(Oleisky Pecherov after the game.)
Since last night's Wolves/Bulls tilt was broadcast on FSN somewhere in the neighborhood of 12:30 AM, and since I would never dream of telling people to watch pirated game streams...cough...today's wrap-up post will be less wrap-up and more general thoughts about the Wolves at this point in the preseason.
- FTAs so far: 50, 45, and 49. Here's to the replacement refs.
- Jonny Flynn is 7-19 from the floor and 27-32 from the line. I will pee my pants if he can maintain a 6 FGA/10 FTA average for the season. Of course, this isn't very likely to happen. In fact, no one has really even gotten close. Whether or not it has anything to do with the new refs (and it probably does), Flynn's ability to get to the line has been pretty impressive. Averaging 10 or more FTA/game as a guard puts you in some pretty elite company: Jerry West, Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan, Tiny Archibald, Dwyane Wade, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant and World B. Free are the only players in the top-20. We're only talking about 3 preseason games with replacement refs, but I just want to point out how impressive it is for a guard to be getting to the line as much as Flynn is. Only 5 guards have accomplished the 10+ FTA/game mark in the past 10 years: Kobe, A.I., D-Wade, Jerry Stackhouse, and Gilbert Arenas. Again, pretty good company and I will pee my pants if Flynn can even come close to those FTA/game marks.
- Corey Brewer is 6-25 from the floor and 18-23 from the line. He needs to take a page from the Jonny Flynn playbook and cut down on his FGAs.
- Al Jefferson has only 6 FTAs. The guy definitely has finesse on the inside.
- The Bulls announcers are right: Pecherov really does look like Stewie Griffin:
- Stewie can probably defend better than Pecherov.
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Mike Miller actually shot the ball for the Wiz last night. Maybe it's the new hair dye. It also looks like 4th Quarter Foye made a small appearance. I don't really have anything other to say than: Prepare yourselves Wiz fans...prepare yourselves. I won't say what for, but you'll know it when you see it. (Hint: it has something to do with Magic Mike and kamikaze drives down the right side of hte lane.)
- It will be really interesting to see Corey Brewer's on/off OE/DE numbers this season. Last year the Wolves were significantly better on defense while he was on the court compared to when he was off. The (relative) positive here was that while this was happening, the team's OE stayed remarkably constant. In other words, Brewer's offensive ineptitude didn't hurt the team more than his defensive impact helped it. (Keep in mind we're still talking about a crappy team here.) Is Brewer a plus defender? Mark this one down as one of the big questions of the year. Is he as good as we think he can be or is it a bunch of smoke and mirrors?
- Kevin Love got rid of his Color Me Bad beard.
- With Jonny Flynn and Ramon Sessions on the roster, and with Ricky Rubio overseas, does anyone have any nostalgia for the Kirk Hinrich trade that never happened?
- I will never, ever approve of black athletic socks.
Well that about does it. The cuts should start in the next few days or so. Who will stay and who will go from the bottom half of the roster?
What say you?