Not much has gone right for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the last twenty plus years.
They had a brief flirtation with success during the Flip Saunders and Kevin Garnett years, but the well has been almost completely dry otherwise. The frustration was palpable this spring when general manager David Kahn went over the edge expressing his concerns with the NBA lottery.
The Cleveland Cavaliers garnered the top pick this season and Kahn insinuated that the result was due to anything but the randomness of the ping pong balls. The team will presumably pick up forward Derrick Williams from the Arizona Wildcats after the Cavaliers take Kyrie Irving from Duke. This is not horrible news because the experts do believe that the two at the top of the draft have a large separation from the rest of the field.
Ricky Rubio has been playing professional basketball in Europe since the time in his life when most of his counterparts were simply worried about their latest text message or their current acne treatment. Much like his fellow countryman Rafael Nadal, he lost his childhood to the world of professional sports. Many of you readers out there are thinking, “awwww, poor little rich kid.”
But these scenarios can have disastrous outcomes. Reference Jennifer Capriati. After the Timberwolves selected Rubio with the fifth overall pick in 2009, he promptly signed a six year contract with Barcelona. Wouldn’t you think that the team brass would have had an inkling of his future intentions before spending such a high pick on someone who doesn’t want to play for them? His averages of six points and four assists in twenty three minutes this season for Regal FC are anemic numbers for a point guard who has been compared to Pistol Pete Maravich.
Rubio’s diminutive stature is a concern also. If he had intentions of playing in the NBA, why hasn’t he hit the weight room harder over the last couple of years? Every coach in the NBA, except Mike D’Antoni, will tell you that defense is the number one concern on the court. Who is Rubio going to guard? He does have the quickness to stay with anyone, but larger point guards will post him up all day long. Brandon Jennings was an anomaly with the Milwaukee Bucks, not the rule. Success leads to further success and Rubio’s lack of it in the Spanish league is a major concern.
In typical Timberwolves fashion, they announce the signing in the same month that the collective bargaining agreement is due to expire. The Association recently decided that the summer league in Las Vegas is now officially cancelled. Lebron James has uttered the word “contraction” in relation to Minnesota and then denied even knowing what it means. I haven’t utilized a word without knowing its meaning since British Literature in the eleventh grade. The moral of the story is that things just keep spiraling downward for this organization. Attractive free agents will continue to want to take their talents to places like South Beach because Minnesota has a horrible climate and no tradition of winning.
–Patrick Herbert