Timberwolves Fans Make Up Words, Question Long-Term Plan

When your team is playing as listlessly as the Timberwolves, you react in a lot of different ways. Sometimes, you act angry. Sometimes, you’re just depressed. Sometimes, you’re a combination of the two.

Timberwolves fans over at SB Nation’s Canis Hoopus are somewhere in between. Their team appears to have given up this season, and the fans are confused. So confused that they’re inventing a new word -- “apastration” -- to describe the team’s play after last night’s embarrassing showing against the Suns.

It’s somewhere in between boredom and apathy, frustration and anger, regret and hope, and all sorts of other polar and not-so-polar dichotomies.

After the worst stampling (another combo word deserving of this team) of the year I can’t quite find the right word to describe how I feel about this club right now. On one hand we were told from the get-go that this was going to be a rebuilding year. The team’s front office has been very open about this fact and they have engaged in what they call an “aggressive fan development program” to win back the casual viewing sports public in this town.

On the other hand, there are those of us who have been following the team for a long, long time; those of us who have been season ticket holders and jersey/hat/whatever buyers since the Bill Musselman days, or even since KG was doing his pre-anything-is-possible routine to the tune of a Western Conference Final. What rebuilding iteration is this group of fans currently having to endure? 3.0? 4.6? Who knows?

The post goes on to question many of David Kahn’s recent decisions, including the drafting of Jonny Flynn and the trading away of Mike Miller and Randy Foye. It imagines a world where the Timberwolves keep Miller and Foye and draft Stephen Curry with the sixth pick. Sure, the Wolves wouldn’t have as much cap space, but they would probably be a better team, and they’d still have expiring contracts they could move for the kind of guy they’d sign in free agency anyway. As the post notes, this is Minnesota. The best way for them to get an impact player is to trade for one instead of trying to woo them outright.

All is not lost, of course, because the Wolves still have a very high draft pick in 2010 awaiting, as well as the rights to Ricky Rubio. But they also have a team that’s checked out, with several players that have either not developed or have been put in a bad position. It’s natural for Wolves fans to wonder whether this rebuilding plan will take fruition. As Canis Hoopus writes:

I’m not writing this post in order to complain about what could have been. I suppose there is a little bit of that in there (especially with the Curry pick) ; rather, it’s more of a frustration post about yet another wasted season for those of us who have been watching this team for a long, long time. Yes, I’m excited about Ricky Rubio. Yes, I’m very glad and excited that the Wolves will be near the top of the draft. Of course it is nice to have as much cap space as possible. I’m also kind of bummed that the team is virtually unwatchable right now and that I have to wonder, yet again, if this team’s front office can truly maximize its considerable assets.

These are concerns every rebuilding team’s fan has, but they’re especially pronounced when your team plays like they don’t care.