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Did Solomon Hill really think he could get that shot off against Andrew Wiggins!?!?
OK, I'm sorry Solomon. I don't mean to pick on you. It's just, we lost Kevin Love over the offseason and now I'm fully invested into Wiggins. Pardon me for being overly excited about his Wolves debut. Pardon me for marveling over his defense in a preseason game at your expense.
I know it's probably too early to get overly hyped about Wiggins, but the rookie showed flashes that Wolves fans wanted to see in his first preseason game. He blocked shots (3), hit 3-pointers (2-2), led the team in points (18), and went 8-10 from the charity stripe (Kevin Martin must be teaching him a thing or two in practice, eh?)
Overall, it was a promising debut for the rookie.
In terms of last night's opening preseason loss to the Pacers, Eric published a succinct recap that should provide a better idea of what happened. The most important takeaway for me is that it's tough to judge this game from a team perspective when Martin, Pekovic, Williams, and Bennett didn't play. Each of those players are a key component to this years squad.
With them out, Saunders opted to give a majority of the minutes to rookies and sophomores on the team. He used this game, and perhaps the next one too, as a platform for the young players development and presumably to gauge who is ready and who is not.
If you so desire, you can check out the final box score here. There's tons of good quotes here as well.
As you can probably tell, I'm excited about the strong introduction from Wiggins. The entire idea that the Wolves have a potential defensive star kind of blows my mind to begin with. That's something to look forward to. Here are his highlights from last night:
76ers Up Next
The Wolves returned home to Minneapolis late last night and will now prepare for Friday's home game vs. the Philadelphia 76ers. That of course marks the return of Alexey Shved and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute to the Twin Cities after being traded this summer. Perhaps, by that time, Bennett will be ready to see some action.
Since this is a thread, and because I'm going to check out her concert tonight at First Avenue, here's a song by BANKS: