Timberwolves – Page 57 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Wolves Owner Praises Wiggins Effort

Posted on September 19, 2019September 19, 2019 by David Shama

Enjoy a Thursday notes column with a focus on Minnesota’s professional basketball franchises.

For many observers the Minnesota Timberwolves player to watch in preseason and beyond this fall will be enigmatic 24-year-old forward-guard Andrew Wiggins. The franchise opens training camp October 1, and in this town the five-year veteran’s name is synonymous with unfulfilled potential.

So flashy his nicknames have included Junior Jordan, Wiggins can prompt gasps from spectators because of his athleticism. He has a career scoring average of 19.4 and that is exceptional by NBA standards. The rest of his stat line, though, is pretty blah and his numbers in categories like assists (2.2 per game) and rebounding (4.3) hint at Wiggins not being a player who makes teammates more productive. His many critics see a high potential player who lacks the focus and intensity to be a star on both offense and defense.

Waiting on Wiggins to consistently perform at a high level seems like part of the franchise DNA. This season he gets a fresh start with new instructors, a revised coaching staff led by Ryan Saunders in his first full season as head coach. Directing from the top is Gersson Rosas, the new president of basketball operations.

How Wiggins prepared for this season may provide a clue as to things could go in the coming months. Team owner Glen Taylor told Sports Headliners he likes the approach of Wiggins who he rewarded with a five-year contract in 2017 that reportedly approaches $150 million. He said Wiggins has invested more effort this offseason than in at least a couple of years.

“Everything has really been positive,” Taylor said. “He’s stayed around (Minneapolis and) worked. Done everything we’ve asked him to do. He’s working on the things that we thought were important.

“If he has a tough year (in 2020), or a good year…he has put in the effort. That was the first big step. If he didn’t put in the effort we would really be concerned. Now we’ve gotta see, does that effort translate into results?”

When Rosas was hired last spring many Wolves fans assumed general manager Scott Layden would move on. Layden had been hired by Tom Thibodeau in 2016 when he took over as president of basketball operations and head coach. Speculation was Layden might leave, or be asked to exit, months after Thibodeau’s firing in January of this year.

After hiring Rosas, Taylor told him that Layden was under contract and to decide about his future. Rosas said he had worked with Layden in the past and respected him. “He said, ‘I got no reason to push him out. If he finds another job, if he wants to do something else he thinks would be better, I am okay with that, too.’ “

Layden remains with the Wolves with responsibilities that include evaluating personnel.

The Wolves will train in Taylor’s hometown of Mankato for the first time since 2014. Taylor’s wife Becky will prepare a lasagna dinner and the two will host a team party at their home for players and staff.

Although most media who cover the NBA don’t predict a spot in the playoffs for the Wolves, Taylor is upbeat because of new leadership with Rosas and Saunders, and promising young players like rookie guard Jarrett Culver joining Karl-Anthony Towns, one of the league’s premier centers.

Taylor was elated over the 2019 regular season performance of his other basketball franchise, the WNBA Lynx. Despite a roster reshuffle after losing star players following the 2018 season, the team made the playoffs.

The Lynx are four-time WNBA champions, with the last title coming in 2017. During the past offseason, coach and front office decision maker Cheryl Reeve asked Taylor how to approach the 2019 season, with options that included rebuilding. Taylor had seen Reeve’s past skills to acquire talent and coach the team to high performances. He didn’t want a rebuild.

Taylor told her: “…Cheryl, I got you (to do things). I’d just as soon go for it (not rebuild). I am betting on you. Let’s go for it, and we’ll help.”

Taylor got involved with “recruiting” players to Minneapolis but he downplays the importance of what he did. He told players the Lynx has a culture that distinguishes the franchise from other WNBA organizations. “So you know I did the pitch,” Taylor recalled. “It helped her but I am not implying anybody came because of me.”

It was announced yesterday that Reeve was voted by her peers WNBA Basketball Executive of the Year for her work as the Lynx’s general manager.

Vikings wide receiver Adam Thielen led the team in receptions and receiving yards against Green Bay last Sunday, with five catches for 75 yards. He holds the franchise record for most receptions against the Packers, coming up with 12 in two different games.

Thielen, a Minnesota native, was asked if his focus or intent is different in the rivalry games against the Packers. “No, no, not at all,” he told Sports Headliners. “It’s the National Football League. If your emotions aren’t the same for every game, you got a problem. You only have 16 games. You gotta bring it every week.”

Thielen has 212 receptions since 2007, tied for fourth most in the NFL.

The Vikings, 1-1 after their loss to the Packers, play the Oakland Raiders Sunday in Minneapolis. The two franchises met in Super Bowl XI, with the Raiders winning 32-14, and giving the Vikings one of their four Super Bowl losses. Ten individuals associated with that Raiders team, including owner Al Davis and coach John Madden, have been enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Defending WCHA regular season and playoff champion Minnesota State is the favorite to repeat as league champions in the 10 member conference, receiving nine first-place votes in the eighth annual Mankato Free Press WCHA Preseason Coaches’ Poll and all 10 votes in the WCHA Preseason Media Poll.

Minnesota Twins Luis Arraez and Mitch Garver appear at the Fan HQ Ridgedale store on September 21 and 22 respectively. The Minnesota Wild’s Zach Parise is scheduled there September 30. Details on celebrity appearances at Fanhqstore.com.

The 3-0 football Gophers, who are one of five Big Ten teams with byes this weekend, rank No. 13 in the country in average of time possession at 34:36. Wisconsin is No. 1 at 37:13.

CollegeAD.com reported that through Sunday tickets sold on Vivid averaged $611 for next Saturday’s Georgia-Notre Dame game in Athens. That’s the most expensive college ticket this season, CollegeAd said on Wednesday. By contrast the average for the Wisconsin-Michigan game coming up in Ann Arbor is $184.

September birthdays: Gophers basketball coach Richard Pitino turned 37 Monday, and former University of Minnesota president Eric Kaler will be 63 next Monday.

Prep football coaching milestones: Jay Loven, Upsala/Swanville Area, and Tim Kirk, Mountain Lake Area, won their 100th career games last Friday. Loven’s career record is 100-55 in 16 seasons as a head coach at Upsala/Swanville. Kirk is now 100-71 in 17 seasons as a head coach at Mountain Lake/Butterfield-Odin and Mountain Lake Area.

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Kirk Cousins Gets Run Help He Needs

Posted on September 10, 2019September 10, 2019 by David Shama

With a $84 million contract Kirk Cousins is among the best compensated players in the NFL, but his on field performance during eight seasons says he deserves a middle of the pack ranking among pro quarterbacks. The Vikings learned that last year when their pass-heavy offense was part of the story why the team came up with a disappointing 8-7-1 record and missed the playoffs after almost qualifying for the Super Bowl the season prior with Case Keenum as quarterback.

Cousins, in his first season with the Vikings last fall, struggled against teams with winning records as he had done with the Redskins. Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer and general manager Rick Spielman vowed during the offseason to make the offense more balanced between the run and pass.

In the team’s first regular season game on Sunday, a 28-12 win over the Falcons, the plan was implemented more extremely than anyone anticipated. Cousins attempted a career low 10 passes and completed eight. “Never had a game like this,” Cousins said on KFAN Radio’s postgame show. “First time for me, but I would take every one like this. That’s just fine by me.”

The offensive line was impressive and running back Dalvin Cook was elusive, gaining 111 yards as part of the team rushing total of 172 (98 yards passing). “…Dalvin is special. When he gets the ball in his hands he can really go, and I think our offensive coaches did a great job scheming some of the runs they had today,” Zimmer said on the radio show.

Cousins even ran six times, including a quarterback sneak for a touchdown. The Vikings frequently used two and sometimes three tight ends as part of their commitment to the run and taking pressure off their quarterback who should be better in his second season in Minneapolis because he has more familiarity with his receivers.

It helps, too, having the opposing defense guessing how the Vikings will line up with their personnel and whether the pass or run is coming. “Once you have a running team, the (opposing) defensive line becomes less aggressive,” former Vikings defensive lineman Bob Lurtsema told Sports Headliners.

Cousins, who fumbled twice in the game to increase his total to 42 fumbles dating back to 2015, can’t carry a team but his skills and experience are solid enough to give the Vikings a passing game that complements the run. The Vikings won’t have the success against every opponent like they did with the Falcons, but expect them to stay committed to at least something like a 50-50 run-pass ratio.

Speaking of a quarterback who can carry a franchise, the Vikings are at Green Bay next Sunday. Aaron Rodgers is a Houdini who is particularly adept at performing late game magic. With the Packers 1-0 after a road win in Chicago, they play five of their next six games at home. The Vikings have three of their next five away from Minneapolis.

Minnesota Wild & More

The Wild opens training camp Friday, plays its first preseason game September 17, and the regular season opener is October 3. Team owner Craig Leipold is upbeat, despite his club missing the playoffs last spring for the first time in seven years. “I am more excited about this year coming up than I have been in a number of years,” he told Sports Headliners.

The roster won’t be dramatically different but Leipold expects the leadership from newly hired general manager Bill Guerin to be impactful. Guerin comes from a winning background as an NHL player and front office decision maker. Already Leipold sees how his players relate differently to Guerin than they did to former GM Paul Fenton. “These guys listen to Billy,” Leipold said.

Leipold, who has owned the franchise since 2008, made it clear during a telephone interview that the word rebuilding is not one he will use to label his team. “Do we think we need to get better? Yes. Are we going to chop the tree down and replant it? The answer is absolutely no.”

Providing Leipold with confidence about the roster’s personnel was the feedback he received this summer while interviewing general manager candidates. “We think we have really good pieces (on the roster), and particularly after going through the process that we just did and asking all of our candidates to grade our players. Yeah, you could say, well, they wanted to grade them high, but if we thought they missed the target, then that wasn’t going to help them. Virtually every candidate who came in said that, hey, we’re a playoff team.”

Leipold acknowledged the frustration of fans with last season’s team, and that the absence from the playoffs has an “affect” on season tickets for 2019-2020. That affect can also impact single game sales.

“We’re down a little bit (season tickets) from where we have historically been, but we’re still in a position that probably 20 or 25 other (NHL) teams would love to be in,” Leipold said. “….This year will be more of a challenge (for selling tickets). We hope to get off to a good start, and if we do we’re gonna be fine.”

Leipold didn’t say how many season tickets the club sold last year but was asked if the total this fall could be 12,000. “We will be well north of 12,000,” he said. “Oh, yeah. Way north of 12,000.”

The Front Office Sports newsletter of September 6 reported this: “More than 38 million Americans, or 15% of the U.S. population, are planning to bet on NFL games this season, according to the American Gaming Association.”

Glen Taylor, the 78-year-old billionaire whose companies include the Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx, likes to garden at his Mankato home. “…It’s just different from my other job, so I just need some of that time,” he told Sports Headliners.

Taylor has flower and vegetable gardens, plus fruit trees on the grounds of his property. He and his wife Becky do late summer canning. “I love the food that comes out of a garden,” he said.

The Saturday announcement of Michael Pineda’s 60-day suspension for a violation of MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment program is among the most upsetting news the Twins could experience as they try to win the Central Division and qualify for the postseason. He was closing the season impressively, and his recent productivity has been more efficient than Jose Berrios, considered the staff ace earlier in the year.

Pineda pitched six innings, allowed just one run and stuck out a season high 10 batters in Friday night’s game against the Indians. He now has 13 quality starts, second best in his career to 19 in 2011, his rookie season. He made a recent argument out of whether he or Jake Odorizzi is the staff’s No. 1 starter.

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Lynx’s Reeve May Draw NBA Interest

Posted on July 25, 2019July 25, 2019 by David Shama

The hiring of a female head coach in the NBA has gone from possible to likely in recent years.

In 2014 Becky Hammon became the first full-time paid assistant female coach in the league when she joined the Spurs staff. During the last few months there has been a trend in hiring females with the 76ers, Cavs, Celtics and Kings placing women on their staffs. There are now nine female assistants in the NBA.

Major League Baseball, the NBA, NFL and NHL have no female head coaches, but the NBA has been a pioneer in its hiring of women as assistants and referees. Is the league ready for its first female head coach?

“Well, I think as a league we’ve been about as flexible as any league, and so probably if it’s going to be done, it’s probably going to happen in the NBA,” said Glen Taylor who owns both the NBA Timberwolves and WNBA Lynx.

The NBA has long been known for its diversity and openness to change. NBA commissioner Adam Silver is an advocate for more females in his league. He wants about half “of new officials (referees) entering the league” to be women, per a May 9 story on Nba.com from the Associated Press. Speaking at an event in Washington, D.C., Silver also said: “There’s no reason why women shouldn’t be coaching men’s basketball.”

Taylor told Sports Headliners the first female to become a head coach in the NBA will face “a lot of pressure,” but he thinks it’s just a matter of when—not if—that a woman is leading a club in the league. That person might be promoted from an assistant’s position in the NBA, but certainly Cheryl’s Reeve’s resume could some day put her in the conversation for a head job in the league, or perhaps a No. 1 assistant’s role.

Reeve, 52, is both the Lynx’s general manager and head coach. She is also an assistant coach on the USA Women’s National team that will compete in the 2020 Olympic Games. Since becoming head coach of the Lynx in 2010, she has coached Minnesota to four WNBA titles. Taylor has consistently been impressed with her work. “I am a great fan of her,” he said.

Going into this season Reeve worked with a reshuffled roster including the absence of star players Lindsay Whalen (retired) and Maya Moore (sabbatical for 2019). Yet the Lynx has surprised followers by being a competitive team. Although on a losing streak recently, the club has a 10-10 record is and only 3.5 games out of first place in the WNBA Western Conference.

“I just gotta admire her, how she has changed her defensive strategy and offensive strategy to fit the new players,” Taylor said last week. “It’s been just terrific.”

Worth Noting

The Twins, who hold a two game lead in the American League Central Division over Cleveland, will see the Indians in Minneapolis for a four-game series starting August 8. Prior to that series the Twins will compete against three teams playing less than .500 baseball (White Sox, 45-54; Marlins, 38-62; Royals, 39-64), plus the National League East Division leading Braves, 60-43. The Indians, though, will have a more difficult schedule facing three of four opponents who are at or above .500, including the AL West Division leading Astros, 66-38.

The Twins and Indians will also play two series in September, one in Minneapolis and the other in Cleveland. This season the Twins are 5-4 against the Indians.

Aaron Hicks, the Yankees outfielder who the Twins gave up on and traded to New York, beat Minnesota with a two-run home run on Tuesday night and is hitting .329 in his last 19 games. In that stretch he has seven home runs, 16 RBI and 16 runs scored.

The Twins, who lost two out of three to the Yankees this week in their series at Target Field, attracted a sellout crowd last night of 40,127. It was the club’s eighth sellout of the season.

The Vikings, valued at $2.4 billion, rank No. 35 on the Forbes list released this week of the 50 most valuable sports franchises in the world. The NFL Cowboys ranked No. 1 at $5 billion, with MLB’s Yankees second at $4.6 billion.

Sports Illustrated ranks Golden Gophers senior wide receiver Tyler Johnson No. 62 among its top 100 college football players going into the 2019 season.

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