The Minnesota Timberwolves are in serious trouble. In case you didn’t notice, they failed to make the playoffs once again. In fact, they probably won’t make the playoffs for quite some time. They are becoming the San Diego/Los Angeles Clippers in a very dubious way. I saw and witnessed their first game this year against the New Jersey Nets. They won the game in overtime and I thought, hey they may be better than most of us thought. On the contrary. The Nets ended their season with a record of 12-70, 49 games behind the Toronto Raptors who won their division 2 games under .500. The Timberwolves were not too far behind them with their own futile record of 15-67! That folks will put the Timberwolves in an elite group lottery teams. I probably shouldn’t say the “L” word in these parts because if NBA didn’t have the lottery who knows where the Timberwolves would be right now.

I don’t want to do my whole column on diminishing the Timberwolves, but I sure cannot sugar-coat it either. Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? I would like to believe that, but it becomes difficult when you see every other team make improvements and become playoff eligible and get off that lottery/ ping pong ball status that we Timber wolf fans have become accustom to.

The Draft Picks Of Past and Present

The Wolves (I became tired of writing out the whole name) have had plenty of chances to right the ship but for some reason or another they have failed in either picking the right player or keeping the right player. The previous sentence is 99% correct with the 1% being that they may not be able to use what they have now with this mythical “Triangle Offense” What is this offense that the coaching staff speaks of?  They draft Jonny Flynn ahead of Stephen Curry and Brandon Jennings and now Flynn looks lost and Curry and Jennings are up for rookie of the year honors. This should come as no surprise to the T’Wolves faithful. They also passed on Brandon Roy (NBA All-star) a few years ago and decided on Randy Foye who now is no longer with the team. Well they actually drafted Roy but traded him right away for Foye. It would be absolutely painful to write all of the players they should have kept or should have drafted, so I will try and keep it just to the players they thought would be the right fit and of course were not.

Isiah Rider comes to mind: Do I have to say more? Christian Laettner: They had the worst record in the league and ended up with the third most ping pong balls thus not being able to draft Shaquille Oneal and Alonzo Mourning. Rashad McCants: Of course they messed this one up as well. They could have had Danny Grainger who is also an All-star. Enough torture…

Is it the draft or is it their luck?  1985: The First Lottery

Under the system adopted prior to the 1985 NBA Draft, the NBA Lottery determined the order of selection for the non-playoff teams (or the teams holding their picks through trades) for the first round only. Teams picked in inverse order of their records in the second round in all succeeding rounds.

In 1985, the jackpot of the very first NBA draft lottery was 7-0 Georgetown center Patrick Ewing. All seven teams that didn't make the playoffs had an equal chance of landing the No.1 pick and thereby, Ewing. A lucky bounce of the ping pong balls made the New York Knicks the first draft lottery winner and then-general manager (and Hall of Famer) Dave DeBusschere rose from his seat with a celebratory fist pump.

New York selected Ewing with the first overall pick in the 1985 draft and Ewing went on to play 15 seasons for the Knicks, leading them to the playoffs 13 times.

Is This Team Jinxed?

How is it that the Boston Celtics and our Wolves had identical records? (Or close to) We had Kevin Garnett and traded him to Boston. They eventually won another NBA title and we circle the drain. Let’s hope that this current regime of coaches with their pedigree can turn this team around and become a force to reckon with so the loyal fans of this winter team can enjoy their own basketball lottery-one that pays off in wins!

I like the team, the players, the location, the ownership so I have to give every reason for optimism to the gods who run the luck part of sports. If New York with their own terrible Knickerbockers turn their team around faster than we do, then we should draft all point guards and hope for the best. I will say in closing that this past year was hard to watch because most of the team digressed with the one exception of Corey Brewer. Next year will bring new hope and optimism so hang on to your lottery tickets and have faith that our basketball team did more than just pick a good name back in 1986 which was three years before their first game on 11-3-89.