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Morning Pickup: Wolves Host Nuggets, Pekovic 50/50, Around the League

Lace 'em up. It's time for some pickup.

By John Meyer
Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

Our beloved Wolves host the Nuggets tonight at Target Center hoping to wash away the bitter taste of losing to the league's worst team, only the Sixers fourth win of the season, on Monday.

Instead of practicing during an off day yesterday, Sam Mitchell brought the team together at center court for 90 minutes of talk and soul searching.

"It's probably the best practice of the year, for us," Towns says in the article linked above. "Especially more like a therapeutic session, allowing us even more to come together as a team and as a family."

As David Naylor wrote, we could see Nikola Pekovic return to action for the first time in 10 months after undergoing debridement and repair of his right Achilles, which was characterized as a last ditch effort to save his playing career at the time of the procedure.

Mitchell seemed excited to reveal news that The Godfather – also known as the Peksecutioner – could return to the lineup Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets, as Marcus Fuller writes.

The Cavaliers come to Minneapolis on Friday and the Mavericks visit on Sunday, meaning tonight's matchup against the Nuggets (who also rep a 12-23 record) represents the best chance to win this week, and likely in the next five games (Oklahoma City twice with Houston sandwiched in between). The Wolves announced that Sunday's game vs. Dallas will tip off at 4:00 pm instead of 2:30 pm.

Minneapolis/St. Paul - In conjunction with the NBA and the Dallas Mavericks, the Minnesota Timberwolves today announced this Sunday's game vs. Dallas at Target Center will now tip off at 4:00 p.m. instead of the original 2:30 p.m. time. General public doors at Target Center will open at 2:30 p.m., with VIP/Member doors opening at 2:00 p.m.

"Since the Vikings game date and time was announced on Sunday evening, we heard a lot from our fans and their desire to watch and/or attend both games," said Timberwolves President Chris Wright. "We thank the NBA and Dallas Mavericks for allowing us to accommodate our fans' wishes and we wish the Vikings the best of luck Sunday vs. Seattle."

The Minnesota Vikings and Seattle Seahawks game is scheduled for a 12:00 p.m. kickoff at TCF Bank Stadium on Sunday.

Around the League

I wanted to share a few tweets that caught my eye this morning...

Jeremias Engelmann, creator of ESPN's Real Plus Minus, published his multiyear RAPM on Monday in case you missed it. Ricky Rubio ranks 10th overall at an outstanding 4.8.

Zach LaVine is 434th (out of 441 players) while BARGNANI is dead last to the surprise of nobody in the entire world. Former Wolves castaway Anthony Bennett is 439th, Andrew Wiggins is 414th, Derrick Williams is 412th, Adriean Payne is 411 (ONE SPOT BETTER, ONE SPOT BETTER) and Shabazz Muhammad is 395th.

Basically, multiyear RAPM loves Rubio and hates the Wolves young players, or previous ones. It's only one advanced metric.

Klay Thompson is an amazing shooter with one of the quickest shots in the Association.

The tweet below made me think about how many 3-pointers the Wolves have made over the last four games, though I already knew the number was utterly horrible. Drum roll please ... 15-43. Yes, Thompson has five more 3's on the exact number of attempts as the entire Wolves team over the last four games, as if you weren't already worried enough about the archaic offensive system the team is running.

Today's musical guest: Alabama Shakes with Sound & Color