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Flip Saunders to Become Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations

May 2, 2013 by 1 Comment

Washington Wizards v Atlanta HawksFollowing a tumultuous four seasons for David Kahn as president of basketball operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves, owner Glen Taylor has decided against exercising Kahn’s team option for the 2013-14 season thus ending his tenure with the organization. The now infamous Kahn has been the pin of jokes throughout the basketball community due to his disastrous job drafting, but let us not forget that the man was able to strike gold on franchise cornerstone Ricky Rubio and even helped to bring Rick Adelman to Minnesota and should be given credit where it is due.

Although Kahn was able to reshape the team’s roster and helped to bring excitement back to the state’s NBA team, his misfirings in the draft severely cost the organization. In 2009, Kahn drafted Jonny Flynn sixth overall over the likes of Stephen Curry, Brandon Jennings and DeMar DeRozan, and drafted Ty Lawson with the eighteenth pick in the same draft, only to trade him for a future first-round selection which was ultimately traded for Martell Webster. Stephen Curry set the all-time record for three-pointers made in a season this year, and Lawson has become a fringe All-Star point guard leading the Denver Nuggets.

In 2010, Kahn took Wesley Johnson with the fourth overall pick, passing up players that included Demarcus Cousins, Greg Monroe and Paul George. In 2011 he struck gold by trading for second-round selection Chandler Parsons, however ultimately selling him back to Houston for cash in Taylor’s wallet.

Taylor is expected to reach an agreement with former Timberwolves head coach and president Flip Saunders, who in nine and a half seasons as Wolves coach went 411-326 while guiding the team to eight consecutive playoff berths. The contract has not yet been finalized, but the deal is expected to run through the 2017-18 season and could be worth around $9 million over five years. Saunders is the franchises all-time winningest coach and will surely be an upgrade to Kahn as the 2013 NBA draft approaches. As it currently stands, the Timberwolves hold the 9th and 26th picks in the first round, although the draft lottery will provide the team a chance to move up from the 9th selection.

Kahn deserves his fair share of blame as there are no excuses for his failures during the draft. However, I do not believe that it is just to place 100% of the organization’s failings over the past four years solely on Kahn as he was limited by the tight budget and market for NBA basketball in Minnesota. Taylor has consistently limited Minnesota’s options whether it be in free agency or in hiring a coach, and it was not until recently that Taylor finally caved and reached into his pockets to hire a legitimate head coach in Adelman. While hiring Flip may not solve all of the organizations problems, it is a step in the right direction.

 

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How Our Pups Fared Over the 2013 NBA All-Star Weekend

February 18, 2013 by
Ricky and Alexey

Ricky Rubio and Alexey Shved were both participants of the 2013 Rising Stars Challenge.

This year’s All-Star Weekend has very little to do with this season’s Timberwolves roster and that’s unfortunate for a number of reasons.  I will only mention this in the beginning and then move on to more positive thoughts and highlights from the weekend.  The Pups don’t have anyone playing in Sunday’s All-Star Game due to the injuries Kevin Love has suffered.  Also worth noting is that second year pro Derrick Williams couldn’t do enough to get into the Rising Stars game despite Love’s injury.

OK, that’s enough of a recap of how bad things have gone for the Wolves this season.  Let’s concentrate on the positives – Ricky Rubio and Alexey Shved were asked to participate in the Rising Stars game.  Ricky was a late addition to the game given his turnaround over the past few weeks, his global appeal, and the fact that his flair is absolutely perfect for this weekend.

The glass-half-full view allows us to also gloat that David Kahn signed Alexey Shved this past offseason and he has been nothing short of solid for the Pups thus far this season.  At the break Alexey is averaging 10.5 ppg and 4.4 apg.  While his shooting percentages have tailed off, he has been a little bit of a savior for the team given all of the injuries they have had to absorb.

Here are a few highlights Rubio’s performance in Friday night’s Rising Stars game:

  • Despite being a late entry into the game itself, they put Rubio in the starting lineup.
  • Early and often, Rubio looked to drop dimes to the rest of Team Chuck.  In the first few minutes, Rubio’s passes were slightly off, broken up, or his teammates didn’t finish the play.
  • However, things got rolling shortly thereafter.  Towards the very end of the 1st half, this between the legs, no look pass to Bradley Beal happened; amazing!
  • In just over 15 minutes of play, Rubio finished with 10 assists.  Ironically, he was the only player on Team Chuck with a negative +/-, at -2.  The highlights were worth it.

Beyond Kenneth Faried’s MVP performance and Kyrie Irving’s sick dribbling display late in the game, I’m not sure anyone else stole the show as much as Shved in the Rising Stars game.  Here are some highlights:

  • Shved was the first player to come into the game off either bench, likely in an effort to get him on the court with Rubio.
  • Throughout the game, Shved showed off the entire package – slick passes, three point shooting, and a handful of athletic dunks; that included a nice reverse dunk off of a lob pass.
  • At the very end of the game, there was a dunk-off and Faried gave the ball to Shved to try one more dunk.  The dunk itself would have been spectacular … if it didn’t clang off the rim.  Doh!
  • In 18 minutes of play, Shved finished with 12 points and 4 assists.
  • Great performance from Alexey, and it seemed to open up the eyes of the broadcast team (which I don’t know how I feel about that if watching basketball is your job…).  In any case, Chris Webber provided the following, “I tell you what, I’m gonna be watching the Minnesota Timberwolves, baby”

Beyond the BBVA Rising Stars game, there were only a few more references, highlights, etc. that involved the Timberwolves.

Kevin Love was doing some promotional work for Sprint during the celebrity game earlier Friday night and said that his hand was feeling well and he was about a month away from returning.  Hinted at hoping there were meaningful games left to play.  (Nope)

There was very little Wolves-related content on Saturday night’s festivities, unless you want to count a few highlights from past performances.  We saw clips of Love’s winning performance in the 2012 3PT contest over Durant.  In the highlight montage for the Dunk Contest, you saw Isaiah Rider’s East Bay Funk Dunk as well as one of Gerald Green’s dunks.  For those that don’t remember, Green won the contest in ’07 as a Boston Celtic and finished second to Dwight Howard (ugh) in ’08 as a Timberwolf.  The NBA production team showed one of Green’s dunks from his ’08 performance.

Admittedly, I had to skip live coverage of the All-Star Game on Sunday to play the role of a husband.  (Kidding …)  In flipping through the DVR after seeing the final 10 minutes or so, there was virtually nothing Wolves related, excluding a commercial for NBATickets.com that starred Al Horford of the Hawks and our own Ricky Rubio.

(Unrelated to the Wolves, if you enjoy basketball history, please do yourself a favor and watch NBA TV’s Mr. Russell’s House Monday night.  Bill Russell’s interviews are always top-notch.)

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Ricky Rubio Injury Update: Rubio Ahead of Schedule?

November 27, 2012 by

Ricky Rubio Injury Update

On Monday, Ricky Rubio began a three-day visit in Vail, Colorodo to visit Dr. Richard Steadman for what may be his final checkup with the doctor before he begins contact practice with the team. The initial prognosis of having Tricky Ricky return around Christmas or later appears to no longer be the case as it is very likely that Ricky may be cleared for unrestricted contact practice beginning November 29.

After witnessing the triumphant return of Kevin Love weeks ahead of schedule, a similar optimism has become tied with Ricky’s return. Although getting back K-Love has unquestionably improved the team, it remains apparent that the platoon at PG of Luke Ridnour, JJ Barea, and Malcolm Lee is simply nowhere in comparison to what Rubio brings to the table.

David Kahn has continued to state that there remains no timetable on Rubio’s return, but after seeing Love return seemingly out of nowhere, it appears that the Timberwolves brass likes to keep this type of information under wraps. Should Ricky return to practice this Thursday, probable dates for his return are December 7 at home against Cleveland or December 12 at home versus Denver.

The Timberwolves have desperately missed Rubio’s perimeter defense and playmaking abilities on offense. To put it simply, the team flows so much better with their Spanish, floppy-haired PG on the floor and pairing him with Alexey Shved in the backcourt should be some fun to watch.

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Josh Howard Signs with Timberwolves

November 15, 2012 by

The first shoe has dropped in the injury plagued start of the Pups season and, as Chris Broussard first reported, the team has reached an agreement with Josh Howard to join the club.  Howard has had a very solid, if not spectacular, career.  Ndudi Ebi anyone?  David Kahn again turns to past Wolves FO mistakes on draft night to try to sure up the team’s rotation as they fight through the injury bug.

Given that the Wolves were already at the roster limit of 15, this means someone has to go.  That someone is Will Conroy – a small signing that Kahn and company made this offseason to play back, back, back-up PG.  More importantly, Conroy is best buds with Brandon Roy, so that likely made their transition to Minnesota that much easier.

(I already typed the following italicized thoughts up before the team made the announcement that Conroy was waived.  I’m going to leave this in here and let others react to it.  Here are two thoughts that I had that could have been additional options as the Howard signing was announced, while the waiving of Conroy had yet to be reported. 

One option was to consider cutting Malcolm Lee instead of Conroy.  Why would the Wolves do this?  I’m not saying this is the right mindset, but there could be a level of appeasement here for Brandon Roy to keep Conroy on the squad and let Lee go to see if he can find another opportunity around the league.  Lee is clearly better than Conroy, but maybe there was something in the locker room worth trying to keep around with Conroy.  Clearly, we have an answer on that now.)

A second option, which I believe is what the team was doing in that small period of time, is having Kahn and the Wolves work the phones to try to find a team that will take on DWill, or a package of DWill and Lee for a draft pick (and/or a player if the team is looking to include two members of the current squad).  Clearly, DWill is not going to cut it in Adelman’s rotation when this team gets healthy.  Adding another veteran like Josh Howard just limits DWill’s own minutes that much more. 

So those were two additional thoughts.  I’m going to work through the NBA trade machine this weekend to come up with some deals that might make sense for DWill and put them on the site.  Let’s get back to our regularly scheduled blog entry…)

Going back to Howard, I think this is a very good deal for the Pups.  He has a high basketball IQ.  While his career has certainly started to tail off recently, he will be another veteran presence and someone that “gets it”.  He’s also playoff tested and proven.  The signing also allows Adelman to give AK47 some much needed rest, as he’s been playing 40+ mpg for the past week.

While I’ve done my fair share of questioning Glen Taylor over the years, I’m glad he was willing to make a move like this and throw some more money into the pot.  Speaking of, hopefully those issues are gone for Josh Howard and that isn’t a distraction anymore.  Yes, we’re speaking in code to close out this write-up.

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Chase Budinger Out Three Months with Torn Meniscus

November 13, 2012 by

Associated Press – Nam Y. Huh

Three weeks into the NBA season and the Pups are having a rough go at it.  Not from a record standpoint, as the team remains near the top of Northwest Division, but on the injury front.  Here’s what the last week has presented to the Wolves and their fans.

Last Wednesday, JJ Barea mildly sprained his ankle while diving for a loose ball in the 4th quarter of a blow-out win vs. Orlando.  Why?  Even JJ doesn’t know why he did this, but he did and the injury forced him to miss the next three games.  JJ is currently listed as day to day this week.

In the next game against Indiana, Brandon Roy never came out of the locker room for the 2nd half.  It was later reported that Roy had soreness in his degenerative right knee.  Brandon has since missed the last two games because of the injury and is also listed as day to day.  It sounds like there is a very good chance of Roy being ready for Wednesday’s game vs. Charlotte.

The very next night in Chicago, Chase Budinger tore his meniscus in his knee and a timetable for his return will be announced after the surgery.  Woj is reporting this morning that the surgery was completed earlier today (by Dr. James Andrews …) and Budinger will likely miss up to three months.

Finally, in last night’s game against Dallas, Nikola Pekovic rolled his ankle and didn’t return to the game.  I don’t expect Pek to be out very long though.  Why?  Let’s let him answer those questions, “I didn’t hurt nothing, just a lot of pain” and “I don’t use crutches”.  Those were his quotes on the injury after the game.  If anyone in the NBA deserves a “beast mode” tag, it should go to Pek.

So, this brings up a few questions and thoughts.  What in the world did the franchise do to deserve this?  Haven’t the Wolves paid enough for all of the bad decisions made over the past twenty-something years?  What does this mean for the team in the short and long term?

In the short term, this of course adds up to awful news for the team, who are already missing their two cornerstones until mid-December (in a best case scenario).  The team must make do without five guys in what would be Adelman’s regular rotation and adds pressure to the few remaining willing and able wings on the roster.  Everyone will need to step up, but allow me to be a bit pessimistic for the next few paragraphs.

Andrei Kirilenko has been an absolute blessing thus far this season.  He has done a little bit of everything.  However, he will now need to carry a larger burden of the scoring.  Will he be able to do this?  How will his body hold up given the presumed extra minutes he’s going to receive?  Only time will tell.

Derrick Williams has been wildly inconsistent to start the season, which isn’t too much of a surprise.  However, DWill has to step up.  He cannot produce one night and lay an egg the next.  Quite frankly, I don’t have high hopes here and it doesn’t feel or look like Adelman does either right now.

Alexey Shved has provided solid minutes from his backup, rotational spot.  How, or can he match up with starting two guards in the league?  Will his flaws become more visible and problematic for the team with increased minutes and playing more against starters?

Can the team get net-positive results from Malcolm Lee and/or Will Conroy?  Is it even fair to set these expectations?  In Monday’s game in Dallas, Lee got the starting nod and didn’t look great, but made enough plays to warrant more time there if/when needed, which would also allow Shved to come off the bench in a 6th man role.

Longer term, this puts another caveat into this season’s goal of making the playoffs.  There will likely be added pressure on the team come January/February to start winning at a greater percentage in order to make it to the playoffs as the team’s cornerstones return.  Roy and Budinger’s injuries are big question marks that may (more likely, will) have an impact throughout the year, but the others should be back sooner rather than later.  At this point, I believe the team will need to tread water for the rest of November.  The team plays every other day this week through Friday (including last night’s win in Dallas), and are then off until next Wednesday, which may be a small blessing in an otherwise crazy start to the season.

Let’s focus on Chase Budinger’s injury for a second, as JJ Barea should return soon and Brandon Roy’s knee injuries are well documented and should now be expected to be an on again, off again item for much of this season.  In a limited amount of games, Budinger had already proven to be a valuable commodity for the Wolves.

At the time of the injury, Chase was the second leading scorer on the team at 11.8ppg.  He was also throwing in 3.5rpg and 1spg.  Most importantly, Chase was clearly option 1A or 1B on shooting from three point range, depending on how you feel about Luke Ridnour.  At the same time, it looked like he was getting more and more acclimated to his teammates and building confidence in his own game.  So naturally, the injury had to occur now.

While very cliché, the healthy Pups that remain on the floor are going to have to collectively make up for these missing points and the outside shooting that Chase was providing.  A few guys – particularly Roy upon his return and Shved – will need to quickly find their outside jumpers that have been missing so far this season.  The team’s PG’s are also going to have to become more effective jump shooters as well and do a better job at spacing the floor.

Naturally, another option would be for the team to go out and sign another player.  However, the Wolves have virtually no flexibility with the cap and only have the veteran’s minimum to offer.  Who could this go to?  Here’s a very short list of player’s available that I would consider: Mickael Pietrus, Josh Howard, and/or Ryan Gomes.  If you really want to drive yourself crazy, we can talk about expediting Troy Hudson’s comeback to the NBA.  (Let’s not)

Net/net, the injuries have continued to mount for the Wolves, but I have to say that in watching the past handful of games, this year’s roster is light years ahead of last year’s squad.  Their ability to overcome deficits and the injuries to Love and Rubio have been highly commendable.  However, we are certainly teetering on the edge of the cliff of not being able to make up for all of the injuries this team is enduring.

Here’s to a speedy recovery to all of the Wolves and to a healthy 2013!  (Please?!)

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Timberwolves October 2012 in Review

November 3, 2012 by

To begin the month of October, John gave us his ideas on the All-Time Timberwolves 1st & 2nd Teams. Next, we revisited last year’s Timberwolves beard contest and John gave us a synopsis of the beginning of Timberwolves 2012 training camp.

Rumors began surfacing that Kevin Love was unhappy with the result of last season’s contract negotiations and would have rather preferred getting a 5-year max contract extension as opposed to the 4-year deal he received. For fun, we looked back on the botched high five hit on YouTube between former T-wolf Wes Johnson and Kevin Love.

In a miserable turn of events, Kevin Love broke his wrist doing knuckle push-ups with the initial prognosis being 6-8 weeks of missed games.

We also looked at the newest Timbertrolls video and how Kevin Love and Larry Fitzgerald teamed up to raise awareness for Breast Cancer Awareness month. I contributed to a NBA and Timberwolves round-table season preview post to our friends over at STOB Blog.

John gave his thoughts on where the Timberwolves stand in the Western Conference in his 2012-13 Western Conference Preview. We even went over the remarkably absurd news of Troy Hudson getting a comeback opportunity from the Timberwolves. Finally, we reviewed the Timberpups poll results for the month which gave indication that Andrei Kirilenko was the biggest offseason addition.

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Troy Hudson Getting Comeback Opportunity from T-Wolves

October 29, 2012 by

Yes, you read that right. And no, you are not on the Onion Sports website, either. Despite not having played in the NBA since being released by the Golden State Warriors in 2008, the Minnesota Timberwolves have agreed to sign free agent point guard Troy Hudson to a D-League contract as T-Hud (Or T-Thud) attempts to make a comeback to the NBA.

From a personal standpoint, I do not view Hudson’s NBA prospects in a particularly optimistic light. Even in his best days for the Timberpups, Hudson was an overpaid ball-hog – for lack of better phraseology – and as fun as it was to watch him some nights, I cannot imagine that at age 36 he has much left, if anything, in the tank.

It remains unclear regarding Hudson’s true intentions to get back into the NBA; perhaps he needs money, as the rap industry essentially turned him the cold shoulder as it did to many of his professional comrades. I can say with a certain confidence that T-Hud is not going to escape from Sioux Falls a Pup, unless David Kahn truly is a nut job. In that case, I’ll most likely stop covering the Wolves.

The Southern Illinois grad previously spent 5 seasons playing for the Wolves spanning 2002-07, and averaged 9.0 ppg and 3.4 apg in 11 seasons.

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