Rant over. For some reason, Head Coach Cheryl Reeve gave the only game of the week, at home against the Sparks Friday, an importance matching that of Game 7 of the NBA Finals. That game came two nights after a 28-point ass-kicking in L.A., and despite bouncing back with a home win vs. Tulsa, a practice that she concluded was lackadaisical prompted her to threaten benching the entire starting five of Lindsay Whalen, Seimone Augustus, Maya Moore, Rebekkah Brunson and Janel McCarville. I understand and appreciate her being so focused that she believes the ninth game of the WNBA season is the most important on the calendar. Yet if they don't respond, Reeve has other bullets/threats to fire.
So I don't know if the team was motivated in their 88-64 destruction of the Sparks. Nor do I believe that this means this team is as good as the ones either last year or two years ago. There's still a chance that they just don't have it. But hey, a win's a win, and their output this week is a lot better than the other entrants in the WMNSS. Now they complete their home-and-home -- a home-and-home that lasts for four days -- by playing in L.A., again, tonight (Tuesday night), then host Phoenix and Brittney Griner -- again, exactly a month and a day -- Sunday night.
#-2: Wild (Re-Entry!). You know, I don't know what to think about what the Mild did for Sunday's NHL Draft. Arguably their biggest move wasn't a selection, but a trade of hard-hitting fan favorite Cal Clutterbuck to the New York Islanders in exchange for the fifth overall pick in the draft three years ago, Nino Niederreiter. This was done to shore up the scoring that remains a problem with the organization. But unlike General Manager Chuck Fletcher, the fact that this guy has been tearing it up in the minor leagues but still has yet to stick to the major league club does scream "red flag" to me. Otherwise you're saying the Islanders are a stupid and disorganized franchise, and I really don't think they'd willingly hold down a guy who can score for three years. There is something more to this, a side to this green rook they call "El Nino" that we have yet to hear, and I'm afraid the truth will be bad.
I'm not a fan of trading for trade's sake, and that's my visceral reaction to all the transactions Fletch has made so far. Then again, despite making the playoffs for the first time in a long time, I can't say that none of the players are expendable. Pierre-Marc Bouchard telling the squad he's leaving? He's had a bounce-back year after a career derailed by concussion, but that's a hit this team can absorb. Dealing Justin Falk? That's fine with me. Probably trading Devon Setoguchi and Zenon Konopka, and buying out Tom Gilbert? It feels as if they just got here, but with the league being able to wring almost six million from each team's salary cap by delaying this past season into the New Year, maybe the Wild didn't have much choice. I just don't know if any of the people they're getting in return will be worth it or just the best guys they can fit under the cap. I just hope Dany Heatley stays. If he's healthy, I will feel better about this team, which still has youngsters like Charlie Coyle, Jonas Brodin, and Jason Zucker who likely will stick.
I am disappointed that the Wild failed to finagle a first-round pick in what many experts call the most-loaded draft in a decade. There had to be someone good that would have helped this team. Instead their first pick was a second-rounder, a Swede-born defenseman named Gustav Olofsson. Meh.
#-3: Twins (Last Week: -2). The New York Yankees have Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Curtis Granderson, Kevin Youkilis, Michael Pineda, and Mark Teixeira on the injured list (with Teixeira done for the year), and yet the Twinks are still afraid of playing them. They had a 4-3 lead going into the eighth inning and the bullpen, hailed by most to be the "strength" of this team, pissed down their legs to the tune of three runs in the eighth and then four fucking more in the ninth to get routed, once again by the Bronx Bombers, by a score of 10-4. Pathetic.
This on top of a split against the moribund Kansas City Royals and the Bullseye over the weekend. That does include Saturday's win in Kyle Gibson's first-ever game as a rookie. He looked less impressive than his line indicates: six innings, eight hits and two earned runs, but striking out five and walking no one in a 6-1 win. I specifically picked him up off the waiver wire for this one day because I thought it would be one of those "The Natural"-type performances where he will have a complete game shutout and strike out a dozen in a storybook major league debut. That did not happen, and I'm certain he'll fall down to earth. As have the Twins, who failed to overtake the Royals for third place in the American League Central. So now we know where this team's place is: Fourth in the division. Oh, and they got swept at baseball's worst, Miami, after blowing a three-run lead after the first and losing Wednesday afternoon 5-3.
They went 2-4 this week, and this could be the part of the schedule where the whole year goes to shit on them. After the Yanks, they travel to Toronto for three, then head to Tampa Bay for a four-game set starting Monday. There is a decent chance they will go winless this screening week.
#-4: Timberwolves (Re-Entry!). I like Flip Saunders. Well, maybe I liked Flip Saunders. Because in his first big act as de facto General Manager of the Woofie Dogs, he laid a huge turd.
Remember, many people think this is the weakest draft since 2000, and possible the worst draft of all-time. My bottom line is that he got for this team four players in a draft that he should not want to have anything to do with. Moreover, all of them have severe issues.
First, unable to trade up or down, he finally struck a deal with The Bastard New Orleans Jazz. At #9, he drafted Michigan firecracker Point Guard Trey Burke. They don't need a PG because they have Ricky Rubio. But Utah did, and so they made a trade, where Burke would go to Utah and the Jazz would draft the player Saunders wanted: Shabazz Muhammad. He is the UCLA Shooting Guard who was last seen around these parts sulking and not busting his hump while his Bruins were getting killed by the Minnesota Golden Gophers in the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament in March. Muahmmad is known as a guy who can't stop-and-pop, a guy who can go only one way with one hand, and someone who refuses to assist. Basically he's a selfish black hole of a player. And Saunders wants him on the team? This pick has "locker room poison" all over it.
Many people thought they would draft C.J. McCollum, the tweener Guard out of Lehigh. He is considered more of a scorer than a distributor, which would be perfect for a team that needs more than anything a wing that score from the arc. He was there for the taking, and Saunders passed on him?! If there was anybody to take, it'd be him. I think the club's going to regret this move, just like they have on most of the draft picks they've made the past decade.
The Woofs also got the Jazz's #21 overall pick, which they used on Louisville Gorgui Dieng, the Center from national champion Louisville. Less baggage on him, but the major concern is that he is still regarded as a project even though he is, like, 23. That's old for a project. This guy can patrol the paint and protect the rim, something starting Timberwolves Center Nikola Pekovic does not do. This may, in fact, be a sign that they are going to let Pekovic, who is a restricted free agent, walk this year. I do not know if that is an upgrade. The organization also drafted two players in the second round, and I don't know why.
Meanwhile, with free agency officially beginning first minute Monday, Andrei Kirilenko told the team he was exercising his right to seek a new contract. And considering his asking price and the decent year he had, he's as good as gone. Saunders is currently in L.A. trying to find that 2-guard he chose not to get via the draft. One notable possibility: O.J. Mayo, the Guard the Wolves initially selected third overall but then traded in the middle of the night so as not to piss off Woofie Dog fans in order to get Kevin Love.
Love has to be better after pretty much a lost season. But honestly, I think this team has less of a chance of reaching the playoffs now.
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