The Association

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor... Not Very Bright

By Craig Kwasniewski

I know, I know... sky is blue and water is wet...

But Minnesota Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, who has a long list of ill-advised moves, is at it again. This time he throws former franchise icon Kevin Garnett under the bus by accusing him of tanking last season. According to yahoo.com:

Taylor took exception to a local newspaper columnist who suggested it was time for the Wolves, who are 16-50, to start losing to improve their chances in the draft lottery.

Garnett missed the last five games of last season with a leg injury and watched his team lose its final seven games, improving its draft status along the way, before being traded to Boston in July.

Taylor said the columnist “said a little bit last year that we sort of like tanked it. I don’t think that. I don’t like that so much. I don’t like that.

“It was more like KG tanked it. I think the other guys still wanted to play. But it sure changed the team and didn’t make us (as good).”€

First off, we're talking about the one of the fiercest competitors in the history of the NBA. Unlike players like Shaq or Vince Carter, KG just doesn't know how to take games off. We're talking a player who's level of intensity could possibly have harmed previous playoff runs because of fatigue at the end of the season (the guy was spent toward the end of the 2004 Western Conference Finalist run). So the notion of KG tanking it on his own is preposterous.

Secondly, (and this is more assumption) odds are the T-Wolves front office probably told KG to "rest up and heal his injuries" at the end of last season in order to improve their chances in the lottery. Literally half of the NBA was in full-blown tank mode! It was no secret that star players on bad teams were coincidentally "going under the knife" toward the end of last season.

Glen Taylor should just shut the hell up and not draw attention to Tankapalooza 2007 (BTW - that along with the ref scandal were two huge reasons why the 2006-07 season was one of the worst in NBA history). Anyway, this is the same guy who was caught trying to broker an under-the-table deal for Joe Smith ultimately costing the T-Wolves several first round draft picks as penalty. And this is the same guy who kept Kevin McHale as GM, killing the franchise along the way.

So I'm not surprised at Taylor's actions...

Garnett out with Shaqury

By Craig Kwasniewski

2006-07 - The Year of the Tank continues as Kevin Garnett is out indefinitely with a Shaqury (fake injury). According to yahoo.com:

Vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale said Wednesday night that the injury has bothered the former MVP for months, and that Garnett and his agent decided it was time to shut it down and seek a second opinion before going forward.

McHale said Garnett will visit doctors in the next day or two and will miss at least two of the team's five remaining games. They will wait to see what the doctors say before Garnett decides if he will return at all this season.

Props to McHale for the creativity, rather than breaking out the typically boring tendonitis (made famous during the Devean George era in LA), he went with "injured right quadriceps."

So for the second year in a row, Garnett gets "injured" toward the end of the season. Here's a question for KG: Why the hell are you still in Minnesota? Seriously, do you wish to finish off your career barely missing the playoffs every season? Unless McHale starts taking genius pills like a crank addict, the Wolves will continue sailing along as the 20th best team in the NBA.

Do yourself a favor KG and demand a trade now! Do you want your legacy to be Peyton Manning's Milkman?

Kobe the Facilitator R.I.P.

By Craig Kwasniewski

(Relax Stu Jackson, Kobe is not throwing an elbow at Garnett in this photo!)

Kobe the Facilitator is dead, long live Mamba!

Gone is Kobe creating uncontested five foot jumpers for Smush Parker to brick. Gone is Kobe drawing a triple team and dishing to Brian Cook for a blown dunk. Gone is Kwame Brown dropping a hand-off from Kobe out of bounds... well actually Kwame still drops passes, they're just from Odom and Walton.

115 points in two games, but more importantly two straight wins. Look, I'm as much of a basketball purist as the next guy. I went to college in the basketball hotbed of Indiana (Purdue, BTW - the Boilermakers gave a good showing against Florida yesterday...damn!), so I appreciate the defensive game along with teamwork on offense. However, much like the Iverson-led Sixers a few years ago, the Lakers players and fans actually feed off the Kobe's energy when he's carrying the team offensively. The crowd rises (both at home and away) and the Lakers raise their defensive intensity, which has been mostly non-existent in 2007.

I noticed this first a few weeks ago when Boston came to town. The Lakers were on a six game losing streak and they needed a boost of any kind. Kobe opened with 22 points in the first quarter and the rest of the Lakers followed his lead, locking down the Celtics on their way to a 122-96 win. It was the 2005-06 Lakers all over again, Kobe going ballistic leading a talentless Laker squad (or in this case, a very injured one) to victory.

Unfortunately, Kobe went back to the facilitator role the next few games and the Lakers continued to lose.

As the past two games tell us, the Lakers need Mamba to reappear for them to have any chances to make the playoffs. Let's just hope that Kobe the Facilitator is dead a buried.

Anyway, here's a few other observations from last night's 109-102 win over Minnesota from Section 316:

Ironic Jaric: Here's something I bet you did not know; Marco Jaric wears Kobe Bryant's shoes. I saw the T-Wolves guard rocking the Nike Air Zoom Kobe I's last night. I thought he may have worn them just to taunt Mamba, but he's been wearing them all season. Maybe Kobe threw an elbow because Jaric doesn't live up to the Nike Air Zoom name.

Andrew Bynum has Mike James' number: Mike James needs to mix in a pump fake or stutter-step when driving in on Bynum. The Lakers Center rejected another drive down the lane, he's making a living blocking Mike James layup attempts.

MVP...MVP...: Can we stop with the MVP chants for Kobe Bryant? Think about it, Kobe had a way better season last year and finished 5th in the voting. This season, the Lakers have had losing streaks of six and seven games and have lost 13 of their last 18 games, not really worthy of MVP votes. So unless the Laker fans are reto-chanting for the All-Star game, they need to stop it right now.

Let's show the world we're not the dumbest fanbase and start chanting, "Keep on shooting!" clap... clap... clap-clap-clap, "Keep on shooting!" clap... clap... clap-clap-clap, or "Cu-ut Par-ker!" clap... clap... clap-clap-clap, "Cu-ut Par-ker!"

Missed Out on 65: I was in Vegas for March Madness from Wednesday to Saturday so I missed the 65 on Friday. All I can say is "damn!" I ended up watching the game sitting at a Pai Gow Poker table at the LV Hilton. There was a flat-screen TV right behind us and we kept checking the game between hands. (That turn-around three point shot was sick!!!) The tradeoff was that all of us at the table were winning big at the time. That game along with the Robert Horry shot against Sacramento are the two historic Laker games that I've missed since I got season tickets in 1999-00.

You owe me Matt!!!

Photos: Randy Foye Delivers

By Craig Kwasniewski

Here's a few pictures of Randy Foye's game winner in last night's 100-98 win over Chicago. The entire future of the franchise rests in the hands of this rookie. As long as he keeps hitting game winners like last night, Garnett will stay knowing that there is a promising future ahead.

Laker fans shouldn't panic just yet, it's a long season and there's still time enough for Eddie Griffin, Mark Blount and Ricky Davis to convert the impressionable rookie into an underachieving psycho. I'm hoping that Eddie Griffin was Foye's Secret Santa at the T-Wolves' Christmas party. Dare I say a dashboard mounted DVD player?

Anyway, here's the game winner:

Manipulating The Standings

by Brett Edwards

This is the phrase I've seen in a few places that refers to teams tanking regular season games to secure a certain position in or out of the playoffs. For example, we mentioned the fact that Minnesota seemed to be resting KG for no other reason than to secure a bottom 10 record, and therefore keep their draft pick they received in the Sam Cassell trade. This one seems serious, as the NBA is actually investigating this (see "Briefly", bottom of page).

We also have discussion of this regarding seeding in the West. Might the Clippers and Grizzlies attempt to slide from 5th to 6th to avoid Dallas (likely) or San Antonio (possibly)? The Blog Maverick discussed it, and so have many others. What hasn't been mentioned though is that it's virtually impossible for the Grizz to tank their last few games, based on their schedule.

The Grizz payed MIN at home last night, and the T'Wolves were missing KG and Ricky Davis (their two leading scorers). Result: 16-point MEM win. Tonight they play at Charlotte, whose record is only one game better than Portland, who has the worst record in the NBA. Memphis may try, but they will have a very tough time losing to CHA unless they intentionally turn the ball over like 30 times. Let's call that one a W. Their next game is at HOU, who has nobody left since now T-Mac and Yao are done for the year. Again, tough to lose that one even if they try. Next game at home versus the Clippers. As we discussed in our last podcast, we may actually see David Stern in attendance to physically threaten both teams. The Clippers though have many "injured" players, including Sam Cassell, Corey Maggette, and Vladimir Radmanovic, so they may want the L a little more. Last game for MEM is the next night at MIN, and you know how that's turning out.

I won't go into as much detail regarding the Clippers, except to say their schedule involves a home and home with Seattle, and then road games at MEM and DAL. Combine this with their current crop of "injuries" and the Clips can much more easily drop most of those games, and consequently into the 6th spot.

Look for the Clippers to face Denver and for Memphis to face Dallas (or San Antonio) in the first round of the playoffs. Either of those match-ups for the Grizz would make it extremely difficult for John Hollinger to be correct, which is just fine with us.

Betting Tip: Minnesota is Tanking

by Craig Kwasniewski

According to Sam Smith's article in the Chicago Tribune today, Minnesota is tanking their games to keep their first round pick.

The NBA should take a look at this one in the interest of the game's integrity and paying customers. Minnesota needs to have one of the top 10 poorest records to keep its draft pick. Otherwise, it goes to the Clippers from the Sam Cassell-Marko Jaric deal.

In a 103-95 loss to the Jazz at home on Friday, Garnett sat out the fourth quarter after making all of his third-quarter shots. Garnett had 13 rebounds through three quarters, and Minnesota was outrebounded 18-6 in the fourth.

Look, Minnesota sucks as it is, but I took a look at the last four games to see if there's anything unusual about the 1-3 stretch:

Charlotte 97, Minnesota 92: Garnett gets probably the last 20-20 game of the season. He drops 24 points and 22 rebounds in 39 minutes in a loss to Charlotte. Typical T-Wolves loss; good Garnett numbers yet nothing else from the rest.

Atlanta 101, Minnesota 99: The first sign of the tank job. Garnett plays only 31 minutes in a 2 point loss to ATL. He still finds the time to have 27 points and 15 rebounds, but you're telling me that a few more minutes from KG wouldn't help the Wolves win? The Hawks won off a full court play at the buzzer, but still what are the Wolves resting KG for?

Utah 103, Minnesota 95: Smith best describes what happened here. Garnett's numbers were 14 points and 13 rebounds in 24 minutes. They must be resting KG for the big ATL game... right?

Minnesota 84, Atlanta 83: Garnett pulls a "DNP - Right Knee Tendonitis" in this one. As I've learned in the Devean George era here in LA (all seven seasons!!!), tendonitis is code for "sit this one out." Before this season, the 14-16th best players on each team were kept on injured reserve due to such fabricated injuries as tendonitis.

I know I'm stating the obvious; "Minnesota sucks!" However, it seems that Minnesota is doing everything shy of playing 4 guys in trying to secure a first round pick. Just maybe some of you can make some cash out of it.

Will Heat Look Ahead Or Lay The Smack Down?

by Brett Edwards

We touched briefly on this during yesterday's podcast. The Heat take on the Pistons tomorrow night, but they still have a game to play tonight in Minnesota. So the question came up, will the Heat easily take care of an inferior T'Wolves team tonight, or is this a classic look-ahead game where they will be disinterested, and simply be all about tomorrow night's matchup?

I think the Heat will look to gain control and put tonight's game away early. They don't want to go into the Palace just having lost to a bad team, but they don't want to expend too much energy in tonight's game, since they will be (*built-in Heat excuse warning*) playing their 4th game in 5 nights when they face the Pistons. Look for the Heat to cruise to an easy win in this one.

UPDATE: I guess tomorrow's game is more important to the Heat than I thought. I turn the game on in the second quarter to see Shaq in street clothes, sitting this one out with a "sprained right thumb." MY ASS. Miami is obviously resting Shaq for tomorrow's game, and tanking tonight in the process. With all the emphasis MIA is putting on the game against the Pistons, they better win, otherwise they will be seriously psychologically damaged for the playoffs.

No Tridecaphobia Here

by Brett Edwards

Before we get to tonight's match-ups, there were 13 games last night, with plenty of items that warrant discussion. Here's a sampling of some of the events that caught our interest last night:

-The Mavs won their 10th straight game, coming from 10 down in the 4th quarter, and 3 down with 40 seconds left to beat the Grizz in Memphis. There was some D in Dallas, as they held Memphis to 13 points and 28% from the field in the 4th quarter. Predictably, Mark Cuban was excited.

-What happened to the Nuggets? After winning 11 of 13 games, including 7 straight, the hype machine was in full force, until they lost two nights in a row to the Clippers by a combined 51 points. Now they've lost 4 straight, and the wheels are coming off the Carmelo Campaign.

-It's worth mentioning that the Lakers got killed in Indiana by a squad that rolled out Scot Pollard and Jeff Foster in the starting lineup, and that featured substantial contributions from David Harrison and Danny Granger. The Lakers scored 79 points and lost by 26. It appears that unless Kobe scores 40+, L.A. is in for a long night.

- The President triple-doubled en route to the Cavs beating the Nets. LBJ was really on his game, and although he was only 8-21 from the field, he was smart enough to get to the line 12 times. As for the Nets, there was no way the wife beater was going to pull another game out of his ass like he did against Detroit the night before. In that game, J Kidd went for 23, 12, and 7, and made 5-8 3-pointers. Last night Kidd played more like he always does, which means 4-15 from the field and only 5 assists. O-ver-RAT-ed clap, clap, clap-clap-clap.

- It was Super Bowl night at The Palace, as many players from the Steelers rolled in and sat courtside. Combine this with the fact that the Pistons lost the night before, and that they were playing their new coach's former team, and the result was no surprise: an easy 14-point win for your 2005-06 Champs. I wonder if Big Ben hit the party scene again after the game?

T-Wolves-Celts... Huh?

by Craig Kwasniewski

Okay ready... set... 3-2-1 pass the trash....

Well at least I think that's what The T-Wolves and Celtics are doing. Thursday both teams consummated a Trade for the Ages. The Celtics traded Rickey Davis, center Mark Blount, point guard Marcus Banks, forward Justin Reed and two conditional second-round draft pick for Wally Szczerbiak, centers Michael Olowokandi and Dwayne Jones and a future first-round draft pick. Here's a brief rundown of the trade:

Minnesota:

I believe Minnesota already had Rickey Davis a few years ago... Isiah Rider. Both are athletic shoot-first one dimensional head cases. So why would it work now? Unless Garnett needed someone to trade mutherfucker's with during a game, I don't understand acquiring Davis.

I thought shipping "the candy man" was a real coup until I saw that Mark Blount and his bloated contract came in return. Marcus Banks is fast... that's all I keep hearing about him. Yet after three seasons in the NBA, his stats have not changed at all: 5.5 point and 1.8 assists in 15 minutes. Justin Reed? Yawn...

Boston:

I'm not a big fan of Wally Szczerbiak. I think he's overrated and gets a lot of calls from the refs because of the "great white hope" syndrome (including a shocking All-Star appearance in 2002). However, he's the best team player in this deal. He's averaging a career high 20.1 points and continues to shoot around 50% from the field. He could help solidify the Celtics starting five.

Michael Olowokandi is a waste of human flesh. The guy has no heart and little skills. Boston will only have to put up with his Benoit Benjamin-like effort for one season only as he's a free agent. No matter how well he plays out his contract, Boston should never re-sign him. Dwayne Jones? Yawn...

The hidden story, Boston stockpiling white guys in an effort to bring back some of the racist fans in Massachusetts. Brian Scalabrine, Dan Dickau, Raef LaFrentz and Szczerbiak were all acquired in the past two seasons.

Final Score:

If Boston fires Doc Rivers and actually hires a real coach, they may end up on the better end of the deal. Szczerbiak or "world" as Garnett calls him, will help Pierce out. Minnesota made a lateral move talent wise and a gruesome move contract-wise in Blount.

Boston wins in overtime

There Was A Football Game Last Night?

by Brett Edwards

Kidding, but I wish I wasn't. Here in Los Angeles there was no escaping the fact that a college football game of apocalyptic proportions involving a local team was being played last night. In case you were distracted by this event as well, here are some things that went on in the nine NBA games last night:

- Toronto won their fourth straight game by dropping 121 points on Orlando. This brings TOR's season win total to 10, and reminded me that bad teams like to run up the score whenever possible on other bad teams.

- Lebron James is good. He went for a triple double in leading the Cavs to a comeback win at Milwaukee. CLE outscored the home team by 12 in the 4th quarter to get a nice win on the road.

- Dwyane Wade also had a triple double, but it didn't matter as the NOOC Hornets blew out the Heat. Chris Paul is having a great rookie season, and the Hornets remind me of some of the Clippers teams from the past couple of years that were not that great, but often stepped up and beat the upper echelon teams at home.

- Minnesota caught a tired and disinterested Dallas team on the second night of a back-to-back, and beat them easily. Marko...Jaric....Marko....Jaric played out of his mind, and MIN was quicker to every loose ball and REALLY wanted this game, while DAL played like they didn't give a crap. KG, the overrated bitch that he is, was guarding Dirk at and beyond the 3-point line. Maybe Dirk should have gone VC against Kobe on him.