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Year-Round News & Updates on the Minnesota Timberwolves
UPDATE (11/16 @11:55pmCT): Josh Howard is officially a Minnesota Timberwolf after passing his physical. Howard joined the team for the morning shootaround and stayed around afterwards working with Malcolm Lee, Alexey Shved, Lou Amundson, Derrick Williams and assistant coach Terry Porter on set plays. It was rumored that the Wolves offered the same one-year veteran's minimum deal to Mickael Pietrus, but Howard responded first as Pietrus is likely holding out for a mini-mid-level exception ($2.575million). Howard is expected to play tonight vs. the Warriors and the minutes will depend on his conditioning. He says he hasn't played since the 2012 playoffs when the Jazz lost to the Spurs. I'd expect somewhere between 8-12 minutes.
For the past two games Andrei Kirilenko has played 44 minutes apiece in each and after yesterday's loss vs. the Charlotte Bobcats, the Wolves decide to get some more help for their injury-riddled roster (Of course it was AK's fault of the loss finishing with 26pts & 12reb). Today it was announced that the Wolves had agreed to a one-year veteran's minimum deal with forward Josh Howard. The Wolves are down to just nine healthy bodies, currently Kevin Love is out with the broken hand, Ricky Rubio is out while he continues to rehab after reconstructive knee surgery, Chase Budinger is out after suffering a torn lateral meniscus last week, J.J. Barea is day-to-day with a mid-foot sprain, Brandon Roy is day-to-day with a sore right knee and Nikola Pekovic is day-to-day with a sprained ankle. Hopefully the Wolves can get J.J., Roy & Pek back soon, however that doesn't help much in backing up Andrei Kirilenko at small forward as Chase Budinger will miss the next 3-4 months with that torn meniscus--prompting this signing. In order to sign Josh Howard the Wolves will have to waive someone and it's all but certain that someone will be point guard Will Conroy, who honestly isn't a capable NBA player. The Wolves had been in contact with free agent Mickael Pietrus as well and had even been rumored to be searching for a trade, but Howard was the only player they put through a workout (they did so when they were in Dallas earlier this week). Others were hoping the Wolves would sign Pietrus, but I was always keen to Howard (or Michael Redd). While it's true Pietrus is the better shooter, Howard has a much better all-around game and can play three position on the floor (SG, SF, PF) can score (averaged over 8ppg last year with UTH), rebound and defend. Hopefully now, when AK comes off the floor, there won't be such a dramatic drop-off in the team's production (like there was on Wednesday night). Howard should pass his physical later today and will more than likely be in uniform for Friday's game vs. the Golden State Warriors (I'll be at that one!). We'll have all our pages updated soon enough (taking off Conroy and adding Howard). Check back later this evening! Until then, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES!
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Cody AndersonA TWolves fan, bringing you the daily updates. News Archives
August 2017
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