New year and all that.

I didn't really do much for the day, because I rarely do... and I worked when the calendar changed over. I did watch the Vikings game, however... and tried to enjoy it as much as I could knowing that there was no certainty that they were going to stay in Minnesota (although a lot of what I've read indicated that they might stay an extra year to get a deal done.)

It wasn't that enjoyable, because a) we lost, and b) we have no idea whether or not we have a viable starting QB. (Could be that we need to shore up the offensive line to give Ponder some time/protection... but he looked pretty miserable the last few games and certainly got banged up a lot.) But it was somewhat enjoyable seeing Allen go crazy for a while and come extremely close to getting the 4.5 sacks needed to break the single season sacks record. (Despite my decidedly mixed feelings toward Jared Allen.)

I'm already over the Vikings, though. Cause the Minnesota Timberwolves are relevant for the first time in 8 years!

Backstory: the Wolves were my favorite team until about age 10 in early 1998, when the Vikings somehow pulled off a victory against the Giants in the playoffs, down 9 with about 90 seconds left. But they stayed dear to my heart as Garnett emerged as one of the league's best players, and went on to make 7 or 8 straight playoff appearances (they only advanced past the first round once, but still). Then the team sort of imploded, and I went off to college, and I wasn't able to follow them as closely as I used to. All of this is to say that I don't want to appear like a bandwagoner.

Anyway, they're good now. Or at least they look decent. I know the last couple years they got off to decent starts only to absolutely bottom out at the end of the season, but we have a competent coach now, plus much more talent on this squad.

We still have Kevin Love (who looks like he's added lights-out 3 point shooting to his amazing knack for rebounding), but it seemed unlikely even last year that we'd be able to put enough talent around him to entice him to actually stay here. And we don't have enough... yet. But we're getting there.

The most crucial addition has been obviously Rubio, who has shown an innate ability to absolutely take over a game at any given point with his ability to pass to pretty much anyone, along with his apparently newly developed shooting touch. It's only 5 games into his rookie season, but he's showing promise of becoming just as good of a player as Love, which is crucial, because having 2 legit stars makes winning in the league much easier. Plus we have another promising rookie in Derrick Williams, who looks at least to develop into a solid contributor. Add in a couple quality role players (Barea, Tolliver, Ridnour if he came off the bench), and we're looking as if we could make a run towards the playoffs.

Of course, as much as Love and Rubio might make you appreciate quality basketball, we have a bunch of players that will madden you with bad basketball (Wes Johnson seemingly does nothing, Randolph has been inconsistent, and Beasley has a maddening ability to jack up a lot of contested 20-foot jumpers over the course of the game), but we have a decent foundation for the first time in ages. I don't know if we've got enough to make a postseason run this year (especially since I can't imagine any of last year's playoff teams not making it this year (except the Hornets, but they'll be replaced with the Clippers), but we're going to be extremely watchable until the very end. Which is good. Because the state needs a team that looks actually promising.