Minnesota T-Wolves Blog – Page 65 – NBA Blog

Billy Hunter tells InsideHoops that NBA lockout meetings may not resume until August

By Jeff Lenchiner

Wednesday evening in New York City I paid a visit to Dyckman Park for some streetball action. It was a big matchup of some top teams that has been anticipated for weeks, so the park was packed. Included in the crowd were rapper Jadakiss, Denver Nuggets forward Al Harrington, and the head of the NBA Players Union, Billy Hunter, among others.

Before the game, Hunter, bravely attempting to communicate as some top-notch rap music blasted from the park’s booming speakers at full volume, gave InsideHoops.com a very quick update on the current NBA lockout situation:

InsideHoops.com: What’s the latest?

Billy Hunter: We’re trying to find some way to re-open the negotiations. We’re not making very much progress. It looks like we’re going to be where we are, I would assume probably [until] August before we actually end up getting back together.

InsideHoops.com: How long might the lockout last?

Hunter: It’s unpredictable. It’s hard to say how long it’s going to go.

It sounds like NBA fans should not hold their breath waiting for positive developments just yet.

Union plans player meetings as NBA lockout drags on with no progress

Sam Amick of Sports Illustrated reports:

There will be labor-related meetings in the near future.

They just aren’t the kind that typically lead to collective bargaining progress.

According to sources close to the situation, the National Basketball Players Association is planning a series of player sessions in as many as six cities over “the next month or so,” as a way to help with its planning during the lockout and update players on the state of negotiations with the NBA. Unless things unexpectedly change, there won’t be much to report on that front.

While mid-level staffers from both sides met on Friday to finalize the numbers related to basketball-related income (BRI) for the 2010-11 season, no negotiating sessions involving commissioner David Stern or NBPA executive director Billy Hunter have been scheduled. Sources said the BRI numbers were not finalized Friday and more similar sessions are forthcoming to that end, but the union is focused on fortifying from within rather than exchanging proposals with the owners, who are pushing for a hard salary cap as part of a drastic overhaul to the current system.

InsideHoops.com editor says: Basically, the two sides are considering their various options and possible proposal changes, amongst themselves. There’s no way of knowing if either side plans to make any changes the next time they make offers to each other, when they do eventually meet again. I’m just guessing here but it sounds like the earliest the NBA lockout could even possibly end is early August. But that’s not expected, because it sounds like both sides remain pretty far apart.

Timberwolves interview Terry Porter for coaching job

Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports:

The Timberwolves reached into their past — summoning a former player brought to the franchise long ago to help mentor budding superstar Kevin Garnett — to find the first candidate who interviewed for their vacant head-coaching position.

And it wasn’t Sam Mitchell.

Former Milwaukee and Phoenix head coach Terry Porter was that first candidate who formally interviewed with president of basketball operations David Kahn and likely owner Glen Taylor on Monday, league sources with knowledge of the team’s search said.

The process will continue this week. Don Nelson — who has won more games (1,335) than any other NBA coach — is believed to be among those due into Minneapolis to interview.

Porter is a former two-time All Star who played point guard — the same position as just-signed Ricky Rubio — for 17 NBA seasons with Portland, the Wolves, Miami and San Antonio.

He also is a guy who was fired by Phoenix in February 2009 after four months on the job when his attempt to emphasize defense and slow down the Suns’ breakneck offense enough to incorporate Shaquille O’Neal was deemed a failure by then-General Manager Steve Kerr.

Read NBA fan reaction and discuss your own opinion in this forum topic.

Timberwolves fire coach Kurt Rambis

The Minnesota Timberwolves struggled in dramatic fashion under head coach Kurt Rambis last season, finishing with a league-worst 17-65 record.

And while the team’s roster left Rambis little to work with, the front office apparently wasn’t impressed enough with Rambis to keep him around.

The Timberwolves today announced that the team has relieved Rambis of his coaching duties.

“I want to thank Kurt for his contributions to our franchise and wish him the best in his future endeavors,” said David Kahn, Timberwolves President of Basketball Operations. “His arrival signaled we were serious about building a championship-contending ballclub over the course of time. We have accumulated a solid nucleus of young talent with a bright future during the last two years. I am hopeful Kurt receives his share of the credit for helping develop that talent and his contributions are not forgotten as we become a better basketball team.

“It is always hard to make these decisions. It is especially hard when it involves somebody of Kurt’s reputation. Even so, this is the right time for us to make a head coaching change now that we’ve identified our roster and its specific needs.”

Rambis was named the ninth head coach of the Timberwolves on Aug. 10, 2009. In his two seasons as head coach of the Wolves, Rambis compiled a 32-132 record. Rambis joined the Wolves after serving as an assistant coach on Phil Jackson’s Los Angeles Lakers staff for seven seasons (2001-04, 2005-09).

The Wolves last season were led by Kevin Love (20.2 points and 15.2 rebounds per game) and Michael Beasley (19.2 points per game).

Minnesota has a few reasons to be optimistic that 2011-12 will be better for them, with young international point guard Ricky Rubio finally joining the squad, and the additional of rookie forward Derrick Williams, who the team selected No.2 overall in the 2011 NBA Draft.

Read fan reaction and share your own opinion in this forum topic.

Other sports came first for young Derrick Williams

Ray Richardson of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports on Minnesota Timberwolves rookie forward Derrick Williams:

Before high school, Williams mostly played soccer, baseball and football in La Mirada’s city parks league. He didn’t take basketball seriously until his freshman year.

And when he did, it showed.

“I used to get calls at home at night from school staff people wondering why the gym lights were on after 9 o’clock and who was in there,” said former La Mirada boys basketball coach Larry Kaupang, who coached Williams during his varsity career. “It was Derrick. He and my assistant, Charlie Torres, used to sneak in there sometimes late at night to put in some work. And Derrick worked at it.”

Only 5-9 in eighth grade, Williams grew to 6-5 by the end of his freshman year. He had become too tall to play guard and needed to get used to playing closer to the basket. He also was playing for La Mirada, a small, unheralded school 30 miles southeast of Los Angeles. It took an in-the-right-place moment during Williams’ sophomore year to remove him from relative obscurity.

La Mirada had a game against Compton on Feb. 23, 2007. Compton, a traditional power in the Los Angeles area, featured guard-forward DeMar DeRozan, now a two-year pro with the Toronto Raptors.

Most of the college coaches in attendance were there to see DeRozan, a McDonald’s All-America selection. Williams wasn’t even in the starting lineup. Kaupang put Williams in the game, and he ended up with 23 points, 12 rebounds, four blocked shots and three assists.

Michael Beasley cited for marijuana possession

The AP reports:

Michael Beasley’s first season in Minnesota was quiet off the court, an encouraging sign for the Timberwolves as they hoped to see him mature and emerge as a go-to player for a franchise that desperately needs one.

His first full offseason here isn’t off to a good start.

Beasley was ticketed for possessing marijuana and speeding in the Minneapolis suburb of Minnetonka last week, police said on Wednesday.

Capt. Scott Boerboom said that an officer stopped Beasley around 3 a.m. on June 26 on Interstate 394 after clocking him going 84 mph in a 65 mph zone. He said the officer smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from the car.

The officer allegedly found 16.2 grams of the drug in a plastic bag under the front passenger seat of Beasley’s car. Beasley told police the marijuana was not his, but belonged to a friend whom he had just dropped off. According to the report, Beasley cursed when an officer pulled out the bag.

The possession charge is a petty misdemeanor that carries a fine of $128.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports:

In February, Beasley was cited in Hennepin County for driving 70 mph in a 55 mph zone. He paid a $117 fine in that case.

In July 2010, after Beasley’s trade to Minnesota from Miami, Timberwolves basketball boss David Kahn said in a radio interview that one of his new player’s problems in Florida was that he “smoked too much marijuana.” The NBA responded by fining Kahn and the team $50,000 each. The league called the comments “inappropriate.”

Kahn, also in the interview on 1500ESPN, suggested that Beasley would be a changed man once he arrives in Minnesota.

“He’s a very young and immature kid who smoked too much marijuana and has told me that he’s not smoking anymore,” Kahn said, “and I told him that I would trust him as long as that was the case.”

Read fan reaction and discuss your own opinion in this forum topic.

NBA says NYTimes.com blog was based on inaccurate info

The following is an official release from the NBA:

The information from Forbes that serves as the basis for this article is inaccurate and we do not know how they do their calculations. Forbes does not have the financial data for our teams and the magazine’s estimates do not reflect reality.

Precisely to avoid this issue, the NBA and its teams shared their complete league and team audited financials as well as our state and Federal tax returns with the Players Union. Those financials demonstrate the substantial and indisputable losses the league has incurred over the past several years.

The analysis that was posted this afternoon has several significant factual inaccuracies, including:

“(The NBA) is a fundamentally healthy and profitable business”

• The league lost money every year of the just expiring CBA. During these years, the league has never had positive Net Income, EBITDA or Operating Income.

“Many of the purported losses result from an unusual accounting treatment related to depreciation and amortization when a team is sold.”

• We use the conventional and generally accepted accounting (GAAP) approach and include in our financial reporting the depreciation of the capital expenditures made in the normal course of business by the teams as they are a substantial and necessary cost of doing business.

We do not include purchase price amortization from when a team is sold or under any circumstances in any of our reported losses. Put simply, none of the league losses are related to team purchase or sale accounting.

“Another trick…moving income from the team’s balance sheet to that of a related business like a cable network…”

• All revenues included in Basketball Related Income (“BRI”) and reported in our financial statements have been audited by an accounting firm jointly engaged by the players’ union and the league. They include basketball revenues reported on related entities’ books.

“Ticket revenues… are up 22% compared to 1999-2000 season”

• Ticket revenues have increased 12% over the 10 year period, not the 22% reported.

“17 teams lost money according to Forbes … Most of these losses were small…”

• Forbes’ claim is inaccurate. In 2009-10, 23 teams had net income losses. The losses were in no way “small” as 11 teams lost more than $20M each on a net income basis.

“The profits made by the Knicks, Bulls and Lakers alone would be enough to cover the losses of all 17 unprofitable teams.”

• The Knicks, Bulls and Lakers combined net income for 2009-10 does not cover the losses of the 23 unprofitable teams. Our net loss for that year, including the gains from the seven profitable teams, was -$340 million.

“Forbes’s estimates — a $183 million profit for the NBA in 2009-10, and those issued by the league, which claim a $370M loss…”

• Forbes’s data is inaccurate. Our losses for 2009-10 were -$340 million, not -$370 million as the article states.

“The leaked financial statements for one team, the New Orleans Hornets, closely matched the Forbes data…”

• This is not an accurate statement as operating income in the latest Forbes data (2009-10) is $5M greater than what is reported in the Hornets audited financials.

Read fan reaction and discuss your own opinion in this forum topic.

Timberwolves exercise options on Wayne Ellington, Lazar Hayward, Wes Johnson

The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced that the team has exercised the fourth-year option on guard Wayne Ellington, and the third-year options for forwards Lazar Hayward and Wes Johnson.

Ellington, the 28th overall pick by Minnesota in the 2009 draft, has appeared in 138 games over two seasons in Minnesota, averaging 6.6 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.1 assists per game. Ellington shot 39.5 percent from behind the arc in 2009-10, the best mark by a rookie in Wolves history.

Hayward, the 30th overall pick by Minnesota in last year’s draft, averaged 3.8 points and 1.7 rebounds in 42 games during his rookie season. He tallied a season-high 16 points on Mar. 2 at Detroit, and added 14 points at Indiana on Feb. 11.

Johnson averaged 9.0 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.9 assists in 79 appearances during his rookie season. The 4th overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, Johnson earned All-Rookie Second Team honors and was named to the rookie team for the Rookie Challenge at All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles, where he tallied 25 points. Johnson’s 103 three-pointers made last season were the most ever by a Wolves rookie.

Trail Blazers get second round pick from Timberwolves in exchange for Tanguy Ngombo

The Portland Trail Blazers have acquired a future second round pick from the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for the draft rights to forward Tanguy Ngombo, it was announced today by the team.

Selected by Dallas with the 57th overall pick in the second round of last week’s draft, Portland gained the draft rights to Ngombo as part of the trade that sent guard Rudy Fernandez to the Mavericks.

Ricky Rubio works out with team, helps family in need

The AP reports:

When Ricky Rubio held his introductory news conference this week, he jokingly promised that he would keep his credit card in his pocket on his first trip to the Mall of America so his family didn’t buy everything in sight.

That didn’t keep him from busting it out for a good cause Saturday. As a hectic first week in his new hometown drew to a close, Rubio participated in his first charitable endeavor for the Minnesota Timberwolves, going shopping at a Build-A-Bear store with a 3-year-old boy whose family lost almost everything when a tornado ripped through North Minneapolis.

“For these guys, whatever (they need),” Rubio said.

When the Spanish point guard showed up to meet the McPherson family, little Taj was, of course, wearing a Dwyane Wade jersey. Hand-in-hand, Rubio and the little boy stuffed a brand new bear, then went to various stations in the store to pick out clothes and get him all stitched up.