Monthly Archives: April 2015

(Eds. Note: This is the third and final installment of a three-part series of guest posts from friend of the blog Jon Wallace (@jonwallace3), a Duke graduate, current Washington, DC resident, great American, and die-hard Blue Devils fan.)

Part I: Jahlil Okafor

Part II: Justice Winslow

Tyus Jones, he of Apple Valley, Minnesota lineage, is the third of the three freshmen from Duke declaring for the draft. He is also the prospect with the murkiest future. A 6’1” point guard with excellent vision, high basketball IQ, and average athleticism, Jones will probably have to wait until the playoff teams start picking to hear his name called. However, he has shown that he can fit in with other high usage players and take over the game when it’s Magic Johnson’s favorite portion of the game, winning time. In fact, if there is one indelible legacy that Jones leaves at Duke is that of being perhaps the most clutch player since Laettner or Battier. When Duke was down or needed a spark, Jones created something. When they needed free throws to ice the game, Jones knocked them down. When Duke needed a bucket at the end of the shot clock while trying put a close game away, Jones would rise up and hit a three. He did it against UNC (twice), UVA, and Wisconsin (twice).

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A few Timberwolves items to touch on as the season winds down:

• The Wolves lost both ends of a road back-to-back this week. On Tuesday at Sacramento they lost by 5. That doesn’t seem so bad until you realize that the Kings — perhaps also wanting to lose for boosted lottery position — held DeMarcus Cousins out of the game. Rudy Gay scored 33 for Sactown. Omri Casspi poured in 31 of his own. Derrick Williams had 18. Yeah.

The next night at Portland, against a very good Blazers team (but one the Wolves beat in the last game Kevin Garnett played in) the Wolves got predictably throttled. They trailed by 10 after the first quarter, 19 at the half, and lost by 25.

• They continue to sit their best players, aside from Kevin Martin who has returned to action. Garnett, Ricky Rubio, Nikola Pekovic, Shabazz Muhammad, Gary Neal, and Anthony Bennett remain out.

• Despite the miserable circumstances he’s been intentionally placed in, Andrew Wiggins continues to impress. Against the Kings he had 26 points and 8 rebounds in +13 action. Against Portland, Wiggins dropped 29 points, along with 5 boards and 4 assists. As was obvious months ago, he’ll win the Rookie of the Year, which is what the entire franchise has been emphasizing, and will continue to emphasize as both a legitimate cause for celebration and a distraction from the shameless tanking effort. The Wolves have HUGE questions going forward about their coaching staff and strategy, their team defense, their medical management, and most of their personnel. But unlike most teams in their building stage, they seem to have landed a franchise player, which is the most important and difficult thing to acquire. As much as I hate the basketball that has been played for most of this season, this is a fact worth acknowledging.

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Ricky Rubio’s fourth NBA season has come to a close. Flip made this announcement to local media this morning, explaining that his franchise point guard continues to be bothered by ankle pain. They’d rather he rest now, so that he can perform a standard offseason regimen and not have to worry about additional rehab for his ankle.

Do I believe that he’s actually hurt?

No, I guess I don’t, at least not to the extent that he can’t play. I’ve watched him workout before games and he looks great, cutting hard and drilling jumpers. Flip has told us that Ricky wants to play, but isn’t being allowed to. But that doesn’t matter now. His season is done, and — in most ways — so is his team’s.

Back on March 8, four weeks ago tomorrow, I wrote a “Third Quarter Report,” highlighting what I felt were the big issues hanging over the team as it entered the final fourth of its 2014-15 seaason. The post came in the wake of a huge home win over the Blazers in which both Rubio and Kevin Garnett looked great, and the team racked up 121 points. My post wasn’t entirely positive — I criticized Zach LaVine’s point guard abilities and the team’s dearth of power forwards — but it finished with a positively upbeat tone: I wondered if the Wolves were starting to look like a playoff team.

How foolish that seems now, after what’s gone on.

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