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Jerry Zgoda missed the entire Kevin Garnett era, but he's back covering the Timberwolves after working the beat for their first four seasons two decades ago. In between, he covered a bit of everything: Gopher men's and women's basketball and NCAA athletics, golf, outdoor recreation, sports media and a little Vikings and Twins.
Posts about Wolves management
Wolves bring back Lazar Hayward
Posted by: Jerry Zgoda Updated: December 31, 2012 - 11:50 AM
The Wolves this morning have signed former Wolf Lazar Hayward to replace Josh Howard on the roster.
The Wolves selected Hayward very late in the 2010 first round, then traded him to Oklahoma City right before last season.
The Thunder traded him to Houston in the James Harden deal in October and the Rockets quickly waived him.
A 6-6 swingman, he addresses the Wolves need for a defender to back up Andrei Kirilenko at small forward.
They waived Howard earlier this month after he tore his ACL in a game at New Orleans.
The Wolves also worked out James Anderson and Joey Graham last week in auditions for the roster spot.
They still could be signing Hayward for the short term and still pursue a player such as European small forward Mickael Gelabale, who has an NBA out in his Spanish contract until Jan. 30.
Postgame: Barea goes out, Wolves lose by 19
Posted by: Jerry Zgoda Updated: November 5, 2012 - 12:47 AMThe Wolves' list of injured grew from two to three Sunday night in Toronto, where J.J. Barea was lost after fewer than eight minutes of playing time because of "concussion-like symptoms" after he got hit hard while driving to the basket.
From TV replays, it looked like his head hit teammate Dante Cunningham's leg as he came down while scoring on a baseline drive midway through the second quarter.
That basket gave him nine points in just 7:35 and it got the Wolves within 35-34 with 7:27 left before halftime.
Without him -- and Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio, of course -- the Raptors outscored the Wolves the rest of the way 70-52 with superior guard play in which Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan and Minneapolis' own Alan Anderson combined for 62 points.
After the game, Barea said he remembered scoring the bucket, then doesn't remember much else until he "woke up" in the training room, talking to a doctor.
He was tested twice after the game -- he said he thinks he failed the first one and passed the second -- as part of the NBA's concussion policy through which he must be cleared before he can play again.
He is expected to be tested again on Monday morning in New York City.
He said after Sunday's game that he expects to play Monday night in Brooklyn, but he'll have to get approval from a league-appointed doctor before he can.
Without him, the Wolves' backcourt struggled, enough so that Rick Adelman went to a lineup of Will Conroy and Malcolm Lee in the backcourt and Alexey Shved presumably as a small forward by the time the Raptors had a double-digit lead late in the game.
Yes, it has only been two games, but Brandon Roy once again struggled to keep up with the pace of the regular season.
He had five of the Wolves' whopping 24 turnovers -- all of them in the first half, when his team had 16 turnovers alone to the Raptors' three. He also didn't take a shot in the first half and didn't make any of the three he eventually did take.
Is it just rust that Roy eventually will shake or is it two knees with no cartilage that won't allow him to keep up with a young, completely healthy guy like DeRozan or on Monday, Joe Johnson?
"Every game is going to be different," Adelman said. "It's not always going to be the same for him. It's going to take him some time. We know that. He's going to have a tough game here and there, as we are as a team and you've just got to respond.
"I really believe this team should respond. That's what I think they can do. We've got turn it around, Brandon and everybody, tomorrow and come out and play better."
Welcome back, Stiemsma: Wolves introduce center at Target Center
Posted by: Jerry Zgoda Updated: August 2, 2012 - 2:59 PMTwo days after they introduced Brandon Roy, the Timberwolves welcome Greg Stiemsma back to Target Center on Thursday.
He was here, you might remember, very briefly in 2010.
Here’s some of this and that from the afternoon when David Kahn introduced him at a news conference:
· * Stiemsma signed a two-year contract that fits into the “room” exception slot -- $2.575 million – for teams under the salary cap, but the second year is not guaranteed, in good measure so the Wolves can be sure his feet are healthy.
He was limited from February through the playoffs because of plantar fasciitis in his left foot and a bone bruise in the right foot. He withdrew from playing for the U.S. Select team against Olympians in Las Vegas last month because he was receiving treatment for the plantar fasciitis, a troublesome condition that has ended more than one NBA career.
“My feet are feeling great,” he said. “We’ve been kind of taking it slow. That was a hard decision to do, but I think it was the right one. I took some time off, I’m rehabbing now and working my way back now. I feel good. It has been feeling great. I haven’t really felt limited at all.”
· * Kahn’s fun fact of the day: Stiemsma was second in league only to OKC’s Serge Ibaka in blocked shots per minutes played last season.
· * Stiemsma is back with the Wolves after a brief time in 2010, when he was signed right before the season’s final game so Al Jefferson would have a summer workout partner and just in case the Wolves wanted to include his non-guaranteed contract in a trade. He was released that summer and never went to camp with them that fall. The Celtics signed him before last season after a circuitous route to the NBA that included Europe and the D League.
“It feels good to be wanted, it feels good to have all your hard work pay off,” he said. “It has been a journey from the all places I’ve been, all the places I’ve played. It feels a little more rewarding, I think I appreciate it as much if not more than anybody.”
· * When asked his favorite Timberwolves moment from the first time around with the team, he asked, “Was there one?...Besides just the opportunity to be here, just to get that first taste of the NBA. I was here almost the whole summer working with Al Jefferson. Even from Al, I learned a lot. He’s a really good post player and it was a good matchup for us to battle back and forth with his jump hook and my shot blocking. It was a pretty good matchup. It gave me a good taste of reality too of how hard it is to stay in this league, how hard it is to get back.”
· * Stiemsma’s cabin is only a 3 ½ hour drive away. He drove to Minneapolis twice during the free-agent process. “It was nice from a scheduling standpoint that we didn’t have to purchase an airplane ticket,” Kahn said.
· * After signing Roy, Stiemsma and Alexey Shved, Kahn said the Wolves are $400,000-ish under the salary cap. He said the only way to add player(s) now is to sign them for the league minimum or trade a current salary or salaries to clear room.
He said the Wolves’ spending this summer still leaves them positioned to re-sign Nikola Pekovic to a big contract. They can exceed the salary cap to sign him either this fall or next summer.
“If he has the kind of season he had last season and given the size of some of the contracts some of the other centers have gotten, we need to be prepared for it,” Kahn said.
· * Kahn returned Thursday morning from Vail, Colo., after conferring with Ricky Rubio and the doctors on Wednesday during one of Rubio’s schedule checkups. Rubio will return to Barcelona Saturday, then will go to London to be with his Spanish national team for the medal round and is set to go back to Vail for another checkup the second week September.
“He looked fit, he looked healthy, he looked really good,” Kahn said. “He has done a great job with his rehab. He deserves a lot of credit with his rehab. I don’t think he has missed a day.”
Rubio has not yet been cleared to run and won’t be until the next checkup. But Kahn said he expects Rubio to be on the floor with the team in training camp the beginning of October, even if he’s not cleared for contact play then.
“He will be with us in training camp, at practice, he’ll hopefully be able to do some non-contact things that month (October), but I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves,” Kahn said. “It’s very important for him and for our team that he starts the season traveling, practicing, that he’s here. He won’t be that far away, although we’re not going to put any dates certain on anything. He’ll be everywhere we are.”
· * Kahn said he is “holding my breath” every moment while watching every Olympic game in which Kevin Love, Andrei Kirilenko and Shved play.
· Kahn planned to talk with Stiemsma later Thursday about possibly going with assistant coach Bill Bayno to Montenegro for two weeks later this month to work out with Nikola Pekovic, although Stiemsma might prefer to stay near his Wisconsin home to be with his ill father.
· * Stiemsma will wear jersey No. 34.
Wolves target Kirilenko, ready to deal to make room
Posted by: Jerry Zgoda Updated: July 25, 2012 - 12:31 AMThe shelf life on that Wayne Ellington-Dante Cunningham trade sure didn't last long...
Remember last Friday's blog post about Andrei Kirilenko?
Well...
The Wolves indeed are targeting the 31-year-old Russian small forward and are willing to pay him $18 million over the next two season -- with a player option for a third -- league sources tell me and are trying to deal Wes Johnson and a future 1st-round pick to make cap room for him.
Yahoo!Sports Tuesday evening reported a three-way deal between the Wolves, Phoenix and New Orleans is near.
The Hornets would get center Robin Lopez from the Suns in a sign-and-trade and the Wolves basically, it seems, would give up a first rounder to get the Suns to take the $4.3 million contract of Johnson, who they drafted fourth overall just two years ago.
The Yahoo! story also said Brad Miller would be coming back to the Wolves two weeks after they traded him to New Orleans.
I'm pretty sure NBA rules prohibit that. Miller could be headed to Phoenix instead.
The deal would still work, though, if the Wolves send away Johnson and basically get nothing back but a couple second-rounders.
Here's the story I wrote for the Wednesday paper.
It's official: Ellington-for-Cunningham trade is final
Posted by: Jerry Zgoda Updated: July 24, 2012 - 4:20 PMThat Wolves trade that has been in the works for days and days -- shooting guard Wayne Ellington to Memphis for forward Dante Cunningham -- will finally be official later today.
The Wolves are dealing away a 2009 first-round draft pick (28th overall) who was only going to see playing time this season if there were many injuries and getting back a guy who plays both forward spots and is active on defense.
Both players make almost exactly the same salary -- a little more than $2 million a season -- but the deal gives the Grizzlies another shooter and gives the Wolves a needed forward for a team that has added guards Brandon Roy and Alexey Shved but lost Michael Beasley, Anthony Randolph and quite possibly Anthony Tolliver from the frontcourt.
Portland drafted Cunningham 33rd overall out of Villanova in 2009 -- third pick in the second round, five picks after the Wolves took Ellington -- and traded him to Charlotte in February 2011. He signed as a restricted free agent just before the start of last season.
The Wolves also could officially announce their first free-agent signing -- Shved's -- as soon as Wednesday.
The others, including Boston center Greg Stiemsma, might not come until the Wolves line up any other moves in case they want to fit one signing into an salary-cap exception slot.
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recent posts
- Postgame: Say what? Wolves rally, win without Love
- What will it be tonight for Wolves?
- Homecoming: Kirilenko returns to Utah
- Rubio not expected to make two-game trip West
- Wolves bring back Lazar Hayward
- Wolves sign Lazar Hayward
- Postgame: Wolves heating up in December
- Roy to explore "additional treatment options'' on knee; Rubio out tonight
- Roy contemplating retirement?
- Roy misses practice for personal reasons
- B-Roy eyes Saturday return, Pek back at practice
- Postgame: Wolves lose another lead in Houston loss
- Love will play vs. Rockets, more Ricky likely, too
- Without Love, Wolves go small today in New York
- Eye injury will keep Love out of the lineup Sunday
- Postgame: Wolves stop that streak at 12, beat OKC
- Wolves waive injured Howard, Lee could be lost for season as well
- Postgame: Wolves double up Heat on boards, still lose by 11
- Pekovic, Love will play tonight at Miami, Rubio won't
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