For Wolves, only two games remain
At least the torture that was the first season of the Minnesota Timberwolves under the new regime of David Kahn and Kurt Rambis will soon be over. At 15-65, and match-ups against San Antonio and Detroit remaining, it’s unlikely the Wolves will win again until next fall.
This season, the Wolves secured the second-worst record in the NBA, with only New Jersey fairing worse, and at 12 wins, even the Nets had more late-season victories than the Wolves. They will have the second-best chance of winning the NBA lottery, and if they pick any later than third in the draft, something woefully unjust will have taken place.
So, while high school basketball players are taking their SAT prep exams and hoping to land in a decent college, the Kahn-Rambis team will be studying with equal fervor to make sure the 2009-2010 season never repeats itself.
While Kahn and Rambis predicted their team was a work in progress this year, team owner Glen Taylor has indicated that he won’t tolerate back-to-back seasons like this, and will expect great strides toward improvement to be made.
One such stride would be if the Wolves can find a way to get last year’s top draft pick, Spain PG Ricky Rubio, to come to the US one season earlier than he’s currently scheduled to join the Wolves. That would help.
The draft also holds a lot of promise, and the Wolves potentially can add up to three top first-round picks, though for the youngest team in the NBA already, keeping all three picks may not be the course they choose.
Also promising is the free agent market; the Wolves will have significant cap space to work with and are intent on being a player in the bidding for big-name players. And then, Kahn has already proven last summer that he’s not shy about shuffling the desk when it comes to trades.
The important thing, however, is not merely changing the faces on the Wolves, but changing the face of the franchise from perennial losers to a team ready to rush toward a .500 record and a chance at the playoffs. Anything short of that could bring the Kahn-Rambis regime to a premature end.
But not this summer.
