MinnesotaSportsScene.com

The Minnesota Timberwolves improved their chances, however slightly, in the NBA Draft after winning a tie-breaker with the Memphis Grizzlies this weekend. Both the Wolves and the Grizzlies finished with 22-60 records, but the Timberwolves had rare draft-related good fortune and won the tie-breaker, placing them in the third spot in the NBA Draft, which gives them a slightly better chance in the NBA Lottery to determine draft position.

If the Wolves’ lottery chances continue to fall on the rosy side, they could advance even higher in the draft. In the worst-case scenario, they would pick no later than sixth. The Wolves’ chances of winning the top pick in the lottery is 13.8; Memphis’ chances are 13.7 after the tie-breaker. Someone with a reliable Patek needs to keep an eye on the clock on this one.

Although the Minnesota Timberwolves have been anything but as reliable as car insurance this season, I have to give them credit for not losing out, even when it endangered their lottery position. The team won two of its final four games when it might have been easier to lose them.

The final game of the season against Milwaukee was a fine example. They led early, let it slip away, then fought back to tie it up at the end, take it into overtime, and ultimately win the game. That’s not a team that’s giving up in order to improve their draft position, and they still wound up positioned in third-worst in the NBA, so they didn’t hurt their lottery chances by winning two of the final four, either.

With Al Jefferson now established as the franchise player, the Wolves go into the off-season with at chance at a Top 5 pick, and, I believe, perhaps another first-round pick in the coming draft. The team has a very talented young core group of players, though most must keep improving to make the Wolves a playoff-contending team, and with more young talent headed the Wolves’ way, they can let some of the undertalented older players go.

Along with Jefferson, I believe the Wolves will want to keep Ryan Gomes around. Keeping Sebastian Telfair, however, will ride on who the Wolves draft in July. Telfair’s a solid backup PG, and filled in nicely the first half of the season while Foye was out. But if the Wolves land a draft spot to pick the Memphis point guard who’s coming out, Telfair, a restricted free agent, will likely be allowed to sign elsewhere.

There’s plenty of talent on this team, and plenty of draft picks in this future. A 22-win season is a downer, but the future is bright. What a contrast to last season, when they won more games, still missed the playoffs, Garnett’s contract prevented them from acquiring free agent help, and they faced the propsect of losing two of their next three draft picks.

As a makeover team, rebuilding from the ground up, I’d have to say this year’s Wolves, while a work in progress, as much better to invest some hope for the future into, than last year’s edition.

Minnesota Timberwolves big man Al Jefferson, who pivots between power forward and center depending on the lineup coach Wittman sends out on the floor each night, admitted to local media sources this week that his conditioning isn’t where it needs to be for the Wolves to make the post-season and perform well in the playoffs.

This is likely a result of the trade from Boston to Minnesota; in Boston, as a younger player, Jefferson was not used quite as much as the Wolves have played him this year as a full-time starter. Jefferson’s numbers have been stellar most of the season, but in the Wolves’ six-game losing skid at the end of the season with four games to go, Jefferson’s numbers have suffered as well.

“I feel like if we were to start the playoffs in two weeks, I’d have a mental breakdown,” Jefferson told the PioneerPress earlier this week. “That’s why I’ve got to do a better job this summer of getting my body in great shape, because I plan on being in the playoffs real soon. I really feel like if we started the playoffs this year, my body would break down and I would have a mental breakdown, too.”

It’s a surprising bit of honest, but not uncommon among young players adjusting to the demanding NBA schedule; even Kevin Garnett went through it. In high school, a regular season schedule is usually about 20 games long, thought that varies from state to state. That rises to an average of about 30 games in college. But in the NBA, the schedule is 82 games long, nearly three times as many games as are played in college in the regular season.

The crowds have been sparse in this 19-win season at Target Center, but the Wolves have a young, talented roster that’s only going to improve after this summer’s draft; soon they’ll need a Bose home theater system scaled up to arena-size in order to capture the roar of the crowds, once this team hits its stride in another season or two.

It’s late in the NBA season, a time when teams with no playoff hopes are supposed to tank it to ensure a higher chance of doing well in the NBA lottery. After spending almost half of the NBA season as one of the worst teams in NBA history, not to mention the season, the Wolves are suddenly playing .500 ball and looking like a team with potential.

Just in time to move up the standings enough to lose a lot of lottery balls in this summer’s NBA Lottery and draft.

Strangely, like mortgage lenders out to sell homes in a bear real estate market, the staff of the Timberwolves, led by GM Kevin McHale, is saying the determination to win as many games as possible to close out the season is all part of some master plan.

Would that be the master plan to prevent the team from improving, perhaps? Sure, it’s nice to think the Wolves have turned the corner; but at this point in the season, winning big over the New York Knicks is no big whoop; they were a game up on us and wanted to lose, to improve their lottery chances.

So we won a game that the Knicks wanted to lose; where’s the improvment in that?

The Wolves need to learn how to win, and I can agree with McHale and company on that. But winning at the beginning and middle of a season, when it matters, is of far more importance, I think, than winning in the garbage games at the end of the season, when every team’s fate is pretty much sealed, isn’t my idea of the Wolves winning important games.

OK, so it has no Minnesota ties, but the trade of Shaquille O’Neal by Miami to the Phoenix Suns makes no sense. And I’m not saying that because I’d rather have O’Neal in Minnesota; at this point, I absolutely would not want O’Neal in Minnesota.

Yes, Shaq’s health has kept him on the shelf most of this season, so I can see how that, plus his $20 million a year makes him a liability for a team that’s competing with the Wolves for the honor of being the worst in the NBA. By jettisoning O’Neal, they are guaranteed to keep losing and perhaps beat Minnesota out for the top pick in the NBA draft. Plus they get rid of that load on the salary cap. Only trouble is, there’s no clear succession plan at center in Miami.

Still, it’s hard to imagine O’Neal’s going to rebound enough this season to make a difference for the Suns, who are getting an old and potentially at the end of his career center who might never regain his former greatness. It loads up their salary cap and robs them of younger players with potentially more upside for the long term.

Sure, it’s a lot like the Garnett trade in some respects. Except it’s not. Garnett is five years younger and in far better health than O’Neal; and the Celtics are the best team in the NBA right now, even despite Garnett sitting out the last three weeks or so with a minor injury. Garnett has five good years left in him; O’Neal may have none left, despite two more years on his contract.

At least the Garnett trade offered a value-for-value deal; I’m not sure either Phoenix or Miami will come out of this one looking like winners.

Just one night after losing to the Bulls on the road, the Wolves won on Wednesday night at home … against the same Bulls team. In a rare case of back-to-back games against an Eastern Conference opponent, the Wolves started sluggishly but finished strong to overwhelm Chicago, 83-67.

The game, which would have looked sharp on an LCD HDTV hanging on a tv wall mount, looked ugly but gave Minnesota their ninth win of the season, and their fourth win in the last six games. The Wolves have not had a cupcake schedule in that stretch, which includes wins over the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors and New Jersey Nets, as well as the Bulls. The two losses in that stretch include only Boston and the Chicago road game.

Al Jefferson had 26 points and 20 rebounds while Ryan Gomes had 25 points and 10 boards; both players were keys to the deal that sent Kevin Garnett to Boston last summer. Jefferson signed a contract extension before the season, but Gomes is looking like one of the expiring contract players the Wolves might want to keep around beyond this season.

With the win, the Wolves move to 9-36, which still gives Minnesota the worst record in the NBA by a half-game. Miami is just ahead of them at 9-35, while Seattle is a full game ahead at 10-35. Minnesota is almost certain to win at least one more game the rest of the way, which means they’ll avoid tying the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers’ record for worst NBA season ever, 9-73.

Of course, the problem is that the more the Wolves win, the worse their lottery chances in the off-season and with 36 losses already this year, a post-season berth is a very dim hope at best. There are only 37 games left in the Wolves season. Even if they kept up their current pace the rest of the way, winning two of every three games, the best record they could hope for is 33-49, which is about what the Wolves achieved the last two seasons.

Translation: it’s a bit late for the Wolves to get really hot the rest of the way, since they’d miss the post-season anyway, and push themselves to the middle of the lottery rather than near the top anyway. For the sake of the franchise, I’m hoping that we don’t see the Wolves go on a 24-13 tear the rest of the way. As nice as that might seem, it would be better if they Wolves played below-.500 ball, kept their lottery chances high, and waited until next season to really set the NBA on fire.

If I had to describe Al Jefferson and limit myself to three basic assessments of his talents, it would go something like this:

Al Jefferson is younger than Kevin Garnett.

Al Jefferson is cheaper than Kevin Garnett.

And Al Jefferson is playing better this year than Kevin Garnett.

It’s clear now why the Wolves valued Jefferson so highly and insisted he must be included in any trade involving Kevin Garnett leaving the Wolves to play in Boston; right now, it’s looking like the Celtics are the ones who missed out on stocking their franchise with the better player, not only in the future, but this season as well.

This season, Garnett is averaging 19.2 ppg and 9.9 rpg, not quite a double-double, on a talent-laden team with the best record in the NBA. This season, Jefferson is averaging 20.9 ppg and 11.9 rpg, a solid double-double, on a team that hasn’t won much, but is potentially just as talent-laden, but far younger and less experienced. The Wolves still have the worst record in the NBA.

But the tide may be turning a bit in Minnesota. While Garnett is living a veteran’s dream of being on a top team, contending for a championship, the Wolves seem to have reached bottom, figured out the problems and may be even showing signs of reversing course. The key to that reversal is Jefferson, who has played a key role in the team’s last four games, in which the Wolves have gone 3-1.

The only team they’ve lost to in that stretch? Garnett’s Celtics.

I’m not saying the Wolves are ready for prime time and should start installing bathroom vanities in every players’ locker, but it is a sign of evidence for hope. On Sunday, Jefferson reached a new career high for the second time this month, scoring 40 points while grabbed down 19 rebounds in a three-point, final-period win over the New Jersey Nets.

Add to that some key young players helping out at critical times, such as Ryan Gomes and Corey Brewer, and you have somethi And with last year’s top Wolves rookie, Randy Foye, set to return to action soon - possibly before but more likely after the All-Star Break, it’s possible things could improve yet this season for the worst team in the NBA.

After a half season of near futility, the Minnesota Timberwolves have put together back-to-back wins for the first time in the franchise’s post-Garnett era. Wednesday night’s 117-110 win over Phoenix marks the second time this season the Wolves have beaten down the Suns, who are the Western Conference’s elite team this season.

Al Jefferson hit a career-high 39 points on the night, coupled with 15 boards for a standout performance, a feat that surpasses his 32-point, 20-rebound performance against the Suns back on December 8, when the Wolves earned their third victory of the season and their first win over the Suns.

The victory nearly set off Target Center’s alarm system monitoring, due to wins being so rare this season for the Wolves; the machinery considered the victory an anomaly. Joking aside, the win moves the Wolves to 7-34 at the official halfway point of the season (41 games).

The previous victory was a Monday afternoon, 109-108 road win against Golden State on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. That followed another close road game against Denver, although that one was a loss.

The Wolves have the makings of a rare quality in Minnesota this season: momentum. If they can build on this spark of success going into the All-Star Break, the second half of the season might hold more interest for Wolves fans, beyond how each win affects the Wolves’ lottery chances.

Hold your horses! Last year’s Timberwolves rookie draftee, Randy Foye, could help turn the team’s all-time worst season ever around enough to help his team finish somewhat respectably, but his journey back to the starting lineup was been delayed unexpectedly by some unforeseen, but significant, soreness in his legs that could add at least a week to his timetable for a return.

So far, Foye has missed the entire regular season and has yet to appear in a game; while some Wolves fans are wondering if Foye will be of an age to be carrying around new pocket watches by the time he does return, his progress is actually roughly on schedule for the type of injury he suffered.

While it would certainly be encouraging to see Foye on the floor, the joy would be short-lived if he had to return to the IR because he was rushed back. Personally, I don’t look for Foye to hit the court until after the All-Star break. By then, perhaps the team will have pulled the trigger on another trade to help the team improve along with the return of Foye.

Although often playing it close, the young and inexperienced Minnesota Timberwolves, who are well on their way to the worst season ever in franchise history, may not yet be playing at a level that makes one want to drive over to Best Buy to get an HDTV complete with high-end HDMI cables just to watch their games, but the team, which only has four wins in its first 33 games, received its first bit of good news of the season this week.

Last year’s talented rookie PG, Randy Foye, was cleared to return to practice this week and could be back on the floor soon. Foye was injured in the preseason and has thus far missed the entire regular season. His return could be a difference maker, though not one that’s going to create a 30-win turnaround or anything that extravagant.

The hits just keep on coming for the Minnesota Timberwolves. And not in a good way.

On Tuesday, the Wolves found out top PG Randy Foye, who hasn’t played in a single regular-season game this season, will be out for at least another three to four weeks. The news came down following a checkup Foye had in which he hoped to be cleared to make his return.

Instead, his left knee is healing slower than expected, Foye discovered, thus the delay.

“The thought is that he’s going to ramp up his workouts a little bit more and try to do more things, but some healing needs to go on still,” Wolves GM Jim Stack told TwinCities.com. “I think Randy, because he’s a competitor, there’s a little bit of a frustration level. But I think he understands that we don’t want this to be something that’s going to be chronic down the line.”

Basketball is certainly a more enjoyable career path than selling vacuum cleaners, but I’m sure Foye would rather be selling vacuum cleaners than sitting on the sidelines, watching his teammates lose game after game by single-digit loss margins more often than not, and knowing that were he in the lineup, a few of those might have had better chances to be wins rather than close losses.

Speaking of close losses, the Wolves dropped another game Tuesday night as the second in back-to-back games Monday and Tuesday; the Philadelphia 76ers beat Minnesota, 98-94.

Wins have been rare for the new-look Minnesota Timberwolves this season, and going into Saturday’s game against Phoenix, few folks were expecting the third win of the season to come at that moment. Yet that is exactly what has happened.

C/PF Al Jefferson played up to his “young KG” billing, scoring 32 points and racking up an amazing 20 rebounds on the night while matched up primarily against Amare Stoudamire; Garnett himself rarely played better. Jefferson matched a career high on points and set a season-high on rebounds en route to the win.

With assistant Jerry Sichting handling the business performance management in the absence of head coach Randy Wittman, still recovering from back surgery, Sichting captained the Wolves to their first win under his direction and an NBA-low third win on the season so far.

One more bit of good news is that the Wolves could get Randy Foye back into their lineup, possibly as soon as Monday; Foye is the team’s preferred starting point guard, but he has missed the entire regular season so far rehabbing a pre-season injury. His role has been filled primarily by Sebastian Telfair with occassional help from Marko Jaric.