The Final Battle

Just like that, the Battle of the Bloggers was over ... And this final one was tough.

With one last chance to impress the judges (like Ricky Williams having one last chance to stray from the tree), the bloggers answered the question: "What's your take on where Minnesota will finish this season (paraphrased)" in predictably coherent and insightful fashion.

Some bloggers took the route of comparing the Wolves to other NBA squads, while others focused more on Minnesota itself. For the first time in the Battle, there wasn't one even close-to-poor answer. Also for the first time, we had several people read all of the answers, names omitted, to make sure our final analysis was fair.

Ultimately, I had to make some tough final calls myself, and the final results were closer than Chris Kaman and his hair stylist, Spencer and Heidi or peanut butter and jelly. While Sonia Grover's final entry took the seven points, she missed Top Blogger honors by a mere point. Even closer was Stephen Litel, who edged Anthony Hall by one point in the final answer, but still finished a measly half-point behind AH for the title.

Meanwhile, Derek Hanson jumped up from 14 to 20 points with a solid final entry, and Doan, Kelsey and Halsted's pieces were too good to declare one a loser. So, they all logged in at fifth place.

As a special thanks to the bloggers, the Timberwolves would like to invite each of you to enjoy a game from the Club Cambria seats, where they will be able to eat some terrific food (trust me, I snuck my way in there a few times last year, and it's delightfully delectable) while sipping a root beer or three.

And of course, a special congratulations to the winner, Anthony Hall. Anthony will be invited to join me at a game on press row, and have access to Wolves and visiting players with a media pass. That includes pregame interviews and postgame sound from both locker rooms. Surely, some solid content will ensue on twolvesblog.com. Alas, here are the final standings:

Battle of the Bloggers FINAL Standings
4 points: Anthony Hall, (30.5 total): twolvesblog.com
5 points: Stephen Litel, (30 total): hoopsworld.com
7 points Sonia Grover, (29.5 total): twolvesblog.com
3 points: Kate Doan, (24 total): mnsportsfans.com
3 points: Dave Kelsey, (23 total): twolvesblog.com
6 points: Derek Hanson, (20 total): twolvesblog.com
3 points: Alex Halsted, (14 total): Twolves Wordpress

FINAL QUESTION:
ESPN the Magazine and Sports Illustrated have the Wolves finishing last in the West this season. Now that the final roster is set, what's YOUR take on where Minnesota will finish? Feel free to incorporate previous points you've made throughout the Battle of the Bloggers." - Tiebreaker: Offer two short predictions for the coming season.

RESPONSES:

Rashad McCants posted a career-high 33 points during Wednesday's home win over Sacramento.

GROVER:
A) I thought this was the best entry of the week because it's the most complete analysis of the Timberwolves themselves. In fact, your answers have always shown that you definitely do your homework, and must read just about everything that's written about the Timberwolves. Other people focused more on other teams, which was fair, but you had some really good points, like: "low expectations will enable them to sometimes take opponents by surprise" and "Wittman will have a difficult task of finding a solid rotation and figuring out players' roles," which as you mentioned is hugely important in the NBA. Look at San Antonio, Dallas, Phoenix ... Set rotations, set roles, defined system + talent = lots of wins.

B) You put the Wolves just ahead of Seattle and Sacramento. I (and a few great basketball minds here at Target Center) have to agree there, quite simply.

C) You said that diehard Wolves fans would go postal upon seeing another KG magazine cover, which is an interesting joke. You have to be at least partly serious, but I'm not sure how fans take things like that. On one hand, we miss him, but on the other, we like to see his success, enjoy watching Boston and can appreciate how, so far, the trade has helped both teams. It's an interesting point ... In other news, it's fair to say Jefferson will lead the team in jersey sales, especially after his humble pie post-contract extension press conference.

HANSON:
A) No way you're getting last place for repping the Wolves hard once again, especially because you provide some analysis behind your optimism. As for your first point that critics are using the logic of losing KG means losing a lot more games ... You said that this team is more than last year's "minus KG." That doesn't make sense to me literally, but I suppose I get your drift. Talent-wise it's definitely a better roster, but we have to give it some time to equal the production vets like KG and Davis gave. But sooner than later, I'm with you.

B) Great point about the good attitude and work ethic, which is something that people are seemingly noticing, particularly at home games: thus the standing ovation after the win, standing Os after hustle plays and even cheering losses in which the Wolves worked really hard. This cannot be stated enough, and is a huge positive if it can continue going forward. I'm not sure why it wouldn't continue. Towards that end, great mention of "intangibles."

C) Golden State isn't a lock by any means, but those other six teams are. And no, no one can tell you it's impossible for the Wolves to sneak into that 8th spot, but it's more than a stone's throw away from "likely." Jaric would be a top-shelf butter, restaurant-squeezed lemonade Bachelor; you nailed that. I'll have to get back to you on the four-point shot for Walker. That sounds less likely than it is for a last place, 1-9 team to give up LT for an injured Adrian Peterson, to a contender no less. Oh wait, someone is trying to pull that off in my work league.

LITEL:
A) Your answers have been consistently insightful throughout the battle, we've just disagreed on a few issues that made the difference in the standings (i.e. the team's leading scorer ... seems petty huh, but you have to differentiate somewhere). Of course, we may both be wrong, with Rashad's emergence, but we wrote that column before Ricky got traded. In terms of this entry, you had some strong arguments regarding how Minnesota stacks up with the rest of the league. I differ just a bit: I'd group the Wolves with Seattle, Portland, Sacramento and Memphis in terms of overall talent (plus a Brand-less Clippers team), but put New Orleans and Golden State in the next tier. I can explain this further in a future column, or perhaps we can go back and forth on it. Sure, L.A. started hot (but has lost two straight) and Golden State can't buy a win, but once Jackson gets back I think G.S. will be fine.

B) I like and agree with the point about building around post players vs. perimeter players, and Jefferson is certainly the best low-post scorer out of your four teams. Seattle, Sacramento, Golden State (and to a lesser degree), Portland and Phoenix should have a lot of trouble with Jefferson's low-post offense. But what about defense? New Orleans has Tyson Chandler to go against other bigs, so I took them out of that lower tier. Now, teams like the Lakers (Bynum/Brown/Mihm), Grizzlies (Milicic), Spurs (Duncan), Rockets (Yao/Hayes), Mavericks (Diop), Jazz (Boozer, Kirilenko), Clippers (Kaman) and Nuggets (Camby, Martin) are all pretty solid in the lane defensively. Especially the squads that play true team defense (most notably, the Spurs and Mavs). Of course Jefferson helps a great deal offensively - because he is automatically the focus of opposing defenses - but competing against bigger teams defensively and how much Al can help there is another story that deserves closer examination.

C) The depth argument is tricky, because while it's great to have lots of guys that can play on the bench, the best teams in the NBA only go eight or (maximum) nine deep, generally speaking. Surely, all coaches (Wittman included, because he's said so explicitly a few times this season) would like to get to an eight-man rotation. Thus, to "be able to tinker with the rotation" actually seems like more of a difficulty than a blessing. I think you mean this more in the sense that Wittman can take this year to figure out who can really play and who can't, and that this can benefit the franchise going forward. If so, I hear that, but for this particular season I'd say Minnesota's "depth" might actually hurt the win-loss record more than it helps, thus giving some of those other teams the edge in the final standings.

D) Lastly, I might be the biggest Craig Smith guy around, but it doesn't appear he will get the minutes you think he will, Steve. I do acknowledge that you said this before the season and I'm saying it a few games in, so I have the advantage of hindsight that you didn't when handing in the column. To average a double-double would be absolutely remarkable, but certainly unlikely. "Most Improved Player" for McCants might be tough on a team that might not contend for the playoffs (that's just how they vote, right?) but it's certainly a good and bold call. Crowd loving that.

Okay, so I have a thing for Jessica Alba.

HALL:
A) Another solid all-around answer from you, Anthony, which is why you're the winner. But boy, was it close. It's almost like arguing that Jessica Alba* is hotter than Jessica Biel. I guess she is, a little bit, but you'd be real chill if Biel ended up winning. Indeed, you just edged Litel and Grover in terms of making consistently salient points. As far as this final answer goes, I think you're right on about McCants having a breakout season and your justification for saying as much. Furthermore, your pitting Minnesota around 13th in the West seems very fair, while your cautious optimism about exceeding expectations looks pretty good as well.
*Intern Matt pointed out how much I talk about Alba. Sorry.

B) The thing I didn't love was grouping Green in with McCants. In terms of talent, there's no question Green's up there, but he didn't have three years of seasoning at one of the nation's finest college programs to really learn the game. We're talking a Ferrari Testarosa at Roy Williams U vs. (insert junk car here) at Green's high school in Houston. Not that his high school wasn't good, but it's just a completely different level. Green himself admits that he has a long way to go in terms of learning the NBA game; as such, I wouldn't call him a mystery man just yet, or one that fans should truly be waiting on for an explosion this season. In the future, yes, but right now, McCants is in a different category. Along with Rashad, I'd talk about Foye, Jefferson, Brewer or Gomes before I talked about Green in terms of surprising people this year. But boy, does Green's J look sweet when he's the last Wolf out there practicing on many days. Good sign there.

C) As far as record predictions go, your 25 wins is more than fair. I agree that this group is much more fun to watch than last year's team, though I'm going to have to disagree on the Jefferson prediction of 30 and 15 against the Celtics. Sure, he'll be extremely motivated, but the coaching staff in Boston knows better than anyone else in the league how to best limit Al's scoring production. 15 boards, sure, but I'll take the under on 30 points.

DOAN:
A) Your answer, like those of Dave and Alex, were good enough that I couldn't give anybody last place. I like the research you did heading into the 2004-05 season ... To what publication are you referring? This year's crowd favorites in terms of media picks are the Spurs, Suns and Celtics, and it looks like all three will be in the mix (along with Utah, Houston and Dallas).

Randy Foye tore up Summer League and is making significant progress in his recovery from a knee injury. This guy can play.

B) Your prediction that Minnesota will start slowly but build momentum is simple, yet intelligent. Mentioning Al's paint points, Foye coming back, and Brewer's D earn points, but one thing did confuse me. If experts are going to eat their words, wouldn't you want to put Minnesota on more than the 30 wins you predicted? A lot of experts have the Wolves in that range. But I'll concede that several had the Wolves winning far fewer, and assume you were all over it.

C) Like Litel, you put McCants onto the Most Improved award. Looking pretty good so far on that one ... And yes, Brewer will easily win best smile honors. I guess.

KELSEY:
A) Liked this response because it most prominently featured how big of a loss Randy Foye has been. Why aren't more people talking about this, in general? Does it not almost seem like people have forgotten how good this kid is? He was killing people last year when given the opportunity, and may have been the best overall player at the Vegas Summer League. I think we're all just hoping that he can come back healthy. And soon.

B) You also talked about how other players will have to step up when Al commands double-teams, and it looks like Rashad McCants can be that guy. That really nice looking inside-out combo we saw against Sacramento (editor's note: this bit inserted after the column was completed) with Jefferson and McCants is a great sign, and can only get better with the offensive firepower Foye can bring to the perimeter. 33 points from Shaddy, and almost all within the flow of the offense? That's real sexy. Like Giselle.

C) I'm being mostly facetious here, but I don't like the word choice of "plethora" when talking about the Wolves. That suggests that we have an over-abundance of young players, which I think is an oxymoron at this point. Can I request that we switch "plethora" to a word like myriad, which has a more positive connotation?

D) I had to delete a joke I just wrote because it was inappropriate, but wow, do you love Ryan Gomes.

Al Jefferson has tallied six double-doubles in his first six games as a Wolf.

HALSTED:
A) Some quality points here ensured you didn't get stuck alone with a last place certificate. Your first point was simply that the Wolves will not finish last in the West, and we've already explained why there's no argument here.

B) Ditto on the Kings, but I'm not sure where you read that Hawes could miss the season? He's obviously back playing already. As for Artest, you're right, he's anything but a sure thing ... unlike Kevin Martin, who is a legit star. Seattle is the opposite of good, have to agree with you, but Portland looks pretty solid. Those should be some interesting games between Minny and the Blazers, just as were last year's. You could have thrown in a few more teams, but maybe you were worried about your word limit.

C) The triple-double call for Jefferson is interesting, as he's never been one to flirt with high assist numbers, and doesn't usually block more than a shot or two. But if you're calling it, I'm waiting to see it. That would help my fantasy team and the Wolves towards a victory (or two). Good call again on Rashad, though so far it looks like you're undershooting him a tad.