TheGoldSeat

The 2003-04 season for the Minnesota Timberwovles had them going 58-24, the best record in the league, and still gives us hope of winning a championship with Garnett.  So how far away are we?  In some sort of weird conspiracy there are no records of Latrell Spreewell ever being a basketball player on ESPN or NBA.com, so I had to include his stats seperate. 2003-04 Regular Season Statistics Timberwolves Leaders

*Latrell Spreewell:  16.8 ppg,  3.2  rpg, 1.38 spg, 3.5 apg

2006-07 Regular Season Statistics

As we can clearly see, we are actually scoring more points this year than our magical year.  I believe this is mainly a product of our up-tempo style this year compared to Cassell walking his old body up the court in 2003-04.  Garnett isn’t quite playing up to his MVP level, but has pretty comparable statistics.  Also, Ricky Davis is almost a perfect replacement for Spree.  They have almost the same ppg average and Ricky actually rebounds and passes the basketball a little better statistically.  Trenton Hassell, who started for Wally Szczerbiak in 2003, has increased his ppg average by over 50% from then to now, and is getting more assists.  In fact, we are better at the center position as well.  Mark Blount scores twice as many points as Kandi-man did that year, and rebounds the ball more as well.

It comes as no surprise that defense and point guard play are the main differences between our squad then and now.  We are allowing 8 more points per game this year and are only scoring 1.7 points more– not a favorable tradeoff for us.  Also, Sammy C (aka the love we lost) scored 19.8 points per game and dished out 7.3 assists per game.  In comparison, Mike James is scoring 11 ppg and Foye is scoring 9.  That comparison isn’t completely fair to James and Foye because they play fewer minutes.  If James played 35 minutes per game and scored at the same rate he would score 13.5 points per game and dish out 5. 14 assists.  Foye would score 15.2 points per game and dish out 3.9 assists.

It is apparent in these numbes that to get back to our 2003-04 form we will need Foye to continue to develop both his scoring and his passing.  To match Cassell’s level Foye will have to improve by around 5.3 points and 3.4 assists per 35 minutes.  I would argue that the supporting cast surrounding our future “big three” (Foye, Garnett and Davis) is superior to that surrounding our 2003-04 squad.  Wally had plantar fascia pretty much all year that year, and we have McCants and Craig Smith showing much promise.

The numbers also explain why James starts and Foye finishes most of our games.  James gets more dimes per minute which makes him the better pg to have in the game with KG, Ricky and Mark “Blizz” Blount.  On the other hand, since KG and Ricky usually disappear late in games, Foye is the pg we need in at that time because he is a more prolific scorer.  It’s hard to second-guess Wittman/Casey’s pg rotation based on the numbers.

I think the main story these statistics tell is that our pg play needs to improve to get back to playing at a championship level.  It also shows that we are not as far off as it seems.  Let’s keep our heads up and our eyes focused on building the players we have to make a run in the 2008-09 season.  Two years baby, watch out!!  As KG says, “we’re comin’, we’re comin’!!”