Once again I’ve reached that part of the year where I try to talk myself into the idea that the Timberwolves might be watchable again, after the muddled, unmotivated mess they’ve been for the past couple years, and I've decided to write it all down this year. The Wolves went into the off-season with five ways to improve: Europe, our draft picks, the David Kahn trade blender, seasoning players, and maybe looking like they have a plan.
Europe
Especially since the end of the McHale era, the Wolves have finally started to clue in to the idea that basketball is played on more than one continent, and that second round scouting doesn’t have to be limited to watching a few Big 10 games. Consequently the Wolves have a couple players under contract in Europe, although I can’t say their first big European import (Pekovic) has been all that impressive. But now they have Ricky Rubio, the young Spanish point guard with a silly haircut, coming over to play. Two years ago he was a future phenom who refused to play in a backwater like Minnesota, but growing up a bit and having a bad World Championships seems to have tempered his attitude. Adding a potential future all-star could certainly help make the Wolves watchable again.
Plus: Ricky Rubio
The Draft
The Wolves came in with the #2 and #20 picks, and didn’t completely blow it. After failing to make a trade, the Wolves took Derrick Williams at #2 and may have gotten the best player in the draft. Unfortunately he’s our fourth undersized power forward, joining all-star and stupendous rebounder Kevin Love, oddball tweener Michael Beasley, and stick-thin Anthony Randolph. Williams might be better than all of them except Love, but I still don’t know how they plan on playing these guys together.
The #20 pick the Wolves threw into David Kahn’s giant draft blender, in which he makes 15 separate deals like a hustler at a swap meet, and may or may not have actually come away with any more than he started with. But more on the blender later. So adding Derrick Williams… can’t call that a bad thing, but if he becomes a lost rookie with no playing time that really isn’t terribly exciting.
Plus: Derrick Williams
Seasoning Players and Healing Injuries
Kahn keeps reminding us what a young team this is, so theoretically some of them might get better. I don’t know who, though… Love is pretty good already, the veteran role-players have topped out, and none of the guys Kahn rolled the dice on (Beasley, Randolph, Darko) or the young players (Johnson, Hayward, Tolliver) look poised for a giant breakthrough. I suppose the argument could be made that if Wesley Johnson finds a position in his second year and Martell Webster finally recovers from his injuries the Wolves could improve at small forward (and possibly shooting guard). Between Webster, Johnson, and Hayward, one of them has to do something this year, right? And maybe Pekovic will get it together and remember he can dunk on people, who knows.
Plus: improved small forwards, maybe some better play at center.
The Blender
Figuring out the net cost-benefit of a flurry of David Kahn trades is harder than dubbing a Nicholas Cage movie into Cantonese, but I'll try anyways. Here are the assets David Kahn threw into trades: the #20 pick, disappointing PG Jonny Flynn, a future 2nd round pick, and some money. And here’s what he got back:
Brad Miller – once a good center, now aging and injured but hopefully still serviceable. Some veteran depth at center can’t be bad.
Malcolm Lee – a rookie combo guard who’s potentially a great defender. He should get playing time on a team that has only one real shooting guard.
Tanguy Ngombo – I suppose if he can play shooting guard and he doesn’t actually turn out to secretly be 39 years old (African birth certificates are a bit fanciful) he might actually make the team.
Money – the “cash considerations” should come to a net positive for the Wolves. Good news for Glen Taylor, anyways.
Draft picks – a future 1st round pick and two future 2nd round picks.
So really a couple of the draft picks cancel out, and we traded Flynn for Malcolm Lee, the last dregs of Brad Miller’s career, Tanguy Ngombo, a future 2nd round pick, and a net positive on cash. Not exactly overwhelming, but on the other hand Flynn generated mostly turnovers and boos for the Wolves last year.
Plus: Malcolm Lee, possible depth at center, fewer boos.
Planning
It’s possible the Wolves will still fire Kiriakos Rambidis and bring in somebody who doesn’t use a 15-man rotation and look like he’s throwing crap against the wall every night and not even paying any attention to what sticks… just basically throwing crap at the team and the fans until everybody quit on him. Or maybe Rambis will come in with a new plan, who knows. Unfortunately Kahn is in love with the idea of a team of all-versatile players that plays a different roster for every match-up, probably because that works on Xbox.
Conclusion
So overall, here’s how the Wolves might be better or at least more watchable this year:
1. Their starting point guard will be Ricky Rubio instead of Jonny Flynn.
2. Webster might be healthy.
3. Johnson and Pekovic might do something in their second years.
4. They might have more depth at center and shooting guard.
5. Rambis might give up the triangle and make some sort of a game plan.
The Future
The Wolves do have couple of assets for future trades, like the future #1 pick they got in one of these deals, and they could trade one or more of their 4 undersized power forwards if one of them has a decent showing next year. The Wolves will also come out of the lock-out with 13 players under contract with just this year’s rookies to sign so they might be able to take advantage of the ensuing chaos, but they won’t have cap room or roster spots and nobody knows what the CBA will look like, so I doubt that’s too likely. And of course when the Wolves stink next year and get a lottery pick that won’t help, because McHale already traded it away to the Clippers for the epic basketball force that was Marko Jaric.
Basically it comes down to whether Rubio is enticing enough to buy tickets... so yeah, I think I’m going to pass, especially for a season in which nobody has any clue what the schedule is going to be or how many games they’ll get in after the lockout. Nicely done, guys.
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