Timberwolves Tracks:

• Lots of hype and expectations are surrounding the Wolves’ top player, Kevin Love. Kelly Dwyer ponders more.
• Hoopsworld previews the Minnesota Timberwolves upcoming 2010-11 season.
• Steve Aschburner of NBA.com ranked the Wolves coaching staff #1 among the league’s best coaches that can play on the court. The Timberwolves roster would have better odds at online betting than beating their own coaches.

1. MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES

Staff: Kurt Rambis, Dave Wohl, Reggie Theus, Bill Laimbeer, John-Blair Bickerstaff

Comment: Size, playmaking, scoring, defense, championship pedigree — the Wolves’ entry has it all. Maybe even bragging rights if it faced the current Minnesota squad.

Other Tracks:

• Serbia knocks off Ricky Rubio and Spain’s national team at the World Championships 92-89 with a buzzer beating three pointer.

Oh, and he’s the best rebounder in the NBA.

So far in the World Championships in Turkey, the USA squad has pummeled four opponents and squeaked by another. The chemistry is slowly developing on this mixed roster of all-stars and youngsters. It doesn’t hurt that the team is stacked in some areas though. Kevin Durant’s one of the best in the world at what he does: scoring. Rondo is a wonderful one-on-one defender because his lateral quickness just can’t be matched. Oh, and Kevin Love is the best rebounder in the NBA.

Despite averaging just over ten minutes a ball game, Love manages to grab 6.6 boards a game. Whether that’s his pure rebounding instinct or inferior foreign big men play, that’s still one rebound almost every one and a half minutes. The first two games the US played in Turkey, Love played 13 minutes and grabbed 11 and ten rebounds respectively. The next three, well, his minutes decreased and so did his rebounds, but in game four he did lead the team to victory by putting up 14 points in their win over Iran.

Numbers have proven themselves throughout Love’s career that if he doesn’t get minutes, you won’t get production — although isn’t that true with almost any player? Even last year, fans and analysts grew frustrated with Kurt Rambis’ lineups because they seemed to be lacking a little something: Love.

This year cannot be the same. Love’s entering his third year in the league and is ready to make an impact. He’s shown glimpses that he can be a bruising force on the glass and a serious mismatch to many power forwards on offense. There’s no doubt in my mind that Love could be a 20-10 guy for the Wolves this season, and hopefully many more to come. This should be the year that everyone, including coach Rambis, realize that Love has All-star potential but needs his shot to prove it. He’s shown it in Turkey thus far.

Some say that he’s played so well in Turkey because he has all these All-stars around him which in turn just elevate his game that much more. But are they the ones blocking everyone out for Love to grab all these rebounds? Have they turned his mediocre post skills to that of an actually adequate game down low? No. It helps that he’s playing with better players for two reason: 1) He’s now learning his true role as a basketball player and will know what he needs to do in the NBA this season. 2) After playing with this All-star team is finished, it’s time to go back to reality, and Love’s a smart guy who knows this. He has to return to Minnesota to play with arguably the worst team in the NBA and literally put them on his back and walk to the end of this season. After that, help should be on its way, but anyway, I digress.

Anyways, this is Love’s season and we need to trust in him — That might be all he needs to really showcase what he’s got. It’s bizarre to think that just six months ago, we were arguing about who the Wolves should keep on the roster for next season as our starting power forward — Big Al or Love. I was back and forth the whole year because I believed in Al’s low-post game and was hesitant about Love’s lack of one and inexperience. But in the end we have Love and he’s “the guy” this year. He may be against the world in his fight to carry one of the NBA’s biggest loser franchises, but I believe he’s up for the challenge.

ISTANBUL, Turkey — One of the big mysteries surrounding Team USA at the World Championship is why Kevin Love’s playing time has been so limited.

He has been, by far, the most productive and aggressive player for the Americans when it comes to producing points and rebounds off the bench, but he is playing behind Andre Iguodala at the 4 spot and behind Lamar Odom (and sometimes Tyson Chandler) at center.

In yesterday’s victory over Iran, which I dissected in my postgame column with a critical eye regarding the Americans’ offense, Love led the team in scoring with 13 points despite playing the fewest minutes (just under 11) of anyone on the roster.

“I just go out there and try to be productive. Coach said today everybody’s in their roles. I think for me, I know Lamar is going to be the starting center, and he’s going to play a lot of minutes. So when I get the chance to come in, whether I’m playing 5 minutes or 25 minutes, I have to get the job done. And I feel I’ve done a good job contributing thus far,” Love told ESPN.com.

Love played only 5:20 in Team USA’s 2-point victory over Brazil, 13:24 in the 22-point victory over Slovenia and 13:14 in Team’s USA’s tournament-opening 28-point victory over Croatia.

Timberwolf Tracks:

• Kevin Love continued his hot play during the World Championships yesterday. The U.S. team defeated Slovenia 99-77, but more importantly Love put up ten points and led the team in boards with 11
• The New York Times drools over Spanish phenom Ricky Rubio
• Who’s better: Kevin Love or O.J. Mayo?
• On Saturday Sam Amico tweeted that Carmelo Anthony could very well be traded to one of three teams: Kings, Nets or the Wolves. This scares me for reasons to complex to explain, but being that it’s only speculation, I wouldn’t worry about anything yet.

Not that I care much about team USA aside from Kevin Love’s development, the face of team Spain is the Wolves one and only savior, Sir Ricky Rubio. And last night just proved that Rubio could very well hop the pond and improve this team tenfold in 2011.

Facing some of the NBA’s finest in Chauncey Billups, Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose, Rubio put up an impressive line of seven points on three of four shooting, five rebounds, five assists and four steals. Not bad considering he came off the bench and played only 18 minutes.

If Rubio continues his impressive outings through next season, it should give the Wolves the green light to pursue him in coming on over next season. The kid really just sparkles on Spain’s national team — off the bench! He’s a spark plug for an already electric offense. After just one more season in Barcelona, Rubio will have nothing left to prove in Europe and will have to step to the NBA if he desires to establish himself as one of the world’s best. Lucky us.

These pictures should make you appreciate what the Wolves have done with the uni tweaks. It looks a lot better on actual players rather than player “ABCABC” like the pictures had it from the last new uni post.

Enjoy!

Pretty slick changes, eh?

In the excerpt explaining the new uniform tweaks, it says that the Wolves presented these changes in hopes of bringing a more seriousness and maturity to Timberwolves basketball. As silly as it sounds, the Wolves needed this uni-update because they were seriously the laughing stock of the NBA — Not only did we play like amateurs, but we looked the part too. Nothing was serious about last year’s jersey at all. I will admit that they’re stil not great, but these are enticing enough for even me to buy a jersey now!

But ultimately this upgrade definitely speaks miles to me as a fan about how the culture of the Timberwolves is starting to change for the better.

Ricky Rubio, selected with the No. 5 pick in the 2009 draft, wants to play in the NBA at some point, but for now he’s concentrating on playing in Spain.

“I am still talking to Minnesota but at the moment it’s not foremost in my thoughts,” Rubio told Reuters. “Next year we’ll think about whether I go over there. I’ll talk with whom I need to talk to, with Barcelona, with Minnesota, with my agents, and we’ll decide.”

“It’s an exciting prospect playing in the NBA, one that every player wants. When you are little you dream about it. There are (Spanish) players who go there and things don’t go well and they prefer to come back, others who triumph,” he added.

Rubio has an NBA escape-clause in his contract after the 2010-11 season.

Seeing that we’re a long year away from any such arrival of one Sir. Ricky Rubio, I wouldn’t make much of this report – After all, it did come off of ESPN’s Rumor page. But if this kind of thing continues to pop up during the next twelve months, it should be a case to worry about. It’ll be hard convincing our savior to hop the pond to play for us if he had spent the entire year ducking and dodging any things having to do with us.

The marquee match-ups worth grabbing tickets for or squatting down on the couch for the night are highlighted in bold.

Regular Season Schedule/Results

OCTOBER OPPONENT TIME (ET) TV LOCAL TV RESOURCES

Wed, Oct 27 Sacramento 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Fri, Oct 29 Milwaukee 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sat, Oct 30 @ Memphis 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel

NOVEMBER OPPONENT TIME (ET) TV LOCAL TV RESOURCES

Tue, Nov 2 @ Miami 7:30 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Nov 3 @ Orlando 7:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Fri, Nov 5 Atlanta 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sun, Nov 7 @ Houston 7:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Tue, Nov 9 @ LA Lakers 10:30 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Nov 10 @ Sacramento 10:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Fri, Nov 12 NY Knicks 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sun, Nov 14 @ Atlanta 2:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Mon, Nov 15 @ Charlotte 7:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Nov 17 LA Clippers 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Fri, Nov 19 LA Lakers 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Mon, Nov 22 @ Oklahoma City 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Nov 24 San Antonio 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sat, Nov 27 Golden State 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel

DECEMBER OPPONENT TIME (ET) TV LOCAL TV RESOURCES

Wed, Dec 1 @ Dallas 8:30 PM Tickets | Travel
Fri, Dec 3 @ San Antonio 8:30 PM Tickets | Travel
Sat, Dec 4 Cleveland 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Mon, Dec 6 @ NY Knicks 7:30 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Dec 8 Oklahoma City 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Fri, Dec 10 Detroit 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sat, Dec 11 @ Chicago 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Tue, Dec 14 @ Golden State 10:30 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Dec 15 @ Phoenix 9:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Fri, Dec 17 @ Portland 10:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sat, Dec 18 @ Denver 9:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Mon, Dec 20 @ LA Clippers 10:30 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Dec 22 Utah 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sun, Dec 26 @ Cleveland 6:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Mon, Dec 27 New Orleans 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Dec 29 Denver 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel

JANUARY OPPONENT TIME (ET) TV LOCAL TV RESOURCES

Sat, Jan 1 New Jersey 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Mon, Jan 3 @ Boston 7:30 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Jan 5 Charlotte 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Fri, Jan 7 Portland 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sun, Jan 9 @ San Antonio 7:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Tue, Jan 11 San Antonio 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Thu, Jan 13 Washington 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sat, Jan 15 Orlando 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Mon, Jan 17 @ Portland 10:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Jan 19 @ LA Clippers 10:30 PM Tickets | Travel
Mon, Jan 24 Houston 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Jan 26 Oklahoma City 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Fri, Jan 28 @ Utah 9:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sat, Jan 29 Toronto 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel

FEBRUARY OPPONENT TIME (ET) TV LOCAL TV RESOURCES

Wed, Feb 2 Memphis 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Fri, Feb 4 @ Toronto 7:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sat, Feb 5 Denver 8:30 PM Tickets | Travel
Mon, Feb 7 @ New Orleans 8:00 PM NBA TV Tickets | Travel
Tue, Feb 8 @ Houston 8:30 PM Tickets | Travel
Fri, Feb 11 @ Indiana 7:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sat, Feb 12 Philadelphia 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Mon, Feb 14 Portland 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Feb 16 LA Clippers 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Tue, Feb 22 @ Milwaukee 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Feb 23 Memphis 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Fri, Feb 25 New Orleans 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sun, Feb 27 Golden State 5:00 PM Tickets | Travel

MARCH OPPONENT TIME (ET) TV LOCAL TV RESOURCES

Tue, Mar 1 LA Lakers 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Mar 2 @ Detroit 7:30 PM Tickets | Travel
Fri, Mar 4 @ Philadelphia 7:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sat, Mar 5 @ Washington 7:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Mon, Mar 7 Dallas 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Mar 9 Indiana 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Fri, Mar 11 Utah 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sun, Mar 13 @ Golden State 9:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Mar 16 @ Utah 9:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Fri, Mar 18 @ LA Lakers 10:30 PM Tickets | Travel
Sun, Mar 20 Sacramento 3:30 PM Tickets | Travel
Thu, Mar 24 @ Dallas 8:30 PM Tickets | Travel
Fri, Mar 25 @ Oklahoma City 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sun, Mar 27 Boston 7:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Mar 30 Chicago 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel

APRIL OPPONENT TIME (ET) TV LOCAL TV RESOURCES

Fri, Apr 1 Miami 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sat, Apr 2 @ Memphis 8:00 PM
Tue, Apr 5 @ New Jersey 7:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Apr 6 Phoenix 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Sat, Apr 9 @ Denver 9:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Mon, Apr 11 @ Phoenix 10:00 PM Tickets | Travel
Wed, Apr 13 Houston 8:00 PM Tickets | Travel

I’ll soon write up a profile on Tolliver to give you a good sense of what he could bring to this team and organization. Things have been slow amidst the dog days of summer, but keep checking back later for new pieces; they are on their way!