The Minnesota Timberwolves certainly have kept themselves busy this off season. In a off season they thought would be key to keeping Kevin Love took a sudden wrong turn when a certain star recruited him to Cleveland. No reason to be bitter though in Minnesota apparently, according to Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press The Timberwolves have already sold 300 season ticket packages in the last week. This is quite a surprise considering once teams lose their superstar it takes a little while to rebuild and we’ve all obviously seen teams go through the dreaded rough stretch after a teams success or failure to build a championship contender, and with those droughts you see it in the stands usually as well. It’s a good thing for The NBA and The Timberwolves organization too since we all want to see one thing and that’s a competitive league and longevity for a team to stay in one city.
More from Jon Krawcynski’s article (AP):
‘The organization, from president-level on down has just been re-energized,” Timberwolves senior vice president and chief revenue officer Ryan Tanke said. “Part of it is hope, and you have this great new hope.
‘But then there’s also the reality, which is it was a long, tough summer. For it to come to the head that it came to and have it be the outcome that we had, I think it creates this perfect storm environment for us.’
One factor that plays into this for is the heartbreak Minnesota fans that have no choice, but to go along with Owner Glen Taylor’s failure to get a regime to successfully build a winning team. Until 1995 the team struggled to put a decent roster on the floor from a night to night basis (Taylor purchased team in 1994). Finally, Kevin Garnett was taken with the Wolves first round pick and that’s where the only success the teams had came from and shortly after he was traded the future looked bleak. Kevin Love may have not taken the team to the promise land, but he certainly is not the only one at fault considering the talent around him wasn’t something to brag about. The franchise has traded away talents like Ray Allen, Brandon Roy, Ty Lawson, and drafting Derrick Williams #2 (although it was a weak draft class) just shows the franchise has shot themselves in the foot multiple times over a decent time span.
This is not a bash fest on The Timberwolves, but if anyone could use a break it’s the fans of Minnesota. Through the playoff losses and Garnett losing which I think hurt Garnett just as much as it did the fans they’ve seen a lot of negativity happen. With the new and improved nucleus the Wolves have acquired things are looking up, and it’s clear the city wants to get behind this team and the players. With the potential of an Andrew Wiggins who we all saw already has given us a small sample size of what he can do, and Anthony Bennett who certainly had the odds stacked against him in Cleveland based on minutes and coming into the season out of shape gets a fresh start with a teammate he’s familiar with and looked great in summer league.
Anthony Bennett is certainly no Kevin Love (who is though), but I full expect him to bounce back this season and give us some highlight dunks more importantly though I think he will be a productive double double guy. He showed some good production towards the end of last season for Cleveland and he carried that over into the summer league where he had less of the deer in the headlights look to him. The steal of the trade I think was Minnesota receiving Thaddeus Young who sadly was a casualty of the 76ers 2013-2014 season. Young has been a pretty consistent post player in his 7 year career.
Minnesota dealt with their share of bumps and bruises along the way after losing two stars, but one things is for sure things are shaping up. If Flip Saunders can draft another piece or two and help Ricky Rubio develop further and help him reach his potential Minnesota might be in store for some exciting times.
