Posts Tagged ‘Martell Webster’

Spurs Smell Opportunity On Rodeo Trip

February 6, 2013  ·  9:54AM

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HANG TIME, Texas — Before heading out the door to the airport for the start of the Spurs’ annual Rodeo Trip that will them away from the AT&T Center until Feb. 27, the inimitable Stephen Jackson told reporters that he had to pick up a few things that probably won’t fit into his suitcase.

“I’m going to ride down there today and see if I can get me some (turkey legs),” said Capt. Jack. “That’s the best part: The food. If you can smell a little manure a little bit you can eat good. You’ve got to be able to take a little doo-doo. There’s a lot of it around there.”

OK, so never mind the home cooking. Historically, the Spurs have often been most well-done on the road, especially at rodeo time.

Even though they’ll open the nine-game journey that straddles the All-Star break tonight in Minnesota without Tim Duncan (sore left knee), the Spurs are giddy that their big man wasn’t seriously hurt when the Wizards’ Martell Webster rolled into the back of his legs on Saturday night.

“Five tough games before the All-Star break and we’ll see how Timmy is gonna be in the next couple of days and see if he can come back at least in the second half of that trip,” said Tony Parker.

“It’s always fun to go on the Rodeo Trip. That’s when we jell and come together as a team. The last couple of years Pop wanted to start early and jell early. Two years ago I think we had a lot of home games so we tried to have a fast start. But usually we use the road trip to play better basketball.”

The Spurs can hardly play much better than right now. They have a 10-game winning streak, the NBA’s best record (38-11) and are already a league-best 16-9 away from home.

In the 10-year history of the Rodeo Trip, the Spurs are 54-28 and have gone at least .500 every time. Last season, the Spurs went 8-1, suffering a 137-97 rout in Portland when coach Gregg Popovich sat Duncan, Parker and Manu Ginobili. And did not get fined.

The Clippers and Lakers are both teams currently on their longest road trips of the season, having had to vacate the Staples Center for the Grammy Awards. The Clippers, playing without the injured Chris Paul, are 1-3 midway through their eight-game trip and the underachieving Lakers are now 3-1 on a seven-game trek, but just lost Pau Gasol as they chase the No. 8 seed in the West.

Some teams fret and worry about the schedule and turn it into a monster that becomes too big to handle. For the Spurs, it’s just about ticking off the stops on the itinerary.

“We’ve had a good taste of the road early in the season,” said Danny Green. “This team has done it every year and so nobody really thinks about it. You just play them all until you get back home.”

Where the aroma of turkey legs and manure will still linger.

Spurs Rodeo Trip History

Year Record Lost on trip to …:
2012 8-1 Blazers
2011 6-3 Blazers, Sixers, Bulls
2010 5-4 Blazers, Lakers, Sixers, Pistons
2009 5-3 Nuggets, Raptors, Knicks
2008 6-3 Jazz, Thunder, Celtics
2007 4-4 Jazz, Suns, Magic, Heat
2006 6-2 Bulls, Rockets
2005 5-2 Wizards, Wolves
2004 6-1 Cavs
2003 8-1 Wolves

 

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Spurs Breathe Easy As MRI Clears Duncan

February 3, 2013  ·  6:35PM


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HANG TIME, Texas — The citizens of San Antonio can go back to remembering the Alamo as the most tragic civic loss ever.

Tim Duncan will remain a part of the Spurs drive for a fifth NBA championship after an MRI showed no structural damage to his left knee. He has a sore knee, a mild right ankle sprain and is listed as day-to-day for his return to the lineup.

The 36-year-old Duncan had to be carried off the court by teammates DeJuan Blair and Stephen Jackson with 3:54 left in the second quarter Saturday night after Washington’s Martell Webster rolled into the back of legs following a missed shot.

Though TV cameras showed Duncan moving under his own power in the hallway of the AT&T Center and many of his teammates said they were encouraged to see Duncan walk out of the locker room without crutches following the game, there was going to be lingering doubt until a full exam was performed on Sunday.

It’s just the latest example of how everything can change in the blink of an eye. The Spurs have been cruising along comfortably all season with Duncan having one of the best showings in years. San Antonio currently has the best record in the NBA at 38-11, two games ahead of Oklahoma City and 5 1/2 better than defending champion Miami.

With Duncan in the middle, the Spurs are again legitimate contenders for the title. His loss would have realistically ended those dreams.

Duncan was making his return after sitting for four games with a sore left knee. Duncan said he suffered that injury after landing wrong at Philadelphia on Jan. 21.

Recently selected to his 14th All-Star Game, Duncan is averaging 17.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.7 blocks with a 24.9 Player Efficiency Rating in his 16th NBA season.

The Spurs will be without Duncan as they start on their annual rodeo trip, a nine-game trek with the All-Star break in the middle that opens on Wednesday night in Minneapolis. Now that trip will be ever tougher without Duncan, at least in part.

But for a city that had been holding its collective breath, a huge sigh of relief. The championship chase is still on.

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Duncan Injury Packs Worry For Spurs

February 3, 2013  ·  1:08AM

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SAN ANTONIO — As if they didn’t have enough to lug around on a nine-game trip that will keep them away from home for most of the month, now the Spurs have to pack concern about Tim Duncan’s health.

There was a collective gasp at the AT&T Center when Duncan went down with just over four minutes left in the second quarter and had to be carried off the floor by DeJuan Blair and Stephen Jackson. Then there was sigh of relief when teammates later saw him walk out of the locker room under his own power without crutches.

“He’s fine. He’s fine,” said Tony Parker. “It’s nothing big. I’m sure [coach Greg Popovich] is going to be very cautious about his knee and we’ll see. He was pretty positive.”

The early diagnosis was a sprained right ankle and sprained left knee. But, one week after Rajon Rondo walked away from what was first thought to be a minor injury and then found out that he’d torn his ACL and was lost for the season, the Spurs will not rest easy until Duncan undergoes an MRI.

“That was scary when you see that,” said Wizards coach Randy Wittman. “Those are always the ones you don’t want to see when a guy falls into you while your feet are planted on the ground. I just talked to his doctors and they said he is going to be fine. That was not a pretty thing to see.”

It was clear that Duncan’s injury affected the rest of the lineup. After building a 27-point lead in the first half, the Spurs lost focus and let the Wizards get as close as six points early in the fourth quarter.

“That’s going on through everybody’s mind …What’s happening?” Jackson said. “To have our best player go down like that, holding his knee and his ankle it’s frustrating.

“Nobody really seen him at halftime, because he was in [the training room] trying to figure out what’s wrong. I don’t really know the in’s and out’s of what happened, but I seen him walk out of here, so that’s always good.”

Washington’s Martell Webster drove to the hoop and had his shot blocked by the Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard. After Webster went to the floor, he rolled from behind onto Duncan’s ankle and knee. The big man stayed down on the floor as play continued to the other end where Danny Green scored a layup. Parker then took a foul to stop the clock as the Spurs’ medical staff ran onto the floor.

Duncan was making his return after missing four straight games with a sore left knee. He had eight points, five rebounds and two assists in 13 minutes. Duncan had said that he could have returned for Wednesday’s game against Charlotte, but instead settled for three more days of rest. He’s averaging 17.5 points, 9.8 rebounds, 2.74 blocked shots per game this season and was recently named to the Western Conference All-Star team for the 14th time in his 16-year NBA career.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Timmy like that,” Green said. “I’ve seen him hurt before, the bumps, the bruises. He usually gets right back up. I figured today he was feeling good leg-wise. When we started out, he was playing well, back in rhythm. Seeing him go down, feeling as well as I thought he felt, kind of sucks, not just for him, but for us. We’re gonna need him. On this nice little road trip, a guy like that could help.

“I didn’t get to see the play. I heard it was his knee and ankle at the same time, which seems kind of weird. I don’t know how it happened. I had never seen him get carried off the floor, so I hoped it wasn’t serious and that we would have him at least for part of this road trip.

“We seen him right after the game. He seemed OK. Timmy’s always optimistic. It didn’t seem like it [was serious], but you never know with Timmy. His expressions don’t really tell you what’s going on. He’s always optimistic. He’s one of the greatest guys ever to play this game because he’s a pretty tough guy. He’s played through some pain and some injury, so he’s probably not going to show you he’s hurt like that, even if it was serious. But I think he should be OK.”

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Beal Balances Breaking In, Criticism And A Charge Of Flipping a Franchise

November 17, 2012  ·  9:56AM

 

DALLAS – Washington Wizards rookie Bradley Beal is 19 years old, a solid month still from 19 1/2. An anonymous college sophomore in another life. In this life, he’s an over-analyzed, scrutinized and criticized No. 3 draft pick starting on the NBA’s worst team. Worse yet, the team’s star point guard and its proven veteran center are injured and no one knows when they’ll be back.

Beal’s introduction to the man’s game long before he can legally down a postgame cold one has force-fed him both to the spotlight and to the wolves, when in reality, his beaming smile can’t hide that he’s as bright-eyed about balling in the same arenas as LeBron James and Kobe Bryant as are the kids who scream for his autograph during pre-game warmups.

Pressure? Heck, yes. And believe it, the 6-foot-3 shooting guard feels it and his teammates hear it.

“I hear it all the time, you see it on Twitter and stuff like that,” Beal said Wednesday night before the Wizards fell to 0-7 after nearly eradicating a 22-point deficit against Dallas in a 107-101 loss. “People expect you to score 50 every night and it’s almost impossible. I’m really not focused on what people on the outside are saying. I’m really focusing on what my team needs to do, and I’m really focusing on what my coach wants me to do as well. As long as I’m doing that I think I’ll be fine.”

With no John Wall to break down defenses and no Nene to anchor their own, the Wizards rank as one of the worst scoring offenses in the league and near the bottom in field-goal percentage defense. They’re also the league’s most irrelevant big-market franchise. With early hope for this season’s revamped roster dimmed by injury, fans have little else in which to deposit their faith than to bank on the youngster Beal, the team’s leading scorer — despite four single-digit games and shooting just 32 percent — and, appallingly, its most recognizable healthy face.

“I’m handling it fine,” Beal said. “Honestly, I mean, from the outside looking in, people pressure me. They think I’m supposed to be the savior of the team, so to speak, but I don’t view myself as being the savior. There’s me and 14 other guys on this team. We’re a team, so not everything is just placed on me; the scoring’s not just placed on me, or it’s not placed on any individual player, it’s a team effort. That’s the way I view it and that’s the way I’m going to keep playing.”

As important as his athletic superiority and scoring prowess were to climbing the draft boards to No. 3 after one season at Florida, Beal is equipped with a big-picture maturity and honesty that will serve him well during his crash course of inevitable hard knocks.

He’s writing a rookie column for SLAM Magazine and in this week’s edition he writes how he misses going to class because he’s always liked school, “especially math and science.” He calls himself a geeky guy and then proves it again by writing he hasn’t done much with his first paycheck: “I haven’t made any big purchases, honestly, besides the apartment I live.”

Teammate Martell Webster weighed in: “You see his potential. The kid is good. He’s been dealing with the criticism and the pressure very well. He hears how he’s not being aggressive; I think he’s been extremely aggressive.”

When Wall returns, and there remains no target date, it will ease the burden on Beal, who is averaging a team-best 11.6 points. Until then, defenses will hound him, as the Mavericks did on Wednesday night, limiting him to eight points on 3-of-14 shooting. The night before at Charlotte, he missed 10 of his 11 shots.

“It’s tough because, one, it’s not easy to win in this league,” Beal said. “Coach (Randy) Wittman always tells us that. You can ask any player, like LeBron says that, says it’s hard to win every game. Every game that we’ve lost besides (Tuesday at Charlotte), I think you can literally say that we gave it our all and we should have won the game.”

Four of the Wizards’ seven losses are by six points or less. He had a season-high 22 points on 50 percent shooting and eight trips to the free-throw line against Milwaukee; 16 points in an overtime loss at Boston; and 17 points on a perfect 3-for-3 from beyond the arc in another heartbreak loss of the season at Indiana.

“He’s going to be somebody that makes shots for us, runs the floor,” said Wall, well-versed in the pressure of flipping a franchise. “Every game is not going to be his best, and I think we understand that and he understands that, but he’s just got to keep taking shots, keep being aggressive for our team.”

His next opportunity is Saturday night at home against the Utah Jazz, a notoriously poor road team that’s now 1-6 this season away from home. It will be only the Wizards’ third home game in the opening weeks, a road-weary start that has had Beal waking up not knowing which city he’s in or forgetting what day it is.

Meanwhile, the 19-year-old rookie goes to sleep still attempting to absorb both his breathtaking quantum leap to the big stage and the bleakness of the franchise with which he landed.

“This is my rookie year so I’m really just enjoying it all. To actually play in these situations and these environments, I mean, I’m taking it all in, honestly,” Beal said. “We’re more than capable of winning games. We just have to deal with what we have and when John and Nene get back we’re going to be that much better.”

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Wall’s Frustration Intensifies As Still No Target Date For His Wizards Return

November 14, 2012  ·  9:44PM

DALLAS – Washington Wizards point guard John Wall said Wednesday that he still doesn’t have a target date to join his teammates for the first time this season. He continues to rehab from a stress fracture in his right knee, a daily grind that  isn’t getting any easier with which to cope.

“Still tough and frustrating,” Wall said as he laced his sneakers to go put up some jump shots with assistant coach Sam Cassell prior to the Wizards’ game against the Dallas Mavericks.

The final days of November will mark the eight-week period that Wall was expected to miss after being diagnosed with the early stages of a non-traumatic stress injury in the knee just prior to the start of training camp. However, it’s apparent that Washington’s young potential star won’t make the deadline.

When the team is at home, Wall pushes through rehab and then does little else.

“Just lock myself in my house and listen to music,” he said.

Wall, as well as injured center Nene (who also has no timetable for a return from plantar fasciitis) travels with the team, sits in on film sessions and remains in close contact with coach Randy Wittman and his teammates, who are battling their own frustrations with six consecutive losses heading into Wednesday’s game.

“We talk, he’s with us all the time. That’s why we bring him with us, he and Nene,” Wittman said. “They’re around the team, they’re with us in all the meetings, we talk and I want them to talk to their teammates, as well, seeing what they’re seeing. It’s a different game sitting over there (on the bench) than when they’re out running up and down the floor, and they can be a help in that area.”

Wall, 22, would rather be running up and down the floor and getting his third season off the ground. For the first time in a long time, excitement was building heading into training camp. The roster had been overhauled. Gone are the knuckleheads and underachievers that not only made the Wizards hard to watch for so many years, but hard to root for, too.

They were replaced with veterans such as Trevor Ariza, Emeka Okafor, A.J. Price (a career backup in his fourth season charged with running the point in Wall’s absence) Martell Webster and promising rookie Bradley Beal, who is leading the team in scoring. There’s also improving big man Kevin Seraphin, who started to come on last season and is averaging 9.7 points and 3.8 rebounds.

The 6-foot-11 Nene and the play-making Wall would serve as huge additions.

Wittman, when asked if doctors have given him a target date for Wall’s return, pursed his lips, shook his head and said, “I don’t have one, unless you’ve got one.”

Wall and the Wizards have no choice but to wait, and hope to keep from digging into an irreversible hole.

“Yeah, it’s tough, but nobody’s making any excuses,” said Wall, who averaged 16.3 points and 8.2 assists in his first two seasons. “We think we’ve got enough talent on this team to go out there and play with what we have. We just haven’t closed out games. We’ve been in a lot of games, we just haven’t closed them out. We believe in our teammates, some guys are injured, some guys are not, but it’s a great opportunity for other guys to step up and prove themselves.”

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Batum Eager To Play For Wolves

July 10, 2012  ·  4:30PM



He was about 3,800 miles away, but Nicolas Batum’s voice was loud and clear. He wants to play with the Minnesota Timberwolves next season.

Batum, the Blazers’ restricted free agent, made his preference clear Tuesday afternoon in a telephone interview from Madrid, where he was with the French National team as it prepared for a friendly match later Tuesday against Spain, one of the top challengers to the defending U.S. men’s Olympic gold medal team at the upcoming Summer Games in London. While Portland has said it will match any offer sheet for Batum, he hopes they will let him go to play for the Wolves, who have a commitment for a four-year deal worth $45 million on the table when the July Moratorium ends Wednesday.

“I’m a restricted free agent,” Batum said. “I know the situation. Anywhere I sign, the Blazers are going to match. But my first choice was, and is, Minnesota. That’s where I want to play and that’s where I want to put my family. I’ve got nothing against the fans (in Portland) and nothing against the city. But this is a basketball decision and basketball wise, I want to be there. Last year, they impressed everybody, and that’s what I respect. To have a great young point guard like (Ricky) Rubio, and a great coach like (Rick) Adelman, I really liked that project. And I think they think I’m the missing piece at small forward. That’s what they told me.”

Batum met last week with Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, team president David Kahn and Adelman, and was impressed by the direction in which the franchise is going. But the 23-year-old Batum has been a priority to retain by the Blazers through several different basketball administrations, intrigued by his ability to score either as a driver or shooter. Portland acquired Batum in a Draft night deal in 2008 from the Rockets. Last season he averaged 13.9 points and 4.6 rebounds for the Blazers, and his Player Efficiency Rating of 17.32 ranked eighth among small forwards in the league, behind only LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, Paul Pierce, Danny Granger, Rudy Gay and Andre Iguodala.

A source said that Batum did not want to sign an offer sheet because he was worried the Blazers would match. And, indeed, according to the Oregonian newspaper, that’s exactly what the team’s new general manager, Neil Olshey, told Batum and his representatives in a meeting last week. However, the Timberwolves have enough space to sign him outright to a sheet. They can clear $10.8 million of additional room buying out center Brad Miller (who has already announced his retirement) and guard Martell Webster, and also could create additional room by using the amnesty clause on center Darko Milicic, who is under contract next season at $5.22 million and has two years and $10.8 million left on his contract.

Batum grew frustrated by the slower pace that former Blazers coach Nate McMillan favored, and thinks he has a chance to play at a more up-tempo style in Minnesota.

“When I talked with Adelman last week, I felt like he wants me, will play me the way I ask to play,” Batum said. “Last year was tough for all of us and I think I need a new start. I think I need something else. Again, it’s nothing against the city or the fans (in Portland).”

Batum said that he thinks Portland and Minnesota will ultimately work something out.

“I know that they’re working on a sign and trade, and I’m very hopeful that both of them understand my situation, do the best both for me and for them,” he said.

Olshey, Batum said, told him last week that he could be a big part of Portland’s team going forward.

(more…)

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Ready To Howl: TWolves In Playoffs?

January 31, 2012  ·  2:35PM





HOUSTON – If you close your eyes and imagine the future, this is the stuff of fantasy – a shrewd, quick young point guard, a do-it-all All-Star forward on one wing, a redemptive scorer on the other and the kind of smart head coach who can make it all work.

If you opened your eyes at the Toyota Center on Monday night, Ricky Rubio, Kevin Love, Michael Beasley and Rick Adelman were standing right in front of you.

If there is a team currently sitting at bottom of one of the league’s six divisions that could make the playoffs, it is the Timberwolves. Is it too early to beat the drum already for the post-season?

“No,” Love said after Minnesota whipped Houston for its sixth win in the last nine games. “This is the way we’ve thought we could play when we started putting things together. We had some tough early losses, but now I think you’re starting to see what we can become.”

What the Wolves are for the first time all season is healthy. Beasley, who pumped in 34 points, is finally fit after missing 11 games with a sprained right foot. Martell Webster is finding his stride after back surgery.

(more…)

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Technical Difficulties

October 5, 2010  ·  7:46AM

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – This video hasn’t been tampered with. That really is the Minnesota Timberwolves you see running circles around the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers.

There were not any technical difficulties with the feed from London, where the Timberwolves and Lakers kicked off the (pre)season before a fantastic crowd, sold out O2 Arena crowd of 18,689.

So what if it’s just the preseason. Timberwolves fans get to enjoy this moment, even if no one else will remember it or care about it months from now.

For one night Martell Webster looked like a monster (24 and 10 in dazzling fashion). Michael Beasley showed flashes of what made him the No.  2 overall pick in his draft. Kevin Love was his usual menacing self on the boards and in the passing game. And you know we couldn’t leave out Luke Ridnour, whose maestro work, he had game-highs in assists(7 ) and steals (4) will never be overlooked here at the hideout, even in October.

So what if the Lakers treated this thing like a glorified scrimmage — Kobe Bryant played sparingly and Pau Gasol, Ron Artest and Derek Fisher didn’t treat this like Game 8 of the 2010 NBA Finals. It was clear they didn’t show up with same sense of urgency for a preseason game that their younger and much more eager counterparts from Minnesota showed (champions and veterans know better.)

“Minnesota looked great. We looked like we just got off vacation,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said after the game, echoing the sentiments of so many.

Still, it has to be fun for the Timberwolves to dream a little bit about what it might be like to manhandle an opponent of the Lakers’ caliber (hey, they won 15 games last season, so they can’t take any wins for granted, even in the preseason).

What if Timberwolves GM David Kahn is right and he does have the makings of a playoff squad on his hands and the rest of us just don’t see it?

(Fine, that might be taking things a little too far. But we’re on a roll right now so ride with it.)

Even the Prime Minister, who is notoriously tough to impress, admitted to being smitten with the team he referred to as the “Kahns.”

“I think the Kahns might be kinda fun to watch this season. Very [Kurt]Rambis-esque style of play,” he wrote via an email with the qualifying subject line, “I know it’s preseason, but.”

There’s nothing wrong with dreaming a little bit … so long as you wake up after the video stops.

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The Ultimate Hype Man

September 14, 2010  ·  2:35PM

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HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – Give David Kahn his credit for keeping things interesting in Minnesota.

A day after the Timberwolves took out a full-page ad in the Star Tribune admitting that, surprise, they are not likely to contend for the NBA title this season, Kahn drops an even bigger bombshell.

In a detailed letter to Timberwolves’ fans (season ticket holders), he’s touting a “singular” move that will be made to complete his roster transformation and, we’re assuming, set the franchise on a championship path.

Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune offers up some insights on what exactly this singular move could be, tossing around names like Carmelo Anthony (with the Timberwolves as potentially the third-party in a blockbuster, three-team deal) and even Josh Smith and Joe Johnson.

Of course, Kahn can’t mention specifics — he’s already been fined once this summer for saying too much. But you already know that no one does the hype man routine better than Kahn (remember that summer league gem, above). And he certainly cranks up the hype machine with this letter that you have to read to believe.

Here’s a snippet:

During the last 14 months, we have added several pieces to our ballclub:  perimeter shooting, athleticism and length to the roster, and all while maintaining our youth.  Just as important, we have done so with an eye toward adding more talent by choosing to operate under the salary cap.

The reality is, we are still lacking a dominant player – our version of Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade or Kevin Durant – and that will remain an item at the top of the To-Do list.

It’s possible this player could emerge from within the roster.  Nearly every player on our team has his best days ahead of him.   Some could make an All-Star team during their careers and one has already become an impact player on the USA Men’s National Team in this year’s FIBA World Championships.  We also have eight players currently on the roster who were selected in the top-seven of their respective drafts:  Michael Beasley, Kevin Love, Wes Johnson, Jonny Flynn, Darko Milicic, Corey Brewer, Martell Webster and Ricky Rubio.

The average age of those eight players is 22.

However, if one of our players fails to emerge, we will be prepared to find more talent for our team – and we will seek a singular move rather than a series of moves, as we did these last 14 months.

Love him or hate him, you can’t deny him.

Kahn is the ultimate hype man!

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Weird Science

July 15, 2010  ·  1:03PM

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Posted by Sekou Smith

HANG TIME HEADQUARTERS – At least we are not alone.

Observers from around the globe are wondering the same thing.

What in the world is going on with the Minnesota Timberwolves?

It’s a fair question after a dizzying 14 months of action from ‘Wolves GM David Kahn, a crowd fave here at the hideout for his refusal to flinch in the face of so much opposition to the work he has done.

It’s a question that the locals are asking as well. Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune on Kahn:

He’s the guy who in 14 months on the job has ripped apart a roster inherited from Kevin McHale much the way a caffeinated fantasy-league owner might and completely remade it by trading away former centerpiece Al Jefferson to Utah for draft picks and keeping only Kevin Love and Corey Brewer.

Gone are Jefferson, Randy Foye, Mike Miller, Ryan Gomes, Craig Smith, Sebastian Telfair, Mark Madsen and many others.

Arrived are Michael Beasley, Martell Webster, Jonny Flynn, Darko Milicic, Wayne Ellington, Ramon Sessions/Luke Ridnour and first-round picks Wesley Johnson and Lazar Hayward and the looming aura of Ricky Rubio.

There’s no question these new Timberwolves are a resoundingly more athletic and better-shooting team than the ones that won a total of 61 games the first three seasons since Kevin Garnett was traded away.

But will they be remarkably better than last season’s 15-victory team?

And will Kahn — a former sportswriter and a lawyer who was a notably unorthodox hire — eventually be proven to be mad scientist or simply mad?

At this point, we’re going to run with the mad scientist option.

But we reserve the right to change, depending on what happens between now and the start of training camp.

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