Martin C. Sumners

Team in Transition
With Kevin Garnett, the Big Ticket, in Boston, the Timberwolves are a team in transition. The team is now led by 20/10 man, Big Al, Al Jefferson. Actually, as of today, he’s a 19.5/11.1 man, but my third grade teacher, Miss Copeland, taught me to round up like that and 19.5 along with 11.1 does not ring as well as 20/10. By the way, there is an NBA connection with Miss Copeland. Her cousin, Hollis Copeland, played for the New York Knicks in the early 1980s.

Anyway, the links below have little to do with my elementary education or who’s the bigger man in Minnesota. They, however, do highlight that the Wolves site is no longer focused on one superstar. This shift has produced some excellent content that even extends to covering the opponent.

On hump-day of last week, the Wolves were about to face the Kings and ultimately garner the season’s first win. At shootaround, in Kings Chatter, the staff of Timberwolves.com spoke with the league's second leading scorer Kevin Martin. The staff also caught up with Ron Artest. The two Kings spoke about the other’s game and the Wolves.

On TGIF, the Wolves hosted the Wizards and in the post-game locker room got a hold of the one called, for now, Nacho. There, you may be able to get a glimpse into the world of Gilbert Arenas as you can hear him in an audiophile talk about winning in Minnesota for the first time and not being able to keep up with his own trash talk.

In From a Fan’s Perspective, a season ticket holder is interviewed about the new branding of the franchise. And Timberwolves TV analyst Jim Petersen breaks down the Western Conference and gives his early season predictions on how things will finish in the heavily stacked conference. Finally, in the Mad Dog Diary, Mark Madsen, gives advice on the politics of high school sports.