The NBA Off Season Chronicles

Usually when the NBA finals conclude, people start gossiping on who to trade or who teams should sign and usually it’s just a piece of news that comes and goes like a regular winter, but this offseason was like a GOT winter, felt like it lasted 7 seasons. Now there weren't any dragons flying around crisping up the white walker armies (spoiler alert!!) but we sure did see some unicorn like moves out in the NBA world, and it was absolutely beautiful. No Kristaps wasn’t traded and neither was Hoodie Melo but we saw some trades that made everybody freak out a little bit. Can you guess whose fan base I’m referring to and the first squad that will be mentioned in this post? If you guessed the New York Knicker-Bockers you're wrong, but if you guessed the Timberwolves, then let us carry on.

GAGNANTS of the off-season

If you’re trying to figure out what gagnants means then you probably should have paid attention during your French class in school and if you had to google it, well then you know how to use a computer correctly, congratulations you are a gagnant. You’re probably wondering why I’m throwing in a little French spice in this article, why not? The Wolves front office sure did this offseason and its looking like a playoff bound recipe to be quite frank, not the hot sauce. From reports, Jimmy “buckets” Butler was in Paris (It’s all adding up) when he was traded to the Twin Cities and since then, nothing was the same. The basketball world was in absolute shock not entirely because he was traded but what he was traded for. You could compare this trade to when Monix was traded for a washing machine, in the movie Semi-Pro, ok maybe it wasn’t that bad. At the end of the day, the Wolves ended up on the cool side of the pillow, which includes a 3x NBA all-star, scoring machine, and an excellent 2 way player that fortifies your starting lineup and highly increases your chances at competing in the western conference. I could literally talk about Butler all day and how he makes the Wolves contenders but there were other key moves that weren’t exactly under the NBA radar but still low enough to make silent but deadly impacts. One of those key impacts was the addition of Jeff Teague, a NBA proven game manager but he also brings the ability to shoot the 3 without hesitation and the Wolves are going to need that the most when it comes down to late clock situations.

Yes the wolves had Ricky Rubio who was also a great floor general but he literally shot the ball worse then Bran in Game of thrones when he was trying to shoot his bow. Rubio had plenty of opportunities to show his growth in the league but he couldn’t perform and now it’s Teague’s time to take the reins of the point guard duties. With Teague in the mix, now we can quickly touch on the additions of Taj Gibson (is there a Bulls reunion I wasn’t told about) and the ever so dangerous Jamal Crawford. Both of these players have the ability to impact a game in two completely different ways and that’s the beauty behind their oh so different firepower. Gibson brings that rebounding energy that they will need either in the starting lineup or off the bench. He also brings a certain toughness that the young wolves will embrace and at the end of the day, will only make them more competitive. Now when you thought about the wolves in the 2016-2017 year, you knew they could bring the wood in the first half but when it came to the 3rd and 4th quarter they looked lacklustre. What was the missing the piece? Some could argue that they needed another star on the front line, which you cannot argue with, but in my humble opinion it was some much needed scoring sparks off the bench.

Yes Zach Lavine could provide a spark from time to time but the wolves

needed a consistent scorer who could provide stability and also take some pressure off the starters and that man COULD be Crawford. Jamal may not be the young prolific scorer he used to be but he can still shoot the lights out at his age, and he brings a veteran presence off the bench that will be greatly impact the young wolves. In all, this organization still has a young K.Towns, and Wiggins in their back pocket and the future is extremely bright and the league should be aware of this up and coming wolf pack, needless to say they’re ready to be unleashed into the NBA wilderness.