At the beginning of the year, I figured a post with this title would be about the Lob City Clips or even perhaps the Miami Heatles, but for some reason that hasn’t been the case. Many of you, including myself, probably lost your free preview of the NBA league pass over the weekend. The first thing that popped into my head was, I can’t believe I watched at least part of every Timberwolves game for the first two weeks of the season, and might not get to see them again this year since I doubt they have very many nationally televised games. I even watched them over the Warriors on a few occasions, that’s how damn entertaining they were. Are they going to be a surprise playoff team? Probably not, but that’s not always why I watch hoops. Being a Warriors fan, I usually just want to be entertained since it’s not always in the cards that my team will win. Anyways, anytime the Wolves are on nationally, you can bet I’ll be watching. The longtime laughing stocks of the league actually have a solid core of players that are fun to watch with lots of story lines to go around.
The Best White Guy in the NBA (Kevin Love). What’s not to like about Love and his energy for the game. Even his All-Star pitch last season was funny. Last year for some ungodly reason he didn’t even crack the starting lineup while posting double doubles nightly for the first part of the season. Luckily that was quickly corrected, and we got to see this beast do his 110% effort thing from the opening tip.
The Highly Entertaining First Year Euro Player (Ricky Rubio). I remember ripping him pretty good a few times in our e-mail chains dating back through the last couple of years he stayed over in Spain. We’ve probably had at least 100 e-mails back and forth arguing about whether he’d play here or not. It seemed unfathomable how his game would translate to the NBA when he was sitting at something like 6 PPG and 4 APG last season and only coming off the bench in SPAIN, but after seeing him play these two NBA league pass filled weeks, I’m fully sold on his prospects to be the next Steve Nash. It’s been funny to watch him bounce passes off teammates faces when they weren’t ready to catch one of his fancy passes. He is truly a wizard with the ball in his hands.
My College Player Mancrush from Last Season (Derrick Williams). I still don’t see how this guy doesn’t end up being a stud in the league for a long time. He’s shown a few flashes here and there already, but hasn’t really played a ton of minutes to showcase all his talents. Maybe now that Beasley’s hurt he’ll earn a spot in the starting rotation. I pretty much fell for him during the Pac-10 tournament last year, and will stick by him until he turns into a bigtime player.
Super Talented Headcases (Anthony Randolph and Michael Beasley). Anyone out there that’s played fantasy hoops or been a Warriors fan knows how frustrating it is to watch or have Anthony Randolph on your team. He makes a great block and rebound then dribbles down the court faster than everyone only to throw it out of bounds. You see the good stuff and think this guy could be great, but then he inexplicably does stupid things that he should’ve learned during High School. Beasley’s idiocy has been well chronic(led). You never know what you’re going to get from either guy from a production standpoint, but when they seem to care their potential seems limitless.
Major Draft Bust (Darko Milicic). The man infamously picked in front of Melo, Wade, and Bosh. The funny part about him though, is he might actually have a better career than 2007 #1 pick, Greg Oden! After landing on his fifth team in nine seasons, he actually played decent in Minnesota last season, and parlayed that into a 4 year $20M contract that I thought was atrocious at the time, but if there’s one thing you can’t teach it’s 7 feet, and as much as I hated the Warriors signing Kwame, a 7-footer does make a difference in the paint.
Even More White Guys (JJ Barea, Brian Cardinal, Luke Ridnour, and Brad Miller). Honestly, I can’t remember a team with seven of it’s twelve roster spots going to five white guys and two white Euro guys. Well, at least in my existence I’m sure there were plenty in the peach picker basket days. In fact, I’m struggling to think of a roster with more than three white guys on the team…
By
cali4dre
chappy81
dyslecix
mceezy
Doin Work 
January 10th, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Brian Cardinal’s role…to be the veteran with the ring. Read that again and let that sink in. He’s the Stacy King of the Timberwolves.
January 10th, 2012 at 12:25 pm
HAHAHA!
Cardinal is too big, too strong, too fast, and too good!
January 10th, 2012 at 12:16 pm
A Stacy King reference…omg. Wasn’t this the franchise people were laughing at the last couple of years? Yes. Yes it was.
January 10th, 2012 at 1:29 pm
There’s only one logical explanation for this. Timberwolf players can finally see the court without having to be distracted by the glare of those ugly evin McHale sweaters.
In all seriousness, a few of us in my basketball pool thought the Wolves would be the worst team in the league.
Guess what, they’re not.
January 10th, 2012 at 5:24 pm
I think they are better than the Kings and Warriors at the moment! Easily better than the Cavs and Wizards…
January 10th, 2012 at 3:11 pm
chappy
After that can of whup a#s the Wolves laid down on the winless Wizards . Love and his posse are beginning to make believers out of me !
Were those the wheels that that I saw fall off LSU’s bus last night as they backed up into Lake Ponchatrain ? ‘bama kicked their proverbial a#s .
tophatal ………….
January 10th, 2012 at 5:27 pm
They might be a couple years away from being the Grizzlies, but they are heading in the right direction!
God, that game was so boring I ended up watching a movie on HBO instead of the second half…
January 11th, 2012 at 8:58 am
chappy
It’s at times like that you have to appreciate political debates and “reruns” of the Oprah Show . ‘nough said on the matter . Who knew that LSU would be so woefully inept ?
Is it me but if Flip Saunders and the Wizards fail to win a game by the end of January is there a chance he’ll be fired by the team front office ?
tophatal ………….
January 12th, 2012 at 11:42 am
chappy
The scary thing though is with a budding team (T’wolves) like that is all it takes is for one injury to actually derail the hopes of an organization. . Just ask the Blazers’ fans about how they feel concerning the loss of Brandon Roy ? And now Camby is said to be suffering different aches and pains all over his body .
tophatal ……….
January 12th, 2012 at 3:38 pm
Well, I never really thought they were a contender this year or probably next season either. I just meant they are on the right track for once kinda like Memphis. They are actually exciting enough for me to want to watch play whenever they’re on…
January 10th, 2012 at 11:31 pm
Nice win tonight by the Warriors, bro.
Nine point underdogs pull off the upset.
January 11th, 2012 at 7:31 pm
I was pretty fired up during that huge comeback!
January 13th, 2012 at 12:58 am
chappy
If Roy along with Alridge , Camby and Oden could’ ve stuck it out there’s no reason to believe that in a truncated season such as this one then that they could possibly contend and could have over achieved . Now it’s about whether or not they can actually be consistent over the course of year .
tophatal …….
January 13th, 2012 at 11:37 am
Oh I thought you were talking about the Wolves not the Blazers. Yeah IF Roy and Oden had been healthy they’d be awesome. Even with Wallace, Aldridge, Matthews, Batum, and Felton they’ve looked really good so far this season…
January 13th, 2012 at 3:57 pm
I see the Wizards got their first win of the season ? Now does that mean that Flip Saunders’ job is actually safe ?
What set off Dwight Howard the other night ? The guy went crazy 40 pts , 23 reb’s and in excess of 30 free throws . The Warriors were feeling generous then ?
tophatal …………..
January 15th, 2012 at 10:36 am
Kevin Love is the anchor of this team. Rubio could become the star type player that everyone talks about, but in the end Kevin Love will make this team go.