Wolves Letter in Strib

[shrink]

I assume that since the team paid to run this ad on the back of the star tribune sportspage, that they won't mind me posting it in it's entirety:

The time for talk is over

Okay, not quite. Right after this long-winded letter. Because we do have a lot of good things to talk about.

Fourteen months ago we laid out a plan: First, we would become a running team that plays an exciting un-tempo style of basketball. Second, we would get younger in order to build a team that could improve together and compete for a number of years. Third, we would instill a culture of hard work throughout our organization. Fourth, transparency. We’ll always let you know exactly what’s going on, occasionally via long-winded letters.

That was our plan over a year ago and it hasn’t changed on iota. In the off-season we added young, athletic wind players Wesley Johnson, Martell Webster and Lazar Hayward. They join Jonny Flynn, Corey Brewer and Wayne Ellington as guys who can get up and down the floo quickly and shoot the ball from the perimeter. We re-signed Darko Milicic and added Nikola Pekovic, giving us two more up-tempo big men to run with one of the best outlet passers in the game, Kevin Love. We took advantage of our cap room to acquire a potential star in Michael Beasley, who was the number one prospect in his high school class of 2007 and averaged 26 points and 12 rebounds in his one college season. And finally, we added Luke Ridnour, a push-the-pace player who becomes the team’s elder statesman at the age of 29.

We now have more shooting, athleticism and depth at every position, which will make us a better team this season. So will we challenge for the NBA championship this year?

No likely.

Ouch. This honesty thing is a bit painful. But the reality is, we still need that one dominant player.

It’s possible that that player could already be on our roster. We have eight guys who were selected in the top seven picks of their respective drafts, and the average age of those players is 22. So the potential is there for someone to emerge. But in case that doesn’t happen, we’ll continue to manage our salary cap so that we have the flexibility to make that one move that can change a franchise.

We are confident, however, that this team will be exciting to watch. For the first time in years Wolves fans are going to fell like they’re missing out if they aren’t in the arena. So in addition to player development we’re working hard on fan development, starting with variable pricing and Flex Pack ticket packages that let you pick the games and seats that you want. The bottom line for fans is: We’re making it easier than ever for you to be part of our turnaround.

There’s been a lot of talk this off-season. The naysayers certainly have been vocal. And while we can understand a certain amount of skepticism, we know we’ve turned the corner. And we’re anxious to get after that first tipped ball so we can start to prove it.

Enough talk. It’s time to play.

Oh, wait. We forgot to talk about Rubio.

Next time.

[Klomp]

We took advantage of our cap room to acquire a potential star in Michael Beasley, who was the number one prospect in his high school class of 2007 and averaged 26 points and 12 rebounds in his one college season.

To me, that sounds like hes a starter. The only question is where...

Oh, and heres a link:

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/spor ... pt-13-2010

[mnWI]

We took advantage of our cap room to acquire a potential star in Michael Beasley, who was the number one prospect in his high school class of 2007 and averaged 26 points and 12 rebounds in his one college season.

To me, that sounds like hes a starter. The only question is where...

Oh, and heres a link:

http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/spor ... pt-13-2010

I find it amusing how they spin irrelevant things (especially when they aren't true) to provide optimism towards players. The only recruiting service that had Michael Beasley rated as the number 1 prospect in his high school class was rivals.com. If you look at his RSCI (compilation of all the scouting services), Beasley was 4th. And to show you how irrelevant high school hoops resumes are in the grand scheme of things, I would like to also mention that Ndudi Ebi was also ranked 4th in his class on th RSCI list. (Note for those without logic: I'm not saying Beasley=Ebi, I'm just saying high school rankings are about the most meaningless thing you can bring up when it comes to evaluating a player's body of work).

[Klomp]

Isn't Rivals the number one scouting service though?

[dunkonu21]

and i dont care if it's only three spots difference, being rated number 1 is different.

[GopherIt!]

there are lies, damn lies and statistics! I was feeling so good after reading this letter but you had to go and burst my bubble didn't you MNwi?

[Breakdown777]

What I don't understand is...why not just say "2nd overall pick". They were trying to be clever by bringing up something many don't know (but even more don't care about).

I wonder who wrote this. They sure do have a sence of humor.

Sure we are younger, more athletic, and better shooters. The thing that scares me about this team is that it's all new players again, with an impossible system (well, impossible for everyone but Darko apparently). This means tons of Turnovers and sloppy play, which leads to not much "exciting" offense. I'd rather see them score 40% of the time than see them make a spectacular play 10% of the time. Hopefully the new guys are smart enough to figure out the system quickly.

And no mention of Anthony Tolliver bums me out.

[mnWI]

Isn't Rivals the number one scouting service though?

Number 1 in terms of what? If it's accuracy in predicting the success of recruits, hell no. If you're talking about readership it's up there, but probably has similar numbers to Scout and ESPN.

[Klomp]

What I don't understand is...why not just say "2nd overall pick". They were trying to be clever by bringing up something many don't know (but even more don't care about).

I wonder who wrote this. They sure do have a sence of humor.

Sure we are younger, more athletic, and better shooters. The thing that scares me about this team is that it's all new players again, with an impossible system (well, impossible for everyone but Darko apparently). This means tons of Turnovers and sloppy play, which leads to not much "exciting" offense. I'd rather see them score 40% of the time than see them make a spectacular play 10% of the time. Hopefully the new guys are smart enough to figure out the system quickly.

And no mention of Anthony Tolliver bums me out.

It really isn't that many new players if you think about who we lost. Gomes and Sessions were the only pieces of any worth last year no longer with the team (sorry DW, not talking game one). No one was a huge fan of Gomes' play last year, and Sessions is not a great fit for the offense we run. I'd rather have these guys learning the offense than going through another year with the likes of Jawai, Pavlovic, Cardinal, Pecherov, Hollins, etc. on our key bench rotation.

Oh yeah, I guess we lost Jefferson too....

[BrooklynBulls]

Isn't Rivals the number one scouting service though?

No, I believe it's #2.

[Calinks]

Why do they keep telling us that Darko is an athletic big that runs the floor? They act like he's Amare Stoudmire or Chris Anderson or something. They keep selling that crap. I don't know how great Pekovic will be at running the floor either.

[Devilzsidewalk]

I really hope those typos in the Fox link aren't printed in the newspapers

[shrink]

Oh yeah, I guess we lost Jefferson too....

I found his omission strange too.

We now have more shooting, athleticism and depth at every position, which will make us a better team this season. So will we challenge for the NBA championship this year?

No likely.

Ouch. This honesty thing is a bit painful. But the reality is, we still need that one dominant player.

Perhaps they should add, "Oh, BTW, we traded away the closest thing we had to a dominant player last year for a couple picks and cap space.

[Worm Guts]

and i dont care if it's only three spots difference, being rated number 1 is different.

He was ranked number 1 by a major recruiting service. That makes the statement true enough for what this is. This letter is for marketing purposes, it's not supposed to be an objective look at the state of the Timberwolves.

[funkatron101]

I really hope those typos in the Fox link aren't printed in the newspapers

Your new Av is fascinating.

[Krapinsky]

It's a little over the top for me. It reads like a college intern or Jonah Bellow (no offense to him) wrote it, not anyone from the Wolves front office.

[Klomp]

viewtopic.php?f=24&t=1052432

[Klomp]

Let me just say this. Maybe its just cultural differences between Minnesotans and New Yorkers, but I appreciate this from Kahn. Unrealistic optimism is what got the Jets where they are today and the Knicks with just Amare. Both had high expectations, both had dreams shattered overnight.

We know we sucked last year. We know theres a good chance we will suck this year. I'd rather just say it than give fans expectations that simply aren't realistic.

[john2jer]

and i dont care if it's only three spots difference, being rated number 1 is different.

Dear God I hope the sarcasm I picked up in this comment was actually there because it caused me to LOL at work.

[Klomp]

Around the Horn just talked about it. Two of the three liked the honesty. The other one took objection with being excited about Darko and for citing Beasley's college statistics.