Imagine a world where upon trading most of your veterans and turning the team over to unproven youngsters, you have growing pains and lots of losses. It's almost as if rebuilding entails some necessary and unavoidable period of truly sucky basketball!
This is all news to one David Kahn, boss of the Minnesota Timberwolves, who blew up the team this past summer.
They say that all bad things come in threes. Don't tell that to Kevin and Denise Jonas. In Minnesota, though, they feel like they've suffered enough. Between the Ricky Rubio debacle, Kevin Love's fractured left hand, and now Al Jefferson's sore Achilles' tendon -- that has limited him this preseason -- haven't they suffered enough?
Minnesota figured to struggle this season. The roster is young, the coach (Kurt Rambis) is new, and there are plenty of holes through the roster. But there's always an extra challenge in 'Sota, and this year that extra challenge comes in the form of a fracture of the fourth metacarpal bone in the left hand of Kevin Love that will reportedly sideline the power forward for 6-8 weeks.
According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Love's hand smacked against the elbow of teammate Stewie GriffinOleksiy Pecherov as Love collected a rebound. Fitting, that the injury would happen on a rebound, considering Love is one of the league's brightest young board hoarders. His absence will force cohort Al Jefferson to be even more of a vacuum on the glass.
On Monday, Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson mentioned at a press event that incumbent starting center Erick Dampier could come off the bench this season. Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News followed up to report that it's not a set-in-stone matter, and that Nelson was just generally speaking about the team's flexibility.
That got Matt Moore and I thinking -- err, talking -- about the Maverick rotation. Our discussion (with a somewhat relevant Magic-Cavs vignette) is after the jump.
Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?
Here are five moves that might not have gotten a lot of attention but were very solid nonetheless:
--Raptors get Marco Belinelli from Warriors for Devean George, cash: Belinelli may not be a starter in the NBA, but he can be a rotation guy. And it just so happens the Raptors are pretty much bereft of two guards. That alone should get Belinelli on the court, and from there he'll certainly help at various junctures. As for George, who knows if he'll be healthy and who knows if he'll be able to crack the Warriors' rotation if he is.
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.
Marc and Pau Gasol didn't play in the same time zone Friday night -- in fact, Pau's night of work ended before Marc's even began. The suspicious might wonder, then, if the brothers pulled some trickery to get Pau to Sacramento in a fat suit. While Pau slayed the Nets with an incredible 36/11/7/2/2 line, Marc was the real shocker.
Marc raked the Kings for 27 points and five rebounds. Neither Spencer Hawes nor Jason Thompson could handle Marc's girth in the paint -- the younger Gasol even shook the Immortal Calvin Booth a few times! Ugly work, but beautiful work from Marc.
NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.
-- [Zach] Randolph laughed when I asked him if he felt the Knicks made a mistake in trading him away. "Yeah," he said with a big smile beaming. "It was definitely a mistake." [...] If they wind up with LeBron, Zach says he can understand moving him. But Chris Bosh? "I'm better than Chris Bosh," he said. -- Alan Hahn on Newday
-- "I retired," Arenas said in the home locker room before Washington's game against Charlotte. "No more blogging for me." [...] "It's just like the double-(edged) sword thing: Eventually your words is going to kill you," Arenas said with a smile. -- Gilbert Arenas
Imagine a world where upon trading most of your veterans and turning the team over to unproven youngsters, you have growing pains and lots of losses. It's almost as if rebuilding entails some necessary and unavoidable period of truly sucky basketball!
They say that all bad things come in threes. Don't tell that to Kevin and Denise Jonas. In Minnesota, though, they feel like they've suffered enough. Between the 
Minnesota figured to struggle this season. The roster is young, the coach (Kurt Rambis) is new, and there are plenty of holes through the roster. But there's always an extra challenge in 'Sota, and this year that extra challenge comes in the form of a fracture of the fourth metacarpal bone in the left hand of 
On Monday, Mavericks GM 
Who doesn't like a list, especially on a Monday morning when that's about all you can handle?
Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." 
