The Raptors managed to get their first win of the pre-season against the Minnesota Timberwolves last week. Today, the match up series focuses on the aforementioned Wolves team with a preview provided by Zach.

Zach Harper (@talkhoops) has given up on sleep and therefore can be found on Talkhoops.net, CowbellKingdom.com, and HardwoodParoxysm.com as he wallows in the misery of his Timberwolves.

Long gone are the days of the Minnesota Timberwolves being a playoff team but at least, the Wolves seem to finally have a direction.

Now, where that direction appears to be headed is hard to figure out. The franchise hired David Kahn to take the tattered reigns from Kevin McHale and he decided to light the world on fire. He used David Stern’s form of nepotism to secure the Wolves decision-making position and turned it into a point guard, power forward orgy. The Wolves have comprised their roster of primarily 1’s and 4’s with the occasional Corey Brewer and Ryan Hollins mixed in.

They tried their hardest to woo Ricky Rubio away from the cold, dead hands of Spain. But to no avail, the half-baked plan of pairing Rubio and Jonny Flynn together in the backcourt fell completely apart, almost immediately on draft night. Minnesota traded away Randy Foye and Mike Miller for the fifth pick (Rubio) and a smattering of failed Washington Wizards big men. They then complemented those “acquisitions” by trading Sebastian Telfair, Mark Madsen, and Craig Smith for Quentin Richardson before trading him in order to re-acquire Mark Blount (arguably the least productive center in franchise history – a franchise that boasts centers like Felton Spencer, Dean Garrett, and Michael Olowokandi).

In the wake of the Rubio failure, the Wolves moved quickly to pry Ramon Sessions away from the Milwaukee Bucks. They signed him to a four-year, $16 million deal that will give the franchise their best starting/back-up point guard combination in team history. Sessions gives the Wolves and their fans a bridge to the next stage when Ricky Rubio will either come over in a game of international Red Rover (Link ; just in case this isn’t an internationally known children’s game) or be traded for less than equal value. Ideally, they’ll be able to find a way to use Rubio, Flynn, a newly healthy Al Jefferson, and the rebounding/tweeting machine Kevin Love.
Unfortunately, this is still the Timberwolves. The direction of the franchise is rarely headed up and we’ll most likely be back to square one in June as we try to figure out how David Kahn will screw up the next draft.

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Last Season Record: 2-0
Both meetings between these teams turned out to be high scoring affairs. Al Jefferson was injured but the Minnesota guard play kept them in the games. The Raptors managed to out rebound the Wolves on both occasions while shooting 50% from the field. The games were closer than most would have liked considering the star player of the opposing team did not dress. Having players like Joey Graham and Andrea Bargnani step up were some positive things that came out of the series for the Raptors.

Stacking Up

The Bigs: Al Jefferson is coming off an injury but if he is back to where he left off, I would say his game is on par with Bosh. Jefferson, who has quietly developed into a 20/10 guy, lost 30 pounds over the summer. This physical change may alter his ability to make room for himself in the paint. Bargnani is no defensive stalwart but he seems to have a better hold on man to man defense. Putting him against Jefferson would be the best option for the Raptors. The Timberwolves won’t make it easy though. They can create switches with Jefferson and Love to force the Toronto bigs into exerting a lot of energy on the defensive end. Offensively, Bosh will be double teamed and that should give Bargnani and other guys on the perimeter some open shots. Spacing is a big key when passing out of the double team not giving the other guy time to rotate. The Raptors need to work out those things to stay effective but will remain hard pressed to dominate the strong Timberwolves front court.
Edge: Even

The Wings: Ryan Gomes is not your typical SF and with the departure of Mike Miller he is probably the best option offensively for the wolves at this spot. Corey Brewer will get his chances to develop as well but he is hardly a game changer. Without Foye and Miller, the Wolves don’t have any 3 point threats, meaning the biggest weakness for the Raptors defensively will remain hidden. Conversely, Hedo will be able to use his height along with some veteran smarts to expose the younger core defensively on the other side of the floor. With Hedo playing a point forward role, run outs from the guards against this team should translate to some easy transition buckets.
Edge: Raptors

The Guards: The Wolves used both their top 10 picks in this years NBA draft on PG’s. Ricky Rubio will remain in Europe putting the spotlight solely on Jonny Flynn. While Flynn has a chance to be a great player in the league, its not going to happen overnight. The big key for the Wolves will be Ramon Sessions who they pried away from the Bucks. Sessions is a play maker who is willing to take the big shots. Calderon has an experience advantage and Jack has the toughness factor going for him. Both these guys should be able to make plays and get themselves some open shots coming off screens or driving right into the paint. From the SG spot, DeMar or Belinelli should have a quickness advantage over their counterparts on the Wolves team.
Edge: Raptors

Predicted Record: 2-0 (1 of 3 Western Conference team the Raptors should sweep)

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 3:41 AM and is filed under Raptor Report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.