Well, Hoopusters. We very nearly had a year where draft coverage would have been unnecessary. Running out draft boards for the 58th pick? Eeeahhh....

But, thanks to Al Jefferson, Mr. Robert Sarver, and a rather untimely implosion from Kevin McHale's Rockets, the Jazz bucked Hollinger's playoff odds and....well, made the playoffs. Thus we have acquired the 18th pick from them due us basically for giving them Al Jefferson. Crazy world we live it.

So, let's take a look at some names. Ones actually in the realm of possibility, who actually kind of make sense for a team that has made none for too long.

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Whelp, the Timberpuppies finally did it; they finally won an April game. That officially makes the team now 1-24 over the past three years' worth of Aprils.

So....progress (huzzah).....?

Well, tonight the Timberwolves actually found a way to play less than no defense. Not only that, but the Hornets decided to run out a game plan of outproducing Kevin Love + Nikola Pekovic, and made it work.

Chris Kamen and Jason Smith combined for 47 points on 80% (!!!!!) shooting....21-26. It hurts that a team with Eric Gordon beats us in the paint. It hurts that 1/2 of that paint duo was Jason Smith, who's only previous claim to fame is running over Blake Griffin with a cornerback-esque shoulder tackle that would have made the New Orleans Saints proud. And it hurts that the Pups went from bright and promising back to borderline-historically abysmal over the loss of just one player.

Look, Manu Ginobili missed most of the season and the Spurs didn't die. Derrick Rose the same thing, and the Bulls kept going. The Hawks lost Al Horford and didn't die (at least, anymore than they already were...) Good teams' fortunes don't rest on a single player. If the roster as a whole was any good, losing Ricky Rubio would have been a minor setback. It SHOULD have been a minor setback. Instead....well, we all know the story.

David Kahn deserves a contract extension? Whatevs....

According to our dear friends at ESPN, Kevin Love now averages 26.5 points, 13.6 rebounds, and 12 assists.

Even the Big O can't out-stat the Love machine.

That image pretty much says everything you need to know about Anthony Davis. He jumps high, reaches far, and rejects the other team like his life depends on it.

How good was he in tonight's NCAA Championship game? Well, he shot 1-10 tonight...and was still the best player on the floor by a wide margin. 16 rebounds, 5 assists, 6 blocks.

Those 6 blocks, by the way, give him the record for blocked shots by a freshman in NCAA history (183). That's also just 24 shy of the all-time everyone record set by The Admiral (for Davis, 24 blocks is just 5 games of work or so)

And oh yeah, there was a Timberwolves game tonight. Brad Miller started and apparently thought his jersey said "Love" on the back. Pekovic returned and managed to rack up 3 fouls in 2 minutes before finding his footing again. DeMarcus Cousins is barely shooting above 44% for the season but went 7-12 against us, because of course, life hates us (or because he's got a chip on his shoulder and we're apparently afraid that playing defense might be...I dunno....effective or something)

I guess you can talk about that to, if you really want...

This time, Al Harrington was held to just 9 points, and the final result was a good, old fashioned blowout. With the Wolves being on the winning end of it, for once.

• Kevin Love: 30 points, 21 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 3 blocks (!!!!!!), 0 turnovers. The end.
• Kenneth Faried gives no quarter to anyone, but the Nuggets definitely miss Danilo Gallinari's scoring touch...especially his ability to get to the free throw line. Too bad the Nuggets were smart enough to lock him up long term...I'd sure love to have a Gallo out there with Love and Rubio next year...
• Luke Ridnour burned up the nets today...25 points on 9-14 shooting. A good thing too, since he was the only point guard on the entire roster. Thank God we didn't do something stupid, like trade him.
• With Pekovic out and Darko and Williams still not earning Adelman's full trust, the Wolvbes have essentially been running with the frontcourt that worked the best from last season: Love and Anthony Tolliver. I maintain that AT was simply getting the short straw in the overcrowded frontcourt: he's a good player, and Adelman has a long and successful track record of utilizing those kinds of guys: Corliss Williamson, Keon Clark, Chuck Hayes, etc.
• The Wolves really do need to clear out the logjam in the frontcourt, and if that means trading some talented players, then so be it. We're beyond the point of simply stockpiling talent, and at a place where we can and should start addressing specific needs. The Wolves effectively have 5 rotation-worthy players for two positions (one, really, if you assume Love is going to play 40 minutes no matter what). Guys' games are getting crunched as Adelman does the necessary evil of trying to get them to compact it all into 20 minute bites
• I have a feeling Denver is going to do wonders for JaVale McGee. While he certainly has a lot of work to do, I don't think he's as dumb as he's been made out to be. Washington was badly hurting his development with a combination of terrible coaching and inexperience or selfish (or both) teammates. Being in an environment with a staff proven to develop talent and teammates who are unselfish and have veterans who lead should really jumpstart him. A couple of years from now, McGee could be an absolute monster out there. I'm all for clearing the decks and offering him top dollar.
• Next up is Memphis. Should be another prime display of trench warfare, NBA style. If there's one guy who's enough of a bruiser to make even Kevin Love wince, it's a healthy Zach Randolph.

Ok, so there were 10 extra minutes to pile it up in the box score, but seriously...

• Kevin Love's 51 points tonight sets a new Wolves' record for single game scoring, eclipsing Kevin Garnett's 47
• Love also managed to put up 51 on just 27 shot attempts, thanks to 7 made threes. He also grabbed 14 rebounds. His combination of rebounding and shooting is so rare that only one other player has had a 14 board, 7 made threes game in the past 25 years...and no, the other guy isn't named Dirk Nowitzki or Larry Bird (it's Vince Carter...imagine that...)
• We also got the return of the Anthony Tolliver we came to know and love from last season. He's looked like his old self lately. Hopefully that continues. Personally, I think he just got put in a tough spot with the overcrowded frontcourt this season. I'm more inclined to believe it just took Adelman a while to figure out what to do with him than that Tolliver somehow just randomly became bad
• We ALSO got a freakin' triple-double out of JJ Barea. What's more, he had the Thunder so vexed they were throwing triple teams at him by the second overtime. Think about that for a second
• Unfortunately, of course, the Wolves' numbers ended up being eclipsed by even more fantastic numbers from the Thunder, starting with the fact they had not one, but two players score 40+ points
• Add in James Harden's 25, and 110 of their 149 points came from just three players
• They also, despite two OTs, kept their turnovers to an impressive (or, for us, disappointing...) low of just 12
• As a whole, the Wolves once again managed to thoroughly and completely not play defense. It's becoming a sad...though not unexpected...trend sans-Rubio
• I'm still skeptical about the Thunder's frontcourt. They just seem very vulnerable there, which various teams have proven repeatedly over the season (Clippers, Spurs, Blazers....us) Even so-so or even not-good teams have beat OKC or come close by powering the ball into the paint....Jazz, Kings, Cavs...the next stretch of games will be a big test of this for the Thunder, as they play the Heat, Lakers, Blazers, and Grizzlies.
• Wolves, meanwhile, return to Target Center for a Sunday matchup against Denver and their 8 bajillion equal parts roster. Let's at least not get lit up by Al Harrington again, ok?

So, the Timberwolves didn't make any deadline trades. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. After all the years of crazy Kahnsanity, doing nothing is not only somewhat of a relief, it's practically downright inspired. Yes, the Wolves have a blinding weakness at the wing positions (although Webster has been taking some of the glare off of late). But 'fixing' that with a last-second band-aid deal that ships out a stable, highly productive player (Ridnour) to bring in an unstable ballstopper who thinks he's God's gift to the scoreboard is not smart management. Especially when the unicorn is sidelined.

But there were plenty of other teams causing chaos last week, and it was hard to make sense of it all. But with a week gone by, it actually all is making sense now. There was indeed a method to all the madness. Let's take a look at who did what, and why, generate some thoughts on the future of Puppy hoops, and even do the unthinkable: second guess Sam Presti.

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And that's both figuratively, as in there's no defense for the Wolves' performance. And literally, as in the Wolves did not play any defense in this performance.

Tony Parker plays 9 minutes total. But San Antonio got a vintage game from the Big Fundamental and another chapter in the legend of Cap'n Jack the Wolf Killer, and well....let's just hope Ricky Rubio's surgery today was successful.

Apologies about the game thread (or lack thereof)

• Today the Wolves did the opposite of putting the ball in the basket. 41% shooting, 21 turnovers. The starting 5 in fact dished just 7 assists while committing 14 turnovers
• Martell Webster is proving to be very not-terrible on the wings. He isn't the dynamic force the Wolves need, but he's been holding his own as a good complimentary player. He's averaging 7.6 points and 4 rebounds on 47% shooting (42% from three) so far this month. Let's hope that becomes a regular thing for him.
• DeMarcus Cousins is a headache, and I'm not sure there's anything the Kings can do about it. While it's troubling that he doesn't understand the game, it's even more troubling that he seems to not want to understand it. He shows no motivation, no work ethic, no desire to make significant improvements, yet has the attitude of someone who thinks the game owes him. He plays the game like it's streetball, and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. He still shoots in the low 40%. He still fouls out per/36 minutes. He'll put up 28-12 against Atlanta one night, then 9-2 against us another. That's the sign of a guy who doesn't take his profession seriously; who's just coasting on talent without putting any work behind it.
• Jason Thompson is a good player with a good future who's being underutilized and underappreciated playing alongside all the divas in Sacramento. I honestly feel kind of bad for him, and hope other teams are paying enough attention to offer him an escape from the train wreck.
• Anthony Randolph: 10 point, 9 rebounds, 2 assists in just 20 minutes. Granted he would have probably fouled out had he played anymore, but still, the line is holding true; when he plays, he produces. Not sure what else anyone needs to see from him.

Golden State is up tomorrow. It will be pretty sad if we lose that one too, considering they're very actively trying to not win.

May 31, 2004

Minnesota's season ends after 100 games and 68 victories. The Wolves posted the best regular-season in franchise history at 58-24 (earning the Western Conference's top playoff seed) and finished 10-8 in the postseason. They eliminated Denver 4-1 in the first round and edged Sacramento in seven games of their Western Conference Semifinal series. Entering the 2004 Playoffs, Minnesota had suffered an NBA-record seven consecutive first-round ousters; the Wolves were a combined 7-22 in those series.

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Some quick observations from tonight. Kevin Love stole the spotlight from Dirk's 40 point night by putting up 42. Martell Webster's game seems to be coming together. And Nic Batum would look really, really good in a Wolves' uni.

But rather than do a big write up, I'm going to leave you all with a question to debate:

Is Kevin Love/Nikola Pekovic just Kevin Love/Al Jefferson all over again?

Tonight, the Wolves played a road game without their best player against a superior team, and got beat to hell like you would expect. The magic wasn't going to last forever I guess.

• The Lakers had Rubio and Pekovic scouted. I'll be interested to see how Pek performs now that teams have had time to catch up to him. He's come back to earth over the last 5 games. Say what you will, but I think we can all agree that shooting 60-some-odd-% wasn't going to sustain the whole reason.
• You can also say what you will about Pau Gasol. If I can trade Derrick Williams and spare parts for him, I do it.
• 39% shooting. 26% from three, 55% from the line. Not going to win with that.
• Orlando has a choice between Andrew Bynum and Brook Lopez for Dwight Howard, and instead they are...in the words of His Lord Cutler Beckett...opting for oblivion. I don't understand why teams consistently hold out such false hopes. Howard is not staying in Orlando. Steve Nash will not stay in Phoenix. Has anyone learned anything from LeBron/Melo/Bosh? Get what you can while you can get it.
• I also, for the life of me, don't understand why Anthony Randolph doesn't get on the floor more. He played 12 minutes tonight....granted, 12 not very important minutes, but still....he nearly put up a double-double in that short time. When he gets on the floor, he produces. So get him on the floor.
• And for the love, find a quality wing player

For those of you who have stuck around this here blog for the last few years.....well first, you're either incredibly tough of incredibly stupid, because Puppy basketball circa 2009 nearly cracked even S-n-P's sanity.

But more to the point, you're also no stranger to the concept of the "outlier performance". You know, those random times when random players perform 1000% above their norm, and/or the team collective accomplishes something so stupendously horrible/amazing it defies the time/space continuum of the basketball universe. Things like sub 40% eFG, point guards having arguably the worst season of any professional basketball player in history (that's not just Flynn either, BTW) or the number of times I used '/' in the last sentence.

Well folks, tonight would have to be qualified as an outlier for the following reason:

Boxed in red is effectively the only shot the Timberwolves missed the entire fourth quarter of this game. Ok, they missed a couple threes in the last 0:30 when things got pathetic and the team started goofing around. But ya....think about that play-by-play. Your Wolves did not miss a shot for ten and a half straight minutes of basketball.

Michael Beasley and Derrick Williams shot a combined 20-25 (including a perfect 7-7 on threes), scoring 27 points apiece. Love exited early with a rib injury. Adelman benched Rubio and Pek. The Timberwolves won this game riding a lineup of Darko/Williams/Beasley/Webster/Barea, who scored a combined 72 points. That's a season high for a bench unit, and (if I'm not mistaken) just one point shy of tying the all time high (73 points by the Mavericks in 2002 against....us! The irony. It burns)

Oh, and the Wolves did it all wearing those Muskie jerseys too.

The last couple of weeks have just been non-stop can't compute performances.

So we'll just say it. Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio sucked tonight. Love scored 10 points on 3-14 shooting. Rubio had 6 turnover and went 1-6 on his free throws.

But hey, the Wolves still won, scoring 36 fourth quarter points behind the NBA's new super trio of....Derrick Williams, Luke Ridnour, and JJ Barea!

Yeah. Compute that.