Draft Wrap-Up
Canis Hoopus — ... Well folks, I'm going to turn in for the night but before I go I just wanted to put up a few quick thoughts about the draft. First of all, let's take a quick run-down of who is on the team: Point guards: Ricky Rubio Jonny Flynn Sebastian Telfair Nick Calathes Bobby Brown Shooting guards: Wayne Ellington Corey Brewer Forwards/centers: ...

NBA Draft 2009 Aftermath: Now Who Ends Up In The D-League?
Ridiculous Upside — ... He's thin and a little on the short side.  He'll definitely need some D-League time.  Sadly I don't see him sticking in the NBA, so he'll probably spend a lot of time on the D-League draft board in the future. 27. DeMarre Carroll - Memphis Grizzlies - 90%             See Taj Gibson - By the way, how were these two guys taken before DeJuan Blair....oh, right. 28. Wayne Ellington - Minnesota Timberwolves - 40% ...

The forgotten man
Canis Hoopus — ... Hey, remember this guy?  In all likelihood, he's the Wolves' starting 2 guard in 09/10.  What do we know about his game?  Let's take a break from the Rubio circus and run through what Ellington has to offer below the fold. Wayne Ellington comes to the Wolves with an overall resume very similar to the one brought here by Corey Brewer: MVP in the NCAA tourney, decent sized cog on an older team that challenged for the title several years in a row, not the main guy...you get the picture.  Resumes aside, ...

Great Off-Season Performances: The Dylan Edition
Canis Hoopus — ... Things will be slow here over the holiday weekend.  I'll check in every now and then to see if there have been any major developments but we will return to our original programming on Monday with a post about the roster and possible rookie free agents (hint: Paul Harris and Lee Cummard) followed by a continuation of our Wayne Ellington post.   ...

Reevaluating the Phoenix Suns off season options
Fanster.com — ... Unless I am missing something, the T-wolves still have about $8m in cap space which means they could trade Etan Thomas ($7m expiring) and maybe one young player like Pecherov or Wayne Ellington for JRich. ...

Non-flashy free agents and roster questions
Canis Hoopus — ... and Wayne Ellington.  Something has to give.  This isn't a roster you can take on a tour through 82 games.  It is an absolute disaster waiting to happen at the 2/3.  ...

The Old and Beautiful vs The Young and Restless: A Look At NBA Guards
Canis Hoopus — ... Ty Lawson  21 Kyle Lowry  23 TJ Ford    26 Michael Redd    30 Wayne Ellington  21 Sebastian Telfair  24 Randy ...

Vegas Baby, Vegas
Canis Hoopus —   On July 17 I'll be flying down to hang out at the Thomas & Mack Center on the UNLV campus where the Wolves' summer league team will hit the hardwood. Braving 107 degree weather will be a small price to pay for getting an in-person glimpse of Jonny Flynn, Wayne Ellington, Oleksiy Pecherov and a, hopefully, well-healed Corey Brewer. While I promise you daily scouting reports (17th, 18th and 19th) on our guys and the ...

Phoenix Suns Summer League: The Game Plan
Bright Side Of The Sun — ... - James Flight White, Joey Dorsey and Chase Budinger LA Clippers - Blake Griffin and Eric Gordon (this should be a fun tandem!) LA Lakers - Adam Morrison?? (where's Sun Yue?) Memphis - Thabeet and Hamed Haddadi (the biggest pair in Vegas since Dolly Parton) Milwaukee - Joe Alexander, Brandon Jennings and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute Minnesota -  Jonny Flynn, Wayne Ellington and Gerald Hendeson (on load from the Bobcats) ...

Summer League Open Thread #3: Indiana Pacers vs. Utah Jazz
Indy Cornrows — ... Bob Kravitz: Bird wants players, and any color will do Bob Kravitz delves into the racial makeup of the Pacers' current roster with comments from Larry Bird who obviously couldn't care less about the perceptions of anyone else. What I found interesting was that Bird revealed his draft thoughts had the deal with Chicago gone through. Ty Lawson was his choice if Hansbrough was not available and later in the first round he was looking at Sam Young or Wayne Ellington. James Harden, Tyler Hansbrough impress in summer ...

Q&A with Kevin Pelton
Canis Hoopus — ... and Wayne Ellington.  While they appear to be serviceable at the 1 and the 4/5, they are headed towards disaster at the 2/3.  What undrafted free agents or cost-conscious veteran free agents would provide value to the Wolves at the 2/3? ...

Following up on the forgotten man
Canis Hoopus — ... on Wayne Ellington we talked about his general game (excellent spot-up shooter, solid perimeter defense, can't create on his own, doesn't get to the line).  In this one we will compare him to the other shooting guards and wings because the Wolves had a shot at every non-Evans/Harden wing/2 in the draft with the 6th pick.  Did they get value with Ellington at 28?  Was there a better option with the 6th pick?  Can we have a big enough break from the Rubio circus? Let's dig into these questions below the fold. ...

Kupchak: Lakers would have drafted Wayne Ellington
Canis Hoopus — ... ....Asked which of the North Carolina players in last month's NBA Draft he liked the most, Kupchak said he was particularly high on shooting guard Wayne Ellington. ...

Game Day and Lynx Wrap Up
Canis Hoopus — ... and Wayne Ellington.  Does the Dork Elvis seal of approval outrank the first round selections of David Kahn?  While one game obviously won't give us an answer, I wanted to point this out because of Taylor is a scoring guard who could have played along side of Rubio while Budinger is a wing who can shoot a'la Ellington.  For a fan base who is all too aware of things like Roy/Foye and Love/Mayo, it's just something to keep an eye on during the season.   ...

Jonny Ball
Canis Hoopus — ... League action.  In a league where Randy Foye and Jerryd Bayless can walk away with MVP honors, and where Anthony Randoph and Rodrigue Beaubois can dominate, you have to take everything with a grain of salt.  That being said, the league isn't completely useless.  It is a solid forum to view player types and whether or not a guy can play on this level nor not.  On those fronts, Jonny Flynn and Wayne Ellington had decent debuts regardless of what showed up on the ...

Summer League Open Thread - Monday, July 13
Clips Nation — ... and Wayne Ellington, among others (for any Anteaters out there, there's been an Adam Parada sighting.  D-League features one guy I've ever heard of, ...

Duke Ball
Canis Hoopus — ... and Wayne Ellington displaying the types of games that will get fans excited about the regular season no matter how meaningless the summer action is.  Flynn was solid on the ball while showing a knack for pick and roll and Ellington, after a couple of minutes looking like he was thinking too damn hard about his shot, hit an easy layup and a couple of free throws before getting in rhythm and knocking down 8 of his 14 shots for the game (4-7 from 3).  ...

NBA Summer League Day Four Recap - The D-League Shines
Pounding The Rock — ... Wayne Ellington - 22 points on 8-14 from the field and 4-7 from long range.  Don't let this fool you.  The only thing he did well in this game is shoot.  He got absolutely destroyed on the defensive end.  Add in 2 rebounds and 0 assists in 28 minutes. ...

Weekly Recap
Canis Hoopus — ... The Wolves lost both of their Summer League games; one to Houston and one to the D-League select team.  Flynn and Wayne Ellington have shown flashes of potential while ...

Checking In From Sin City
Canis Hoopus — Well, it's hot. I suppose that meets expectations, considering it's the desert and all. Not that I'm complaining, but this Midwestern boy will take 4 seasons over constantly dry and 90 any year of my life. Of course, I didn't come for the weather. I'm here to watch Corey Brewer, Jonny Flynn, Wayne Ellington and the cast of contract-hopefuls (plus Messieurs Oleksiy Pecherov and Bobby Brown) get some run in NBA licensed apparel. Here's the agenda: Friday, July 17 (today): Wolves v. Wizards at 5pm PST (7pm ...

Wolves vs. Wizards Recap: They Are Who We Thought They Were
Canis Hoopus — If you really want to watch it again, Denny Green's most famous moment can be found here. First off, apologies for the delay. I'm having some problems with the old laptop (emphasis on old). But I think I've solved them, so we should be right as rain from here on out. In the Wolves' first Summer League win Jonny Flynn and Wayne Ellington were finally together in playing like the scouting reports describe them. While the Wizards aren't exactly known for their defense, with ...

Wolves vs. Hornets Recap: So Close, Yet Still So Far Away
Canis Hoopus — ... get a free dunk with 7 seconds to go. Wayne Ellington misses his drawn-up three, and that's the game. Hornets win 100-96. ...

Summer League Game #5 Open Thread
Canis Hoopus — ... To close out Vegas the Summer Wolves will be taking on Chicago. James Johnson has had a good week running a lot of point forward for the Bulls, he'll be fun to watch. It's time for Corey Brewer to start showing something. He's been very quiet all week and a strong performance would give him a little positive momentum to carry him the rest of the summer and into the regular season. Jonny Flynn and Wayne Ellington have shown what they can do, so we may not see much of ...

The Forgotten Man, pt. iii: Better value than DeRozan?
Canis Hoopus — ... For those of you who haven't read the first two parts of our Wayne Ellington series, you can catch up on the action by clicking ...

The Kahn Plan: Where This is Headed
Canis Hoopus — ... like Jason Richardson, by the start of next season? In Kahn's short but busy time as this team's GM, he hasn't once disappointed us with a refusal to act or part with assets. He has been absolutely aggressive in his dealings.  So if you look forward and see the picture begin to clear up, we could be looking at an opening day 2010 rotation something like this: PG: Jocky Flubio/ Functional Veteran Backup via Free-Agency SG: Athletic Wing 1/ Wayne Ellington/ Rodney Carney (?) SF: Athletic Wing 2/ Corey Brewer/ ...

Timberwolves Transactions
Canis Hoopus — ... Rights to Nikola Pecovic drafted in the 2nd round July 28th, 2008 Ryan Gomes signed to current contract extension February 19th, 2009 Bobby Brown acquired in trade with Sacramento (McCants, Booth). June 24th, 2009 Darius Songaila and Oleksiy Pecherov acquired in trade from Washington (Foye, Miller). June 26th, 2009 Rights to Ricky Rubio (5th), Jonny Flynn (6th), Wayne Ellington (28th) drafted in the first round. RIghts to Henk ...

My Team Is Better Than Yours: Minnesota Timberwolves Edition
Pounding The Rock — ... us).  He went for 29.0 and 11.0 last year against the Spurs.  Bench: Point Guard:  Hill vs Flynn, Bobby Brown, and Chucky Atkins: I'm going to give this to Minnesota.  They have two players that can take good minutes off the bench.  Atkins is a smart veteran and Flynn is a top prospect rookie.  Hill is more than welcome and more than capable to prove me wrong though. Wings: Manu, Finley, Hairston, and Williams vs Wayne Ellington, Corey Brewer, and Quentin Richardson:  Spurs ...

Wolves Offensive/Defensive/Overall Depthcharts 09-10
Canis Hoopus — ... 10.5 Songaila 16.9 Pecherov 16.3 4th Ricky Rubio ? Wayne Ellington ? Wilkins 9.2 ...

No Wind Beneath Our Wings: The Problematic SG/SF Situation
Canis Hoopus — ... Below the jump, let's look at what they have there right now, what the Contending Wolves of Three Years Hence will need on the wings, and how to bridge that gap. We all know that the Wolves are probably the worst team in the NBA at the shooting guard and small forward positions. I actually thought about this, and I don't think there is a crummier team at those two positions. There are five players who you'd call "wings" on the team: Corey Brewer, Ryan Gomes, Wayne Ellington, Brian Cardinal, and Damien Wilkins. The last ...

The super mega ultimate post. Part 1...yes, there's more.
Canis Hoopus — ... is worth talking about besides maybe Carney, but I will talk about him in present tense when I get to this year. Speaking of which:     THIS YEAR:  Our depth chart for 2009-10 with projected ratings according to my trends (Some are just complete guesses! Thanks in advance for not judging them too harshly)  PG: Jonny Flynn (75++)/Chucky Atkins (55--)/Bobby Brown (55=) SG: Corey Brewer (70+)/Wayne Ellington (70+=)/Damien Wilkins (55=) SF: ...

Care About the D-League. Kthxbai!
Ridiculous Upside — ... : The Timberwolves fans should care because they're close enough to their affiliate to actually attend Sioux Falls Skyforce games, David Kahn once owned for D-League teams so your GM is obviously a fan, and perhaps the most important reason, we have 2-guards and you're going to need another in case Wayne Ellington goes down. ...

Enough Rubio
Canis Hoopus — Well, I don't know about everyone else, but I'm officially tired of talking about Ricky Rubio. So, lets take some time to refocus on the players we do have and the season that officially starts in 8 weeks and 1 day. Currently, our roster is comprised of: Guards - Jonny Flynn Chucky Atkins Bobby Brown Wayne Ellington Forwards - Corey Brewer Brian Cardinal Ryan Gomes Damien Wilkins Kevin Love Darius Songaila Center (I'm ...

Guarding against no Rubio
Canis Hoopus — ...   Outside of Randy Foye tearing it up against sub-par (and depleted) competition in January, the Wolves featured the worst backcourt in the league and it really wasn't even close. As it stands right now, and before the Ramon Sessions matter plays itself out, the Wolves are staring at a backcourt rotation of Chucky Atkins, Bobby Brown, Wayne Ellington, and Jonny Flynn, with Damien Wilkins and Corey Brewer possibly providing relief at the 2.  While Flynn and Ellington are unproven rookies, ...

The Offseason: Wrap It Up
Canis Hoopus — ... Jefferson and Hollins ahead of him on the depth chart, there isn't a good opportunity for the man's contract year (which, incidentally, tends to be the type of season that Blount plays best in). The only reason to keep him is as an expiring contract for trade at the deadline. Again, his roster spot might be better spent elsewhere. Rodney Carney. The perimeter rotation already includes Ryan Gomes, Corey Brewer and new arrivals Wayne Ellington and Damien Wilkins, but Kahn has ...

Around the Association: 2009-2010 Minnesota Timberwolves - Donde esta Senor Rubio?
Golden State Of Mind — ...   But let's look at what this organization did for you without even signing you!  Key additions: Ramon Sessions,Antonio Daniels, Jonny Flynn, Wayne Ellington, Oleksiy Pecherov, Chucky Atkins, Damien Wilkins, Ryan Hollins, Mark Blount, Sasha Pavlovic Key subtractions: Randy Foye, Mike Miller, Sebastian Telfair, Craig Smith, Mark Madsen, Kevin Ollie, ...

Ridiculous Transactions: 9/21-9/27
Ridiculous Upside — ... joke is that they've been stockpiling guards this offseason the way they used to with power forwards, but the team just waived Antonio Daniels (sorry, "came to a mutual agreement that he wouldn't play for them anymore") and Chucky Atkins, and Ricky Rubio isn't going to be in Minnesota for at least a few more years, so they're more shorthanded in the backcourt than you'd think.  With the team's guards consisting of Ramon Sessions, Sasha Pavlovic, Wayne Ellington, Jonny Flynn and now McClinton, this has to be ...

Campy
Canis Hoopus — ... I got to catch about an hours worth of action where the team scrimmaged for 2 curtailed quarters. It wasn't the cleanest of practices and you could definitely tell that these were a bunch of guys just learning to play with one another under a new coach but there were a few notable things that I would like to pass on to all y'all: The scrimmage started out with a white team of Corey Brewer, Jared Reiner, Kevin Love, Ramon Sessions, and Wayne Ellington going up against a black squad of Al Jefferson, Jonny ...

Timberwolves-Raptors Game Review
Canis Hoopus — ... Wayne Ellington played pretty well. He made some shots, but he missed some. "Wellington" didn't score all of his shots and only took one three-pointer. ...

GameThread -5: vs. Bulls
Canis Hoopus — ... Luol Deng is coming off a lost season after sitting 33 games due to injury. Both Joakim Noah and Tyrus Thomas are extremely athletic frontcourt players and should challenge the Wolves' slower duo of Jefferson and Love. I'm disappointed we'll miss the Flynn/Rose match-up since the latter will be sitting with an ankle sprain. Brad Miller did not travel with the Bulls and Wayne Ellington is likely to sit with an ankle sprain. ...

Kevin Love breaks the 4th metacarpal on his left hand
Canis Hoopus — ... the cast is removed.  Probably closer to 8 weeks for a high contact sport like basketball.  UPDATE ii: Zgoda reports that Kahn says an early estimate is 6-8 weeks. UPDATE iii: While we're at it, let's use this post as a quick wrap up of the game: The Wolves' 1/2 court offense is a mess and it's not just the result of a transition to a new system.  At one point in the 3rd quarter, Ramon Sessions, Ryan Gomes, Wayne Ellington, and Damien Wilkins were 0-20 from the field.  ...

2009 Season Preview
Canis Hoopus — ... Year's Record: 24-58 Key Losses Additions By Subtraction: Calvin Booth, Bobby Brown, Rodney Carney, Jason Collins, Randy Foye, Mark Madsen, Rashad McCants, Mike Miller, Kevin Ollie, Craig Smith, Sebastian Telfair, Shelden Williams, Kevin McHale. Honorary Member of the Addition By Subtraction club: Mark Blount. Key Additions: Wayne Ellington, Jonny Flynn, Ryan Hollins, Sasha Pavlovic, ...

Making it Wayne
Canis Hoopus — ... for when Wayne Ellington gets hot from beyond the arc.  It's a long year and it will be a hard-fought contest, but LoveTo is in the early lead.  ...

It's all downhill from here kid
Canis Hoopus — Look at him.  Unwrapping a new season.  While he doesn't really know any better, you can see it in his eyes that he thinks he could be opening up a .500 record with massive improvement from Kevin Love and Al Jefferson along with developing two starters in Jonny Flynn and Wayne Ellington.  That's what could be in there.   Of course, his parents are jerks and instead of getting their baby boy something cool like a winning season (or a Spanish fire engine) they bought ...

Jonny on the Spot
Canis Hoopus — ... While Flynn had the flashy 4th and Wilkins hit the game-winning shot, my game ball goes to Wayne Ellington, who quietly played the entire 4th quarter while showing defensive grit, ball-handling skills, and an ability to hit the open shot.  He was active on the offensive end and he even grabbed 4 rebounds (2 of them offensive) down the stretch. Again, we're only talking about one game, but Ellington had the best all-around game of any Wolves wing player last night.  ...

Competition Discussion: Rest of the League
Bullets Forever — ... not very good, and even Skiles won't be able to get the most out of it. Minnesota Timberwolves Last season: 24-58 (Pythagorean Record: 27-55) Biggest team strength: Defensive rebounding (tied for sixth-best in the league) Biggest team weakness: Shooting (27th in the league) In: Kurt Rambis, Ramon Sessions, Jonny Flynn, Sasha Pavlovic, Ryan Hollins, Oleksiy Pecherov, Wayne Ellington, Damien Wilkins, Jason Hart, Nathan Jawai, ...

Alando Tucker Trying To Staying Positive After "Lay off"
Bright Side Of The Sun — ... who is under contract for next season. The Wolves are deep up front but rely on injury-prone Sasah Pavolic and rookie Wayne Ellington to play the off-guard. ...

Timberwolves and Team Options
Canis Hoopus — ... got nearly $5 million in his first year, and 27th pick Wayne Ellington, received a little over $1 million.  With guaranteed raises built into these contracts, the first four years of a 1st rounder's paychecks are pretty well established. ...