PREVIEW: Gunning for 1,000

Rick Adelman has 999 career wins. Tonight against the Toronto Raptors, he goes for 1,000.

The hopeful headline in tomorrow’s paper will be that Wolves coach Rick Adelman reached the 1,000-win mark.  A win over the Raptors would vault Adelman’s already-legend status into another tier, joining the likes of Pat Riley, George Karl and Lenny Wilkins in an exclusive club of longtime winners.  Adelman has not had an easy go of it this season due to health problems of his players and, much more importantly, his wife Mary Kay.  Whether it happens tonight or some other night soon, it will be a nice moment when he earns his thousandth victory from the sidelines.  For more on his impending feat, read Mark Remme’s feature story.

In the game itself you’ll find two similarly situated teams.  Both have 28 wins.  The Raptors’ 47 losses are one more than the Wolves’ 46.  Neither team is particularly good, or terrible, on either end of the floor.  Both are just “below average.”  Aside from Kevin Love, the key players for each team should be suited up.  Not any egregious tanking going on, in other words.  The Raps just beat the Wizards by 10 in a showing of winning effort.  Jonas Valanciunas is probably their most interesting player (when Kyle Lowry isn’t in his occasional MVP mode, anyway).  JONAS! had 24 points on 7 shots against the Wizards.  He was drafted a couple picks behind Derrick Williams, if you’re into revisiting those sorts of things.  The two might guard each other for a few possessions in tonight’s game.

Hmm, what else?  Check out Britt Robson’s case for keeping Chase Budinger at MinnPost.  The guys at Howlin’ TWolf are profiling draft prospects.  Derek James has a nice one on Ben McLemore who would look mighty fine running the floor and turning Rubio passes into triples.  John over at timberpups.com dug up some George Mikan footage.  What sticks out, among other things, is how “hands off” the post play is.  Incredibly different today.  Zach Harper recapped the win over Milwaukee, noting signs of improvement in Ricky’s perimeter jumper.  I’ve made my feelings known on that subject (I think it needs major reconstructive surgery, preferably by an expert like Wolves’ assistant coach and shooting legend Shawn Respert) but Zach makes good observations about Ricky being ready to fire and getting enough trajectory on his threes.

That’s about it.  I’ll be catching this one in my living room with the benefit of hearing the great Jim Petersen offer his insights throughout.  Wolves fans and League Pass viewers are lucky to have such excellent coverage on TV, the web, and radio with Alan Horton calling games.

Let’s go get Number 1,000.