Team Previews - Minnesota Timberwolves

We get money longer than AK's arms...

There's been an overall dearth of albums and mixtapes that I've wanted to review...additionally, since I've been working, it's been difficult to allocate time properly to actually write.  Basically I'm lazy as fuck and I prefer to use my free time playing League of Legends, trolling on Twitter, and drinking beer.  I have been (very) gradually working on a couple of posts, but both of them will be long as fuck and I don't even know if I'll finish them before the year is over.  This 3 day weekend might help, as long as I don't get stuck watching LoL tournament games.

However, one thing that I've been interested in lately has been the offseason NBA moves.  A lot of teams have made A LOT of moves and I figure that I should do some posts about some of them.  Obviously the offeseason isn't over yet, AND there will be moves made up until the trade deadline (which is during the season) so some of the thoughts and such I express may well end up outdated.  Still, some of these teams have made transactions that I simply can't wait to talk about.

One of these teams is the Minnesota Timberwolves.  I've been a fan of the Timberwolves (not like...a fan fan, but I keep up with them) pretty much since they drafted Kevin Garnett.  Their jerseys are legit, and they've had some interesting and good players play for them (Garnett, Latrell Sprewell, Stephon Marbury, etc.).  They haven't had good luck in terms of playoff success, and since dealing away Garnett to the Celtics, they've pretty much languished near the bottom of the Western Conference.  Last year, behind the strong play of Kevin Love (really, he was putting up ridiculous numbers in January) and Ricky Rubio, the Wolves looked to be in contention for the final playoff spot in the West.  Then...Kobe's knee launched a tactical attack on Ricky Rubio's knee and the Wolves promptly fell out of control, ending the season losing 13 of their last 14 games.

Probably can't do this anymore....

Attempting to return to the playoffs for the first time since the 2003-2004 season, the Timberwolves have made a number of maneuvers, the most interesting of which could be the acquisition of former Portland Trailblazer Brandon Roy.  In his best season, Roy tallied 22.6/4.7/5.1 on 48/38/82 splits, earning him an All-NBA Second team spot.  Of course, this was all before Roy made it known that his knees had no remaining cartilage, and subsequently retired.  If Roy can return from his retirement (and Kobe's knee procedure) and play at a level anywhere near that, then the 2 year/$10 million contract will be more than worth it, and we can look forward to an interesting season.  Roy is an elite talent, and we are all hopeful for his recovery and return to high-level play.

Fucking Awesome.

However, the Timberwolves didn't stop there.  They also picked up former Utah Jazz All-Star Andrei Kirilenko, who just helped lead Team Russia to a Bronze Medal in the 2012 London Olympics.  6'9" with a long wingspan, Kirilenko once led the league in blocks per game with 3.3, and at 31, still probably has another 3 years of good play left in him.  In a league filled with good offensive 3s (LeBron, Durant, Melo, Granger, Pierce, Deng, etc.), it is absolutely essential to get a versatile 3 with defensive qualities (hence the Nets signing Gerald Wallace, Denver springing to get Iguodala, and now Minnesota acquiring AK-47).  Presumably, AK would be a third option (behind Kevin Love and Brandon Roy), but it's also possible that Minnesota chooses not to overwork Roy, getting AK more touches.  His defensive ability would be more than welcome on a team that allowed over 100 points a game last year, and he really fills the stat sheet like few others.  I'm very excited to see how this move works for them.

The Timberwolves kept rookie Derrick Williams and picked up Alexey Shved, who was on the Russian Olympic team with AK-47. The acquisition of Chase Budinger gives them depth at the 2 and 3, and picking up Greg Stiemsma from the Celtics helps boost the frontline defense that they lacked.  Kevin Love didn't have his most efficient shooting season last year, but 26/13 is nothing to scoff at.  Nikola Pekovic showed much promise last year, and could be due for a breakout offensive season.

Now...when the rumors of Pau Gasol going to Minnesota to play with Rubio were floating around, I was VERY excited about the possibilities, even though defense would be pretty much nonexistent.  Rather than working that route, Kahn attempted to acquire Nicolas Batum, another versatile 3 (with pretty good shooting ability) and when that didn't work out, he made multiple good moves...not something that anyone really expected, to be honest.  While their success is probably still contingent on Rubio's return from the knee assault, I honestly think that Shved could help them in that capacity (instead of them having to rely on J.J. Barea, who I'm not sold on as even a backup 1).

Looking up and down the roster, there is a lot of talent, and if they can just get solid play from the point until Rubio comes back, this will be a playoff contender.  They will be very interesting to watch, especially since, despite his showing last year, one of Derrick Williams' best attributes was supposed to be his outside shooting.  If he can regain the shooting touch he showed at Arizona (he shot like 57% from 3 there), you're looking at a line up with multiple decent 3 point shooters (Love, Williams, Roy, Budinger, and even AK-47), and with versatility on offense.  I'm not sure if Love will have another 26/13 season, but even without that, the scoring that AK and B-Roy bring should be enough to make up for it.  Assuming that Love plays at a 20/10 level, the biggest keys for the Wolves in my opinion are health (they'll be relying on Brandon Roy and Ricky Rubio's knees), and Derrick Williams' development.  If both go smoothly, I wouldn't be surprised at the Timberwolves taking a middle seed in the competitive West.  If both go poorly, the Wolves, despite their talent, will miss the playoffs again.