The WGOM

I just happened to walk by a calendar the other day and hey, this year (and decade!) is almost over. I don't know for sure if this has been the best year of The WGOM -- I mean, we had a lot of fun, our favorite club won a division title in game 163, and Baby Jeebus finally got that richly deserved MVP. Was it better than 2006? I don't know. Nevertheless, we had a stable of writers contribute, including Jeff A, who has pounded out over 400 posts. It's been a great year.

I am looking forward to the WGOM Festivus Caucus next week. I intend to have a WGOM get together about every two months or so in 2010. This was my plan in 2009, until I was overcome by events. Still, though, this will be the fourth official WGOM event of 2009, so I only missed out on two of them. I don't think it's too early to start thinking about WGOM Convention 2010, though. With tickets to Twins games likely to be much more difficult to obtain than in previous years, I think it would be a very good idea to start planning the event early and possibly get enough people committed to get to large group status with the Twins. I think it's always been 25 or more get a small discount on tickets. I would love to get north of 25 people to go to the game together and partake of the picnic. If you are from out of town and would seriously like to get in on the Convention, let me know and we'll try to get something arranged. I would have preferred a late afternoon Saturday game, but the Twins don't have any of those in 2010. So, the early date is July 31 against Seattle. It's a 6:00 PM game. We'll have a picnic at Minnehaha Falls and ride the light rail to the game. I'll be there at 6:00 AM to secure the site and I'm hoping Banjo will show up in the morning, too. He and I (or just me) will have a breakfast and then we'll have a picnic meal later on in the afternoon. I know this: the bigger the crowd, the better the meal. Mark your calendars.

The Wolves won last night over the Sacto Kings, drilling the visitors from Cowtown by almost 20. Kevin Love led the way with 20 points and 16 rebounds and is clearly, I think, establishing himself as the best player on this club. His ability to rebound is absolutely tremendous. I don't think he's the kind of player that you build a club around -- this club still needs a ton of pieces, but Love is a keeper. Coach Rambis has been dogging him about getting in shape and he does look a little less than chiseled, so maybe with a little work the kid can find some explosiveness that he lacks. In case you didn't notice, I quit posting game logs for the Wolves and haven't said much about them. The boys at Canis Hoopus do a great job of following the Wolves in great detail and I check out their site daily. They provide passionate analysis -- much more passionate than this club deserves. When stop-n-pop breathlessly described Ryan Hollins as the most athletic big man the Wolves have ever had, I thought, well that ain't saying much, because who have the Wolves had that has been an athletic big... wait, WHAT? Number 21 had some athleticism, methinks. Well, Hollins can jump out of the gym, which is amazing, because those hands of stone must weigh about 75 pounds a piece.

I must tell you, though, that I can't get excited about minor moves until the answer to the following question is not nobody: Who on this club could crack the starting lineup in Boston or Los Angeles (not the Clippers, dude). I realize that this move or that move might save a million here or incrementally improve the club there, but the fact remains that this club's futures are linked to their luck in the lottery and draft. The Wolves had four picks in the first round last year: Rubio is in Spain, Flynn might be a player, but he has a lot to learn about running an NBA offense, Ellington is not likely to be anything more than an end of the rotation dude (but he could be a valuable spot up shooter on a good club and he does like to rebound). Ty Lawson looks like a nice backup PG, but he's in Denver. I remain one of the 25 or so people that watches most games, but until the Wolves get an impact player or three, there's not a lot to talk about, unless you want to speculate about whether the Wolves should give up on the centerpiece of the KG trade and move BAJ. Or whether the triangle offense is the right fit in Minnesota (you draft and sign a stable of point guards and then you install an offense that doesn't rely heavily on PG play?). Me, I'm waiting to see what the ping pong balls say next summer.

Meta alert: I upgraded to WordPress 2.9 this morning. If you don't post here, you won't care. If you do, you might not care either. The WordPress developers claim to have provided an improved handling routine for uploading photos, including the ability to crop.