Are you looking to connect your brand with Minnesota's most passionate sports fans? Score North Podcasts deliver engaged listeners every week. Here's what Pat from Padraig's Brewing had to say. People call during the podcast and say, are you open?
I want to come there. We have people call to lose the podcast who don't live here and say, hey, can I get beer in California? We've got a couple of people from California, another guy from New York. No, you can't get it there.
We had another person drive here from Indianapolis, stopped here, was going to a Vikings game, was a big fan, and actually stopped here on the way because they were podcast fans and Vikings fans. So for us, we see really tangible results for our investment, which is good. Whether you're a local business or a national brand, Score North offers custom ad solutions that drive real results. Ready to get in the game?
Contact Mark Ellis at mark.ellis at hbi.com. And let's talk about how we can grow your business together. I have not been in Minnesota in probably 20 years. Bring ass.
Welcome to Flagrant Howls on Minnesota Timberwolves Lifestyle Podcast. And these incoming hottest wolves takes, as we do every week, that's the sports dad, I'm Phil, are presented in part by Nicolet Law, the exclusive personal injury law firm of Flagrant Howls and also Purple Daily. Nicolet Law knows that when you or a loved one gets injured, ordinary life can come to a stop. Things can get complicated.
That's where Russell Nicolet and his wonderful team step in to offer a guiding hand to help you get the compensation you deserve after an accident. So if you've been injured, get Minnesota's local award-winning injury lawyers, nicoletlaw.com, or give them a call at 1-855-NICOLET. It's kind of weird to have like five days between wolves games, you know? NBA Cup, baby.
NBA Cup scheduling. Can I give you like a pre-hottest take on the NBA Cup? Sure. Like I have the official hottest take that involves the trade.
Just take it as your official hottest take. I get it. I am irrationally annoyed and disappointed that the wolves didn't make it through group play and at least get to like the bracket part of the NBA Cup. I really want to hang another banner inside Target Center, and my bar is NBA Cup.
That's all. And they can come close. No. Well, that's what happens when you lose to Portland.
So I just, come on. Like, can we at least get out of group play here and make something happen in the bracket? I'm just, I'm annoyed by it. Very much annoyed by it.
So a couple weeks ago on the, I think it was on the Monday on Chain with Royce, he actually had some good insider info about this. He said that his spies have told him that the Lakers were forced to hang the banner when they won the Cup, that that was not their choice. So like that, because it was like, why, what are you doing? Patrick said that he was told that the NBA is like, no, this is, you know, a sanction.
You need to make this a thing. Yeah. We need to make this a fetch a thing. You got to hang the banner up, which made, which actually made a lot more sense because it was like, that's sort of embarrassing for the Lakers.
But yeah, the league wants you, so make no mistake. If the Wolves had advanced, if the Wolves had won, there would have been a banner hanging. And it's so sad too, when you go to Wolves games and you look up in the rafters, right? And on one side, you got the Lynx, rich history, retired numbers left and right, HOF, championships, like there's not enough room.
And then you look at the Wolves and God rest their souls. Flip's name is up there. And Malik Sealy, you know, again, it's just two dead people. It's not going to be balanced.
And Flip, you know, Flip would have been up there at some point in time. I think he does, you know, he meant a lot. Not that Malik didn't, but yeah, I mean, he died tragically in a car accident. He should still be alive, retired today.
And, you know, the Wolves might have brought him back to wave the crowd. But I mean, other than that, dude, there is almost, it's basically barren on that side of the arena. We don't really hang division banners in the NBA, right? I'm trying to think, is there a division banners?
Now the Wilde hangs theirs, which is also like yellowed by now. That's the other sad thing. When was the last time they won the division? They won that, I think it was the Northwest at the time, in like 2006 or something.
It's like almost 20 years. Well, I feel like we might have the, because the Wolves have won one division, and no one even knows what the divisions are. That might be from 2003, 2004. We might have, I think there's like, I think there's a division champions, like our Western Conference Finals.
But I, and again, like the NBA Cup, we're trying to make it a thing. I think it's cool because November and December NBA basketball is usually just like an uninteresting wasteland. It's NFL territory. Right.
So I do applaud the NBA trying to make it a thing. But do you, well, European soccer, you've got like, you've got the, you know, the main whatever, whatever you call it. I'm such a not soccer fan. But the EuroLeague that they, like Tottenham and, you know, Arsenal, all those teams.
And the Premier League, the Premier League. Okay, yeah. But they also have like FA Cup and the Champions League. They have these other like tournaments that happen.
It's nuts. So I'm okay with like trying to make a tournament happen. Feels like a lot of people disagree though. Well, it's not about Christmas.
It's not about Christmas. Like I, of all the things that I feel strongly about in sports, and there's lots, that one, I'm fine with it. They're just trying to look, their season's too long. Okay.
Yeah. So like they're trying to invent something. Well, I don't have a problem with that. And I mean, the only thing I don't like about the Cup is some of the courts.
Because I think they're incredibly ugly. Like I thought the Wolves court was hideous. Yeah, I don't know. I'm not usually like, I'm not usually a Grinch when it comes to that stuff.
But it's like, oh, it did look like the Grinch. Like the Wolves look like they were paying tribute to the Grinch's full Christmas. Yeah. Okay.
Now it's the real hottest takes. That take was not that hot. I thought that was a conversational thing more. Okay.
I wouldn't say. Yeah, you threw like a fast ball for strike one. But that was not like, oh my God. It wasn't like an up and in.
Yeah, exactly. So, okay. And this is a weekly thing now here. I think this is the fourth week that we're going to make this.
We're going to make this a thing on Flag and Howls the last month and going forward. Our hottest Wolves takes every week. Our guy Declan is in Maui vacationing. Our guy Kyle is just getting back from Hawaii.
He'll be on the show tomorrow. Us. We're just here. It's zero degrees right now.
So, Carl Anthony Towns. Here's a preface to my hottest take. Carl Anthony Towns. 25 points a game right now with the Knicks.
The most he has scored for scoring average in six years. 13 and a half rebounds a game. Which up until like two days ago was leading the league in rebounding average. Somebody passed it.
But that is the most rebounds he's ever averaged in a season. He's shooting 45% from three point range. The best three point percentage he's ever shot. He's shooting 53% from the field.
Which is the best field goal percentage since 2018 for him. So, go back seven years. Wow. And there's a bunch of other like analytical things.
He's having a wildly efficient offensive season. The Knicks are like six games above 500 now. And I say all that to say for my hottest Wolves take. It is foolish to regret the Cat trade.
I've heard a lot of chatter here lately. You know, the Wolves kind of starting 500-ish. The Julius Randle-Gobert stuff that we have exhausted from like three weeks ago. But I just want, I just like for those who need to hear it.
You weren't going any further with Carl Anthony Towns as one of your two centerpieces on this team. The Western Conference Finals was the peak of an Ant-Cat-Gobert peripheral pieces team. In fact, when you got to the Western Conference Finals, let's not forget. Don't let Cat daggering a depleted Raptors team the first week in December on a Monday this week.
And popping his jersey like the Knicks just went to the NBA Finals for the first time in 25 years. I know that was tough to watch as a Wolves fan. He hits this three from the top of the key. He ices that game.
It's the Raptors, who are 7-19, I believe. Depleted injuries on a Monday night in December. Like we've seen him drop 60 on the Hornets on a Wednesday. We've seen him dagger the Hawks.
This is what movies is made of, right? Like we've seen all that stuff. I didn't like that one. In the first three games of the Western Conference Finals, when you need your best players to deliver at least like an average performance.
He shot 27% in those first three games. He left you no choice as a franchise, but to look at his playoff body of work culminated with those three games to bury you against the Mavericks and say, wow, we are in the second apron. He is 29 years old with injury problems, whose performance regresses in the playoff games that you need him to rise up for. And he's going to be making 50, 55, 60 million dollars as he ages into his 30s.
So again, like awesome. I'm actually happy that he is performing this way in New York. I want to see him do well. But if you are regretting the cat trade, and there's more to this too, but like they had no, he gave them no choice the way he played in the Western Conference Finals.
If we want to take this to the next level, it can't be with him making that big of a percentage of a salary cap where you're in the second apron and it hamstrings your ability to build your roster. So that's my hottest. I'm pushing back at the buyer's remorse for my hottest take. And I think short term, it's very simple to be upset about the trade right now.
I mean, it's largely, it's funny, we get, we focus and I understand why on Randall, but the reality is it's even Shinzo's struggles that really make this tough because he is, he is the long-term guy and I expect way more from him. But all of that being said, we talked about this, the cat trade is part and parcel of do you want to be able to keep guys and make moves for the future? Like if you want, if you are saying right now, like man, cat, they shouldn't have gotten rid of him, they should have kept him. Then when Nas Reed walks out the door, when Na walks out the door, you can't complain.
So now those two probably, unless they elect to, and I think Nas for sure will not, unless they elect to leave, they will stay. So like you, you have to, this whole thing was never just about the immediate gratification of, we got to even Shinzo and Randall and we're better. This was about how do we want to set ourselves up? Now, if you want to have a conversation about who you pay the max to, like, cause you know, you could have said with cat, all right, do we want to do this or not?
Like, like you can make choices and going way back, they, they made the choice to pay cat. But Tim Conley looked at that and he said, first of all, there's a couple of guys I want to keep. And second of all, and this is where, where baseball would benefit from aprons. That the second apron is not about you being cheap.
The second apron is about paralyzing your ability to make moves. Yes. A hundred percent. It's not like you're saving.
There's a money aspect as well, because being in the second apron and not having like a luxury arena to sort of make up for some of it, I have been told, I reported this, we don't like report things often on the show here, we're just idiots with microphones, but like I had heard that the Glenn Taylor was prepared to and green lit taking up to a nine figure loss on this year's team because of how, because of the second apron. Now they made that cat trade and we'll see if they get sort of underneath her second apron here in the months and a couple of years ahead. But to the point you just outlined, your choices after Western Conference Finals last year were, keep running it back another year, see what happens. But essentially keep a 29 year old Carl Anthony Towns under contract.
50 to $60 million a year as he ages out through the next four years of that contract have roster building issues because of the second apron, but you get, you get the ant cat pairing for another, like maybe two, three years. If you keep those guys together, can they win a championship together is what Tim Connolly has to answer. I think the answer is no. I think it was awesome that they made that run last year, but they had to do some other things to get to another level.
Or you can say goodbye to cat, which they did, which allows you to keep Nas Reed and Nikhil Alexander Walker who are younger and align more with Anthony Edwards, like age timeline. And by the way, I know he hasn't played well yet, but like as a shooter, but Dante DiVincenzo also a really, really team friendly contract for the next three seasons. And it might be a little clunky in that first year while you transition away from the familiar Carl Anthony Towns and you try to see if Julius Randle can work. Maybe you flip him at the deadline or say goodbye to him.
I don't think there was any promise that this trade is going to lead to an immediate run to the NBA finals and championship in year one. And if not, it's a failure. This trade was for a five year window. And I don't think we should get all bent out of shape because cat is daggering the Raptors on a Monday, the first week in December.
Oh, it's a movie. This is what movies are made of. It's a movie. It's a movie.
So, um, by the way, one more thing on this, on the Julius Randle front. If you decide in the next couple months, yeah, it's, you know, just, uh, it's not really working. And he's, he's, he has an opt out. So you can just become a free agent anyways.
Right. Does that sound familiar? Because two years ago, the wolves had a guy that put up nice box scores and you thought he was going to be a better fit than maybe he was, but he really couldn't mesh with Rudy, which is also a parallel opt out at the end of the year chance to be a free agent. So he was basically a rental player and Tim Connolly flipped D'Angelo Russell, the player I'm talking about for Mike Connolly and Nikhil Alexander Walker.
So I'm curious, does he, does he wind up flipping Julius Randle for something of value before the trade deadline? He's already done it with multiple different other trades. And, and, and you just said it perfectly for my hottest wolves take, which is, which is the answer to your question is yes. Specifically, he gets flipped in a trade and you need this, but the wolves need to flip Julius Randle in a trade that brings you back a point guard.
You need a point guard. Mike Connolly is being arrested. He should be. I also, quite frankly, don't think he can, he, he can play.
And we, this goes way back. He can't play as much as he did last season. Like that was a gift. Okay.
But the reality is you don't, you'll, and what matters here is your head coach does not trust when he comes back, Rob Dillingham enough because he's the answer. But if Chris Finch is going to be like, well, I don't trust it. Guess what? The answer don't matter.
And I'm not saying this has to be a high profile, great player. I'm not saying that this has to be an, oh my God, this is a huge splash trade, but in flipping Julius Randle, I think you need to get a point guard back because I think if this team wants to have success in the playoffs, and I do think that they will make it, that they need somebody behind Connolly who can come in and run the show and play. And I honestly think Connolly probably is going to miss time here at some point. Like he's just, he's really hobbled.
And, and I'm not, you know, I'm not convinced in the game a couple of nights ago when it all fell apart against Golden State on Sunday, that that was like Chris Finch saying Connolly's not playing for sure. Wouldn't be surprised if there was something as well. Like he's old. He's too old.
You're too old. You're too old. So I think the answer to your question or the answer to your point is yes, I think they need to flip Randle. I think they need to acquire a point guard that they trust.
The Chris Finch trusts behind Connolly who can occasionally step in and start perhaps because the Dillingham thing clearly is not working. It doesn't mean it won't work ever, but you can't, you can't have a team that could potentially be this good and be like, but I don't trust the guys that you drafted eight. Okay. There has to be an alternative.
The alternative right now does not exist. It needs to exist. It's really, it's interesting in that, I mean, I would take, if there was anything of value that you thought was like for a three-year window instead of this year, I would, I would trade Julius. I would look to trade Julius Randle, even if it meant like, Hey, you might be a little worse this season.
I don't think, I don't think the wolves need to go beyond where they were last year to make, to validate anything. If you look at what the nuggets were kind of, when Tim Conley was building them, it was be really competitive for like seven years. Go maybe, maybe make a little run here. Okay.
Take a breath. First round exit. It's not always linear. So I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be making desperate moves to, for like an all in season this year.
I would be mindful of three, five years from now. There is, I don't know how this could even work necessarily, but I will throw it out there. Oh, with cover. Yeah.
Major cover. Okay. This would not be a one for one trade because the team that I would bring to the table here, I don't think they would want Julius Randle. So you'd have to have like a three or 14 trade and somebody would have to value like Randle's expiring contract looking for some cap relief.
Yep. Which is where it's a little complicated for the wolves because like they might be also looking to just get rid of the $29 million so they can for sure stable up the second apron. So there's a lot of complicated factors here, but there's a lot of rumblings with underachieving Sacramento and De'Aaron Fox, their point guard, who has one more year left on his contract after this year. So he's at 34 and a half now, Julius is 29, so that match is close enough.
And then 37 million next year. Could you imagine a starting backcourt of De'Aaron Fox and Anthony Edwards offensively? And then Conley and Dillingham, he's 19. So like, I'm not saying he's a boss.
To be very clear, I'm saying the coach doesn't trust him right now and I think the team is too good to say the guy we thought was going to be Conley's backup simply can't play. That's what I'm saying. It's fascinating. And again, you couldn't just go to the Kings and be like, do you want Julius Randle?
They'd be like, no. So they're like a third team involved to get something of value. I don't have to workshop this. The other problem you'd run into here is you aren't, in terms of size, you've already said goodbye to Kat.
Right. And you got much shorter and Julius Randle's profile is much more like a small forward in some ways at like 6'8". Right. So you'd say goodbye to him for a point guard and now your bigs would be Gobert, who could miss some games with injury here and there and, you know, he's the only shot blocker on the team.
And then Nas Reed would be in a higher, Nas Reed would start and be in a higher profile position and those guys play off each other really well. But then like, who's your third big? And don't tell me Luka Garza, zero defense. I love Luka Garza, but like he's like another shot blocker rim protector type if you could find one somewhere.
But I don't know, if the team started with, hey, we got De'Aaron Fox and Anthony Edwards just absolutely destroying teams as a scoring tandem. And then you mix in some of the other peripheral players and Mike Conley's now coming off the bench for 22 minutes. It just right now feels like everyone they try a point guard beyond Conley, it feels forced. Steven Chenzo is not a point guard.
In fact, I think it hurts his, it stunts his game. Yeah. He's a spot up shooter and an off ball mover who's really valuable and can handle, but the and can handle has turned into like, oh, he should be handling the ball all the time or much more often than he did in New York. Yeah.
No, I feel like he's not really suited. Like he does a lot of things well. He's actually been great, but I don't know that that's his game. Ant, of all the things that you ask Ant to do, point Ant is probably my least favorite adventure and it very much kind of feels like an adventure.
So I'm just saying that, and I do think Julius gets moved. There's a way, you know what, I'm disappointed because in watching him occasionally with the Knicks, I really liked his game to use your term from a couple of days ago. He does have some dog, which I liked, not dog isn't dog, he has some dog to his personality in his game, but it just feels like when you watch him every, on a nightly basis play, you don't really know what you're going to get necessarily and you got to sort of poke and prod him. You know, so I don't know that he's a great fit and it all might come down to the fact that he knows he's going to opt out and in his mind he needs to get his, which is not a great thing, but there's just some areas here that I would like to see and it doesn't need, like Fox would be a huge splash.
I'm just saying, I think you need a viable alternative when Conley can't play or he's on the bench and I don't think you have that right now. You do, 100%. Yeah, the last five minutes of the game they just lost, the second game against the Warriors was, it's tough though because, all right, well, we need Conley to be a floor general but you also need someone to hassle Steph Curry and then Nikhil is, oftentimes you're just best glue player. So, if you did somehow trade Julius in a deal that brought you back at De'Aaron Fox, which, I'm going to give myself more cover here.
The other option for a third big would be the guy right now who is carving up the G League 13 games for the Iowa Wolves so far this year, averaging 24 points, 12.5 rebounds on 50% from the field. 6'10 Leonard Miller who you drafted in the second round. He is dominating the G League in his 13 games so far. So, that could be, all right, listen Leonard, hey Lenny, now that Julius is gone, Nas is the starter but you're going to get 12, 15 minutes a night and Luca, I don't know, I don't know if I feel, I think Luca's a garbage time player, just kind of watching, but Julius Randall, probably not going to be here next year anyways, so if there's something you can do to make your team better for the next two or three years, you might as well explore that.
So, why don't you explore Padraig's sometime this week, one of those red beers that you've been talking about, those red ills. Absolutely, and boy, do I have good news for you, flagrant listeners and viewers because if you haven't seen a sports band, you've been talking about Padraig's brewing for quite some time now, the official beer of the sports band, but I can't find it, guess what, they've got a distributorship that you are going to be able to find them in liquor stores and in bars, here's what I want you to do, go into your bar in the next few days and say give me a Padraig's and if they say we don't carry that sir or ma'am, you say here's the deal, you can, I want you to, can you please explore it, I'm going to tell you right now, Padraig's on tap, it can happen, same thing, the red is fantastic, if you want Padraig's at your liquor store, you just ask for it, they will get it now, Padraig's is sweeping the Twin Cities, soon to be outstate as well, it is delicious, it's a beer from brewers that only brew beer, that's right, Padraig's are not into other things, they're not trying to come up with 18 different drinks, they just want to make sure that your beer is fantastic and I'm going to tell you right now, they succeed. Wolves upcoming schedule, so they've got Monday through Thursday off this week and then they host the Lakers on Friday night, the last time, probably LeBron James has put inside Target Center, unless you meet him in the playoffs or the plan, and then at Wemby and the Spurs on Sunday, before Carl Anthony Towns and the Knicks come to town Thursday, December 19th on TNT. Are you going to be in the building?
Very festive. I would love to be in the building. Are you coming? Yes, yes.
Press seats up top, fantastic, great view. Yeah, and they have all these because of the play-in tournament or the in-season tournament NBA Cup, between December 8th and December 19th, they only play two games, so they actually get a lot more practice time, which could be helpful for a team trying to gel. I would say a team that didn't get training camp together, these practice days are actually pretty valuable. So this is like a camp?
It kind of is, it is like an in-season camp in some ways, yeah. So, all right, Kyle, I believe back on the podcast tomorrow and a random wolf of the week and then probably a feedback Friday episode too here on Flagrant House. He is the sports dad. I am Phil Mackey and this is a Timberwolves lifestyle podcast.