Howlin' T-Wolf

On a day we reminisce about those who have fallen,
The news on our Timberwolves is certainly rotten.

Big Al’s on probation but we already knew,
Mr. Kahn’s scouting players to join the crew.

Speculation and rumors are surrounding the draft,
But with no credibility, I might as well laugh.

Lebron, Wade and Bosh are forming a group,
And with the Suns out, Amar’e wants in the loop.

Free agents to-be are mulling their futures,
While I’m hoping Kahn can pull them in with a lure.

The playoffs are winding down to one last surprise,
Why are the last two teams filled with my demise?

The Celtics and Lakers will battle it out,
I hate these teams so much it makes me wanna shout!

For now, or until the draft soon comes near
Please give me some Wolves news or at least a cold beer!

“Jack Daniels” Jefferson will serve two years of probation as means of punishment for his fourth-degree driving while impaired offense.

Grant Hill has helped the Suns get over that hump and reach the Western Conference Finals

Aside from the need of a more substantial go-to superstar to bet our chips on especially late in games, the Wolves are in dire need of a top-notch veteran player. Let’s face it; the Wolves were cursed this past season. The downfall of having the youngest team in the NBA is that you’re sacrificing experience for athleticism. Veteran players come few and far between and can deliver a key component to any franchise searching for consistent winning habits.

A good example of an on-court leader who brings experience and a true passion for winning to a team is Grant Hill of the Phoenix Suns. He may be 37 but aren’t the best veterans old farts like him? Hill has certainly lost a step since his days of semi-stardom with the Detroit Pistons but he still can play. I would say he’s aged properly, for lack of a better term. He possesses the sole ability of elevating his teammates play around him by simply playing efficient and intelligent basketball.

Hill seems to always make wise plays all while doing the little things right; hitting open jumpers, defending his man with pride. The Suns are truly lucky to have someone of that mental capacity and it has obviously helped the reach the Western Conference finals this season.

The Wolves, on the other hand, don’t have that type of player. Not only that, the young, athletic players who are supposed to make plays with their athleticism don’t even do that. But most importantly, the Wolves don’t have that experienced leader on the court to help make adjustments accordingly when things go terribly wrong, which happened all too often last season.

So far this offseason has been flooded with speculation of the draft and who the next big thing will be. Not saying that finding our next key component via the draft is a bad thing but it won’t fulfill a few of the Wolves’ biggest needs; leadership, intelligence and experience.

As much fun as it is to talk about the young, hot studs transitioning their way into the NBA, the Wolves front office will also need to make a splash in the free agency market this summer. I’m not saying go out and get Lebron James but rather identify one or two guys that can come in and change the culture of this team. They need to be, as I said earlier, smart, a good leader and a guy who does everything on a need basis for their coach. You need a big shot; he’ll at least take it. You need lockdown defense; he’ll seal him up without committing some bone-headed foul.

That is the type of player, or players, that the Wolves need to strenuously go after this summer. I know it’s not easy to convince an aging player to come play in a rebuilding environment but David Kahn has the people skills to convince players that this situation will turn around. Hell, he’s got me believing! A veteran leader or two on top of what we get from the draft could be exactly what the Wolves need to turn things around by next year.

And even though he will be 38 before next season starts, Grant Hill will be an unrestricted free agent this summer… Just sayin’!

The highly touted European big man was set to get a deal done this summer so that he may play in the NBA in the 2010 season. Well, that’s not looking so good anymore.

Via HoopsHype’s twitter page, Pekovic’s current buyout is worth $5 million.

You can certainly guarantee that this puts a damper on the Wolves’ chances at signing Pekovic. No matter how highly touted he may be, $5 million may be the tipping point for the Wolves not to sign him. After all, he is just another Big Al type of player…

Timberwolves Tracks:

The Wolves hosted workouts for several players today and that will continue up until Friday afternoon.

According to Chad Ford, Jordan Crawford had a great workout today and he talks about how excited he is to play in the NBA:

I strongly encourage you to click around on the Timberwolves website. They have a ton of great workout coverage along with bios and breakdowns of players the Wolves could take with either the 4th, 16th or 23rd picks.

More news on Nikola Pekovic, Interbasket.net is reporting that the Wolves are still determined to sign Pekovic for the upcoming ‘10-’11 season.

And finally, as depressed as Wolves fans were when we discovered that they will be picking in the fourth slot, things are finally starting to look up. According to ESPN Insider Chad Ford, Evan Turner is not a lock to go #2 to the 76ers, thus allowing Wolves fans to breathe a little bit easier.

Supposedly, a few GM’s told Ford at the draft combine in Chicago that they believe that the 76ers may draft on a need-basis and go with either Cousins or Favors over the versatile wing in Turner.

Also negating a report from earlier, the 76ers may lighten their asking price for trade partners who are looking to move up to the #2 spot. Originally it was said that any team that wanted to move up they would have to indulge on comsuming Elton Brand’s horriffic contract before moving to #2. But now it seems as if a combination of the Wolves’ 4th and 16th OR 23rd picks would be enough to move up to #2 to take Turner.

There’s still hope, fans!

Other Tracks:

In other news, the Cavaliers fired head coach Mike Brown earlier today. Brown’s five year tenure came to a close this morning when the Cavaliers let him go. Brown went 272-138 in his five years, nearly a 67% winning percentage; that is the highest winning percentage is in Cleveland history.

Whether this move has been made to convince Lebron that they are determined to move in the right direction or to save some money (Brown was due $4.5 million for next season), Brown is now a free agent, so to speak, and is available to a few other teams looking for a coach next season.

With the conclusion of the first day of the NBA draft combine, we learned that one thing is for sure; John Wall and Evan Turner are ready to battle it out to become #1 in June.

Both players had strong cases on why they should be picked first by the Washington Wizards on June 24th.

“I am a competitive person; I want to win,” said Wall. “I am trying to help any organization win. Teams with the No. 1 and 2 pick had a losing record last year. I am trying to change that and make them into a winning program.”

John Wall believes that he can turn a team around. Has he bought into his own hype? Maybe so, but he has the talent to turn the Wizards around nearly single-handedly and having that extra boost of confidence — or cockiness — should improve his chances at doing so.

On the other hand, Evan Turner is stating his case why he should be picked #1 over the potential superstar Wall:

“I think I did a lot of work this year,” [Turner] pointed out. “Think about all the adversity I came back from and my maturity level now, and not to be arrogant or cocky but I won every National Player of the Year award, so I have inner confidence that I can help the team.”

Despite maybe not being as athletically gifted as Wall, Turner says he’s more mature which should mean he’s more NBA-ready, shouldn’t it? He showed that he could take over games, especially late, in a competitive Big Ten conference this past season. His adversity in tough situations, like breaking his back and returning nearly a month later, speaks to how much he’s grown and matured this season. His maturity and toughness alone, in my mind, are what boosted his value to #2, and potentially #1.

This is the guy the Wolves want; a mature wing player that has the ability to put up 20-plus per game especially when it counts late in the game. He has that sense of when to take over and when to score through his teammates. On the other hand, Wall has a similar game-changing ability but he does it in more of a flashy style. The big steal, the amazing reverse lay-up; these are just a few of the things that make your jaw drop in sheer awe and usually create momentum among the players on his team leading to big runs. Both have the potential to become leaders on their teams but I think that Turner’s maturity already establishes him as a leader, while Wall has to prove at only 19 years of age that he can be the leader of a team, on and off the court. Until Wall is fed some tough situations to rise above, I would take Turner to lead me into a fourth quarter any game of the week.

As for the rest of the camp, Wall’s former teammate DeMarcus Cousins said he thought that he had a good feeling that the Wolves like him:

Via Jonathan Givony’s Twitter:

Demarcus Cousins says he got ‘a really good vibe’ from Minnesota today and that he thinks they would pick him if he were there at 4.

Could the Wolves really go for the big fella at four? It’s a possibility but there would need to be some roster moves beforehand. Most notably, Big Al would need to be moved for some talent on the wing. That could work out nicely while covering some other gaping needs. If you think about it, the potential trade could mean Big Al for a starting wing player and a solid replacement for Al in Cousins — they have very similar game styles but Cousins is a tad bit taller/bigger than Jefferson. It could turn out fabulously for the Wolves, but depending on whom they trade Jefferson to, it could bite them in the butt as well.

Don't be sorry to the Wolves just yet, Evan!

It’s safe to say that the Timberwolves franchise took a step backwards last night. Simply enough the odds weren’t in our favor — even though they did have the second best chance to get the top pick — and neither was the luck of the basketball Gods. Many think that the Wolves setback last night cost them their chance at getting Evan Turner because, let’s face it, he is the prize in David Kahn’s eyes. Nothing wrong with that considering he could be that superstar the Wolves have been longing for. But as I wrestled with the possible outcomes that could result with Turner in a Wolves uniform next season, I came up with more scenarios than most would expect.

First of all, there is still one month until the draft. That means that there is a whole month for others to improve their draft stock beyond Turner’s, or Turner’s own stock could drop after poor outings at camps. The latter is probably unlikely but other players will be playing hard — unless your name if DeMarcus Cousins — and will start moving up and down draft boards all over the league. It isn’t ludicrous to think that Turner could slip to fourth. Honestly.

Secondly, you can already imagine that Kahn has contacted the 76ers about that second pick. My first reaction, like many others, was that the 76ers would never trade that pick; Turner is exactly what they need. But if you look closer, they have a very similar type wing-player in Andre Iguodala minus the ball-handling skills. How many 6-7 wings with 20 ppg in them do they need? Either Turner or Iggy could be expendable at the hand of the 76ers. Iggy was actually rumored to be involved in trade talks at the deadline earlier this year. Whether it be the second pick or Iggy, the Wolves have the assets available to acquire one of the two. It will take some shifty dealing on Kahn’s part but a package of the fourth and twenty-third picks along with Jefferson or Love is hard to pass up for a lot of teams, especially ones in need of a physical presence in the paint like the 76ers.

There are a few different ways to bend this situation into our favor, even if the basketball Gods forbid anything to go our way. There are a few ways the Wolves could obtain their absolute goal of getting the potential superstar we’re looking for in Turner. The question is whether any of them will work or not. It all comes down to the 76ers’ motives. Do they want to match Iggy with a very similar type of player in Turner? Will they draft on a need-basis and go with Cousins or Favors? Or maybe they are looking to part ways with Iggy and take the fresher Turner. Whatever their motive may be, you can bet on the Wolves being there in the shadows waiting to pounce on there chance to get the superstar wing they deserve.

If all else fails, the Wolves trade down and get some more picks or players. Houston and Portland are reportedly interested. This diminishes our chances of grabbing that ’superstar’ we so desperately need but, if it even means anything anymore, it adds another bundle of assets to throw onto the pile.

Sup, Wes?

Immediately following the lottery, I looked around to see if any other blog had posted their thoughts on the results already. After a little while, I stumbled across a picture of George W. Bush flipping the bird and an atomic bomb being set off; probably the two best representations of how all Wolves fans and myself felt after witnessing what had just befallen.

The Timberwolves home site actually had the nerve to say that the Wolves were “awarded” the fourth pick in this year’s NBA draft. Awarded? More like demoted — or even punished. I understand the non-biased approach that they have to take, but this is b***s*** and we all know it. Everything fell into place, as usual, for the Wolves. They weren’t fortunate enough to get a top two — not even top three — pick. Even after David Kahn said that this draft has a top tier of three players, the Wolves get the fourth pick. Just our luck, eh?

Luck was clearly not on our side tonight but neither were the facts. Let’s face it, the Wolves have never won the lottery — they’ve never even picked higher then third. 13 years in the lottery and they’ve never moved up from their projected slot and stayed at it six times; the other seven they fell beneath the projection. And this year, the Wolves had a 31.86% chance to get the fourth pick, so statistically speaking we have been slotted accordingly and history tells us that fourth is the right home for the Wolves. But after witnessing what just happened tonight, it is safe to say that the lottery system is flawed and should be re-tweaked or completely revamped.

Speaking on behalf of the four teams that were projected to pick in the top four spots, this lottery was a fluke. Not only are the two worst teams in the NBA from last season not picking from the first and second slots in June but also the four worst teams won’t be picking in their deserved slots. Each team was bumped two spots because the Wizards and 76ers got lucky and were elevated up. This year’s results just exemplify at how the current lottery system doesn’t do justice to the worst teams in the NBA; in many cases, it almost hinders them. In Minnesota’s case, their 19.9% chance at the top-prize wasn’t anything comparable to the fact that they had a 31.86% chance to get the fourth slot. In my mind it just doesn’t make any sense. The NBA needs to switch to the NFL’s protocol of operating the draft; the worst team gets the first pick and so on. It’s fair, simple and saves fans a hell-of-a-lot of nerves. It would just make things better in the long run.

In no way am I trying to point the finger at the lottery with my disgruntled feelings from tonight’s results; these feelings have been consistent for a few years now. But with so much promise in this year’s draft/lottery, I wanted so desperately for the Wolves to get a top two pick. And since that didn’t happen, it is time to let my opinion be heard. Not only were the Wolves knocked out of contention from getting either John Wall or Evan Turner but their promising season that could’ve been next season has taken a direct hit to where it hurts most. There’s no denying the Wolves misfortunes when it comes to the draft but never should one team suffer this much, this often, and I strongly feel that the current lottery system is diminishing the hopes of a turnaround for the Wolves’ fortunes any time soon.

Oh, and if you think that Wes Johnson could turn this team around, think again. I’d rather keep Ryan Gomes than take Johnson with the fourth pick hoping for instant stardom.

Evan Turner’s Twitter account:

Sorry t-wolves fans!

That just about sums up one of theee crappiest nights of my life. I’ll try to write something later, that is if I can mentally recover from this travesty!

I thought this was a nice interview with President of Basketball Operations David Kahn. He plays down the importance of tonight’s draft saying that the position we recieve tonight may not be the same place we will be drafting at on draft night. I’m getting a smokescreen signal that, no matter where they end up after the lottery tonight, especially if its not in the top two, the Wolves will try hard to move up to select either Wall or Turner. And most likely, they want Turner.

David Kahn talks lottery: