I kind of hate Wall now. The first time we played these guys we started Lavine and had no Rubio, Martin, Pek, or Thad. They ldo blew us out and Wall went way overboard with the primal screams and showboating. I wonder if the Wolves remember too and made a point to not let him get off. Like KG wrt to Cedric Ceballos in that Flip story.

Really liked that story btw. Apparently in KG's first preseason game Ceballos scored on KG then got in his face and said "You're not in high school anymore." KG never forgot and made a point to light Ceballos up every time he saw him once he became an established player (looking at the game logs, Ced ran wild on KG for the first 2 years). Flip's apparently been telling the guys to take names and numbers.

The Wolves have not been this much fun since 2004.

Really cool story, never heard that one before. The team played really hard on Wednesday night. It was really fun to see Gorgui/Wiggins etc assert themselves.

We're not a lock for bottom 3 record wise anymore, but I'll take blowing out eastern conference "playoff teams" instead

pretty much.

in case any of you somehow missed this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_tnQdHU7Vg

so ****ing awesome!

Adrian Payne is gonna be either really awesome or really terrible. No in-between

Gary Neal is pretty good too. wtf

he played pretty well tonight imo. His shot is really slow, one thing I don't remember it being from college.

The trade for KG will be worth it if Rubio and Wiggins see how much they will be LOVED by Minny fans if they stick with the team and have some success. Having a sold-out arena and seeing how excited the fans really can get go a long ways to keeping our core.

Agree with that completely bbones, and the announcers mentioned something about the players saying that after the first KG game. I forget exactly what was said, but I think it was Lavine talking about how after they saw KG's reception they realized what the Target center can be if you play hard and it gave them some more motivation.

I am sure most young NBA'ers see the Wolves as one of the worst franchises in the league(and rightfully so, we've been terrible), but our fan base is pretty solid when the product is competitive and the players work hard and keep playing through adversity.

As a fan base, we're much better than Miami imo, a team who was gift wrapped a GOAT, a top 5 SG OAT and a top 3 itl PF, went to 3 straight NBA finals and still had a hard time selling out regular season games.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/12...berwolves-fans

Yeah, i think Flip wanted the kids to realize this. Timberwolves' fans are pretty great. They hold the single season attendance record (they sold out the metrodome!), sold out every single game for the first 7 years despite being horrible on the court, and wolves fans are probably the smartest in the league with a way out-of-proportion presence on the internet. The fans aren't bad, it's the franchise that has been terrible. In Flip we trust tho. Guy has really done a great job wearing all the different hats.

I have tickets to this Saturday's game vs. Portland. Tickets are going for ~double what I bought them at in December. 15 minutes of 75 year old KG worth all of the money apparently.

I have a pair of tix for mid-court, first row right behind the scorer's table. KG will get chalk all over me doing that pregame thing. Would think i could get tons of $$ for them but the game isn't until april.

Halftime but Lavine seems to have gone from horrible to good without touching the bases in between.

Yeah, it's really cool to see him start to catch up with the speed of the game.

He wasn't nearly as good in the second half but still decent. He's playing with a ton more confidence and getting by guys. Using that athleticism.

Also, Payne had 2 super-awesome blocks, I checked the boxscore and to see if he had more and they officially credited him with 0 blocks :-(

That one he had on the Paul layup was at like 13 feet. Who else could have gotten credit for that?

Lavine certainly has athletic ability. He reminds me of Gerald Green. Hopefully it doesnt take Lavine ~10 years in the league to figure out how to be a good player like it took Green.

Watching the replay now. About halfway through the game but the best Lavine play I've seen so far is in the first he gets his ankles broken by CP3 at the top of the key...CP3 drives by him and dishes out for the corner 3 but Lavine is able to recover and close out on the 3 point shooter pretty quickly. His athleticism is off the charts.

If him and Wiggins can develop into good defensive players the Wolves are going to be a terror to play against on the wings with the range and length they can have on the court.

Really like how Lavine is playing in the first half. Not nearly as reckless as he was in the beginning of the season but picking and choosing his spots well.

Yeah, a Rubio-LaVine-Wiggins defensive trio would be really excellent. They can switch a ton and they're very quick. That's an area where KG's value is huge. He's one of the best defenders of all time, he has so much to teach the guys in that regard and it seems like they're all willing to hear.

The other thing is that LaVine and Wiggins both look like they're going to have better jumpshots than I anticipated. If they can be effective floor spacers as well as having their slashing/finishing ability, that's a really, really strong pairing.

Yeah, Lavine's jumper is much, much better than I thought it was coming out of college. Very impressed with their progression this year.

Watching those two play pre and post KG trade are like night and day as far as how effective they have been. edit: Wiggins was good before, but the way he's run the court, looking for cutting lanes and his vision has been much better.

I also am really enjoying Payne's play. His shot isn't falling yet, but this is what..his 5th or 6th game in the NBA? idk if he's a starter yet but first big off the bench is definitely in his wheel house. The rebounding and shot blocking is pretty good too for a rookie.

Just watched Wiggins initiate the offense and dish it to Rubio for a wide open 3. Haven't seen that yet this year. Also, CP3 is still really, really good at basketball.

So for as good as the Wolves were in the 2nd and 3rd quarter, they were equally as ****ty in the 4th. Tons of hero ball, sloppy passes, and bad decisions.

Force feeding Wiggins when he's double teamed down low, Wiggins not passing it out, Lavine trying to spin through a double team instead of kicking it out etc. Sounds funny to say this about a 13 win team vs a playoff team, but we legitimately gave that game away.

Well, yeah any time you don't make a hoop for the final 10+ minutes and lose by 4...

I thought Lavine's best play was in the 2nd half when he came off a pick and roll and Big Baby was switched onto him and he just said "**** fatass, you can't stay with me!" and jetted to the hoop at 245mph. Davis just reached out and grabbed him. No choice.