For the "Love is insulted by the Wolves contract offer!". In fact, it's already arrived here. I would suspect that next will come the "Love wants to go to California / Portland / Dallas" next. Or the "Love wants to test free agency in two summers!"

First off, I have the usual problem with ANYTHING reported by Shooter. However, he does have some access to Powers That Be in the Wolves (is Kahn now a Power That Was?). But why would anyone run with this as if it were fact?

As sometimes happens on the Interwebs, Pro Basketball Talk took what was basically an unconfirmed rumor in a local paper and is now implying a) that it is factual and b) that Love will be insulted. Neither of which is even remotely certain.

IF it is true, as the article admits (you have to read a couple of paragraphs to get there), all it means is that the Wolves are offering max or near-max money for 4 years to Love. Yes, they could offer an additional year which has a 7% increase in salary, but there are a couple of different ways to read that (more after the jump), most of which aren't exactly insulting to Love, and may actually be what he wants.

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"It's always a good night when you can talk about Moses Malone".  1 year and 2 days ago, KLove went for 31-31.  Seems like a long time ago, but we were barely 2 weeks into the season last year when KLove went off against the Knicks in probably the best game held at the TC since the WCF.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GayiPD9Ygwc

Since the poop has officially hit the fan and the season is in serious jeopardy, I thought it might be worthwhile to both remember the clear #1 highlight from last season (sorry, for some reason it doesn't seem like I can embed the video), both as a wake for what we are missing now and as a reminder that it is the players that we watch, not the owners, and that if you want to put a value on someone like KLove you are going to have to pay him a lot more than owners want to pay in their current labor proposal.  Of course, someone like JFlynn should be paying to be in the NBA, but I am fine with that system.  How much would you be willing to pay to be the 12th man?  Is that the solution to the problem?  

Note that this 1-year anniversary was overshadowed by the labor strife AND of course you can't go to NBA.com to get the video since players have been erased.  What a fiasco this is for all involved.  .  .  .

I’m as bummed as anyone that it now appears that we won’t be having any basketball before January 2012 (and that’s the best case scenario – my prediction is that we won’t see basketball before the fall of 2012, for reasons I outline below). 

I’m writing this long rant because I’ve become a bit frustrated with the popular argument propagated by Bill Simmons and others.  It goes something like this: “The owners are greedy idiots!  Stern is a stubborn idiot!  They players are just idiots!  The agents are conniving idiots!  If only everyone moved to the middle ground we’d have this resolved by now and everyone would be happy!”  On this, I call BS.  

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If there has been one thing that has been remarkably consistent over the past few weeks from this wildly inconsistent team it is this:  Jonny Flynn has been beyond terrible.  How terrible? So terrible that the home crowd over the past few games gets openly restless when he enters the game.  Last night, the biggest cheer (before the game-clinching run) was when Rindour got off the bench to replace him in the fourth quarter.  Everyone knows that JF wasn’t a great PG last year, but he most definitely wasn’t THIS bad.  So I’ve decided to file a missing persons report (and a long one, be forewarned) below the jump.

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Tom Penn (every Hoopus reader's favorite GM / POBO candidate) got fired yesterday.  .  . From TrueHoop (via the Oregonian):

John Canzano of The Oregonian: "The Trail Blazers fired vice president Tom Penn in what goes down as a curious move. Lots of speculation about the reasons, and timing, and Penn told me that he's 'surprised and disappointed' by the firing. Also, he said, 'I suppose people are going to fill the void with whatever story is out there.' He's right about that. Lots of rumor and speculation floating around. And my phone is blowing up with league sources who are all shocked by the development, who are offering all sorts of ideas. Also, they're saying Penn will land on his feet. Blazers company line: 'Philosophical differences.' Remember that for when you next need to say something and nothing at the same time. ... Western conference executive tells me Vulcan headquarters was livid in late summer after they realized Penn played them in getting a raise and promotion out of the phantom Minnesota offer and, 'there's real resentment at Vulcan headquarters at that whole deal.' This source isn't buying the idea that something new happened on Tuesday that caused Penn's firing, rather, that the Vulcans decided long ago they were going to blow up Penn the first time they had cause. What was that cause? 'I'm not guessing on this, there's no speculation here, the resentment over the Minnesota thing is real,' source said. 'The Vulcans can be vindictive %$&#'s" Keep an eye on the movements of Penn agent Warren Legarie (ex-Blazers GM John Nash's agent and KP's agent as well) who was at the center of that situation, and also, has been involved with the Clippers extensively."

So maybe there really was no offer to Penn?  Am I supposed to be happy about this?  This was all a game by Penn and his agent to get a better deal from the Blazers?  Did Papa Glen know this and never would have hired him?  Or did we get played too?  Would we rather have Penn today? 

A bizzare story and one that I'm happy to speculate about rather than wonder how we could give up 152.

As we all know, apparently January is the best month to be a 2 guard for the Twoles.  Since it just ended, I thought it would be worthwhile to compare the Month of Foye and the Month of Brewer:

First off, the big note here is that any similarities in stats did NOT translate into any similarities in record.  That's important to me, anyway.

But can you believe that CBrew shot better from the field and from 3?  What kind of odds would you have gotten for that after December? Obviously Foye got more mintues and shot way better from the FT line (Brew is improving there, and if he winds up something closer to 80%, look out).  Interestingly Brewer's steals have decreased every month and he averaged sub 1 per game in Jan.  Do we think that he's decreased his defensive intensity to improve his offense (I know that steals is not a good proxy for defense, but still .  .  . ). 

In any event the real key is if this is the abberation (a la Foye) or if this is a trend.  Here's hoping its the latter.  .  .

Down to 55 games, from 75 last year.  I think the difference is all due to fewer channel 45 games, since there are the same number of FSN games (40).

(Ed Note: I called the League Pass folks and they will cover the remaining 27 games on LP Broadband.  They will not cover the 55 games that are covered on local cable TV, but they will get the games that "fall through the cracks".)

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So Kahn has been having breakfasts with longtime shareholders who are on the fence about renewing.  There was one yesterday morning.  Here are some quotes/takeaways from a reliable source who was there:

1. "We need everything but 4s" -- Kahn basically said that other than Bassy as a backup PG, he doesn't think much of anyone else on the roster.  

2. That especially includes Foye (he said that the Foye/Roy trade "may go down as one of the worst in NBA history") -- it does not appear that he thinks too much of our pick 3 years ago.  

3. He thinks the team can play in an Orlando style ("inside-out"), but that they need shooters.  Interesting, since at the start of last year the one thing we appeared to have a lot of was shooters.  He said "I think Miller lost his confidence and he needs to get it back).

4. He acknowledged that the next 16 months are critical and that he thinks it will have to come via trade, not free agency -- he doesn't see most players leaving their current teams given the fact that they can offer more money and with the economy the way it is.

5. He implied that it would still be a while before the coaching situation is resolved.  

Ed Note: Sonia has more over at TWolvesBlog.  It would be nice if the Wolves had a recording of this event so we didn't have to piece things together that may or may not be 100% accurate.  The stuff about Foye and the roster are pretty aggressive.