TV gone 'gainst Clips
Heat and 9 wins are vanquished
Ping pong disappear

It happened!!! With Randy Foye on the court, the ball was entered to Big Al, Foye cut to the hoop, and the defender followed, allowing Al a 1-on-1 attempt at the hoop and the harm. Usually, Big Al gets double/tripple teamed in situations like that.

Sorry, I just had to lead with that because the home game against the Bulls may be one of the ugliest basketball games you can ever hope to witness and that was the only bright spot I can remember. 14-8 after the 1st and 46-47 with 5 minutes to go in the 3rd; there’s not a whole lot of good things you can say about this mess.

Getting back to the return of Randy, the NBA released the list of players in the upcoming Rookie/Sophomore game. Even more disturbing than the fact that there were no Wolves on the list was this:

Kevin Durrant- Seattle
Jeff Green- Seattle
LaMarcus Aldridge- Portland
Brandon Roy- Portland
Ronnie Brewer- Utah
Paul Milsap- Utah

That’s 6 players in the Wolves’ division. If you add in Mike Conley, Juan Carlos Navarro, Luis Scola, and Jordan Farmar that’s 10 out of 18 players from the Western Conference. Say what you will about the number of draft picks coming up for the Wolves, if past performance is any indicator of future success, be worried; no matter how well the FO performs, they're a long ways behind the young teams in the division.

Random thought: the MVP of the 2 game home-and-home against the bulls was Shaddy’s flu bug. That little critter is my hero. Someone should write a poem about him.

Shaddy, in bed sick
Flu bug manning the 2 guard
Beats the shiitety Bulls

(Hat tip to Greek House for the inspiration.)

SBG gets in on the poetry action as well:

The flu bug nailed poor old number one
His stomach was weak, that ain't no fun
Tonight he was a scratch
Missed the Chicago match
With him they lost, without him they won.

How bad was Shaddy in Chicago? Against Andres Nocioni, Shaddy gave up 10 and 3 with a –6 in 10:00 first quarter minutes. Upon being switched out for Brewer, Noc scored 1 point with a –6 in nearly 10:00. Against the Nets, Shaddy lasted all of 3 minutes against Richard Jefferson before getting the hook. We won’t even speak of the defensive effort against Boston vis-à-vis Corey Brewer. It’s going to be interesting to see how Foye’s return affects the minutes of Bassy, Marko, and Shaddy. Even though Bassy had a bad game in Chicago, he’s shown signs of improvement as well as being able to control the tempo of the game. Marko is Marko and…well, if I were a betting man I’d say that Shaddy will see his minutes take a hit if he continues to be a matador on d. (That being said, Foye took minutes exclusively from Bassy in his first game back.)

Speaking of Bassy, let me take a quick moment to talk about the game in Chicago. All-in-all the away game was one of the most disappointing performances in recent memory. It was 1-on-1 ball against a team every bit as crappy as the Wolves, and every bit as incapable of dealing with Big Al in the post as the Nets. The most frustrating part of the endeavor was listening to the Bulls announcing crew wonder out loud when Randy Wittman was going to call a time out and remind his players that the Western Conference Player of the Week was on the court and that he needed the damn ball. The team eventually got around to doing so, but only in the middle of the 4th while down by 15. To be fair to Witt, every time Al got the ball, 3 or 4 Bulls collapsed on him. Actually, they were collapsing on him before the entry pass was ever made, as there was no need to stay out on the perimeter where the people making the entry passes were busy going 0-10 from 3 (Jaric, Bassy, Shaddy). There were possessions in the 3rd and 4th where Kirk Hinrich was literally giving Bassy, a lighting quick guard with impressive handle, 10 feet off the ball. When taking the ball to the hoop, Bassy was 3-4 while drawing 3 FTA. Closed circuit to Bassy: No more 3's!!!

Since I was out and about on Monday, here’s this week’s Mega Deal Monday on a Wednesday:

To the Nets:

1. Theo Ratliff
2. Lamar Odom
3. Javaris Crittenton

To the Wolves:

1. Nenad Kristic
2. Kwame Brown
3. Lakers 1st round pick

To the Lakers:

1. Jason Kidd

(If the Lakers feel like they need another big, send Krstic to LA; the money still works. For another deal, try Cleveland, the Wolves, and the Nets.)

Why it works?

The Lakers immediately get a 2-year championship window while giving up very little in return. Brown is expiring, Crittenton hardly plays and Kidd would replace Odom. The Nets get about as good a return as possible for the expensive Kidd. They can’t deal him to a crappy team and the good teams won’t give up much in return. They get a decent player in his prime (Odom), a point with a lot of potential and they clear a ton of cap space by getting rid of Ratliff and Kidd’s contracts. The Wolves get 2 young big men with no years left on their deals. Krstic was a promising big man before last year’s injury but the Wolves could keep him or not. Salary-wise they maintain Ratliff’s money coming off the books while gaining a late 1st round pick. Everybody’s happy.

There’s been some talk about a Dallas/New Jersey/Portland trade involving Kidd but it doesn’t sound realistic at all. First of all, the money doesn’t work with the trade machine. Secondly, the Nets don’t need another wing player. Thirdly, they don’t need Channing Frye to go with Sean Williams and Nenad Krstic in the frontcourt. There’s a few other killers in there but for the most part the trade doesn’t pass the smell test. The Wolves have an $11 million expiring contract with 2 young expiring contracts (Green and Smith) and 2 future first rounders (from Miami and Boston). They could be major players in deals with New Jersey and…say, Cleveland or LA. Anywho…

Finally, in draft-related news, Michael Beasley just went for 25 and 6 against previously unbeaten Kansas.

Oh, I lied. I almost forgot to mention the biggest and most important thing about the victory over the Bulls. Unless the Wolves end the season on a 0-36 run, they will have a better W-L record than the 1972 Sixers. WE'RE NOT THE WORST!!! WE'RE NOT THE WORST!!! WE'RE NOT THE WORST!!!