Minnesota
Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services
One of the many Vince Carter rumors/ruminations was in one of yesterday's Newslines: it is the possibility of Minnesota sending Wally Sczcerbiak and Michael Olowokandi to get Air Canada. That would be an unstoppable force.
Can you imagine the two of them on the same team? Latrell Sprewell is in the last season of his contract and could potentially be traded at the All-Star break if need be to a team looking to dump salary. Alternatively, Sprewell can be the defensive stopper on the wings while Carter is the offensive juggernaut. It's no Jordan-Pippen but it could be amazingly entertaining.
A healthy Sam Cassell is one of the league's best point guards. A lineup of Cassell, Sprewell, Carter, Garnett, and even say Ervin Johnson would be a monster. There are four players in the lineup who can go for 30 points any given night without blinking an eye.
If all it costs is Sczcerbiak and Olowokandi, it would be foolish not to do this trade. Carter will always have some trade value for other franchises because of his awesome drawing power of fans. And for the times he is healthy, he will bring even more victories to Minnesota.
The most important thing to recognize, however, is that it was last year's progress in the playoffs that is giving Minnesota such an opportunity this year. They showed that they were legitimate contenders last year and now the disgruntled stars from other teams would consider playing for them because it means they could get a ring.
TEAM NOTES
Camp Opens Tuesday: The Timberwolves will open their 2004 Training Camp on Tuesday, Oct. 5 on the campus of St. John's University in Collegeville, Minn. The Training Camp schedule consists of two practice sessions daily from Oct. 5-10 at Sexton Arena at St. John's. The team will host an open scrimmage during the evening session on Oct. 10. More details will be released at a later date.
Lori Ewing ofSlam! Sports Canadawrites: [Toronto Head Coach Sam] Mitchell, meanwhile, a 13-year NBA player who was an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks the last two seasons, could help make the Raptors an exciting team to watch. The low-scoring games of last season under O'Neill and his defence-first [sic] approach could be gone. The Raptors may even look creative under Mitchell. A guy who doesn't believe in squashing a square peg into a round hole, he prefers to find a style that fits his players... "When I was in Minnesota we had 82 plays, and I played three positions, do the math. There's a way you can do it, there's a way Flip (Timberwolves coach, Saunders) did it, that just flowed."