MinnesotaSportsScene.com

After a hope-building win to start the season, the Minnesota Timberwolves have now lost eight straight games to get off to yet another disappointing start under third-year head coach Randy Wittman. Now standing at 1-8, their hopes for achieving at least a 5-5 record in the first 10 games is blown to smithereens.

While the Wolves have plenty of young talent, even with the addition of Mike Miller, they simply haven’t come into their own just yet, and their “W” column looks like a supermodel on cheap diet pills.

Still, there are signs of hope, right?

Not really. Not at this point. Sorry.

It means pretty much nothing, except that maybe Minnesota is playing more of its regular season starters for more minutes during the exhibition season. But for those trivia lovers out there, the Timberwolves did improve to 5-1 on the preseason, winning Sunday night 111-107 over the Denver Nuggets.

Rarely does pre-season success suggest anything for the regular season. Still, the Wolves have been down for so long now, any sign of hope is a positive thing for Randy Wittman’s crew. The line on Minnesota’s big stars was as follows:

Ryan Gomes scored 20 points on 8-for-14 shooting from the field for the Timberwolves (5-1). Mike Miller had 17 points, Al Jefferson added 15, Craig Smith 13 and Randy Foye 12. Foye also had 15 assists.

If the team can manage to play like this, they should be able to get off to a decent start on the season. But that’s a big if, considering Nuggets coach George Karl held back so many starters that former Timberwolf reserve Anthony Carter led the Nuggets in scoring.

Like I said, bet your wireless router on this little nugget: preseason success means nothing in basketball.

Timberwolves rookie forward Kevin Love has a lot of learning to do, and if coach Randy Wittman has his way, it will be defense that Love, and the rest of the team, learn first. In year two of the post-Garnett era, Wittman is again preaching defense to a team still looking to find an identity the way real estate lovers are looking for Outer Banks rentals.

Part of the identity issue was solved last season when Al Jefferson, the cornerstone of the trade that sent Garnett to Boston, asserted himself as the team’s top big man, posting better numbers than Garnett most of the season, despite being on a losing team while Garnett rode the Celtics to his first NBA Title.

Love will be part of the mix this year, but whether he plays starter minutes alongside Jefferson or comes in off the bench alongside Jason Collins remains to be seen.

When Kevin Garnett was still a Timberwolf, he usually made in a single season what it will take Ryan Gomes five years to earn under the terms of his new contract with Minnesota. Gomes, arguably the second-most-important cog in the Kevin Garnett trade last summer, was an unrestricted free agent this off-season.

Although coming off another poor year for the Wolves in terms of wins and losses, Gomes is the kind of young, high-potential, high-character talent Minnesota was hoping to build around in the wake of the Garnett trade. Only 25 and still improving his skills each year, Gomes averaged 12.6 ppg and 5.8 apg, but is considered a locker room asset for the largely young and less experienced Wolves team McHale has assembled thus far. Gomes may be past his acne years, but he’s still a young player by NBA standards.

After the Wolves tested the free agent market for alternatives and PG Sebastian Telfair tested it for other suitors, the two parties reunited last week, as the Wolves signed unrestricted free agent Sebastian Telfair to a new contract. Terms were not disclosed, but it is a multi-year deal. At least Telfair didn’t opt for massage therapy schools over the Wolves.

One would hope the Wolves didn’t overpay, as has been their habit over the years, but at least Telfair is a solid backup point guard who can step in as starter when needed. Averaging 9.3 ppg and 5.9 apg, he’s exactly the kind of role-player that made last year’s trade of Kevin Garnett to the Boston Celtics so appealing for the long-term improvement of the Wolves.

Telfair is the second free-agent to re-sign with the Wolves; Craig Smith did so not too long ago. Ryan Gomes, possibly the second-most-important cog in the Garnett trade, behind Al Jefferson, remains unsigned, as does second-round draftee Chris Richard. Both are expected to re-sign with the Wolves.

On paper, Minnesota’s trade with Philadelphia last week made little sense. Minnesota received John Carney, Calvin Booth, and a first-round draft pick from the 76ers. And in return, Philly didn’t even get a player; they got what they needed most, though… something Minnesota couldn’t even give them directly: Elton Brand.

Brand, one of the hottest players on the free-agent market this off-season, did indeed sign with Philadelphia following the move. Minnesota, in turn, gets a couple players and a pick, and sets themselves up to have a lot of cap space available in 2009 and 2010.

And 2010 is a year the Wolves want to be among the players in free-agency, because of who will be available then. Sure, there are some big names: Joe Johnson, Amare Stoudemire, Tracy McGrady, Michael Redd, Chris Bosh, Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade.

But the biggest name of all is the name that could put Minnesota back on the superstar map, a name that would make people actually wipe from memory
the Garnett era. It’s a name that, teamed with the core players Minnesota is putting together, would make the Wolves a perrennial championship franchise for years and years to come.

That name, of course, is LeBron James. In 2010, he’ll be 25, a free agent, and he’d look good in black-green-and-blue.

When I first heard that the Timberwolves were smart enough to take O.J. Mayo with their third pick in the NBA Draft last Thursday, I was thrilled. When I heard the next morning they’d traded him overnight to Memphis for a player they could have had anyway, I was not so thrilled.

Correction: I was pissed as hell.

But I’ve had time to calm down now and look at the team the Wolves are left with as a result of the trade, and surprise, it’s not looking quite so bad at the moment. In fact, it’s looking pretty good.

For those who aren’t in the know because they were away on European cruises, here’s the skinny on the deal:

The Wolves sent O.J. Mayo to Memphis, along with Greg Buckner, Marko Jaric and Antoine Walker. In that group, the only real loss is Mayo. But then there’s what we get in return.

First, we get PF/C Kevin Love, who Memphis drafted, and who the Wolves liked quite a bit, despite drafting Mayo. In addition, we get Mike Miller, Jason Collins and Brian Cardinal. Miller is the catch of the deal, while Jason Collins is an upgrade at center and will be paired with Love at that position, taking the pressure off Al Jefferson and allowing him to switch back to PF.

Going into the draft, Minnesota was weak in the front court and had a fair amount of dead weight on their roster, most especially Jaric with three years and $21 million left on his deal, wasting cap space, as well as one year and $9 million for Walker, who didn’t want to be a Wolf anyway.

Now, take a look at our starting and second-string lineup for the Wolves:

PG Randy Foye, Sebastian Telfair
SG Mike Miller, Rashad McCants
SF Ryan Gomes, Corey Brewer
PF Al Jefferson, Craig Smith
C Kevin Love, Jason Collins

That’s an improvement. Is it enough to get out of the lottery and into the playoffs? It all depends on how the pieces fit, but the Wolves have about $6 million in cap space for free agency this year, which may be spent on retaining Gomes and Telfair; they also have potentially three first-round and two second-round picks in next year’s draft, depending on if they must send the LA Clippers the pick they owe them or not, from the disastrous Jaric trade. And they expect to have about $18 million free under the cap for free agency in the summer of 2009.

Not bad.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are doing their homework on all the players who they might potentially choose later this week with the third overall pick in the NBA Draft; they’ve run them through their paces on and off the court and held everything but competitions in swimsuits. And that may be coming yet.

Although the team has been the subject of many trade-down rumors and at least one trade-up rumor (to snag Beasley and give Miami a shot at Mayo), indications are the the Wolves may be looking seriously at keeping the third pick and, barring changes in the draft above them, taking Mayo to give the Wolves a back-court combo of O.J. Mayo and Randy Foye, with Rashad McCants and Sebastian Telfair backing them up.

While that could set up the Wolves’ backcourt for the next decade, the question is whether it is what the Wolves need to turn the corner; the Wolves have no lack of young talent now, thanks to the Garnett trade and this is one of the rare cases where a trade-down (perhaps two spots or so) might make sense, if it brings in a veteran small forward or center, and still gives the Wolves a chance to draft someone they like, such as Brook Lopez or Kevin Love.

We’ll know soon which route they choose. The draft is scheduled for Thursday, June 26.

Well, the game ended and Garnett and company did the unlikely; they erased an 18-point half-time deficit and came back against the odds, on the road in Los Angeles, to win Game 4 and return to Boston up 3-1 against the Lakers, winning by a final margin of 97-91.

Believe me, if Boston wins the next game and takes home the trophy in five games, there will be plenty of small business opportunitites in celebrating the Celtics’ return to glory. From a Minnesota perspective, it’s the second-best possible news for the former home state of Kevin Garnett.

The best-possible news, of course, would be if he’d been doing all this as a Timberwolf.

As a long-time Timberwolves fan, it’s hard not to be happy for Kevin Garnett as he goes through his first NBA Finals appearance as a player; after trying to win a gold bangle or two during a dozen years in Minnesota, the Big Ticket is finally realizing his dream.

As I write this, Boston’s making a hard second-half push to win Game Four and take the series back home to Boston with a 3-1 advantage over the Lakers. Strangely, the big stars on both teams are relatively quiet; Garnett has only 14 points for Boston and Kobe Bryant has a mere 13 ponits for the Lakers.

The score is 83-82 as I write this, with the Lakers up by one. Here’s hoping and praying that Garnett can pull out the road win with the help of Paul Pierce and Ray Allen. It’d be a great feather in Garnett’s cap after too many years surrounded by not enough talent to get the job done in Minnesota.

Former Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders has been fired by the Detroit Pistons. His crime? Only that he took the team to the Eastern Division championship series in all three of his seasons in Detroit. I guess that’s not good enough for some folks; it’s an NBA title or you’re gone.

Of course, with all the blinds on management’s eyes in Detroit, I suppose it’s hard to blame them; all they want to see is championship gold or nothing. Never mind that Flip’s teams have been among the top four every year in the last three years.

I wouldn’t worry too much about Saunder, though. He’ll be well-paid for the year left on his contract, and he’ll have his pick of NBA jobs once he’s ready to jump back into the fray.

There’s only one thing I wish the local sports press would shut up about, already: Stop wishing Tubby Smith would move away from Minnesota so that Flip can coach the Gophers.

I guarantee you, Tubby’s a better college coach than Flip will ever be, because Tubby’s been a college coach all his career! For the long-term good of the Gophs, now’s not the time to start pushing Tubby out the door. Personally, I hope he coaches the Gophs for at least the next decade, and retires at Minnesota.

Then, perhaps, Flip can have the job. In the meantime, Flip should continue coaching in the NBA. Unless the Wolves rehire him, he’ll be able to go through another couple NBA jobs and still be available 10 years down the line, when Tubby retires from college basketball after taking the Gophers to at least seven Sweet 16s, four Final Fours, and at least one NCAA championship.

The Minnesota Timberwolves will return to their original radio home, AM 1130 KFAN, beginning next season, just in time for the team’s 20th year of existance. The Wolves spent 17 years on KFAN before jumping ship to BOB 106 FM, a country music station, the past two seasons. Arbitrons suffered greatly, and in returning to KFAN, the Wolves return to a station that has an all-sports format.

While the station has not yet named a Wolves broadcast team, it is widely believed that Chad Hartman, a KFAN mainstay and longtime broadcaster with the Wolves, will play a central role. No longer the pimply-faced kid he was 20 years ago, Hartman is now an industry vet with no need for acne treatments.

We’ll be listening closely throughout the franchise’s 20th anniversary season.