As part of the sophomore squad, Love is one of several extremely talented big men on the roster. Nets center Brook Lopez, Grizzlies center Marc Gasol, Knicks forward Danillo Gallinari, and Heat forward Michael Beasley will present quite a challenge to the rookies. The actual game is over two weeks away and Love has ignited the trash talk with a bold prediction.
“We’re going to whoop-up on the rookies, it’s not even going to be a contest; we are probably going to beat them by 37 points or something like that,” Love boasted.
Flynn did not back down from Love’s challenge, “I’m probably going to go out there just to clown around and probably check him one time at post, or something like that. Hopefully I sneak a block or a steal so I can talk some trash.”
The Timberwolves are trying to mould Jawai into a crafty forward, a far cry from the dominant centre who won the Cairns Taipans’ MVP award in the 2007-08 season.
Back in Cairns this week for family reasons, Jawai worked up a sweat at the Bendigo Bank Basketball Centre yesterday during a training session with his former NBL teammates.
Wilkins and Kevin Love, starters for most of the season, gave the Wolves defensive and scoring punch off the bench.
“I told the team not to look at the moves as a demotion or promotion,” Rambis said. “We’re just trying to find units that can give us some consistent play. Everybody is frustrated with the losing and how we’re losing.”
(note: Ellington is sitting right beside Flynn and they both smirk and look both ways to see if any of their teammates are listening to his answer)
JF: Yes! The only thing we got to do is like get donuts (Flynn is half-whispering). We get donuts, Wayne gets Five Hour Energy. We might have to grab scouting reports. We don’t have to do all that crazy stuff, so we keep quiet and do whatever they ask, so we don’t have to do no crazy stuff.
“Someday, I’ll be able to take my kids or my grandkids there to see it,” he said.
Ellington visited with Tar Heels coach Roy Williams after Wednesday’s game in Cleveland. Williams tries to get out once a season to watch his former players play. “Good talk,” he said. “Long talk.”
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