Summer league round-up: Minnesota Timberwolves

View the Timberwolves summer league roster.

- Corey Brewer: Brewer was awful his rookie year. Like, really awful. His offense was enthusiastic, but it was also several kinds of bad, and thoroughly undeserving of a number 7 pick. Brewer started to make some strides, though, with a good summer league last year and a fine opening 5 games to last season. Unfortunately, he then popped his knee badly, which has undone all the good work. Minnesota's forward spots are crowded, but the shooting guard spot is wide open, and if Brewer can show something then he might win the spot as a very tall two. But if he doesn't, he'll be fighting Ryan Gomes for small forward time.

- Bobby Brown: Bobby Brown is a testament to the point of summer league. Most players turn up to summer league to win spots in other leagues, but Brown beat the odds and played so well in summer league that he earned himself a two year guaranteed contract with the Kings. He was traded to the Timberwolves at mid season, seemingly only as a money saving venture (the three other players in the deal are all now UFA's), and now he finds himself as the second of two incumbent points guard on a team that just drafted 12 more of them. So that's a bugger. Nevertheless, his contract is guaranteed, and if Minnesota decide they don't want him, some other NBA team should do.

- Pat Carroll: When talking about Pat Carroll, I always feel compelled to compare him to Matt Carroll. Maybe I'm just not that imaginative. Either way, Matt Carroll has four years left to run on his guaranteed deal with the Mavericks, and Pat Carroll just spent a year in the Spanish second division. So you tell me who has the best chance of being in the NBA next year. By the way, be it an irony, a coincidence, or just an uninteresting fact, the Mavericks were also the team that gave Pat Carroll his sole NBA shot, a training camp contract in 2006. They also signed Samo Udrih in 2005, challenging the 2009 Phoenix Suns for "most inferior brothers that you can get on one team at a time that their superior brother is still in the league" award. But Phoenix wins because they've got two at the same time.

- Wayne Ellington: The next Voshon Lenard. Mark it down.

- Jonny Flynn: First of all, the Timberwolves should have picked Stephen Curry. Second of all, Flynn is way too flawed to be a number 6 pick, with questionable outside shooting, a tendency to get wild and poor perimeter defense, and it's only the upside that comes with his athleticism and the weakness of the draft that gets him drafted that high. Thirdly, Jonny Flynn kills kittens. I haven't finished with that joke yet.

- Devin Green: Green started last year with the Spurs in training camp, but didn't make the team even after playing pretty well in preseason. He then went to Belgium, and later moved on to the Ukraine, averaging 17.0 points, 7.3 rebounds and 3.0 assists for Dnipro. If the Timberwolves can't or won't bring back Rodney Carney, then Green makes for a pretty good replacement. He has a chance of making this roster, since it's not deep on the wings right now.

- Paul Harris: Paul Harris reportedly flew up draft boards in the very final run-up to the draft after a series of impressive workouts. In fact, he flew up them so far that he went from being an undrafted talent, to being undrafted. Oh no, wait, he didn't move up at all. Sorry.

Everyone seems to like Harris for his athleticism. And he does have every athletic advantage in the book; he's quick, strong and a huge leaper, even if he tends to lose his leaping ability and front rim dunks at the 58 minute mark on the second game of a back to back. However, he's only 6'4, without much of a slashing game, and with next to no jumpshot. He could be a defensive stopper, but he tends to drift around on that end, and as such he isn't. He also has a criminal history, which doesn't work in your favour when you're on the fringes. Harris initially agreed to join the Cavaliers summer league team, but changed his mind and is now reunited with Syracuse team mate Flynn. Maybe he thinks this will help. I'm not convinced.

- Gerald Henderson: The Bobcats don't have a summer league roster this year, so they're letting Henderson play for the Wolves so that he doesn't miss out on the experience. It's a pretty cool idea, but not as cool as ponying up for your own damn team. Pussies.

- Steven Hill: Hill is about as one dimensional of a shotblocker as you can get. He doesn't rebound much, and he doesn't score; he's all just blocked shots and hair. I like him a lot. But read the Bucks round-up, specifically the bit about Chris Richard, and then tell me why Hill has chosen this team to play with. I just don't get it.

- Rob Kurz: Kurz was signed by the Warriors for training camp, then waived, then almost immediately brought back when Monta Ellis was suspended. He managed to survive the whole year, with even Richard Hendrix being waived before him. Christ knows why, though, because Kurz sucks. Last year, he totalled 157 points, 82 rebounds and 78 fouls, shooting 39% in 40 games. The Warriors then finally realised his mediocrity and didn't extend him a qualifying offer. What kept them?

- Oleksiy Pecherov: Pecherov also chugs quite a lot of balls. He's a tall jumpshooter with a solid rebounding rate, but that's pretty much it. There's scant little defense and no interior offense, and somehow he managed only 2 rebounds and 2 assists all of last season. That's got to be hard to do. Still, for as long as Pecherov looks like Stewie Griffin during his unheralded needle drug period, I think we'll all continue to like him.

- Garret Siler: If you're 6'10 and 305 pounds, yet playing in NCAA Division 2, then there's something wrong with you, really. And Garret Siler's problem is that he's only played basketball for a scant few years. Siler averaged 16.2 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.6 blocks for the mighty Augusta State Jaguars last year, on percentages of 66% and 79%. However, contrary to usual practice, that's 79% from the field and 66% from the line, a total of 566 points on 285 shots. If you don't believe me, read this. Pretty impressive, although given that he probably played mostly against 6'6 210lbs opposing centres, it's not entirely without context. Siler is fat and slow, which hampers any NBA prospects, but if he can find a similar level of professional competition to that of Augusta State's schedule, then he'll have himself a career. Might I recommend China?

- Ben Woodside: Similarly, if you are both one of the leading scorers and assist makers in all of Division 1, and you don't get drafted, then there's something wrong with you too. And that's what just happened to Ben Woodside, who averaged 23.2 points (8th in NCAA) and 6.2 assists (joint 5th) in his senior season for North Dakota State. He scored big, he scored efficiently, and he racked up the assists to boot. He even had a 60 point, 8 rebound and 8 assist outing, where he shot 35 free throws and his team lost anyway. Good times, sort of. However, Woodside's problem is that he's small. He's listed as 5'11 and 185 pounds, and isn't physical or strong. And rightly or wrongly, that doesn't get you in the NBA. Woodside might hang around the NBA fringes for a while, but a career in Europe is probably best suited to him anyway.

Assorted Terrible Plays For No Real Reason

This play is currently doing the rounds:



It provides a somewhat fitting conclusion to the Timberwolves dire season, and particularly that of Corey Brewer, who fouled and clanked his way to a 5.8 PPG, 3.7 RPG and 2.4 FPG rookie season, on 38% shooting. All a bit shite, really.

Still, for the hell of it, here are 5 other "Really Stupid Plays", in no particular order.


1: J.J. Redick in garbage time




2: David Wesley is garbage all the time




3: Derek Fisher to Yao Ming




4: Channing Frye does something reasonably manly for a change




5: Zach Randolph is a flat-out disgrace





Not pictured: One of any number of plays in which Drew Gooden rotates completely the wrong way on defense. People don't make highlights of those things, y'know? They should.

30 teams in 56 or so days: Minnesota

Players acquired via free agency or trade:

Greg Buckner (acquired from Dallas)
Michael Doleac (acquired from Miami)
Antoine Walker (acquired from Miami)
Theo Ratliff (acquired from Boston)
Ryan Gomes (acquired from Boston)
Al Jefferson (acquired from Boston)
Sebastian Telfair (acquired from Boston)
Gerald Green (acquired from Boston)



Players acquired via draft:

First round: Corey Brewer (7th overall)
Second round: Chris Richard (41st overall)



Players retained:

None



Players departed:

Mark Blount (traded to Miami)
Ricky Davis (traded to Miami)
Kevin Garnett (traded to Boston)
Trenton Hassell (traded to Dallas)
Troy Hudson (bought out)
Mike James (traded to Houston)
Justin Reed (traded to Houston)
Bracey Wright (left unrestricted, signed in Greece)



Bobbins:

You probably want me, or expect me, to burn the shit out of Kevin McHale in this space, as I have done so many times in the past. But it's not going to happen. I actually think he's done a nice job this offseason, all things considering.

The reason I say "all these considering", is that McHale has done a rather nice job of restructuring a team that, apart from New York, was about the hardest possible team to reconstruct. With multiple long and bad contracts (you can see their almost-accurate payroll of last season here), and also with first round draft picks still owed to Boston and the Los Angeles Clippers, the Timberwolves were roundly fucked. With only a couple of young players worth a damn and with only superstar Kevin Garnett providing any value worth a damn, McHale had only one option - to trade Kevin Garnett and start again.

He could have gone the other way, signed a veteran, and made another playoff push, hoping that the impossible would occur and that the Timberwolves would suddenly have enough firepower to rival the West's best teams. That would have been a really stupid thing to do, though, It was also a really stupid thing to do last year with the Mike James signing, and it was a pretty stupid thing to do the year before with the Mark Blount trade. So thankfully, he and ever so slightly intrusive owner Glen Taylor didn't go this route again. If he had done so, euthanasia may have been justified.

Everyone seems to believe, though, that the Timberwolves did not get nearly enough in return for Garnett. KG's value isn't what it would have been had this move been made two years ago, but it was still very high. Critics, professional or otherwise, seem to believe that Minnesota did not get nearly enough in return for Garnett. They received Al Jefferson (one of the best young post players in the game, and incidentally, the upcoming winner of this season's rebounding title, and if you disagree then you're just wrong), Gerald Green (wildly overhyped prospect whose option they did not then exercise, bringing the hype back down to Earth), Ryan Gomes (useful role player), Theo Ratliff (massive expiring contract), Sebastian Telfair (far smaller expiring contract with a very outside chance of being a Marcus Banks type reclaimation project), and two first round picks, one of which was being returned to Minnesota after Boston got it in the Mark Blount/Wally Szczerbiak deal thing.

Let's put that into context. In other recent superstar trades, here's what transpired:

a) Miami trades Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, Caron Butler, first round pick (used on Jordan Farmar), second round pick (moved onto Dallas, turned into the insatiable Renaldas Seibutis) to the L.A. Lakers for Shaquille O'Neal (which would have been a decent return had the Lakers not then gifted Butler to the Wizards for Kwame Brown, a player who they didn't need then nor now).

2) Houston trades Steve Francis, Cuttino Mobley and Kelvin Cato to Orlando for Tracy McGrady, Tyronn Lue, Reece Gaines and Juwan Howard (basically horrific for Orlando).

3) New Jersey trades Aaron Williams, Eric Williams, Alonzo Mourning and two first round picks (one used on Joey Graham, the other dealt to New York and used on Renaldo Balkman) to Toronto for Vince Carter (unmitigated shitness regardless of circumstance).

4) Denver trades Joe Smith, Andre Miller and two first round picks (one traded to Miami and used on Daequan Cook with Jason Smith going the other way, the other dealt to Portland and used on Petteri Koponen) to Philadelphia for Allen Iverson and Ivan McFarlin (um, OK).



Now you tell me what historical precedent tells us about superstar's returning value in trades. It ranges from mediocre to freakin' awful.

And now tell me again why the package Minnesota got of a premium young player, big financial savings, two first round picks and a couple of potentially useful peripheral parts is such a bad thing.

In addition to the big trade, Minnesota made several smaller ones. In trading Trenton Hassell for Greg Buckner, they traded a player who was reportedly a right moanarse in the locker room, who had a big contract and who wasn't very good anyway, for a lesser player who doesn't moan and who has a lot less guaranteed money coming his way for fewer years. Trading Mike James for Juwan Howard again got them a player with less guaranteed money over fewer years, and buying out Troy Hudson's third partially guaranteed year again turned a three year contract into a two year one while losing no playe rof any significance (it's been a theme). And in the Mark Blount and Ricky Davis to Miami trade, Minnesota managed to again trade a big contract with three years remaining (Blount) for one with only two left (Walker), while also getting a first round draft pick in the deal.

It's only a shame that they couldn't swap Mark Madsen for Adrian Griffin or somebody. They could have then completed the set.





Next season:

If you're going to flounder and die, you might as well do so with some purpose to it. Nothing about the Timberwolves recent history offered up much in the way of hope. Since McHale began disbanding the 2003-2004 team (arguably the league's best team that year) with such heroic ineptitude that he just had to keep his job for three more years - using such tactical masterstrokes as trading Sam Cassell and a first round pick for Marko Jaric, and the previously mentioned Wally Szczerbiak trade - Minnesota has witnessed one subsequent year of frustrating mediocrity, and two years of something worse than that. In those two years, complete tank jobs have had to be pulled just so that the franchise was able to keep the pick it had originally given up to the Clippers for Jaric in the first place, and they won 65 games combined over the last two years for this reason.

It wasn't going anywhere, and with two first rounders owing and only two young players (Chris Smith and Randy Foye) worth a damn, they weren't getting out of the 35ish win range any time soon.

So they finally blew it up. And I'm glad. You should be, too.

It's just gone so tits up for so long basketball wise, that it's just refreshing to see things go rather well for a change. The dream of Garnett playing his whole career in Minnesota was still held by some, which has led to fall out, but it shoulda been shot to shit a long time before now. If it had, maybe those last two years need not have happened. In one offseason, Minnesota transformed itself from a team in transition going from bad to worse, into a team that may one day go places.

Of course, they might not. They are still led by the insatiable pairing of McHale and Taylor, who are always liable to fuck things right up in ways you never previously thought conceivable (Mark Madsen's still got three years left, by the way. I thought this needed highlighting twice, you see). But if they can stave off their compulsion to destroy everything (by the way, Two For The Money starring Al Pacino and Matthew McConaughey isn't THAT bad of a film if you stop it at the hour mark), Minnesota might start headed places again some day soon.

There's a good chance that this new look lineup tops out in a few years at the 40 win barrier that the franchise just traded Garnett to get away from. Still, they can but try.