1) Messing with James
As the guy who wrote last week about Wolves coach Dwane Casey being on the hot seat, I understand his short-term priority of winning games now by any means necessary. And I understand that Mike James has lurched out of the gate bereft of the acute court vision, accurate jump shot, energetic defense, and overall mental toughness that Minnesota expected when they signed him this summer.

But let's get some perspective here: the deal was for four years, at a reported $23.5 million, and the Wolves have now played a grand total of 13 games with James at the point. To be waffling on such a significant investment after such a short amount of time makes no sense. As I mentioned in my last trey, James hasn't exactly enjoyed the sort of career that gives him sustenance when the coach starts diddling with his minutes. Until this year's training camp, he'd never really had a ballclub commit to him as anything more than a stopgap solution in the backcourt. And now, after a fitful start, he's got to be wondering if he'll become this year's version of Marko Jaric, hounded off the court by his own demons. One would assume it is Casey's job to ensure that doesn't happen. But playing a backcourt of Randy Foye and Troy Hudson in the 4th quarter against the Rockets certainly greases any self-doubts James must now be quietly but furiously tamping down in his psyche. Wolves analyst Jim Peterson and I don't always agree--I don't worship the water Mark Blount apparently walks on in Peterson's universe, for example--but his comments about the daftness of subbing Huddy for James when Foye also deservedly needs to grab large hunks of playing time were dead-on in my opinion.

Of course Casey could mount a strong defense for his action merely by playing a tape of last night's game. At least twice in the first quarter, Ricky Davis set James up in perfect shooting rhythm only to have the point guard, who finished near the top of the league in 3-point shooting percentage last year, clang the jumper. And forget about James providing a spark for others by breaking down the defense with penetration dribbles or executing the pick-and-roll with the sort of efficiency that ensure his teammate an open lane or space to shoot the J. And his defense, folks, is woefully inconsistent. Only Rafer Alston's cockeyed shooting eye (and the fact that Shane Battier was having a field day tying his shoes and calling his mom before burying three pointers from the corner on Ricky Davis) prevented him from being torched in the first half last night. According to popcornmachine.net, James was -11 in 24 minutes against the Rockets, while Foye and Huddy were +4 and +3 respectively. (Then again, James and Foye were never paired in the same backcourt, something that would seem to benefit both players.) So, yes, Casey has some justification for his action. But he also bears some responsibility for feeding the monster of James's uncertainty. And it is waaay too soon in James's four-year contract for that to be happening.

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1) Teasing the Wade comparison
For the second straight game, rookie Randy Foye turned garbage time into crunch time with a galvanizing fourth quarter performance that saw him penetrate for layups, draw fouls, hit an outside jumper, and will his team from a 15-point deficit with 7:48 left to play into an 84-84 tie with 2 minutes to play. When the Wolves acquired Foye on draft day, the supposition was that they were looking for a combo guard like Dwyane Wade, a nearly-finished college product who was his team's unquestioned emotional and physical leader operating out of the backcourt, who craved the ball in his hands with the game on the line and would rather court bruises in the paint than loft long jumpers.

Foye is on that track. How long and far he rides it is anybody's guess. Calling him another Wade is like dubbing a folkie the new Dylan, or some reggae hotshot the next Marley, and frankly, right now, there's no upside for anyone in overselling him that way. But he's got some promising attributes. He's got the personality of a leader--he can be humble and deferential on all the small, symbolic stuff that shouldn't be sweated anyway, but seizes the game by the throat if enough of the conditions expose themselves. He doesn't gripe about minutes or cart around an attitude that assumes leapfrogging privileges in the pecking order. He listens to his coaches, plays defense, and has the patient confidence of a predator.

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By Stephen Litel
Special to City Pages
SPMSportsInc.com

1. The return of Sam I Am
Last night's game against the Los Angeles Clippers marked the return of former Timberwolf and friend of Kevin Garnett Sam Cassell. With the current state of the Timberwolves, one cannot help but look at Cassell and wonder "what if." What would have happened if Cassell had not been injured in the Western Conference Finals? What would have happened if Cassell's contract was longer than it had been while in Minnesota, so none of the talk of contract extensions would have had to taken place? Unfortunately, the answers to those questions will never be known and we must move on.

Prior to Saturday night's game, Cassell was raving about Garnett yet had to take a shot at the Timberwolves organization one last time. "He (Garnett) is definitely one of the top five power forwards to play the game of basketball. No doubt about it. I've played with two Hall of Famers in career in Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler. If they played 45 minutes the night before and we had practice the next day, they weren't going to play too much in practice. Kevin's a guy who will never take a night or practice off and in today's basketball that is unbelievable."

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By David Brauer

1. A look into the funhouse mirror. Tonight was a romp for the Wolves, playing a Knicks team with many of Minnesota's faults and fewer of their strengths. There won't be many games this season when Minnesota fans witness a backcourt with even worse defensive skills than our own Davis, James and Hudson in Marbury, Francis and Crawford. Simply put, if Davis and James couldn't take it to the rack on these clowns, we'd all need daily doses of tryptophan to mellow our pain. The Wolves best D was their O; hitting over 60 percent of their first-half shots, they neatly nullified the Knicks' potentially potent transition game and forced New York to think. This proved to be fatal for the Knicks. Both squads lack anything resembling a "pure" point, but Isiah Thomas delivered a nicely timed (for us) mindfuck to Stephon Marbury two days ago by pulling Steph two minutes into the second half for a turnover; in tonight's first half, Marbury was as tentative as I've ever seen, unwilling to take open J's left by James and passing on drives he once finished. (Poorly, too - Steph had 5 turnovers to just 3 assists.) The bigger, meaner but no less perplexing version of Eddie Griffin, Eddie Curry, got Mark Blount in foul trouble early but was deftly tamed by Mark Madsen, who, even if Curry blitzed him for a couple of dunks in the second half, did the job in the first half when the game was decided. (Watching the Dance Master closely tonight in the first half, I got a whiff of his Jazz-like sneakily dirty play - OK, since it's Mark, let's call it rascally - when he twice shoved Curry hard in the back away from the basket to take him out of a play. That Curry did nothing in return speaks volumes.)

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I honestly didn't see this coming. And, frankly, I'm not sure he deserved it. But after posting baseball's best batting average (.362) and knocking in the AL's most runs (92) from June 8 on, 25-year-old Justin Morneau was deemed the league's most valuable player by a jury of sportswriters today, many of whom aren't even from Minnesota.

Morneau's big challenger for the title was, of course, Derek Jeter. The Yankees captain and perennial bridesmaid came in second with 12 first-place and 14 second-place votes, good for 306 total points, compared to Morneau's line of 15/8/320. Joe Mauer and Johan Santana also finished in the top 7, with Santana even pulling in one first-place vote. Combined with Santana's Cy Young award, the Twins look--on paper, at least--like the most dominant team in baseball, if not all of sport. Which makes it, y'know, kind of infuriating that they failed to win a single post-season game.

Way to go, Morny. And better luck next year, Derek. If you're itching to revisit the Twins remarkably weird 2006 season (and after watching the Vikes the last couple weeks, who wouldn't?) check out our Sept. 20 cover story.

By Stephen Litel
Special to City Pages
SPMSportsInc.com

1. The rotation is so close to being complete
Coach Dwane Casey has the correct players in his nine man rotation. Kevin Garnett, Mike James, Ricky Davis, Mark Blount, Craig Smith, Randy Foye, Trenton Hassell, Troy Hudson and Marko Jaric with Justin Reed and Mark Madsen the odd men out. However, with one simple change to this lineup Coach Casey could energize the fans and, more importantly, this now 3-6 team. Inserting Randy Foye into the starting lineup and placing Ricky Davis into the sixth man role would make a drastic change to this team while at the same time helping the team in the long run.

In the second quarter against the Hornets, Foye was simply dominating the game without scoring the basketball. He was making the correct decisions for the situations he was placed in, breaking down the defense with his speedy first step and dished out six assists. Simply put, this team plays their best basketball when Foye is on the court. Although he has still to light it up by scoring the basketball himself, his maturity and court savvy are things that need to be utilized.

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By Stephen Litel
Special to City Pages
SPMSportsInc.com

1. No rest for the weary
Against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers last night, Kevin Garnett looked tired. One can hardly blame him after carrying this franchise on his back for over a decade now, but, in this particular game, the fault lies with Coach Dwane Casey.

While Garnett was struggling to hit a shot in the first half and with Craig Smith playing at the level we've nearly begun to expect from him, Casey rolled the dice. He allowed the often sleepy-looking Eddie Griffin an opportunity he hasn't had for awhile... Griffin was actually allowed to step foot onto the court against real competition. Not practice. Not shoot-around. Real competition. The gamble actually paid off for Coach Casey as it turned out to be one of those rare occasions in which Griffin resembled something close to an NBA player rather than Frankenstein on sedatives.

On these rare days when both Griffin's body and mind seem to be in the arena at the same time, Coach must be able to take advantage of it. In only the eighth game of the season, Garnett looks as if he needs a summer vacation. Yet, the Timberwolves star was on the court for 37 minutes, sitting down in the fourth quarter due to exhaustion and returning when the game was all but over. Griffin certainly cannot be counted on to give Garnett a breather every night, teasing Minnesota's team and fans with one good game followed by three bad ones, but when he decides to show up, use this gift and rest Garnett for crunch time.

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As expected, it wasn't even close. If winning the major-league Triple Crown doesn't automatically qualify you as the unanimous Cy Young winner, nothing does. It shoulda been three in a row, but hey, who's complaining.

In other Twins news:

For the second time in his career, Terry Ryan is baseball's Executive of the Year.

Gardenhire is runner-up to the Tigers' Jim Leyland for Manager of the Year.

And in actual news, Ryan is reportedly interested in 2002 NL RoY Jason Jennings of the Colorado Rockies. Jennings is a solid middle-road righty scheduled for free-agency in 2008. His $5.5 million option was picked up by Colorado this year, and in return for the 28-year-old, they'll want a young starter of the Baker/Perkins mold. The Twins need an innings-eater behind Santana, and with luck they'll only need him for one season, so this makes sense on the surface. What do you think?

1. Common purpose
Heading into tonight's wire-to-wire win over Portland, the Wolves were getting tossed about by one of those bouts of trepidation--call it a prelude to panic--where serious consequences like somebody getting fired or traded or benched are mulled over if not endlessly discussed. A four-game losing streak that offered no clues, directions, or much hope for the team's future was the cause. The ballclub needed to stem the negativity that pervaded the squad, and they did, in the best way possible; not by one or two spectacular individual performances, but with their most unified and completely performed effort of the still-young season.

Not a single player was horrible, and most of them were better than their numbers would suggest. For example, Mark Blount committed two fouls, grabbed only one rebound and was 2-2 FG in 5:38 of play in the first period. But in the first few minutes, Blount's defensive rotations were anticipatory and crisp, sealing off two drives to the hoop and anchoring a defense that didn't yield a field goal in the first 5 and half minutes of action (at which time Minnesota led 14-1). Blount was also taking Zach Randolph, the tougher of the two interior matchups (Kevin Garnett had Jamaal Magloire). Blount's final line was 7 points, four rebounds and four fouls in 16:37 deceptively good minutes of action.

Ricky Davis, Mike James, Trenton Hassell, and of course KG were likewise engaged and very very aggressive at both ends of the court. Portland was plainly struggling with its own rhythm, absent super rook Brandon Roy now in addition to Joel Pryzbilla and Darius Miles, but you don't get 50 rebounds and make 27 assists (versus 15 turnovers) without a majority of the squad filling their roles with a common purpose. It was a sign of faith in the future.

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Computer problems waylaid this trey 24 hours, but hopefully we're up in time for some spirited discussion before Tuesday night's contest against Portland.

1)Garnett outplayed
Lots and lots of things felt wrong about Saturday's loss to Orlando, a game that added to the grim and ominous vibe that is suddenly upon this franchise just a half-dozen games into the season. But perhaps the hardest part was the near-total dominance of manchild pivot man Dwight Howard in the game-deciding first quarter. With Mark Blount, Eddie Griffin, and Kevin Garnett all taking a crack at denying his will in the paint, Howard sank all six of his shots and grabbed nine boards en route to Orlando's 29-20 lead. It was reminiscent of Amare Stoudemire's first game at the Target Center, when the Phoenix rookie laid waste to a succession of Wolves' bigs with his strength-speed combo.

It should be noted that whenever KG isn't the best player on the floor during a particular game, the Wolves stand about an 80 percent chance of losing. That's a lot of pressure, especially when the alpha of the moment is nine and a half years younger. KG started well, banging down a couple of J's, tagging Tony Battie with a pair of early fouls, adding two steals, and moving the ball smartly in the half court offense. But Mike James missed at least two wide open looks KG provided, then Mark Blount was sent packing with his second foul on Howard, cuing Eddie Griffin for another sleepwalk, and leaving Garnett to defend Howard on three back-em-down hoops that seemed too casually smooth for any Minnesota fan's comfort. At the other end, KG was pressing, clanking jumpers from the top fo the key.

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