All Things Minnesota Timberwolves 2022-2023 In-Season Thread

BleedGopher

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Training camp is now basically upon us. Hope springs eternal.

THIS IS OUR YEAR!

Howl Wolves!!
 




"Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball will undergo an arthroscopic debridement of his left knee and will be reevaluated in four to six weeks, the team announced on Wednesday.

The surgery is scheduled for next Wednesday in Los Angeles -- the procedure will take place eight months after an initial knee surgery in January to repair a torn meniscus.

Ball has not played in a game since Jan. 14. Before the surgery in January, the team announced a recovery timeline of six to eight weeks, but the discomfort in his left knee has persisted throughout the rehab process whenever he tries to ramp up basketball activity.

It kept him sidelined for the rest of the regular season and playoffs, but the pain has continued throughout the summer while Ball rehabbed in Los Angeles.

t's the third time in his career that Ball, who turns 25 in October, will have undergone surgery on his left knee -- he had another operation in July 2018 while playing for the Los Angeles Lakers but returned on time for training camp. A debridement is a procedure intended to remove damaged tissue or foreign objects from a wound."

 



The two burning questions as the wolves get ready to open camp are will JimPete and Michael Grady gel and will ARod and Lore come up with the next $250M layaway payment by the December deadline.

As for the team, they are going 82-0! I studied the schedule closely and I couldn't find a loss anywhere.
 

The two burning questions as the wolves get ready to open camp are will JimPete and Michael Grady gel and will ARod and Lore come up with the next $250M layaway payment by the December deadline.

As for the team, they are going 82-0! I studied the schedule closely and I couldn't find a loss anywhere.
They won't come up with the dough.
 

The two burning questions as the wolves get ready to open camp are will JimPete and Michael Grady gel and will ARod and Lore come up with the next $250M layaway payment by the December deadline.

As for the team, they are going 82-0! I studied the schedule closely and I couldn't find a loss anywhere.

Don't worry. Once they lose their first game there will be plenty of people who will be pointing out dozens and dozens of games that they will lose.
 



The two burning questions as the wolves get ready to open camp are will JimPete and Michael Grady gel and will ARod and Lore come up with the next $250M layaway payment by the December deadline.

As for the team, they are going 82-0! I studied the schedule closely and I couldn't find a loss anywhere.
+o4
 

And the dismantling of the Utah Jazz continues.

The Utah Jazz are finalizing a trade to send veteran forward Bojan Bogdanovicto the Detroit Pistons for Kelly Olynyk and Saben Lee, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Bogdanovic becomes the third high-profile player traded away this offseason by the Jazz, who also parted with All-Stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell in separate blockbusters signaling the franchise's rebuild.

The 6-foot-7 Bogdanovic, who averaged 18.1 points per game last season, now joins a young Pistons team that features Cade Cunningham, the No. 1 overall draft selection in 2021, and Jaden Ivey, who was picked fifth overall this year.

Bogdanovic, 33, is a 39% career 3-point shooter and figures to improve the long-range shooting for the Pistons, who finished last season second worst in the NBA at 32.6% from beyond the arc. He has averaged 15.0 points and 3.6 rebounds in parts of seven seasons with the Jazz, Pacers, Wizards and Nets.


 

And the dismantling of the Utah Jazz continues.

The Utah Jazz are finalizing a trade to send veteran forward Bojan Bogdanovicto the Detroit Pistons for Kelly Olynyk and Saben Lee, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Bogdanovic becomes the third high-profile player traded away this offseason by the Jazz, who also parted with All-Stars Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell in separate blockbusters signaling the franchise's rebuild.

The 6-foot-7 Bogdanovic, who averaged 18.1 points per game last season, now joins a young Pistons team that features Cade Cunningham, the No. 1 overall draft selection in 2021, and Jaden Ivey, who was picked fifth overall this year.

Bogdanovic, 33, is a 39% career 3-point shooter and figures to improve the long-range shooting for the Pistons, who finished last season second worst in the NBA at 32.6% from beyond the arc. He has averaged 15.0 points and 3.6 rebounds in parts of seven seasons with the Jazz, Pacers, Wizards and Nets.


Kelly olynyk has either been traded or discussed in trade for 90% of NBA players.

Also, I can’t help feel cheated that Bogdanovoc wasn’t somehow free, with the purchase of a Gobert.
 





That's fine with me. I don't trust that these guys are going to keep our team here. Period.

Never trust A-Rod.

Never could see anybody wanting to spend more than $1B to keep the Wolves here either. Though if they can't buy the team, they can't sell it.

Besides, thought you were confident that the NBA was more interested in getting that the Expansion Fee money than in seeing teams move?
 

Never trust A-Rod.

Never could see anybody wanting to spend more than $1B to keep the Wolves here either. Though if they can't buy the team, they can't sell it.

Besides, thought you were confident that the NBA was more interested in getting that the Expansion Fee money than in seeing teams move?
The NBA won't let them move to Seattle or Vegas because those markets are next in line for expansion and will pay very lucrative expansion fees. There are plenty of other places they can go. That's always been my position.

I think it's in the NBA's best interest for a team to move every 8-10 years. The last two moves were Vancouver to Memphis and Seattle to OKC, I believe. If it happens too often it indicates instability. However, if it happens every once in a while it keeps existing markets on their toes when owners want something and wannabe markets on their toes when owners show an interest.
 

The NBA won't let them move to Seattle or Vegas because those markets are next in line for expansion and will pay very lucrative expansion fees. There are plenty of other places they can go. That's always been my position.

I think it's in the NBA's best interest for a team to move every 8-10 years. The last two moves were Vancouver to Memphis and Seattle to OKC, I believe. If it happens too often it indicates instability. However, if it happens every once in a while it keeps existing markets on their toes when owners want something and wannabe markets on their toes when owners show an interest.
great points.

Just like when they ask the City and State to build a new stadium in the coming years here
 

I must be in the minority, but I don't hate A-Rod and don't get the hand wringing over him being a part of this organization.
 

I must be in the minority, but I don't hate A-Rod and don't get the hand wringing over him being a part of this organization.

Going back to the steroid era and looking at his personal life, he's not exactly a trustworthy guy.
 
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great points.

Just like when they ask the City and State to build a new stadium in the coming years here
That's why I'm hoping the Wilfs (or somebody local) step up if and when these guys default. (BTW, a default won't be clean and neat. The missed payment will be the start of months and months of wrangling before there will be any resolution, which would be bad for the operational side of the franchise. Who's really in charge?)

Back to the point...

The Wilfs will ask for a new arena too. However, at least they've been through the wars, they have credibility as owners, they have real money and they are almost "one of us." They are less likely to move the wolves if they don't get 100% of everything.
 



A-Rod doesn't have the cash.

What percent of the team does Taylor own right now?

This will get ugly.
 


A-Rod doesn't have the cash.

What percent of the team does Taylor own right now?

This will get ugly.
The wolves will take off this year and Taylor will be glad he owns them.
 



A lot more of this interview by Britt Robson at the link

MinnPost: Have you thought much about combinations of players you want together on the floor in rotation? It seems like Ant (Anthony Edwards) and KAT (Karl-Anthony Towns) and Kyle Anderson form a natural trio and Rudy and DLo (D’Angelo Russell) and Taurean Prince would work well together just in terms of floor spacing and skill-set fits.

Chris Finch:
A little bit. Again, I’m trying not to go into the season with too many assumptions; I want to see how things unfold. I do like the combination of DLo with Rudy as much as possible, that’s kind of an obvious one. And Ant and KAT a lot, to maintain that floor-spacing for Ant. So I could see those being pivot points for everything else that we do.

MP: If you have Rudy, DLo and Kyle, there is not a lot of shooting on the floor.

CF:
No, but Kyle is so good at attacking closeouts, and you can’t speed him up. Yeah, they might tag off of him, but he is going to drive it to the paint and make the next play. To me, having spacing around a guy like Rudy is not just having shooters. If you have someone with ball skills, who can do something with it … I mean, we can also play Kyle as a point guard in that lineup, and put DLo off the ball. They might switch it – they can do a lot of different things. But the reality is that Kyle is skilled, adept and big enough to be able to find those things.

MP: Kyle is going to be pretty important, isn’t he?

CF:
Very. We picked him up before we did the trade, not even knowing – at the time we decided that we wanted him, we were debating the Rudy trade. But we just knew that this guy fills so many gaps. He’s got great size and he’s mature and he’s a good leader and he’s quiet in the way that you need and want mature players to be. And he’s serious. That was just literally nothing that wasn’t highly valued about him.

MP: Will you have another playmaker on the floor if you do run him in a quasi-point guard role, like J-Mac (Jordan McLaughlin) on the floor too?

CF:
Yeah I can see that.

MP: Then you have multiple outlets even without the shooting.

CF:
I think Jaylen Nowell, too, can be more of a playmaker for us. Jaylen is a hard-wired scorer. But he is one of those guys that can turn corners off DHOs (dribble hand-offs), pin-downs, or pick-and-roll and be able to get to the heart of the defense and make plays..

 

heard someone making this point:

after the Gobert trade, there were questions about how it would impact the team's depth.

But Connelly has rebuilt the roster to a point now where this might be the deepest Wolves team ever from top to bottom of the roster.

I mean, the Wolves have had guys like Jake Layman taking up roster spots. Now, they are signing people like Dozier - a decent player (when healthy) to a non-guaranteed contract. There could be guys playing in Iowa this year who would have been on the Wolves' active roster before.

makes it very interesting to see - as mentioned in the above article - how Finch uses this roster and how playing time is allocated.
 

Why do you say that? I do think the deal might not go through, but because Glen doesn't really want to sell....
I can't speak for TS but the reason I'm skeptical that it won't get done is that if ARod and Lore had the money they would own the team. Secondly, the cost of money is literally twice as much as when the parties entered into the agreement. Finally, whoever is going to come up with the money to fund the ARod and Lore's purchase will expect to control the asset as a condition of the investment. Lore and ARod will have to decide if they are willing to give up control and stay on as limited partners.
 




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