Who's Hot?
It's no coincidence that we lead off Monday with the Who's Hot? feature, because nobody is hotter than the Timberwolves. They have won five straight, and 8 of 10. It is very much worth noting that 10 games is exactly how long W-Szcz has been back in the lineup. The Wolves players and brass have been saying all along that they really didn't know what kind of team they had, because the team really hadn't played as a full unit yet. Even I tended to roll my eyes at those suggestions, but maybe the Wolves know more about this than a guy who writes a newsletter based on secondhand wire reports.
Of course, one could reasonably suggest that the Wolves haven't really had a signature win during this stretch, and that would be true. All chances at validation will arrive very soon this week, as the Wolves take the Texas Three Step. Heavy doses of Spurs, Rockets and Mavs are in the Wolves' future. The Admiral is having health problems and will miss tonight's game, and it looks like Yao Ming might be hitting a little bit of a wall (and won't get to rest during the All-Star break, either). The Wolves have pulled even with the Suns. Let's see if they can maintain this.
The Bradley Center...
Part of my weekend festivities included seeing a game in the Bradley Center, which was named for famous four-star general Omar Bradley, who was played by Karl Malden in "Patton". Other than that, there is little of note to the Bradley Center. It is quite like Target Center in many ways. It's relatively new, relatively clean, relatively easy to get around in. To be honest, all I really saw was our box and the lobby, and a fair amount of the parking garage. It was all good. If you ever get a chance to see a game in a box, do whatever you need to do to make it happen.
The Nuggets...
Play hard, as Nugs fan Brien Hays constantly reminds us. He's right; I didn't see any heads hanging, even when the game got away from them late Saturday night. This is a team that is completely retooling; right now, I really only see one player who is a sure-fire member of the Next Great Nuggets Team, and that is Nene Hilario. This guy is going to be a very good player in due time. Brien Hays believes his long-term potential is on a par with Amare Stoudamire's, and I don't completely disagree. Both have big-time bodies, both are athletically gifted. Hilario is virtually the same age as Stoudamire, and showed himself to be a decent ball-handler, with very quick hands for stealing the ball or catching passes. He needs a go-to move in the post, and a better mid-range faceup game, but those are the things players learn, if they can learn. Considering Hilario is a comparatively recent convert to basketball, it seems safe to say that he has the desire and ability to pick the game up. He'll be a major star.
Tskitishvili needs much more time and strength. Guys like him can develop quickly, but he needs to become much more assertive. He had several possessions where he would get a pass and have a shot, but he would pump fake the defender, which allowed the defender time to come cover him. He needs the confidence to just shoot the ball. He's seven feet tall; he can get his shot off without that pump. Until he hits that shot consistently, defenders won't honor the pump anyway.
The Nuggets biggest need is a point guard. They just don't have a player who can get them into sets, and they don't have any real scorers coming back (Juwan Howard almost certainly won't be back.). There is more work to be done in Denver, but it's nothing LeBron James couldn't help in a hurry.
2:39:19 PM 
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