AFP PHOTO / IAN KINGTON (Photo credit should read IAN KINGTON/AFP/Getty Images) (AFP/Getty Images)

The Wolves won their first pre-season game, beating the Lakers in London 111 - 92.  Overall we looked pretty good, and the team is clearly much more energetic, athletic, interesting, and less sucktastic than seasons past.  There's potential for a solid season here folks.  At least, something much more than the cesspool we've been wading through the last 3 years.  I know, I know... it's pre-season and Kobe only played 6 minutes.  Still, baby steps.

Rather than regurgitate everything that's already been posted about this game, I'm just going to link to the game thread in the TWolves Blog Forums, where there is a huge wealth of analysis, discussion, and game recappage going on.  The discussion can be found HERE.

Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune's game news and notes can be found HERE.

In a surprising turn of events, the Minnesota Timberwolves have announced a logo change.  Normally major changes to team properties, such as logo adjustments need to be made months in advance before the start of the season.  However, the Timberwolves were apparently able to make these changes suddenly and quietly, due to the fact that this logo update falls under the guidelines of a "color change" vs. an outright logo change.  It has also been reported that the Wolves will be returning to their original jerseys that they wore from 1989-90 to 1994-95.  Again, the fact that the Wolves are not introducing anything "new" has allowed them to make these changes on such short notice.

The initial plans for this season were to incorporate a slight alteration to the team's current jersey, which was initially released for the start of the 2008-09 season.  However, the overall perception among fans regarding Minnesota's recent jersey and logo alterations has been less than ecstatic.  In an attempt to show that they are listening to the fans and making strides to change the direction of the team, Wolves leadership worked quickly and quietly to secure permission from the league for the late-breaking logo and jersey change. The finished logo products are below.  Images of the new jerseys have not been released, but by all accounts they will look identical to the team's original jersey, except for updated logos on the shorts.

In case you missed it, and I wouldn't blame you one bit, the Wolves PR machine has been on quite a roll lately.  Yesterday, they took out a full-page ad in the Star Tribune, to tell the world what we already know.  Namely, the ad basically stated the Wolves stink and we won't be contending for a title this season. (Yay?)  But we have "potential" and blah blah blah and just trust us because things will work out.

First off, who reads newspapers these days?  Or maybe the organization was banking on that fact...

Here's a My Fox 9.com reaction:

The Minnesota Timberwolves published a full-page ad in the back of Monday’s Star Tribune, touting the athleticism and potential of newcomers while dishing out some brutal honesty – the team likely won’t be contenders again in 2010-11.

The ad is a “long-winded” letter to fans, pledging transparency throughout the season with regard to team strategy and operations – a bit of a State of the Timberwolves address.

I've taken the liberty to repost the letter here in the TWB Forums.  You can see it in it's entirety HERE.

And then today, not to be outdone by the man writing the checks, Wolves President of Basketball Operations David Kahn wrote an EVEN LONGER-winded letter to any remaining Wolves fans out there.  This is far too long to repost on the front page. so you can also find it in the TWB Forums HERE.

Good afternoon everyone and a solid apology for not providing any content for awhile now. It is that time of year when it could be too early to do a season preview series due to the roster not being finalized, and yet, there is a big lull in significant NBA/Wolves news. Wolves fans, as usual, are still holding onto hope that another trade or two will be made to net us a big name, but it appears not to be. It seems we will head into the season with yet another odd series of log jams.

We may do some team USA coverage if people would like to see it. If not, oh well. Anyhow, on to some "updates."

Stiemsma Waived

Per Zgoda, some dude who has been on our roster for about 6 months was waived today. I guess this monster, known in some circles as Greg Stiemsma, was touted by some as being the real deal, and had a sure-fire future in the NBA. To those who thought that, please see photo above. I'm sure it was his career college stats of 2.7 points and 2.3 rebounds that suggests this. To his credit, he was the D-League Defensive player of the year, which I suppose was good enough reason to give him a look. Quick show of hands who actually knew this guy was on our roster. Thank you.

You know what's more newsworthy than Greg Steimsma being waived today? The fact that next year, on this very day, at 12:13:14 PM, the date will be 9/10/11 12:13:14. This is neat and very significant.

Joe Alexander also lives(?) and Team in Town

Still between jobs, I made an afternoon trip to Target Center to shoot some airballs hoops today. Hearing thumping and grunting from the Wolves facility I made a jaunt down there to see what appeared to be most of the team hard at work. This was encouraging. However, I did see who I believed to be Joe Alexander still working out with the team (I can't fully verify, but a caucasian swing man with curly hair was in attendance). From what I could see he looked good. Nice first step and a decent off-balance jumper. If it was indeed him, it could be reasonable to expect him to be on our training camp roster and perhaps offered a roster spot. Logjam implications aside, I for one am a huge fan of Kahn adding these "2nd chance" guys for cheap. I recall during the McHale regime many of us always clamoring for these types of low-risk-moderate reward signings. It is never a bad thing to give a recent top 10 pick a solid look.

Brewer's Goat Lives

In other team related news, breaking news of Brewer's goat struck news wires today.

One question jumped to the forefront of my brain when sitting across from Corey Brewer at the Green Mill restaurant in Willmar, Minnesota. 

"Dude, do you really have a goat?" 

Of course, this inquiry was generated from Brewer'stwitter status in mid July that stated, "I'm at home and my pet goat keeps trying to go in the road." 

Brewer smiled and quickly replied to my question, "Oh yeah."

The actual piece is a good one though about Brewer from Wolves writer Jonah. Keep up the good work as always, Mr. Ballow. And per the article please do support your local Green Mill Restaurants. On that note, the following photo is fantastic:

Team USA Readies for Lithuania

Team USA and the Lord Our God/Rich Man's Carmelo Anthony Kevin Love will take on undefeated Lithuania tomorrow afternoon. The game will air on the relevant network ESPN Classic at 11am tomorrow. Those of us who do not have that network can catch a re-air on ESPN 2 at 12:30AM tomorrow/Sunday. In other news, the championship game will be played on the Home and Garden Channel, and re-aired on E! in Mid-December.

I want to pause and pose a question here. Despite a continuous Wolves-fan mass-masturbation to Kevin Love's efficiency stats he continues to not get significant playing time on team USA. He also didn't crack 30 minutes for us last year which most thought was odd. Why do people think this is? Could there be some unknown reason behind this? Injury concerns? Conditioning issues? One would expect him to play heavy minutes next year but it could be quite difficult with the addition of Beasley and Pekovic (who I can't wait to catch in action). Furthermore, Webster, Brewer and Johnson will probably take the majority of the PT at the 3 spot, making Beasley a primary 4, and in need of heavy minutes, it would seem. Is it just me or could Love face a similar problem this year? Food and discussion point for thought.

NBA 2K11 Awesomeness

For the video-game playing demographic, I would encourage a follow of Ronnie2K. The game appears to be a sure bet with the addition of Michael Jordan and new features being revealed daily. If they don't release yet another bug-filled game with a patch to fix the problems 6 months later, this game could be the best sports game ever.

5 Burning Roster Questions Moving Forward

It was about this time last year when the Wolves added Ramon Sessions and Sasha "Terrible" Pavlovic, so we can still hold on to hope that there could be some significant roster changes yet this summer. Maybe not by way of free agency, but it's possible a few more trades are made. So here are some things to think about before training camp and the season:

1. What to do with Kosta Koufos?

I believe I saw him working out with the team today, which could suggest we keep him in the end. However, a pre-gag order Kahn told the media he would seek a trade.

2. Will Telfair stay on the team?

With Flynn out, will we keep Bassy? Or move him and sign a grizzled veteran to be our 3rd guard?

3. Will we balance the roster?

As touched on above, the Wolves have another typical log-jam problem. Webster, Johnson, Brewer, Beasley, Love, Pek, Darko (will get PF minutes) and maybe Hayward will all be fighting for/given minutes at the 3 and 4 (depending on the player of course). While minutes at the 2 and 5 are of course available as well, all of those guys should be getting 24+ minutes a night with the exception of Hayward. Some 30+. It could be tough to give those guys big minutes. Yet, it seems unlikely any of those guy are moved. What to do here? Who is the odd man out? Dare I say Brewer?

4. Where is the Kahn Man?

He was silenced by the Wolves after a slew of embarrassing media incidents that we have all re-hashed. Personally I thought it was all hilarious. Part of me also misses his quotes, which are always worthy of an extended afternoon chuckle. Let's hope we hear from him soon.

5. Will we use our cap space?

With the Al trade opening up some more space, could we absorb the contract of a talented player? History suggests most major trades in the NBA are all but done until the trading deadline, so what do you think the space will be used for? Re-signing guys, or adding talent to the roster before next year?

That wraps this update. Again, sorry for the lack of activity of late. We encourage all to keep active in the forums. I also want to add we always encourage guest posting for our forum members/anyone; just reach out to us!

Enjoy your weekend.

Early word around NBA is Nuggets will try to trade Carmelo to 1 of 3 teams: Wolves, Kings, Nets. In other words, careful what you wish for.

Would Melo stick with the Wolves if the Nuggets did a 3 year sign and trade to give him that $65 million he wants?  He's the alpha leader that we still desperately need.

We give the Nuggets whatever. Brewer + Webster? + Telfair (to match salary) + Lots and lots of future draft picks?  Not sure what else they would really want.  I assume we wouldn't move Love/Rubio.  I also assume there are a lot of guys on our team they wouldn't even want.  Not sure if I'd move Wesley Johnson, but maybe if we knew Carmelo was going to stay with us for the long haul, and wasn't a one year rental.

Maybe he'd actually want to stay with us, since we (presumably) wouldn't be trading away the few good players we actually have?  Unfortunately, the Kings and Nyets can both offer more attractive talent packages, but we can give better/more draft picks.

What do you guys think?

In case you missed it last night, Team USA beat Spain 86-85 in a warm-up game for the World Championships.

Here's all the stats: Boxscore.

Kevin Love didn't play, because he was apparently feeling some lingering affects from hitting his head on the floor the night before.  Doesn't sound like it's anything serious though.

Ricky Rubio, on the other hand, played pretty well.  In 21 minutes, he had 7 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 4 steals.  He had some spectacular passes and played very good defense.  Most importantly from this post, check out these quotes from an AP writer via Yahoo:

“He’s an amazing defender, that’s one thing that stood out to me is how well he pressured the ball and disrupted our offense,” said Durant, who led the game with 25 points. “He’s flashy, he’s crafty as well and the passes he did tonight were kind of amazing.”

***

Rubio has said he will likely move to the NBA after playing one more season at Barcelona, with the Minnesota Timberwolves having taken him with their 2009 first-round pick.

As part of the relationship, Panini will hold exclusive rights to include Johnson’s autograph in 2010-11 Panini Basketball products.  In addition, Panini may include Johnson’s image on Panini packaging and will utilize Johnson in promotional appearances.

Johnson, a Forward at Syracuse decided to forgo his final year of college eligibility after being named Big East Player of the Year in 2010 as well as a First Team AP All American. Johnson’s first NBA cards will be included in Panini’s 2010 NBA Prestige product, set to arrive in stores at the end of September.  The collection will include cards from other top rookie draft picks, including Washington Wizards’ number one draft pick, John Wall; Philadelphia 76ers, Evan Turner; New Jersey Nets, Derrick Favors; and Sacramento Kings, DeMarcus Cousins.

“We are excited to add Wesley Johnson as an exclusive Panini athlete, Wesley excited Syracuse fans in college, we expect him to do the same for the Timberwolves fans and we look forward to introducing Wesley to NBA trading card collectors,” said Scott Prusha, Director of Marketing for Panini America.

In something semi-related, but perhaps not at all, does it also seem to you as if Wes Johnson's eye are pointed in two different directions in the photo above?  In this picture it's almost as if each eye is looking to the side, except opposite sides. That's not something I've noticed about him in the past, but maybe I was just too distracted by his incredible smile.

Nope.  Here's an extremely rare, non-smiley Wes Johnson photo and I don't see any signs of strabismus, amblyopia, or any other ocular dysfunction.  That's fairly reassuring, because I would think something like mis-aligned eyes would totally throw off your jumper.  Then again, it worked for T-Mac.

And anyway, even if Wes Johnson did have slightly googley eyes, he's still a pretty good-looking guy from my completely hetero point of view.  I mean, things could certainly be worse...

Not too much happening on a daily basis in the world of the Minnesota Timberwolves these days.  We got the new uniforms yesterday.  Not earth-shattering, but clearly better than they were before.  The terrible green trees and the whacked out neckline had to go.  Now it would be cool if we could get some alternate black ones, or something.

But here's our pre-season schedule, as its about the only news to update this morning.  8 games, only 2 of which are at Target Center.  We play in London and Paris.  Not sure why Stern would want to subject foreigners to our team, as foreigners in Minnesota don't even want to watch the Wolves play.

Check it out all 14 fans anyone that cares:

 Not sure who player "Abcabc" is... but I hope he can ball.  Perhaps a friend of Darko or Peckovic?

This can all be found HERE on the official Timberwolves website.

T-Wolves 2010-2011 NBA Schedule

The first month is certainly a doozy:

Wednesday October 27th vs Sacramento - Evans to Cousins FTW.
vs Milwaukee Bucks - We might have a chance?
at Memphis - They can lose any game.  Inconsistent.
at Miami - Gigantic 40 point loss.  Bonk has a huge bet on this.  If the T-Wolves somehow win this game by 10 points or more, he's out $1,000.  Luckily for him it's on November second instead of May second, so there's no chance we win.
at Orlando - LOSE
vs Atlanta - Let's not kid ourselves.  Lose.
at Houston
at LALakers
at Sacramento - Three road losses there.
vs NYKnicks - Might have a chance!
at Atlanta
at Charlotte - Two more road losses
vs LAClippers - They will be very improved.  And Blake Griffin!  Watch out.
vs LALakers - Hmmmm.
at Oklahoma City - They will be a top contender in the West this season.
vs San Antonio - They are never too old to beat us.  Splitter vs Pekovic and Darko = fun times.
Saturday November 27th vs Golden State - Yay, an entirely winnable game.

Well... 8 home games and 9 away.  Not terrible, although 8 of our first 12 are road games.  I predict we start off 4-13, at best.  The Wolves will be hurt by a lack of continuity and familiarity with each other going into the season.  And unfortunately for us, the Wolves need to start this season off right and win games in the beginning, instead of against bad teams tanking at the end of the year.  Those kind of wins do nothing for me, nor do they inspire me for the future.