Timberwolves

T-Wolves are 6-8 one month into the 06-07 season. The paper said that this is our worst record in a month since 1995. Kinda hard to believe since we sucked a lot last year. At 6-8 we are in a hole with the Western Conference being so tough but it is a hole we can get out of, even by the end of this week. Even though they weren't on TV for 4 of those 14 games I managed to see 11 of games on TV or at the Target Center. Here is my take on the first month.

* The Negatives: Ricky Davis and Mike James. I didn't notice it last year much with Ricky Davis but this year he can't score on the opposing teams best perimeter defender. Ron Artest, Josh Howard, Shane Battier, even Eric Snow all shutdown RD to the point where he was even hurting the team being on the floor. He seems to need a guy like Paul Pierce to take that defensive pressure off him then he can score 20pts a game a lot easier. RD doesn't play too much defense so we need him to score. Mike James just needs to find a groove. I don't think he'll put up numbers like last year but somewhere inbetween last years numbers and his numbers this year would help the team a ton. I think it'll help Ricky's game as well and we'll win more games no doubt.

* The Positives: The rookies Randy Foye and Craig Smith. Craig Smith came out in the 2nd game of the year and dropped 20pts on the Nuggets in 16mins off the bench. He hasn't had a monster scoring game like that since but everytime he's on the floor the team seems to play better. Also, he has had some sick power dunks as well as a half dozen monster bricks on dunk attempts, but hey those are even fun to watch. He's a great rebounder for his size having 10 or more rebounds in three games and he shoots a high percentage. Randy Foye isn't getting quite as many minutes as Smith with are log jam of perimeter players but he has had a half dozen good games while averaging only 14mins per game. His last three games were by far his best as he lead 4th quarter comebacks in all three. We still lost 2 of those 3 but it was nice to see him getting extended minutes in the 4th quarter and show his stuff. He had his new career high with 17pts against Dallas and a game with 6 assists in 15mins against the Hornets. These two 4-year college players have bright futures in the NBA.

Hopefully the two rookies both see more minutes the rest of the season and Ricky and Mike get their games rolling soon. It could get exciting if Rashad McCants can come back healthy and start nailing threes and dunking on people like he showed glimpses of last year. Oh yeah, and that KG guy he's still playing pretty money and there is no reason we shouldn't be able to improve our winning percentage from .428 to something above .500 by seasons end. GO WOLVES!