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There's a lot of articles about the rookies (williams and Rubio)
about Loves surgery
about Beasleys offseason training,
Wes Johnsons and AR.
even Lazars.
where the hell is darko?
is he seriously in Serbia doing the same prep he does every offseason? if so I am very disapointed.
Anyone have any info?

Didn't he just have his second kid? I expect he spending the summer with his family, doing his workout when he doesn't have to travel and be away all the time. Ridnour just had a child, too, right? No mention of his whereabouts.

Those dudes are all young millionaires with nothing tying them down. They can come and go as they please.

EddyCool wrote:Didn't he just have his second kid? I expect he spending the summer with his family, doing his workout when he doesn't have to travel and be away all the time. Ridnour just had a child, too, right? No mention of his whereabouts.

Those dudes are all young millionaires with nothing tying them down. They can come and go as they please.

Darko's 26 (maybe still 25).
I sympathise he had a kid, but he's also someone who has a long way to go in terms of unlocking his potential and proving the doubters wrong.
Last season he came into the season out of shape and unprepared, I will be supremly disapointed if that happens again, and will have trouble feeling sympathetic towards him.
Call me callous but training a few hours a day shouldn't be too much to ask. Couldn't he easily bring his family to Minnesota and spend time with them here?

Are you confusing last season when he came into camp in great shape or are you talking about the season we traded for him when he was on the Knicks. You can call him out for his bumps and bruises he somehow gets bad enough to hold him out of some games, but the guy was absolutely in a great shape last season. I would expect the same regiment of more endurance, less weights.....just as he did last year. His problem isn't his physicality, it always has been and will always be between the ears for him. Even if he never gets it, which he probably won't, he's still an excellent back up center.

digitaldropoff wrote:Are you confusing last season when he came into camp in great shape or are you talking about the season we traded for him when he was on the Knicks. You can call him out for his bumps and bruises he somehow gets bad enough to hold him out of some games, but the guy was absolutely in a great shape last season. I would expect the same regiment of more endurance, less weights.....just as he did last year. His problem isn't his physicality, it always has been and will always be between the ears for him. Even if he never gets it, which he probably won't, he's still an excellent back up center.

Full disclosure (I'm a huge Darko fan)
I think you're confusing last season a little bit as well. I remember discussions during the yera when Kahn said he felt Darko DIDN'T play enough basketball in the offseason. Either way I do have a link here
http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/news/si ... 04_14.html

where Kahn says Darko needs to “play basketball all summer and to get in basketball shape with mind and body”

With Randolph coming in and our team looking to run more (as well as an almost trade for Bynum etc.) Darko has to come into training camp and earn his starting spot. It may be a 4 year contract but this coming season really does feel like his last chance

teven_1 wrote:Darko's 26 (maybe still 25).
I sympathise he had a kid, but he's also someone who has a long way to go in terms of unlocking his potential and proving the doubters wrong.
Last season he came into the season out of shape and unprepared, I will be supremly disapointed if that happens again, and will have trouble feeling sympathetic towards him.
Call me callous but training a few hours a day shouldn't be too much to ask.

There's nothing saying he's not training. It would say it's probably best to assume that he is.

Couldn't he easily bring his family to Minnesota and spend time with them here?

He shouldn't have to. The only guy in the group that it sounds is going to be in Minnesota come July would be Randolph, and I'm not sure that's even true. Even if it is, it's because he's working out with JB. Maybe Martell, too; it sounded like he was around. I expect Love, Beasley, Wes, Derrick, and Lee will go back to LA to resume their individual programs, and Ricky is going back to Spain shortly, I believe.

All of the stuff we've been seeing is really a kind of, "hey, how are ya?" and promotional opportunity. No reason Darko (or Luke, Pek, Wayne, etc) need to jet here for 2 days to be on YouTube.

Well then don't say out of shape and not prepared. The guy was in here ready to run....prepared basketball wise...probably not. But news flash on Darko.....the reason he is Darko is because he's never going to be all "there". If he's in shape enough to run for 20-25 minutes, which he was, that's all I can ask out of the neverending failure.

EddyCool wrote:

teven_1 wrote:Darko's 26 (maybe still 25).
I sympathise he had a kid, but he's also someone who has a long way to go in terms of unlocking his potential and proving the doubters wrong.
Last season he came into the season out of shape and unprepared, I will be supremly disapointed if that happens again, and will have trouble feeling sympathetic towards him.
Call me callous but training a few hours a day shouldn't be too much to ask.

There's nothing saying he's not training. It would say it's probably best to assume that he is.

Couldn't he easily bring his family to Minnesota and spend time with them here?

He shouldn't have to. The only guy in the group that it sounds is going to be in Minnesota come July would be Randolph, and I'm not sure that's even true. Even if it is, it's because he's working out with JB. Maybe Martell, too; it sounded like he was around. I expect Love, Beasley, Wes, Derrick, and Lee will go back to LA to resume their individual programs, and Ricky is going back to Spain shortly, I believe.

All of the stuff we've been seeing is really a kind of, "hey, how are ya?" and promotional opportunity. No reason Darko (or Luke, Pek, Wayne, etc) need to jet here for 2 days to be on YouTube.

This. Nobody is going to be working out with the team starting July 1. The doors will be locked. It will be up to everyone to do their individual workouts and stay in shape. Training camp probably won't even start until December so there really is not need for Darko to come over here to sit around. That said, hopefully he is training by playing basketball and not just running around in the hills.

EddyCool wrote:There's nothing saying he's not training. It would say it's probably best to assume that he is.

fine, but it seems like most offseasons he just runs in the serbian mountains. As I wrote "where the hell is darko?" I was wondering if anyone had any info/articles about his offseason training.
All I'm saying is there are a lot of great tournaments guys like Durant and others perform in. Darko could really benefit from playing in a more loose street ball environment where he could put up a lot of points and show case his handles/athleticism. He'd also be going against pretty good competition and some NBA players. There are many talented players in Serbia and coaches. I just hope he's utilizing that.

digitaldropoff wrote:Well then don't say out of shape and not prepared. The guy was in here ready to run....prepared basketball wise...probably not. But news flash on Darko.....the reason he is Darko is because he's never going to be all "there". If he's in shape enough to run for 20-25 minutes, which he was, that's all I can ask out of the neverending failure.

I remember the opposite. He seemed winded early on in the season. I also remember many discussions about this.
Again I'm not hating on Darko. I would just really like to see him take advantage of his opportunity here and take a big step forward next year.

C.lupus wrote: Training camp probably won't even start until December so there really is not need for Darko to come over here to sit around. That said, hopefully he is training by playing basketball and not just running around in the hills.

Those are my sentiments as well. I want to see him train hard over the off season regardless of where he is. That's all.

I started this thread to primarily find out if anyone had any info.

Bump~

How do you guys rate Darko's performance so far? Except for the last game I think he looked pretty solid, and even in the last game he didn't do too bad defensively. Thoughts?

Definitely better than last season. He hasn't been as much of a blocking presence like last year but I expect him to catch up again.

However, under Adelman he makes noticably less dumb turnovers which is the main improvement I see. We don't need him to produce many points. If he can give us 20 minutes rim protection a night then I'm fine with him. He doesn't have the offensive game to consistantly score 10+ ppg and at some point in his career you have to accept that he won't get better on that end anymore. If he scores on easy putbacks and assisted baskets then I'm fine with that.

Honestly, there are worse starting Centers in the league. Unless we find an upgrade I'm perfectly fine with giving Darko 20-25 mpg.
We need more points from our wing players, though. Beasley won't shoot that bad forever but with Wes Johnson I'm close to giving up on him even if he defends much better than Beasley.