Everybody’s ready for tonight’s opener
Posted on October 28th, 2009 – 2:21 PMBy Jerry Zgoda
Jonny Flynn was back in the black starter’s jersey at this morning’s shootaround.
Wayne Ellington looked and sounded much better than he says he was feeling yesterday or the day before, too.
Al Jefferson also said he’s 100 percent good to go.
Expect a starting lineup of Gomes at power forward, Al at center, Damien Wilkins at small forward, Corey Brewer at shooting guard and Flynn at the point. They’re doing that instead of Pecherov in the lineup because Kurt Rambis wants Gomes to defend 7-footer Yi Jianlian out on the perimeter at power forward.
74 Responses to "Everybody’s ready for tonight’s opener"
Hi Jerry. Didn’t get to participate in the chat, but read it later. Good stuff. I’d suggest once per week or twice a month for frequency.
I agree with the Road Runner’s nemesis (love that show) that every other week would be great. it was good to disucss things on there, although some of the regulars on the blog couldn’t make it. Great stuff from Jerry as always.
what about the issue with length and Gomes vs Yi? I believe Gomes is only 6-8; also, does Yi have any game in the post? because if so, Gomes is also lacking in defense in there as well.
Yi is a perimeter player who avoids most contact. I actually think Brewer could probably guard him.
Jonny Flynn starts off with Devin Harris. Tough draw, interesting barometer.
Winnable game…
oh a return of Trenton Hassel! wonder how he’s doing these days.
jama
its probably true he could guard him, and may even get the opportunity. they don’t seem to have a swingman that is off the charts, unless the Rookie Terrence Williams is good?
Hey could someone post the chat.. I would like to read it
Trade Proposal. I want your thoughts. I posted this earlier and all people said was that it was stupid. I want to know why. I know that the contracts may not match, but they could be made to match.
Rubio and Love for Rondo.
Live chart is here:
http://bit.ly/3G5YrJ
[…] On the Wolves » Blog Archive » Everybody’s ready for tonight’s opener blogs2.startribune.com/blogs/wolves/2009/10/28/everybodys-ready-for-tonights-opener – view page – cached Wayne Ellington looked and sounded much better than he says he was feeling yesterday or the day before, too. — From the page […]
There’d be no need to put Brewer on Williams. He’s strong and extremely versatile, but not much of a scorer.
The Nets don’t have any super gifted wing players with Carter gone…just a collection of very solid ones. Terence Williams, Courtney Lee, Jarvis Hayes, Bobby Simmons and Chris Douglas-Roberts are all good rotation players, but none of them will wow you.
It is no surprise to see the “refuse” of the former rebuilding project look very good yesterday. Smith was easily the best big man that the clippers had yesterday and Telfair was decent in the backup role. While I didn’t see Foye he had great stats and was singled out in their victory on TV. I am sure glad that we got magic beans, pecherov and blount for them.
reeves
again, they are being put in roles that work with for them. they were starters here in an underchieving team, where they should be solid bench players and contributors on better teams.
Foye has always had the talent to score, but cannot be counted on for big-time scoring, just the contributory stuff where needed. and he’s a streaky shooter, just wait till he starts missing shots.
smith fills up stat lines occassionally with his offense; i think you failed to see Kaman’s line of 18points, 16 rebounds? thats something Smith would never get to (16 rebounds is not in his ability).
telfair is with a more athletic team, and he has his moments, but he’s not more than a solid backup, ok starter and never will be.
I’d be supeised if Brewer wasn’t on Courtney Lee. I think he’ll be their starting 2. I agree the Wolves could and probably should win this game. The Nets are not a good team at all. They are rebuilding just as much as the Wolves.
I’d be surprised if Brewer isn’t Bryan’s boss at Burger King after this season.
Brewer will be good this year. Mark it down. Our third best player.
So they make a BFD about the “new” exciting direction for the franchise. I get intrigued and turn on Channel 45 and get….480 SD broadcast. What a bunch of chumbalones. Turn on to your product on my HD and it looks like I’m watching through a screen that someone urinated on.
Nice marketing ear, front office.
I’ll go watch the Nets broadcast on Yes or the free NBA HD one. If that doesn’t work I’ll go watch the Wild.
You guys in Wolves land can change the players but you still could screw up a one car funeral.
Way to make a splash, jabronis.
Looks like the Wild…NBA and Nets on YesHD are blacked out.
Schmucks.
The picture and sound on 45 make the game unwatchable. Booo! Wild game looks great in HD. Looks like only about 5,000 people at the Wolves home opener. Wow.
Corey Brewer will never be an impact player until he learns how to finish in the paint and around the rim. I’m shocked by how many bunnies Brewer misses. Someone 6′9 with long arms should be able to make a layup.
Brewer stinking up the joint, what a surprise. Burger King bryan get ready.
When do we start tanking?
damn brewer sucks. somebody get that fool out of the game.
Why have they not switched to zone defense? no one can keep their man infront of them!
I was worried that the Wolves were going to play better than expected and hurt their draft position. I am no longer worried about that.
Don’t worry. The tank job is in full effect already this year. No wonder they can’t sell any tickets. Disgrace.
the main issue tonite is the paint; sure, we are shooting pretty poorly, but its being counteracted by the higher percentage shots plus the free throws. the problems are Al - he can’t hit anything - and no one is stopping Lopez.
would love to see Aldrich in a Wolves uni and take Lopez on…
ughhh brewer get to burger king
Hey. Have I told you guys the story about how the Timberwolves can’t defend the paint worth anything?
At least Hollins is doing something. Al looks terrible tonight.
Wilkins ain’t like his old man. He has a verticle in the inches not feet.
f’ng brewer missing layups. I take that back, he isnt qualifed to work at BK.
Man, Corey is just not with it at all
i love how wilkens is tearing up NJ but he hardly plays after the first 8 minutes.
and you aren’t going to win many games by scoring 75 with only 5 minutes to go in the game…
Brewer needed that dunk hopefully that gets him going offensively
Ellington is looking great! Moving well w/o the ball
no freaking way…12-0 run?
They are playing hard which is a great start. Wins really don’t matter all that much. The team has 11 steals with 3-4 of them from Brewer. It’s a start. I think it was January by the time that the Wolves had 11 steals last year as a team.
great call Zebra’s..
I’m thinking there will be more FT drills at practice 
3-14 shooting from Brew crew…but the biggest shot at the end here.
Come on wolves! Make us forget about 40 minutes of crappy Bball
Big Al showing he can defend the paint on a bad shooting night - Lopez scoreless in the fourth quarter…
man Lee is not helping my fantasy team 2 night, lol
Finally a fun team to watch
oh man; tie game!
in other news - phillies (well, Lee and Utley) shutting out the yanks
They have shot poorly tonight but I love the running and I appreciate the defensive effort. Nice.
wow
Holy cow, they won!!!!!!!!!!!
Woot!! Damien wilkens!
Flynn/Wilkens Game MVPs
Damien Wilkens wins opening night… we are in a tie for 1st place, and T-minus 10 before people start complaining about how this will screw up our draft position for next offseason. lol.
can we have the replacement refs back…
82 and 0? Championship?
watch out - this team thinks it can win now - with Al not even its 3rd best scorer!
this is going to screw up our draft position, lol
But the Clippers are terrible so with Griffin out for a while they will lose a lot and the Grizzlies and Kings are also garbage so I think we will still get the 4th or 5th pick.
Trade Rubio for Cole Aldrich and sign Joe Johnson = playoffs baby
Ok. So. I have no idea how we did that.
How odd though, that after 3 and a half quarters of being useless, Corey and Al take 2 minutes and win us the game.
Bizzare…
oh great, Lebron and Shaq comin to town…
anyway Jawai will get a shot at the big guy? anyway Brewer can even slow down Lebron?
thats due to Flynn keeping us in it.
Wilkins, Ellington and to a lesser degree Pavlovich understand the offense much better than the rest of the team. They move well w/o the ball and allow the offnse to flow smoothly.
K I see Flynn as being special, he played amazing in the fourth (13 pts alone in the fourth). Its also nice to see us win without jefferson carrying us. YAAAAAAAAAAAY
The Cavs are going to be taking out their frustrations on us after getting beat by the Celtics, then whipped by the Raptors.
We’re 1-0. They’re 0-2. And I’m guessing very unhappy.
What? T-Wolves are undefeated? Of course they are. Tell Rubio to practice for two years and we’ll see if he is good enough to make the team by then.
SLAM
POD right there…
I think it must have been my negative comment that turned things around. I did find this game entertaining even when the Wolves were on the brink of being blown out.
That’s an important difference from the last couple of years. If Flynn keeps this up, he’ll be the Rookie of the Year easily and the memories of “Fourth Quarter Foye” will fade quickly.
Good job Coach Rambis.
Cole Aldrich for Rubio..Lol!
Shaq/King James = 0-2
Big Al/Flynn = 1-0
Watch out!!!
deal wid it…..
Nice win. Very active on defense, good switching during the rally. Huge to give everybody a little boost as they endure a tough early schedule.
Steph Curry and Ty Lawson both had great games tonight too. Lawson could be the final piece that pushes Denver over the Lakers.
Two things:
1. The refs gave the Wolves that game. They called it completely uneven, foul-wise, at the end.
2. We will soon learn whether Flynn can go to his left and finish. He won’t get the freeway to right for very long.
Great win, though! I’ll be the first to say this sucks for the draft pick!
Eh, I wouldn’t worry about draft picks. We’ll be 2-2 a week from now after getting beat on by the Cavs and Celtics…maybe 1-3 if the Suns decide to stop sucking.
On paper, we’re like, the 3rd or 4th worst team in the league.
The Wolves rallied tonight with defense. Of course, rallies are always fueled by stops. But it was impressive in the 4th quarter to see Brewer, Flynn, Cardinal and even Big Al ratchet up the intensity to another level. They played like a different team than the one that played soft defense in the first three quarters.
Unfortunately, I think that Cardinal broke his hand knocking the ball away from Yi. Maybe he can use the same surgeon as Love….
It sounds like Cardinal had a badly dislocated finger rather than a break.
Analysis of the Wolves’ comeback win, Flynn’s fourth-quarter dominance, Lopez owning the paint, and more:
http://mnhowl.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/season-opener-flynn-credible-comeback/
