Written By Sam Ekstrom
OK, Kevin. Welcome home. We can call this your home, right? You still have a house here after all.
If you’re not up to speed with the situation you’ve walked into, here’s a quick stroll through the past six months:
THE FAIR
Ah, the Minnesota State Fair. Where optimism permeates through the air like the smell of Sweet Martha’s cookies.
Is the Dream Team visiting the Great Minnesota Get Together this August afternoon? It may as well be the way fans are flocking and screaming.
Wait, who let that kid on the right sneak on stage? … That’s Zach LaVine, you say? Wow. I might be more physically imposing, and I wear size 30/32 jeans.
No matter. We’ve got Wiggins. We’ve got Bennett. We’ve got Young. We’ll be fine.
It’s going to be a fun year. Eyes on the rise.
THE ANKLE
Ricky’s down on the floor. Deep breaths.
Did he step on someone’s foot? Is it the knee again? Please, not the knee. Can we get a replay?
GIF: Ricky Rubio rolls left ankle pic.twitter.com/F2z3cDoXQV
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) November 8, 2014
There he is, driving down the lane and – OH MY GOODNESS! …
Please don’t show the replay again.
THE LOSING
So, transitive property: Timberwolves lose to Philadelphia. Philadelphia was winless. Therefore, the Timberwolves are now worse than the worst team. Time to tank, I guess.
Who’s that Duke kid? Jahlil Okafor? We need a rhyme for him.
Don’t mind the score for Okafor.
Choke for Ok.
Reel for Jahlil.
Lay low for J.O.
52
Mo Williams has 15 points at halftime; not bad.
…
Mo Williams has 31 after three quarters. Who needs passing?
…
Mo Williams just scored 52 in a professional basketball game. Trade the man immediately! His value will not get higher. (And they did, eventually.)
#THERETURN
The Cavaliers are back in town for the first time this season.
Time to see the man the Wolves once traded for, the man whose time in Minnesota was cut too short.
I sure do miss those 3-point shots that he used to drain so easily.
Best of luck to him as he chases a title with LeBron as his running mate.
THE RUBIO RETURN
Part of me worries we’re going to be too good now. What happened to Lay Low for J.O.?
This Rubio kid could never score 52, but he sure makes the offense hum.
Even Anthony Bennett looks athletic with the Spaniard by his side.
LAVINE
Whoa, it’s the scrawny kid from the State Fair! Mad hops, kid.
THE BIG TICKET
The star formerly known as The Kid is coming back home as “an old man,” Flip Saunders said Thursday night.
The general reaction began with glee, then turned to caution, then skepticism and back to glee again.
Flip Saunders isn’t dumb. Thad Young wasn’t going to stay here. If he was, there’d be no Garnett homecoming scheduled for Wednesday against Washington. The Wolves weren’t going to let Young walk, so they got someone unique in return.
From now on, every 16-footer that Garnett makes using his patented hands-over-head release will elicit crazy cheers. That’s the shot fans saw 5,000 times from 1995-2007.
KG will be like a player-coach: spending most of his time on the bench whispering sage pieces of wisdom in Anthony Bennett’s ear; then taking off the warmup for 15 minutes a game to put his words into action.
It’s certainly not a move for the present, but it’s a great tribute to the past with an eye for the future.
Let’s embrace the franchise’s best player as he deserves to be embraced.
This can still be a fun year. Eyes on the rise.
Sam Ekstrom is a staff writer for Cold Omaha at 105 The Ticket and a play-by-play broadcaster in Burnsville, Minn. Hear him on 105 The Ticket Sunday mornings from 8-10 a.m. on “The Wake Up Call.” Follow him on Twitter @SamEkstrom for further insights.