Howlin' T-Wolf

Just announced tonight, the Timberwolves have traded Lazar Hayward to the Oklahoma City Thunder for two second-round draft picks and guard Robert Vaden.

Vaden has been waived immediately to make room for JJ Barea, who was just signed yesterday.

The move means nothing more than explained above: just an opportunity to cut the roster down to 15. With this the Wolves may officially be done with moves for the offseason. The only move I foresee is a blockbuster having to do with Michael Beasley but even that will likely wait until the trade deadline. But from what I can tell, the roster is fit as is with only one glaring weakness at shooting guard. They’ll likely keep this core together through training camp and in to the season.

A new rendition of ESPN’s 5-5 on the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Who is the most intriguing player on the Timberwolves’ roster?

D.J. Foster, ClipperBlog: Talks of Anthony Randolph’s rise to prominence used to be prefaced with when — now it’s if. If Randolph can combine his size, athleticism and unique skill set while figuring it all out above the shoulders, he’ll be special. At this point in his career, though, that has to be considered an awfully big if.

Zach Harper, Daily Dime Live: OK, now I’ll gush over Ricky Rubio. After a weekend of training camp, his teammates have proclaimed how special and contagious his passing is. If his passing game can inject life into an offense that wasn’t exactly… well … alive last season (24th in offensive efficiency), then his hype becomes justified. His role isn’t to be an All-Star point guard right away. It’s to galvanize this team.

Benjamin Polk, A Wolf Among Wolves: That’s easy: Ricky Rubio. He has mystical floor vision. Watching him pass the basketball is like taking a bath in warm brandy while Jimi Hendrix plays “The Star-Spangled Banner” right there in the tub with you. But for some reason he shoots like my dad. Can someone fix that?

David Thorpe, Scouts Inc.: Rubio, Derrick Williams, Wes Johnson — they all bring intrigue. But I’m picking Martell Webster. He of the beautiful shooting stroke, the ability to get fouled, a willingness to defend, but not someone who’s ever put together a season saying “I must be a starting wing in the NBA.” If he can return after the New Year and play to his potential, Minnesota has the perfect complement to Rubio, Williams and Kevin Love — a scorer with range and a plus defender.

Royce Young, Daily Thunder: Rubio. What do the Wolves have in Rubio? Is he going to light up “SportsCenter” with Maravich-style no-look passes and alley-oops? Is he going to show off ball-handling skills like he’s Bob Cousy? Or will he just be Jose Calderon but without a jump shot? It’s hard to know what Rubio is or will be, but he certainly is someone that people will be excited to watch.

Let’s briefly talk amnesty.

For those of you who don’t know, the amnesty clause in the new CBA allows teams to essentially erase one contract from the books. This player still gets paid the money owed to them, but their salary doesn’t count toward the team’s cap limit. This allows teams who have made terrible signing decisions to increase their cap space significantly.

So who would be the most likely candidates from Minnesota to get amnesty’d?

Actually, we don’t have any obvious choices. Say what you want about the T-Wolves roster, but it is chalk full of combo forwards good contracts.

But what about Darko?

It’s ironic that the excellent blog FreeDarko.com closed down this year, since Minnesota has the opportunity to do just that. He remains the most obvious choice for amnesty, followed distantly by Michael Beasley, who, though he owns the largest contract on the team, is still an intriguing talent and also happens to be a restricted free agent after this year.

I can understand if Minnesota decides to keep Darko around. After all, if I had to pay someone $5 million a year just to stay away from my business, I would absolutely balk as well. Without Darko, Minnesota has no centers, and they face uncertainty in free agency, with no guarantees of bringing home an improvement over Milicic. For every Nene in the current market, there are three Kwame Browns and Theo Ratliffs. Signing these guys would be moving sideways rather than forward.

But it’s a bit of a catch 22. The center position is going to hurt for Minnesota all year, if they find themselves relying on Darko. Rick Adelman will suffer a cerebral hemorrhage trying to coach him. None of Adelman’s styles fit. You want this team to run? Darko can’t. You want this team to play better team defense? Darko can’t (he remains a good shot blocker, but a bad team defender). Need some offense from the post to free up your perimeter guys? Unless your opponent ABSOLUTELY can’t defend the left handed baby hook, Darko can’t do that either.

In some ways, this is ok. Centers don’t dominate the league anymore. Dwight Howard, Nene, and Andrew Bynum will cause serious matchup problems for the Wolves, but they cause serious problems for anyone they face.

On the other hand, players like Nene and Tyson Chandler will be available on the upcoming free agent market. While both players will probably be looking for more of a contender than Minnesota, there are several other upgrades from Darko available, such as Samuel Dalembert, whose defense would be a big help, or even someone like Nenad Krstic, who can stretch the floor nicely. (Note: Krstic is currently committed to playing in Russia. He does have an opt-out clause.)

Kahn could also attempt to outbid several teams for restricted free agent centers, including the Clippers’ DeAndre Jordan, the league’s leader in dunks last season.

A tangent: I’ll admit that DJ is my pipe dream for Minnesota. (There is nothing to indicate that the Wolves will make a run for him, this is just speculation.) The Clippers are owned by Donald Sterling. This man doesn’t care what’s best for his team. He just cares about cutting costs. If the Wolves offer DJ a decent amount of money, do you really think Sterling is going to match it? Of course not! DJ is a freakish athlete, an excellent shot blocker, and great at running the floor. Plus, his alley-oops are ridiculous, and we just got Rubio, who would treat Jordan like his new SportsCenter Top 10 toy. Don’t stop believin’.

Don’t be surprised if Minnesota doesn’t use their amnesty clause this season, which is a testament to the cap friendly contracts they’ve already signed. It’s also a little disappointing for those of us who like debating contracts and roster moves. But if Minnesota ends up making a move, it very well might be time to Free Darko.

Guys? Real basketball. REAL FREAKING BASKETBALL.

Late Friday night, Ken Berger of CBS Sports tweeted what every NBA fan had been dying to hear since June. The NBA and NBPA have reached a tentative agreement.

From @KBergCBS.

BREAKING: Tentative agreement reached, according to one of the negotiators.

Note: there are quite a few issues that need to be worked through yet. For starters, both the players and owners have to vote to pass the deal. Then it needs to be put in writing. Then comes the insanity that will be free agency.

But if all goes according to plan, we will see the first games of the season on December 25.

It’s too late for me to think clearly about…well…anything, honestly. You know what this means. This means Derrick Williams and Ricky Rubio. This means more Kevin Love. This means I GET TO COVER ACTUAL TIMBERWOLVES GAMES, AND I NO LONGER HAVE TO PRETEND I CARE ABOUT THE NFL.

I’m tentatively so excited I can barely breathe.

This upcoming Wednesday. New York. 11:30 pm.

A razorwire would have gotten stuck in the tension that filled the room, like peanut butter on a nervous stomach. Billy Hunter stared at the paper in front of him. Derek Fisher leaned over his shoulder, reading it as well.

“What do you think?” Hunter muttered, trying to move his lips as little as possible.

Fisher inhaled deeply, and closed his eyes. He rubbed his hands over his smooth head. To those watching, it was like seeing him spin the ball, preparing for a free throw. He opened his eyes slowly. He and Hunter looked at each other. They nodded slightly, and several of the people surrounding the table could be heard to inhale slightly. Hunter and Fisher turned together towards the owners, sitting across from them.

David Stern stared back, waiting.

“Let’s do it,” said Hunter, breaking into a wide smile.

The room burst into applause, and cries of “YES!” from those assembled. Several whistles rang off the sound proof walls, outside of which members of the media had been waiting for hours, tweeting, eating pizza, and hoping for THIS news to come trickling from the negotiating room, like water dropping into a drowning man’s mouth, through mysterious, unnamed sources in unsatisfying, tantalizing drops. But now, it had happened. It was real.

They had reached an agreement!

As a jubilant group of players, owners, and lawyers, shook each other’s hands, laughing and celebrating, Stern closed his briefcase and stood up.

“I’ll be telling the media, then,” he said.

A tall figure rose from the corner, his suit seeming to unfold beneath him. Towering above the other men standing around him, his dark eyes glared across the table, settling themselves on Stern.

“Hunter should tell them,” said Kevin Garnett, a note of menace in his voice.

The laughter died. Everyone looked around, suddenly nervous.

“Why, Kevin?” said Stern.

Garnett just glowered at him.

“Kevin,” muttered Hunter. “It will be a joint conference. I’ll be there too. I don’t care if David tells them. That’s fine. Everyone will just be happy to see the NBA back in action.”

Garnett shook his head.

“We earned this,” he said, looking around him at his fellow players. “It was us. The players. We gave you our concessions. We should get to look like good guys. We tell the media.”

Michael Jordan stood up. There were audible groans from around the table.

“You will do what WE say, Garnett,” snarled MJ. “We give the conference. You sit and listen behind us.”

The players present immediately began shouting. The owners quickly joined in, and suddenly it was another scene of chaos, this time an angry one. Only Garnett could be heard above the others, yelling.

“You’re a cancer, Jordan!” screamed Garnett. “All of you owners, you are cancerous to these negotiations and to the league!”

Stern sat back down in his chair and rested his forehead in his hands. He looked across the table, and saw Hunter mouthing wordlessly at Garnett, horrified.

Fisher meanwhile, was quietly gathering his things. While the rest of the group was caught up in the argument, he left the room. The media, sitting outside the door, were unprepared, but upon seeing Fisher, they dropped their pizza, grabbed their recorders, and pressed in around him.

Fisher stared at them. He looked back over his shoulder and sighed deeply.

“I’m sorry guys,” he said. “We don’t have a deal.”

“Will it happen soon?” “Will we have a season, Derek?”

Fisher rubbed his head again.

“I can’t speculate on that,” he said, but as he said it, he felt months of frustration building up inside him, and he felt the unfairness of it all come pouring out. “But it’s not looking too damn likely, is it?”

Good basketball related activities during the lockout:

• Watching old games on Youtube.
• Wearing your favorite team’s apparel.
• Cry.
• Spend some time working on your jump shot.
• Learn financial terms you never knew until Zach Lowe stopped talking about pick and rolls and started talking about amnesty clauses.
• Did I mention cry? Weep profusely.

Bad basketball related activities:

• Reading comments sections on other blogs. Ugh.

Fans online (a notoriously venomous bunch, to begin with) seem to have decided that, quite frankly, both sides can just go to hell. A quote from Berbes on Pro Basketball Talk, an excellent NBC sports blog:

~ i hate the billionaire owners
~ i hate the millionaire players
~ my pity is for the bartenders & waitresses in the empty bars & restaurants across the street from the empty courts

Very admirable of you, Berbes. You sound like a working class, high quality individual, used to working with your hands, like the guys in those Red Wing Shoes ads. Oh, also? Shut up.

Let’s take a second to think about this. Last offseason, the Timberwolves signed Anthony Tolliver to a two year deal, fully guaranteed. The contract itself was worth $4.5 million. For two years, Anthony Tolliver was guaranteed to be a VERY well paid man.

But let’s say something awful happened. What if Tolliver blew his ACL? What if something prevented Tolliver from playing basketball? Timberwolves fans (should) love Tolliver because he scraps, and he has a great attitude, but if he wasn’t able to come back full strength from a tough injury, would teams be lining up to hand a damaged, journeyman role player another guaranteed contract? (Answer: no.)

“True,” you say, “but Tolliver is GUARANTEED $4.5 million! That’s more than I’ll ever make in my life!”

A fair point, and I feel you. But let’s do some math. A family budget per year in the United States is $40,000. If Tolliver stuck to this model, he would have enough money to live for 112 years, making only financial decisions for the survival of his family. That’s a good amount of time. He could certainly pull it off.

Glen Taylor, the owner of the Timberwolves, is worth $1.8 billion, according to Forbes. He would be able to survive considerably longer. (Seriously…brace yourself. I’ll even put it in a new paragraph for emphasis.

4,500 years.

Financially, Glen Taylor could survive Y2K, Y3K, Y4K, Y5K, and Y6K before he would run out of money, living in survival mode.

Can you see why players are fighting for a better deal? Much has been made about the owner’s leverage (they have other income, and can survive without an NBA season, whereas players can’t) but that same reasoning is also why the players need to fight for a better deal. Once Anthony Tolliver stops playing and retires, his BRI goes down to zero. That’s all he can make from basketball. Done. The owners will be able to keep being rich and owning until they pass away in the year 4000 on a pile of $100 bills.

Don’t get me wrong: the players have very large contracts, and I certainly am a little envious of the amount of money Jeff Foster has accumulated during his time in the league. The players aren’t (or at least, they really really shouldn’t be) charity cases. They make a lot of money.

But not every player has Foster’s financial savvy, and to be honest, few (if any) of us would have it either. If I was handed millions of dollars at the age of 20, I would have blown most of it on nice guitars, garages full of Nikes, and an indoor, wood floor basketball court in my basement. Berbes, mentioned above, would have bought a lot of nice Red Wing boots. Can we really judge players for buying nice cars when they suddenly realized their dreams? Eventually, money runs out. And that will happen for players much, much sooner than owners.

Canis Hoopus pointed out on Twitter the gigantic difference between a million and a billion, and they were absolutely right. To say that this is purely a matter of millionaires versus billionaires shows a pretty fair amount of ignorance, and to write it off as a bunch of rich, greedy people battling over scraps is severely underselling one side of the debate.

As you may have heard, the NBA 2K12 ratings leaked on a shaky video which you can find on your own with a simple Google search (if you are truly interested, the Wolves are at 1:37). 2K Sports criminally underrates Dirk, Rajon Rondo is almost as good as Derrick Rose, blah blah blah. You have heard this and every other piece of basketball news 400 times, thanks to the bored-as-hell lockout wasteland that is the NBA blogosphere.

If you plan to buy 2K12 (and really who doesn’t?), and you plan to play as the Timberwolves…well…for your sake, I hope you are a very talented player.

Kevin Love: 81
Michael Beasley: 78
Wes Johnson: 70
Martell Webster: 70
Luke Ridnour: 68
Ricky Rubio: 67
Darko Milicic: 62
Anthony Tolliver: 60
Nikolai Pekovic: A gentleman’s 56

I know what you are thinking. “HOW DARE THEY RATE PEKOVIC LOWER THAN STEPHEN GRAHAM (57), WHO WAS 443 ON ESPN’S NBARANK?!!”

I agree. That was my first thought as well.

But otherwise, while we all hope that these ratings get significantly adjusted through the year as the TIMBERWOLVES GO ON A PLAYOFF TEAR, (*ahem* sorry, I’m back from the brink of optimism) I personally don’t have any real beef with 2K. K-Love is clearly the best T-Wolf. Beasley’s defense gets a D for the perimeter and a C- for the post (yowza…), while his offense gets an A- and a B+ for the same categories, respectively. I might argue that Tolliver deserves a better ranking than Darko, but it’s hard to deny the shot-blocking presence Darko will provide in the game. Rubio’s performance in the Eurobasket championship confirmed that a 67 is quite what he deserves.

All in all, while teams around the league may feel that their players were judged harshly, the game was quite consistent in its harshness. Minnesota fans should remember that it could be worse: we could be the Raptors, whose best player appears to be Leandro Barbosa, just one rating ahead of Wes Johnson with a 71.

And if that doesn’t encourage you, just pick up a copy of WNBA 2K12 (note: not a real game), where Minnesota fans can shoot mid-range jumpers and make the smart pass all the way to the Finals! That’s why we play the 2K franchise, right?

For those of you interested:

The trophy presentation was a requisite affair, except maybe for the location. The Minnesota Lynx poured into an empty practice gym at the US Airways Center, hooting, hollering and hugging after they clinched the WNBA’s Western Conference title with a 103-86 win over the Phoenix Mercury.

Our very own Minnesota Lynx have quickly established themselves as a dominate force in the WNBA. Their success model correlates awfully close to that of OKC’s Thunder success: Lose a lot, then build and win in the future. It’s a model based off of draft success and the Lynx have been truly blessed with that. But, perhaps the most valuable player to the Lynx didn’t come via the draft, rather Lindsay Whalen scurried back to Minnesota after playing in Connecticut for six seasons, only to be welcomed back home with open arms and has certainly been a deciding factor in this magical season.

It’s been a fun and entertaining season to watch and it can only get better. A title run is well underway in Minnesota.

In light of this lockout (you may have heard something about it), it’s time to embark to Youtube to find classic NBA games that catch my attention. With that said, we will begin a series called Blast From the Past by recapping some of the greatest games the NBA has ever seen to both relive the greatness of the moments and also remind us of what we’ll potentially be missing next season.

First up, the 1995 Western Conference Finals, Game 6.

VIDEO

BOX SCORE

In today’s game, full of post players as big as Mount Everest and as ripped as professional wrestlers, it’s easy to look at Hakeem Olajuwon and wonder how he could dominate the NBA in the mid 90’s. Slender and tall, but not overwhelmingly so for a post, Hakeem from a distance looked more like Jeff Green than Dwight Howard.

And yet, David Robinson (who, incidentally, was built a lot more like Dwight Howard) spent the 1995 Western Conference Finals getting systematically destroyed by a pissed off Olajuwon, (hopefully) making the MVP voters of 1995 feel like numbskulls. Game 6, the clinching game which propelled the 6th seeded Rockets passed the top seeded Spurs and into the Finals, was a prime example.

On offense, Olajuwon consistently went straight at Robinson attacking him with both turnaround and face up jumpers, quick head fakes, step through moves, and a couple nice spin moves. In stark contrast, Robinson refused to attack the basket when he was guarded by Olajuwon, who spent the game (and really, most of his career) gleefully swatting away players with the audacity to slash toward his basket. Robinson’s first touch in the post came with 2.6 seconds left in the first quarter, when Hakeem had been given a rest for the remainder of the quarter. Robinson made a strong spin move to the basket and threw down a hard dunk, though he was fouled before the shot. But it was indicative of how much Hakeem had dominated Robinson, and broken his spirit, that when Olajuwon began guarding him again in the second quarter, Robinson’s only baskets came off a few mid range two’s.

The most interesting thing about Olajuwon’s game (to me) was illuminated by Bill Walton (who spent most of this game talking with his fellow color announcer Snapper Jones with what sounded like badly hidden contempt). Hakeem had just put the ball on the floor and pulled up, draining a 15 footer over Sean Elliot, when Walton breathlessly commented  “Olajuwon ignores the big guys when he’s watching tape…he watches the guards and mimics THEIR moves.”

In light of the high profile players like Howard and LeBron going to Olajuwon and asking for help in the post, it’s interesting to hear that what Hakeem did was watch guards and try to learn how they operate. But honestly, it makes sense. At 17:56 on the video, Hakeem catches the ball in the post with Robinson guarding him. Instead of attacking Robinson straight up and trying to shoot right over him, Hakeem turns and pump fakes, getting Robinson up in the air, before stepping around him with his non-pivot foot, and flipping a finger roll in off the glass. It’s a beautiful play, and a perfect demonstration of Hakeem’s skill set, but it’s a guard’s move; the kind of play made by a much shorter player compensating for his lack of height by using his speed and brains to get by the giants around him.

Olajuwon played with an unsurpassable skill, intelligence, and grace, rather than the raw force of strength and athleticism that we see from Dwight Howard in today’s NBA. Honestly, I believe it made for a more beautiful game. But it seems unfair that critics have deemed Howard’s work with Olajuwon a failure because Howard hasn’t developed Olajuwon’s repertoire of spin moves and turnarounds. Guys? They play entirely different styles of basketball. Howard can’t maneuver around opponents any more than Hakeem could power straight through David Robinson.

LeBron, however, has the potential to be a different story. How fascinating would it be if LeBron could pick up Olajuwon’s post finesse? LeBron’s game would be built around contrasts: a wing who slashed with force, and a post who moved with finesse.

The former has already been proved unstoppable, when LeBron is on his game. I’m betting the latter, given LeBron’s size and speed, would prove the same.

Two bullet points about the game itself:

• It’s easy to forget how much of a winner Sam Cassell was. But man…he contributed to some excellent teams. The Rockets during their championship years. The Bucks who made the Eastern Conference Finals. The Timberwolves during the Kevin Garnett apex. The Clippers during that one weird stretch where they were good. The Celtics of ‘08. This guy was a few wins away from being another Robert Horry.
• At 34:08, Rodman commits a flagrant foul on Sam Cassell that the announcers vehemently agree with, saying he clearly wasn’t playing defense on the ball, but rather on Cassell’s body. But to me, Cassell appeared to dress up and dramatize the play. Certainly, Rodman fouled him, but Rodman was faked high into the air, and Cassell, already a much shorter player, ducked down as Rodman came down, absorbing the entire weight of the jump. It looked bad, but a close observer could see that Rodman never “grabbed Cassell’s neck” as the announcer insisted, but rather attempted to grab Cassell to keep him up on his way down. And he appeared to be attempting to make a play on the ball by blocking the shot. Rodman argues his case, then goes to the bench to pout, and yanks his shoes off in disgust, tossing them in the general direction of the court. I forgot how much I miss Dennis Rodman. Congrats on the Hall of Fame, you strange, strange man.

Why Kevin Love looks so happy to be locked out is a MYSTERY to me

This lockout feels like the first hour of a very long shift at a job you hate. At this point, you haven’t missed out on anything yet. But looking ahead, everything appears so bleak and discouraging that you have to complain about it.

However, I think it’s clear the owners are getting somewhere.

After all, the players are obviously reeling. Turning a bunch of millionaires loose with nothing but time on their hands? They are locked out of their practice facilities. They can’t have trainers and coaches screaming at them all day. In fact, they can’t talk to their trainers or coaches. The horrors. How awful for them. They are like a direction-less bunch of sheep; sheep with nothing to do but plank Porsches and hang out on the beach with women so hot they were listed as a threat to the planet in “An Inconvenient Truth”.

I know you just clicked that link and you are wondering the same thing as me: “are those women really really tall, or is Kevin actually a lot shorter than he is listed?” I wish I could tell you.

But seriously, Kevin? Shaving your head into an awesome bro-hawk? Signing with Jose Cuervo as a sponsor? Taking up professional beach volleyball? Can you try to at least LOOK like this lockout is bumming you out? Just for the rest of us who are stuck here in the midwest fantasizing about the next time we might actually get to see you in uniform. And I’m not talking about a Cuervo uniform, either, unless you can somehow convince the NBA to broadcast your beach volleyball games on League Pass.

Love was having so much fun, in fact, that it became necessary to bring him down a couple notches. WHAT’S THAT YOU SAY, KEVIN? PLAYERS IN THE NBA WERE CHEERING AGAINST THE HEAT?! KEVIN LOVE HATES THE HEAT, EVERYBODY! HE SAYS THEY ARE AWFUL PEOPLE! SPREAD IT AROUND!

(Sigh) I shouldn’t even have to do this, but Kevin’s exact wording:

[Did people around the league enjoy seeing Miami lose?] Oh yeah, great amount of joy out of it. Plus, for me, they say nice guys, good guys finish last. But Dallas, they just had a slew of great guys and veterans on their team that made for just a great team. It wasn’t just two, three, four guys on the team, like Miami I kind of felt it was. Around the league, it was kind of a consensus that guys were happy.

No, really? Guys were happy because there were some great guys in Dallas who finally won a championship…and because the Mavericks were a team rather than a group of talented individuals? That sounds ridiculous! That sounds like…the rest of America. How absurd to find that players are human beings too.

This lockout is turning us all into idiots. Actually worse…this lockout is turning us into junior high gossip girls.

So you know what? This stuff is unequivocally awesome. You know that long-ass shift I mentioned above? Love is like the coworker who makes it all a little less crappy. If this lockout manages to bum out Kevin Love, we will have a truly serious catastrophe on our hands.

Ignore all of us, 42. Party on.