we played Bayless like 18 minutes. All our starters played ~25 minutes. It’s not like we had the starters out running up the score, we had bench players that are hungry for minutes trying to show the coach something.

Can’t really hate too much for that ya know.

I’m hoping by luck or by pluck that Ya’ll come out of the draft with Cole Aldrich and Evan Turner. I think an Aldrich/Love front court would be very good (if also very white). Evan Turner is just the kind of wing ya’ll need.

Not sure why you think we were rubbing it in. It was actually the exact opposite. Did you see ANY starters the ENTIRE 4th quarter? I didn’t. And the bench guys are all fighting for hard-to-come-by minutes. To imply you wanted one of your players to intentionally injure one of our players is a little over-the-top. Also, how can you not praise the Blazers at all? They played extremely unselfishly and executed very well. I was not aware that Wolves fans disliked the Blazers. I wish you guys good luck the rest of the way (except against the Blazers)

I mean Portland’s bringing guys like Rudy Fernandez, Martell Webster, and Joel Pryzbilla off their bench. Those guys would start from most NBA teams, and when you put those three plus Outlaw and Bayless on the floor…that’s pretty much our starting lineup, if not better.

The focus for us right now has to be executing the offense, because once again, we got away from it. I can live with missing shots if they’re good shots, but tonight we didn’t take good shots.

Also, we let Portland beat us down the floor way too much. That shouldn’t happen even to a team as inexperienced as us.

Portland really exposes the fundamental weaknesses of our team. They have a go to scorer on the wings, we have none. They have all kinds of shooters, we have none. They have length, athleticism and defense in the paint, we have none. Most fans are awaiting the return of Love, and I think he will help some, but he doesn’t solve any of our big problems. He certainly doesn’t make up for the talent or experience difference between us and a team like the Blazers. But he can’t hurt either.

As for our cap space and trade assets, I’m not expecting anything until January at the earliest. It makes more sense to see which teams start falling off and decide to burn assets to get under the cap and start over. Right now, there’s no one ideal for us on the trading block, so might as well wait.

I’m still very intrigued by the idea of trying to get Rudy Gay and Hasheem Thabeet from the Grizzlies. Normally you’d say no team would give away a talented wing and their second overall pick so soon or for cheap, but keep in mind: it’s the Grizzlies. We all know what happened with the Pau Gasol trade. They’re still pushing the cap this year and next, which their owner hates, Gay and Mayo are feuding, and now Iverson has deserted them. If we can get them for less than equal value, which seems likely, I say we do it. Gay is exactly the kind of scoring wing we need. Thabeet….is a project, but there’s a lot of raw material to work with, and he at least fits our needs on paper.

Until something happens though, we’re not going to win much. Although tomorrow is certainly a winnable game.

The Anti-Al propaganda is already in full swing, after a mere 7 games of action.

How was Al in full Black Hole mode, in this game? He took 11 shots in 25 minutes, dished out 3 assists, and was a starters’ best (-2) for the game.

When Al didn’t have the ball, there was a lot of Jonny Flynn dribbling around and eventually firing a tough jumpshot. Or Corey Brewer running around, catching and shooting a contested J. The only guy who got himself open for decent looks was Gomes.

I’m not saying that Jefferson looked great — I agree that he is still clearly not 100%. But there was nothing wrong with the way he went about playing offense in this game. He is, and will continue to be for as long as we don’t have a superstar guard, the team’s best offensive option. It’ll take him a while to get back to 23 & 11 type of consistency, but there’s no reason to call into question how he plays offense.

The fans payed for 48 minutes of basketball. it doesn’t mean “until you feel comfortable with your lead, then stop.” Shooting threes when up by 30 isn’t a crime.

Can’t blame him, I think I read the same amount of T-Wolf comments as Blazers comments on this post…

All I can say is chin up, it took Portland 10 years to get good again, and I see potential. Sorry about Kahn’s draft, let’s hope something good comes of it. And I heard this summer might be good for free agency…while I don’t think LBJ is in T-Wolves threads next year, plenty of others (including Rudy Gay, who will be in the middle of the pack) and plenty of unrestricted guys. Most important thing for Minnesota is to make their roster attractive to star players. I’m sure you guys have talked about this, but the faces of a lot of franchises are going to change, and who knows who will be the next San Antonio, Boston, Portland (teams who made great leaps through free agency, trades and the draft).

… that hasn’t seemingly been stated already, it’s time to start thinking of absurdly imbalanced trades we could make involving Sessions, Gomes and contracts. Any ideas?

Bench guys played the majority of minutes in the second half and that isn’t enough? What do you want them to do? Dribble out the shot clock and hand over the ball and say “you shoot it now”? As someone else mentioned, they are all competing for minutes. I could see your point if maybe Roy and Aldridge were out there playing all-out in the fourth but it was freakin bench guys.

The coach of Mini didn’t seem into this game at all. at all, I didn’t see em emotionally charged the least bit about the lack of movement for Mini.

Honestly I think a Avery Johnson would wipe this team into “focus” mode in one year, and then bring in a Van’gundy type shortly after the team fazes out the bully (unless the bully is a loved bully ala Nate Mcmillian).

Keep your heads up mini, it’s comming again for you, you’ll have your glory once again.

I could care less what fans of other teams have to say about the Wolves. Newsflash: no Wolves fan is unaware that their team has less talent than the Blazers. Different situation, different time. This isn’t a rivalry in any way, shape, or form. By the way, which franchise has more playoff series wins since the 00-01 season? My guess is none of you have the balls to go talk smack with the fans from real winners like San Antonio and the Lakers. Weren’t the Blazers the team who, in ’03, deliberately lost the final game of the regular season to drop to the 6 seed and avoid the Wolves “juggernaut” that was KG, Wally, T-Hud, Rasho, Marc Jackson, Kendall Gill, Gary Trent, Rod Strickland, and Joe Smith?

As for the team I actually care about, it was pretty clear this was Portland’s night when Andre “I learned how to shoot by watching tapes of Bob Cousy” Miller was draining 3s and jump shots. Aldridge was aggressive on offense, was rewarded for it, and the Wolves showed that a guy like the Rhino would’ve been nice to have during Love’s absence (even though his rebounding is partially offset by his negatives). I’d like to see Jawai continue to get minutes if he can become more of an enforcer down there — surprising that a team with Laimbeer and Rambis on its staff doesn’t have a team giving more hard fouls to prevent layups. I’m waiting until after the season to evaluate Jefferson, thought the team reversed the ball well at times and got some open corner shots because of it, and hope Gomes learns to keep his feet behind the line to turn some of those corner 2s into 3s. Not a good stretch for the team, but I still think they’ll be better off if they can turn 1-2 guys who supposedly don’t have a future w/the team into #10-11 guys in the rotation.

Sam, Hassell, Johnson and KG (minus wally). That team was so well built and had good chemistry, had Sam not gotten hurt, probably would have beaten the lakers and been a better matchup with the Pistons. That’s what the Wolves are missing more than talent. Granted the talent isn’t great, but they have a few pieces. Even Portland is going through chemistry issues. The three guard lineup won’t last forever, and as soon as the stop winning and Roy doesn’t get a lot of touches, its going to be bad. But Minnesota looked like they haven’t played together much. Noone knows where they should be spaced. It’s seven games into the season, a few injuries and the expectations are low enough that there just need to be patience for another 2-3 years, a la Blazers in 2004-2007

climbed on top of him. I just heard it on the radio in Portland and the Portland announcers were surprised by the call ALSO..and then said..oh..Sessions was on top of Joe first. Like I said…did not see this myself but heard it.
Believe me the Blazers get their share of unfair calls also.