Official Game Thread: Hawks at Timberwolves

[lethalweapon3]

“I’m sure you're comfortable where you are. But once Marc and I take over, we can arrange an aggressive offer to hire you with a contract that pays you in conditional installments of… Hello? Are you still there? Coach Cal?”

 

You know how they say, you get to be a villain long enough, you eventually become the hero?

Congratulations to Glen Taylor. No one had been holding out for him to be a hero, yet here he is. The savior nobody asked for.

Pilloried for decades around the Twin Cities and elsewhere, the notorious spendthrift oversees the third highest-salaried roster in the NBA, and everyone, at long last, seems happy about getting their money’s worth. Diapers.com's Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez’s carefully structured layaway plan was proving to be worth the wait as Taylor eased his way out of the NBA and WNBA.

Then he took a gander at the incoming owners’ payroll projections. Is that a Bat-signal for Glen Taylor, of all people? And are those Timberwolves fans suddenly caping for him?

Shocker! The duo that had to explain, “See, the way our billion-dollar financing is set up,” had zero designs on inheriting a club that would dive into the league’s punitive salary tax-apron provisions head-first. When this season began, it was reasonable to take a sober approach. First-round bounces the past two seasons, 42-40 one year after going 46-36 in 2021-22, were meager improvements over most of the prior 15 seasons. Yet it suggested that while superstar guard Anthony Edwards hadn’t neared his peak, the team around him likely had done so.

Soon to be a lame duck, Chris Finch’s coaching seat was warming up, and after 2023-24 ends, the architect that brought NBA Patient Zero Rudy Gobert into Karl-Anthony Towns’ locker room, Tim Connelly, had a nifty opt-out clause baked into his employment deal. KAT’s supermax extension kicks into high gear in 2024-25, and someone is going to have to greenlight moving the North Star State’s once lone All-Star, 2015’s first-overall pick (likely returning tonight; DNP’d past 18 games while rehabbing a torn meniscus), who stuck it out through thin and thinner. Why, Taylor surely thought as this season’s tipoff neared, should he have to be the bad guy once more?

Well, life got flipped, turned upside down, in a good way. Now the Timberwolves (55-25, tiebreaker over OKC) are the toast of the Twin Cities, assured of no worse than a Top-3 seed in the rugged Western Conference Playoffs. There’s still a shot at the Nuggets’ top spot despite falling in Denver on Wednesday, should the defending champs slip up in one of their easy road contests, and the T’Wolves stand on business at home, versus the Atlanta Hawks tonight (8 PM Eastern, Peachtree TV/Peachtree Sports Network and 92.9 FM in ATL, Bally Sports North in MSP) and the Suns on Sunday afternoon.

Taylor isn’t the only NBA owner stuck with a long-held miserly reputation facing tough decisions about their longtime franchise face in the offseason to come. But at least he has another player that has seized that franchise’s mantle already.

It may not have been clear back on October 30, when the T’Wolves lost in Atlanta, 127-113 to fall to 1-2, despite the Atlanta native Edwards’ team-high 31 points and 7 assists. But it’s crystal now, and Ant-Man’s ascension (All-NBA-quality career-bests of 26.3 PPG, 5.2 APG, 46.2 FG%) affords whomever holds the keys, in a majority ownership capacity, lots of options. That is, so long as “gleeful repeater taxpayer” remains one of those options.

There’s not much to dwell upon with respect to their visitors this evening. A team that has prevailed in consecutive road contests just once since Thanksgiving will be tasked, next week, with winning in Chicago and elsewhere just to earn a playoff spot, then must win at least once on the road in any playoff series thereafter.

The aim in the final two away-games of the regular season for coach Quin Snyder’s Atlanta Hawks will be to zero-in on a rotation that can compete without the availability of Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu for the foreseeable future. Snyder also has to keep his mission-critical players fresh, which is why Dejounte Murray (41 points vs. MIN on Oct. 30) and Clint Capela (questionable) are targets for extended recuperation.

While Trae Young (a smooth 14 points on perfect shooting plus 11 assists over 21 minutes; DNP in the 4^th during Wednesday’s indefensible home-finale flop vs. CHA) is ramping back up in his return from his hand injury, once today’s deficit climbs deep into double-digits, he is sure to be handed a towel for the balance of this contest as well. Most of the preparedness for upcoming Trae-In game(s) will occur behind the scenes for the Hawks’ upright starters, in practice and shootarounds, while Vit Krejci vies in these final games to usurp someone at the back of Atlanta’s 15-man roster.

While Atlanta (36-44) has little to play for in the immediate term, Minnesota has much more at stake. Closing out the season strong, then winning a playoff series for the first time since 2004 against a tough lower seed, would justify Taylor’s once-begrudging investments and steel his desire to keep the core and coaching around Edwards together, well beyond this summer.

Turns out, it’s not merely a case of Seller’s Remorse, it’s Winner’s Remorse. Just when everyone in Minnesota thought he was out, Glen Taylor pulls himself back in!

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[JayBirdHawk]

Bruno and Gueye as our Centers in this one. AJ possibly with some minutes.

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[lethalweapon3]

Not one, but TWO former first-round picks are preparing to return right on-time for the regular season's close.

Following LL Cool Will's report, Clint Capela was tacked onto the Hawks' list (Questionable, rest) and remains so as of the 12:30 PM Boo-Boo Report update. Trent Forrest, Mo Gueye, and the slip-sliding Garrison Matthews will each get more chances tonight to render the injured Wesley Matthews expendable ahead of Krejcimania I this weekend.

Returning at the time from a calf injury, Towns bailed out the T'Wolves in last year's meeting with the then-breakeven Hawks at Target Center, drawing a late foul from John Collins and hitting a pair of freebies to pull off the 125-124 victory in March 2023. Tonight, Minnesota looks to take a lead at home in their head-to-head series with Atlanta (16-16 in Minny; Hawks lead 25-9 in ATL).

 

~lw3

[REHawksFan]

Really bummed about JJ's extended absence news.  He's such a difference maker when he's in the lineup.  

[mountainjim]

I can't find where to watch this game via Hawks feed - is it on Peachtree TV? 

I (in NC) get Hawks via NBA Pass, and they have carried those on previous Peachtree TV Friday's, but the Directv Pass guide is not showing the Hawks feed available to me, only Minnesota's.

AJC says game is on Bally, but I don't see that on my guide at all.

 

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

7 minutes ago, mountainjim said:

I can't find where to watch this game via Hawks feed - is it on Peachtree TV? 

I (in NC) get Hawks via NBA Pass, and they have carried those on previous Peachtree TV Friday's, but the Directv Pass guide is not showing the Hawks feed available to me, only Minnesota's.

AJC says game is on Bally, but I don't see that on my guide at all.

 

 

 

Yes. The Friday games got moved to Peachtree TV with the Bally kerfuffle.

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[mountainjim]

Peachtree TV games have been on League Pass so far, but it’s not showing up on guide for today 

[lethalweapon3]

We may get more like Karl-Anthony Burbs tonite.

~lw3

[lethalweapon3]

Meanwhile, AJ Griffin Szn is upon us!

~lw3

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[Peoriabird]

2 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

 

Too small!

[thecampster]

No offensive foul my tookas.

[Diesel]

Just tuned in a minute ago and saw CC get Trucked...

"They didn't want to call a flop"....

When has CC ever flopped??

[hawkman]

Nice strong take by Trae. I think it's the beard. 

[Diesel]

Alright, we have seen enough of Trae... let's let him sit...

[Diesel]

Good Shot Dj!!

[REHawksFan]

Feisty Trae!! Or maybe pesky is the better word.