Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor was asked this week if he expects his team to end a 10-year absence from the playoffs next spring. The Wolves had playoff potential last season but injuries ruined their season and the club finished with a 31-51 record.
“When I talk to team members and coaches and all that, their expectation is they want to prepare to win the (NBA) championship,” Taylor told Sports Headliners. “They’re not just saying they want to make the playoffs. The expectation is how deeply can they go.”
The Wolves have a nucleus of three players who are among the best in the NBA at their positions, power forward Kevin Love, point guard Ricky Rubio and center Nikola Pekovic. But the optimism coming from Wolves training camp is also based on other players including offseason acquisitions Kevin Martin at shooting guard and small forward Corey Brewer.
New president of basketball operations Flip Saunders is responsible for those moves and others. His work has impressed Taylor who gives Saunders an “A” grade since being hired last spring.
“I had high expectations of Flip and he’s made all of them come true,” Taylor said. “His level of communications is excellent and I am very appreciative of all he’s done.
“In the personnel area we had talked previously about the type of personnel he wanted. He just moved on it very quickly and found the type of players the staff wanted.”
Saunders has more than 20 years of professional basketball experience. This is his second period of employment by Taylor and the Wolves, having worked here from 1995 – 2005, first as general manager and mostly head coach. Head coaching assignments with the Pistons and Wizards followed before Taylor brought him back to his organization.
Taylor describes his top basketball executive as a “unique” hire because of their previous relationship and all of Saunders’ skills. He said Saunders’ experiences after he left the Timberwolves of working for other teams and also a short period as an NBA analyst for ESPN “rounded out his understanding of the league.”
Taylor is projecting the Wolves will make money in 2013-14 for the first time in years. “It’s not like we’ll make a lot, probably $2 or $3 million,” Taylor said.
Taylor’s other basketball team, the Lynx, is in the WNBA Finals for the third time in three years. Last year the franchise earned a profit approaching $500,000, the first time the Lynx made money, Taylor said. This year the team could finish in the black and “approach” $1 million.
Taylor said the pending deal with the city and AEG Facilities to renovate Target Center for $100 million is taking “longer than anticipated” but he remains optimistic about it being completed. After the renovation he expects Target Center to be a better arena than “over 50 percent” of the other NBA venues.
Worth Noting
New Vikings quarterback Josh Freeman had differences with his Bucs coach, Greg Schiano. Vikings coach Leslie Frazier said, however, Freeman is excited about a “fresh start” here and believes the two will “co-exist.”
Although Freeman’s career performance has been inconsistent, he was reportedly wanted by multiple NFL teams. After being released last week by the Bucs, David Steele wrote the following on Sportingnews.com: “The rest of the NFL likely doesn’t feel about him the way the Bucs do. He’s done nothing to make the entire sport give up on him now, as it did on JaMarcus Russell.”
Rib injuries are slow to heal and whether Christian Ponder is healthy enough to be an option to start on Sunday against the Panthers isn’t known. But Matt Cassel seems the more likely starter with Ponder trying to heal and Freeman too unfamiliar with the offense to start.
Ponder may soon lose his starting job for the remainder of the season. “I am a man of faith,” Ponder said. “I believe that God’s got my future in his hands. I don’t know what that means. But I am trying to get healthy and I think ultimately it will make me a better quarterback.”
Is Ponder’s confidence shaken after being replaced two weeks ago by Cassel and now the acquisition of Freeman who has started 59 NFL games dating back to his rookie season in 2009? “In my eyes I am getting prepared to play,” Ponder said. “As long as I play well, then I am the one on the field.”
Vikings defensive end Kevin Williams is a team leader and is unsure what impact Freeman will have. “I don’t know, we’ll have to see. The management made a decision, we have to go with it.”
Williams, though, knows Freeman has talent. “He’s a first rounder for a reason. He has great potential. He just has to bring it to the table and shine.”
Tomorrow the Vikings are offering “No Service Fee Day” sponsored by U.S.Bank. Fees are waived for fans purchasing single game tickets through Ticketmaster.com.
Steve LaCroix, the Vikings vice president of sales and marketing, e-mailed that tickets remain for home games against the Redskins November 7, the Eagles December 15 and the Lions December 29.
The Vikings sold “just under” 8,000 new season tickets this year, according to LaCroix.
The SportingNews college basketball yearbook ranks the best coaches in each conference. Mick Cronin is No. 4 in the American Athletic, Shaka Smart No. 1 in the Atlantic 10 and Buzz Williams No. 1 in the Big East. All had their names prominently mentioned with the Gophers’ opening last March after Tubby Smith was dismissed.
Although the magazine said it was time for Smith to move on, he is rated the third best coach in the Big 12 where he now leads the Texas Tech program. The top five coaches in the Big Ten, according to the publication that predicted the Gophers will finish ninth in the conference, are Tom Izzo, Thad Matta, John Beilein, Bo Ryan and Tom Crean.
Timberwolves players Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio bought 500 tickets to give away for last night’s Lynx WNBA Finals Game at Target Center. The Lynx, with a 2-0 series lead in the best of five series, play the Dream on Thursday night in Duluth, Georgia with ESPN 2 televising the game starting at 7:30 p.m. Minneapolis time.
It might be an interesting meeting today for Gophers football coach Jerry Kill and athletic director Norwood Teague. The two normally meet at noon on Wednesdays, and Kill suffered a seizure last week preventing him from coaching the team on Saturday at Michigan. Although Kill has experienced multiple seizures since becoming the Gophers coach, last week was the first time he missed a game.
The Gophers 0-2 start in Big Ten games isn’t pretty and neither are their offensive and defensive numbers in conference games. Minnesota ranks 10th in rushing offense and eighth in rushing defense. The Gophers are 11th and eighth in passing offense and defense. Minnesota is tied for last in scoring offense and ranks eighth in scoring defense.
Matt Majka speaks to the CORES group on Thursday, November 14 at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Bloomington. Majka is chief operating officer of Minnesota Sports and Entertainment, a company whose business interests include the Minnesota Wild. Reservations for the luncheon and program should be made by Monday, November 11. Anyone interested can contact Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net.
The Wild, 0-1-1 against Winnipeg last season, play the Jets tomorrow night at Xcel Energy Center. Zach Parise has 23 points in 24 career games against the Jets, while Jason Pominville, has 23 in 27 games. Both Wild wings have played most of their NHL careers with other teams.
It’s a major disappointment for the Wild to have Charlie Coyle, the 21-year-old center with star potential, out three to four weeks with a sprained knee.