Rubio has said he will not risk missing a season if there is an NBA lockout and he has not ruled out staying at Barcelona next season. Rubio has also said he wants to join a winning team, with Minnesota last in the Northwest Division.

"The truth is that I want to go to a team where we can win," Rubio said. "Maybe we won't have as much pressure in Minnesota to start winning right away and then I can evolve without the pressure. We will have to see."

Yeah, a lockout would be really bad for this team. Not just because of Rubio, but it will affect underclassmen coming out into this year's draft as well.

I think his last statement about coming here & evolving without much pressure means he'll be fine starting his career here. Hopefully we can keep Love & Beasley and they all develop into great players.

A disaster for this team would be finishing with ~ the 7th or 8th worst record in the league this year, a lockout happens and lasts a long time (past the draft and past the point where Rubio would have to commit to being either here or in Spain). Then Kahn makes another ****** 1st round choice this year. Then next year, we finish in the lottery again, but we lose our 1st draft choice to the Clippers. Then here's the really disastrous part - what if they win the lottery with that pick Clippergeddon is looming Thanks McFale.

Sometime after Rubio was drafted ESPN was predicting Rubio would play 3 years in Spain even though he signed a 2 year deal. If you sign a deal 3 years after you're drafted you're not tied to the rookie salary scale.

We played good for 3 quarters last night, then we decided to make a star out of something called Dahntay Jones, who scored 19 all by himself in the 4th because we made him look like Michael Jordan in his prime. Our perimeter defense is putrid.

Flynn was terrible as usual, and hurt his hip again. His trade value has dipped to ~ a bundle of wet, day old newspapers yet again.

Ellington has a great handle and should get most of the minutes at PG until Luke is back imo. Ellington's shot is looking very good recently as well. He should get a lot of PT at SG until we see if this is sustainable after Luke comes back imo.

Brewer is just not good. He's supposedly some lockdown defender or something, but he's not even a little good at defending a good SG 1 on 1.

Wes has physical talent, but I'm starting to wonder if he's dumb and not just tentative.

Webster was damaged goods when we got him & Portland knew it. That's the only reason we got him as cheaply as we did. I'm no longer expecting a meaningful contribution from this guy, so I'll be pleasantly surprised if it ever happens.

Tangent - fwiw, some good sources say we are pursuing Steve Nash. We've had multiple conversations with Phoenix about this - more than any other team so far.

I'm not sure what it would take to land him, or if he'd want to play here beyond his current contract which ends after next season. If he did want to stick around after that and be a mentor for Rubio, and if we could get him without giving up Love, Rubio or Beasley, I would do it.

The darko box is the best.

The break should be good for the wolves. Hopefully get Beasley back after break.

strib quote
Does this mean he won't be in the skills competition at the ASG?

Flynn is clearly the best at leaving his feet without knowing what he's going to do with the ball. That competition is going to be up for grabs now.

"I defy anybody to tell me a year ago that they saw this kind of season coming with Kevin. Nobody saw it coming. Who could have seen it coming? Are we ready to make final determinations and judgements on everything that has occurred here in the last 19 months? I think Kevin is the poster child for that."

David Kahn in the Strib, I think it was today's edition. ^



5c- Is Kevin Love an All Star performer?

Regular readers of this site know that I have long viewed Kevin Love as the best player on the squad. Regular readers will also know that instead of getting geeked about the Flynn/Love/Darko connection, there is nothing that irritates me more about this franchise than knowing that it very easily could have (and should have) been Curry/Love/DMC. Efficient scorers? Check. Monster rebounders? Double check. Did I mention that I would never bring up the DMC bit again? Sorry. Back to Love.

Love is an absurdly efficient and productive player. In his first two seasons with the team, he was either 2nd or 1st in WP/48. He was the team’s best rebounder on both ends of the court by a country mile (leading the league in Oreb% in his rookie season). In his first year with the team he was a +3 on an OE/DE differential. In his second year he was +4. Think about that for a moment. Think about how bad the Wolves were over the past two seasons and then think about how Love managed to come out with a net positive or 3-4 points for every 100 possessions he was on the floor. How does he do this? First, he’s not as bad of a defender as everyone would like to pretend. In fact, he holds his opponents to less than their average production in direct match ups. Will he have trouble guarding gigantic centers and athletic power forwards? Of course. However, in aggregate, he more than holds his own.

Second, Love is one of the best possession-by-possession finishers in the NBA. The ultimate goal of any player is to end as many possessions in his team’s favor as possible at both ends of the court. Love is not only the best offensive and defensive rebounder on his team, but he is top-5 in the entire league. The guy has the ability to grab nearly 30% of available rebounds on the defensive side of the court. He gets his mitts on roughly 15% of available rebounds on offense. That’s a single player positively ending nearly 30% of any miss by the opposing team while extending the possession of 15% of his own team’s misses at the other end of the court. It is pretty hard to overstate just how important this is for a team that doesn’t shoot the ball well.

Moving beyond rebounds, Love does not turn the ball over at a high rate. Last year he had the 3rd highest Ast% on the team while carrying the 4th lowest TO%. This year he will have the opportunity to put these numbers through the roof. One of the most striking things about the first two preseason games is that Minny bigs are going to have lots of opportunities to hand the ball off to guys who can but the ball in the bucket from long range. If Webster and Johnson are hitting their jumpers, Love could have an even more absurdly efficient season.

Rounding things out, the guy gets to the line at a higher clip than anyone else on the team. Rebounding, free throws, decent shooter, not a lot of turnovers…you really can’t ask for too much more from the guy. He could have a break-out season this year that puts him at a level where talking about All Star status isn’t such a ridiculous proposition. Love is far and away (at least for me) the number one reason to follow this club.

Stop-n-Pop - from the Canis Hoopus season PREVIEW ^


Remember Kahn mentioning shortly after he came aboard with the Wolves how Love could maybe be the 4th best player on a great team? Neither he nor Rambis had a clue of how good Love could be, even though he was right under their noses. Many people nationally knew. A lot of people who follow the team closely knew. The guys running our team had no clue.

I'm pretty darned pleased that we are trading Brewer.

yeah, worked out pretty well imo.

I have to give Kahn credit for standing his ground on this one. Initial reports were that the Wolves would give a first round pick up in the deal along with Brewer for Randolph/Curry's contract.

Brewer wasn't in the long-term plans anyway and with Wes and Ellington starting to emerge, his AIDS offense and above-average defense didn't belong on the Wolves.

Even if Randolph is a bust, they gave up a guy they weren't going to pay ~$5M to keep next year. Plus, the Wolves get $3M in monies from the Knicks to buy Curry out and pay his remaining checks. In this deal, Curry is irrelevant - it's essentially Brewer for Randolph.

Randolph is young and has raw athleticism so hopefully he can be a physical force down low so Love doesn't get killed every night since our big Euros are butter soft in the paint. Plus, he's signed for a reasonable amount next year - less than Brewer was going to be.

All in all, good deal for the Wolves; especially since they don't have to pay for Curry's contract and keep the previously discussed first-rounder.

yeah, I'd rather have it be Flynn, but Brewer will be a restricted FA next year anyways. I dont think he has much value to us.

We gave up our cap space to take on a bad player/bad contract in this deal. The way I understand this, we give up the cap space, Brewer and a couple #2s for a dead weight contract and Randolph. I'm hearing Curry will never play for us, which is fine.

Kahn(Con?)/McFale got us Flynn, Ellington, Koufos & Randolph for KG I think. Swell

I'm reading that Randolph's upside is sort of something in between a Camby and an Odom - cant shoot like Odom, but runs the floor and dribbles like him. He's kind of a long armed shot blocker like Camby who runs & dribbles better. He can play a bit at the 3, but is more of a 4 or a skinny 5.

Overall this deal seems ok, but I was hoping we could have done better with that cap space we got for Big Al.

As far as not giving up the mid round #1 - that pick has minimal value.

Brewer's offense is aids and his defense is way over rated. He's frequently out of position, and is terrible at keeping a good ball handler in front of him 1 on 1. He's a good hustler and gets some steals, and is a nice guy. That's about it.

The deal is more than Brewer for Randolph. The cap space had value. I wish we would have been able to get something more for it. I think we're giving up two #2 draft choices as well, but those have pretty minimal value.

Randolph is long, but he's skinny and cannot hold his ground, so he wont likely be a force down low for that reason. His length will probably be helpful in certain matchups.

Pretty cool Randolph highlight - blocking a Tyrus Thomas shot, dribbling down the floor & finishing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whh9Z...eature=related

good deal. we'll get the cap space back when curry's contract is up next year anyway. the only value we are losing in terms of cap space is the ability to make a better trade yet this year. and i have no reason to believe a player more valuable than randolph would have been available.

yeah, it might have been the best deal available. If Randolph fulfills his upside, we got a steal.

And even if he doesn't it's like passing the cap space to the next year instead of having it expire.

This is definitely a pretty solid trade for the Wolves even if it doesn't really make and big changes. Obv Brewer wasn't going to be in any long-term plans, and Randolph may be a bit of a head case or something as he hasn't fulfilled his potential at all yet, but he's *definitely* talented.

He's had two coaches who have played a specific style of basketball that relies on shooters, and I'm not sure he can shoot so perhaps playing in a v different system (altho with an arguably stubborn/ineffective coach) with lots of minutes and touches can get him on track. Kind of like Beasley (who at least has the chance to make a leap with the Wolves).

We didnt give up any 2nd round picks.

We still can make more deals around cap space and Curry. We didnt forfeit the cap space in this deal - we had room to bring on Curry's contract just by getting rid of Brewer.

Those two things make me like this deal more. Hopefully we can make another deal for a high usage type of guard.

Glad to see Kahn finally got his mancrush in Randolph.

At the very least its a positive not having to watch Brewer the rest of the year. Worst case scenario its a wash, but if Randolph ever actually develops on his potential it could be a very good deal.

Although from all reports Randolph is supposed to be a headcase, and I'm not really sure how he fits in with our glut of tweener big men.

The head case stuff is overblown according to a Golden State fan who chimed in at Canic Hoopus last night.

Looking way ahead, Wolves are projected to pick 2nd or 3rd right now in the 2011 draft, assuming we don't get f'ed in the lotto - which we usually do.

That said, several mocks have us taking either Perry Jones, a Tracy McGrady-esque 'explosive' small forward or Kyrie Irving, a flashy PG from Duke.

I stand by the fact that I think Kahn is still convinced that Rubio will come over next year, however even if he does, I'm not convinced he's ready to assume the full-time PG duties out of the gate. I know the Spanish fans are nuts and will want him to play like every minute of every game, but it will be interesting to see how the Wolves go.

Additionally, the last dues of the McFail era must be paid in 2012 - the first round pick we gave the Clippers for Jaric is unprotected and the Clips get it no matter what. I would really hope another lottery pick plus offseason with cap room will allow this team to reach the 30 win plateau thereby making the first rounder we have to part with a mid-round one.

i would take irving in a heartbeat if he's available, but afaik it's not certain he'll declare for the draft. not sure how the CBA and his injury affect that. but he's way better right now than rubio will ever be.

after irving, the next best guy to draft would probably be sullinger, even though he's kind of a bad fit on this team. just draft him and trade somebody.

perry jones is terrible. do not want.

also i read the scouting report that compared jones to mcgrady too, and after watching baylor play, i can say for certain that he is not even close the mcgrady mold. i don't know if he's made a 3 pter all year. he's a skinny 4 with good quickness and ball skills for a 4 (though not good for a wing), not unlike anthony randolph or maybe a very young KG. he's like 7 ft tall. good rebounder. not a jump shooter at all. all of his scoring attempts are dunks or back-to-basket moves.

(obv i was exaggerating when i said he's terrible. he'd be a terrible #1 pick, which is where he was projected for a while. he has potential as a 4 and would be a fine pick somewhere after like 5th)