Written By Tom Schreier
You have to decide what you want to do as an organization. Would San Antonio do that?
— Flip Saunders after hearing about the “Return of Mike Miller” video, 1/31/15
During a rare Minnesota Timberwolves win, a 110-98 victory over the Boston Celtics, a promotional video ran on the jumbotron which featured the return of former Wolves player Mike Miller. The Cleveland Cavaliers were coming that weekend along with You Know Who, and the whole gag was that it was Miller, who had a mediocre 2008-09 season with the team, not All-Star Kevin Love who played his first six seasons in Minnesota, who was the main attraction. It was satirical and irreverent and got a good reaction from the crowd, and later caught fire, spreading around the internet and ending up on ESPN.
Love, of course, didn’t do himself a lot of favors on his way out from Minnesota. Upset that he was not given a max contract by then-GM David Kahn and not considered a star by owner Glen Taylor, Love was forthcoming about the state of the Timberwolves in a Yahoo! Sports article that went viral online. “You walk into the locker room every year, and it's completely turned over,” he told Adrian Wojnarowski. “There's new guys everywhere. And then it happens again and again. You start to wonder: Is there really a plan here? Is there really any kind of a…plan?”
Love knew that he was going to be booed during his return to Minnesota, despite the fact that he had been the best player since Kevin Garnett was traded in 2004. And for a team that routinely has played in front of a half-empty arena, they knew that a capacity crowd of around 19,500 was going to show up to see the former Timberwolves player. The promotions team had to ensure that the arena was going to fill up, and they did their part, but President of Basketball Operations Flip Saunders, the team’s current coach, did not approve.
“I was not aware of the video a lot of people are talking about,” said Saunders, unsolicited, before the Cleveland game. “Didn’t know about it, didn’t approve of it. I think as an organization we should be above that. [We] have to acknowledge that Kevin, when he was here, he was a great player for us.” He went on to say that some of his players didn’t like it, that they would have to play with him, and that it was not something a team like the San Antonio Spurs would do.
Changing a losing culture
I thought it was pretty funny myself. I know that Flip has a pretty good sense of humor. I guess being in the front office and also being the coach, Flip usually has the last word and holds a lot of power, so maybe he sees it a different way.
— Love, postgame, after being told about Saunders’ screed
Saunders’ comment caught many people off-guard. Love himself found it funny, but when he was told before the game that there would be a tribute video, he jokingly asked the reporter, “To Mike Miller?” before questioning, in a serious manner, “You said there is?”
That, perhaps, is what Saunders wanted to avoid — he wanted Love to feel appreciated. Love, for the most part, was the kind of player any organization would want on their team. He went from a kind of chubby rookie that focused primarily on rebounding to a fit, all-around player that could stretch the floor and launch long, accurate passes all the way down the floor to a cherry-picking Corey Brewer. He was a 3-time All-Star in Minnesota, averaging 19.2 points and 12.2 rebounds per game while shooting 36.2 percent from three. He was a congenial presence off the floor and notorious for the coat drive he hosted every year.
Even in that infamous Yahoo! Sports article he was, for the most part, correct. The Wolves really didn’t have a plan at the time — or if they did, it was hard to see with the naked eye. It was Kahn who drafted Jonny Flynn over Steph Curry; it was Kahn who signed Darko Milicic to a $20 million contract and called him “manna from heaven”; it was Kahn who didn’t sign him to the maximum extension. Kahn drafted Wesley Johnson and Derrick Williams. He also traded for Michael Beasley. It was more than just him, of course. It came down to coaching decisions, scouting reports and injuries (Flynn) or bad fits (Williams), but Kahn was the one with the vision, the one in charge, and he ultimately was let go.
If a reporter had said what Love said, they would have been praised for their analysis. For the most part, he was right about the Wolves at the time and was just offering an honest perspective. But when a player says it, it comes off as whiney. While some people took his side, many fans and media alike attacked Love, treating him as the NBA’s Jay Cutler: a punk.
There are shades of Cutler in Love’s personality, but he was the only superstar on a team of either misfit draft picks (or busts) and retreads that are, for the most part, out of the league at this point. He worked hard to transform into a superstar, but he was never given a supporting cast. He was right, and yet he was in some ways vilified for what he said.
It’s a double-standard, of course. If Love is the NBA’s Cutler, Wiggins is Marshawn Lynch. Wiggins is notorious for saying very little in his interviews, and like Joe Mauer before him, he’s seen as lacking competitive fire. He will likely be pilloried for his taciturn personality in the future should he get injured or his production drop off. Wiggins is the anti-Love: He says too little, and likely will never detail his disdain for his situation, should things go wrong in the near future.
But, then again, why would he? Like Roger Goodell threatening to fine Lynch $500,000 for not speaking at media day and then not granting an interview with NBC himself, we’re hypocrites. We’re asking Wiggins to speak — or, any player, really — but don’t want them to talk: It’s a double-standard. Love should be praised for speaking honestly about the state of the team, because in some ways he may be influencing the current turnaround. Keep in mind, the goal of a promotional video, or the promotions department in general, is to get people to come to the game and keep those who are attending the game to come back.
On a bad team, the promotions department has a difficult task on their hands. People will turn out in droves, by and large, for a good team, but the Wolves, who haven’t made the playoffs since Kevin Garnett left, are one of the league’s least successful organizations. That’s why it came off as a bit of a shock when Saunders asked if San Antonio would do something like that: Of course they wouldn’t, but they don’t need to. That team is dry as sandpaper, but they win, so they fill their arena every night.
Saunders capitalized on a moment. He saw an opportunity to put his foot down and establish that things are going to change with him in charge. Now, it’s his turn to put a winner on the floor, because he knows that’s the best way to get people to come out to games. “I'll address the team and say that hopefully we are going to get to the point that the type of atmosphere you have tonight is going to be the norm and not the abnorm,” he said before the game, knowing that the team would walk out to a sellout crowd for the second time (Chicago, Nov. 1) this season. “That's what we're striving to get to, that every game is this type of game.”
The Game
I think what happened is there’s maybe a focus on Kevin, but as the game progressed and we started hanging in there and playing, and playing pretty well, then the focus became the game — which is the way it should be.
— Saunders, postgame, when asked about the focus changing from Love to Wiggins
Boos rained down upon Love as he was announced as one of the starters that night. The Lake Oswego, Ore. native had experienced it before when UCLA went to Eugene, Ore. to face Oregon in conference play, and he knew it was coming. Early in the game, every time he touched the ball there were boos directed at him, but when the tribute video came on, the crowd responded with a mixed reaction. Some jeered him, as they had been doing, but more cheered him on realizing what he had done for the franchise.
There still were moments where he was booed, or when the crowd made fun of him for missing a shot or a poor decision, but those moments were few and far between. Part of it was the tribute video, perhaps, but the other part was the play of another superstar: Wiggins.
Wiggins put on a show. He recorded a season high in points while matching Kevin Garnett and Stephon Marbury’s franchise record for points scored by a teenager.
An early defining moment for Wiggins came halfway through the first quarter when he picked off Love’s inbound pass and instead of trying to throw down a tomahawk jam over Love like he did in Cleveland, he wisely laid the ball in around him. He also scored the first points of the game by hitting a 3-pointer, which sent the crowd into a tizzy, and finished the first half with 23 points.
Late in the first quarter, however, LeBron James provided an omen for events to come. Gorgui Dieng was at the free throw line after being fouled by Shawn Marion, and James was having a friendly chat near Saunders with the Wolves bench. At the end of his banter with his opponent, he told Saunders that he was going to run a pick-and-roll with Tristan Thompson. He proceeded to, scored on it, and then ran the play again.
While Wiggins and Minnesota kept James in check for most of the game, he turned things on in the fourth quarter. Down 79-76 after the end of the third, James proceeded to score 16 points in the final frame, leading a game-ending 23-5 run that sealed the deal for Cleveland. Wiggins said he could have done a lot better on defense, but in the end nobody was stopping James.
“Our thing was that the first half we kind of played him to make him make shots, and it worked pretty well for us,” said Saunders when asked about James’ performance. “We tried to trap him at times, he just, he gets so difficult when he gets the ball out there like that. And his mindset is, when he knows the game’s in doubt, and he decides, ‘I’m gonna take the game over,’ that’s when he’s at his best, and that’s where he was tonight.”
In the end, though, the consensus was that the fans who turned out to jeer Love ended up getting into the game as a whole, rather than focusing on the former Timberwolf. Yes, Wiggins stole the show for a bit, and James took over at the end, but through three quarters it was a compelling game of back and forth action. “People got their money’s worth tonight,” said Saunders. “They got to see a great performance by Wiggins, our future, they saw a great performance by one of the greatest of all time, and probably the best in the league right now in LeBron, and so they got their money’s worth.”
Wiggins, for his part, seemed to enjoy the game. Always even-keeled — Saunders said he didn’t sense Wiggins was nervous or emotional before the game — Wiggins seemed to enjoy going toe-to-toe with James, and reveled in the spotlight. “It was a competitive game with us going back and forth; I look forward to playing him in the future again,” he said afterwards. “And like I said before, as the future gets brighter, I’m sure more and more fans will come out.”
Wiggins, the “popcorn” player
I love the big stage. I love playing in the spotlight: a lot of fans, big crowd.
— Wiggins after scoring 33 points against the Cavaliers in front of a sellout crowd
Maybe this lost season is a blessing in disguise. Saunders has said that the Wolves entered the season with playoff aspirations, but those were soon derailed by major injuries to Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic as well as less severe injuries to just about everyone else other than Wiggins. At the same time, Wiggins and Saunders both feel that this season may have been a blessing in disguise, at least in terms of Wiggins’ development as a player.
“I think he’d be a guy that would be a good player,” said Saunders when asked about Wiggins’ role on a healthy Wolves team, “he’d probably be more of a defensive-oriented type player, but he definitely would not (have developed as much as he has). Kevin Garnett, his rookie year, was not really asked to do as much as Wiggins has done, not even close, so he wouldn’t be close to where he’s at.”
Earlier in the year, after Wiggins went off against the Phoenix Suns and scored 31 against the Denver Nuggets, Saunders said he was pleasantly surprised by how far Wiggins has come in such a short time. In fact, the only person not caught off-guard at the time was Wiggins himself. “Surprised?” he said after practice on Jan. 20. “No. I always have been confident in myself, I just needed to know how to do it at the NBA level.”
After the most recent Cleveland game, Wiggins was asked if he was disappointed that he didn’t get a chance to play with James and the Cavaliers, the team that drafted him. “Not at all,” he said. “God does things in mysterious ways, and I feel like this is the very spot for me. I feel like I’ve grown a lot more here than I would have there.”
The key for the Wolves, then, is to have the rest of the team grow with him. They need Shabazz Muhammad to play as physically as he did before the injury; they need to channel and unleash Zach LaVine’s athletic potential; they need to find a place where Anthony Bennett, the other player received in the Love trade, can thrive like he did earlier in the season. They also need veterans like Rubio, Martin and Pekovic to stay healthy. And they can’t miss with the pick they’re gonna get this summer.
If all of that happens, this team will start winning again. And once they do that, they won’t need any special promotional videos to pack the Target Center.