Good afternoon everyone and a solid apology for not providing any content for awhile now. It is that time of year when it could be too early to do a season preview series due to the roster not being finalized, and yet, there is a big lull in significant NBA/Wolves news. Wolves fans, as usual, are still holding onto hope that another trade or two will be made to net us a big name, but it appears not to be. It seems we will head into the season with yet another odd series of log jams.
We may do some team USA coverage if people would like to see it. If not, oh well. Anyhow, on to some “updates.”
Stiemsma Waived
Per Zgoda, some dude who has been on our roster for about 6 months was waived today. I guess this monster, known in some circles as Greg Stiemsma, was touted by some as being the real deal, and had a sure-fire future in the NBA. To those who thought that, please see photo above. I’m sure it was his career college stats of 2.7 points and 2.3 rebounds that suggests this. To his credit, he was the D-League Defensive player of the year, which I suppose was good enough reason to give him a look. Quick show of hands who actually knew this guy was on our roster. Thank you.
You know what’s more newsworthy than Greg Steimsma being waived today? The fact that next year, on this very day, at 12:13:14 PM, the date will be 9/10/11 12:13:14. This is neat and very significant.
Joe Alexander also lives(?) and Team in Town
Still between jobs, I made an afternoon trip to Target Center to shoot some airballs hoops today. Hearing thumping and grunting from the Wolves facility I made a jaunt down there to see what appeared to be most of the team hard at work. This was encouraging. However, I did see who I believed to be Joe Alexander still working out with the team (I can’t fully verify, but a caucasian swing man with curly hair was in attendance). From what I could see he looked good. Nice first step and a decent off-balance jumper. If it was indeed him, it could be reasonable to expect him to be on our training camp roster and perhaps offered a roster spot. Logjam implications aside, I for one am a huge fan of Kahn adding these “2nd chance” guys for cheap. I recall during the McHale regime many of us always clamoring for these types of low-risk-moderate reward signings. It is never a bad thing to give a recent top 10 pick a solid look.
Brewer’s Goat Lives
In other team related news, breaking news of Brewer’s goat struck news wires today.
One question jumped to the forefront of my brain when sitting across from Corey Brewer at the Green Mill restaurant in Willmar, Minnesota.
“Dude, do you really have a goat?”
Of course, this inquiry was generated from Brewer’stwitter status in mid July that stated, “I’m at home and my pet goat keeps trying to go in the road.”
Brewer smiled and quickly replied to my question, “Oh yeah.”
The actual piece is a good one though about Brewer from Wolves writer Jonah. Keep up the good work as always, Mr. Ballow. And per the article please do support your local Green Mill Restaurants. On that note, the following photo is fantastic:
Team USA Readies for Lithuania
Team USA and the Lord Our God/Rich Man’s Carmelo Anthony Kevin Love will take on undefeated Lithuania tomorrow afternoon. The game will air on the relevant network ESPN Classic at 11am tomorrow. Those of us who do not have that network can catch a re-air on ESPN 2 at 12:30AM tomorrow/Sunday. In other news, the championship game will be played on the Home and Garden Channel, and re-aired on E! in Mid-December.
I want to pause and pose a question here. Despite a continuous Wolves-fan mass-masturbation to Kevin Love’s efficiency stats he continues to not get significant playing time on team USA. He also didn’t crack 30 minutes for us last year which most thought was odd. Why do people think this is? Could there be some unknown reason behind this? Injury concerns? Conditioning issues? One would expect him to play heavy minutes next year but it could be quite difficult with the addition of Beasley and Pekovic (who I can’t wait to catch in action). Furthermore, Webster, Brewer and Johnson will probably take the majority of the PT at the 3 spot, making Beasley a primary 4, and in need of heavy minutes, it would seem. Is it just me or could Love face a similar problem this year? Food and discussion point for thought.
NBA 2K11 Awesomeness
For the video-game playing demographic, I would encourage a follow of Ronnie2K. The game appears to be a sure bet with the addition of Michael Jordan and new features being revealed daily. If they don’t release yet another bug-filled game with a patch to fix the problems 6 months later, this game could be the best sports game ever.
5 Burning Roster Questions Moving Forward
It was about this time last year when the Wolves added Ramon Sessions and Sasha “Terrible” Pavlovic, so we can still hold on to hope that there could be some significant roster changes yet this summer. Maybe not by way of free agency, but it’s possible a few more trades are made. So here are some things to think about before training camp and the season:
1. What to do with Kosta Koufos?
I believe I saw him working out with the team today, which could suggest we keep him in the end. However, a pre-gag order Kahn told the media he would seek a trade.
2. Will Telfair stay on the team?
With Flynn out, will we keep Bassy? Or move him and sign a grizzled veteran to be our 3rd guard?
3. Will we balance the roster?
As touched on above, the Wolves have another typical log-jam problem. Webster, Johnson, Brewer, Beasley, Love, Pek, Darko (will get PF minutes) and maybe Hayward will all be fighting for/given minutes at the 3 and 4 (depending on the player of course). While minutes at the 2 and 5 are of course available as well, all of those guys should be getting 24+ minutes a night with the exception of Hayward. Some 30+. It could be tough to give those guys big minutes. Yet, it seems unlikely any of those guy are moved. What to do here? Who is the odd man out? Dare I say Brewer?
4. Where is the Kahn Man?
He was silenced by the Wolves after a slew of embarrassing media incidents that we have all re-hashed. Personally I thought it was all hilarious. Part of me also misses his quotes, which are always worthy of an extended afternoon chuckle. Let’s hope we hear from him soon.
5. Will we use our cap space?
With the Al trade opening up some more space, could we absorb the contract of a talented player? History suggests most major trades in the NBA are all but done until the trading deadline, so what do you think the space will be used for? Re-signing guys, or adding talent to the roster before next year?
That wraps this update. Again, sorry for the lack of activity of late. We encourage all to keep active in the forums. I also want to add we always encourage guest posting for our forum members/anyone; just reach out to us!
Enjoy your weekend.