Start Hudson at point guard, Jaric at off guard, Szczerbiak at small forward, Garnett at power forward and Griffin at center.
Olowokandi has not maintained his improved play lately. Top Jimmy wants to bury Hassell on the bench and bring McCants off the bench as sixth man.
Discuss.
Also, who is the second best player on this [...]

I've been meaning, for some time, to review some predictions that I made earlier this year. And not just my predictions, but the predictions of many of my fellow bloggers. Prior to the beginning of the baseball season, I invited my fellow Twins bloggers to make predictions. I said that I would hail the victor [...]

Dave Studenmund has written an article at The Hardball Times promoting their new Baseball Annual 2006, but of course as one of the authors, he's biased. Studes' article gives you a rundown on the contents in the article to which I have linked. But, my copy of the THT Baseball Annual 2006 has arrived. I [...]

Terry Ryan:
"A lot of people don't talk about our defense, but that contributed every bit as much as our offense in our inability to win games and close games," he said. "I'm just as concerned about our defense as our offense."
For that reason, Ryan isn't focusing solely on offense to improve his club before next [...]

Thought you'd like to comment on this tidbit from the Strib:
A quick release. The dangerously flammable shooting touch. An occasionally galling lack of conscience in his shot selection. And a seat on the bench at tipoff.
A short inventory reveals that Timberwolves guard Troy Hudson has most of the makings of an NBA Sixth Man award [...]

Hello SBG fans and welcome to a tour of the Atlantic... Division of the NBA.
Boston Celtics: 5-7, tied for second (1-2 this week, lost at Cleveland, at Atlanta!, won against Bobcats)
Winless (0-4) on the road, the Celtics got a last second Paul Pierce layup Friday night to beat the expansion Bobcats. The Celtics blew a [...]

BS has come out and stated in no uncertain terms that the Vikings are better off with Brad Johnson at quarterback.
Since Culpepper tore up his knee, the Vikings have been better. And better off.
I'm not convinced the Vikings would have won these past three games if Culpepper still were playing. He didn't accomplish enough before [...]

Reusse's 28th annual Thanksgiving Day column, detailing all the Turkeys in the Minnesota sports scene. I like the selection this year.

Hello, SBG fans and welcome to a Thanksgiving edition of Garnett Trade Rumors. I'm coming to you from my father-in-law's basement! It is early morning Thursday. Lucy is still asleep as are Mr. and Mrs. van Pelt. I'm somewhat of an early riser, and this seems to be just about as good as anything to [...]

Lucy and I are heading to her parents' place tonight and we'll be spending Thanksgiving with them. I doubt that I'll be spending a whole lot of time blogging from my father-in-law's computer, but hey, who knows, maybe in between football games I'll catch my muse.
As a sportsfan in Minnesota, there hasn't been a [...]

I read frightwig's post about the Cy Young voting in the American League and it conjured up some memories and thoughts about sportswriters and voting. Then, on Sunday I was listening the radio and heard something quite interesting.
As the 2004 season wound to a close, there was some talk that perhaps Curt Schilling might challenge [...]

Today, I actually heard someone suggest that the Vikings are better off with Brad Johnson at quarterback.
Update: Green Bay isn't to be confused with a good team. But, that was a nice win. It was fun to watch the Vikes physically dominate the Pack.

Let the depression set in. From ESPN:
Get ready for the Kevin Garnett trade rumors, the first of which was quickly shot down Sunday by Kevin McHale and Joe Dumars -- even as others maintained it was legit.
Both team executives denied there was any truth to talk that made its way around the league over the [...]

Rob Neyer writes that baseball owners are awash in money.
Now that the Hennepin County stadium deal for the Twins is all but dead, it's time for the Governor to sit down with the Twins and explain that the Twins have to kick in more money. Period. I didn't think that the deal was [...]

Yes, from time-to-time, I read CJ. For shame!
Apparently, Paul Molitor impregnated two other women while married to his first wife.
Toronto Sun reporter Ian McDougall wrote a September article about the Hall of Famer and former Brewer, Blue Jay and Twin [Paul Molitar] being ordered to make regular support payments for a son, [...]

It's a cheap shot, I know, but word has it that Latrell's kids will not go hungry.
Agent Bob Gist said the Lakers have called but Sprewell won't play for the veteran's minimum of $1.1 million, which is all they can offer. "Anyone who thinks he should play for that, that's absurd," Gist told SI.com. "He [...]

How come I never get to go to the game?
Jags

It's a Wolves win, but I want streamers!!!!

He wanted to come to the game! He has to watch it on TV!

Go T-Wolves! If you have any thoughts abouy the game, post them here.

Final: Iowa 52, Minnesota 28. It wasn't that close.
Halftime: Iowa 38, Minnesota 7.
This season is not a success. The win over Michigan was great and everything. But, a blowout loss in Iowa and a likely berth in the Motor City Bowl renders this season a failure.

The meltdown is starting in New York. From the AP:
Carmelo Anthony sliced through single coverage en route to 25 points for the Nuggets, while Brown left Knicks guard Stephon Marbury watching helplessly from the bench over the final 6� minutes of Denver's 95-86 win over New York.
Marbury, who said he was upset with his role [...]

The great Oscar Robertson had to leave Cincinnati, where he was a college star and then the Royals' franchise for 10 seasons, to join Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in Milwaukee and get his championship.
Garnett -- no Big O on the great-meter but a unique talent in NBA history -- was Da Kid in 1995-96, and became the [...]

A look at the Timberwolves' Saturday night opponent. Charlotte is 3-7 is scoring 94.5 and allowing 100.2 points per game.

PLAYER
MIN

PTS/
40

REB/
40

AST/
40

STL/
40

BLK/
40

FGA
PPS

MIN
%

SHOT %
DISTRIBUTION

GUNNING
FACTOR

R. Felton
177
14.69
4.52
8.36
3.16
0.23
68
0.96
39.60%
9.07%
22.90%
1.41

S. May
170
22.12
11.06
2.35
2.35
1.65
79
1.19
38.03%
10.53%
27.70%
1.37

E. Okafor
301
15.95
10.63
1.86
1.20
1.46
113
1.06
67.34%
15.07%
22.37%
1.24

K. Rush
204
18.04
4.71
1.96
1.18
0.78
77
1.19
45.64%
10.27%
22.50%
1.11

M. Carroll
120
19.33
3.00
1.00
2.00
0.00
46
1.26
26.85%
6.13%
22.85%
1.07

B. Robinson
52
8.46
1.54
1.54
2.31
0.00
13
0.85
11.63%
1.73%
14.90%
1.04

B. Knight
266
12.03
3.01
8.42
2.71
0.00
78
1.03
59.51%
10.40%
17.48%
1.01

J. Jones
111
11.17
5.77
0.36
1.44
0.36
30
1.03
24.83%
4.00%
16.11%
0.92

J. Voskuhl
56
14.29
4.29
1.43
0.00
0.71
17
1.18
12.53%
2.27%
18.09%
0.91

K. Bogans
201
13.13
4.78
2.39
2.79
0.20
57
1.16
44.97%
7.60%
16.90%
0.86

A. Anderson
19
16.84
4.21
8.42
2.11
2.11
6
1.33
4.25%
0.80%
18.82%
0.83

K. Burleson
28
18.57
1.43
8.57
8.57
0.00
9
1.44
6.26%
1.20%
19.16%
0.78

G. Wallace
162
20.00
7.65
2.72
3.46
0.99
53
1.53
36.24%
7.07%
19.50%
0.75

P. Brezec
226
14.87
7.26
1.24
0.88
0.00
63
1.33
50.56%
8.40%
16.61%
0.74

M. Ely
142
17.46
10.70
1.69
1.41
0.56
41
1.51
31.77%
5.47%
17.21%
0.67

Points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks are per 40 minutes. Distribution is percentage of shots per minute [...]

I read this little tidbit from a Baseball Prospectus Chat tonight:
Bubba (Charlotte): Do you think there are any viable cities left for relocation of a current team?
Neil deMause: Define "viable." Portland would fit well on the bottom rung of the current MLB markets, but the city isn't eager to subsidize a stadium, so if you're [...]

The national media has certainly picked up on this story. Whether it's a story or not, of course, remains to be seen.

He writes about last night's game, but he really nails the essence of Garnett.

KG had a typical KG night: 12-19, 25 points, 13 rebounds, and 9 assists. He played all but the last few seconds of the second half. With KG on the floor, the Wizards couldn't make the run that the Rockets made on Tuesday night while KG rested. And therein lies the dilemma [...]

Over at NBA.COM, KG talks with Cheryl Miller about the debacle of last year. Sounds to me like KG lays the blame at the feet of Kevin McHale. He said that if things had been "handled differently" Flip would still be the coach. He said that McHale wanted to coach, but he [...]

The Wizards are in town tonight. If you are wayching the game and have a comment post them here. I'll be around to comment on the game. I'll add my thoughts in the comments of this post. I hope the radio feed is synched up with the TV.
Update: I didn't realized the Wolves were starting [...]

There's a new place to talk Twins. Twinkie Town, part of SBNation, has opened up shop and is looking to carry on the work of the Twins Geek. Stop by, say hi, open a diary and start blogging. But, always be sure to come back here. Good luck to jclund, who is running the show [...]

Yesterday, I wrote about shot distribution and invented a stat that I called Gunning Factor. For this Wolves team, GF showed that some crappy shooters were taking a lot of shots.
GF can show that. It can also show players who take a lot of shots and are effective.
I looked at the '86 Celtics, an all-time [...]

I watched the T-Wolves kick another one away last night and a lot of the euphoria of the good start is starting to fade away. That was the type of game that bad teams lose. They shut down the other team's best two players for much of the game and yet they didn't put them [...]

My blogging buddy Cheesehead Craig writes a weekly feature that he calls the Fab Five, where he clicks on his blogger bar at the top of his blog (I don't have one) and describes what he sees on the next five blogs. Lo and behold, this week this blog (ahem, Online Magazine) made the [...]

The radio feed on the T-Wolves game is a full seven seconds ahead of the television. The play-by-play is telling me what happens well before it happens. Gonna have to listen to the TV feed.

And to think that I had recently said [to Seth] that I thought Stark's writing was really good lately.
Says Jason:
A-Rod is the better all-around baseball player [as compared to David Ortiz] -- but let's just say he's no Derek Jeter in his ability to inspire those mortal humans around him.
Because guys like Sheffield, Williams, [...]

Baseball Prospectus is looking for unpaid summer interns. It would be a lot of fun, I think.

From the Strib:
Although the Vikings won Sunday with Zygi Wilf on the sideline for the first time this season, Tice seemed unconcerned about keeping the owner on the field. "He didn't call any defenses or anything," Tice said. "I think he had fun, but I don't know if he can help us win. We have [...]

Seth continues his great Q&A series with an interview of the Voice of the New Britain Rock Cats, Jeff Dooley.
I myself had a chance to catch a game in New Britain a few years back. I enjoyed the game there, even though (a) there was a long rain delay (in fact, I think [...]

Seth continues his great Q&A series with an interview of the Voice of the New Britain Rock Cats, Jeff Dooley.
I myself had a chance to catch a game in New Britain a few years back. I enjoyed the game there, even though (a) there was a long rain delay (in fact, I think [...]

In case you are wondering why I don't have a new post... I was going to erite on the train this morning, but I had to stand with my arms tucked in. Hate it when it is just one car in the morning!

In case you didn't notice, I decided to redesign my web site. I have some more ideas for the site -- we'll see if it comes to fruition. Cheesehead Craig didn't like my logo, so I came up with a new one.
I learned quite a bit about my template this weekend, and I [...]

Sort of.

Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus reports from the Arizona Fall League. His impressions of Twins prospect Denard Span?
Denard Span: Speedy guy, but he runs routes in center field as if his corner outfielders are yelling "Marco!" "Polo!" If Shannon Stewart can be considered an asset defensively, I guess Span can, too. Span won't hit [...]

Honestly, you had to see it to believe it. Twelve yards rushing. 125 yards passing. Three long returns for a touchdown. And a game winner from the kicker who had missed two chip shots earlier.
What's a more satisfying scenario? Going into NY and blowing their doors off or beating them like this? The Giants will [...]

He's been hurt a lot. Despite making $8 million a year, he can't afford a good suit. But, damn, Marcus Camby is a helluva good basketball player. He absolutely schooled the Wolves tonight. Camby had 18 points, 22 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 7 blocks. He looks like the [...]

Lucy and I went out on Saturday night for dinner and a movie. We went to Punch in St. Paul. My pizza was a little burned. Yes, it is a brick oven pizza, but the pizza had a distinctive charred taste. We've been there before and had good pizza, but that was a disappointing evening. [...]

One of the things I'm going to try to do from time to time during the season is provide some NBA news from around the league.
New York Knicks
From ESPN: The Knicks are open to moving Stephon Marbury, but don't know if they can find any takers. They are also thinking of trading Penny Hardaway's expiring [...]

For those of you who are regular readers of this site, you have heard me talk about my buddy Moss. He's a reader and frequent commenter. And, until Friday, he was a co-worker of mine. But, no longer. "Moss" has decided to do other things and has left the firm at which I work.
I'm happy [...]

Was reading the Sports Guy's weekly NFL predictions (by the way, SG is always a must read) when I came across this one:
Speaking of the Giants, as my friend Shek astutely pointed out when we were watching football last weekend, couldn't they have found a better picture of Wellington Mara to circulate for the TV [...]

Earlier this week, I wrote this about Kobe Bryant:
He's a great player, no doubt. But, until he changes his approach, he'll never be the player he could be. My money says he'll never change. Black Hole.
From ESPN's recap of the Lakers' 85-81 loss last night in Philadelphia:
Bryant came in averaging a league-high 34.8 points, but [...]

Calling the Detroit/Portland game tonight, Bill says:
"A lot of the Portland legends are here tonight. Terry Porter. Chris Dudley."
Chris Dudley? Legend? He's clearly kidding. Isn't he?

At 12:02 in the third, it's 8-0, Gophers.

Anchorage sucks.

I want more fighting!!!!!!

The following is a true story.
I own a little house back in North Dakota that I rent out. When I moved to Minnesota, a guy named Vern was living there with his girlfriend Deb. Vern and Deb were rough characters, but they had lived in the place for a couple of years and paid the [...]

Lucy and I are going to the Gopher Hockey game tonight. It will be my first Gopher hockey game ever, my first college hockey game, and my first experience watching hockey on an Olympic sized rink. I'm pretty excited about it.
In honor of this momentus event, I present to you an open ended [...]

For three quarters tonight, Kobe Bryant showed why some people think he could be the NBA MVP. He poured in 26 points and was making some very tough shots. Trenton Hassell did a nice job on him, but when McCants or DuPree took over Kobe went to town.
Then, the fourth quarter started. Kobe entered at [...]

Don't expect a column tonight. I'll be out with my old buddy Kobe Bryant having a late dinner after the game.

I had an idea for an article tonight. I was going to analyze the Cy Young results. First of all, Lucy and I headed over to my aunt's house for a while. As usual, we had a good time over there. Then, I got home, checked to see if frightwig had [...]

Nice work with the T.O. deal.
John Clayton is speculating that three teams might be interested when T.O. is released.
Atlanta...
Denver...
and...
Minnesota!!!!
Imagine... the Vikings could trade in Randy Moss for T.O.!

This guy grew up in SBGville. I know him personally. I am known for writing half-baked, poorly thought out columns. So is he. The difference? He's getting paid a lot to do it.

Bartolo Colon won the AL Cy Young, beating out the obviously superior Johan Santana, who finished a distant third behind Mariano Rivera.

Michael Olowokandi is about 100% better than he was last year. More energy, more aggressivenes, and he's not getting in foul trouble. He'll never be a great player, but so far he's at least acceptable.

A while back I wrote that the Twins' defense, contrary to popular belief was improved in 2005. I got virtually no reaction to this assertion, partially because I talked about Barry Bonds in the same post and Surprise! that is what people wanted to talk about. Over at The Bleacher Bums, a very nice joint [...]

I hit the mute button on the TV tonight and turned on the radio. I'm done listening to Tom Hanneman for the season. Good God. He's the worst. I mean, really. At times, I get pretty irritated by Dick Bremer. But, Bremer describes the action with some competence. [...]

Tell me what you think.
Update: I intend to write some stuff about Jones relatively soon.

Monday morning. I'm heading into work.
Watched the T-Wolves lose two this weekend, both in overtime. Surpeisingly, it took KG three games to get his first double-double.
These late games are tough on an old man. I was half asleep, trying to make it through the ends of the games. I read on [...]

Who would you take if you were starting a franchise? Do you go with the strong armed quarterback who's never won anything or the guy with three rings?

Miller, that is. Last night, he was working the Heat/Pacer game on TNT, and his comment on seeing the play when Shaq rolled his ankle: "that's a month-er." As in out for a month. Today, the Heat announced he's out 2-4 weeks. I liked Miller calling the game. He's [...]

Dave St. Peter says they are not for sale. But Reggie Jackson is in line to buy them.
Jackson, 59, who hit 563 home runs in his 21-year major league career, is a part-time Las Vegas resident and widely viewed as that city's best hope of bringing Major League Baseball there.

Well, it wasn't pretty, but the record says that the T-Wolves are 1-0.
KG had a quiet game. He had 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists. KG took just 13 shots, making 9. Last year, I railed against the lack of shots. Plain and simple, KG needs 20 shots. Every game. Think of it. Rashad [...]

When I hear Bill Walton on TV...

I was eating tacos on Taco Tuesday with Moss and we were talking about ESPN.COM's picks for league. I mentioned that Ric Bucher has always been in Kobe's back pocket, and his choice of Bryant for MVP was hilarious. He also said the Lakers would finish 8th in the West. As last [...]

I wrote last night that never before have I felt so little enthusiasm for an upcoming T-Wolves season. GH from my favorite T-Wolves blog promptly chided me in the comments, making the point that the Wolves may not be all that good, but they will be interesting. Maybe.
The one thought that drains the enthusiasm more [...]

If it weren't for Kevin Garnett...

The Timberwolves have cut bait on Ndudi Ebi.
Is he the worst first round pick ever by the Wolves? Remember, Paul Grant didn't exactly light up the scoreboard (Ebi actually played more and scored more for the Wolves).
Is there any good reason why McHale is still running this club?