I brainstormed several different titles for this post. All of the following probably would've sufficed:

"Get Ready for One Heck of a Season"
"Ricky Rubio Made Me Cry. Four Separate Times."
"Watch as I Overreact to a Preseason Blowout"

But instead, I went with "Why This Team is Special" -- because the culture of losing we've become so accustomed to is finally over.

Last night the Timberwolves defeated the Bucks 117-96 in their first game of the preseason. Yes, it's the preseason, but it was an impressive showing nonetheless. 

I'm going to go out on a limb here. Call me a homer. Call me naive. Call me whatever you like. But this year's T-Wolves team is going to sneak into the playoffs with a 36-30 record. I'm calling it right now. BOOK IT.

Click here to read why I'm so optimistic!

no comments

The interwebz are blowing up, and it appears to be true that the TWolves are hiring Rick Adelman.  Hoooray, a real coach 4THEWIN!

Tweets about the TWolves hiring Adelman

Kevin Love: "Houston We Have a Coach"

He's the best possible coach we could hire for the short AND long-term.  It will be great to see what a truly elite coach can finally do for a team like ours.  Let's just hope that something doesn't change and this ends up going south; as that would be monumentally disappointing.

For some pictures of our (hopefully) new coach, please click "Read More" and the jump...

no comments

 

Here is live chat to use during the draft. We can talk about how amazingly Kahn does, but more likely will be crying about another patented Twolves draft disaster. You can start chatting now, if you really want to, or wait until later. Whatever works for you.

 

 

no comments

Wolves lose their 5th straight and 11th out of 12 tonight at Target Center. Neil chats about it.

no comments

A kid in Australia threw a massive party that got out of hand. This newscaster demands an apology, and wants him to take his sunglasses off during her very important interview. Watch the results.

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

I had been here before.

Though my memory had been clouded by years of disappointment, apathy, and broken dreams, I could still faintly remember standing in this place. The electric atmosphere and pulsing energy seemed so familiar. And the man in the center of the crowd, orchestrating it all, had a face I knew almost as well as my own.

The place was the TD Banknorth Garden. The event, a regular season game between the Boston Celtics and the Orlando Magic. The man in the center, of course, was none other than Kevin Garnett. But as I sat there in front of my TV screen watching the C's improve their record to an astounding 22-3, I may as well have been seated in the lower level of the Target Center in April of 2004, watching Garnett's other "Big 3" take down the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs. Everything about this game just seemed that monumental.

Continue Reading...

no comments

A mix of photos from the career of Brian Scalabrine, set against a very fitting song.

A hilariously terrible interview from Adam Lundquist of KJEE, talking to Sam Cassell.  Asks him what he thinks about people saying how ugly he is and calling him "an alien."  One of the worst interviews I've ever seen between anyone.  This kid is clueless.

This is the flash movie created by DeROK that was played on the Target Center scoreboard during the 2004 NBA Playoffs.

The other day, the Wolves traded Lazar Hayward to Oklahoma City for two 2nd round picks and the cap relief from his modest contract. A common refrain heard after this trade was, "Great! The Wolves acquired two 2nd round picks for a player who had no spot on the roster. Great value." Or, "awesome! All Dallas was able to get for Rudy Fernandez and Corey Brewer was a single 2nd round pick!" Now, there is nothing untrue about the previous statements by any means, but to truly look at why this trade is bad, let's take a 2008 Kevin Love-sized step back and examine the forest.

Before delving too deep into a futile issue here (a freaking Lazar Hayward trade), let's spend some time chatting about a curse bestowed upon a sub-faction of Wolves fans ever since a fateful day that coincided with a major Minneapolis bridge collapsing into the Mississippi River: The Garnett trade on August 1st, 2007. I'm not sure whether it was former Wolves mastermind Kevin McHale's mindless inability to make good use of a first round pick, but ever since this day a certain chunk of Wolves fans have become, to use Woj-like hyperbole, blindly obsessed with draft picks and potential over proven NBA talent. Every first round pick, whether the Wolves own one or four, is a 'chance to add the next star.'

It is hard to really pinpoint the reason for this obsession, but it is there. As were a group of fans who, for various reasons, defended Kahn's decision to trade Al Jefferson to the Utah Jazz for two poorly positioned first round picks, Kosta Koufos and cap relief that was eventually used on Anthony Randolph. "First round picks! Potential! Kobe and Malone were drafted in the mid-first round! Randolph was once drafted higher than Jefferson and compared to Lamar Odom on a draft website! We needed to get rid of Al Jefferson to make room for Love!" (Gee, you coulda tested the market and traded him for a solid wing instead of Kosta Koufos' nose). Never-you-mind the Wolves had a coaching staff these past two years who couldn't develop a case of syphilis at a ASU sorority house, not to mention basketball talent; but the mystique and allure that these imaginary planets would align in some form of anti-apocalyptic, one in four-hundred trillion manner was too exciting for a fan-base used to the same repeatable, predictable 5.5-month run of disappointment, shaken and stirred with sub-zero temperatures and snowdrifts the size of Oliver Miller's annual Thanksgiving feast. 

MUCH MORE Below the Jump:

 

no comments