...you got some good painkillers for the surgery. I had my wisdom teeth removed and I was in bed with a bottle of vicodin for 2 days.

BTW: I’d love to see the Wolves try to trade for Kopponen. I don’t think the Blazers will give up on him though.

Yeah Kopponen was fantastic, even better than Bayliss in my opinion, since I think he was doing more nba-type stuff (I think some of those shots by Bayliss in the lane just wouldn’t be available in a real game). Had some troubles on D but that’s probably where the biggest adjustment has to be made, he’s not used to guarding guys who are that quick. (No offense to the Finns.) He had an amazing shot in the lane against Brewer where I thought Brewer was going to block it into the 4th row, instead he used his body to shield the shot and probably deserved an and 1. — By the way the Blazers might not give up on him but the question is whether they have room for him…though I don’t see how we’d get him, looks like they want a veteran wing guy, maybe he ends up in Jersey as part of a package for Carter. But I agree, if he came to the Wolves it would be the first time I’d ever bought an nba jersey.

On Brewer: the more I see him, the more he makes me think of McGrady when he first came into the league. Very similar body to Brewer, and it was clear that he was physically able to play at the nba level though he was a bit skinny (he is way bigger now than then – good sign for Brewer), also his skills were probably good enough, though his shooting range wasn’t what it is now. But he just tried to make things difficult on himself…at least that’s how it appeared, maybe it always looks that way when your timing’s off. Anyways it was weird, about halfway through his 3rd year things just came together, he cracked the starting lineup on a pretty good Toronto team, and just looked totally comfortable.

Just to clarify: I don’t think Brewer is going to be as good on offense as McGrady (though I think he’s already better on D), but I think the problem is the same: finding a niche in terms of playing style, and above all finding a rhythm. There’s that old John Wooden saying – be quick but don’t hurry (that overly talkative announcer mentioned it during the Portland game) – and I think that once Brewer realizes how good he is physically, he can slow down, and let the game come to him. (He needs some of the “big sleep” mentality that McGrady grew into, in my opinion.) I see him as a guy who can eventually average maybe 13-15 a game, and be both a really creative passer, and a nice pull-up jump shooter, on drives. I sure hope the Wolves don’t give up on him because I think things are going to come together for him someday, though I don’t know when it will be.

Oh by the way nice to see ex-Gopher Vincent Grier in there, I thought he’d be an NBA player when he was at Minnesota, guess I was wrong but looks like he’s carving out a nice career for himself in Europe. Had a couple of nice plays in the game.

Liked Jeter too, I agree he’s no starter but I think he could be a nice 12th man, smart, quick, good shot, good team guy.

I agree on Love, though again someone with size bothered him – last game it was Mata-Real scoring on him almost at will, this time it was that Arkansas kid (too bad he lost his headband and got a haircut, that was a strong look he had during the ncaas) blocking his shot what seemed like 4 or 5 times. He did have one amazing offensive rebound people haven’t mentioned – it was on a free throw, somehow the guy blocking him out mistimed his jump, flew right by the ball, and Love got the offensive board about 2 feet from the basket on a bounce! He looked surprised to get it, but finally went up with it and all the guy behind him could do was foul him. Hilarious, guess some guys just have a nose for the ball on rebounds.

Keeping the cold crompress fitted snuggly to my jaw is doing wonders for me. Tough I’m growing tired of changing it every hour..

Anyway, the archive stream on the LAL game got online so I’ve been able to watch it after all (yay, had something to do while sitting in bed all day).

Here’s some extra toughts and adjustions to what I mentioned earlier.

On Jeter: I agree he could be somewhat of a 12th man. A 3rd PG, but not higher than that, like get 10 minutes when one of our other points is injured. He played great against the laker team. Mostly scoring but at least not throwing the ball away like the other two.

Love showed all the same things he did in the other 2 games. It seems like I’ll have to agree that his range doesn’t go out to the NBA 3point yet though I can see it going there with some practice.

Blake has “Ahern” written on the back of his jersey, that’s where I got it from the first time. How does that kind of thing happen…

Bryce Taylor also looks good and I’m sure he’ll be pretty good in Europe (no pun intended).

If you look at the box scores of Brewer’s game there’s a huge difference. He finished 7 of 10 here. The ONLY difference I saw was that when he got into the paint he either finished the layin, passed it or drew a foul. In other games he would throw it over the rim.

The sad thing is he got back to not finishing in the 3rd game … if he can consistenly finish lay-ins like he did in this game I believe he can be the guy pliny describes above, getting 13-15 and adding some other things.

He’s still young off course, but so are some other players we have reached a higher level then him.

I was also putting my hope on getting Kopponen on the fact that the Blazers have so much young talent they need to trade some of it for a veteran but off course, can’t see who we could offer to the Blazers.