remain one of life's great unsolved mysteries; the true answer of which will probably never be known to the masses.  The backlash our organization received from the national mainstream media was most definitely deserved, as we were basically a laughingstock, being that everyone already knew Darrell Rambis was as good as gone.  Kahn more or less spelled it out during the press conference a day before the season ended, and no one could figure out why he waited as long as he did to actually fire him.  I get that there was no real rush since Rambis had a 4 year guaranteed contract, but it just made Kahn and Organization look inept and incompetent.  That's understandable and probably deserved, being as how the past half-decade has gone.  But what was Kahn really waiting for?  Perhaps he was hoping Rambis would just quit, or get an offer to go coach somewhere else?  That way at least Taylor wouldn't have had to pay the remaining 2 years of his contract.  That's really the only guess I can come up with that makes any sense to me.  He should have been fired months ago because it was the normal and logical thing to do. It is one thing if Kahn still had faith in Rambis and intended on keeping him. But he didn't.  The entire situation was really just incredibly bizarre. 

Mike: As CW said,  It is truly one of life's great mysteries along the lines of runners now running in that weird velociraptor-like arm pose you see around the lakes these days (look for it, it's weird and also fail to boot).  Whether or not all of this was "on Kahn" or not though remains to be seen. The fact remains that Kahn could hire Rick Adelman, solve the oil crisis, and end all major worldwide terrorist cells and the mainstream media (along with certain sister blog columnists) would still complain that he didn't end world hunger. It is insane. Kahn has actually and laughably been ridiculed for scoring interviews with Larry Brown, Don Nelson, and Rick Adelman. I mean, what the hell is the problem here?

To be fair, though, I have been very anti-Kahn the past 12 months, even going as far as to argue extensively earlier this year that he is worse than McHale was. But thus far this offseason he has done well, bringing in Rubio, drafting Williams, and doing the best he could with pick #20. With that said, he has a very real opportunity to curry favor with Wolves fans who sport a more radical opinion. As for what happened with Rambis... who cares? He is gone now. Whatever happened behind the scenes probably had reason or justification beyond the scope of our understanding. The backlash may be partially deserved but I have a hard time believing Rambis was completely left out to dry. This is a situation involving $4 million in sunk cost for a business seeing heavy reds for the past half decade. Life freaking goes on. Oh CRAP we missed out on Coaching Great Lawrence Frank! 12/21/12 come early!

Please click "Read More" for the remaining questions and discussion...

This just in:  Nelly wants to join the Wolves?

No, not that Nelly.  THIS Nelly:

Please click "Read More" to see what this all means...

no comments

As the lockout continues, we decided to get the TWolves Blog staff together to answer five key questions on everyone's mind this offseason.

Please click "Read More" below, for the TWolves Blog.com's Staff answers to such things as, "Will the NBA lose part/all of the 2011-12 season due to the lockout", "Who's at fault", "How this will affect basketball in Minnesota", "What the TWB Staff members will be doing during the lockout", and much more!

There are plenty of ways for us to deal with the NBA Lockout.

Sure, we could bemoan the possible loss of next season. We could yearn for Rubio highlights and Kevin Love double doubles.

We could try something different and watch baseball or hockey. (Gross.)

Or... we can embrace the lockout. Seriously. Think of the possibilities!

Here are five unexpected positives from the NBA Lockout if a new collective bargaining agreement isn't reached and we lose next season:

Like most of you, I was perplexed by Michael Beasley last year.

There were games, like that one against the Clippers, where he demonstrated the potential to become an all-star caliber talent, a true alpha dog player on a team that desperately needed leadership. Unfortunately, there were also games where he seemingly checked out altogether.

From Draft Express’s database:

Kevin Love – 6′ 7.75″ no shoes, 255 lbs, 18 bench reps, 35″ max vert
Michael Beasley – 6′ 7″ no shoes, 235 lbs, 19 bench reps, 35″ max vert
Derrick Williams – 6′ 7.25″ no shoes, 250 lbs, 19 bench reps, 34.5″ max vert


And also:

Love – 6′ 11.25 ” wingspan, 8′ 10″ standing reach
Beas – 7′ 0.25″ wingspan, 8′ 11″ standing reach
DWill – 7′ 1.5″ wingspan, 9′ 0″ standing reach

So how exactly are all these guys going to get minutes for us? Derrick Williams definitely isn't a SF, and Kahn said in his press conference to introduce Williams that he is "going to be here for the long haul" and that he "didn't anticipate trading Derrick Williams for anyone" since he was "the top guy on our draft board."

And the numbers show that Beasley is better at PF than he is at SF. And obviously Love can't play SF. Love can play some Center, but not too much, because he's so undersized. Obviously neither Beasley or Williams can play center at all, so if it's anyone of these three, it's gotta be Love.  But I don't really like that solution too much either.

So what the hell are we going to do? We need a big trade (or series of trades), or we are looking at 22 wins and being the worst team in the Western Conference next year.

Please click "Read More" to read on about how we attempt to figure this entire mess out...

Okay, folks, we're going to make this somewhat brief for now.  It is Friday afternoon, the sun is shining, and I'm sure you have a ton of draft coverage to read through so we won't take up too much of your time.

While the final transactions have yet to be announced, last night was a pretty good draft for the Wolves. While the team still has a long way to go if they ever want to crack 30 or even 20 wins, this was a great display of valuing assets and doing the best you can to maximize returns on pieces we quite frankly did not need. A few points and implications:

1. Derrick Williams.

Derrick, who will wear #7, was the complete logical pick. While his size and quickness are questionable, he has a great power game and a very solid outside shot. A safe pick who will struggle to find minutes in our rotation. If the Wolves fail to consolidate and go after the veteran player they so dearly need, the frontcourt situation could not turn out pretty. In a vacuum, this pick was great, but only if we follow it up with some consolidation and maneuvering. Otherwise it simply will not work out. There aren't enough minutes and too many guys in need of playing time.

2. Cash Considerations Were the Steal of the Draft

I can't stress this enough.

Look, owners can be greedy slimeballs. No one likes to see teams sell draft picks. No one likes to see talent go to the wayside in favor of insignificant cash allocations....but in the case of the Wolves I am FULLY in support of acquiring cash for one reason: so we can pay off Rambis.

Whether we agree with the underlying approach to the situation or not, one can speculate with a pretty high degree of certainty that Taylor and Co. were not excited about paying off the $4 million owed to Kurt Rambis. My best guess is Kahn, directed by ownership, held out on the firing until after the draft so he could acquire as much cash as needed in order to facilitate the Rambis buyout. Now that he (hopefully) has, he can has the green light to fire Kurt.

Now, whether you think of this as being ethical, sensible, normal, want to slam the hiring in hindsight...whatever....this is our reality. Our status quo. It is out of Kahn's or our control, and we need to accept the fact that Rambis was in danger of staying because of his contract. Past mistakes be damned, hiring a new coach is high on any Wolves fan's wishlist.  We were in heavy danger of bringing back a coach who amassed 32 wins total in two seasons with an offense and defensive identity so out of whack that Corey Brewer was trusted to drive to the basket and pull up for contested mid-range jumpshots, while he allowed wide open three pointers on the other end. It was complete, utter, insanity. And yet some wanted to keep Donatas Montiejunas (or draft Marshon "franchise savior" Brooks) instead? That's more insane than Rambis' player development model.

With these cash considerations acquired and Rambis (hopefully?) bought out soon, the cash could make a larger impact on the Wolves' win column than any player in the entire draft could have made, including Derrick Williams. And that is not a knock on Derrick Williams. If these cash considerations were the key to letting Rambis go, then give me them seven days a week. Getting him out of town will make such a positive impact on the team that it makes the idea of taking a flyer on some mediocre #20 pick everyone overrates (BUT GRANGER WAS PICKED AROUND THERE ONCEOMGOMGZOMG!!) who would play 4 minutes a game next year an hilarious afterthought. Would you have rather kept Montiejunas or fired Rambis? Be rational and focus on the on court product rather than bitterness of the Rambis system/hiring/whatever. Kahn was able to maintain the #2 prospect in the draft while getting rid of Flynn, and picking up Brad Miller's insured contract and anywhere between 3-4 additional draft picks, and they still ended up with Malcolm Lee and Ngombo (although not for long) in the end. And Rambis is all but gone....and yet, what is the problem, here?

3. Malcolm Lee and Tanguy Ngombo

What impresses me about this draft is that the Wolves didn't pull a Lazar Hayward and take Malcolm at #20. Instead they bumped back to the proper position and took him at #43 while picking up a cache' of goodies. The #20 pick netted the Wolves more than what Miami got for Michael Beasley. Malcolm is a solid prospect coming from a great program and many say he is a 2nd round steal. However, if history suggests anything, the Wolves won't carry more than 13 players on the roster. We have 14 guaranteed contracts as of today. The reality is, unless consolidation occurs, it might be tough for Malcolm to make the team. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't. So, let's not get our hopes up (but Manu, Monta and Arenas were 2nd rounders once!!!!!!!!!).

Not much is known about Ngombo. It seems unlikely he will ever even come close to playing in the NBA. It wouldn't shock anyone I'm sure if he were never heard from again. UPDATE: In fact, a report surfaced today that he has been busted for lying about his age and he is actually tuning 27 in a couple of weeks!  Could this mean we lose his rights? More on this as it comes....

If anyone can properly name and spell all of our Eurocanish stashes overseas I will perhaps provide a treat.

4. What it all means

The Wolves did a great job of amassing talent and maximizing the value of their assets. It will be interesting to see the final parameters of the trades when they are all finalized. Sometimes added assets and surprises come out of the woodworks that were previously unreported.

At this point, though, the Wolves are headed right back toward another awful season with no 1st round pick next year to ease the losses. While the draft was handled nicely in a vacuum, in a way we needed to trade this pick in the absolute worst way to acquire a high impact player with more that 17 NBA starts (for those Gortat fans out there). And the reality is, Kahn tried vehemently to deal this pick and he failed to do it. It was priority numero uno. And he couldn't pull it off. So while Kahn handled the draft well, is the guy capable of making a trade for an established player, or will we forever be characterized by our reclamation ability while pushing back our windows of opportunity? At some point consolidation must occur, the logjam must be eased for many reasons: 1. Wins (team as it stands is still a bottom feeder). 2. Rotation and development 3. Contracts and imminent extensions.  We simply won't have enough money to retain all of our young players, plain and simple, and Kahn is running out of time. And people who will even talk to him (but that's another story).

Thoughts on the draft? Check out the forums or leave a comment. 5 days 'til lockout :(

Also, fun fact in closing: Kyrie Irving has only 5 hours of NCAA college basketball experience and was picked first overall.