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VOTW – Wesley Johnson Pre-Draft Workout

May 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment

In the spirit of yesterday’s NBA Lottery and the continued lack of luck on the Timberwolves side during said event, let’s take a look back to one of the most painful memories in franchise history. Yes, you read that correctly. I truly believe Wes Johnson to be one of the top three to five misses in franchise history. This is not an irrational decision to talk about more recent events as “the worst” or anything like that. Boy Scouts salute, I wholeheartedly believe that drafting Wes Johnson was an AWFUL decision of somewhat epic proportions.

Take a look at this video, courtesy of Canis Hoopus. Exactly what did David Kahn and company see in this workout to rave about Wes? I stopped counting the number of times I heard a clang on the rim just a minute or two in. He missed five of his first six in the tape and JB decides to move to another spot on the floor. This would be hysterical if he wasn’t drafted weeks later by the same team. To be fair, Wes did get “hot” at that next spot on the floor … but, you do realize this is shooting open jumpers without anyone in his face, right? Where is the Chairman, Yi Jianlian, when you need him for a workout?

The interview with Wes goes right into how he will be able to adjust to the NBA from a defensive standpoint, given his time at Syracuse. This wouldn’t be painfully infuriating if we had not taken Jonny Flynn a year prior and saw similar struggles.

The video then cuts to David Kahn’s interview with the media, where he first gives Jerry Zgoda a good ribbing – although some of Jerry’s questions later on get him back (Flynn vs. Curry). Kahn immediately goes into an excuse for some of the struggles in the workout (his toe). You typically don’t need to make excuses for the players you invite to tryouts. Some doozies from Kahn’s interview: “He has a beautiful stroke”, “He clearly can run”, “He can help us with that (shooting) almost immediately”. Do I even need to follow-up on any of those comments?

Try to enjoy this and remember, things will get better for this franchise. Someday …

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VOTW – Twolves Rising Stars

May 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment

While this week’s “Video of the Week” may get your blood boiling if you think back to this era for too long, it should also be a fond memory of some of the few good ole days in the Pups history. Ahmad Rashad hosted ‘Rising Stars’ and in this edition, they focused on the up and coming Twolves Rising Stars.

With Stephon Marbury joining KG and Googs, things looked to be on the up and up and the promise land would be reached in only a matter of time. We know what happened not too far down the road, but rather than focus on the negative, let’s remember the good days of this version of the big three.

I tend to forget how good Gugliotta was while he was playing for the Wolves. He was good for a solid 17 & 8 or so every night during his tenure. KG was making his meteoric rise and the pairing with Marbury injected a level of hope the franchise had never sniffed prior.

Enjoy this week’s VOTW – including interviews from Flip and McHale and awkward celebrations from Googs and the team.

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Timberwolves VOTW – Christian Laettner Highlights

April 28, 2013 by Leave a Comment

 

I cannot tell a lie; while I have been a fan of the Timberwolves since their inception, the drafting of Christian Laettner put my fandom over the edge and drove me to diehard status. Yes, that is a true story and please, do not judge me.   This week’s VOTW takes us back to Laettner’s NBA career with some mixed beats in the background for your listening pleasure. The majority of the highlights here are from his early career in Minnesota and Atlanta.

Laettner will always be remembered as one of the greatest NCAA athletes of all time. His NBA career will likely be remembered something like this: not Shaq or Zo, taken 3rd by the Wolves, never really panned out*, became a pain in the ass to the franchise and was subsequently moved like most other Wolves’ first round picks.

You may have noticed the asterisk in the paragraph above. While I believe this is the perception for Christian, it isn’t necessarily reality. No, he was not Shaq or Zo, but he certainly didn’t embarrass himself (on the court) in the NBA. He was good for a near double-double every night and while that didn’t lead to wins for the Wolves, it wasn’t really his fault.

For those that don’t recall, Laettner was traded to the Hawks for the expiring contracts of Spud Webb and Andrew Lang. That isn’t what you would necessarily call ‘optimizing your trade assets’. After playing for the Hawks, Laettner went on to become much more of a (small) role player for Detroit, Washington, and Miami. Christian retired the year before the Heat won their first championship.

Hope you enjoy this week’s VOTW …

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VOTW – Felton Spencer Meets Mr. Perfect

April 7, 2013 by

“With the sixth pick of the 1990 NBA Draft, the Minnesota Timberwolves select … Felton Spencer, Senior, Louisville University” … or something similar to that from Commissioner Stern. Hilarity ensued. This week’s VOTW takes us back to Spencer’s career highlight with the Timberwolves, filming a WWE clip with Mr. Perfect, Curt Hennig. I’m not sure which is worse, Spencer’s acting or Hennig’s form on his jump shot.

For those of you who don’t remember, or never knew, Spencer had an anticlimactic career. The Timberwolves front office managed to ruin any chance he had for success when they went ahead and took Luc Longley with the seventh pick of the 1991 draft. (The franchise has always had a penchant for success on draft night.) Spencer had two decent years in Utah before rupturing his Achilles during the ’94-’95 season. His career never recovered from there as he became an end of the rotation big man for several teams until he retired in 2002.

Enjoy the early 90’s cheesiness of this week’s VOTW!

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VOTW – George Mikan

March 19, 2013 by

Here’s a real throwback for you – a relatively quick reel on Minnesota’s greatest basketball player, George Mikan.  “The NBA’s first superstar” was the dominant force of the newly named/formed NBA in 1949.  His career numbers tell the story for itself, as Mikan led the Minneapolis Lakers to the NBA title in 1950 and 1952-1954 (along with a BAA title in 1949 – the season before the merger with the NBL).

This YouTube clip starts off with the commercial Mikan filmed for/with Sportscenter – back when SC as I knew and loved it existed.  How often do you find yourself saying “remember when they used to use the chest pass” and other ‘throwback’ moves.  (Insert praise for Ricky Rubio here)

You have to love the story in the clip regarding playing his brother and breaking his nose during one of their match-ups on the court and then telling his mother that he would do the same to her if she had been out there.  That is a level of desire that only the true greats possess.

Take a trip down Nostalgia Avenue for a few minutes with this clip.  Timberwolves fans, please note that there was a bright spot in Minneapolis basketball, it just happens to be back in the 1950’s.  All we can do is sit and wait for these great moments from the Pups.

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Timberwolves VOTW: Crunch Kills the Miami Harlem Shake

March 13, 2013 by

The Minnesota Timberwolves digital team strikes again with another gem.  After the Miami Heat released their Harlem Shake video – which I still don’t fully understand this craze, but that is neither here nor there as I’m 85 years old – the YouTube hits continued to climb.  Well, the Wolves staff countered with this beauty, enlisting Crunch to do the damage to the poor soul in the video.

With almost four million views on YouTube at the time of this posting, we surely aren’t the only ones who loved this week’s VOTW!  Well done Timberwolves, well done!

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Timberwolves VOTW: Doug West Highlights

February 25, 2013 by

Continuing our throwback theme thanks to the power of the Internet and Youtube, here we find a nice highlight reel and collection of one of the greatest Wolves of all time, Doug West. This seems like an appropriate time to remind you of one of the first articles I wrote for Timberpups was my first and second all-time teams which included Doug West. As you can see in this video, Doug had tremendous athletic ability back in the day.

West was an original Pup, drafted in the 2nd round of the team’s first NBA draft in 1989. While it took him two years to adjust to the NBA and “get it”, he went on to have four solid seasons with the team between’91/’92 through 94/’95. After several down seasons, he was traded to the Vancouver Grizzlies for Anthony Peeler before the trading deadline on 2/18/98.

Enjoy the highlights!

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