2010 NBA All-Timberwolves Awards

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The NBA gives out a number of post-season awards to standout players from around the league, such as:

-Most Valuable Player
-Sixth Man of the Year
-Rookie of the Year
-Most Improved Player of the Year

And while in reality, few Timberwolves are up for these awards, if they all had to be handed to Timberwolves, here's how they would go.

Rookie of the Year: Jonny Flynn

Runner Up: Wayne Ellington

Jonny takes the cake with this one pretty easily.

Has Jonny been a perfect rookie? No.

He's still adjusting to the new system of the triangle, he's not given the same freedom as Tyreke or Stephen, thus he's being limited in the style of play and the shots that he can take.

All of this is leading him down the path of not being in consideration for the ROY award.

But on the Timberwolves, he does beat the only other option, Wayne Ellington.

Defensive Player of the Year: Corey Brewer

Runner Up: Al Jefferson (the weird thing is, he's the team leader in blocks, almost tied for defensive rebounds, and has more steals per game than any other big man on the Wolves. However, he doesn't do this out of effort.)

The team leader in steals has to be considered the best Timberwolf on defense.

The man was drafted for his defense, but now that his record-setting offense is getting attention, people can forget that Corey is a dominating presence on defense.

Corey is the guy we call on to guard Kobe, LeBron, and Kevin Durant. He's 6'9'', and can jump high. Perfect fit to get some blocked shots. Corey is easily the Wolves' best on defense.

Sixth Man of the Year: Kevin Love

Runner Up: Ramon Sessions

I think the hardest part about giving this award is really determining who is a starter, and who isn't.

Well, the players with the highest total number of games started on the Wolves are: Corey Brewer, Jonny Flynn, Ryan Gomes, Al Jefferson, and Damien Wilkins. I guess that leaves everyone else to be a bench player.

In which case, you'd give the prize to Kevin Love.

Kevin has been wonderful off the bench, putting up 14 points, and 10 rebounds per night. The Timberwolves' miracle glass cleaner has been on the league leader board for months, a spot which he will always occupy.

Off the bench, Love provides the star power that the Sixth man of the Year title is supposed to give: a dominant presence off the bench that you'd normally see out of a starter, or even, a star.

Most Improved Player: Corey Brewer

Runner Up: Darko Milicic

Brewer played one year in the league and was known for his defense, but he still struggled.

Now he's posterized Derek Fisher, he set a franchise record for most consecutive games with a 3-pointer, while still getting a steal and a half per game.

Corey has finally started living up to expectations.

Corey can now be completely relied on to make shots. He no longer has a really awkward horizontal shot; it now has a consistency that allows the Wolves to depend on him.

He still plays terrific defense, and he should have been in the dunk contest. He still could next year.

Look out for Corey to be in contention for the actual Most Improved Player award.

Sportsmanship Award: Ryan Gomes

Runner Up: Ryan Hollins

If you think about who you'd give this award to, you'd have to think that a lot of the Wolves are crybabies.

Big Al is always looking right at the refs after they make a call against him, and Jonny, Kevin, and Corey do the same thing from time to time.

But Ryan Gomes (the team's co-captain) is always very polite. The guy who I'd imagine is the most likable guy on the Wolves always keeps his cool on the floor.

The man has only gotten two technical fouls in his career, neither of which came this year.

I'd say he's another one of those Wolves who's really up for this award, throughout the whole NBA.

MVP: Kevin Love

Runner Up: Al Jefferson

Obviously not a real MVP candidate.

It's hard to tell who really is the MVP of the Timberwolves these days. It's pretty arguably in favor of Big Al, but Kevin Love puts up a pretty big argument as well.

The thing is, MVP is Most Valuable Player, and Kevin Love is by far more valuable to the Timberwolves than Big Al.

Al is side by side with a lot of trade rumors, he doesn't play a whole lot of defense, and he is still recovering from injury.

Meanwhile, Kevin is playing the best basketball of his life, and is becoming one of the best rebounders in the league. He is the best player the Timberwolves have right now, and therefore is the team MVP.

All Timberwolves First Team

C-Al Jefferson
F-Kevin Love
F-Damien Wilkins
G-Corey Brewer
G-Jonny Flynn

This award is pretty straight forward.

The only real question is Damien Wilkins or Ryan Gomes. Ryan is consistently good, but Damien has been playing his best basketball in years on the Timberwolves.

In the long run, Ryan would easily take his spot, but as far as this season goes, Damien takes the spot.

That isn't to say that Damien won't be playing this well next season, however...