Click here for the forum’s thread for tonight’s game against the Bucks
Game previews:
The Wolves now have lost four straight after winning their season opener against New Jersey. They’ll practice today at Target Center and play Milwaukee at home on Friday night.

One last thing: Kevin Love got his stitches out of his hand during halftime and remains hopeful an xray two weeks from Friday will show his surgically repaired hand has healed enough for him to start practicing again.

From Jonah Ballow/Timberwolves site: Thursday Practice Report
Big Al is now working on playing through an offense in contrast to the offense playing through him. Expect his conditioning to improve in the next couple of months and Jefferson will begin to post prolific scoring numbers.
Pecherov’s quick rise to clutch stature had teammates wishing they could have gotten the ball to him more often in the closing minutes. The surge in confidence from teammates and the coaching staff gave the Ukraine native a warm feeling.

“I feel trusted,” Pecherov said after Thursday’s practice. “When they give you minutes, you want to do good things in the game because of the trust.”

Pecherov’s third consecutive start at the four (power forward) spot resulted in a career-high 24 points for the three-year veteran. A fourth start is certain in tonight’s game against Milwaukee at Target Center.

So when Pech learns the nuances Rambis was talking about, Pech should be an enjoyable player to watch the rest of the season. This is a critical season for Pech. He was told Monday by Wolves president of basketball operations David Kahn that his contract will not be extended. Pech will have to earn a new deal based on how he plays over the next 77 games. Right now, Pech is making a strong case for himself.
The Wolves named former NBA point guard Darrick Martin the team’s new assistant director of player development Thursday, an on-court teaching position intended to help young players improve their skills any time of day or night.
Martin was one of several candidates auditioned — former Wolves Tony Campbell and Chris Carr were among that group — and it’s probably no coincidence that the team ultimately chose a former point guard. Make sense with so much invested in Jonny Flynn, Ramon Sessions and Ricky Rubio.

The other part of that player development equation is the Dallas-based clinical psychologist Kahn has hired. Dr. Yolanda Brooks has been around the team quite a bit to observe its dynamics. Kahn hired her as a resource to help players with any off-court issues they might have.

From an economic standpoint, Taylor said, the team is doing OK with sponsorships, but fan support is a concern — although the fans did show up for the Cavaliers and the Celtics.
“Based upon our attendance, we’re going to lose money — not as much as we previously have lost, we’re heading towards closer to a break-even — but my anticipation is that we would lose this year,” Taylor said.
Rambis says he hears from Jackson at least three times a week. In one conversation, Jackson told Rambis he wanted to use an excerpt from Minnesota’s game video, because the T’wolves executed the triangle better than his Lakers.

Rambis says people are making too much of the triangle anyway.

“It’s not even our primary offense,” he says. “The way I’m using it, it’s just something we flow into. First and foremost, I want to push the ball upcourt. If we don’t have something good out of the break, it’s a format to play out of that they all understand.”
Timberwolves President David Kahn (left) is in periodic contact with the team’s top draft pick this year, point guard Ricky Rubio, who is playing in Spain. The conversations are private, Kahn said, declining to elaborate.
The Minnesota crowd – as friendly a group as exists in the NBA – will always love the Timberwolves’ first true star, Kevin Garnett.

The Target Center fans cheered his introduction as well as his first shot in the Celtics [team stats]’ 92-90 win last night over the home team. But the forward later made it clear that sentiment matters little in his makeup.

Garnett told me late Wednesday night that his separation from the team he carried and defined for so long began as soon as he got traded. Physical distance begat psychological distance, which in turn begat emotional. Facing Minnesota might not be like facing any other team, but it is like facing many other teams: A night to punch the clock, take care of business and stay ready for the Clevelands, the Orlandos, the San Antonios and the L.A.s.
From Jon Krawczynski/AP Sports: Garnett is fully moved on from Timberwolves
“The only thing that’s (from the) past that I can take a glimpse of is the Malik banner up there. I took a minute to just look at it,” Garnett said. “But when it comes to the building, so many different changes here, it’s not even the same tunnel. So there’s so many different changes that I can’t really relate to. So there’s no need to dig into that part of it. Faces are different in the crowd.”