With the All Star festivities underway in New Orleans, it’s time for mid-season awards to be handed out. First of all, I would like to give a quick recap of how our young Wolves played in last night's Rookie-Sophomore game:

• Corey Brewer watched the game with hustle and grit; rushing back and forth to his kitchen to refill popcorn (lite-no butter) at an incredible pace. He spilled a few kernels during the process but you can tell he really knows what he is doing and that he has a good future ahead of him.
• Craig Smith watched the contest at a local sports bar. Unfortunately, a larger guy was standing in front of him and he couldn't get a good view of the action. He tried using his girth to get a good viewing angle but was ultimately called for a foul by the bouncer and sent on his way.
• Randy Foye stopped into the same bar as Smith to watch the game but he kept to the perimeter of the room, trying only occasionally to make his way towards the Rhino. He tried throwing a couple of bar nuts at Smith to get his attention but he didn't really come close to hitting his big buddy. After a couple 13 or 14 failed attempts he yelled, "I run this bar!" before being escorted out of the building.
• Chris Richard...well, they don't have TV or electricity in Sioux Falls. He probably had another double-double.

Anywho...with no further delay, here are the awards:

MVP: Lebron James. Kobe Bryant gets some consideration and we’ll see how well the Lakers do if he has to miss some time, but playoff-bound Cleveland is downright unwatchable when James is out of the lineup and, oh by the way, Lebron has beat Kobe twice this year.

Rookie of the Year: (tie) Al Horford and Sean Williams. It’s not often you see two big men come into the league and be this proficient and effective on both ends of the court. There is no way chucker Kevin Durrant should win this award. He’s 6’10” with a jumper. Congratulations, you’re Keith Van Horn.

Starting 5 in the West:

1. Chris Paul
2. Kobe Bryant
3. Carmelo Anthony
4. Carlos Boozer
5. Tim Duncan

Starting 5 in the East:

1. Jose Calderon
2. Dwayne Wade
3. Lebron James
4. Kevin Garnett
5. Dwight Howard

6th Man (of all time): Manu Ginobli

Coach of the Year: Byron Scott (look who is leading the West folks)

Most Improved: Hedo Turkoglu. The guy has career highs across the board and he’s absolutely clutch. Here is a guy that many thought would be superfluous once Orlando maxed out Rashard Lewis. Not so much.

Most Disappointing Team: At first I thought Miami was the obvious choice for this award. However, after seeing how Shaq suddenly found the light in Phoenix, and how Pat Riley let some of their most important glue guys walk before the season even started, and that they actually traded for former Wolves Ricky Davis and Mark Blount, they’re really more pathetic than anything else. I’m going to have to roll with the Chicago Bulls on this one. Not only were they competing with the Wolves and Heat for the worst record in the league at one point, but they’ve completely lost whatever identity they had going for them last year. Ben Wallace is washed up, Ben Gordon is being jerked around, Tyrus Thomas is…well, even I don’t know what they’re doing with him, Luol Deng is hurt, and promising rookie Joakim Noah is averaging about 17-20 mpg. In the end, they’ll probably make the playoffs in the crappy Eastern Conference, Gordon and/or Deng will sign elsewhere, and they’ll be left with what…Kirk Hinrich and Andres Nocioni? Along with the Knicks, Heat, Sonics, and, if the Jason Kidd deal doesn’t go through, the Nets, the Bulls are one of the few teams that I honestly wouldn’t want the Wolves to trade places with. And that’s saying a lot.

Biggest Surprise: 4 1/2 games separating the 1st and 8th seeds in the Western Conference. The only saving grace for the top 8 teams is that Portland seems to be fading fast and Denver is probably the only real threat of moving up. Still, a lot could change.

Biggest Karmic Occurrence: After the Lakers ripped off Memphis for Pau Gasol, the GM’s of the Western Conference went absolutely apes#$t. Some of them went so far as to make (or propose) ridiculous trades that would mortgage their future for old, washed-up players like Shaq and Kidd. Hey, you have to keep up with the Joneses and a Andrew Bynum, Gasol, Lamar Odom, Bryant, Derrick Fisher starting 5 seemed like a pretty fierce opponent come April. Then Kobe went and jacked up his shooting hand and may require surgery. Oh, and no one really knows how Bynum will come back after rehabbing his dislocated kneecap. Meanwhile, the crazy dancing geek billionaire appears to have colluded with Jerry Stackhouse to make the Kidd-deal work and in the process he may have alienated his young point (if the deal doesn’t work), cast off 3 of his top-8 rotation (if they deal does work), and all-around FUBAR’d his franchise (either way). All for the thought of something that, thanks to a jacked-up Kobe pinky, probably won’t happen anyway. Meanwhile, deep in the heart of Texas…

Predictions:

MVP: Lebron
Rookie of the Year: Kevin Durrant (I know, this sucks)
Conference Finals: Detroit vs. Orlando and Utah vs. San Antonio
Finals: Detroit vs. San Antonio
Champions: San Antonio
Coach of the Year: Doc Rivers
Wolves final record: 16-66 (pure evil)
Wolves draft position: 4
Wolves draft pick: Kevin Love
Number of times I will bang my head on the desk if final 2 predictions come true: 3,256

That is all. Until later.

In a follow-up from the last post, here are some more mid-season awards:

• Most Promising thing about the Team Award: This is a tough award to give out. I’ve whittled it down to two things: draft picks and Big Al’s low post game. On one hand the Wolves will likely be selecting fairly high in the next 2 drafts. However, unlike last year where there were 2 dead locks in the top 2 slots, this year’s draft doesn’t have that single wow player to make the quest for the largest amount of ping-pong balls as worthwhile as it would be in other years. Furthermore, as Memphis and Boston proved last year, and to say nothing about the Wolves’ luck in past drafts, having the worst record and/or tanking it is no guarantee of draft success. If anything, this year’s draft is one where the team could be somewhat content picking in the 5-8 range as the top 6 picks will likely be college freshmen. In other words, the Wolves would likely get just as much value out of a player like DJ Augustin or Ty Lawson in the 7 slot as they would out of Derrick Rose with the number 1 pick. It’s easy to forget that Lawson was considered a right-handed version of Mike Conley during his freshman season. Lawson has returned to Chapel Hill to post some impressive numbers, to include a +3 ppr, which is a pretty damn good indicator of success at the next level (Rose has a negative ppr rating). Getting back to the question at hand, while the Wolves do have some nice picks coming their way, it is tough to get too worked up about the team selecting a franchise player in what looks to be a pretty mediocre draft…which brings us to Big Al’s low post game. Low post players typically hit their stride in their mid to late 20s and if what we have seen from the 23 year old Jefferson in his first Wolves campaign is any indication, the big fella has the potential to be a major offensive force for many years to come. From footwork to creating angles to the hoop, Jefferson can simply put the rock in the hole. While his mid range jump shot resembles a push shot a little too much, if he can learn to hit the 10-12 foot jumper, he should find increased success against larger opponents (read: centers) by taking them out of their comfort zone in the lane. Granted, his defense leaves a lot to be desired and he performs much better at the 4 than the 5, but if there is one reason and one reason alone to be excited about this current group of players, it is the dominant offensive game of this very young post player.
• Biggest Disappointment: In a 7 win season this is another category with no shortage of candidates. At first glance, I wanted to tie the winner of this award to on-court performance. After all, as much as the current state of affairs is the result of poor front office decisions, what’s done is done and there is no use in crying over spilt milk, right? Wrong. As crappy as things have been on-court, there is some truth to the assertion that this is a young team with a lot of players who have never played together before. There’s also a lot of truth in the ineffectiveness of a product that has had 2 of its most important starters out of the lineup for nearly the entire season….which brings me back to a front office decision. The single biggest disappointment for the Wolves was when they selected Corey Brewer with the 7th pick in the 2007 Draft. This award has nothing to do with Mr. Brewer the player. He’s a smart player, I like his game, and I think he will grow into a fine pro. What was disappointing about the pick is that by failing to move KG before the draft, the Wolves lost an important opportunity to pick a player that would compliment their future rebuilding plans. As any T-Wolf fan can tell you, one of the things that this team needs more than anything else is a big man to compliment Jefferson in the low post; a big athletic guy who can rebound and defend while doing the ever-cliched little things. You know, someone like Joakim Noah or Sean Williams. I know that the KG trade happened well after draft day but by postponing the deal the Wolves lost a full year of draft rebuilding potential when they selected a wingman…which they then received 2 more of in the KG trade itself. Again, this has nothing to do with Brewer the player. It has everything to do with a front office that seems to be flying by the seat of its pants while telling everyone they have a plan, and that is the biggest disappointment of them all.

Letter Grades:

• Al Jefferson: B. Big Al would warrant an A if his impressive offensive numbers weren’t completely negated by poor defense. While he’s capable of racking up 39 and 15, he’s just as capable of letting his opponent go 14-16 from the floor while racking up a negative +/- number. That being said, Al has never played for a decent squad so it’s hard to gauge just how much of the problem is of his doing. Not even 5 man rotation stats can provide a window into this important question. Stats to watch for: PER: 22.74, Reb-r: 19.1, FT/FG: 20.
• Sebastian Telfair: B-. Coming into the season, the 22 year old point was viewed as a gun-toting left over in the KG trade. After Randy Foye went down with a kneecap injury, Bassy stood up and straight-out won the starting point slot from Marko Jaric. While he’ll never be known as a great shooter (witness his 25% 3pFG%), he is shooting 40% from the floor while drastically improving his shot selection in the last 10 games. Overall he’s giving the team 9.6 points, 6 assists, and only 2 turnovers per game. In the last 5 games it has been especially noticeable that Bassy has forsaken the outside shot (only 6 3ptA) in favor of penetration, passing and mid-range jumpers. In that short stretch, he’s averaged 12 ppg, 7.4 apg, and only turned the ball over 7 times while shooting over 50% from the floor. This is a sign of a player realizing the strengths and weaknesses of his game. If Bassy continues to massively limit his outside shots while keeping the assist/turnover rate where it is, the Wolves can legitimately feel good about going into next season with a competent point on the roster. Stats to watch for: PER: 10.55, PPR: 6.0, TO-r: 10.7, AST-r: 32.0, eFG: 42.3%.
• Ryan Gomes: B-. As much as one can get worked up over his play of late (17 pts, 6.6 reb, and 52% from the floor over the past 10 games), Gomes did not have a good start to the year and there was a period in early December where he was absolutely non-existent. Gomes is a nice player to have on a team; he’s versatile and hard working and he seems to have a very high basketball IQ. Stats to look for: PER: 15.58, Reb-r: 11.1, eFG: 49.5%.
• Rashad McCants: C. I really wanted to give Shaddy a B. He is the Wolves’ only decent perimeter threat and he has a dynamic arsenal at his disposal on the offensive end. However, there are just too many times where the Wolves’ offensive flow comes to a grinding halt when the guy gets the ball in his hands. He has played better defense of late but still needs to cut down on silly hack fouls 60 feet from the basket. Stats to look for: PER: 14.26, 3p%: 41.8, ppr: -3.6, Reb-r: 6.5, FT/FG: 12.

More later.

How about that?! 2 in a row. Not only did the Wolves win their 2nd home game against the best team in the West, but they did so in...wait, it's kind of weird to say this...dominating fashion. With 13 and 8 from Bassy, 15 and 10 from Marko, 13 from Corey Brewer off the bench, and 39 and 15 from Big Al, it was a top-to-bottom thing of beauty.

I'm not sure the small-ball lineup will work against teams not named Phoenix or Golden State, but it was nice to see a crisp 8 man rotation that maximized the talent on the floor.

There were a few statistical points of interest during the game: the Wolves went 46-92 from the floor while Phoenix was 42-75. For the Wolves, this has typically meant that they got blown away at the line but they out-dueled the Suns at the charity stripe (22-34) to (13-13). The Wolves absolutely slaughtered the Suns on the boards, grabbing nearly 20 more than the visiting club. They also won the turnover battle 16-10. In short, they out played the Suns at their own game; a quick pace matched with few turnovers and a high FG%.

Finally, despite his 39 points and 15 rebounds, Big Al was -4 for the night. In 35:18 Big Al racked up a negative +/-. How does that happen? It gets even weirder when you consider that Marko was +8 in 45:38. Oh well. We all know he can't play defense and I'm not going to dwell on a negative after 2 in a row.

Speaking of bad things to say, I was all set to run my mid-season awards in this morning's post but since the team won I don't want to put any negatives down. Sooooooo...here's a few of the awards; the good ones:

• Wolf of the Year- This one’s a no-brainer. With 20 ppg, 12, rpg, and a PER of 22.1, Al Jefferson is far and away the best player on the Wolves squad. It isn’t a competition. The man is a beast and when allowed to play his natural position, he has shown signs of being the type of player you can build a franchise around. Just keep him away from the 5. RUNNER UP: Ryan Gomes.
• Biggest Surprise of the Year: We all know the Wolves front office has some serious issues. For whatever reason, the team entered the season with Randy Foye and Marko Jaric at the point. When Foye went down with injury, Marko showed us once again that he wasn’t up to the job and in stepped Sebastian Telfair to bail the team out. A career 38% shooter, Bassy is currently flirting with 40% from the floor while giving the team 6 assists and only 2 turnovers a game. Widely viewed as a left-over in the KG trade, this 22 year old point has shown drive and improvement during his first year in a Wolves uniform and even though the team is only 6-34, he bailed out the failings of the front office more than any other player. I’ll make no bones about it: Bassy is my favorite Timberwolf and he deserves a good look at a 3-4 year deal this off-season. RUNNER UP: Antoine Walker.
• Coach of the Year: Jerry Sichting. With head coach Randy Wittman out with a back injury, Sichting led the Wolves to a near miracle comeback against Atlanta and the win-of-the-year against the Suns. The rotations were sensible, the matchups were sound, and the Wolves were competitive. RUNNER UP: Antoine Walker. (Seriously, have you seen what Gerald Green does when they’re on the court together? Plus, I can’t in good conscience give this award to Witt.)
• Best Starting Lineup: Sebastian Telfair, Rashad McCants, Ryan Gomes, Al Jefferson, and Theo Ratliff. Unfortunately, Ratliff has been out nearly the entire year, leaving the most functional lineup as Telfair, McCants, Brewer, Smith, and Jefferson. Of course that little ditty only works against Nelly Ball and Phoenix so the actual starting lineup award goes to Bassy, Jaric, Shaddy, Gomes, and Big Al...which again only works against Nelly Ball.
• Individual performance of the year: Would it be too homerish of me to give another award to Bassy? Well, tough. During the Dec 21st victory over the Indiana Pacers, Bassy scored 27 points on 11-18 shooting; dishing out 11 assists with only 1 turnover while guiding the Wolves to their largest scoring total of the year (131 points). Oh, he also played all 48 minutes. Amazingly enough, this game wasn’t the result of Bassy playing out of the box; he did not attempt a single 3 and the majority of his shots were in the lane. This game shows what Bassy can do when he trades the outside shot for penetration, mid range jumpers, and collapsing the defense. RUNNER UP: Big Al’s 32 effort against Phoenix on December 8th.
• Four Factor of the Year: Rebounding. Thanks in large part to Big Al, the Wolves average 42 boards/game, 12.4 of them on the offensive glass. All in all, the Wolves hold a 0.4 rebounds/game advantage over their opponents. Imagine what they’d do with a real center.

Until later.