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Year-Round News & Updates on the Minnesota Timberwolves
ESPN is in the midst of their second-annual #NBARank and for the next few weeks while they unveil all 500 players ranked, we'll be taking a look at where our Minnesota Timberwolves players land. Up next is the Timberwolves' newest addition, former Houston Rockets swingman Chase Budinger. Budinger is penciled in as the second string small forward, though (depending on how Alexey Shved plays) could see some minutes backing up Brandon Roy, at shooting guard...of course, if the Roy project doesn't work, Bud could be the starting shooting guard. Bud struggled last season under Kevin McHale and eventually lost his starting job to rookie Chandler Parsons. It wasn't anything Chase did, it was just McHale's system that he didn't mesh well with. So...whose system can he work well in? Well...he played under Rick Adelman in Houston for a number of years. Depending on playing time (he should average at least twenty minutes a night) he'll likely contribute 8-10 points, a couple rebounds and a high shooting percentage. We can also expect corny "White Men Can't Jump" references, like the one we saw All-Star weekend in the Slam Dunk Contest. Budinger is better than every other wing the Timberwolves had last year. What do you think? Would you rather have Chase, or: Wesley Johnson, Michael Beasley, Martell Webster, Wayne Ellington? Yeah...I'll take AIR BUD. That's all for now, still four TWolves to go, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES!
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ESPN is in the midst of their second-annual #NBARank and for the next few weeks while they unveil all 500 players ranked, we'll be taking a look at where our Minnesota Timberwolves players land. Backup point guard J.J. Barea was next to make an appearance on #NBARank. With a 4.97, Barea came in at #134. I will admit I'm not the biggest J.J. fan, however he is valuable to the Wolves. He's a more than capable backup point guard, but sometimes he plays with a bit too much of a 'me first' attitude and tries to be 'the Man'. That'd be all well and fine if he was a top 20 player in this League...but he's not. Nonetheless there may not be a better player under 6' in the NBA, today AND I can say without a shadow of a doubt that J.J. Barea is the NBA's best flopper...or is it the NBA's worst flopper...you know what I mean! He was an integral part of the Mavericks championship run two years ago and he definitely tried to bring some of that leadership over to the Timberwolves. With Minnesota's new and improved roster, J.J. should still not have any trouble finding PT. There is an outside chance the Timberwolves will look to move him, however. Barea, along with Luke Ridnour have been mentioned in a number of trade rumors, that would allow the TWolves to free up cap space and sign someone like Anthony Tolliver, Mehmet Okur or Hassan Whiteside. Though, I'm not a big J.J. fan, I hope they don't ship him off, just so they can resign Tolliver (and I REALLY like Tolliver--it's just that J.J. is a better player). That's all for now, still five players to go, stay tuned! Thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! The knee problems continue to plague Robbie Hummel.
The 58th pick in the 2012 NBA Draft is playing in Spain this season for Obradoiro. During his time in college (playing for Purdue) Hummel torn his ACL twice. Earlier today, news broke that Robbie tore his meniscus and will be watching from the sidelines for the next 4-8 weeks. Here's hoping he can come back strong and still someday make his NBA debut with the TWolves. That's all for now, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! ESPN is in the midst of their second-annual #NBARank and for the next few weeks while they unveil all 500 players ranked, we'll be taking a look at where our Minnesota Timberwolves players land. It's hard to rank a player that didn't play in the NBA last season AND a guy who has so many question marks heading into the season. Andrei Kirilenko also didn't play in the NBA last season, BUT AK47 didn't retire a year ago because he doesn't have any cartilage in his knees. I don't think the Wolves the former All-Star Roy, but he's definitely going to be an effective & capable guy. As of right now, Roy is penciled in as the starting shooting guard. Everytime I talk about the Timberwolves it always seems to come down to whether or not the team can stay healthy--if they can make a playoff push. Roy is one of the biggest question marks in that area (along with Rubio). You just don't know what to expect from those knees. Last year's starting shooting guards were Wesley Johnson, then Luke Ridnour and after Ricky went down: Martell Webster. Clearly an upgrade over Wes & Webster and a better two-guard defender than Ridnour, Roy is probably one of the best shooting guards the Wolves have had in quite a while. 10-15 points a night and some solid defense is all they need from Roy and I've got a good feeling those knees will hold up and allow him to contribute. That's all for now, we still have six players to go, so stay tuned! Thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! ESPN is in the midst of their second-annual #NBARank and for the next few weeks while they unveil all 500 players ranked, we'll be taking a look at where our Minnesota Timberwolves players land. There's no questioning that Derrick Williams' rookie campaign was nothing short of a disappointment. To say I'm shocked that's he's ranked this high is an understatement. Williams has PLENTY of time to improve and live up to the expectations of being a #2 overall pick, here's hoping he's more Kevin Durant/Jason Kidd/Gary Payton than Darko Milicic/Stromile Swift/Hasheem Thabeet (all #2 picks). My guess, when it's all said and done he'll land somewhere in the middle. It's only been one season (a condensed season, at that--one with no training camp and a very shortened preseason). Here's hoping a full season/offseason of working with Rick Adelman and his staff will pay dividends. If it's another disappointing season, the Wolves will push even harder to trade him. AND, the Timberwolves tried VERY hard to move him this summer. I'm glad they haven't shipped him off after just one season though. If D-Will wants to find floor time he'll have to learn to play more small forward. I know we've all heard that one-hundred times, though. If he wants to be a small forward, he needs to work on and drastically improve his perimeter shooting, penetrating and man-to-man defense. He's shed some weight and hopefully that improves his slashing ability and allows him to stay in front of his man defensively...that may be wishful thinking, though. That's all for now, there are still a number of players to go in #NBARank, so stay tuned! Until then, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! Throughout these next couple weeks we'll be going through previews, division-by-division & team-by-team. We'll be looking at what moves they've made, what they're expecting to do this season and ultimately if they're cellar dwellers, lotto-bound, fringe playoff squad, middle of the pack playoff squad that could muster up an upset and then, of course, the handful of serious contenders.
Back on Sept. 3rd we took a look at our very own Northwest Division (TWolves, Nuggets, Thunder, Jazz & Blazers). You can find that preview here. Today, we're staying in the Western Conference, but we're moving to the Southwest (Mavericks, Rockets, Spurs, Hornets & Grizzlies). Well, let's get started... For Dallas: Two years ago they were 'on top of the world' in the NBA. CHAMPIONS. Now, they've got a very different roster and now appear to be a 4-8 playoff seed in the West. They may have swung and missed on Deron Williams and in a roundabout way, Dwight Howard, but they're Plan B (if this really was their plan B) didn't play out too badly. They've infused some youth into their roster as well as some very crafty & talented veterans. They traded away backup center Ian Mahinmi to the Pacers for point guard Darren Collison (who'll likely be the starting PG) & reserve swingman Dahntay Jones. They also signed free agent & former Grizzly O.J. Mayo--who Mavs owner believes can be a 'star' (I know for a fact there are a few thousand Memphis fans that would adamantly disagree). They also added the former Los Angeles Clippers' starting frontcourt: Elton Brand & Chris Kaman. Kaman was a free agent & Elton Brand had been amnestied by the 76ers early in the summer. Not only did they add two likely (young) starters (Mayo & Collison), they picked up three rookies in the 2012 NBA Draft: shooting guard Jared Cunningham, small forward Jae Crowder and 27-year-old center Bernard James. Both Cunningham & Crowder will be third string players at their positions, while James will be the main backup to Kaman at center. At times they'll have a lineup that boasts Dirk Nowitzki, Elton Brand & Chris Kaman on the court...at the same time! How do you defend that? They'll be an interesting squad to keep an eye on and barring injuries to one of their stars (Dirk, Marion, Brand) they'll be a force in the West. Ultimately they're not a contender as they were quite recently, but I can envision an upset come June. Their success relies heavily on what kind of production they can get from the guard positions. For Houston: For the past few seasons they've tried to gather a lot of mid-level talent in hopes that they could bundle them together to swing a deal with a team looking to unload a superstar. They missed on Carmelo Anthony, they've made attempts at Josh Smith and just this summer whiffed BIG time at Dwight Howard. They disassembled their roster to an almost absurd attempt AND apparently GM Daryl Morey has an infatuation with 'tweener' forwards, more-so than David Kahn's love of point guards. In a last ditch effort to swing a blockbuster deal for DH, the Rockets amnestied Luis Scola (who was eventually picked up by the Phoenix Suns), they traded star point guard Kyle Lowry to the Toronto Raptors for Gary Forbes and their 2013 1st-round draft pick. They also swung a deal with our TWolves for the 18th pick in the draft the Rockets sent us Chase Budinger. The Rockets also participated in a sign-and-trade deal with the New York Knicks. The Knicks got Marcus Camby and the Rockets grabbed Toney Douglas, Jerome Jordan (waived), Josh Harrelson (waived) and two 2nd-round picks. They currently have 20-some players on their roster (the maximum, by the start of the season being 15 players). Some cuts will definitely be made throughout training camp. Because they have so many players, we'll just look at the rookies they selected this season and their starting lineup. They used the 'poison pill' contract offers to grab the mid-level talent of Jeremy Lin (their starting point guard) & Omer Asik (their starting center). I didn't get to caught up in Linsanity last season and I think that the Rockets paying him $25million-plus over the next three seasons is Linsane, especially after a sample size of 25 starts last year. I am excited to see what Omer Asik will do as a full-time starting center. Kevin Martin is the only real veteran left on the roster and you better believe they'll move him at the offer of a couple of draft picks. Chandler Parsons will start at small forward again, with Scola gone, Patrick Patterson is penciled in as the team's starting power forward. The Rockets had the 12th, 16th & 18th picks in the 2012 Draft. With it they nabbed shooting guard Jeremy Lamb (guarantee he'll be the starting shooting guard, by seasons end), versatile forward Royce White and power forward Terrence Jones. I could probably go on and on with what the Rockets did this offseason, talking in circles...but, I won't. Houston will be lotto-bound in the summer of 2013, they're on the road to rebuild, but they have a lot of 'interesting' pieces and if Kevin McHale can put the pieces together, give them a year or two and they should be a Western Conference playoff regular. For San Antonio: For years people have talked about their championship window closing. But, every year Pop brings some 'ragtag' crew together for 50+ wins. Last year Danny Green seemed to be on his way out of the League and playing out his career overseas. During Green's first two years in the League, he played a grand total of 28 games (0 starts). Last season, Green played all 66 games and started 38 of those. He's penciled in as San Antonio's starting shooting guard. Their mainstays continue to shine. Tony Parker is the best player on this squad, along with veterans Manu Ginobli & Tim Duncan. They're definitely two-deep at each position: Parker--Patty Mills, Green--Ginobli, Kawhi Leonard--Stephen Jackson, Boris Diaw--DeJuan Blair and Tim Duncan--Tiago Splitter. People will continue to talk about their closing championship window, they may not be the elite contender they once were, but they'll at least move into the second round in the Western Conference playoffs--unless they face the TWolves in the first round ;) There are 14 other teams, kicking themselves (I would definitely (at this time) take Leonard over Williams) from the 2011 NBA Draft. I have a feeling that over the next couple years the Spurs will continue to blend in young potential talent with this veteran roster (ie: Kawhi Leonard) as they rebuild on the fly (there's no doubt they'll do 100% better than the Detroit Pistons did these past few years). Top 4 seed in the West, I'd peg them at #3 (behind the Lakers & Thunder...not necessarily in that order). For New Orleans: The Minnesota Timberwolves have been struggling with a rebuilding project for nearly a decade, wouldn't it have been much easier if they got the #1 pick? Just two years ago the Hornets were led by Chris Paul & Emeka Okafor (David West down with knee injury) to a #7 seed, where they very nearly knocked off the Lakers in the first round). Last year they traded away CP3 (and got Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman & Al Faroq Aminu). It was a rough season in New Orleans, but they hit the lotto! The #1 pick and with it: Anthony Davis. They also had Minnesota's #10 pick, where they took guard Austin Rivers. The Hornets swung a sign-and-trade deal with the Magic for last year's Most Improved Player of the Year: Ryan Anderson (sending Gustavo Ayon to Orlando). They continued to disassemble their roster and rebuild. They sent Emeka Okafor & Trevor Ariza to the Washington Wizards very early in the offseason, even before the 2012 NBA Draft. The Hornets got Rashard Lewis & the 46th pick in the Draft. The Hornets quickly bought out/waived Lewis and selected Darius Miller, at #46. New Orleans also sent Jarrett Jack to the Golden State Warriors. Didn't resign Carl Landry (signed with the Warriors). Was part of a three-team deal that sent Robin Lopez & Hakim Warrick to the Hornets. The TWolves were also a part of that trade & sent Wes Johnson & sent a 1st-round pick to the Suns. The Hornets sent a number of 2nd-round picks to Minnesota. They also resigned Eric Gordon (to a max deal). They may not be a playoff team this season, but they'll certainly be a fun team to watch. There's a good chance they'll have a starting lineup of: Greivis Vasquez, Eric Gordon, Al Faroq-Aminu, Ryan Anderson & Anthony Davis. I can say without a doubt that I'm beyond excited to face the Hornets and watch Nikola Pekovic throw Davis around in the post! They'll be a lottery team, but they'll also be a competitive squad and fun to watch. For Memphis: There are three teams in the Southwest Division that are near locks to be in the thick of things in the West and make the playoffs: the Mavericks, the Spurs and the Memphis Grizzlies. Memphis hasn't made too many moves this offseason and it appears they're standing pat. They drafted Tony Wroten Jr. in June. They traded Jeremy Pargo to the Cleveland Cavaliers for D.J. Kennedy. They traded Dante Cunningham to the TWolves for Wayne Ellington. They resigned Darrell Arthur (despite him missing the entire 2011-12 season--was definitely a good thing, he's a decent sixth man) and they resigned Marreese Speights. If anything holds them back, it'll be the questions they have with depth in the backcourt. They let O.J. Mayo walk via free agency (to the division foe Mavs). They'll start Michael Conley & Tony Allen. The Grizzlies did sign Jerryd Bayless and he's definitely had an up and down career. Along with him they have rookie Tony Wroten Jr., Josh Selby, Wayne Ellington, Quincy Pondexter and D.J. Kennedy that will all likely see some time in the backcourt...certainly raises a number of questions. There's no question that the Grizz have some solid 'big man' options. They'll start Zach Randolph & Marc Gasol and be backed up by Darrell Arthur & Marreese Speights...along with Hamed Haddadi as a third string center. Barring injuries, Memphis has an intimidating frontline. I'm thinking anywhere from a 4-8 seed in the West. With this we're now one-third of the way done with our division-by-division season previews! Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks. Until then, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! It seems to be a consensus idea, that the Minnesota Timberwolves' success in 2012-13 will depend heavily on the play and health of second-year player Ricky Rubio.
Since going down March 14th vs. the Los Angeles Lakers, Ricky is pushing through recovery from the ACL surgery and he's hoping he'll be on the active roster before we reach 2013. "I am eager to start running. I will likely be back in December. If we don't have injuries, we are going to fight for a spot in the playoffs," Ricky told Sport.es via translation from Sportando. As of right now the TWolves still have both Luke Ridnour & J.J. Barea to fill the void till he comes back (barring a long rumored trade). Russian rookie Alexey Shved & second-year guard Malcolm Lee can also play some point guard, if need be. That's all for now, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! The Minnesota Timberwolves are looking for another big man to add to the roster and it's sounding as though the Wolves are taking a long hard look at former Kings center Hassan Whiteside.
A TWolves scout recently sat in on a workout for him in Houston and apparently, Minnesota wants a second, closer look. According to...you guessed it: Darren Wolfson of ESPN 1500 Twin Cities, the Wolves are bringing Whiteside to Minnesota today and he'll workout in front of the "decision-makers", who'll make the final decision. I assume they're looking at Whiteside (instead of Tolliver) for a couple different reasons. 1.) Whiteside has a bit more length (he's a 7-footer, while AT is 6-8). 2.) Hassan will cost considerably less (AT is looking for around $2million a year, while Whiteside could probably receive the minimum). 3.) AT would probably look for more playing time, while Whiteside could be a deep reserve/work in progress. There should be more on this VERY SOON, until then, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! ESPN is in the midst of their second-annual #NBARank and for the next few weeks while they unveil all 500 players ranked, we'll be taking a look at where our Minnesota Timberwolves players land. As of today, the Minnesota Timberwolves now have five players show up on #NBARank: Malcolm Lee (#404), Alexey Shved (#333), Dante Cunningham (#298), Greg Stiemsma (#270) and now Luke Ridnour (#194). Luke Ridnour played 53 games last year and started all 53 of them. He began the season as Minnesota's starting point guard, after 10 games, Ricky Rubio made his debut and Luke moved over to shooting guard. For the next 30+ games the TWolves backcourt was Ricky & Luke. Then, of course, Rubio went down for the season and Luke moved back to point guard, before turning his ankle in a game vs. the Kings and missing the last 10 games. Just in case you wanted a full rundown of where & when he played. Ridnour is one of the true good guys in the League and I've got to say, I'm shocked that he's ranked lower than he was last season. He's also ranked 0.10 lower than he was a season ago. Even though he had one of the best seasons of his career (and it was statistically better than last year). At this time Ridnour is still on the roster, but I'd say there's a very good chance that he'll be playing elsewhere when the season begins in late October and if he IS still on the team, I have serious doubts that he will be for the remainder of the year. His name has been floated around in a number of trade rumors as the TWolves are reportedly looking to dump either him or J.J. in return or so they can, sign another big man and potentially another wing. That's all for now, as of today there are still eight Timberwolves players that haven't shown up on #NBARank, so you can expect eight more of these posts. Until then, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES! |
Cody AndersonA TWolves fan, bringing you the daily updates. News Archives
August 2017
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