Hopefully the Timberwolves' charter plane was stocked with Mountain Dew or coffee.
Fresh off its voyage through Turkey and England, Minnesota is once again on the road (albeit in America) for games at Memphis and Atlanta. With preseason contests against Boston and Efes Pilsen under their belt, the Wolves now commence on a scheduling meat-grinder that includes two more road games on Friday and Saturday, at Indiana and Milwaukee, respectively.
But first, we take a look at the Grizz.
To listen to a
complete audio preview with Wolves assistant coach J.B. Bickerstaff, just
CLICK HERE.
Want some text, too? OK:
Wolves vs. Memphis Grizzlies, 7:00 p.m.
Monday night at Memphis' FedEx Forum, Minnesota faces a Grizzlies bunch a long way removed from its NBA-worst 22-60 record last season. The roster didn't undergo as big of a shift as Minnesota's in terms of new players (five to Minnesota's nine), but it added two key pieces (Mike Conley and Darko Milicic), a coach (Marc Iavaroni) and a GM (Chris Wallace). Bottom line, they won't be the worst squad in the NBA this season.
The franchise's biggest move was grabbing Conley with the fourth overall pick in the 2007 NBA Draft. Certain cynics questioned the pick at the time as players like Jeff Green, Corey Brewer Yi Jianlian and Joakim Noah were still on the board, and Conley played just one season at Ohio State. However, considering that Iavaroni's last stop was a five-year stint in Phoenix, the move makes more sense. Memphis wants to run in Suns fashion, and Conley's arguably the fastest player to come into the league in years.
Actually, Memphis took a point guard in last year's draft: Kyle Lowry, former college teammate of Randy Foye's at Villanova. Though Lowry missed much of last season with an injury, he is particularly solid defensively, and can push the tempo like Conley. Of course, neither Lowry or Conley Jr. can even be mentioned in the same sentence as Steve Nash, so Iavaroni will be afforded some time to teach both his system.
But when you talk about Memphis, it's all about Pau Gasol (sorry, Pau, we should have put your paragraph in front of the new PGs). The Spanish forward/center put up 20.8 ppg, 9.8 rpg and 3.4 apg last season, and can score with either hand from all over the place. He'll also have to worry less about guarding other Western Conference bigs with the presence of Darko Milicic, the former No. 2 overall pick (drafted ahead of Carmelo Anthony, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh). Gasol had to play a lot of center last season for Memphis as they were limited in terms of post talent, so Darko's presence should lift some pressure off Pau's shoulders, particularly on the defensive end.
Throw in Rudy Gay, Mike Miller, Hakim Warrick and newcomers Juan Carlos Navarro (Gasol's boy from Spain) and Casey Jacobson and it's not a bad little mix of talent in Tennessee. Still, much like Minnesota, Memphis is a team that is going to need some time to mesh, to figure out how to play together, so Monday's contest might have a turnover ... or 43. But, surely, both of these teams could surprise some people. San Antonio, Dallas and Phoenix had best not waltz into FedEx Forum expecting to win by 20 ... We know the Wolves won't.
Monday night's contest is not on TV or radio, but come back to timberwolves.com tomorrow and we'll have postgame analysis, in addition to a preview for Tuesday night's game in Atlanta.
