Timberwolves 2012-2013

[Scott K]

They just announced, Rubio is playing tonight!

[Scott K]

Quote:

Kevin Love (thumb) is probable to play against the Mavericks on Saturday.

After some concern with Love due to his own negative outlook, the Wolves diagnosed him with just a contusion of of his right thumb on Friday night. He has really struggled shooting the ball lately, shooting just 31.6 percent in his last five games. An injury to his shooting thumb isn't going to help, but there's absolutely no way owners can bench him.

Quote:

Ricky Rubio has officially been cleared to play and will return from knee surgery Saturday night again the Mavericks.

Rubio hasn't played since tearing his ACL on March 9, 2012. Obviously this is great news for the Wolves and for fantasy owners, but both parties will want to curtail their expectations to start. It's likely Rubio will play limited minutes while he gets into game shape and it can take players up to a year to fully recover from an ACL injury. We'll just have to wait and see how effective he is right off the bat, but Rubio should absolutely be owned in all leagues.

[Scott K]

Nice wint tonight.

[schmitty3]

Crazy how much energy Rubio brings to this team.

Rest of the year is gonna be fun!

[mrklean]

very solid win hope they can keep it up

[mr_jman]

If anything the team gets more fun to watch... The Wolves finally have a very solid supporting cast. If the team stays healthy, we are a very very deep team with a lot of talent. I think Rubio and Shved will be starting in our back court soon enough. Throw in Love, Kirilenko, and Peck and we have a solid starting lineup with experience and skill in Ridnour, and JJ as backups. Plus a sparkplug in Cunningham. And fillers that on any night can give you good productivity... (Williams, Howard, Stiemsma). I'm also excited to see if Budinger can come back and fill in the way he did starting the season!

I'm excited at the prospect of this team being a legitimate playoff contender... A trip to Orlando and Miami followed by OKC at home should be a little bit telling!

[Scott M]

Rubio was DIMING! This will be a fun group to watch, they needed to tread water, well they did more than that. Time to get healthy and make a run.

[Scott K]

The pieces are starting to fall back together after all the injuries. Not sure what to think about Love right now, but I am sure he will get his head back into the game soon, and will be contributing again.

[R. Miller]

Lotta fun watching Rubio last night..so much more energy on the floor when he's out there.

[bgreen82]

Ricky

1:01 nuff said

[Scott M]

Watching that makes me wonder if Love can get his head outta his rear...This is looking a lot like Marbury-Garnett. Two guys that are so much fun to watch but it's a fight over who is alpha dog on the court, in the bank account, etc. I remember a decade ago getting amped up watching Marbury oop to the Big Ticket and him throwing it down and screaming his head off. There was nothing better. Now you can see that again with Rubio's remarkable passing and Love's unconventional power forward game. They need a guy that can get his own shot and be the #1 and they have the makings of a championship team, if they don't disintegrate first. I believe they'd be better off with a different G.M., especially with the relationship Kahn and Love have, but we'll see if Kahn can pull out a good trade. His drafting to date has shown mixed results.

[fishersofmen]

Pek seems to be getting better all the time. The shots he pulls off amaze me sometimes. He obviously doesn't look like a very athletic or nimble guy but he can throw down some crazy shots! He may be turning in to our most valuable player. The 2 Russians were an incredible pick up this off season as well. This team is fun to watch, one thing they need to improve on that will cost them games is the free-throw shooting it almost cost them again the other night, the game shouldn't have even gone to overtime.

[Scott K]

After tonight's game, we will be having a test to see how good we really are. With playing the Heat, Thunder, and the Knicks.

Pek is a monster, and has been unstoppable. AK, I think has been the teams most valuable player thus far this year, Shved is looking like he will be our starting 2 guard, with the capability to fill in at pg when needed. JJ has become the player we hoped he was going to be when we signed him. Cunningham is turning out to be a great pickup, not only is he good on D, but he has been pretty good on offense as well. Stiemsma also playing some good D. Williams beginning to log some good minutes, and be productive, and not taking dumb shots, and making dumb turnovers.

With Rubio coming back, that brings some huge potential to the team to be that much better. Budinger will be coming back in about 6-8 weeks, and will be a huge asset.

Then if our bench players get healthy, Lee, Howard, and Roy, they will have a much better chance at staying in the games when they are resting their starters, and they can keep the starters better rested, to keep them fresh later in the year.

The big question mark to me, is the player I didnt bring up. Love, will he get his head into the game? Or will he drag the team into his drama? With everyone healthy, and Love playing like he should be, the Wolves in my eyes have the best team they have ever had, and should be able to go deep into the playoffs.

[Scott M]

I'm curious to see where Williams will get shipped. The Gasol trade is a pipe dream. We'd take on 19 million and salaries have to be within 125% of each other. We can't send out anything close to that without shipping out a ton of players or Love or AK47. It's not happening. But there are a lot of other teams that could give Williams the minutes so there should be some suitors. We'll see what develops between now and the trade deadline.

[Scott K]

I hope we just sit pat right now. I like the team we have, there is no sense getting rid Williams. I could see a Ridnour for someone though.

[schmitty3]

I'm excited for these next few games. Hopefully Love can come back and play like his old self. They are talking about sitting Rubio out the second night of the back to back Wednesday against the Heat.

[Scott K]

Love is suppose to play tonight. Rubio is scheduled to play tonight as well, then have tomorrow night off. But in an interview with Rubio, he said "that was the plan, but we will see how I feel" on Wednesday.

[bgreen82]

I'd still wait to see how things play out, but later in the year I wouldn't mind seeing a trade involving Luke/JJ and DWill for a 2 or 3 that can create his own shot. Ben Gordon has come up in peoples eyes. Not sure if we'd be getting enough back for that though.

I love Pek, but does it [PoorWordUsage] anyone else off how little he dunks on great looks inside? I've seen so many of his easy layups bounce out or get blocked when he could have easily dunked it.

[Scott K]

That was an ugly loss.

[Scott M]

Tough second half in Florida. Hope they can bounce back tomorrow night in Miami, but I doubt it. They made Big Baby look pretty darn good.

[schmitty3]

No way they should have lost that game. Ugly!

[ozzie]

Big Baby had 5 fouls pretty early and we couldn't get him to get a 6th? That was a weak performance by our squad!!! Hopefully they make tonight interesting and maybe even surprise the Heat and get a W!!

[Scott K]

Another tough one tonight. I am not very optimistic.

[EBass]

We'll loose

[bgreen82]

First half looks good. Not like we've ever heard that before...