Howlin' T-Wolf

Let’s take a minute to discuss a dirty little not-so-secret that Minnesota’s fans have been trying to avoid talking about out loud for most of the season (though grumbling about it under their breath seems to be acceptable).

Kevin Love complains excessively to the refs, to the point where it’s detrimental to the Wolves.

Sometimes he has something resembling a legitimate gripe. But it becomes a problem when he spends so much time making exaggerated, pointed motions at the ref on one end that Minnesota’s overstretched defense, forced to play 5-4, gives up an easy basket on the other.

One such example happened toward the end of the first half against New York on Saturday. It started innocuously enough, with Rubio driving the lane and kicking the ball to a cutting Love, whose man, Jared Jeffries, wasn’t really paying attention. Love cut past him and headed towards the basket.

Tyson Chandler, however, wasn’t fooled and came over to help out. There appeared to be quite a bit of contact as Love attempted a contested layup and was knocked backward, but no foul was called. Love hit the deck as Chandler came up with the rebound and looked to outlet the ball. Note how much time is on the clock as Chandler attempts to outlet. (And for those of you with League Pass, note the choice of language Love uses on his way down. I chuckled.)

1:15 seconds. As Chandler outlets the ball, the Knicks begin a weird, half-hearted sort of fast break, 3 on 3 against the Wolves.

No sign of Love in this frame, but that’s ok. Pek hasn’t shown up yet. Neither has Tyson Chandler. Jared Jeffries is running along the far side, having just helped knock Kevin Love on his ass.

Rubio attempts to take a charge from Lin, and he fails. At this point, as you can see, there are four Knicks and four Wolves in the picture.

Here’s Tyson Chandler, the last Knick. (Sup, man?) Please notice the amount of time left on the clock. Also notice how Rubio’s flop has forced Luke Ridnour to cover both Iman Shumpert and Jared Jeffries while Lin plans his attack.

Lin drives into the lane, and since Ridnour is forced to cover Jeffries right beside the basket, Lin kicks the ball out to Shumpert, who spots up for three.

Oh hey, Kevin. Nice of you to join us. Note: it took Love eight seconds to get up and get back down the court with the rest of his teammates. He was three seconds behind the last Knick to arrive. These may not seem like excruciatingly long periods of time, but at game speed, it was an eternity.

Shumpert’s three misses, but since Love just arrived on the scene, everyone’s assignment for boxing out is totally screwed up. Lin comes away with the rebound while Rubio gets swallowed up by Love’s man, Jared Jeffries.

Since Lin got the rebound and Rubio is stuck with Jeffries, Love is forced to come out and try to guard Lin. Lin (predictably) drives by Love with ease and scores an easy layup.

For those of you keeping track at home, the three that Shumpert missed let Love off the hook briefly, but the botched rebound is also pretty obviously his fault. This may seem relatively insignificant, since the Wolves only ended up giving away two points on the play, but as you may recall, the final score of the game was 100-98. I’m not saying the Wolves lost because of this one play, I’m just saying that this theme of Love complaining to the officials while his teammates try to pick up the slack on defense is pretty clearly detrimental.

Yes, Kevin Love is a star now, and he probably deserved to start this year in the All-Star game (although in a game based on popularity, he was never going to beat out Griffin for the starter’s job. Sorry, bud). For the most part, he certainly has been a joy to watch and cheer for this year; it’s not every year one gets to watch their franchise player throw up 30-20’s and barely blink.

But this particular habit really needs to stop. He’s better than this.

Alright. This is going to get covered everywhere else, so I’ll post my recap tomorrow and talk about this first.

At this point, you have probably heard that Kevin Love stepped on Luis Scola Saturday night. Here’s a video:

I don’t think Love meant to step on Scola’s face, so I’m in complete disagreement with the announcers in this very biased video. It looked to me as though he was trying to step over him and sort of fell forward. If he had meant to step on his face, he would have done it with his foot, not his shin, right? If anything, Love tried to step on his chest.

That being said, I don’t think Love is at ALL sorry he did it.

Further, the officials let that entire situation get WAY out of hand. First, they let the Rockets hang all over Love on one end, frustrating Love inordinately. Then they let Love get away with a blatant frustration foul on the other end, sending Scola crashing to the floor. Was Love’s action not called a foul as some sort of make-up non-call? Because for an NBA official, that’s despicable. Love fouled him and the violation needed to be called. Would they have gotten booed? OF COURSE. It’s their job as officials to make calls like that and take the abuse that would have rained down on them. Then, to cap off this whole fiasco, they called a ticky-tack foul on the Rockets on the other end, which completely threw the situation out of whack (”alright, Love and Scola assaulting each other? No foul…just DON’T YOU TOUCH RIDNOUR!”) before calling a technical on the Rockets bench who were complaining about what had happened on the other end. Mind you, nobody from the Rockets bench stood up or anything. Apparently, they were just complaining too loudly.

It was one of the worst officiating sequences I have seen in a long time. I’ll be surprised if Love gets suspended, but if he does I’m blaming the bad officiating for about 40% of it. (Love gets the other 60%…control your temper and don’t throw Luis Scola to the ground next time.)

And really, that’s what this situation boils down to. This isn’t a case where some deep, violent inner tendency of Kevin Love has come to the surface. It’s a case where he did something stupid, in the heat of the moment battling against Scola. It’s hard to say whether or not it was intentional, and I’m glad it’s not my job to sort out the wreckage.

Back to our regular scheduled programming…the Wolves are back to .500! MUCH more on that tomorrow, with minimal references to this incident. I promise.

Dallas Mavericks (11-7) vs Minnesota Timberwolves (7-10)

This is still a Picture of the Year candidate to me.

Last game: Minnesota: L, 107-92 vs Houston, Dallas: 97-83 vs Phoenix

Minnesota rallied in the third quarter to tie the game against Houston on Monday, but then hit a brick wall with an injury depleted roster, as Houston put the Wolves away with a flurry of fast breaks and three pointers. Kevin Love was completely dominant, scoring 39 points on supremely efficient 13-19 shooting from the field to go with 12 rebounds, but Ricky Rubio had the type of game that reminds the viewer that he is still adjusting to the NBA game, as he turned the ball over five times, all at very inopportune moments.

Dallas, without Dirk, edged the Suns on Monday, as Shawn Marion (!!!) caught fire from deep, hitting four 3-pointers, and scoring 29 points for the Mavericks, who have won 4 in a row, two in a row without Dirk.

The Key Questions

#1. What difference will injuries make in this game?

Rick Adelman, after Monday’s loss:

I have three guards and no small forward. We tried to adjust, but you’re putting people out of position…We just didn’t have enough answers.

Not exactly a boost of confidence. JJ Barea and Michael Beasley will both miss tonight’s game as well, and I can’t find confirmation anywhere that Wes will return, although one hopes he’d be feeling a bit better today.

The good news for Minnesota, of course, is that they still have their best player, the newly extended Kevin Love (much more on that coming from Jonah later today). The same can’t be said for Dallas, who will be missing Dirk Nowitzki for the fourth consecutive game.

#2. What should we make of Minnesota’s first win against Dallas?

Literally nothing. The Wolves beat a Dallas team that wasn’t mentally ready for the season to start yet. They did it in Minnesota in front of a jazzed crowd, with Beasley and Barea both contributing significantly. And, on the other hand, Dallas had Dirk.

Tonight’s game could go either way, but don’t expect Minnesota to win just because they beat Dallas earlier this season, and don’t expect Dallas to lose just because Dirk is out. Dallas has been excellent at home this season (7-2), and they have been hot lately. This team is more than just Dirk.

#3. How worried should we be about Rubio’s 5 turnover performance against Houston?

For my money? Not worried at all. We have been spoiled watching Rubio play like a point guard well beyond his years so far this season. He has made smart decisions, especially (oddly) shooting the ball, and he has led Minnesota to seven wins so far.

But we can’t expect a point guard experiencing his first year of NBA basketball to be perfect. Rubio is going to make mistakes, he’s going to have bad games, and we are going to have to suffer through them with him. That’s the trade off of getting a flashy player like Rubio. On his off nights, just remember this. It will help with the pain.

The Key Matchups

We saw a preview of Jason Kidd vs Ricky Rubio earlier this year, but now Rubio is in the starting lineup. Of course, he was essentially playing starter’s minutes before, but now he’s playing EXTRA starter’s minutes. So. There’s that.

Elsewhere, Shawn Marion has been playing very well in Dirk’s absence. On Wes Johnson’s DraftExpress profile, it lists his best case scenario as a Shawn Marion-type player. They will probably get some minutes tonight guarding each other, if Wes is back in the lineup. If not, Derrick Williams played a serviceable, if not amazing, game in his first start against Houston, and he’s certainly strong enough to fight Marion off in the post. Whether or not he can get out and defend the three point line against Marion may remain to be seen.

Remember when we were all crowing about how deep Minnesota’s bench ran? That was nice. Now we see Minnesota’s bench going just nine deep. Against Houston, every starter played over 30 minutes save Darko, and Love played over 40, while Wayne Ellington played 34 off the bench. No wonder Wayne needed a cryogenic bath.

The Outlook

I’m hesitant to be too optimistic, since the Wolves are exhausted and undermanned, but it’s tough to be too down about playing the Mavericks when Dirk Nowitzki will spend the evening suited up like Barney Stinson. But it’s a road game against the defending champs. Don’t expect anything easy.

Game starts at 7:30 on Fox Sports North.

Jonny Flynn doesn't miss Minnesota.

Ok, so “beef with Rubio” might be sensationalizing a wee bit. But Jonny Flynn definitely doesn’t appreciate the way that Minnesota’s fans turned on him during his time with the team, and after reading what he has to say, it’s a little hard to blame him.

From The Pioneer Press:

Jonny Flynn…said he was disappointed with fan criticism when he was with Minnesota last season and the speculation about Ricky Rubio joining the team.

I let (the Rubio talk) get to me too much,” Flynn said. “Everybody was always talking about Ricky coming here. My two years here was like five years to me.

Flynn said he “tried to stay a professional” about the situation.

“I remember all of that,” Flynn said of the criticism. “It felt like we were playing 82 road games last year when your own crowd was on you. What did I do to deserve that? I never spoke bad about Minnesota or the organization.”

Flynn makes a pretty convincing case. Minnesota’s fans turned on him quickly during his sophomore season when he was struggling to come back from an injury. As he struggled, it was probably natural for fans to pine a little bit for someone else to come along and save the team, but in doing so, it wouldn’t be hard to infer that they helped wreck Flynn’s confidence. Young point guards have to make huge adjustments coming into the league, and it’s incredibly important for any young player to have confidence. Flynn was never given that chance.

Of course, one of the things Flynn failed to mention is that his struggles were probably more due to the system he played in than a lack of fan support. We all knew that Rambis’ triangle offense was a godawful abject failure, but it’s possible it may have ruined the career of Flynn, who never got comfortable shackled within it and consequently lost a lot of playing time.

As someone who has been cheering for Flynn for a couple of years, it definitely stings a little to see that he feels the fans treated him this badly. It also stings to see him badly buried on the depth chart in Houston, barely even getting garbage-time minutes.

I, for one, truly hope he finds a role somewhere in the NBA, far away from Kurt Rambis. Good luck, Jonny.

We assumed he was celebrating, but now we are reading it as "what the hell is happening?!"

So let’s sort through this mess as best we can, with the knowledge that it could very well be entirely different by the time you are reading this Wednesday morning.

The Pioneer Press reported Tuesday that Love and the Timberwolves had agreed to a contract extension of 4 years and $62 million. ESPN, presumably basing their information off the same report, ran a story as well. Kevin Love was staying in Minnesota! Yay! Smiley face!

Then ESPN ran a report that said discussions were “ongoing” and that no agreement had yet been reached. Sad face.

Also, Love himself tweeted a snarky comment about the current state of affairs, with a nice little zinger for internet journalists as well: “If you read it on the internet it must be true right? #sarcasm.” Sarcasm?! PANIC FACE!

Now TwinCities.com has an updated post, as of 12:55 CST on Wednesday, saying that Love IS going to sign the extension today, and that David Kahn has flown down to Dallas to complete the paperwork. Happy…sad…confused….what face?

Fortunately, we here at Howlin’ T-Wolf can exclusively report that Kevin Love is definitely a basketball player who has definitely played the past few seasons for the Minnesota Timberwolves, and we’d really like him to continue to do so.

Whatever is happening, it’s definitely probably not nothing, and we will keep you updated throughout the day.

The Timberwolves need to pay Kevin Love. Like, yesterday.

From The Pioneer Press:

Look for the Timberwolves to offer Kevin Love a $60 million, four year contract extension within in the next eight days.

Love, 23, who is playing for $4.6 million this season, can become a restricted free agent after the season unless he signs an extension before Jan. 25. If he opts for free agency, the Wolves would have the right to match any outside offer. Love also can return to Minnesota in 2012-13 for $6.1 million and become an unrestricted free agent after the season.

Taking a quiet moment to collect myself. Massaging my temples gently. A deep breath.

Ok, Kahn. WHAT (SLAP) THE (SLAP) HELL (SLAP) ARE (SLAP) YOU (SLAP) DOING?!

It’s a pretty basic NBA principle: you don’t kill your team by overpaying stars. You kill your team by overpaying bad players. That’s why the amnesty clause was included in the latest CBA: to help out teams who spent $35 million on Travis freaking Outlaw. That’s also why you weren’t about to see the Lakers amnesty Kobe, even though he was the biggest (by far) contract on their books. He’s a great player, and paying great players a lot of money is good NBA business. Minnesota’s roster is full of decent, affordable contracts. They can afford to give Kevin Love the maximum.

It is ESSENTIAL to Minnesota’s continued development as a team that they keep Kevin Love. He is the face of this franchise (sorry Ricky), a 23 year old all star who scores in the paint, hits open three pointers, rebounds better than anyone in the league, and is probably three years from hitting the absolute prime of his career.

Now, I understand that 4 years/$60 million is essentially the max minus a year. But it’s $20 million that Kevin Love isn’t guaranteed to get. Since Minnesota could offer him another year, why wouldn’t Love feel a little low-balled? And why would he sign a contract with a team that is low-balling him?

The long and the short of this whole situation is that the Timberwolves can’t afford to lose their best scorer just when their roster has begun to look respectable again. Minnesota’s fans have suffered through a series of devastatingly awful seasons. They have rallied around this young, entertaining team on the idea of hope. If Minnesota loses Kevin Love, they lose that hope.

And THAT is something they truly can’t afford.

I just…I can’t…gahhhhhhhhhhhhh.

It was the third quarter, and Minnesota was up by 18. I was cracking my knuckles, totally excited to write this recap. I was contemplating the best adjective for Kevin Love’s performance (”should I go with ’scintillating’ or ‘intriguing?’”). I was imagining that this time the Wolves really would put the game away, that they would secure a big win against a good team. With their offense flowing, shots falling, and the defense stifling the Hawks, I thought the Wolves were about to finally learn how to put their foot on the throat of an opponent and step down.

THIS! THIS! FOREVER THIS!

I was, of course, very wrong.

The Hawks ended the quarter on a 10-0 run, cutting the lead to single digits. Every three seemed to be falling. The Wolves couldn’t score against a zone (leading to Rubio’s most Rubio quote ever: “We didn’t know how to offense the zone.”). The legendary Ivan Johnson, with some help from his teammates, finally managed to slow down Love. Suddenly, the Wolves were pretty clearly going to lose.

This is what happens to teams with only two scorers. Rubio has proven himself to be more capable of scoring than we could have dreamed possible. Love has been dominant, and he showed tonight exactly how unstoppable he can be if he works to get shots down low rather than settling for long jumpers.

But with Beasley and Barea out of the game, the Wolves had nobody who could create their own shot. Worse: they had nobody who could hit an open shot when Rubio created it for them. Minnesota went icy cold, the Hawks capitalized by making every big three, and eventually the lead became a deficit, the final points coming from Ivan Johnson hitting two big free throws to give Atlanta their final margin.

And yes, I do think that Johnson fouled Love on that final play. He appeared to lower his shoulder and crash forward into Love’s chest, knocking him flying. Love dressed it up a bit by throwing his arms out, but there was clearly contact.

That being said, the Wolves should not have lost this game, and it wasn’t thanks to the officials that they did, no matter what Anthony Tolliver might think on Twitter. They lost because of their shoddy execution down the stretch, and some very, very hot shooting by the Hawks.

On to the bullets:

• If there is any good news to be gleaned from tonight, it’s this: Minnesota would have won if they could have figured out that damn zone. That’s a concrete problem that Adelman can make them improve on in practice. The Wolves don’t have to try and fix some mental road block, they have to figure out a way to beat a zone. This is something a good coach like Adelman should be able to do.
• I’ve been critical of Love’s shot selection, so let me clarify: I have no problem with Love shooting jumpers. He is very good at them. I have a problem with him SETTLING for jumpers. I want him to make them a supplement to his post game, rather than the focus of his offensive weaponry. In the last two games, he has done that, and he has gone for 30 in both. This is not a coincidence.
• Jeff Teague did something that Derrick Rose, Russell Westbrook, and John Wall all failed to do this season: he punished Rubio on offense with his speed. Rubio really made the other three work for their points by cleverly moving his feet, but Teague seemed to be able to get by Rubio at will, which was startling and a little worrisome. Was Rubio feeling tired after playing 44 minutes against New Orleans? It’s hard to say. But Teague definitely didn’t seem to struggle against him.
• I love watching Dominique Wilkins highlights on YouTube (here, have some), so when I saw he was doing the Hawks color commentary, I decided to watch the game on mute so I wouldn’t come out quite as full of hatred as I did last night. And it worked!
• On my wish list for the Wolves offensively: a player who can reliably hit a corner three. Love creates so much havoc in the post and Rubio forces defenses to help whenever he drives, but Minnesota often fails to capitalize because the defense doesn’t need to respect the shooters. Tonight for example: Minnesota shot 4-21 from three point range. 19% folks. That will almost never get it done.
• On the topic of missing three pointers: Wes Johnson. Today I was busily tweeting about how Wes is awful, can’t ever hit his shots, and all the usual things when Rubio tossed a beautiful floating alley-oop to Wes who finished it off with style. It was the second time in two days that Rubio made that pass to Wes. If Minnesota could just figure out a way to insert him into the game right before Rubio makes that pass and take him out immediately afterward, we would be in business. But unfortunately, Wes continues to miss open threes from all over the perimeter, wasting nice passes from Rubio that find him completely open. Sigh.
• But for real though: in that last quarter, Ivan Johnson destroyed Kevin Love. Take a look and compare Love’s shot chart in the third and fourth quarters, remembering that Johnson guarded Love for much of the fourth. The worst part? Johnson had some trash to talk about Love after the game: “My thing is I don’t watch basketball, so I don’t know who anybody is…but even if I did (know who Love is) I wouldn’t be afraid.” This, of course, begs the question: what DOES Ivan Johnson fear? Sharks? Tanks? Nuclear missiles? ANYTHING?
• Luke Ridnour has played two bad games right in a row after his career night against Chicago. Last night he was 4-13 with one assist, but those numbers don’t capture how uncomfortable it felt watching him run the offense when Rubio sat down. Tonight was the same story: 3-8 from the field with two assists and two turnovers. It’s not just that he missed shots, it’s that the shots he missed were big ones, potential momentum changers. It’s that when he’s missing shots, he’s essentially useless for Minnesota, since they clearly don’t have him in for defensive purposes.
• I mentioned in my preview how important getting off to a quick start would be for the Wolves, and it certainly worked to their favor until those disastrous late game runs by the Hawks. Minnesota came out swinging at the beginning, which really felt like a vast improvement. It would be nice to see that trend continue.
• Not a whole lot of playing time for Derrick Williams in Michael Beasley’s absence, as he saw just 8 minutes tonight. That can’t be easy on a rookie.

That should roughly sum things up. Minnesota’s next two games are against Detroit and Sacramento, both very winnable. And if anybody knows how to offense a zone, Ricky could use some pointers.

Dwyane Wade: Purveyor of heartbreaking jumpers and post game warm fuzzies.

Remember your first day of high school, junior year? When you overheard that cute girl you hadn’t seen all summer telling her friend that you looked better, and you would be really attractive if you stopped using such ridiculous, convoluted metaphors? And even though you knew you never had a chance with her, it was just nice to hear from somebody hot that you looked good?

Yeah, that never happened to me either. But it happened to the Timberwolves after they played Miami Friday night!

Take it away, Dwyane Wade. (Hat tip to A Wolf Among Wolves)

This is a different team and obviously a better team than last year…I’m glad we played them early in the year, because I think later in the season they’re going to be a very good team…It can be frustrating losing games, but they can’t get away from what they do. They’ve got a very bright future ahead of them and that Rubio kid is everything as advertised. He’s a risk taker…He’s going to make the risky pass and sometimes a teammate will be ready for it and sometimes they won’t. I think as they continue to play with him, they’ll get more comfortable with him and know he’s going to make those kind of passes. So I just look at him as a risk taker, but that’s what makes him special.

Whoa. Really? You are glad you played Minnesota early because they will be a very good team…later THIS YEAR? A bright future? Rubio…everything he’s advertised. Dwyaaaaane. Stop it. Ok, no, I was just saying that. Please keep going.

Look, I know this could have been slick post game speak from Wade, but he didn’t have to say it. He could have said “Yeah, we made some mistakes, but we just had to go out there and grind out a victory.” Not only would that have been true, it would have been mildly demoralizing. It would have implied that the Heat viewed this as a throwaway game, just a regular season grind that they needed to push through, and that the only reason it was close was because they weren’t very interested in it.

But instead, he lauded Minnesota, saying that once they gel as a team, they are going to be really good. He confirmed everything that Minnesota fans keep thinking they see. And dammit, it was a very nice thing to hear from a player of Wade’s caliber.

By the way Dwyane, you know what would make Minnesota REALLY good? A new shooting guard. Too much? Yeah. I knew it when I said it.

I was asked recently what I’m most excited for this season, and it gave me pause. Was I most excited for Lob City? To cheer violently against the Heat until I lose a tonsil? To see a Timberwolves team that isn’t morbidly depressing?

I came up with my answer an hour later, when I was no longer with the questioner (naturally). See, I became interested in sports because I am an avid reader. I love stories and story lines. I love the development. I love the drama. I love the conclusion, sad or happy. I love seeing everything tie together. In 2008, NBA fans got to see three future Hall of Famers win their first championship together, the ultimate happy ending. Recently, the Brandon Roy saga has given us the opposite. (Seriously, read this article and watch this video knowing what we know now, and if you can honestly tell me you don’t get a little choked up, I can only conclude you are made of stone.)

Anyway. What I decided I’m most excited for is the story lines. Here are six from the Timberwolves that I am most interested in following this year. Give me yours in the comments or on Twitter. Read more…

It’s about that time. After finishing the preseason out with two wins over the lowly Milwaukee Bucks (Seriously, they got issues), the Timberwolves are set to open up the season against the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Target Center the night after Christmas.

I have to be honest, after the strenuous lockout, I thought the Wolves were in trouble with such little time to break everything in and incorporate the new pieces. A new point guard, more lineup headaches on the frontline and a new coach all had to learn on the fly in just two weeks time. Practices had to be efficient, to say the least, and the two preseason games had to be taken advantage of. Luckily, the Wolves did just that. Although the two victories were quite sloppy, they pulled out on top, which is something new they’re trying.

It’s called winning. This team will turn heads with their outstanding athleticism and hotshot point guard. This team will also make a lot of mistakes on both sides of the ball because of their inexperience in the league and lack of chemistry due to limited practice time. But what this team does have a shot at is winning more games this season.

With that said, I’m going to make my preseason prediction: the Timberwolves will win 30-35 games and fight for and, I believe win, the 8th seed in the Western Playoffs.

Before you move on to other places on the World Wide Web, allow me to justify. Read more…