After a lot of hard work, the TWolvesBlog.com Forum is up and running! I hope you like what you see, but if you have any suggestions, let me know. Also, there’s chance that there still may be a bug or two that needs to be ironed out, so if you see any errors, let me know. The purpose of this forum is for all Timberwolves fans to speak their minds and just have a good time chatting about the Wolves, the NBA, NFL, and whatever else they’d like to. The goal is fun, and I’m going to do eveything in my power to make sure this board stays that way.

Note:  This article appears on www.derok.net/wolves/

As a medical student, I’m well versed in “The Five Stages of Grief”.  It’s an important concept to understand when you’re dealing with people who are coping with extremely difficult circumstances on a daily basis.  And while the current circumstances that Timberwolves fans are facing are nowhere near as serious as cancer or some other debilitating illness, we are still struggling to come to grips with the fact we may be losing someone we love very soon.

I made it a personal point to keep this blog professional.  I didn’t want this site to turn into a Timberwolves-bashing fest like most other Wolves sites.  But after the performance the Wolves put on last night against the Magic, I’m temporarily lifting the rule.  They don’t deserve the protection - not when you get completely outclassed at home in a deadly important game.  They earned whatever verbal licks they’re going to take, and I have absolutely no qualms about treating this team like a pinata. 

I wish I could blame the new ball.  I really do.

Perhaps we could blame the officiating?  But it wasn’t overly bad.  Or, at least not noticeably so. 

Five games into the Timberwolves season, things aren’t quite as good as we’d all hoped.  Sure, the first two game were amazing, but who gets in trouble on the first day of school?  The Wolves behavior has been less than stellar over their three-game skid.  And that means it’s time for every kid’s worst fear: The note home…

Note: This article appears on The Minnesota Timberwolves Den at DeROK.Net

As incredibly pumped as I was about the Minnesota Timberwolves’ first two victories, I couldn’t shake one thought that kept rattling around in my head:  We were a Craig Smith away from being 0-2.

The Contenders :

1.  Spurs:  (Over/Under 55.5)

               My pre-season favorite to win it all this year.  You can look for at least a 60 win season from the rejuvenated potential number one squad out west.  Tim Duncan is hungry and healthy, a very deadly combination indeed.  This is a team that came within one stupid foul from making the Finals last season, even without a fully healthy Duncan.  The Over seems like a pretty safe bet for this squad to me.

The Bad:

It was the tail end of back-to-back road games, one night after an extremely hard-fought and emotional battle in Denver. So the fact that the obvioiusly fatigued Timberwolves squandered a large lead and fell to the Blazers on a three-pointer in the games final seconds, should be somewhat excusable.

Except that this season, there are no excuses.

Snake bitten.

That’s how I feel.  Luckily it wasn’t a venomous snake.  It’s not going to kill me.  I will survive and come back stronger than before. It’s like looking for water in an unknown land and turning over a rock to find a snake, rather than an oasis.  Disappointing and a little annoyance followed by a brief flash of pain. Don’t worry, it won’t slow me down too much.