The Wolves started their 2007-2008 season with a loss to the Nuggets, but there were a bunch of positives to take away from the game. The Wolves took a first quarter lead after a nice opening run, and held onto that lead basically until the midway point in the fourth quarter.
In fact, the Wolves really played better than the Nuggets much of the way, and controlled the game as well. But, as they did multiple times in the preseason, the Wolves seemed to fall apart towards the end of the game, and scored just 14 in the fourth to give the Nuggets the lead and the game by a final score of 99-91.
The loss may be a little upsetting, because the Wolves did play very well. But nonetheless, there were a number of positives going forward.
Al Jefferson scored 16 points, and collected 13 rebounds all while being double teamed. Rashad McCants had the hot hand, and scored 23 points for the Wolves in just 29 minutes of play. The other keys for the Wolves were Theo Ratliff, who scored 14 points, and Greg Buckner, who scored 10 points.
The main problem for the Wolves were the fouls. The Nuggets shot two times the number of free throws that the Wolves did, and the officiating was terrible all night long. Had McCants not gotten into foul trouble, he may have scored a lot more than 23 points.
With Randy Foye out for a while, Telfair stepped up. He scored 9 points and collected 5 assists on the game. He did make a few mistakes, but his speed should be a big help to the Wolves this season.
The Wolves will get back on the court on Sunday, when they look to get their first win of the season against the Knicks. There will be more key points on the game tomorrow.
| Nuggets | T-Wolves |
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| 1-0 | 0-0 |
Radio: BOB 106.1
TV: KSTC-45
A new era in Timberwolves basketball begins tonight as the Wolves take the court at home against the 1-0 Denver Nuggets. With Garnett long gone, Jefferson locked up for the future, and the rest of the team ready to prove the world wrong, the Wolves will kick off the regular season.
Meanwhile, the Nuggets have already gotten underway, beating the Seattle Sonics 120-103 on Wednesday. The Nuggets look to be one of the playoff teams in the West this season, but don’t expect the Wolves to lay down.
This will be the first time for all of the new players (which is a lot) to show the fans what they have to offer. Expect the Wolves to come out strong, and play hard until the end.
Watch For…
…the starting point guard. With Randy Foye out at least three weeks, the Wolves will look to someone else to run the team. Will Wittman go with Telfair or Jaric on opening day?
…Al Jefferson. With the contract extension behind him, will Jefferson take his nice preseason and continue the trend?
…McCants. With the Ricky Davis trade, and a very nice preseason, Rashad McCants earned the starting SG role. Will the lights out shooting continue for the now healthy McCants?
…the rotation. The Wolves still have not established a very steady rotation off the bench. Look for Smith to be one of the first people into the game, but after that it’s all up in the air.
You Decide…
…what the final score will be.
…the key stats.
Place to Talk…
When Al Jefferson signed his 5-year, 65 million dollar contract extension earlier this week, he did so against the advise of his agent. His agent had advised him to wait until the season was over, so that he could sign for max money. But, Jefferson never had that intention, and didn’t want to be selfish or cost his team in the long run.
“I didn’t even think I was worth max this year anyway. I would’ve been a fool to go up there and ask for max, having not really proved myself for that. So the number I got was the number that was my goal from Day 1. And I think it was a win, win situation.”
According to reports, around 7 p.m. on Wednesday night, Jefferson’s agent told him that the talks were dead, and that a deal would not get done. But Jefferson let him know that he wasn’t interested in max money, and urged him to get the extension signed before the 11 p.m. deadline later that night.
Now that the Wolves have Jefferson locked up, they can move on and look towards other moves that will be key to a bright future. With Jefferson’s unselfishness, the Wolves will have a lot more money to pursue other big name free agents in the future, something they didn’t have much of a chance to do with Garnett’s costly contract.
When Jefferson came over, we basically knew what to expect from him on the court, and he has since proven to be even better than advertised. We also heard all of these things about the type of guy he was off the court, and he has absolutely blown us away with his actions thus far.
The time of the trade came at a difficult time for Minnesota as the state went through the bridge tragedy. The incident actually happened the same night that Jefferson arrived in Minneapolis. But Jefferson showed us right away what he was all about. Along with Wolves coach Randy Wittman, Jefferson hosted lunch for the 58 children that were on the bus when the bridge collapsed.
Jefferson has said all of the right things since his arrival, and both on and off the court has been first class. He may not feel like he is worth max money with his play, but with his leadership and unselfishness he is definitely worth all the money he will be receiving, and he is definitely the player that I want to build the franchise around.
The Timberwolves signed cornerstone Al Jefferson to a 5-year, 65 million dollar contract late last night to end what has been an awesome off-season for the franchise. With the deadline near an end, and a deal looking unlikely, the Wolves surprisingly announced the move.
Since Jefferson arrived in the Garnett trade at the beginning of the summer, a contract extension has been one of the major questions. For a while, it looked like the Wolves had decided to simply wait until the end of the season to see what to offer, and go from there.
With the 11 p.m. deadline looming last night, and basically no rumors the previous few days, it looked like the decision was final. But then, the great news was posted on the official site:
Wolves and Jefferson Agree to Extension
So, the Wolves capped off the off-season by locking up their key to the future, and sending another great message to fans everywhere.
The Wolves are indeed committed to the future, and no matter how hard you look, surprisingly the team didn’t make any bad moves in this most critical off-season. The Wolves will now head into the regular season with a huge burden off both their own back and that of Al Jefferson.
Thoughts in Detail:
- This deal is great news to all fans, and was the right move for both sides. First of all, the Wolves seem like they have signed him at a pretty low cost for the type of player he is. If they didn’t sign him, they could have been forced to give him a max deal after the season. On the other side, Jefferson will get paid and won’t have to worry about how he plays this season.
- The move signifies more than just the team’s commitment. Jefferson seems committed to winning as well, and the fact that he didn’t hold out for a max deal shows that commitment. He is a great player on the court, and from what I’ve seen from him off the court so far, he looks just as good.
- Although the deal is worth $65 million total, it has been reported that it could reach $70 million with incentives.
- Oh, did I mention that the Wolves also picked up the options on guards Randy Foye and Rashad McCants?
Al Jefferson agreed to a 5-year, $65 million deal late last night. I don’t have time to talk about it right now, but look back this afternoon.
This is so exciting!
Randy Foye struggled with a knee injury all preseason, but played in the team’s final preseason game, and everything looked like it’d be okay.
However, Foye reportedly aggravated the injury, and missed the team’s practice on Monday. The fact that the injury was so bad, was so shocking to the team that they had Foye undergo tests, and the results came back today.
The news is not good for the Wolves or Foye, because he has a stress reactions, and is out indefinitely. One report has him out at least two weeks, and possibly even longer.
For a team that is looking for a leader, this will hurt. Expect Telfair to start for Foye this Friday, but after Telfair, the Wolves must go with either Jaric or Buckner (Yuk!).
UPDATE: The Star Tribune reports that Foye will be retested in three weeks.
The deadline for the opening day 15-man rosters was today at 5 pm, and right when we thought everything was set, the Timberwolves made a trade.
The San Antonio Spurs traded point guard Beno Udrih to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for a second-round draft pick in 2008.
However just a while after this trade was made, the following appeared on the Star Tribune Timberwolves blog:
They also made a last-minute deal that only makes sense in the convoluted world of NBA salary-cap specifics. San Antonio sent to the Wolves guard Beno Udrih and cash for a protected 2006 second-round draft pick that never will be delivered. The Wolves then waived Udrih and the Spurs got some salary-cap relief. Got it? I sure don’t.
So, it looks like the Wolves will keep their pick, get some cash, and go with the roster that we all expected a few days ago.
I personally am a little disappointed. I liked the idea of bringing in Udrih. First of all, he is another young point guard and could have possibly competed for time when Foye is at the two or out of the game. And secondly, if Udrih was here, maybe Jaric could get moved somewhere.
Oh well….
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The Minnesota Timberwolves have finally closed out their busy off-season, and set their opening day roster. On Saturday, the Wolves agreed to a buyout with forward Juwan Howard, and Wayne Simien has also been told not to report to the team. With both of these moves, the roster stands at the maximum of 15 players.
For Opening Day, the Wolves will have the following players:
Corey Brewer
Michael Doleac
Greg Buckner
Randy Foye
Ryan Gomes
Gerald Green
Marko Jaric
Al Jefferson
Mark Madsen
Rashad McCants
Theo Ratliff
Chris Richard
Craig Smith
Sebastian Telfair
Antoine Walker
The NBA rule allows the Wolves to have a max of 15 players on their roster, but only 12 can suit up each night for the team. So, even though the roster has been decided, the coaching staff will still have some tough choices ahead of them.
Britt Robson made this following comment about the Sports Illustrated Wolves preview, and he couldn’t be more right:
Did anyone else read Sports Illustrated’s NBA season preview issue, especially the Timberwolves page, especially the anonymous scout’s take? Especially the part where the scout ripped Al Jefferson and gave huge ups to Gerald Green? What is a customarily fine mag like SI doing quoting obvious idiots as experts, and where was at least one editor with a smidgen of hoops knowledge to spot this bullshit and demand either a new scout, another interview, or one of those laughing heads to clue people in that the whole thing was a weird joke? Witt should throw the thing up on the bulletin board, as the mag also picked Minnesota to finish 15 out of 15 Western Conference teams. I’ll bet you Mike Bibby’s torn thumb ligament they finish ahead of Sacramento, and probably the Clips.
I understand a lot of the reasons the Wolves get no respect in the season predictions, but from just a few various previews from big news outlets such as SI and ESPN, the disrespect, or lack of knowledge of this team is very obvious.
First of all, in their season preview, ESPN lists Antoine Walker in the team’s starting lineup. Now, I’m not going to say this isn’t possible, but have they been paying any attention to this team? First off, Walker just arrived, and won’t even have a chance to play in a game for the team this preseason. Secondly, to list him in the starting lineup with all the talk that he might not even be here next Monday?
The disrespect starts with the scouting report on Craig Smith. In this report, they have the following to say:
Smith is two inches too short for his position, appears somewhat overweight, can’t jump, and can’t shoot.
WHAT!? Smith is a little short for his position, I’ll give them that. But he definitely isn’t overweight after this past off-season, and he seems to have a pretty nice jump shot and hook shot to me.
After all of this, they proceed to say the following at the end:
He can be very effective in his current role, but it’s hard to see how he’ll move up in the world from here.
How can’t he move up? He has played in the NBA for one season, and played very well for that matter. He still has a lot to learn, and can only get better. How can you say his role will never increase?
Enough with the ESPN preview, lets move to the SI one.
In this preview, they have a very bad scout’s take on both Al Jefferson and Gerald Green (as Britt mentioned in that quote).
First off, Al Jefferson:
Al Jefferson at his best will never approach the level of Garnett in his prime.
He may never be the best player on his team except for right now.
And you’ll never be able to build a team around Jefferson. It’s not even fair to the guy to compare him to Garnett. Has Jefferson ever done anything eye-popping that makes you say, ‘Wow?’ He doesn’t play above the rim. He is a lunch-pail, workmanlike, physically tough, low-post-scoring power forward who is an exceptional rebounder, and that’s really good. Is he a nice piece? Definitely. But if they’re looking at him as the man they’ll build around, they won’t go far …
Well, this article made me say “Wow!”
I’m pretty sure he is the centerpiece for the Wolves, and I’m pretty confident that they will in fact be building this team around him.
The article gets even better though, as they mention Gerald Green as the person to “give the team hope.”
Now, I agree that Green could be a big part of this trade if he plays well. But to first say that Jefferson isn’t a guy to build around, and then not even mention him as a reason for hope, only to go on to say that Green is the reason to have hope? WOW!
I could probably go on with different big news outlets, and probably even these ESPN and SI previews, but you get my point.
I agree, the predictions for this team’s record can’t be high, but at least pay some attention to the team, and if you’re going to do a preview of them, get it somewhat right.
[Britt’s Blog and TWolvesBlog]
