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Minnesota Timberwolves Daily News
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Written by SG
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Thursday, 01 January 2009 01:53 |
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For die-hard Wolves fans--and by now, there are no other kind--the most disheartening thing about Tuesday night's historic collapse in Dallas was how nonsensical it seemed in the greater context of the future course of the franchise. When Kevin McHale took over the coaching reins from Randy Wittman, he stated that he "likes this team," and whatever else one might have felt about the ex-hero of the Celtics and the Iron Range, there was a reasonable expectation was that he would at least groom the youngsters upon whom he staked his the shreds of his reputation in the wake of the grotesque mishanding of the Kevin Garnett era. But that has not happened.
You can safely presume that Tuesday's wild scenes at American Airlines Center -- who could have imagined a scenario in which Kevin McHale would be coaching against Casey when the season started? -- were sweeter for the winning coach than he chose to say.
"Fate works in weird ways," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said on Casey's behalf...
Tracked down later in the Mavs' locker room, Casey said: "I'm happy, sure. But I'm really happier for our guys to be able to come all the way back and get a win like this."
A couple of those players, mind you, did quietly confess that Casey thanked them heartily for the rally.
According to a report from life & style Weekly, "It's official Khloe Kardashian has a new Man!"
The report claims, "Khloe Kardashian has scored a basketball player boyfriend! Life & Style has learned exclusively that she’s dating Minnesota Timberwolves guard Rashad McCants. Reggie Bush, who dates Khloe’s big sis Kim, introduced the couple, both 24, in the fall."
“They’re getting serious,” says an insider close to Khloe. “Rashad knows that the Kardashians are incredibly close; if you date one member, you basically date them all. But he’s not worried — he loves Khloe and can’t wait to get to know the whole family better!”
Love's learning curve has been steep; a determined rebounder so far (7.8 per game), he has struggled to get his shots, has blown numerous putbacks and is averaging 7.8 points on 39.9 percent shooting in 22.8 minutes, mostly in reserve. Many fans already have declared McHale's draft-day deal a disaster. Others are leaning that way, seeing it as a bookend gaffe with the 2006 decision to draft Brandon Roy -- and immediately swap him for Randy Foye.
"Anybody who looks at it that way, that just shows how immature they are,'' Foye said. He is lugging around the burden of not being Roy for a third season now, so he knows what Love might face. "In his own way, O.J. Mayo is a great player, and in his own way, Kevin Love is a great player. ... They run a lot of stuff for [Mayo]. Just like any go-to guy in the NBA. He gets a lot of shots, he makes a lot of shots.''
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Written by SG
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Wednesday, 31 December 2008 09:03 |
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Chad Hartman/KFAN had Britt Robson on air with him yesterday afternoon. Click here to listen to the interview.
Some of the highlights:
Robson on O.J. Mayo:
Said he was a little let down because of all the hype, but that he's a "heck of a player" and could be a cornerstone player.
On Kevin Love:
His value isn't going to be any lower than it is now
On the Love/Mayo trade:
From having seen the two play, Robson said that even the biggest Love apologist could not justify the deal the way it is now
On Kevin McHale as coach:
He thought that what would happen is that McHale would encourage and push the players he drafted/chose to develop. He did not think that Kevin Ollie would be getting Sebastian Telfair's minutes
On the team and seeming absence of a plan:
Went from a team with a glut of swingmen to a team with a glut of power forwards.
If it's going to be Jefferson and Love, they need to play together and he's astounded at how little this has happened.
Robson said that the team needs to show the remaining fans "here is the plan" or they need to show them wins. They can't continue to show them losses without a plan.
If you have a young team and you're admittedly building, clearing cap space, and have multiple draft picks, you have to figure out who you want to keep and what your young players are capable of. If you're leaving them on the bench for Kevin Ollie, Brian Cardinal, and Mark Madsen, it's "literally illogical" according to Robson.
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Written by SG
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Wednesday, 31 December 2008 09:01 |
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The Timberwolves don't rate above a holiday party these days, apparently, since that was the excuse two different people gave for not taking up Barry on his offer. He finally presented his freebies to the doorman at the team hotel, but a few days after the game his phone mysteriously went out of service and it's not clear if the guy actually went.
He played with a noticeable calm and exhibited better decision making, converting those offensive boards and possessions into points from the line where he scored 5 of the Wolves’ 8 total points in a second quarter to be forgotten. Whether his play to that point warranted the decision or not, McHale put his full confidence in the rookie, playing Love the entire 4th quarter and even running the offense through him for 20-footers, reverse layins and jump hooks. Shots that would have made them wince weeks ago were encouraged by a raucous crowd. Finishing with 17 and 7, Love may not be the messiah Mayo is, but 12,000 people exited the building believing in him a lot more than they did upon entry.
So what do we make of this? The story goes that Memphis initiated the trade and that the Wolves initially balked. It was the inclusion of Miller and his outside shot, they say, plus the benefit of added salary cap room that made the deal happen. But unless we think that Miller, now 28, will be a major contributor in however many years it takes this club to be a playoff contender, or that the Wolves will be able to land a significant free agent with all of that cap room (not typically a strong suit up here on the tundra), I think we have to see the trade as, essentially, a swap of Mayo for Love.
Mike Miller accompanied the team to Dallas, but missed his fifth consecutive game because of that sprained right ankle he re-injured 10 days before.
McHale said Miller came to Dallas so he could continue his conditioning work and be with his teammates as they continued to install new schemes McHale added at the team's pre-game walk through.
Troy Young/Timberwolves.com writes a piece on Al Jefferson.
Carlisle and McHale are just two of a half-dozen NBA coaches to play for the Celtics' 1986 championship team. Danny Ainge, Larry Bird, Dennis Johnson and Sam Vincent also walked the sideline at some point, though McHale said that isn't a big surprise considering the intellects on those Celtics teams, which won a pair of NBA titles in the '80s.
"That was a team that had a bunch of guys that really knew how to play basketball," McHale said. "Later on in my career, when you had new guys come in, you realized how blessed you really were. Because you'd say, 'Hey, let's change this coverage,' and they'd look at you like, 'What?' And you'd say, 'Oh, boy.' "
The Timberwolves, Kings and Thunder all have a few intriguing pieces to build around, but how do you convert young teams playing as badly as they are into winning organizations? It's going to come down to making some shrewd trades and surrounding young talents like Durant, Minnesota's Al Jefferson and Sacramento's Spencer Hawes with players who can help them turn the corner sooner than later. Those revamps are impossible to predict: Did anybody forecast the Celtics' summer of 2007?
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Written by SG
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Wednesday, 31 December 2008 08:45 |
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Wolves record: 6-25
Never before in their mostly ignominious 20-season history has a Wolves team blown a lead as big as the 29-point one they gave away in the final 22 minutes. Leading 70-41 with 94 seconds gone in the second half, the Wolves allowed Dallas both a finishing 66-30 run and the biggest comeback in its history.
They did so on a night when former Wolves coach Dwane Casey brought the Mavericks home victorious just down the sideline from Kevin McHale -- who hired and fired him -- after Dallas coach Rick Carlisle was ejected in the second quarter.
Wolves coach Kevin McHale working one end of the arena, Mavs assistant Dwane Casey, the former Timberwolves coach whom McHale hired and fired, working the other.
The Wolves led 47-32 when Carlisle was ejected and Casey took over with 6:30 left in the first half.
Jefferson scored 21 points, Ryan Gomes added 19 and Randy Foye had 18 for the Timberwolves, who blew the largest lead in franchise history.
The Timberwolves made just 14 of 38 shots and turned the ball over nine times after halftime after shooting 61 percent in the first half.
Minnesota's 62-40 halftime lead was no fluke; the Wolves outran Dallas (a 14-6 fast-break advantage), outshot their hosts (a 61-to-37 percent margin from the field), and especially outworked the Mavs, at one point piling up a 26-2 lead on points in the paint. Even the defense was shockingly effective, with the Wolves knocking away seven steals to Dallas' one.
"We had the game in hand," McHale said, but it just wasn't true.
Once the Wolves opened the second half by adding seven more points to their lead, Dallas went off like a fire alarm in a library, scoring 22 of the game's next 24 points. Terry, 2 for 8 from the field in the first half, suddenly found his stroke, and he scored 24 of his game-high 29 points after halftime.
Why didn’t Kevin McHale try to settle his team after the Mavs started back from those 29 points first with a 21-2 run?
He said he probably should have “burned” a few more, but said he was trying to get his team to play with more “pace” and “flow,” like they had demonstrated in the opening 25-plus minutes.
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Written by SG
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Tuesday, 30 December 2008 05:17 |
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Click here for the forum's thread for tonight's game at Dallas
Game previews:
Reporters posed several questions to Mayo and Love about their first NBA meeting and the fallout from their draft-day swap, but both played it down.
"Get it out the way,'' Love said. "It's overrated but it's going to be there. I heard some of the screams tonight - 'We want Mayo, we want the juice' - but it is what it is.''
McHale, asked if he had any reaction to Clippers (and former Wolves) guard Ricky Davis getting a five-game suspension for violating the NBA's drug policy: “Aspirin.”
3. Mike Miller, Minnesota Timberwolves
Miller isn't on this list as a pox against his game. The former Rookie of the Year and Sixth Man Award winner continues to perform at a high level and act as a consummate professional. As a part of the deal that sent budding superstar O.J. Mayo from Minnesota to Memphis on Draft Day, though, most Timberwolves fans will tell you that they'd rather still see Miller launching parabolas as a Grizzly if they could root for the inside-outside punch of Al Jefferson and Mayo for years to come.
Those few Wolves apologists still to be found locally contend trading Mayo was wise, since it was clear he didn't want to play in Minnesota. The supporting evidence offered was that Mayo declined to work out for the team.
Mayo was asked if that was a proper read on his situation.
"No, not at all," he said. "It was what my agent thought was best for me. Mr. [Leon] Rose has been around this a long time. I just went with what he felt."
Tonight’s game marks a turning point in the schedule for the Wolves, whose next 10 games are against opponents with a combined winning percentage of .392, including seven with losing records.
The best bid on an Internet ticket service for $800 seats for Monday's Timberwolves-Memphis game at Target Center was $65.
Crazy trade rumor: Rashad McCants and Sebastian Telfair of the Timberwolves to the Knicks for former Wolf Stephon Marbury.
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Written by SG
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Tuesday, 30 December 2008 03:50 |
Wolves record: 6-24
Box Score
Ronald Tillery/Memphis Commercial Appeal game recap
Kevin Love challenged O.J. Mayo in the first professional meeting of two collegiate rivals swapped for each other at midnight on NBA draft night last summer, and Mayo answered.
But the Timberwolves and Al Jefferson ultimately prevailed, winning 108-98 in overtime on a Monday night when the home team set a club record with one made field goal in the second quarter, made only one of 14 three-point attempts and still somehow won.
They did so thanks to Jefferson's season-high 38 points, which included seven points during an overtime in which the Wolves outscored Memphis 19-9.
Mayo had 23 points and Kyle Lowry finished with a career-high 12 assists, but Memphis lost its second consecutive overtime game and sixth in its last seven overall.
Mayo tied it at 89 with 27.6 seconds left and Minnesota's Randy Foye missed a last-second jumper that would've won it in regulation.
The Wolves trailed by eight in the fourth quarter, but led by Jefferson and rookie Kevin Love, went on a 14-4 run to reclaim the lead. Four other Grizzlies finished in double figures.
Jefferson helped the Wolves rebound from a dismal second quarter and win at home for the first time since Nov. 19.
Kevin Love, who was acquired with Mike Miller in the draft-night trade for Mayo, added 17 points for Minnesota on a night when it set a franchise record by connecting on just one second-quarter field goal in 16 attempts.
The story of the game, though, was Jefferson, who topped his previous season-high of 34 points on Dec. 20 against Houston and matched his season-high for minutes played with 47, including the entire second half and all but the last 10.7 seconds of overtime.
Memphis received a balanced offensive attack from its starting five. Rudy Gay, Marc Gasol and Kyle Lowry joined Mayo with double-figure scoring performances. On the other side, Sebastian Telfair, who finished with nine points, led the Wolves bench along with Love. Kevin Ollie hit crucial free throws down the stretch for a 6-for-7 shooting night at the line and 14 points for the game.
Despite the dreadful second quarter, Minnesota shot 49.4 percent from the field in the game. The Wolves also reached the charity stripe 37 times and won the battle of second chance points. The third time was a charm for Minnesota in overtime games with losses to San Antonio and Golden State earlier this year.
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Written by SG
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Monday, 29 December 2008 22:46 |
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HoopsAddict hosts the latest edition of the Carnival of the NBA. This edition is a roundup of the biggest hoops stories of 2008.
Jonah Ballow/Timberwolves site posts shootaround audio from O.J. Mayo that includes the player discussing the draft day trade that sent him to Memphis and his thoughts on tonight's game.
Mike Miller will be a game-time decision for the Wolves tonight when his former Memphis Grizzlies team visits Target Center.
Coach Kevin McHale said after the morning shootaround that Miller’s sprained right ankle is still sore and the team doesn’t want to take chances with its starting shooting guard, who has suffered two such injuries this month.
The new coach now has ten games under his belt, enough time to demonstrate where his loyalties seem to lie with respect to player rotations. Injuries to Mike Miller and earlier Corey Brewer have of course affected playing time for others. Nevertheless, even with those kinds of mitigating factors, it is clear that thus far the minute-winners on the coaching change have been Craig Smith, McCants, and Kevin Ollie, with slight bump ups for Wittman starters Jefferson, Foye and Gomes. Minute-losers under McHale have been Jason Collins, certainly, who hasn't gotten off the bench, rookie Kevin Love, and Bassy Telfair.
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Written by SG
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Monday, 29 December 2008 02:59 |
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Click here for the forum's thread for tonight's game against Memphis
Game previews:
Early leader in the clubhouse: Memphis, by a mile. It's only two months in, but Mayo is the leading scorer among rookies with a 20.1-point average in 37.9 minutes while he has become, along with Rudy Gay, the focus of the Grizzlies offense. Along with Chicago's Derrick Rose, Mayo is the early favorite for NBA Rookie of the Year.
Love said he and Mayo go way back, from seventh grade to last season, when he was at UCLA and Mayo at Southern California.
"It's like a friendly rivalry," Love said. "It always has been. It will continue to be that way, too. We've always fought throughout junior high, high school, AAU ball. We've always played each other, and our matchups were always good games. I would say it's pretty friendly. We're not the best friends in the world, but we're friendly."
Mayo said he's looking forward to seeing Love during tonight's warm-ups, and he sees a bright future for his longtime rival, slow start and all.
"Different players adjust differently," Mayo said. "Kevin has been a great player at every level. He's proven that he can play. Maybe it takes some players more time than others, but I believe he'll develop into a fine player in the NBA."
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Written by SG
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Sunday, 28 December 2008 07:19 |
Rookie forward Kevin Love had another quiet game for the Wolves, grabbing 10 rebounds but scoring just five points on 2-of-4 shooting in more than 20 minutes.
Love did turn in one highlight-reel play, however, dunking over Howard and hitting the ensuing free throw to pull Minnesota into a 50-50 tie with 1:07 left in the first half.
"That felt good," Love said. "I needed that and other things as well. I wasn't really on him. It was more to the side of him, but I'll take it."
Next up for Love is a Monday night date with the Memphis Grizzlies and O.J. Mayo, the player the Wolves traded away in a draft-night deal for Love and Miller.
While a third of a rookie season does not make an NBA career, the Love-Mayo get-together leaves a lot to be desired. One guy (Mayo) is constantly in the first sentence of early Rookie of the Year narratives, while the other (Love) is struggling to become a footnote.
Mayo leads all rookies in scoring, and granted he's been afforded more of an opportunity in Memphis. Still, one has to wonder what sense it would have made for the Griz to keep Love, who last Tuesday made a free throw in a one-point, 15-minute performance that ended his two-game scoreless streak.
Love is averaging 7.8 points on 38.7 percent shooting, 7.8 rebounds and has had the problem scouts worried about when he entered the draft: Measured at less than 6-8 barefoot, he has gotten his shot blocked repeatedly near the basket by everyone from big centers to athletic guards.
McHale on the emergence of McCants, who has been putting in extra time after practice and has led the Wolves in scoring off the bench the past two nights with 23 and 21 points, respectively: "That's the way life is. If you want your putting stroke to get better, I suggest you work on your putter, not your driver. If you want your marriage to get better I suggest you work on your marriage, not your golf game. It all depends on what you work on."
Technically, the team last won back-to-back on opening night - because last season wrapped with a victory over Milwaukee. As for consecutive victories in one season, Minnesota won two in a row five times last year, the last coming April 11-12 at Orlando and Memphis. This is getting ahead of ourselves, but the Wolves last won three in a row Jan 12-15, 2007.
That was Timberwolf Mike Miller at home in South Dakota for Christmas watching cousin Jade Miller play in a freshman basketball game for the Mitchell Kernels.
The Wolves appear to be playing with more organization and purpose under Kevin McHale, but that didn't stop their losing streak from reaching 13 with Tuesday's 99-93 loss at San Antonio. The streak ended with Friday's 120-107 victory at New York, sparked by Rashad McCants' seven threes. Back home Saturday, the Wolves led Orlando at halftime but lost by 24.
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Written by SG
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Sunday, 28 December 2008 06:56 |
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Wolves record: 5-24
One night after ending a 13-game losing streak, the Wolves spotted the Orlando Magic a 17-2 lead and were outscored 39-20 in the fourth quarter of a 118-94 loss at Target Center.
Coach Kevin McHale, 1-9 since replacing the fired Randy Wittman, summed up his team's night in one sentence: "We started off with low energy in the first and ended up with low energy in the fourth."
The Wolves (5-24) got in late after Friday night's 120-107 win at New York and were playing the second of back-to-back games, but center Al Jefferson said that was no excuse.
Ahead at halftime and tied early in the fourth quarter, Minnesota fizzled out and lost for the eighth time in as many chances this season playing the tail end of back-to-backs. The Wolves have lost 14 of their past 15.McHale before the game called the Timberwolves a "resilient group" and said that even after beating the Knicks he didn't see much change in the players' faces.
Saturday, the Wolves had the chance to win two in a row for the first time since April. And it slipped away.
Back-to-back three-pointers by Rashad McCants and Rodney Carney tied the score 82-82 with 10:16 to play. But from there Minnesota made only four more field goals, and only one in the final 4:25.
Rashad McCants scored 21 points for Minnesota, which ended a 13-game losing streak Friday in New York. Al Jefferson had 16 points and Ryan Gomes 14 for the Timberwolves, who have lost nine straight at home...
Minnesota forward Mike Miller missed his third straight game with a sprained right ankle. ... Orlando, which beat Minnesota 100-89 Dec. 3, swept the season series for the first time since 1997-98.
Good for Rashad McCants to come back with a 21-point night after going off for 23 against the Knicks. And Kevin Love’s 10 rebounds - four offensive - were a nice touch. He leads all rookies with 7.7 RPG and his 3.4 ORPG ranks seventh in the whole league.
--To the surprise and delight of the crowd, Mark Madsen checked into the game at 6:40 left in the first quarter. He scored his first points of the season on a goaltending by Dwight Howard.
--After the game, coach Kevin McHale said he brought Madsen and Brian Cardinal into the game early to provide energy off the bench after a lethargic start by the Wolves.
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