I just spent some time on both basketball-reference.com and 82games.com trying to figure out which NBA wings would be the most beneficial to the Wolves offensively. I wasn't looking for anything particularly complex, just players who could score at a high rate without having to control the ball. So below the jump is a list of wings that have a usage rate of 18% or above, a true shooting percentage above .530, and have over 50% of their baskets assisted on. Oh, and they have to be 28 or below in age as well.

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Hey everybody. Normally I wouldn't spam you all like this, but I need to find two people to take over teams in my keeper fantasy basketball league on ESPN.com. The previous owners weren't active enough (didn't look at their teams all season) so we're replacing them. If you have any interest email me at mjfan02@msn.com. The first two requests will be accepted. Available rosters and a few league rules are below the jump.

Thanks

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Since I was one of the few fools to pay the $30 for the Synergy scouting service I figured I'd start posting some of the info that they share. The first thing I looked at was the defensive statistics for our big men. Unfortunately they don't have stats for help defense, and each "possession" only counts for a player when the man he is guarding either shoots, turns it over or goes to the free throw line. So the stats below represent the man defense for Kevin Love, Al Jefferson and Darko Milicic in numerous situations ...

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John Hollinger released some advanced stats for college players today. In addition to his usual PER, he also formulated Reb%, Ast%, TO% and usage rates in all games against Division 1 opponents.

http://insider.espn.go.com/ncb/hollinger/statistics

The most interesting stat though was Player Efficiency Rating.

I had an idea going in that DeMarcus Cousins was going to rate pretty high, seeing as how he puts up 15.3 points and 10.1 rebounds in only 23 minutes per game, so I was unsurprised when he came in #1 in the NCAA with a PER of 35.45 (LeBron James has a PER of 31.79 in the NBA if you need a reference point). Evan Turner came in 5th overall at 31.3, but was 2nd among players from major conferences. John Wall missed the top-100 and came in with a PER of 22.4.

Some other players of interest in the top-100 are below ...

8. Luke Harangody - 29.97
12. James Anderson - 29.63
25. Hassan Whiteside - 28.52
31. Cole Aldrich - 28.01
45. Ed Davis - 26.15
68. Greg Monroe - 25.26
74. Ekpe Udoh - 25.07
79. Derrick Favors - 24.89
91. Al Farouq-Aminu - 24.7
96. Solomon Alabi - 24.35
99. Patrick Patterson - 24.27

Just read the quick recap on last night's Blazers game and thought the line about Outlaw was interesting. Here's a story I found at TWolfPack.com the other day about nine players that would provide what the Wolves are looking for on the wing using advanced stats and per possession numbers.

http://www.twolfpack.com/profiles/blogs/statistically-finding-the

You'll have to head to the site for the explanation, since it's pretty in depth, but the nine players they pointed out were Joe Alexander, Kelenna Azubuike, Kevin Durant, Francisco Garcia, Rudy Gay, Danny Granger, Travis Outlaw, Mickael Pietrus and Marvin Williams.

Regarding Outlaw specifically, they wrote, "Travis Outlaw, on the other hand, is in the final year of his contract with the Blazers. I wouldn't suggest that Kahn make Outlaw his "one big acquisition" over the next year, but if he were able to upgrade another position while adding Outlaw it would significantly improve the team."

Thoughts?

Found this at TWolfPack.com ...

At today's press conference to introduce Ramon Sessions as the newest member of the Timberwolves Kahn dropped another bombshell.

When discussing this summer's roster moves he stated that they will do "at least one more thing, probably this week." He continued by stating "The move we make this week will be significant as well."

Any ideas on what he might be thinking? I would assume it's more cap savings and that he'd be bringing back another wing player, but it's hard to get a read on what he's thinking.

I don't know if Portland would do it or not, but I'm just wondering how you would feel about it. The way I see it is that each team is taking on a big risk while getting back a player that might be able to convince their fans that they were making a good trade. The Blazers have Przybilla to play center, the Wolves have Flynn to play point guard. Oden is an injury risk but Rubio might not want to play here and hasn't proven anything. So, simply put, would you trade Rubio for Greg Oden?

Not sure if anybody believes that this is any more than political correctness, but here's Rubio's twitter post from last night ...

@rickyrubio9: Ser el #5 del draft es increíble. ¡Estoy muy contento! Be the 5th pick in the NBA draft is incredible. ¡I'm very happy!

On top of that, a little self promotion. I posted more reasons for why the Wolves did what they did last night at hoopsfancentral.com. I think it's very important to not over-react and to take our time in analyzing this whole situation. Don't get caught up in the national media's boner over New York and don't get upset every time somebody disses Minnesota. Unless I'm mistaken, we're still the ones that have Ricky Rubio and are the only ones that can decide his NBA future.

I'm not sure how accurate this is, but found it on the TWolvesCentral message board posted by "The PUPs" ...

Curry holding a workout at Target Center Friday

Stephen Curry will be working out at Target Center friday for only the Timberwolves and Bobcats. This is not official yet, but a close friend of mine is attending the workout.

This is good news for people like me who want Curry.

Story just posted on Newsday.com:

"Stephen Curry took yet another determined step toward being a Knick on Friday when he decided to cancel the rest of his predraft workout schedule -- after he has a previously scheduled workout with the Washington Wizards.

The Wizards hold the fifth overall pick.

The Davidson star did, however, cancel a workout with the Minnesota Timberwolves (sixth overall) next week."

...

Though a player cannot force teams to not select him, the decision to cancel with the T-Wolves -- a team that picks ahead of the Knicks -- sends a clear message that Curry would prefer they pass on him.

Curry has been somewhat of a hot commodity in the draft, with both the Thunder (No. 3) and Timberwolves considering him and teams such as the Trail Blazers (No. 24) looking into moving up to draft him. He was expected to join in a four-man point guard battle royale in Minnesota next week, along with Holiday, Flynn and Brandon Jennings. That, apparently, is now down to three.

I know that Stop-n-Pop just posted his "Building a Winner" series, but instead of just listing options I've taken it one step further and explained how the Wolves can go from cellar-dweller to title contender before next season. Check it out at http://www.hoopsfancentral.com/2009/05/fixing-wolves.html.

To peak your interest, here's the final lineup that was assembled ..

C: Chandler, Mullens
PF: Jefferson, Love
SF: Gerald Wallace, Trevor Ariza
SG: Foye, DeRozan
PG: Baron Davis, Sebastian Telfair, Darren Collison

Once again, the link is http://www.hoopsfancentral.com/2009/05/fixing-wolves.html