Timberwolves and Coverage By The Sports Media

I will be honest, I haven't been the most religious follower of the Timberwolves since KG left.  I have kept an eye on them from time to time and have not felt at all enthusiastic about the team for a long time; but that has been changing this year.  I see more potential, upside, and planning than I have seen since, well, ever.  Of course the best plan we've had before the current triangle hybrid offense was "Give it to KG" but I digress on that for now...  If you read the sports press, you'd think that the Timberwolves have a 30 man roster.

PG: I wasn't all that surprised when the Wolves drafted two point guards in 2009; and anyone who had seen our point guards in 2008-2009 shouldn't have been either.  Bobbie Brown, Kevin Ollie, and Sebastian Telfair weren't exactly going to be long-time serviceable options.  The Ty Lawson pick was a bit confusing but I figured he got picked just so he could be traded, and I was right.  And when you look at the draft from 2009, after Tyreke Evans went the only solid players left were point guards.  But ever since then, we have never stopped hearing about the Timberwolves having too many point guards.  Despite the fact that the roster at one point had Luke Ridnour and an injured Johnny Flynn, we kept hearing that the Wolves have too many point guards.  When they traded to get a second active point guard we heard once again that the Wolves have 'yet another' point guard on their roster.  We heard the Wolves have too many, we were asked when the Wolves would stop signing more point guards.  Writers said Kahn was obsessed with the position.  Apparently Luke Ridnour was supposed to play every minute of every game until Flynn came back from injury.  And we probably still would have heard the writers complain the Wolves had too many point guards.

SG: But point guard isn't the only position where the Timberwolves and Kahn receive criticism for too many players.  Martell Webster, Corey Brewer, Wesley Johnson, and Wayne Ellington at shooting guard?  Damn, how many shooting guards do the Wolves need?  How are you going to find enough playing time for all those shooting guards?  Why so many guards on the team?  David Kahn is obsessed with guards.  Blah, blah, blah, blah. 

SF: When Wolves fans starting hitting hard on the point guard BS, a lot of 'analysts' switched to the Wolves having too many small forwards as their primary attack.  Martell Webster, Corey Brewer, Wesley Johnson, Michael Beasley, and Lazar Heyward.  Why so many 3s?  How are you going to use them all?  Once again the Wolves draft a few small forwards and when two of the four get traded, that doesn't matter.  What matters is that we continue the narrative we've been pushing since moment one.

PF: Anthony Tolliver, Kevin Love, and Michael Beasley.  Do you really need three starter caliber power forwards?  You're not going to be able to find enough playing time for them all.  You have too many big men and ultimately you're revisiting the problem you had with Big Al and K-Love last year...Kaaaaaaaaaaahn!!!

C: Anthony Tolliver, Darko Milicic, Nikola Pekovic, and Kosta Koufos.  Why so many centers?  You can't play all of them in every game?  The Wolves have too many big men and not enough game time and positions for them!  Oh, and you should have drafted DeMarcus Cousins instead of Johnson; that would have alleviated that whole 'too many big men' problem.

So, let's go over it piece by piece: The Wolves apparently have 3 point guards, 4 shooting guards, 5 small forwards, 3 power forwards, and 4 centers on the current roster.  Add in Maurice Ager, John Thomas, and Jason Hart who are competing for spots, the Wolves have 22 on the roster?  I thought the limit was 15!  How is that possible?  Oh wait, a lot of names appear more than once...five in fact. The Wolves have too many guards.  The Wolves have too many forwards.  The Wolves have too many wing players.  The Wolves have too many front court players.  Too many inside big men and too many outside jump shooters.  They only have five players returning from last year so they can't be any good; they should have kept more of that promising 15 win team from last year I guess.

Is it possible that the the writers are just writing the same crap over and over again with just a slightly different spin?  I realize we're trying to go green in this country which is an idea that I generally support, but recycling ideas doesn't do any good.  Seems like the writers decided a long time ago that the Wolves would be the worst team in the league this year and are sticking to that story come Hell or high water.  How in the hell am I supposed to take your analysis of the team seriously when you don't even know who is playing which position or how many guys are on the roster?