A Wolf Among Wolves

Love Against the World

Wisconsin Historical Images

Kevin Love is bright white and a little lumpy. His steps are plodding and thick. He does not really look like an NBA basketball player. And he certainly seems a little bit out of place among his fellow world-class North Americans with their lithe, elastic bodies and their liquid skills. He does resemble, however, quite a few of his opponents in these FIBA World Championships; perhaps its no accident, then, that, as Sebastian Pruiti has pointed out at NBA Playbook, Love appears to be a natural at the international game:

Kevin Love is a very good rebounder in the NBA, and we shouldn’t be surprised that this skill carried over to the FIBA Worlds, but at this pace? Love has grabbed 21 rebounds in his 26 minutes of play, which comes out to an insane 31.5 rebounds per 40 minutes (h/t J.E. Skeets via John Schuhmann). How is Love able to grab so many rebounds? By simply outworking and outsmarting his opponents.

Love tends to draw the kind of praise that we’ve come to understand as racially coded cliches. In the Worlds, Fran Fraschilla (who I should say right out front is a terrific analyst who understands the hell out of international basketball) busted out the full complement: Love is “your perfect teammate,” he is “smart” and “hardworking” and “unselfish”. These make him sound just like an unathletic, Big Ten white dude and I confess that they are part of the reason that I was a little disappointed when the Wolves picked him up. I mean, weren’t you just sick to death of hearing about how great an outlet passer this guy was?

As it happens, Love actually is an unselfish, hardworking, intelligent player who throws a seriously wicked outlet pass (this one is pretty ill too). Pruiti aptly points out that all of these hallmarks–the clever, nasty rebounding, the passing, the off-ball movement, the long-range shooting–have been on full display in this tournament (although he does leave out one of my favorite highlights, in which Love singlehandedly boxed out two Croatians, allowing Rudy Gay to coast in for a putback dunk).

Clearly, Love has taken to the international game. His lack of size for a power forward and “two-inch vertical” (another Fraschilla quip) are less exposed by the relatively less athletic competition; the extra spacing in the half-court suit his heady passing and movement; his shooting ability creates space and passing angles.

But, and this is where things start to get interesting for Wolves fans, he’s also aided immensely by the fact that he’s surrounded by more obviously gifted players. Let the Kevin Durants and Derrick Roses of the world create the shots with their quickness and ballhandling. Leave the soaring finishes to the likes of Rudy Gay. Love is at his best when roaming the lane and moving the ball, putting in yeoman’s work, hiding in plain sight.

Love’s play in this tournament supports the idea that he is currently the Wolves best player. But it’s also begun to validate David Kahn’s statement that the Oswego boy should be no more than third-best on a contending team, that in order to really flourish, he needs to be on a team of his betters. The remark bears Kahn’s trademark wrong-footed honesty, but it contains a rather large grain of truth.

Take, for instance, Team USA’s squeaker against Brazil this Monday. Thanks to his inspired play in the first two games, Love was among the first reserves to come off the bench. But it quickly became clear that this wasn’t his game. A 22% rebounding rate is great, but it doesn’t mean much when your opponent is shooting 63% from the field. Love’s defense has improved dramatically since his first season (although Zach does have some choice words), but his lack of quickness showed in his struggles to cover ground while defending Brazil’s spread pick-and-roll (a nice assessment from Tony Ronzone, both of Brazil’s tactics and Love’s development, is right here). And the deck was stacked against Love in his one-on-one matchup with Tiago Splitter, Brazil’s nimble seven-footer. Too much height and too much skill for the little big man.

Kevin Love, in other words, is a role player. A dude with the potential to be even more forcefully, life-affirmingly entertaining and effective than the other great glue guys (Varejao, Battier, Birdman and their ilk) but because of those limitations, those holes in his game, a role player nonetheless. This leaves us wondering: Wes Johnson, Michael Beasley, how good are you really gonna be?

La Pistola

Yvonne Chu

Ricky Rubio is getting famous. How famous? For one: Zach Harper just posted a lengthy post about the kid on this very blog. For two: the paper of record just compared him to Justin Bieber. Here’s Pete Thamel on young Rubio:

In this year’s EuroLeague semifinal against CSKA Moscow, the former Duke star Trajan Langdon said, one play summed up Rubio’s understanding of the game. Rubio called a set play that put him in a precarious position underneath the hoop. But he lobbed the ball over the backboard to a teammate for an easy lay-in.

“He knew exactly where to be and how to read the defense,” Langdon said. “He does his little tricks, but that’s not what impresses me with him. What impresses me is that he doesn’t get rattled.

“His ability to run a team and understand the game at his age is phenomenal.”

And if Trajan Langdon says it, it must be true.

Oh and another thing:

As people recognized him in a hotel lobby, Rubio obliged every autograph and picture request for a simple reason. “When you see their smile and their eyes shining, you feel good,” he said.

Never stop that sweet poetry, Ricky Rubio.

What The US Needs Now… Is Love, Gritty Love

It’s no secret that Team USA is starving for big men.

The fact that JaVale McGee was even being considered for the national team or that Tyson Chandler is the only center on the final roster shows just how dire of a situation the patriotic interior is for our boys in red, white and blue. The American big man is either a dying breed (not a lot of good young big men out there from the states) or too injured to be allowed to participate (Greg Oden, Andrew Bynum, Blake Griffin) or just not interested in being on the team if it isn’t the Olympics (Dwight Howard) or actually Australian (Andrew Bogut).

You would think that being one of just a couple big men on the final Team USA roster for the FIBA World Championships would afford Kevin Love a great opportunity to prove his mettle inside while representing his country. Instead, he’s been riding the pine for most of the tune-up games for his country. After seeing almost nothing but garbage time against France and smacking his head hard into the ground against Lithuania, Love sat out the exhibition against Spain as a precaution since the game didn’t mean anything.

But when given a chance in another throw-away game against Greece days before the FIBAs begin, Kevin Love saw some extended refuse minutes in a game that got out of hand in the second half. And all Kevin Love did during this short run was grab 12 rebounds (six offensive) in 12 minutes against men bigger and harrier than him. That’s the troubling thing about the way Love’s minutes have been yanked around by different respective teams (his own and now his country’s) over the past six months: Kevin Love can do stuff like that without really thinking about it.

Kevin Love is the best rebounder in the world. I’m not talking about just this tournament either. I mean he’s the best rebounder in the game of basketball. He’s better than Marcus Camby. He’s better than David Lee. He’s better than even Dwight Howard. That’s not to say he’s a better player than any of those guys because he’s not. But when it comes to rebounding a missed shot, there is no one better at this craft than Kevin Love.

According to HoopData, of all players who played more than 25 minutes per game for 40 or more games this past season, Love was fourth in total rebounding percentage with a 21.4%. He was also first in offensive rebounding percentage with a phenomenal 14.5%. Kevin was tied for seventh in the entire NBA in rebounding with 11 per game when he only played 28 minutes per game because the Wolves were trying to showcase Al Jefferson for trade purposes or getting Darko Milicic minutes for some type of draft bust work release program or giving Ryan Hollins some burn because they wanted to engulf themselves in the flames of buyer’s remorse.

While it’s fun to see if our Team USA comprised of guards and small forwards can out-athleticize the rest of the world with perimeter defense and transition bedazzling, the simple presence of a world-class rebounder seems like the smartest thing Coach K and his staff could concoct. There are several teams the US needs to worry about because of their great interior presence (Rafael Uehara wrote up a nice piece on post presences in this tournament):

- Brazil is a member of USA’s Group B and while their loss of Nene (you remember him from such teams as the Denver Nuggets) hurts their frontcourt depth, they still have three very capable big men that can be effective inside with their size and rebounding. Anderson Varejao, Tiago Splitter and Guilherme Giovannoni will man the interior for Brazil.

- Don’t let what we saw from Greece on Wednesday fool you; they have a lot of size to throw around on the boards. This Greek team wasn’t giving a full effort in a game that meant nothing and they even ended up sitting their two best post players in Ioannis Bourousis and Sofo Schortsanitis. Bourousis is a fantastically skilled big man and Sofo is the bulldozer-shaped gentleman, who likes to throw his weight around whenever the opportunity presents itself. Kostas Tsartsaris also proved to be a tough draw inside for the US interior throughout their exhibition.

- Spain is missing Pau Gasol and still have enough inside to control the glass against just about anybody. Marc Gasol is probably the best big man in this tournament. Fran Vazquez and Jorge Garbajosa also provide a lot of active work on the boards and in the paint. It’s the best frontcourt the US team will see during this entire tournament.

- Russia (Sasha Kaun and Timofey Mozgov) and Turkey (Hedo Turkoglu, Omer Asik, Ersan Ilyasova) both possess young, active frontcourts that can really hit the glass.

- And Serbia has all kinds of power and grit inside, assuming Nenad Krstic stops acting like he just found out his best friend’s cousin is cheating on him with his cousin’s best friend/stepfather on Jerry Springer.

There is a lot of rebounding ability in the teams the US will be facing and while I love tall, lanky rebounding and defensive presences who don’t rebound or defend all that well (I’m looking at you, Tyson Chandler), there has to be more room for someone of Kevin Love’s rebounding prowess.

Yes, we all know Kevin Love is an atrocious defender and the most talented retail merchandisers couldn’t dress that fact up to look any more palatable. But the US team already is relying on stopping people from getting into the interior, rebounding missed shots and firing them back up the court to start a fastbreak. And nobody on the team is more qualified to do those last two things than Kevin Love.

Ideally, you’d like the US to find a way to play Love and Lamar Odom together. Both can find their way around the offensive glass quite well and both are excellent outlet passers to get this team running down the rest of the world’s collective gullets. The perfect, Better Basketball DVD-esque rebounding technique of Kevin Love can be as invaluable as the explosive nature of Derrick Rose’s first step. Love ends opponents’ possessions with his rebounding on the defensive end of the court and keeps his team’s possessions alive on the offensive end of the court with his tireless work ethic on the glass.

Even though Team USA won’t need his services in the group they face outside of Brazil, it would behoove Coach K to find Kevin some minutes throughout the group stage in order to keep him active with the team and right in the thick of the international competition chemistry lesson our guys are trying to learn. That way, when Team USA gets to the elimination rounds and attempts to advance to the gold medal game, they have their very own industrial strength Windex man in the perfect playing rhythm with his teammates.

It’s not like Love would be taking someone’s minutes on the inside that is more deserving of playing time than him. He’d just be feeding an anorexic position for this US squad.

After all, the US has the best scorer in this tournament and is not shy about using Kevin Durant’s ability to score points at any given point. So why should they fail to utilize the best rebounder in the tournament at the same time?

Ricky Rubio Shines And Fails: Hope Springs Eternal

There are two schools of thought when it comes to Ricky Rubio:

1. HE RULEZ!!!!!111!!!!
2. HE SUCKZ!!!!!111!!!!

And there doesn’t seem to be any common ground in between when it comes to the Spanish phenom with a flair for being full of flair.

He’s either a fantastic playmaker that will change the league in a way Jason Williams (not the shotgun-toting one, not the motorcycle enthusiast either) couldn’t quite grasp or didn’t care to grasp. Or he’s an overrated hype machine that is too soft to play in the NBA and has no chance of ever making a jumpshot. Also, his hair is stupid and he’s too small to play against decent-sized point guards.

What’s insane to me is how polarizing Rubio’s performances are to basketball fans. Watch this extended highlight clip from Sunday’s game against Team USA:

Here are a couple of notes on his performance before we get into what Rubio means in the basketball world:

1. The alley-oop toss to Fran Vazquez early on in the game was a momentum changer in my opinion. This Spanish team was listless and unable to get much going in terms of flow and execution on offense. So Ricky came in and decided to inject a little life into the team. Casually tossing an alley-oop in the lane in a hook shot motion without looking can do that. Even with it not connecting, it showed that he wasn’t afraid of this US team and was ready to have some fun.

2. I have no statistical evidence to back this up but I’ve watched about 20 Rubio games over the past few months through the beauty of illegal internet feeds and I would contend that Rubio is a much better shooter off the dribble and in the moment than when he has time to think about it. His shooting form looks a lot more natural and pure when he doesn’t have time to think about it. I think you can see that when he shot off the dribble for his three and the contrast when he had the open three in the corner.

3. Around 7:20, Ricky drives right past Derrick Rose and instead of going straight up with the layup to get the contact and maybe a trip to the line, he seems to be overly conscious of Rose’s athletic ability and instead tries to stop and let the Bulls’ star fly by. In the process, he takes about six steps. I mention this for two reasons. First, I know it’s just one play but in the NBA he needs to look for that contact. Second, it was funny to watch him justify it after watching the baseline replay.

4. I apologize for not remembering who mentioned this on Twitter but for the last play of the game, if Rubio’s flip over his shoulder to Rudy resulted in the game-winning shot he’d be praised beyond belief. Instead, he flipped it to Rudy, Rudy hesitated and let the longest human being in the history of lankiness recover enough to block his shot at the end of the game. It’s funny how one little hesitation can possibly change the entire outlook on a player’s performance.

In getting back to the Spanish kid, it’s clear he belongs in the NBA. I don’t mean that as an elitist who thinks the NBA is the only place to showcase an amazing talent. But this guy belongs in an up-tempo style of play in which he’s allowed to show off a little flash while being broadcasted to the entire world on every single night. He’s a star in the NBA when he comes here. That doesn’t mean he’s a franchise player because he’s not. But he’s a star in the making with his flair and ability.

The thing to figure out in building this Wolves team is how much that ability and flair turns into wins. I think it’s unrealistic to think Rubio comes over and this turns into a playoff team. And that’s not because the team is SO bad or Rubio isn’t good enough. It’s just nearly impossible to build a team around a point guard and have them be completely legitimate, especially in a conference like the West. The Wolves will need a big time scorer to put with Rubio and company, sort of in the mold of what the Phoenix Suns did with Nash (whether fans like it or not, that’s the proper comparison) and Amare. But the differences between the presence of Nash and the presence of Rubio are big.

Rubio’s inability to shoot at a high clip or even an average clip is going to be a problem. That’s not to say he can’t improve on that. I think his shot is very fixable and it’s more of an understanding on how to get into rhythm than him being able to have a good jumper at all. But it’s hard to build an up-tempo/triangle attack when your ringmaster can’t shoot a lick. Ricky would be superb in a pick-and-roll heavy system because he’s nearly impossible to account for in those situations. But in the triangle, he’d be less of a playmaker and that’s when the jumper will come a lot more into question and prominence.

The other huge difference between Nash and Rubio is defensively. We all know Nash can’t defend a lick. But Rubio has proven to be a really good defender in the international game. Defensively, I’d compare him to Rajon Rondo. Now before any stray Celtics fans get up in arms about it, I simply am comparing their styles of defending. They both have a very solid defensive base while gambling for steals quite a bit. Rondo is quicker, stronger and a better defender but Rubio has the chance to be a very good defender at the NBA level.

Rubio is not some small point guard. He’s 6’4” and this shocks a lot of people because they like to assume he’s some physically overmatched kid out there. He’s also listed around 180 lbs but looks to have put on some muscle over the past year. Rubio’s wingspan also helps him tip a lot of passes to create turnovers. He also uses his body very well to get into offensive players and he plays physical perimeter defense. But with no hand checking allowed in the NBA (it’s allowed in FIBA), you have to wonder how much his defense actually translates when he crosses the pond. If he can’t adjust to a less physical style of perimeter defense, this team will be more exciting but I don’t know how much better they truly get.

However, if he can adapt to the NBA style of perimeter defense, slide his feet and still be able to be aggressive defensively that’s where I get truly excited about the future of this team with Ricky Rubio. Having a solid defensive point guard who is able to galvanize an offense with his creativity and energy instantly turns around a fledgling organization. Add a top pick (Harrison Barnes?!?) who can score the ball and now you’ve got a lot more to work with.

I understand the praise and the criticism that is thrown Rubio’s way. He is not complete. He’s immature at times on the floor in terms of taking chances with passes in key situations. He’s also one of the more gifted passers we’ve seen over the past couple decades and he seems to be fearless in trying to lead his team. His youth is used as a crutch of an excuse and a detriment to what he can do on the court. But the fact that he has so much time to grow as a player before he even hits his prime leaves me hopeful for his inception into the NBA.

I just hope the positive talk is correct and it happens in a Wolves uniform because I think he RULEZ!!!!111!!!

Donald Sterling Poisons, Kevin Love Soothes and More

Photo by Tristan Tom

We’ve publicly touted our appreciation for Ryan Gomes in these very pages, so its nice to discover that somebody else shares the opinion. ESPNLA’s Kevin Arnovitz recently wrote a nice piece on Gomes and found the new Clipper to be just as thoughtful and open as advertised:

Ask him why the Timberwolves struggled in the triangle, and he’ll tell you the specific point in the sequence when defenses anticipated the action and clamped down on the offense. Ask him how his good friend Al Jefferson will fare in Utah’s flex offense, and he’ll speak in detail about how Jefferson will flourish and which reads will prove most difficult for the big man. Ask him about the particulars of his game as an NBA small forward, and Gomes is an open book.

True that. While I’m happy that Gomes has the chance to start for a team that could make some playoff noise, I must say I’m a little bummed that it had to be the Clips.

I know that, as Wolves fans, we get used to moaning about our sometimes bewildering front office. But always remember that it could be so, so much worse. You could be a Clippers fan. I know the Clippers have a talented group this year, but they also boast probably the worst owner in sports. When Donald Sterling speaks, you can just feel the doom descend. Here’s his most recent offering, this time touching on Gomes and another old acquaintance of ours (from TJ Simers of the LA Times via Mr. Arnovitz at Truehoop):

A couple of months ago this was going to be the summer of all summers for the Clippers, a fresh start, a chance to hire a new coach, $17 million in cap space to go after LeBron or other big names like him and make a huge splash. And so they signed Randy Foye and Ryan Gomes.

Or, as Sterling put it, “If I really called the shots we wouldn’t have signed Gomes and what’s the other guy’s name? You know, they told me if we built a new practice facility we’d attract all the top players in the game,” Sterling adds. “I guess I should have doubled the size of this place.”

He’s no different than most Clippers fans.

“I swear to you, I never heard of these guys,” Sterling says, “but what if the coach says he wants them?”

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve felt the need to defend Randy Foye’s honor. While I will admit that the Clippers apparent attempt to reconstruct the 2008 Timberwolves roster (along with Foye and Gomes, Craig Smith and Bassy Telfair have all been Clips in the past year) is pretty amusing, as Arnovitz points out, this Sterling quote is pure, ignorant poison.

In other news, Kevin Love has some soothing words for Wolves fans in a recent interview with Jorge Sierra of Hoopshype (via SG at CanisHoopus):

How would you rate the job GM David Kahn has done so far with the Timberwolves?

KL: I was hoping Ricky Rubio comes over and play… We definitely upgraded our team this summer. We re-signed Darko Milicic, we got Michael Beasley, we got a bunch of other players like Luke Ridnour, Sebastian Telfair… So we’re definitely looking better. Last year was a very tough one. As far as the job that he did, I’m looking forward to seeing what happens the next couple of years with our team.

Even better:

Would you like to become a free agent or would you rather sign an extension and get that out of the way?

KL: I’d love to sign an extension and kind of get that out of the way. I’m very comfortable in Minnesota, I like the style that Kurt Rambis has and the coaching staff as well. I want to keep getting better and better and signing an extension would be a little more sweet rather than bitter sweet.

Then there’s this rather amazing tidbit from Pete Thamel at the NY Times on Wolves’ Assistant GM Tony Ronzone:

Few know this better than Tony Ronzone, the director of international player personnel for the United States team. His years of circling the globe as an N.B.A. scout and a coach in New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and China earned him a spot on the staff. Ronzone, also an assistant general manager for the Minnesota Timberwolves, will prepare the American players for the personnel on the court and the atmosphere off it. In Europe, Ronzone said, lighters and loose change are commonly confiscated at the gate because fans have been known to heat coins before throwing them.

They heat the coins!

Finally, this is not Wolves-related but I command you to read this SI piece on Hubie Brown (thanks again to Kevin Arnovitz at Truehoop) from 1983, in which Hubie expands on the need to “make [your players] cry for mercy,” his own desire for “complete control” of his team, and the fact that “Bill Russell is a terrible human being.” Paranoia, homophobia and undiluted rage abound. Maybe I’m revealing my age here, but I had no idea that Hubie was such a reactionary maniac in his younger days. How did he turn into such a nice old granddad?

Opening the NBA Playbook: Darko’s Passing Is Okay

Maybe you’ve heard of Sebastian Pruiti. He’s been holding a takeover of the NBA blogging world over the past year with his great coverage of the New Jersey Nets on NetsAreScorching.com and getting his Hubie Brown on at NBAPlaybook.com. Not many bloggers and analysts can break down aspects of basketball the way he does.

Bassy (Nets blogger Bassy not Coney Island’s Through The Fire Bassy) decided to break down Darko Milicic’s passing ability. This was inspired by the hilariously hilarious NBATV David Kahn interview during a summer league game last month in which he compared Darko’s passing ability to biblical snacks from the highest of high powers. It left most people scratching their heads while it gave the Kahn-Darko supporters something to spout off as a defense of the past year while hoping someone created a diversion for them to slip out the back door.

Here is the link to Bassy’s breakdown with a snippet of text:

First, let’s take a look at the numbers really quick. Darko averaged 1.8 assists and 1.4 turnovers in his 24 games with the Timberwolves, good for an Assist to Turnover ratio of 1.3. That number isn’t all that bad, considering the average among centers who played at least 15 minutes per game is 0.93 (Darko was ranked 14th). However, it doesn’t really tell the whole story, because turnovers can happen at any time (instead of purely passing turnovers), and as everyone knows, assists are a really tough statistic to keep track of. So that means we have to look at the video tape to really get a feel of Darko’s passing ability.

In the flow of an offense where he doesn’t have to make a decision (and he can just throw a pass), Darko is actually a good (but not great passer). Now, he is no Vlade Divac, but in my opinion he is slightly above average. The Timberwolves actually do a lot of cutting off of Darko when he has the basketball to take advantage of this. In fact, this is almost exclusively how he got his assists with the Wolves. If you go to Synergy and look up his assists, you see just about all his assists plays described as Cuts (and very little as spot up – more on this later).

Looking at the entire post and the video evidence Bassy provides to us, you can see that Darko is definitely not a bad passer. He has some ability and vision and works very well in the offense. But to compare him to some of the greatest passing big men of all time is just ludicrous. Darko isn’t bad but he isn’t good either. He’s okay. I don’t know if I’d sell average defense and okay passing for $20 million over four years but that’s going to be a debate we have constantly over the next four years.

On a scale of Yinka Dare to Vlade Divac, it looks like Darko’s passing is about a Dwight Howard.

October Classics: Timberwolves Announce Preseason Schedule

Photo by Matthew Petty

People of London, Paris, Syracuse and Sioux Falls: prepare yourselves for some Wolves preseason fury. The schedule has been released and we’ve got it for you. I wonder what the French will think of the NBA after watching the Wolves play the Knicks:

2010 TIMBERWOLVES PRESEASON SCHEDULE

DATE	OPPONENT	LOCATION	TIPOFF
Oct. 4	L.A. Lakers	O2 Arena*	TBD
Oct. 6	N.Y. Knicks	Palais Omnisports Paris Bercy^	TBD
Oct. 12	Denver	Target Center	7:00 p.m.
Oct. 13	Indiana	Conseco Fieldhouse	7:00 p.m.
Oct. 15	Detroit	Carrier Dome%	6:40 p.m.
Oct. 17	Milwaukee	Sioux Falls Arena#	6:00 p.m.
Oct. 19	Indiana	Target Center	7:00 p.m.
Oct. 22	Milwaukee	Bradley Center	7:00 p.m.

All times Central | Bold denotes home game

* = London, England | ^ = Paris, France | % = Syracuse, N.Y. | #=Sioux Falls, S.D.

Timberwolves: a Team in Turmoil?

Photo by NASA Goddard Photo and Video

ESPN’s panel of experts has been speaking for nearly two weeks now. So far, they think the Heat will win lots of basketball games, that Amare Stoudemire will be a disappointment and that Lebron James will be good. Nothing all that controversial there. Today, though, the panel pronounced that our Timberwolves would be the most tumultuous team in the NBA this year. The Pups narrowly beat out the Cavs and Hornets but still, I thought, our honor needed some defending. So over at the ESPN NBA page, I did just that. Here’s the nuts and bolts of the thing. As you can see, they caught me on an optimistic day:

I realize it seems questionable to brazenly flout the “best player available” maxim by drafting Wesley Johnson over DeMarcus Cousins, and then immediately duplicating Johnson’s skill set by trading the 16th pick for Martell Webster.

It’s strange to trade Al Jefferson, the team’s best player over the past three seasons, for two draft picks, and then bring in Michael Beasley to replace him as your go-to scorer. And even stranger to sign two Serbian centers for a grand total of $34 million over the next four seasons, especially when one of them is named Darko Milicic.

And maybe you’re also amused and/or exhausted by the knowledge that in the first year of Kahn’s tenure, the Wolves have acquired no fewer than seven point guards, some of them more than once (although, to his credit, not all at the same time).

And that teenage prodigy Ricky Rubio — the fifth pick in the ’09 draft and maybe the best player of all of those PGs — currently runs game in Barcelona with no guarantee of ever setting foot in Minnesota…

It’s fashionable at the moment to ridicule Kahn as an abrasive, unqualified hack. It’s clear the man has had some awfully low moments this summer and that he and Rambis haven’t yet found that transcendent player who will give meaning to their long-suffering franchise. And it’s equally clear that the Wolves are going to lose a lot of games this season.

But if you scan this lineup — Kevin Love, Nikola Pekovic, Wes Johnson, Martell Webster, Corey Brewer, even Darko Milicic and Michael Beasley — you’ll find a lot of young, smart, athletic, hungry players. These are players who want to learn, who want to run, who want to move the ball and play defense. Aren’t these just the type of players who would seem to fit well into Rambis’ up-tempo-and-triangle offense? And when you consider the Wolves have roughly $10 million in cap space, doesn’t the picture look a lot less ridiculous than this chaotic offseason might have suggested?

Am I just being naïve? Is it wrong for Wolves fans to hold on to even these tiny shreds of optimism? Let me tell you a story.

For the three years beginning with their six-game Western Conference finals loss to the Lakers in 2004 and ending with the Kevin Garnett trade of 2007, the Wolves slowly melted down. With very few exceptions (KG among them), the team became a nightmare of ball-hogging, extravagant contract demands, intentionally careless defense and mediocre effort. As the front office hemorrhaged draft picks, this collection of aging jump-shooters and corrosive personalities contributed to the firing of both Flip Saunders and Dwane Casey and helped hasten the KG era’s sad, pathetic end. What I’m saying is: We’ve seen turmoil and this isn’t it.

New Uniforms: Now With Less Madden Franchise Relocation

The Timberwolves have new uniforms!

Well, they kind of have new uniforms. It’s really just last year’s unis but they’ve been altered to look less like the stuff you’d see when you move the Jacksonville Jaguars to Mexico City in Madden 11. Check out the differences from last year to this year.

I actually really like the subtle touches they’ve done here. Taking the green out is good and the numbers look much better. It looks like a Wolf no longer stenciled this stuff out.

Nice part of the unveiling was they got future (fingers crossed!) Wolves Ricky Rubio and Harrison Barnes to model the new jerseys and shorts:

I haven’t been this excited since the new phone books arrived.

Kevin Love Basks in the Warmth

Photo by dreamglow pumpkincat210

Some disquieting news out of the Team USA training camp. It appears that our own Kevin Love has discovered the green grass and deep blue skies of competent teammates and meaningful competition. John Schuhmann of NBA.com reports on Love’s epiphanic summer:

Love was asked Tuesday if he felt more appreciated with the U.S. Team than with the Timberwolves. “Yes,” he responded. “Just a solid yes.” But he was quick to clarify. “I don’t want to come off sounding like a prima donna or sound like I’m complaining or anything,” Love said. “I just feel like, since I’ve been here, it’s really been a great team atmosphere. We feel like we have a chance to win this whole thing. I think everybody is just coming in with a great attitude and appreciating everybody as a whole, and really becoming a family.”

“Just a solid yes.” That’s tough. First of all, I’m intrigued by the way that Kevin seems to have ditched the typical pro athlete non-speak. Want to know whether Rashad McCants is actually a terrible teammate? K-Love will let you know (he is). How about whether its more fun to get love for your national team than pull reserve minutes for your 15-win employer? Kevin will set you straight.

In his piece, Shuhmann helpfully point out that last season Love “averaged fewer minutes than Ryan Gomes and started fewer games than Ryan Hollins. This was a below average rebounding team, and they couldn’t find more than 29 minutes for the best per-minute rebounder in the league.” True on all counts. Without a doubt, it was painful to watch Love sit out entire quarters while Darko and Hollins wandered in the wilderness.

But lets also remember a few things. First, on last year’s Wolves, the playing time was relatively evenly distributed; only Al Jefferson (32.4) and Corey Brewer (30.3) averaged more than 30 minutes per game. So Love’s court time (28.6 mpg), while certainly a little low for a rebounder of his stature, was roughly comparable to that of the team’s other starters.

Second thing: Kahn and Rambis have been widely ridiculed for the belief that Love and Jefferson could not coexist. But the fact is that the Wolves got murdered on defense when the two not-so-big boys played together. You could argue that a) Rambis was wrong to favor Jefferson over Love in crunch time, or that b) Love’s and Al’s rebounding and offensive production were more important than any defensive gains brought by Darko and Hollins (I’m probably more in this camp), but there’s no arguing that, last season, Rambis faced a lot of terrible options in his frontcourt.

Third thing: this may have been lost among all of the other bummers and depressives of the 09-10 season, but let’s remember that for much of the second half of the year, Love was not his normal ferocious, energetic self. He seemed lost, distracted and lethargic. His numbers started to slip. Even reliable Wolves cheerleader Jim Peterson commented on the air that Love “looks to me like he’s checked out.” For sure, much of this was frustration at his uncertainty within the offense, with his “promotion” to the second unit and with the team’s awful fortunes. But consider that players like Damian Wilkins, Corey Brewer and even Jonny Flynn and Big Al mostly managed to carry on with their customary intensity even as things got bleak. As Rambis himself offered, “if he’s not playing hard, then things aren’t gonna work out for him.”

The Wolves’ frontcourt situation is no less muddled this year than last. Love, Darko, Michael Beasley, Nikola Pecovic and Anthony Tolliver will all be competing for the two big man spots. But, as this national team experience has plainly shown, now that Al Jefferson has moved on (and maybe even before that) Kevin Love is clearly the Wolves’ best player. Lineup experiments and lessons in professionalism aside, its time for the kid to see some sunshine.