After a fast and furious offseason, the Minnesota Timberwolves will head southwest as they challenge the Memphis Grizzlies Wednesday night in the FedEX Forum.
The Timberwolves, who went on a series of wheeling and dealing this offseason, will parade their newly acquired forwards Thaddeus Young, Anthony Bennett, and Andrew Wiggins. Despite the loss of Kevin Love in the process, the Timberwolves gathered promising young stars who could turn the fortunes of the franchise.
Spanish guard Ricky Rubio will enter his third season in the league and is expected to call most of the shots this year after waiving J.J. Barea. Meanwhile, Thaddeus Young has been consistent on the scoring end as well as on the defensive end as what he displayed last year with Philadelphia. Canadian forward Anthony Bennett will try to bounce back from a forgettable rookie season in which he finished with unimpressive numbers.
All eyes will be on this year's number one overall pick Andrew Wiggins as he will try to live up to the hype. Wiggins, who spent college ball playing for Kansas, drew comparisons from LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony.
The Memphis Grizzlies made a silent offseason, luring eight time All-Star Vince Carter from Dallas and signing a bunch of rookies to bolster their lineup. Carter, past his prime, is still capable of producing in double figures most nights as what he demonstrated last season averaging 11.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 2.6 assists in just 24 minutes of play per game.
The grit and grind squad will try to claw their way back to the season with nearly the same roster. Conley, along with Randolph and Gasol, will lead the offensive charge for the competitive Grizzlies squad.
Despite their toughness on the defensive end, the Grizzlies lack players who can score as they averaged a total of 96.0 points per game, while shooting 49 percent from the field, not bad for a team that is known for their great defense. Despite the recent success of the Grizzlies in the regular season, the Timberwolves still lead the all-time season series between the two teams, 42-31.
This will be an interesting game as young talent will go up agaisnt seasoned veterans. The most interesting match-ups will be between the two point guards Ricky Rubio and Mike Conley, and Marc Gasol and Nikola Pekovic.
Gasol and Pekovic will be banging in the paint all game long, as both are big, bulky centers who are extremely physical. As for the guards, Rubio is more of a play maker, so Conley, who has been one of the best stealers in the game the past two seasons, will have to shut down his passing lanes. Rubio, another excellent thief with great size, will have to stay in front of Conley and keep him from getting to the lanes. Conely is terrific when it comes to floaters with the off hand.
Nonetheless, it will be a pretty exciting game. It will be fascinating to look the new-look Wolves in the post-Kevin Love era.