Alec at TimberwolvesPress on Don Overbeck and the team’s new marketing campaign:
I asked the head Timberwolves sales rep, Jeff Munneke, why they made the switch to this guy from Sweet Water Jones(the tiny afro guy from last year) and I got a pretty funny answer. I guess the guy who did the acting for the Sweet Water Jones commercials last year is actually a 6 foot 5 actor from LA and it was costing the T’Wolves too much money to shrink him. How funny is that. He said he isn’t sure how this campaign will turn out this season, but he said that they may make be making their way back to the players for commercials. Thank God. Please no more corny guys that are being shrunk or dressing in 80’s clothes.
As it is, I’m guessing no one is more disappointed than Love — who just turned 20 in September — at this slow start. In his fourth game — and his first NBA start — Love had 20 points and eight rebounds, but little has gone right since then. He shot 0-for-7 from the field (and was booed repeatedly) when he returned to Portland immediately after that 20-point effort, and he’s still not back on track. In his last seven games, he has shot 12-for-49 and — you remember those unbelievable outlet passes, don’t you? — summoned a grand total of five assists.
It was a career night for clairvoyant Timberwolves point guard Randy Foye, who sensed something special brewing in the shootaround before Sunday’s surprising 106-80 victory over the Detroit Pistons.
“I was just throwing floaters up straight in the air and (they) were just falling straight down,” Foye said. “I looked at (assistant) coach (Jerry) Sichting and I was like, ‘Tonight might be a good one.’ We laughed about it, but it was for me.”
Indeed. Foye torched the Pistons for a game-high 23 points on 9-for-12 shooting, including a trio of three-pointers, and added a career-best 14 assists for good measure.
Wittman said he urged Foye for the past two days to aggressively look for his shot, and then find his teammates when the defense collapses around him. Foye — whom forward Ryan Gomes calls the “motor that makes us go” — said the difference was an offense that Wittman simplified for Sunday’s game…
Reserve guard Rashad McCants missed his second consecutive game because of a back injury. Wittman said he is improving and called his status “day to day.” Veteran guard Kevin Ollie sat out his third game because of a calf injury.
The Wolves have lost in a lot of creative ways so far this year, but this was the first time they were totally overmatched, looking directionless and intimidated. They responded on Sunday with their best game of the season by far, a 106-80 road win over Detroit (Randy Foye also came back nicely, with his best game of the year: 23 points on 9-12 shooting, 14 assists and only two turnovers). But the Celtics’ game was game was another sick reminder of just how much the Wolves gave up when they traded Garnett (as if we needed it). Or rather, when they finally admitted that they lacked the imagination and competence to maximize his talents, to channel his great ecstasy.
BTW, the new Oklahoma City Thunder became the first in the NBA to fire their coach, giving P.J. Carlesimo the heave after a 1-12 start (guess who that one victory was over…) and tagging former Timberwolves guard Scott Brooks as the interim coach.
A big game Friday with the Thunder in OKC looms.