via www.dailygame.net

I'm doing the links in bullets as a test for readabiity. What do you think?

• Mr. Kevin Love is going to be the cover boy for NCAA  Basketball '09. Does that strike anyone else as strange?
• I got salary numbers for Gomes, Smith and Telfair confirmed by none other than Mr. Larry Coon himself. Check out the salary page for slight updates to the numbers.
• Jason Collins apparently underwent successful elbow surgery, but will be out for 8 weeks. That can only mean good things for Calvin Booth. Really, though, this might mean that K-Love will get bigger minutes earlier than the team had planned.
  
• Four-letter.com has a couple fantasy hoops previews. Seth Landman's runs down the rookies who'll have the biggest fantasy impact this season. While he doesn't exactly recommend picking Love, he gets a dig on Telfair and Foye. Erik Karabell offers his sleeper list, complete with one Ryan Gomes.
• HoopsVibe resurrects the story of Through the Fire, the Four-letter documentary on Sebastian Telfair. I didn't realize you can watch the whole thing on YouTube.
• Timberwolves.com has a new interview with Telfair posted.
• Slam covered the NBA Rookie Training Program and Kevin Love has a couple things to say.
• More employment opportunities with the Wolves/Lynx organization. If you want to be a PR Manager or a Sales Exec for the Lynx, opportunity knocks.
• Empty The Bench gives Mike Trudell's interview with Big Al some more ink.
• A David Thorpe chat at Four-letter has him on record as saying he liked their moves, but doesn't believe we'll know they're on the right track until after this season. I'm optimistic, but I can't disagree.

Chinstrap: Great beard? Or GREATEST beard for looking kinda douchey?

Did you hear the one about Stephon Marbury being crazy a human conundrum? His cousin and sometime-NBA player Jamel Thomas is releasing a book in which he claims Steph messed up Thomas's opportunity to hook onto the Wolves. According to him, KG even told Thomas that he was pulling for Thomas to be signed, but Steph's handling of the situation prevented it. Thanks a lot, cuz.

Charley Walters had a bit buried in his notes last week about Katie Couric not mentioning the Wolves on national television, after mentioning the Twins, Vikings and Wild. "The calculated publicity value of the mention in front a Nielsen audience of 5.48 million was $1.275 million, or the equivalent of $75,000 for a 30-second ad." What!?!? I'm no marketing major, but I just don't get that. How is that calculated? Isn't it the kind of thing you'd source?

And, while I'm whining about the Wolves coverage at the Pioneer Press, tell me what sticks out at you when looking at http://www.twincities.com/timberwolves. Actually, skip it and I'll tell you: the last story posted was on June 20, 2008. The PiPress Wolves blog was updated on July 22. Really? Either their coverage really is that poor, or their website content management is farkakte.

CelticsBlog talks about what Al's 5th year in the league holds for him. This phrase gave me shivers: "When a guy is the future of your beloved franchise for three seasons - and particularly when his development is the one highlight among a season of nearly unmitigated misery - it's hard not to maintain a lingering affection even after he moves on."

Preseason Predictions at HoopsWorld:

The Minnesota Timberwolves and Memphis Grizzlies will regret the trade they made that swapped O.J. Mayo for Kevin Love. Each will have what their former team is going to need by the end; the trade will likely work out in the long-run since both teams are in rebuilding mode, but the players could have done more for the teams they were originally drafted by. Unless, of course, Memphis finally acquires Zach Randolph and moves Javaris Crittenton for something of value.

I honestly don't know what point is being made here. They'll both regret it? But it will work out eventually? But it would've been better in reverse? Unless a rumored trade happens? I haven't liked anything HoopsWorld has written abou the Wolves lately. Anyone else feel similarly, or am I just being a snob?

BleacherReport has a list of the Top 30 small forwards for a championship team this year. Ryan Gomes snuck in at #30. List of guys I think Gomes is better than in this context: Kapono, Moon, Harpring; i.e. the three guys ahead of him. Gomes is a better all-around player than Kapono, more experienced than Moon and more healthy than Harping.

Two hat-tips to TWolvesBlog:

RotoEvil has a fantasy preview of the Wolves up. The big concern expressed here is the effect of better teammates on Al's production. Fair from a fantasy perspective, but If Al dipped by a couple points or rebounds, I'll take the tradeoff as long as Miller, Foye and Love are playing well. Round-by-round roundup:

• Jefferson: Late 3rd - 4th
• Miller: 5th - 6th
• Foye: 8th - 9th
• Love: 9th - 10th
• Gomes: 11th - 12th

Dime has a story on some rookies being asked for their opinions on the Presidential election.

• Obama: Derrick Rose, Joe Alexander, OJ Mayo, Greg Oden, Anthony Roberson, Joey Dorsey
  
• McCain: None
  
• Undecided: Kevin Love

"I don’t know. I really haven’t ever been that political, but now that I’m making money I guess it affects me. I guess whoever’s not going to tax us the most. That’s tough – I’m not big into politics, but that’s where I’m at."

Ugh... It's not the stance he takes, or the candidate it implies (none of the other guys provide informed reasons for supporting Obama), but to take a self-interested perspective on a single issue as your political opinion is not that cool.

K-Love: Call me. We'll get some beers (you can get Mich Golden Ultra, I'll have the Gusiness) and rap about politics.

Since I'm griping a bit, how's about one for the Wolves' marketing team? If you surf on over to the official site, you'll see a shiny new #4 jersey in the upper-right hand corner. "Sweet!" you exclaim from your Villanova dorm room. You gots to have it, right? Not so fast Holmes, 25, 33 and 42 are the only jerseys that appear to be up for pre-sale. Sadly, there's no more custom jersey option so my hopes for a Calvin Booth jersey are dashed.

Also over at the official team site, Mike Trudell just posted an interview with Big Al. The first two things he says he wants to do this year? Be a better leader and be a better defender. Say what you will about Al's gam, but his work ethic should never, nivenvoin, neverinero be called into question. He also talks a bit about K-Love and whether Al's a 4 or a 5 on offense and defense.

via videogames.techfresh.net

Yes, two of these are posted as FanShots. But I've got to make it look like there's more going on out there than there really is.

Four-letter.com's prospect guru David Thorpe has rookie rankings out. Guess who he ranked #3 and #6 respectively? That would be Love and Mayo. He even goes as far as saying he doesn't see much upside (or downside) with Mayo.

The Oklahoman (hat tip to T-Wolves Blog) ranks "Minnesota Timberwolves" 20th on the NBA nicknames list. He also gives props to Los Angeles Lakers, which rolls off the tongue now, but was taken from the Minneapolitans. I don't find much to object to with his list.

HoopsWorld has a pretty extensive 2009 preview for the Wolves (now viewable in Google Chrome, thanks to Pants). Everybody's got them 4th in the Northwest, and I think it'll be very tough for them to overcome that. Utah, Portland and Denver should all be better than us this year, but Denver's the prime candidate for utter implosion.

Hardwood Paroxysm and The BlowTorch (two excellent general NBA blogs) have slaved away in their laboratory and created the NBA Blogger Periodic Table. Yes, Hoopus made the cut. In fact, we correspond with platinum. That's right, platinum.

In case you hadn't heard Timberwolves pick/Heat guard Mario Chalmers was busted for smoking grass at the Rookie Orientation with his Kansas teammate Darrell Arthur. We've talked a lot about wishing Chalmers was a Wolf, but what about now? This would've been awful press in Minnesota (not that it's good in Miami or Memphis, but I think our market would've been harder on him than those two).

Danny Granger's extension talk is heating up. As Pants commented in my post about Rashad, there's little downside to waiting. Nonetheless, I'm interested in seeing what classmates closer to his skill-level (than Paul and Williams) get.

If you read one part of this read this part: I'm re-opening the calls for our nomination of the biggest waste of space on our current roster. While I haven't gotten more clarification as to the criteria, I think it just indicates that it's an Open Bracket. So, I'm interested in what ya'all think. Who's our worst player? What's our worst contract? Worst attitude? Worst ____?

Former full-time Wolves writer Steve Aschburner gives McHale and Co. a B grade on the offseason. His main concerns are an un-pure point guard starting and a natural 4 starting at the 5. Tough to completely disagree if you ask me, but I think Miller and Love's passing abilities will help relieve Foye of all initiating responsibility. Moreover, despite long-term concerns of getting beaten on defensively, Al more than held his own offensively at the 5 last year.

Basketbawful has a rebuttal for Aschburner's characterization of McHale. With video proof. After watching that second video, it's not hard to see where Al's been getting ideas for his moves (as if we hadn't been told enough). Plus, if you're worried about Love being able to play his below-the-rim game effectively against bigger NBA competition, McHale should be one of the best tutors he could have.

Apparently Shad really likes to go to clubs. According to The Vegas Eye, he was at the LAX Nightclub over Labor Day weekend (As were Antoine Wright, Damon Jones, Juwan Howard and Howard Eisley).

Mike Miller jerseys were sold out at the State Fair and according to the salesperson went quickly says Gopher Nation on RubeChat. Good to see him generating some excitement.

Fox Sports somehow deduced that Sebastian Telfair is the 10th most likely player to improve this year.; I'm not trying to make any wild predictions, but I think we may have legitimate candidates for All-Star (Jefferson), ROY (Love), MIP (Telfair) and 6th Man (McCants or Gomes, depending on the rotation) this year.

Speaking of which, Kevin Love did not make Four-letter.com's expert's list of ROY candidates. But, neither did Derrick Rose.

Wolves Watch over at MVN posts an update and division outlook.

NBC King 5 likes some of the fantasy implications for Minnesota this year. Al and Miller will absolutely be productive fantasy players on this team, although I think this guy doesn't quite have the frontcourt rotation nailed.

TrueHoop has an interview with former Timberwolves great guy Loren Woods on playing overseas instead of the NBA. (By the way, the graphic theme ties in here: Minnesota Busts)

Al Jefferson's been getting a good amount of ink (digital, at least) with regard to the 2012 Olympics in London. I certainly think Al is and will be at that level of skill in the American talent pool, but what about his game? Would a beast in the post be a big factor in International competition? Dwight Howard and Carlos Boozer made contributions (Dwight even started every game), but the bulk of the minutes at 5 seemed to go to Chris Bosh, who's an I/O big man. What do you think? How would Al's game translate to the International game?

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Mike Miller and Kevin Love are getting some Olympic talk as well.

The Bleacher Report has more Wolves content: a season prediction (via T-Wolves Blog). Warning: Contains some hate for Big Al and K-Love and proper grammar. Resist the urge to flame the writer.

T-Wolves Blog has another edition of College Wolf's (COLLEGE!) Mailbag for your perusal. Hoopus community members Roundhouse and Pants make appearances!

via www.answersincreation.org

As you all well know, with the Olympics now over the NBA has very little going on until training camp starts next month. But, we'll all just have to make due together.

If you're interested in a rundown of offseason moves by team, be sure to check out 4-letter.com's tracking page.

The Bleacher Report has blessed the blogosphere with a list of the Top 10 Worst Trades in Sports History. Coming in at #7 is trading KG to Boston:

The Timberwolves decided to trade the franchise to Boston. The 7-for-1 deal constituted the largest number of players traded for a single player in NBA history. Who were the other players involved? No one in the same ballpark as Garnett.

We could talk about KG being voted the Most Valuable Player of the 2003-04 season, NBA Defensive Player of the Year in 2007-08, being named to eleven All-Star teams and being named to eight All-NBA and All-Defensive Teams.

All we really need to talk about is the results. KG helped to bring the championship back to the greatest franchise in NBA history – and they did it by dominating the hated Lakers. Minnesota, meanwhile, was staggering to a record of 22-60. Nuff said!

ScoutingtheNBA.com has calculated wins predictions for the Timberwolves for 08/09:

2008 Projection for 2008/9 season: 34.1 / 30.32 - If the Injury bug bites out 90pct or 80pct of top 10 players.

Best Case Scenario: 37.9 - If the team(s) new Rookie Kevin Love and Mike Miller can live up to early expectations of success. The Wolves could win about 37/38games (76.99)

Lastly, SB Nation is doing a new player tournament (sorta-kinda-mostly in response to the Floor Burn Tournament) on who's the most worthless player in the NBA. Suggestions?

It's 2:00pm on a Friday and if you're still at work, you deserve what little Wolves reading there is:

• The announcement that a couple preseason games are going to be played in non-NBA towns is certainly getting the Wolves some press. The Billings Gazette has a OKC/Wolves preview, as do the Bismarck Tribune and KXMC (Minot). No offense Minot, but get a frickin' editor; typos are bloggers. It's unsurprising that these games are sponsor related (sure Stern pushes the Euro preseason games, but Montana and the Dakotas?). But props to the Wolves Sales department (or Red Auerbach for teaching Kevin McHale some marketing saavy; see the Bismarck article) for keeping the US Bank partnership that will hopefully grow the fan base. Plus, this is another good opportunity to link to my Google Map of NBA arenas. While we may be difficult to put in a division, at least we have a wide swath of fans to draw from. Wait, what's that you say? NBA teams are more successful in dense, concentrated markets... oh. Well, if there's one thing we Midwesterners are good at it's making due with mediocrity.
• HoopsWorld has a story about last year's cellar-dwellers and there prospects this coming season. Minnesota is excluded and I'm not quite sure how to interpret that.
• Mike Trudell at Timberwolves.com has an audio interview with Craig Smith following-up on his rehab. I can't listen at work, anyone got a summary?
• The Pistons are doing offseason wrap-ups for each team in the NBA and just posted the Northwest Division. Projected starting lineup: Foye/Miller/Carney/Love/Jefferson. Don't ask me, I just link to there.
• We Drafted Pooh has a post on TrueHoop's article on Mike Trudell's article on Mike Miller's shooting.
• Jerry Zgoda's reporting that the new uniforms will be unveiled at noon on Monday. I still don't understand why they don't just revert to the original jerseys. They look like the Bulls' jerseys to me and those haven't changed for a long time. There's also going to be a new online store where we'll be able to purchase these new jerseys. I just got the email too:
  

  Please join us on Monday, August 18, when the Wolves unveil new uniforms for the 2008-09 season with a noon rally at the IDS Crystal Court in downtown Minneapolis. Two large inflatables with large jerseys for fans to view and sign will reveal the new uniforms. The unveiling will be hosted by Tom Hanneman and include Assistant General Manager Fred Hoiberg. This will mark only the third change in uniforms in the team's 20-season history.

  I'll be first in line for this bad boy:
  
  

More links for you non-Olympic basketball pleasure:

• Euroleague Basketball: Former Timberwolf Bracey Wright has signed with DKV Joventut. Since not being tendered a qualifying offer with the Wolves in '07, the former Hoosier has bounced from the D-League to Europe. DKV Jovetut is a very strong Spanish team, so congrats to Wright for catching their eye.
• Speaking of the D-League, Minnesota's affiliate the Sioux Falls SkyForce is finding high travel costs to be a burden. Sure they're a minor league team with smaller revenue, but I have no doubt that this would factor into any realignment talk in the NBA (which hasn't actually happened as far as I know) and would have a HUGE impact on any thoughts of increased NBA competition with foreign teams.
• Dave Berri runs through the numbers on an accusation that the Wolves are the worst team in league history. I'll spare you the hyperventilation: probably not. But, Berri doesn't offer a subsitute candidate, so... maybe. On the plus side, he says the numbers endorse trading Mayo for Miller and Love and his early estimate based on past performance puts the Wolves at 33 wins. Read the article for actual explanation and contextualization of the numbers, and then put that blog in your feed reader. It's one of the best NBA stats blogs out there. And, if you don't have a feed reader, get one and save yourself a crapload of clicks (I recommend Google Reader). [Sorry to steal the link Jianfu, must've been typing at the same time]
  
• Stephen Litel's back on the beat with a look at Randy Foye's month splits from last year. They are very encouraging. Given that Brandon Roy's having Craig Smith surgery this week, the Foye/Roy debate may be heating up this season.
• Ludacris is apparently name-dropping the Timberwolves in a new song. Can anyone tell if it's a good or bad thing?
• With the impending re-signing of Andre Igoudala, Tom Ziller's taken a look at the comparative value of the class of 2004 to their contracts. This just in: Al Jefferson is a tremendous player with a relatively modest contract.
• McHale's got a press conference in Bismarck today to ostensibly announce that the team will be playing a preseason game there.