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Metal Monday: Wolves: Back to Reality after ASW, Link Dump

All-Star Weekend was fun, but what will the Wolves do with Gary Neal? Lorenzo Brown? Glenn Robinson III?

By ZacharyBD
Elsa/Getty Images

As you likely already know by now, Zach LaVine, Andrew Wiggins, Gorgui Dieng and Shabazz Muhammad participated in some of the events at NBA's All-Star Weekend. Although none of these players performed in yesterday's All-Star Game, Wiggins captured MVP honors in the Rising Stars competition and LaVine won the Slam Dunk Contest--reminding us that better days are on the horizon in Minnesota.

Meanwhile, Sunday, the West All-Stars defeat the East All-Stars, 163-158. The West's 163 points tied the East's single-game scoring record set last year and the 321 combined points set a new ASG record. Russell Westbrook was awarded MVP of the game after scoring 41 points, connecting on 16-of-28 attempts from the field (5-of-9 3PT FG). James Harden added an efficient 29 points, 8 assists and 8 rebounds, but it was Westbrook who unquestionably stole the show by throwing down some demonstrative dunks throughout the contest.

This is a picture of Chris Paul's son meeting former US President Bill Clinton.

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The All-Star funtivities are an excellent way to temporarily escape from reality, but the somber truth is that Minnesota is 11-43 and won't be making the playoffs this season. This unfortunate reality resumes on Friday, Feb. 20 at home against the Phoenix Suns. Additionally, teams have until Friday to complete trades before the trade deadline closes at 5PM Eastern Time.

After acquiring Gary Neal and Adreian Payne last week Minnesota could potentially consummate another- or multiple -trades before the deadline, but this is only speculation. Payne was in uniform but did not play against the Golden State Warriors.

Neal, however, was not active for last Wednesday's matchup with Golden State and may ultimately be traded or bought out before Friday. However, Flip Saunders told the media last Tuesday that Minnesota hasn't entertained anything with a buyout. There is significant league interest for Neal, according to Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski, so his future in Minnesota may be over before we know it.

This would leave Ricky Rubio and LaVine as the only available point guards, unless...

KSTP's Darren Wolfson is confident Lorenzo Brown will be signed for the remainder of the season. Brown's second 10--day contract has officially expired, but Wolfson claims the only reason Minnesota hasn't signed him yet is so that they may maintain roster flexibility heading into Thursday. The feeling around the clubhouse seems to be that Brown remain with the team.

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This column published at Sports Illustrated explains why Minnesota has yet assign rookie Glenn Robinson III to the D-League. Since he became President of Basketball Operations, Saunders has been outspoken in favor of the NBA's minor league, despite not having a 1-to-1 affiliation to send players that desperately need to get some run--such as Robinson.

"Well," said Saunders, "we expected he'd be in the NBDL. Unfortunately, with all the injuries, we haven't been able to do that because we needed him when we would have any kind of practice or even for shootaround."

With Rubio, Kevin Martin, Shabazz Muhammad and Nikola Pekovic healthy again, Saunders should send Robinson to the D-League. It's perplexing that Robinson hardly got any playing time if you consider how badly Minnesota played before the All-Star Break. All the while, Andy Greder tweeted on Jan. 10 that Saunders will assign Robinson to the D-League before the year is over.

There should be more content published on this website today. So, look forward to that.

Here's some content pertinent to the Wolves that was published over the weekend.

Kevin Garnett and The End (Jordan White)

From Senegal to All-Star Weekend: Gorgui Dieng's Journey Is Just Getting Started (William Bohl)

This Can't Be Life--a story about Malik Sealy (Adam Figman)

Metal Monday

It's just so, so heavy.