We Go Howl In the Motherfuckin Paint: My Highly Popular 2010 T-Wolves thread

ok, bad news first: we lost to kings w/o tyreke

we are gonna lose a shitton of games

good news:

kahn and rambis have a team that can do what they want: play fun, uptempo b-ball

even though we lost i had a good time watching last night...lots of young dudes that have tons of energy

feeling great about wesley johnson, he's so much more athletic than i thought...dude can JUMP! one of the t-wolves local broadacasters (kevin lynch) compared him to scottie pippin, which i can kinda see

luke ridnour was awesome, the "old man" on a super young team but he can run point pretty well

super cool beas def had his moments, a little on-and-off, but partly cuz rambis really makes a lot of subs

koufas played too much for my taste....

love is a workhorse and maybe more explosive than ppl give him credit for...should have been in at the end IMO

tolliver i know shit about but he was the star last night, super energy, scoring, and some great blocks, one of which is an ESPN play of the day

darko was okay, he's real subtle for a big man, nice skills at times but not exactly a fierce dude or a banger, seems like a "small" 7 feet tall sometimes

How do you feel about the Al Jefferson trade?

Love will do good work for you, as he would for any team. He deserves to be a valued role player on a v good team, much as he was for the USA team during this summer's world championships.

He deserves to be a valued role player on a v good team

yep...that's sort of the problem with him here

How do you feel about the Al Jefferson trade?

― macaroni rascal (polyphonic), Thursday, October 28, 2010 11:49 AM (37 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

kinda bittersweet...loved Al, total bro and the only decent fucking b-ball we saw since garnett left...

that said, i don't really think we had much of a future with Al, he wasn't dominant enough to be the cornerstone of a franchise...but i think he will do well on the jazz

also: we won't be contracted! (maybe)

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=5734903

I am really enjoying this wolves fan experience so far - already my evan turner envy has dissipated (and Cousins would have been a disaster on this team) - but I still have much to learn from m@tt, so I will be reading this closely!

and Cousins would have been a disaster on this team

yeah i kinda wanted him, but here's my long-term t-wolves perspective -- if there's a player who could go one way or the other, any kind of questions about him -- if WE take him, he's gonna be a disaster

Defence in the Houston game was so depressing to watch, I guess it was meant to be some sort of interior zone or something? Houston seemed to have multiple open shooters on every play.

this team kinda makes me wish the nba had relegation like the premier league...it would hilarious to watch kevin love put up 40-15s in twenty minutes against the maine red claws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2XzDMpfAPM

this sounded pretty bad ass on the radio

Jefferson had to be traded, didn't he? He and Love are identical players, and Love is younger and cheaper. No point in keeping them both.

Ughhh watching darko is ughhh - I'm not 100% clear what a center is meant to do in this system but I'm sure it involves less not-managing-to-catch-the-ball.

Also when Beasley gets a second foul and the second unit is Gaines/Heyward/Koufos - how can you possibly still have that kind of non-depth after years of high draft picks?

M@tt how do you feel about Beasley now?

i'm digging super cool beas! he's hilarious and i like watching him play

(btw wrt to cousins, did you see they had to hire his HIGH SCHOOL coach as a consultant to deal w/him? yikes)

Love's 31/30...o_O!

wow.

also this is funny:

http://allball.blogs.nba.com/2010/11/15/investigative-report-the-awkward-handshake/?ls=iref:nbahpt1

Also when Beasley gets a second foul and the second unit is Gaines/Heyward/Koufos - how can you possibly still have that kind of non-depth after years of high draft picks?

― Gravel Puzzleworth, Sunday, November 14, 2010 2:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hahahaha i would point you to the drafting magick of mr. kevin mchale, check out our drafts...

mcants over danny grainger still stiiings.

love and beas blowin up - feel like wolves could be this years fun to watch bad young team

yeah...like honestly i know we are gonna lose shitload of games, but either way it's going to be way more uptempo, fun-to-watch than last year's slogfest...love Al J, but he really needs a boggy type game to excel

For his part, Gallinari looks pretty quick with the ball in his hands but in the first half he accomplished the impressive feat of giving Beasley space to shoot his jumper while also being unable to prevent him from getting into the paint. Although they were less apt to be utterly torched off the dribble, both Wilson Chandler and Landry Fields also curiously gave Beasley room to shoot, just as the Kings did on Wednesday. (B-Eazy himself was unmoved by the big-numbers-against-soft-defenders argument. “I’m a monster and every day is Halloween,” was his only reply. That’s cool.)

yeah it's all love :)

miami shoulda kept beazles

pat riley had other ideas he was mulling over

aie what a shitty game. Beas = favourite player right now, hope he'll stay a long time.

Oh hey Ridnour is nice.

This team is drafting a center next year right? One who can do, like, basketball things?

(wow - this team has no players who earn the league average or more? oO )

beas/love tore it up again tonight

man ok so a team that desperately needs fan support...a game with blake griffin coming to town, b-easy and k-love (the two players that can actually make the fans excited) go off on big games...AND IT'S NOT ON TV IN THE TWIN CITIES. wtf

still sounds like it was awesome, some friends went

also for wolves blogging, A Wolf Among Wolves is a great one:

http://www.awolfamongwolves.com/

Somebody asked Beasley on Thursday if he has ever been in a groove like the one in which he has scored 42, 35, 25, 28 and 33 in the past five games. That 42 at Sacramento is a career high.

"I've been in a groove like this my whole life," said Beasley, who doesn't turn 22 until January. "Except for Miami."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k4z3liIzKM

"I've been in a groove like this my whole life," said Beasley, who doesn't turn 22 until January. "Except for Miami."

― there was usic in the cafes at night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, November 19, 2010 1:37 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

B-)

feel like the inevitable darko/love/beas/johnson/ridnour starting 5 is pretty charismatic in its own way

It is! Darko is such a mystery, his hands are so so nice on that hook shot but he cannot catch the damn ball. I hope I will like Johnny Flynn one day.

That game was cool - Wes Johnson >> James Harden imo.

Ughh that spurs game - I was watching it with kidz in my class (waiting for their parents to come & pick them up) - all the way through saying "Wolves are gonna throw this away, just watch" :(

How has Darko gotten so good? Over like, five games? It makes no sense.

Darko's been a good defensive center for a while now, and with how bad he was at the start of the season you had to figure some of his shots would start dropping in sooner or later. I don't think he'll stay this hot but I expect him to continue to be a solid player for the Twolves.

I dunno, I think it's kinda hard to overstate how good he's actually been in the past couple games - like against the spurs he was clearly the best player on the court, just seemed unstoppable, like, they had to give Tim Duncan double help to slow him down - dunno what Spurs fans would think but even allowing for regression back to some sort of mean there's just no way he's the same guy that NBA2k11 rated 57 at the start of the season.

would be hilar if darko and beas ended up the two steals of the off season after kaaaaaaahn became an nba laughingstock

Haven't seen darko play v much, but I do know it takes about 5 or 6 years to make an NBA center out of a talented big guy who doesn't have transcendent skills. He may just now be getting it figured out, after the life-altering shock of finding out that everyone he has to play against has a game that's gone beyond his own.

xp

it sure looks that way atm (beas more of a steal at this point bcause of ~potential~ and also darko makes a decent salary), but darko is FREED, u can shut that blog down now

i always heard one of the raps on darko was that it didn't seem like he liked basketball that much--do we know how he made progress on this front?

would be hilar if darko and beas ended up the two steals of the off season after kaaaaaaahn became an nba laughingstock

― ice cr?m, Friday, November 26, 2010 1:04 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

I think it has to be said that Simmons was leading that charge because he was butthurt nobody took him up on his mock offer to become Wolves GM, and even though he played it off like a joke you know he would've killed to get that job (or even be considered) - hence his very unfunny and unprofessional (and undeserved) crusade against Kahn.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96nFrut-ODE

It was pretty deserved, tam.

could this team stop going up by 15 before losing? it is kind of stressful.

wkiw

http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/news/practicereport_thursday_2010_12_09.html?rss=true

yeah honestly last year the frustration with the wolves was "omg this is the worst fucking basketball i've ever seen god kill me now"

this year, it's almost as frustrating because this team can play flat-out fantastic at times, but they just can't do it for an entire game and esp in the fourth quarter

the wed game against the thunder was so typical, we fucking stomped the shit outta them in the first half, then piss it all away

that said they are young, and beas, love, darko all look great...brewer can be great in spots and is the only one that can play a fucking lick of defense (that's our real problem, i think we can score with anyone in the league, we just have to score 120 points to win a damn game)....

anyway, i'm optimistic for the first time in YEARS...even Big Pek a.k.a. The Lanedriver looked pretty good against the thunder....

i love it when Pek and Kosta Koufas are on the floor together, so much ugly on the court

also

as much as everyone in MN shits on Kevin McHale and hates him...the OJ Mayo/Kevin Love deal looks absolutely brilliant now.

guys this is a v typical stage on the path to becoming a good team, wouldnt get too worried abt it, its one of those good problems

Haha that clip - honestly so happy to know these guys get on.

Detroit game was a nice change - they started with the worst six minutes I have seen any team play ever, like to the point where they were taking shots after the whistle had gone and just barely drawing iron on them, then they were just slightly but undeniably better for the next 36, it felt pretty good to watch. You can totally see looking at those two teams why Western-conference dominance is self perpetuating - everything about MN is just way more hopeful than it is for the Pistons yet if the season ended today they'd be picking before them. Hope they extend/match Brewer - as you say his gurning and grimacing face is the spirit of the franchise 4 sure.

Do Minnesota not have announcers or something? Every game I watch on ILP seems to use the other team's feed, it is really confusing.

Instead, this team is resolutely a work in progress and ridden with contradictions.

Every moment of clarity is tempered by a dilemma; every solution is balanced by some new puzzle. Love is a strange synthesis of the romanticized, blue-collar banger and the new-school, finesse European big man. Beasley radiates a goofy joy that both animates and confuses his play. Darko is a quixotic riddle, a symbol both of unbounded possibility and of crushing disappointment. Corey Brewer’s enthusiasm and gangly limbs charm while his manic unpredictability baffles. I could go on. So what fascinates about the Timberwolves is the tension between dreamy aspiration and the awkward, often unlovely process of coming into being.

For the first time in years, the Wolves are compelling -- not just in the overstated depth of their awfulness.

(from a wolf among wolves blog - link upthread)

good post

Rambis rocking the 70s prom suit tonight.

Would not at all choose Jefferson over Darko on this showing so far - neither can really stop the other but DM seems to do a bit more - what am I missing? No-one was offering 2 first round picks for Darko.

Beasley back on full-on favourite player swag tonight - if he can take the next step and become the best player on a 40 win team that team will be such a joy to watch, every shot he is makes is so... distintive?

Why can't this team rebound all of a sudden? I thought that was, like, its thing.

JHDSGFKJAHS THIS TEAM

Would not at all choose Jefferson over Darko on this showing so far

Also this got less true as time passed.

haha

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/hnp/mis/2142395448.html

michael beasley - w4m
Date: 2011-01-03, 8:11PM CST
Reply To This Post

Hey! Just wanted to say thanks for the new web tablet. Oops, I meant really nice tip that I spent on the new web tablet. Your waitress.

* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 2142395448

SO SICK OF THIS NOW. Also man the celtics announcers are some srs homers.

Something weird (but kinda typical) has happened to darko's rebounding in the past few games - I guess he's been watching/talking to/been intimidated by Love and the result is that he now tips *everything* in some arbitrary direction, even stuff he could totally catch? Honestly he is such a fucking headcase.

Wes on Allen was really really not the best idea - he's actually not a bad on-ball defender but the Syracuse zone thing was super apparent?

I hope I will like Johnny Flynn one day.

This has not come true.

man love's 3s really got us back in this...

kosta koufas is the most ridiculous looking person ever with his new mask, god, love made this slick pass to him in the paint and the doofus was too surprised to even catch it

Yeah Love was insanely good again, I don't know how to square that with how they just lost to the Charlotte reserves.

Also it would be dope if Rambis could download some plays from the internet or something.

love is doing crazy shit this year

DARKO DON'T TRY TO MAKE SOME HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS OVER THE BACK FLIP PASS IN THE PAINT YOU FUCKIN LUMMOX

also wes johnson made some terrible fucking turnovers, dribbling off his foot gtfo

such a frustrating game ug

The TWolves are now just a couple of players away from... total despair.

M@tt - talking of globetrotters, what was Flynn like last year? He can't have been this terrible surely, every time I see Ty Lawson play I just gnash and gnash.

I guess it's cool in some tiny way that the players think they don't even have to try in order to beat Charlotte; would be nice if they were actually right though.

i feel like at some point this season the wolves are gonna put some wins together and finish out the last 20 games at like 10-10

Yeah - as long as all of this stuff doesn't grind them down too much this is definitely at least a 30 win team next year if the current guys just age and mature a bit, maybe 35 if Rubio comes over and is a viable starter (and they don't have a 2012 draft pick, so they'll be full-on going for it) - the future is basically still bright for as long as Love is healthy & motivated!

It's just amazing how, for a team that loses 75% of its basketball games, they can lose every game with some new kind of fuck-up or wrinkle or new unexpected way to make it painful.

yeah i feel like thats one of those good problems tho cause at least theres something to point to and fix rather than it being a undifferentiated dire shitstorm

M@tt - talking of globetrotters, what was Flynn like last year? He can't have been this terrible surely, every time I see Ty Lawson play I just gnash and gnash.

he was pretty much this bad, i was kinda hoping for a big step forward, i really liked him in college too and was excited about him (tho i wanted steph curry and didn't like the rubio/flynn back to back pix)

Kahn please please do not trade for Antony Randolph, why would you do that.

Someone needs to come up with some metric that measures 'dumb' - like if you tracked turnovers on steals or something.

the end of that okc game was pretty stupid

man this team is EXHAUSTING wow...unreal game tho, but this shit is getting old.

nice double clutch luke! dum dum dum dum

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2OkK2jupU8

http://grab.by/8DS1

hahahha awesome

http://ploader.net/files/de20dcaa10c59cf43d1468e694684f9a.jpg

welp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mUv17Z6Eqs

lol @ shot of iphone chatz

seemed pretty defeated and out of energy last nite :(

ughh that was depressing. It feels weird to admit this with 327 lottery picks on the court but it really felt like this team is somehow still so behind on talent, missing Ridnour was so so palpable and Ridnour is like ]a career backup PG :(

kevin love gets no love from all star team :(

laaaaaaaaaame

all star game is generally a year behind the curve, who knows maybe stern will put him in, feels more like nash moment to me tho

Love's in

Yay!

For a guy who defers so often Wes Johnson is kinda unconscionable.

Deserved. He proved his salt in the world championships last year and has been on a tear ever since.

wow i had no idea k love was shooting 44% from 3

In the proposed trade, New York would send Anthony Randolph and Eddy Curry to Minnesota and the Timberwolves would send Corey Brewer and a first-round pick to Denver. Denver would also receive Wilson Chandler from New York.

Would probably start Eddy Curry at centre at this point.

well i haven't been watching, had gotten kinda disheartened as of late, now they've won a couple good ones! did you watch gravel?

Yeah! It's weird how losing every game has already become such a crucial part of the wolves fan experience to me, I can't imagine how good it must feel to support a team that goes, like, .350.

They've actually looked way better with Darko out - Pekovic still apparently doesn't know the rules of basketball but at least they don't try to run the offense through him. Ellington's been on some sort of crazy tear too!

They actually closed out the Houston game with Flynn-Ellington-Brewer-Love-Tolliver which was cool - it was one of those weird games where both teams are tired and someone at some point in the 4th decides they want it - I was not expecting that somebody to be the Wolves bench but it was! So that was kind of neat.

Haha also so I guess this belongs here - after school on Thursdays I have late-room duty with grade 5 for kids waiting for their parents, I usually put some basketball on - Minnesota if they played on the Wednesday otherwise some other game that seems like it'd be good to watch. The kids seem to enjoy it and I try and point out what to notice about the opposition etc. Anyway today I had the following conversation:

"Sir, who's the best player in the NBA?"
"Lebron James. He plays for Miami."
"What position does he play?"
"Small forward"
"What does that mean?"
"The same as Michael Beasley"
"Ah, okay"

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

I saw Pekovic play for the first time the other day. He is a cool looking beast of a dude.

I love how every announcer cannot get over the size of him - every single time there is some awestruck new variation on "whoa that is a big dude".

This team is awful again fyi.

"Sir, who's the best player in the NBA?"
"Lebron James. He plays for Miami."
"What position does he play?"
"Small forward"
"What does that mean?"
"The same as Michael Beasley"
"Ah, okay"

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

― Gravel Puzzleworth, Thursday, February 10, 2011 7:19 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

o_O

TWolves GM: "Done rebuilding"

Like God on the seventh day, eh? Tomorrow he can make a woman's team.

So does Ellington start at 2 now? I guess so!

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/carls064/freealonzo/corey-brewer.jpg

Gonna miss this guy.

So apparently this team had a "clear the air" meeting this morning.

And now Ridnour and Wes and Love and Beasley are playing really hard, or anyway harder than Golden State? And Darko is on the court, and he clearly & transparently doesn't give a shit.

2nd worst home loss ever :/

So that's what that howling I heard earlier this evening was on about.

sry bout beas ;)
is wesley johnson really this good or is it career-night-for-guard-against-the-lakers syndrome? they had a puff piece about kobe mentoring him (same agent) in the offseason before the march 1 game so we been watching and he has not disappointed, flat outplayed kobe this past game. not just talented but he 'uses' the floor well and works to get better shots

WJ always plays well against Kobe for some reason - he's had kind of a confounding season because he's like 24 so people figured he'd be NBA ready but he'd never played man defense which ended up being kind of a thing?

He'd be a really good player on a better team I think - his handle is pretty weak so he can't really make his own shot, which is problematic because this team doesn't really move the ball well enough to get him good looks or find him on cuts, but he could totally play the Batum/Barnes role for somebody someday. Hopefully that somebody will be Minnesota!

So uh draft lists?

I guess Kyrie would be #1 - dunno how that fits in with Rubio at all but who knows what's going there at all and apparently RR is not playing at all well for FCB lately and his shooting hasn't gotten any better at all...
#2 would be Harrison Baines I guess? That'd be a p.horrible fit with Wes but I guess you could play Beas at 6th man?
Don't know anything about Valuncias/Kanter but the shadow of Darko casts a malign influence there

I think I'd actually be down with taking Derrick Williams and trading him straight up for some Devin Harris established-starter type, painful as it'd be, it's not like this team has a draft pick next year anyway.

We're #1!

I made it, ma! Sitting on top of the world!

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_g8BQFSPckxk/SmE0a0MnskI/AAAAAAAAAy8/cVjsqM1jEQ8/s400/Cagney_009.jpg

Was remembering today that weird stretch of five games when Darko seemed like a top-5 center.

If this team gets the #2 pick they'd have to trade it right? Someone on CH today was saying that 4 of the team's best five players were PFs already, I think that might be actually true.

http://www.boatbookings.com/images/fishing/reeling-in-fish.jpg
pictured: david kahn

Ricky & Someone & Michael & Kevin & Someone! So pumped.

Well its time to get back into following this nincompoop franchise. Ricky rubio is hella dreamy. Rambis.....good to know ya, bye bye......now let's get working on ways to fuck up the number two pick

Rambis's report:

http://pastorpresnell.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/f-paper.jpg

Also, the way Simmons talks about this team is hella annoying.

yeah the rambis situation is just bizarre and embarrassing, classic Kahn!

so...uh...Kanter...i guess that's who we are drafting now?

i don't know anything about him.

Simmons sucks a lot but he is usually right about the Wolves.

Kanter would basically be an intensification of the Freedarko, wolves as 'critically acclaimed' basketball team path - total mystery (kind of the first high school player since 2006), no defence at all, a starting five entirely on rookie contracts - Derrick Williams would be the grown up pick but why even pretend at this point.

The Wolves had drafted or traded for so many tweeners over the years.

"So, guys, you know how we lost every game 145-132 last year? What if we replaced our .400-shooting defensive anchor with the 6'11 Carlos Boozer?"

If I were employed to win at basketball I would not do it but as someone who sits at home watching the wolves on tape delay I am pretty much in favour I think.

oh oh kahn's wheeling and dealing!

http://www.nbadraft.net/draft-day-draft-buzz-1

love the "wolves could get cap space" -- cap space we had in abundance before kahn worked his magic!

Adrian Wojnarowski
Many front offices are frustrated trying to deal with Minny for No. 2 pick. One says, "If you want a deal right now you're talking to Utah."

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5141/5865361105_8fdc8cd575_b.jpg

(Unshrunk version: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wyndouglas/5865361105/sizes/l/in/photostream/)

So I guess Williams plays at the 3? With Beasley/Love at 4/5? Don't think that'll work but less Darko is fine with me.

last night was psychedelic

After the Timberwolves agreed to send guard Jonny Flynn in a package to the Houston Rockets for Brad Miller and the 23rd pick on Thursday, the trade hit a snag on Friday when the Rockets’ team doctors raised issues with Flynn’s hip injury.

To keep the deal from falling apart, Minnesota sent a 2012 second-round pick to the Rockets, league sources said. The issues wouldn’t have kept Flynn off the court, but did raise some concerns for the long-term. Whether Minnesota had been forthcoming with the information prior to the trade is unclear.

Would pretty much give up a second round pick just to be rid of Flynn at this point

what's up. we lifting weights, slam dunkin, you know how we do!\

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2zgeSffJEI&feature=player_embedded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIq0eUMeN64

This team will be fun to watch, certainly.

"I believe next year you going to see an entirely different team."

Spoken like a player on the team with the worst record in the league last year, fella.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/125094624.html

^_^ / *rmde*

super cool beas likes to get blazed SO

just stop looking foe his weed and everything will be cool

adelman! nellie! larry brown! hire 'em all i say!!!!

http://www.hotnewhiphop.com/en/play/s/a7cf4ae-174747/

just fyi

http://ballislifeent.com/2011/08/05/rashad-mccants-is-now-a-rapper-known-as-king-suni-blac/

so we got Adelman! obv i'm very pleased also this is EXtREMELY interesting

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylt=ArMknX0DyLnvZb1atGOA_uI5nYcB?slug=aw-wojnarowski_rick_adelman_twolves_091211

sounds like KAAAAAHNNN is in the doghaus and adelman basically hates him

That is ice cold.

!!!! so pumped, can't wait to see the wolves actually win 30%+ of basketball games.

Would be poetic justice if Kahn were left to hang powerlessly like Rambis but would only further & cement the 'dysfunctional franchise' tag :(

*drudge siren*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYDzvmoGIcE

SUPER COOL BEAS!

i need this video clipped to just the part of rubio saying "i know this song *nods head* i like it" for when i wanna revive threads

pek is so disgusted

rubio is like the "cutest" nba player ever

super cool beas was def the best

So, Beasley is Mickey Dolenz. Rubio is Davey Jones. And Love is Peter Tork?

http://i.imgur.com/R8SSf.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/H78X5.png

@Twolvesnow

Twolves confirm Love broke his hand doing knuckle push ups

Ok so I know they lost and everything but the wrestling-style secret return oO - I love this year's team so much!

k love: superstar or farce?

http://cjzero.com/gifs/RickyWrestling.gif