Impressions of the Timberwolves with 28 games remaining in the strike-shortened NBA season:
This is the most entertaining pack of Wolves since Kevin Garnett, Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell were trying to put food on the table to feed their families in 2003-2004. The 2012 Wolves, 19-19 so far after finishing 17-65 last year, are much improved with better personnel, team work and coaching.
You no longer have to risk being labeled the town idiot by predicting a playoff spot this spring. The Wolves have pulled even with the average teams in the NBA and with 16 teams allowed to qualify for the playoffs Minnesota is a contender.
The club report card gives the best grades to All-Star forward Kevin Love, rookie point guard Ricky Rubio and coach Rick Adelman. Love is so improved the last two seasons that the four-year player is included in any conversation about the league’s best power forwards. Point guard, it’s often argued, is the most important position in basketball. The Wolves finally have a special talent playing the position in Rubio, a flashy talent with extraordinary vision and passing skills. The NBA might be a players’ league but coaching still counts and first-year boss Adelman could be the best person ever directing the Wolves.
This team has an unexpected hero in center Nikola Pekovic. After averaging 5.5 points during his rookie year last season, Pekovic has won the starting center job in 2012 with smarts, hustle, timely points and rebounds. What he can’t do with his short arms and average height for a center (6-11) is become a defensive whiz in the lane.
Finding a shot-blocking, defensive center is what should be at the top of the front office’s to-do list. A guy who can take the Wolves from being an okay defensive team to a better one (while helping Love with the rebounding) is needed to push Minnesota toward the elite group of NBA teams.
This Wolves team will improve a lot too if a shooting guard-forward like Wes Johnson or Martell Webster can fulfill their potential as outside shooters. Johnson is only a second year player and youth is a huge part of the rationale why fans should be excited about this product. Love is 23, Rubio, 21, Pekovic, 26, Johnson, 24, and rookie forward Derrick Williams, 20.
Better days are here…and ahead.