A while back I wrote a post called Building the Blazers. You can read it here.

The main point of the post was to show that this year's Wolves squad has a historical precedent in the 2005-06 Blazers (it's really eerie how similar they are) and that Minnesota's front office should take some cues from Portland in rebuilding a squad that can compete in the West.

Without beating too much on the dead horse of moving Theo Ratliff's deal, one of the main reasons for moving that large of a contract instead of just letting it expire is to take a lesson from Portland and operate over the luxury cap until the team can operate freely in the free agent market.

Who here among us remembers this (highlights are mine)?

Whether the man with the expiring $11.6 million salary slot plays again for the Wolves beyond this season, his return to good health after knee surgery for the season's final 30 games would allow management to see how a bonafide shot-blocker fits among the pieces the team has assembled in its rebuilding efforts.

"If you say it fits beautifully, then it becomes a major, major priority," said Kevin McHale, Wolves vice president of basketball operations. "If you decide it's not a monumental change, then you say, 'OK, there are a lot of teams who are very successful who don't have that shot-blocker in the middle.' It's going to be a chance for us to see what impact that particular type of player has on our team."

What a day for the home team.

First off, the Wolves pulled a Darryl Dawkins and sent Gerald Green's shoes a'packin' to Houston for the slightly larger expiring contract of Kirk Snyder and a 2nd round pick in 2010. Ho-um. Secondly, The Wolves held on to the expiring contract of Theo Ratliff, apparently in an attempt to see how Al Jefferson would play with a shot-blocker:

"If you say it fits beautifully, then it becomes a major, major priority," said Kevin McHale, Wolves vice president of basketball operations. "If you decide it's not a monumental change, then you say, 'OK, there are a lot of teams who are very successful who don't have that shot-blocker in the middle.' It's going to be a chance for us to see what impact that particular type of player has on our team."

Ah yes, because when it comes down to it, most teams don't really know if it's a major priority to have a big guy who can play defense opposite of a defensively-challenged power forward. Your Minnesota Timberwolves front office, ladies and gentlemen: where nonsense happens.

Compounding the day's lack of $11 million expiring contracts being moved, the Bulls made one of the most curious trades in recent memory: sending Ben Wallace and Joe Smith to the Cavs for Larry Hugues and Drew Gooden (and filler). Really? That was the price for Big Ben? The worst contract in the league for the second worst one and Drew frickin' Gooden? Wow. Did the Bulls get as much back from the Cavs as they could have received from the Wolves for Theo Ratliff, Rashad McCants, Craig Smith, and a 2009 1st rounder for Big Ben and Joakim Noah? Did the Wolves even attempt to make a call to work out a deal that could have included anyone from Andres Nocioni to Chris Duhon? Who knows? What I do know is that Chicago handed away Wallace for absolute garbage. They hated the guy and wanted him gone. The Wolves could have offered a better package in an attempt to get exactly the type of player they need on the squad: a hustling, rebounding, interior passing big man who doesn't need to have plays run for him to be effective. You know, Joakim Noah.

Back to the action.

The Wolves have played 2 solid, entertaining, and worthwhile games in a row by passing (51 assists), rebounding (79), not turning the ball over a ton (27), and shooting 50% (81-162) from the floor. What did our Beloved Puppies in with San Antonio? (22-26) vs. (12-17) from the line. That's it. The Wolves outshot the Spurs, tied them in turnovers, were slightly out-rebounded, and absolutely destroyed at the line. Outside of Big Al and Shaddy, this team has nobody who can get to the line on a regular basis. Earlier in the year I wrote about the possibility of Randy Foye getting 3-4 additional FTA/game but he hasn't yet shown the ability to get to the stripe like he did in his rookie season. Free throws, free throws, free throws. It's killed them all year long.

Speaking of Foye, it's officially time to retire the Fourth Quarter Foye nonsense. When it comes to getting r' done in the last period, Randy is not the droid you are looking for. I realize that this little moniker came about in the era of KG's 4th quarter struggles, but it's time to hand over the big-time shots and expectations to Big Al. Foye spent the 4th quarter against the Spurs getting torched by a real 4th quarter threat: Manu Ginobili. Take a look at Manu's clutch stats at 82Games. Now take a look at Foye's 2006-07 clutch numbers. No. Comparison.

On last 2 Wolves possessions, instead of having Sebastian Telfair bring the ball up the court and enter it into Big Al (which had been a solid combo all night long), 4th Quarter Foye dribbled into impossible shots and either missed a wide-open pass on the pick-and-roll or was forced to kick it out to the poor-shooting Bassy. Had the right player had the ball in his hands, I feel quite confident in saying that Bassy would have either converted the pick-and-roll or...get this...kicked it back out to Foye for the potential game winning three pointer. Instead, Randy Wittman allowed the team's final 2 offensive possession to be dictated more by the marketing department than by actual conditions on the court.

Oh well, at least he didn't run out a Brewer, Gomes, Bassy, Jaric, Big Al lineup when a 3 pointer was needed.

All-in-all, it was a frustrating day for being a Wolves fan. They had San Antonio beat and they lost because they stopped doing what kept them in the game in the first place: good ball movement combined with Big Al's offense. They got rid of Gerald Green but failed to move their biggest asset while teams like Chicago clearly showed that Theo's contract had some return value. All I can hope for is that the team starts to learn from their mistakes. Bassy should be the point from start to finish and Foye should be the one waiting out on the 3 point line for the kickout. The front office should...well, I'll start taking Finewein's advice: I'm not going to get worked up about that anymore as it's never, ever going to make any sense.

Since fantasy is a much better option than the Wolves’ current state of affairs, let me engage in a bit of wishful thinking about the far-off possibility of the Blue and Green having something to offer another Association team for something meaningful in return. What do the Wolves have that other teams need? Thanks to wd’s post about finding a running mate for Big Al, this is the best I could come up with:

To the Chicago Bulls:

1. Theo Ratliff
2. Antoine Walker
3. Craig Smith

To the Minnesota Timberwolves:

1. Joakim Noah
2. Ben Wallace

Why would this work?

First of all, the salary numbers match up—which is an accomplishment by itself in the NBA. Secondly, while the Wolves would be gaining a young true center, the Bulls would be jettisoning one of the worst free agent salaries in recent memory. Smith would probably require a sign and trade to make this deal happen, but the Bulls would be receiving $12 million off the books in 2008, which would help them recover from their stupid decision not to lock up Luol Deng and/or Ben Gordon during the last off season. They would also be getting a solid vet and a promising young bench player who can hit the boards and shoot for a high FG%. They are protected against the loss of Noah because of their depth and fellow rookie center Aaron Gray, who played well during Scott Skiles' last few games at the head of the Bulls’ bench.

Now that the Bulls are in crisis mode, they have shortened their rotation and Noah hasn’t seen a tremendous amount of action. In his last 3 games, he has seen the court for a grand total of 27 minutes. Gray has clocked in with 33 minutes during the last 3 contests.

On the season Gray is averaging 4.2 ppg and 2.6 rpg. Noah is putting up 4.1 and 3.0. Wallace is clocking in at 4.2 and 8.6. Gray and Noah have similar 40 minute stats. The bottom line here is that Wallace’s tank is running on E and Gray and Noah are an effective push on a team that has shortened them out of the everyday rotation in a last-gasp effort to make the playoffs.

The Bulls would also gain because Smith would give them an off-the-bench low-post presence and Walker is an experienced vet who can hit from 3 and provide leadership in the locker room. He’s also from Chicago.

Meanwhile, the Wolves get a true center that would bring a Corey Brewer-esque high-energy effort to the court each and every single night. They’d have to suck up Wallace’s massive contract for 3 more years but, in the grand scheme of things, Wallace has fewer years on his deal than does Walker and he could spell Jefferson and Noah at both the 4 and 5--allowing everybody to play in position and the Wolves to focus on getting either (fingers crossed) Michael Beasley or a solid guard in next year’s draft. How nice would either of the following line-ups look?

1. Telfair/Foye/Jaric
2. Foye/Brewer/Jaric
3. Beasley/Brewer
4. Jefferson/Wallace
5. Noah/Wallace

or

1. Derrick Rose (OJ Mayo/Ty Lawson/DJ Augustin)/Telfair/Jaric
2. Foye/Brewer/Jaric
3. Brewer/2nd round pick (or Gomes if Taylor wants to pay for it)
4. Jefferson/Wallace
5. Noah/Wallace

Hell, throw Eric Gordon into the 2nd rotation and roll with Foye and Gordon at the guards with Brewer, Jefferson, and Noah on the front line. I’m personally smitten with option #1, but I’d be happy with either one in fantasy GM land. Any way you cut it, you’d have the talent to end up with 20-30 wins and the core of a nice young team built for the long haul.

Folks, this trade isn’t too far out there. Granted, it would be a tough sell to convince the last-gasp Bulls to let go of Wallace, but $15 million off the books speaks pretty loudly to even the most desperate of teams; plus, they’d be getting a nice young post player in return. The Bulls are running 7 (maybe 8) deep right now and Joe Smith is their starting power forward. He could easily move over to the 5 and Andres Nocioni could move into the starting 4 with Smith off the bench. Plus, call me cynical but I have a strange feeling that Ratliff’s knee would feel a bit better in a Bulls uniform.

The Timberwolves are a very, very, very bad team. It should worry fans that they seem to be falling in love with a Smith/Jefferson combo at the 4/5. It should completely freak fans out that they are starting to whine about a lack of quality guard play instead of the non-existence of a true center. Wouldn’t it just top everything off if the Wolves picked OJ Mayo or Eric Gordon while not addressing the 5 and keeping Smith and Big Al as the starting big man duo? Signs are beginning to point in this troubling direction. They need to start thinking of ways to avoid all the problems that a Smith/Jefferson 4/5 combo would create for this franchise in the long-run. This is a fairly realistic way of doing so. I’d love to hear other suggestions.

I don't even know what to write after Saturday's loss to the Grizz and last night's scrimmage against the varsity squad. There's really nothing to say about the Grizz game because it wasn't on TV and I was saved from hearing it because down here in south central MN there was a MSU hockey game on the station that usually carries the Wolves (KTOE). There's probably just as little to say about last night's mess...and I watched 1/2 of it.

First of all, I know it was snowing like nobody's business, but the Target Center was damn near empty last night. Both teams reciprocated the gesture by not really showing up to play. The Lakers suited up 10 players and Kobe Bryant played for less than 30 minutes. The Wolves played without Marko Jaric, Theo Ratliff, Randy Foye and their Coach, Randy Wittman. Big Al may as well taken the night off to rest his knee because he didn't really show up either (results, not effort). It's nights like this that make people hate the NBA. Guaranteed money with no guarantee for effort.

I suppose you could take a few positives from the losses. Sebastian Telfair is proving himself to be an NBA point, and it should once again be noted that he's a 22 year-old guard with no college experience who has shown constant and consistent improvement when given the chance to prove himself on the court. He's increasingly showing himself, along with Toine, to be the only Wolf that understands the importance of changing his game to fit what he brings to the court on any given night. Last night, Bassy's shot wasn't working early so he went to the rim; knowing that he wasn't going to hit any threes and that he could get by his slower opponents at the 1. He didn't force a shot that wasn't working and he fell back to option 2. That's a damn revelation with this group of players.

Has anyone noticed that Craig Smith has hit 70% from the floor during his last 5 games? He may have had some trouble guarding Odom last night, but the favor was returned on the other end of the court.

That's about it. There's nothing to write home about with these games. The Wolves are entering a particularly tough stretch of their schedule, they are banged up, their coach is in the hospital, and it's frickin' snowing. Again: this season will be measured by ping-pong balls, Foye's (eventual) proficiency at the 1, McCant's ability to play the 2, and the expiring contracts of Ratliff, Michael Doleac, and (hopefully) a large chunk of the young Celtics. As long as the players don't go insane, they are doing their job. This year (and the next) is about getting through 82 games without taking on additional salary and avoiding a win total that would knock the team out of the top 3 picks in the 2008 Draft.

As if to cap off the night's suckiness, the match up between OJ Mayo and Derrick Rose was ugly as sin.

Yikes indeed.

PS: can we officially stop pretending that Ryan Gomes is a decent player?