Tanks for the Memories

Last night, I didn't get the "opportunity" to watch the game against the Heat, but reading Robson's Three Pointer this morning, he now is convinced the Wolves are tanking the season, and protecting the draft choice. To date, they haven't yet enlisted the three point services of Mark Madsen, mostly because they have the slothful services of Ricky Davis, Mark Blount, and Mike James. Who needs to blatantly throw games when they have those three?

Reading across many message boards, we can see the blame being directed heavily against those three, and of course the Iron Ranger. But as has been mentioned previously, there's blame to be delivered throughout the organization and players, KG included. Again, he's at the point in his career where he's not able to carry the team on his back, ala Shaq without Wade. When you're making roughly a third of the available salary cap in a small market, you must be able to affect your team more than via quality stats. You must be the unquestioned leader. We've seen the spin from Club Timberwolves that KG is indeed that type of leader, but with this organization, there's an inverse truth to spin ratio; the more they spin, the less true it probably is.

What's also pretty clear at this point is that the Iverson trade wouldn't have worked either. Denver has not flourished with the addition of AI. Supporters of the trade might argue that KG is a different type of player than Carmelo Anthony, which is true. But the reason we're in a major hole is simply because of toughness, mental and front court. With KG and AI's salary, there would be no room to add the toughness they need to win a championship, and both of them aren't the type of leaders who demand results. With scant salary available, unless Taylor wants to go way beyond the cap, there would need to be some overachieving on the part of the players surrounding KG and AI. Who's going to inspire that? Not those two. KG has learned to look drained and spent at the end of every fourth quarter and season. Whether he is or not is anyone's guess. But it sure makes people sorry for him, at 20 million dollars a year.

So, as we close out the season, the Wolves are left a few pieces for next year, and the need to creatively tank a number of their games. Questions abound regarding point guard, our front court, leadership and toughness, KG's future and the tenure of the Iron Ranger. I'd trade it all for a winning basketball team, but I have to admit this is pretty interesting, in a dysfunctional sort of way.