Timberwolves – Page 89 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Spielman Expects ‘Big Year’ from AP

Posted on May 15, 2015May 15, 2015 by David Shama

The Vikings begin OTAs later this month. Whether Adrian Peterson will show up for the organized team activities isn’t known. Neither general manager Rick Spielman nor coach Mike Zimmer will say specifically when Peterson will join the team.

“We expect Adrian to be back,” Spielman said. “We expect Adrian to have a big year for us.”

The OTAs aren’t mandatory for Vikings players but the club’s June 16-18 mini-camp is. Peterson’s $250,000 contractual workout bonus is tied to participation in both, according to an April 20 story on Espn.com by Ben Goessling.

Although Peterson missed all but one game last season and is 30 years old, Spielman expects a high level of performance from the future Hall of Famer. “I think everybody saw what he was able to do coming off his ACL and how he performed the next year. Adrian is just different than most players I’ve been around from a physical nature.”

Peterson rushed for 2,097 yards in 2012 after the ACL injury and surgery that prematurely ended his 2011 season. Because of an NFL suspension last season Peterson only rushed for 21 yards on 75 carries. The absence of playing time and loss of a potential 1,500 yard season could one day prevent him from becoming the NFL’s all-time leading rusher.

Zimmer doesn’t expect Peterson to negatively impact team harmony whenever he does show up. “I don’t think there will be any issues, no,” Zimmer said.

Although Peterson has become a controversial figure because of using a switch to beat his son, he has many supporters in the Vikings organization who are looking forward to his return. A comment heard from insiders is Peterson has a “good heart” and has been proactive in helping others in the community.

Worth Noting

Vikings left tackle Matt Kalil was a Pro Bowler after his rookie year in 2012 but struggled last season, drawing lots of criticism. But he had knee problems and that was a factor in his play. Kalil had offseason surgery on both knees. “He understands he needs to play better,” Zimmer said.

Zimmer admires how a less than 100 percent Kalil was a gamer last season. “There was one week I didn’t know if he would make it. He’s never missed anything. He always shows up. He tries to fight as hard as he can for the guys.”

Another disappointment last season was wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson who as a second-year pro was inconsistent in his route running. Zimmer has watched Patterson this spring and is encouraged. “I’ve been impressed with the things that he has done.”

Former Gophers wide receiver Isaac Fruechte, who was added to the Vikings roster this week, said on WCCO Radio’s Sports Huddle program last Sunday that during workouts earlier this year he ran about a 4.4 40-yard dash.

TCU quarterback Trevone Boykin, who the Gophers face at TCF Bank Stadium in their nonconference season opener on September 3, is the favorite for the 2015 Heisman Trophy, according to a Tuesday story by Si.com. The Sports Illustrated article points out the senior quarterback is one of 10 starters returning for an offense that was second nationally in scoring at 46.4 points per game.

The Big Ten will have more than the usual number of great players next fall, probably none better than Ohio State defensive end Joey Bosa who could be the No. 1 pick in next year’s NFL Draft. The Gophers play at Ohio State on November 7.

It will be an offense versus defense format tomorrow when coach Glenn Caruso and his Tommies have their spring football game at Palmer Field in O’Shaughnessy Stadium. The game begins at 1 p.m. and is part of the Tommies’ practice preparations for their summer trip to Italy that includes a football game and cultural experiences. Admission to tomorrow’s game is free.

The Wolves are investing $49 million in the $129 million Target Center renovation project but team owner Glen Taylor doesn’t expect work to start this year as hoped. He talked to Sports Headliners about a fix up in 2016 and 2017. The city will invest $74.5 million and AEG, the company that manages the building, will contribute $5.5 million. Target Center, which opened in 1990, originally cost about $104 million.

Taylor is joining Dr. Bill McGuire and others as an investor in the hoped-for Minneapolis MLS soccer franchise. Plans include an outdoor stadium to be built near the Farmers Market downtown. The facility would be open air. A long soccer season could begin in late winter and run into late October. Taylor was asked if the Minneapolis weather causes a concern about playing outdoors.

“I think we should try to work to have the Vikings facility available for some of those extreme cases where the weather would be too bad or something like that,” Taylor said. “In the long run we’d want to do that. We don’t have anything yet. Nor has the Wilf family (Vikings owners) indicated that they have any interest, but I just think that when you get everything going and stuff like that you should have cooperation. …”

The Vikings ownership has an exclusive option to operate a new Minneapolis MLS franchise inside the new domed stadium set to open in 2016. That option is for five years after the facility opens but the MLS is working with the McGuire group. Taylor believes that because the city and state, in addition to the Vikings, are paying for the stadium, the facility should be open to hosting some soccer there if the weather dictated.

At today’s Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority board meeting, the Vikings and the Wilf family will commit an additional $14 million toward the new stadium, bringing the team’s increased private contributions since stadium legislation passed to $89 million and the overall team/private commitment to $566 million. Nearly $13 million of the $14 million will be for the stadium’s television system, including over 2,000 HDTV monitors.

The Twins are 2-7 against the Tigers this season after yesterday’s loss in Detroit. Minnesota is 7-11 on the road but 12-5 in Minneapolis where the Twins open a weekend series starting tonight against the Rays. The Twins are 18-10 overall since April 15.

With a longer season and record purses projected, Canterbury Park begins its live racing season tonight with post time at 6:30 p.m. Racing continues Saturday and Sunday at 12:45 p.m. The 70-day racing meet, the longest at the Shakopee racetrack since 1992, runs through September 12. Jockeys, trainers, and owners will be competing for record purses of approximately $14 million.

Comments Welcome

Lottery Luck May Change for Wolves

Posted on May 13, 2015May 13, 2015 by David Shama

News and notes from Glen Taylor and other newsmakers including new high school coaching hires.

The NBA Draft Lottery has not been kind to the Timberwolves. Despite a long list of losing seasons over more than two decades, the franchise has never had the No. 1 pick in the draft. This year the Wolves are sending a woman to see if their luck changes.

And not just any woman.

Glen Taylor, the Wolves owner, broke the news to Sports Headliners his wife Becky will represent the franchise on national TV May 19 when the NBA’s 14 draft lottery teams assemble in New York City. The Wolves, of course, are hoping the lottery rewards them with the first selection in the June 25 NBA Draft.

Wolves president and coach Flip Saunders let Taylor know he wanted Becky to represent the club at the draft lottery and she accepted the invitation. NBA teams send various representatives to the lottery, often front office executives. Cavs owner Dan Gilbert has dispatched his teenage son Nick multiple times and won the lottery in both 2013 and 2014.

Saunders has represented the Wolves in the past at the lottery announcement but this will be Becky’s first turn. Will she wear something lucky like a special piece of jewelry? No, but she will be wearing a new dress. “That will be her lucky outfit,” Taylor said with a laugh.

The lottery chances of the 14 teams favor franchises with the worst regular season records. Because the Wolves had the league’s worst record in 2014-2015, they have 250 chances at winning the No. 1 selection in the lottery, while the clubs closest to them are the Knicks, 199 chances; Sixers, 156; and Lakers, 119. The Wolves have a 25 percent likelihood of winning the lottery and securing the No. 1 draft choice. Lottery policy guarantees Minnesota will draft no lower than fourth in the first round.

Taylor will accompany Becky to New York. Although he is chairman of the NBA Board of Directors, he has never personally observed the draft lottery. He made it clear, though, his wife will be the one on TV. “Becky is going to be the front person,” he said.

Taylor said the Wolves must improve defensively next season. He wouldn’t be surprised to see Saunders make defense a priority on June 25 when the club uses its three draft choices—one first round pick and two selections during the second round.

Although Taylor doesn’t have final figures, he expects the Wolves to lose about $1 million to $2 million this past season. The franchise has frequently sustained major annual financial losses. “I would guess in our worst year we probably lost $10 million, but I don’t have that in front of me,” Taylor said.

The NBA has a revenue sharing policy where the more financially successful teams assist others. Taylor didn’t reveal figures but said this past season the amount of revenue received by franchises like his was “much larger” than in the past.

Next season the Wolves could break even or even be profitable if the on-court performance improves. A dramatic improvement landing the Wolves in the playoffs means making money “for sure,” Taylor said.

Greg Boone, who played basketball at Minneapolis Central High School and Augsburg College, is the new Minneapolis Southwest High School boys head coach. Boone is an accountant and won’t have a classroom teaching position at Southwest.

James Ware, the new basketball coach at Park Center, is an assistant principal in the Hopkins school system. Ware’s basketball resume includes assisting Hopkins High School head coach Ken Novak Jr. and working for Dan Monson when he was the Gophers head coach.

Trent Klatt, the former North Star, Gopher and 1989 Minnesota Mr. Hockey, is the new head hockey coach at Grand Rapids High School.

For $2,000 each a maximum of 25 individuals can participate in the Gophers second annual Boys of Fall Elite Camp in August. The three-day experience (August 7-9) will coincide with Minnesota’s preseason football training camp. Attendees become acquainted with the team and staff, and will have an in-depth look at coach Jerry Kill’s offensive, defensive and special team’s philosophies. Participants will attend all team, position and special teams meetings with players and coaches, plus on the field practices. More at Coachkillfbcamps.com.

After a disappointing performance in the playoffs against the Blackhawks, Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk, who is an unrestricted free agent this offseason, has lost some bargaining power on his next contract. The second round playoffs were the biggest stage this year for the Wild and Dubnyk. He didn’t play his best and teams now have to decide how much importance to give the Blackhawks series versus Dubnyk’s superb play last winter and in the first round of the playoffs. Best guess is he re-signs with the Wild and perhaps triples his reported $800,000 annual salary.

Vikings coach Mike Zimmer meets with the media this week for a special session where he will share thoughts on how he coaches and his expectations of players.

Vikings first round draft choice cornerback Trae Waynes after being asked if he sets goals: “No. My whole mindset is play as hard as I can as fast as I can. Just try to make an impact. I’m competing against myself and…against other players but I have got to push myself at this level (NFL), and my big thing is just go out and compete.”

The Twins moved up from No. 21 to No.12 in Espn.com’s latest MLB power rankings of teams. The Cardinals are No. 1 while Twins’ Central Division rivals the Royals and Tigers are 2 and 4.

Twins shortstop Danny Santana has nine errors in 30 games this season. The club record for fewest errors by a shortstop is Leo Cardenas’ 11 in 1971.

While the Saints don’t open the season in their new ballpark until May 18, Hamline’s baseball team has already played nine games there. Among early descriptions of the new facility is it’s “definitely a pitcher’s ballpark” with long distances to the fences.

Comments Welcome

Nobody Builds Stadiums Like Minneapolis

Posted on March 27, 2015March 29, 2015 by David Shama

Like it or not, by the year 2018 the Minneapolis-St. Paul market could have five new stadiums that opened during a 10-year period.

Dr. Bill McGuire’s intent to build a soccer-specific stadium to house his Major League Soccer expansion franchise puts MSP in unique territory on the American sports scene. Three or four years from now it looks like this town will be the only area in the country that can list the opening of five major stadiums in a decade—at a cost of about $2 billion.

“It is an incredible phenomenon,” said Bill Lester.

Lester (center) with dome colleagues Steve Maki & Dennis Alfton.

Lester was executive director of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission from 1987-2012. Part of that period he contended with restlessness among the Metrodome’s major tenants who wanted their own buildings. The campaigns to move on were all successful, with the Gophers opening TCF Bank Stadium in 2009, the Twins moving into Target Field in 2010 and the Vikings now working toward a first season in their new covered stadium in 2016.

The independent baseball St. Paul Saints will open their new $60-plus million stadium in Lowertown this spring. And this week comes news the MLS is granting a franchise to McGuire and his group who want to build an open air soccer stadium in the Minneapolis Farmers Market area that might cost between $100 million and $150 million.

The Gophers, Twins, Vikings and Saints facilities received major funding from the public sector. Indications are most city, county and state political leaders aren’t in favor of public money for a soccer stadium. Yet even if the facility is privately financed there surely will be at least indirect taxpayer money involved to help with surrounding roads and other elements. “There are some ways you can help them without it being a direct subsidy,” Lester said.

The real possibility of five new stadiums at a $2 billion collective price tag is completely different than what’s going on around the country where building one major venue sometimes gets done, but not always. Atlanta is building new football and baseball stadiums for its NFL and MLB teams at the same time but that’s unusual. Los Angeles has been trying to agree on a football stadium plan for decades to attract an NFL franchise—perhaps the Rams who once called LA home but now find themselves trying to convince the city of St. Louis and state of Missouri to build them a new palace. Oakland is in danger of losing its baseball and football teams because no progress has been made for years in finalizing a plan for new stadiums. Other cities and teams are at odds, too.

Long ago there was a reluctance here to invest in facilities but Lester thinks that changed with the successes of the Metrodome and Xcel Energy Center. He noted the dome was “built on time and on budget,” sending a message of accountability to a skeptical public. The versatile facility also kept the Twins and Vikings from moving out of town for 25 years. “The public portion of the investment was very successful,” he said.

The Xcel Energy Center had a cutting edge design and enhancements. The facility showed the public how a gameday experience there, or later at Target Field, could be so much more than what fans once experienced in other Minnesota sports venues.

MSP, once a reluctant player in the stadium building game, has become the parade leader among American cities. Lester believes the change in attitude is also explained by how team owners are no longer viewed as billionaires running out of town with the money from their new riches generated in new stadiums. “It just didn’t hold up to very much scrutiny,” Lester said.

Minnesotans have come to realize stadiums ensure the commitment of teams to stay here and the facilities make major league sports entertainment possible. Fans enjoy the experiences in the stadiums and realize those venues create jobs, generate taxes and can lead to neighborhood developments providing more economic stimulus. There’s also the benefit of maintaining and building this area’s national image of being a high quality place to live, offering exceptional education, health care, housing, live theatre, major league sports and more.

Lester said the diversified sports scene here plays a role in attracting and keeping young professionals and entrepreneurs, “part of a broader picture” to feed the vitality of this area.

By 2018, Minneapolis-St. Paul will be home to not only major league baseball, basketball, football, hockey and soccer but also big time college basketball, football and hockey with the Gophers. In addition, MSP has professional women’s basketball with the Lynx and men’s pro lacrosse with the Swarm. No other city can match that lineup, including metros with three and four times the population of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.

The already intense competition among teams for ticket buyers, sponsors, suite purchasers and advertisers will kick up a notch with an MLS club and new stadium. Can all those pro teams, and the Gophers, be successful at the box office and with their overall balance sheets?

Lester isn’t sure while taking an optimistic but cautious view. “If the economy is healthy and the business climate is okay…I am not so sure anymore that there is a point at which it implodes. I used to think there was but I am not so sure anymore.”

Worth Noting

Sports Illustrated’s baseball preview issue, on newsstands this week, predicts Twins AL Central Division rival Cleveland will not only win the division but also will defeat the Nationals in the World Series. The Tigers, White Sox and Royals will trail the Indians but finish ahead of the Twins who will be last in the division, per S.I. The magazine forecasts a Twins record of 67-95, the worst in the AL. The club was 70-92 last season and S.I. believes the 2015 team is improved but so is the division with tough competition.

The magazine—quoting an anonymous scout—said “the starting pitching is respectable now.” But outfield defense, including with a declining Torii Hunter, is a minus and while the club has power hitters in Oswaldo Arcia and Kennys Vargas, the long ball isn’t part of Joe Mauer’s future, S.I. wrote. “Joe Mauer has lost his power, and in that ballpark (Target Field) it’s not coming back,” said the scout. “He’s an opposite-field singles and doubles hitter now.”

New manager Paul Molitor? “The team stopped listening to Ron Gardenhire, so the manager change was smart,” the scout said.

The Gophers hockey team and coach Don Lucia have plenty of incentives in the NCAA Tournament. The Gophers have a tournament opening Northeast Regional game late this afternoon against Minnesota Duluth. A win advances Minnesota to the regional title contest tomorrow, with the winner earning a place in the Frozen Four April 9-11 in Boston. The Gophers were the national runner-up last year at the Frozen Four.

A national title would be the third for a Lucia-coached Gophers team. If Lucia is successful in winning the NCAA title, he receives a bonus of $75,000, according to a schedule of incentives document he and the University agreed to in July of 2012. Lucia has already earned $30,000 and $15,000 bonuses for winning the 2015 Big Ten regular season and conference championships, according to that document.

Union defeated the Gophers in the national championship game last April but didn’t qualify for this year’s NCAA Tournament after a 19-18-2 season. The Union team of last year showed the Gophers an aggressiveness and physical style that could help Minnesota in this year’s tournament.

Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk is 2-0 against the Flames this season with a 0.98 GAA and one shutout. The Wild play the Flames at Xcel Energy Center tonight. While the Wild is 2-0 this season against Calgary, Minnesota is 0-2 versus the Kings who are at Xcel tomorrow night.

Should be fun having the Matthews brothers in the NFC North together next fall. The Vikings signed linebacker Casey Matthews as a free agent this week. Casey’s older brother, Clay Matthews, is a six-year NFL veteran and standout linebacker for the Packers. Casey started a career-high 11 games for the Eagles last season. A four year pro, he also had a career-best 62 tackles last season.

Timberwolves president Flip Saunders and general manager Milt Newton rank No. 24 in ESPN.com’s listing this week of the NBA’s front office decision makers. The top five front offices among the 30 league franchises are the Spurs, Warriors, Rockets, Heat and Trail Blazers. ESPN ranks Saunders No. 25 among the league’s best coaches, with Gregg Popovich of the Spurs No. 1, the Hawks Mike Budenholzer No. 2 and the Warriors Steve Kerr No. 3. Former Wolves coach Randy Wittman, now head coach of the Wizards, ranks No. 26 despite a winning record in Washington.

Comments Welcome