Click here for the forum’s thread for tonight’s game at Cleveland
Game previews:
Tonight’s Timberwolves loss in Cleveland will be their seventh straight to the Cavaliers.
So if everything falls into place, that would make it one lottery pick (their own), one pick in the middle of the first round (the Heat’s) and two late in the round (Celtics and Jazz).
Of course, there is a rub to the entire process: This is one of the least-appealing drafts in years and lacks anything close to tangible depth. There is Blake Griffin and there is everybody else.
Therefore, the odds of Minnesota utilizing all four selections is meager…
Jonah Ballow and John Focke/Timberwolves site talk about McHale’s decision to start the reserves in this week’s game at Philadelphia (audio).
As I’ve mentioned throughout the season numerous times, the players on this team are quite likeable. They are good guys, very giving of their time with the community and media, but outside of Al Jefferson, the roster is full of bench players on average teams at best. Although most would agree Randy Foye is the second-best player on the team, that’s not saying much and shows how far the Wolves have to go. In all honesty, Kevin Love is the team’s second best player, but that also shows the same problems in the squad that a 20-year old rookie, still learning and adjusting to the league, can claim that “honor.”
Coach Kevin McHale said Love has done a good job of maintaining his weight and conditioning and expects him to continue to grow more lean.
There also are a couple of basketball skills that could stand improvement.
“His jump shot and finishing around the hoop are the two things that he’s got to do,” McHale said. “He’s got to earn how to use the rim. He’s getting better at that; protect the ball, pump fake and step through. And then getting that jump shot where it’s absolutely dead-on on a nightly basis, where he becomes a very, very efficient, 15-, 16-, 17-foot jump shooter. He eventually will take that out to three-point range probably in a couple years, but this summer he’s got to become a very efficient 15-, 16-, 17-foot jump shooter.”
Jerry Zgoda/Star Tribune on Mark Madsen’s inclusion on USA Today’s list of the most hated players in NCAA men’s basketball tournament history.
So, too, was Wolves forward Mark Madsen, the former Stanford star about whom the paper said, “Four years seemed like 10 when it came to the Cardinal big man.”
Madsen said he was surprised to see his name there and said he had one technical foul in college, for hanging on the rim.
“That’s terrible,” McHale said. “He’s probably one of the nicest people who ever lived. That’s completely inaccurate. I can think of 100 guys more despised than Dog.”