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Year-Round News & Updates on the Minnesota Timberwolves
The Cleveland Cavaliers' Kyrie Irving has been named the 2012 NBA Rookie of the Year. The Timberwolves' Ricky Rubio finished a 'far' second behind Kyrie, despite playing 41 games and missing the last 6 weeks of the season.
Kyrie Irving has become the first Cavalier player to win it since LeBron James. Kyrie received 117 of 120 possible first place votes and led the rookies in scoring (18.6), field-goal percentage (.469), free-throw percentage (.872) and second in assists (5.4)--[Rubio was first with 8.2]--and three-point percentage (.399). Rubio didn't have any first-place votes, but finished with 49 second-place votes and 23 third-place votes, finishing with 170 points (just a bit behind Irving's 592). The Nuggets' Kenneth Faried finished third and San Antonio's Kawhi Leonard was fourth, with New York's Iman Shumpert rounding out the top five. Irving had all but three first place votes and one of those votes each went to Faried, Leonard & Shumpert. "Mr. Irrelevant" Isaiah Thomas, who was selected 60th overall in last summer's draft (the last pick in the draft) by the Sacramento Kings, finished 7th in the voting for the Award. This was the last of the major individual awards to be announced. Miami's LeBron James won Most Valuable Player, San Antonio's Gregg Poppovich won Coach of the Year, Orlando's Ryan Anderson won Most Improved Player, Oklahoma City's James Harden is the Sixth Man of the Year and New York's Tyson Chandler was named Defensive Player of the Year. The NBA has still to announce the player who made the All-NBA, All-Defensive & All-Rookie teams. There's a VERY good chance Kevin Love will be named to an All-NBA team and Ricky Rubio (and possibly Derrick Williams) will be on an All-Rookie team. That's all for now, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES!
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Timberwolves' starting center Nikola Pekovic had ankle surgery today (5/15) to remove bone spurs from his right ankle. According to a spokesman from the team, the surgery was a success.
The surgery was performed by Dr. Martin O'Malley at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. Pekovic had a great sophomore season in the NBA. He averaged career-highs in points (13.9) and rebounds (7.4) and finished second in the NBA in field goal percentage, at .564 (Dwight Howard finished first with .573). Pek missed 8 games because of the ankle problems. Heading into next season, Pekovic is the likely starting center, pairing up with Kevin Love in the frontcourt. That's all for now, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! Before the we even had a 2011-12 NBA Season, I went through and picked All-NBA teams, All-Defensive Teams, All-Rookie Teams and handed up the usual hardware (MVP, MIP, ROY etc.). However, I did so, before the lockout was even over, before any free agents signed anywhere etc. I thought, I'd show you those 'predictions', follow them up with the actual award winners and/or the people I thought (now that the season is over) should've won. First, let's start with the few individual awards that have already been handed out... COACH OF THE YEAR My Initial Pick: Erik Spolestra, Miami Heat My Pick Now: Tom Thibodeau, Chicago Bulls The Winner: Gregg Poppovich, San Antonio Spurs --I was almost certain that Thibs was going to walk away with back-to-back Coach of the Year awards, after leading a Bulls squad that was without Derrick Rose for long stretches of the season to the #1 seed in the East and the best overall record in the NBA. However, Pop was Pop, yet again this season and he brought together, as usual, a band of strange players to grab the #1 seed in the West and the second-best record in the NBA. He again, got the most out of players that didn't seem like they had it in them: Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard, DeJuan Blair etc. MOST IMPROVED PLAYER My Initial Pick: Serge Ibaka, Oklahoma City Thunder My Pick Now: Nikola Pekovic, Minnesota Timberwolves The Winner: Ryan Anderson, Orlando Magic --I thought that prior to the season, Serge Ibaka was poised for a breakout year, I figured he'd have added a couple of 'tools' to his offensive 'work-belt' that would compliment what he already is capable of doing on defense to become a really complete player. He did so, to some extent, but I was expecting a bit more. Now, after the season is over, how can I pick anyone but the Mighty Montenegrin? Pek was my favorite player to watch and root for this season, he upped his scoring average by the most points in the NBA this year and upped his PER the second-most in the NBA. He complimented Kevin Love and drew defenders away from him, because if they didn't respect him, he'd just back 'em down low, until he was right under the bucket, catch the pass and just flip it in for an easy two. Pek finished third in the voting behind Anderson & Milwaukee's Ersan Ilyasova. DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR My Initial Pick: Dwight Howard, Orlando Magic My Pick Now: Tony Allen, Memphis Grizzlies The Winner: Tyson Chandler, New York Knicks --I figured, coming into the season, that Dwight Howard would again dominate the paint and easily walk away with yet another Defensive Player of the Year trophy. DH had a solid year, but we were all put through "Dwightmare" and he of course got hurt. The saga of "TRADE ME, DON'T TRADE ME, TRADE ME!" Really turned people off to the once lovable big man (including myself). My opinion? You're paid good money to play a sport you love, just play! Nobody likes the drama, JUST PLAY! However, Tyson Chandler was fairly deserving of this one. He really changed the culture of the New York Knicks on D, he became their second-best player (behind 'Melo) and excelled even more when Mike Woodson (known for his D) took over for Mike D'Antoni. However, I still think Memphis' Tony Allen should've won it. He's one of the best perimeter defenders in the NBA and he's a big part of the success the Grizz have had these past two years. That's it for the awards that have been handed out. For the last three awards, I'll give you my initial pick and my pick now and when they're announced in the coming weeks, I'll update this post with the winner. MOST VALUABLE PLAYER My Initial Pick: Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder My Pick Now: LeBron James, Miami Heat The Winner: ? --I was confident going into the season that KD would grab his first MVP trophy. It was a neck-and-neck race until the final week of the season. However, Durant went cold for a couple of games (including a nationally televised game) as LBJ continued his consistent, stellar play to snag this one. He'll regain that crown, once again. Ultimately it'll come down to these two for the votes, though. SIXTH MAN OF THE YEAR My Initial Pick: Jason Terry, Dallas Mavericks My Pick Now: James Harden, Oklahoma City Thunder The Winner: ? --The only reason, I didn't pick James Harden initially (and I remember this) was because I assumed OKC would be putting him into the starting lineup and moving Thabo Sefelosha to the bench, that didn't happen and Harden basically put up great numbers and often times looked like an NBA All-Star! I don't forsee anyway that Harden doesn't win this, not at all! I picked Terry going into the season, because, that was what was fresh in my mind. Just few months earlier I watched as Dirk, Terry, Marion, Chandler etc. knocked off the Miami Heat to become NBA Champions. ROOKiE OF THE YEAR My Initial Pick: Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers My Pick Now: Kyrie Irving, Cleveland Cavaliers The Winner: ? --Like the LeBron James--Kevin Durant MVP battle, I truly believe that if Rubio hadn't gone down with the ACL/LCL injury, we would've had a similar battle for the Rookie of the Year. However, Kobe bulldozed through Ricky, with that the TWolves playoff hopes vanished and Kyrie Irving waltzed away with the award. I'm just going to list my initial picks for the All-NBA Teams, then my picks now. Same goes for the All-Defensive Teams and the All-Rookie teams. I'll update them later when the winners, are announced. All-NBA Teams (My Initial Picks)
All-NBA TEAMS (My PICKs NOW)
ALl-DEFENSIVE TEAMS (MY INITIAL PICKS)
ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAMS (MY PICKS NOW)
All-Rookie TEAMS (MY INITIAL PICKS)
All-rookie TEAM (MY PICKS NOW)
Well, that's all for now. I'll post the 'winners' when they're announced and provide a little more detail into my initial picks and the player I chose now.
Thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! The Minnesota Timberwolves wouldn't be in Minnesota, right now, if it wasn't for majority owner Glen Taylor. Taylor swooped in and bought the TWolves in 1994 and saved them from moving to New Orleans.
It now appears that Taylor, 71 is looking for an eventual successor as the Minnesota Timberwolves owner. He knows that in the near future he will be stepping away, but he wants to find a successor that will keep the TWolves in Minnesota. Keeping them in the Twin Cities is a priority for his eventual successor. Taylor says he could easily find someone to buy the team, that isn't a problem, he wants to find someone who is committed to keeping the franchise in Minnesota. He doesn't plan on handing over the reins anytime soon, but he's looking for someone to buy a small stake in the ownership (become a minority owner) and learn from Taylor the day-to-day operations of being the owner of a professional sports team. Eventually, when Taylor does decide to sell the team, he'll give his 'apprentice' the opportunity to buy him out and become the majority owner. Like the fans, Glen Taylor is obviously optimistic about the future of the Timberwolves after a number of years of 'futility' as a cellar-dweller in the Western Conference...and the NBA. Taylor is urging David Kahn to be VERY aggressive in upgrading the roster, pursuing trades and free agents. With a young core of Ricky Rubio, Kevin Love, Derrick Williams & Nikola Pekovic, things are on the up and up for our Minnesota Timberwolves. That's all for now, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! If you hadn't heard already, we've constructed a new site all about the WNBA team, the Minnesota Lynx. We've 'dubbed' it: GROWL! A MnLnyx Basketball Site! It's just like our site here, but instead of being all TWolves, it's all Lynx!
I hope you'll check it out, here's the URL: www.mnlynx.weebly.com Thank you for reading HOWL and check out GROWL! Nikola Pekovic was a worthy candidate for this season's Most Improved Player Award. However, the trophy will be heading to Orlando for power forward Ryan Anderson.
Nikola finished third among the other players voted. He received 10 first place votes and finished with a total of 104 points. That set him behind Ryan Anderson who got 260 of the possible 605 points and Milwaukee's Ersan Ilyasova who finished with 159 (points). For every first place vote a player received five points, three points for a second place vote and one point for a third place vote. Last year's winner: Kevin Love, finished this season with one first place vote and three third place votes. Also in the top 10 were Detroit's Greg Monroe & L.A. Lakers' Andrew Bynum (T-4th) each with 96 points. Then New York's Jeremy Lin in 6th with 91 points, 7th: Houston's Goran Dragic with 54 points, 8th: Boston's Avery Bradley with 36 points and tied for 10th was San Antonio's Danny Green & Atlanta's Jeff Teague, each with 27 points. Of course, I'm a little biased and wished he had won and although Nikola had a great year and improved in a lot of ways, Ryan Anderson & Ersan Ilyasova did too, obviously a little more so! That's all for now, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! The Minnesota Timberwolves finished their season with a fizzle as they burned out and lost 21 of their final 26 games! Just five wins, dating back to March 9th. That March 9th game, of course, being the same game the Wolves lost Ricky Rubio for the season. Today, we'll be taking a look at all fifteen Timberwolves players, assigning them grades, speculating their futures with the Wolves and in the NBA, etc. The Timberwolves may have closed out the season on the 'wrong note', but for the first time in a long time the future for the Wolves looks very optimistic! A nucleus/young core of Ricky Rubio, Kevin Love, Nikola Pekovic and hopefully Derrick Williams, the TWolves are finally on the up and up!
Stay tuned to HOWL all year round for your up-to-date TWolves news, rumors and information! If you're a Minnesota Lynx fan, check out our new site: GROWL! A MnLynx Basketball Site! Thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! |
Cody AndersonA TWolves fan, bringing you the daily updates. News Archives
August 2017
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