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Year-Round News & Updates on the Minnesota Timberwolves
The Minnesota Timberwolves are in the market for another big man to further their frontcourt.
According to Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities said earlier this week that the Wolves may have some interest in Mehmet Okur. Okur played all of his NBA career for the Utah Jazz, before being traded to the New Jersey Nets (now Brooklyn Nets) last season...and then to the Portland Trailblazers prior to the deadline. Although he missed almost the entire year due to injury. Okur has ties to AK47, from their time in Utah and is a versatile big man that can stretch the floor with his shooting ability. He's getting up their in years and may not have much left to offer. The Timberwolves can only offer the veteran's minimum, but that amount seems about right for Okur at this point in his career. That's all for now, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES!
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About, two months ago, we highlighted a couple of the preseason games & their opponents that the Minnesota Timberwolves will be facing in October. This season the Minnesota Timberwolves will be playing seven preseason games, two of which will be hosted at the Target Center in Minneapolis, MN. Here's the full seven-game schedule...
These seven games will be added shortly to the 'Schedule' on our site. AND we will be having previews & recaps of all seven preseason games under the 'Gameday' section, so look forward to that.
That's all for now, as always: thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! David Kahn may not be finished filling out the roster for the 2012-13 season. Kahn said that after the Olympics there could be one more move for Minnesota and now it's sounding as though the Timberwolves may be looking to add another big man to further bolster the frontcourt.
There was a rumor circulating that Minnesota was exploring a trade with the Cleveland Cavaliers that would send Derrick Williams & Luke Ridnour to the Cavs and bring Anderson Varejo to the Wolves. That rumor was refuted by Sam Amico who covers the Cavs/NBA. Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities said via Twitter that the Timberwolves aren't looking to acquire Jerome Jordan (who played last season with the New York Knicks) who is an unrestricted free agent. Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports reported via Twitter that the Minnesota Timberwolves are one of three teams interested in unrestricted free agent Eduardo Najera (who played last season with the Charlotte Bobcats). Those are just three possibilities that have been talked about. Other big names that remain on the free agent market include... POWER FORWARDS: Andray Blatche, Kenyon Martin, D.J. White, Anthony Tolliver & Brian Cardinal; CENTERS: Chris Andersen, Eddy Curry As you can clearly see the NBA Free Agent market is drying up. It's also been said that the Wolves have no interest in center Chris Andersen. In order for them to make a free agent signing for a dollar amount above the minimum, they'd have to make a trade to free up some cap space. So, you can expect, if Minnesota makes a 'move' that it'll be via trade and not in a free agent signing. If Minnesota made a trade similar to the D-Will & Ridnour for Varejo swap, that would free up enough room for them to bring back Anthony Tolliver. Something Minnesota wants to do, but doesn't have the financial capability. That's all for now, stay tuned for more, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! Three Timberwolves players: Kevin Love, Andrei Kirilenko & Alexey Shved will all be bringing Olympic medals back to Minnesota.
Russia was beat by Spain in the semi-finals. They led most of that game, but fell apart in the final quarter. Spain moved on to face U.S.A. in the Finals and Russia was pitted against Argentina for the bronze medal. Russia finished 9th in Beijing, four years ago and with the bronze medals around their necks yesterday afternoon, Kirilenko says it feels like gold. Team U.S.A. defeated Argentina to move on to the Finals and not surprising to anyone, they leave London with the Gold...once again. It was a 7-point victory over Spain that sealed another gold medal. Kevin Love comes home with the Gold, Andrei Kirilenko & Alexey Shved (who both joined the team this offseason) will join Minnesota with Bronze. Of course, if Ricky Rubio hadn't torn his ACL, he would've been playing for Spain. Who knows, that could've changed how Spain performed in the Olympics. I'm not saying Spain would've beat the U.S. You could play that 'what if game' with Dwight Howard, Blake Griffin, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade. When Kevin Love played in the World Championships a few summers back, he came back and had a great NBA season, capped off by the Most Improved Player of the Year Award. I'd say there's a good chance that this experience in London will benefit and carry over for Love, AK47 & Shved this season. That's all for now, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! According to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo! Sports, the Minnesota Timberwolves are interested in unrestricted free agent forward Eduardo Najera.
Last season, Najera played for the Charlotte Bobcats. In April, Eduardo fractured his forehead frontal bone after he was inadvertently elbowed in the head during a game vs. the Milwaukee Bucks. The Timberwolves aren't the only team that's interested, the Brooklyn Nets & Houston Rockets are also interested in signing him. Najera averaged 2.6ppg in 12mpg last season. Although there are teams interested, Najera has also considered retiring and becoming a coach. He's talked to Mavs GM and owner of the D-League Texas Legends for nearly two years about someday going into coaching. That's all for now, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! The 58th pick in the 2012 NBA Draft will be heading overseas to play in Spain for the 2012-13 season. Robbie Hummel, the Minnesota Timberwolves lone selection on draft night has signed to play with El Obradoiro.
Following his selection on draft night, we highlighted Hummel's five-year career in Purdue. Once a likely top-20 pick, he was marred by successive torn ACL's. You can find a full story on that, right here on HOWL: With the 58th Pick, Minnesota Selects: Robbie Hummel. Apparently, Hummel has the Timberwolves' 'blessing'. The Timberwolves have Andrei Kirilenko, Chase Budinger, Derrick Williams, Dante Cunningham and Brandon Roy that can all play small forward, so Hummel likely wouldn't have seen much playing time, this season. His agent Mark Bartelstein says that he (Hummel) needs minutes to get his complete game back, something that'll happen this season in Spain, but something he had no chance of in Minnesota. The Timberwolves will retain his draft rights and Robbie believes that the Timberwolves are his future in basketball. That's all for now, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! The Minnesota Timberwolves are in the midst of a crucial offseason. An offseason that they're needing to add a number of complimentary pieces to put around Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio and Nikola Pekovic. The window on Rubio, K-Love and Adelman is open for another three years, or so. So, what have the Timberwolves done thus far, this offseason? Well, Minnesota's offseason started by trading the 18th pick in the 2012 NBA Draft to the Houston Rockets for swingman Chase Budinger and the draft rights to Lior Eliyahu. So, what do we think about this one...
Next came the NBA Draft. After trading their first round draft pick to Houston, Minnesota had just one pick: 58th overall. There was plenty of speculation and rumors, during the draft that Minnesota was looking to move back into the first round (we found out later, they were trying to move back into the first round to try and grab Miles Plumlee--who eventually went to Indiana with the 26th overall pick). Well, that didn't happen and Minnesota had that lone pick. With it they selected Purdue's Robbie Hummel...
The next big news came when Minnesota and Brandon Roy signed a 2-year $10.4million contract. The first year is fully guaranteed, however the second year will only be guaranteed, if he's healthy enough to play...
Up next, Alexey Shved. The Timberwolves and Shved have signed a deal, worth roughly $9million for three years. Shved is a Russian point guard that can play both guard positions as well as some small forward (dependent on the matchup)...
Next came the buyout of Martell Webster. Trade of Brad Miller. And amnesty of Darko Milicic. Webster had a salary of $5.7million for the 2012-13 season, but he had a buyout of $600,000 and Minnesota did just that. They then traded Brad Miller and two future second round picks to the New Orleans Hornets for a future conditional second round pick. Lastly they used their one-time amnesty waiver on Darko Milicic, who went unclaimed on the waivers and is now an unrestricted free agent.
The Minnesota Timberwolves' pursuit of Nicolas Batum. The 'saga' is well-documented on this site in previous posts, so I'm not going to go to far into it. The Portland Trailblazers matched the offer sheet, officially keeping him in Portland. After numerous sign-and-trade attempts and everything else that went down, Batum will stay a Blazer.
Minnesota then traded Wayne Ellington to the Memphis Grizzlies for forward Dante Cunningham.
The Timberwolves then traded Wesley Johnson along with a lottery-protected 1st round pick to the Phoenix Suns in a three-team deal that saw Robin Lopez & Hakim Warrick move from Phoenix to New Orleans and Brad Miller & Jerome Dyson go to Phoenix. Minnesota received three 2nd round picks (two of which were the same picks that were sent to the Hornets in that Brad Miller 'trade').
Following the three-team deal that cleared cap space, Minnesota signed 10-year NBA veteran Andrei Kirilenko to a 2-year $10million contract.
Minnesota then signed Greg Stiemsma to a $2.75million, 2-year contract. The second year isn't fully guaranteed (there is some concern about the health of his feet).
During that time the Minnesota Timberwolves also lost Anthony Randolph (to the Denver Nuggets) and Michael Beasley (to the Phoenix Suns) in Free Agency. Not that that is a huge surprise or (as of right now) a huge loss.
This has been a Minnesota Timberwolves Offseason Update as of August 4th. During the Brandon Roy press conference, David Kahn said there's a chance--after the Olympics, that Minnesota may make a small tweak, or potentially what he calls a 'significant move'. Until then, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! The Minnesota Timberwolves welcomed two new players to the squad this past week, as David Kahn held press conferences to introduce Brandon Roy & Greg Stiemsma.
We've talked plenty about both of these two players this past month. So I won't go into too much detail of either. However, some highlights from both press conferences... ROY
GREG
Both add some much needed attributes and production in a number of areas that Minnesota has lacked dearly. A competent wing player that can put up points and knock down open shots and a big man that can patrol the paint and deter slashing guards and back-down big men. You can find a bit more about each of these guys on the 'Player Info' page under the "Team Report" section on this 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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