Wolves Updates 8/17

Do the people who voted for it even know what turmoil means? It’s a ridiculously vague term and this is the kind of stupid poll that only works in August when there is absolutely nothing else to divert people’s attention from their mundane lives. It seems pretty obvious that the people who voted for Minnesota have swallowed the mainstream propaganda from the ministers of idiocracy without even thinking about it or questioning the basis of their arguments. It’s not surprising, after all 60% of America thinks Obama is a communist, muslim antichrist who was born in Kenya, because if you hear something enough, it must be true. These people who voted for Minnesota at number one are a bunch of sheep. There is no way Minny is going to have a more turbulent season than half of the teams in the NBA. There are some teams that have very deep seated problems that will not be easily whitewashed over, a major injury of a bad stretch of the season will only magnify that. Denver and New Orleans both have a very frustrated douchebag primadonna superstar who think they are too good to play for their current team. If the teams wins less than last year, and I think in both cases they will, that situation will reach critical. Love is a bit of a d-bag, but he’s nowhere near established enough to start pulling crap like that this season.

Minnesota is an unpopular destination for free agents? It’s still a vibrant, viable and decent place to live Can’t say the same for many cities in the NBA, Cleveland and New Orleans top that list. Many other places, Ok City, Memphis, Utah, Portland, Sacramento don’t get the same crap as Minny because they currently have decent teams, but when they take a turn for the worse who will want to go there?

And who is going to be the cause of team friction? The team won 15 games last year and managed to hold it together pretty well, they will win more, possibly much more, this year. How will these other teams fare if they go through a rough patch? How will aging semi all stars on other teams deal with a disappointing season? 25 wins will seem like paradise to some of these guys.

The wolves have a roster full of young guys, five of whom were major contributors last year, and should be able build something solid. Are they worse off than New York, a team which gutted almost the entire roster in the hope of attracting a top name free agent and only ended up signing Amare, who is one knee injury away from being the worst contract ever signed?

And which of these guys sounds like a trouble maker? Webster, Ridnour, Hayward, Johnson, Tolliver? The NBA tends to be a magnet for selfish egomaniacs and borderline psycho personality types, but all five of these guys seem super humble, well spoken, team players who realize being in the NBA is a privilege. Michael Beasley, well OK, but it was just pot and he seems like a really good guy. Add that to Corey Brewer, Johnny Flynn and you have six or seven guys who would finish in the top ten in the running for nicest guy in the NBA, no, nicest guy in America. I think their humility and good nature might even balance out Love’s annoying sense of entitlement and selfishness. The only other point of conflict I see coming might be from Darko/Pek and their "I f*** your mother in her mouth" attitude, (or is that a compliment in Serbian?), but Darko seemed pretty mature in his last interview and both guys seem like hard working guys who value team chemistry. A lot of other teams have at least one guy who is a bit of nut job or has some type of legal problem, or whose ego far exceeds their dwindling skill level. Any of these could cause more problems than any of Minny’s tiny question marks.

And Rambis is pretty well respected throughout the NBA and he’s already been there a year. Kahn less so, but I think he goes out of his way to make players happy. Taylor doesn’t seem like a terrible owner, at least he doesn’t meddle too much (Jordan, Cuban) or embarrass himself (Sterling, Cuban) and the club isn’t in the midst of being sold. And how many organizations had a controversial change of leadership or ownership? Do you think those new coaches will have an easy adjustment period? I just don’t see where the turmoil will come from. Do you?

And don’t even get me started on the most improved poll (also in ESPN summer forecast). Minny didn’t even get in the top 13. How is that possible? How is it that a 15 win team that in the offseason picked up two fomer number two picks (Beasley and Darko), a number four pick (Johnson), a former number six pick (Webster), and a European superstar who would have been a top ten pick this year in the offseason, not on track to improve more than the Clippers, who only added the Twolves garbage, or New Orleans, who might really really suck. Totally ridiculous.