The Star Tribune has a video tour of Al Jefferson’s home, the former home of Johan Santana.
David Thorpe/ESPN currently has Kevin Love listed at #1 in his rookie rankings
To beat the Mavericks, the Wolves will have to play better in a number of areas, starting with free-throw shooting.
Coming off an 11-for-22 night against Sacramento, they spent extra time shooting free throws after Thursday’s practice. But coach Randy Wittman said he doesn’t see it as a long-term problem.
“I don’t think that’s us,” he said. “We’ve got good shooters. We’ve just got to get our focus a little bit.”
Wittman said his team did a lot of good things in its opening victory, settling down defensively after the first quarter and making the Kings hit some tough shots.
The Wolves picked up contract option years for Foye and Corey Brewer, but don’t expect them to do so for Rodney Carney by tonight’s deadline to do so. They are expected to allow Carney to become an unrestricted free agent next summer and then will have the option to try to re-sign him at a salary less than the $2.5 million they would have to guarantee him if they exercise their option…
Love is the national spokesman for St. Jude Children Research Hospital’s “Rookie Relief” fundraising effort. The hospital will auction off more than 50 autographed NBA players’ jerseys — including those belonging to Love and Al Jefferson — on eBay Nov. 10-20. On Thursday, a 14-year-old Andove boy attended practice and had his photo taken with Love to promote the auction. Dylan Witschen is receiving care at St. Jude after having a brain tumor removed.
Defensively, there is still a long way for this team to go. John Salmons had his way on the perimeter and Spencer Hawes and Jason Thompson got open shots and rebounds underneath all night long.
Those downfalls may prevent the Wolves from taking a quantum leap forward this year in the win column, but like the high-scoring and frequent-losing Denver Nuggets of the 1980s, they should be a delight to watch, especially in comparison to the doldrums that have driven fans away from the Target Center in droves over the last four years.
At some really key moments (the last two minutes of both the third fourth quarters, for instance) the Wolves lost leads by reverting to some troubling bad habits on offense. They took quick, contested jumpers. They held the ball. They passed without authority or a sense of purpose. These stagnant periods reflected moments of particularly poor play from Randy Foye. Foye shot only 5-12 and collected just three assists in his 31 minutes (he was also -10 for the game, second worst on the team); he forced shots and often seemed tentative in initiating the offense and reading the defense.
New Timberwolf Mike Miller plans to invest substantially and start an AAU summer basketball program in the Twin Cities. Miller did the same in Memphis, Tenn.
Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, on his young, rebuilt team’s 98-96 season opening victory over Sacramento on Wednesday: “Last year in these close games, we just couldn’t pull them out.”
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