Britt Robson/On The Ball on listing Al Jefferson as one of the runners-up for the Most Improved Player award:

The Jefferson shout-out is not a homer call; "Big Al" assumed team leadership, played out of position all season and still finished tied for second in double-doubles.

 

  

From Charley Walters/Pioneer Press:

Timberwolves and Lynx owner Glen Taylor, on his WNBA team: "We've got some high-potential young ladies there; we're kind of like the men." 

 

 

From Tim Hoffarth/LA Daily News:

How many seasons does Kevin Love get of bad vibration minutes with the T-Wolves, trying to live down the Mark Madsen comparisons? Or do the Midwest farmer's daughters really make you feel all right even if the fans are booing you? Wouldn't it be nice if Ben Howland could just convince him to stick it out?

The Minnesota Timberwolves will have a 13.8 percent chance of getting the first pick in the NBA draft this summer. That’s 138 pingpong balls with their name on it out of a pool of 1,000. The lottery will be held May 20.

 

The league held a blind draw Friday to break a tie between Minnesota and Memphis because they finished with the same 22-60 record. The Wolves won, so they’ll have a whopping one more ball in the hopper than the Grizzlies

 

 

 

From Jerry Zgoda and Judd Zulgad/Star Tribune:

Friday's "luck" only will be relevant if the Wolves don't get lucky in the May 20 draft lottery and earn one of the first three picks allotted that day. Depending upon the lottery results, they can select no worse than sixth in the draft. The Wolves never have improved their draft position in the lottery.

 

  

 

From Pioneer Press:

If both the Wolves and Grizzlies fail to get one of the top three picks in the lottery, then because of the tiebreaker, Minnesota would pick ahead of Memphis.

 

The Wolves' highest draft pick was third in 1992, when they took Christian Laettner. Minnesota actually had the worst record in the league in the 1991-92 season but got just the third pick through the lottery. Shaquille O'Neal and Alonzo Mourning were the top two selections in the 1992 draft.

 

 

   

Along with their first-round selection, the Timberwolves will also have their own second-round pick along with a second-round pick acquired from the Miami Heat in a trade prior to the start of the season. The order of selection in the second round cannot be determined until after the Draft Lottery.

 

 

Ryan at Hoops Addict compiled an extensive list of playoff predictions from various hoops writers and bloggers.

 

 

 

From Charley Walters/Pioneer Press:

After the Timberwolves' season finale victory over Milwaukee on Wednesday night, the Wolves' Al Jefferson opened his Cadillac Escalade, left unlocked with other players' cars inside Target Center, to find it loaded with plastic foam packing peanuts. No word on the prankster. 

 

 

 

From Stop-n-Pop/Canis Hoopus: Kevin McHale is a Colossal Clown 

 

 

 

From Jonathan Kaminsky & Benjamin Polk/City Pages:

Still, my sense is that Foye has better potential than McCants. For one thing, though he does seem a little stubborn at times, he doesn't really display Shaddy's petulance. I could easily see that stubbornness and pride morph into a kind of leadership as it has for Lord Chauncey (for the record, Foye mentioned after the game that Mr. Billups is one of the players he loves to watch and learn from--a good sign, I think) And whereas Foye shows signs of climbing the steep learning curve of running a team (and Wittman made the good point that, after his injury, Foye was playing major catch-up in learning the offense), I'm not sure Rashad is ever going to get much better than he is right now. Will McCants ever be ok with the sixth-man tag the team seems intent on pegging on him? I'd be surprised.

 

 

 

From Jerry Zgoda and Judd Zulgad/Star Tribune:

Gregg Swedberg, vice president of programming for Clear Channel Minneapolis, confirmed Friday that his company is in the "initial discussion period" with the Wolves about putting the team's games on FM talk-station KTLK (100.3) in 2008-09.

 

"It would be the best signal they've been on in terms of availability to hear it," Swedberg said. "We would have to work some money issues out and figure out clearance. We've discussed it but I would say it's not imminent."

 

 

 

From Devin Henry/Minnesota Daily:

Fred Hoiberg has been through a lot in his days - NBA drafts, zone defenses and a heart condition that threatened his life.

 

The Minnesota Timberwolves assistant general manager and former NBA player spoke on campus Thursday night, discussing his career and the health problems that ended it.

 

 

 

According to Chad Hartman and Doogie at KFAN, the Wolves won the tiebreaker with Memphis for the NBA draft lottery. 

 

 

From Tom Ziller/Fanhouse:

The result will have no real bearing on the lottery proceedings on May 20 -- Minnesota and Memphis, for example, will split the balls available for the #3 and #4 teams. If it's an odd number, the coin flip winner will take the extra one. But the coin flip does have serious import with regards to draft order. A Minnesota coin flip win means Minnesota picks ahead of Memphis, unless Memphis vaults into the Top 3 by way of lottery win. It also means the lowest Minnesota could pick would be #6, while Memphis could fall as low as #7.

 

 

 

From Jerry Zgoda/Star Tribune:

A franchise that has had none in the draft lottery won Friday’s blind draw with Memphis, which means the Wolves get slotted for the third overall pick in the June draft and the Grizzlies the fourth pick, provided the lottery goes according to the odds.

 

Also from Zgoda: 

By winning it, the Wolves also get a 13.8 percent chance at the No. 1 overall pick rather than a 13.7 percent chance.

 

 

There's a belief among those close to the Wolves that it would be difficult for McHale to walk away from the team in its current state. He wants to get the team back on the rise, presumably before handing over control of the team to assistant general manager Fred Hoiberg.

From Charley Walters/Pioneer Press:

Plans are for Kevin McHale to return to manage the basketball department with his staff intact.

 

"One of the things that I feel good about is that we have met as a group many, many times this year, and everybody has been working together and more productively to get us ready for the future," Taylor said. "Everybody in the office is energized. That's good for me, and that's good for Kevin. He's very excited."

 

Also from Walters:

The Wolves budgeted to lose about $20 million this season. But, Taylor said Wednesday, that has been reduced to about $10 million through some dealings.

 

 

 

From Sid Hartman:

According to Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, it is unlikely the club will add any high-priced free agents for the 2008-09 season.

 

"Probably not next year because next year I'm still paying [Troy] Hudson and I'm paying [Juwan] Howard. I still have to pay those salaries somewhat, so I think next year our biggest goal will be probably the draft choices. We should get our own high one and then depending on what Miami does, maybe theirs. So I think that will be our best chance to improve next year. It's a couple years out that we have our contracts coming, they end, that we have the money for the free agents." 

 

 

 

Judd Zulgad/Star Tribune on the Wolves tv ratings:  

According to preliminary numbers from Nielsen Media, KSTC finished with a 0.9 rating and 1.7 share for 34 telecasts -- down 61 percent from last season (2.3 and 4) -- and FSN North had a 0.9 rating and 1.5 share for 35 games -- down 36 percent (1.4 and 3) from 2006-07.

  

 

Also from Zulgad:

It will be interesting to see if the Wolves remain with radio partner BOB 106 FM in 2008-09...

 

 

 

Gary Washburn/Seattle PI lists Al Jefferson as a "close second" behind Hedo Turkoglu for the Most Improved Player award.  For the Sixth Man award, Washburn names Rashad McCants runner-up to Manu Ginobili.    

KFAN's Chad Hartman and Mark Rosen talked to Coach Wittman this afternoon. Click here to listen to the interview. 

 

 

The first question posed to the coach is why the team won last night's game. Wittman's response: Isn't that what we're supposed to do? 

 

 

Wittman on the team:

Al Jefferson - had a fabulous year

 

Ryan Gomes- established himself as solid a player as you could ask for, not flashy, but a good glue guy. He's up there among top priorities for the team this offseason.

 

 

Corey Brewer- Wittman loves him. Said he's going to be fine and will be in the league for a long time. He described him as a tough kid with a big heart. He has to get stronger and develop his body, his core needs to be stronger
Brewer lost confidence during the season which caused him to struggle, but he bounced back well at the end of the year.


Randy Foye- a healty Foye earlier in the season would have contributed to more wins

 

 

Rashad McCants- Wittman was asked if McCants was an enigma. Wittman said that the player has to decide and that the ball is in his court. He's got the chance to be a pretty special player in the league but right now he's not showing he totally wants that, especially on defense. Coach said he has to take his defense to the next level. As hard as he works offensively, he has to put the same effort in on the other end.


On his own performance this year- Wittman said this season was more of an evaluation year than a coaching year. With so many new players, had to do a lot more evaluation to figure out how the team was going to move forward. 

 

 

When asked who he preferred for the team between Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley, Wittman said he did not know.  

 

 

The Timberwolves site has posted audio from today's press conference with Kevin McHale.

 

 

The two ties make things ... interesting. The league will flip a coin in each case later this week. The result will have no real bearing on the lottery proceedings on May 20 -- Minnesota and Memphis, for example, will split the balls available for the #3 and #4 teams. If it's an odd number, the coin flip winner will take the extra one. But the coin flip does have serious import with regards to draft order. A Minnesota coin flip win means Minnesota picks ahead of Memphis, unless Memphis vaults into the Top 3 by way of lottery win. It also means the lowest Minnesota could pick would be #6, while Memphis could fall as low as #7.

 

 

A year ago, the Wolves lost the draw with Portland after both teams tied for the sixth-worst record. The Wolves got slotted seventh overall, the Blazers sixth and one of the Blazers’ number combinations out of a possible 1,001 turned out the winner of the lottery and of Greg Oden. 

 

 

 

Stop-n-Pop/Canis Hoopus looks at the stats from last night's win over the Bucks.

 

 

 

Odenized with video of an embarrassing moment for Corey Brewer in yesterday's game.  

 

 

 

Stephen Litel/Hoopsworld reviews the team's season and looks at offseason needs.

Draft Needs: Size to allow Jefferson to play his natural power forward position, rather than center. Of course, the Timberwolves wouldn't pass on either Michael Beasley or Derrick Rose if they are there to select, but must stay away from drafting undersized guards this year. Outside of Beasley or Rose, a perfect fit for Minnesota would be Brook Lopez from Stanford. 

 

How many of those five players, and whom, the Wolves sign will depend greatly on one question: At what price? Gomes played his way into a valuable role in the starting lineup this season and likely is the team's top priority to sign. He said he is seeking financial security, which means the number of guaranteed years is important. 

 

 

 

The third-worst team gets 156 combinations, the fourth-worst 119. However, if the teams end up tied, each gets 137, with a coin flip to determine who gets the extra 138th. You can laugh if you want at the small difference between a 15.6% chance of drawing the first pic and a 13.7% chance, but let me remind you - that 1.9% difference is greater than the chance of six teams (numbers 9-14) winning the lottery and picking first. 

 

 

 

Darren Rovell/Sports Biz on the team's "Pay The Pick" season ticket promotion. 

 

 

 

From Rick Alonzo/Pioneer Press:

Jefferson's scoring and rebounding were beyond reproach. But now it's up to him to take that same attitude toward stopping opposing power forwards and centers from scoring.

 

"No question," Wolves coach Randy Wittman said. "That's got to be his next step. It's got to be a step for us to win. For us to be good and continue to grow and go in the right direction, he's got to get better defensively."

  

 

Also from Alonzo:

Wittman said he plans to have Corey Brewer and perhaps Randy Foye, in a limited role, participate in summer-league play. The team's draft picks will play, too.