WOLVES ARE BACK ON THE PRESS CONFERENCE SCENE

[JNR]

Outside of the Timberwolves practice facility, an old janitor walks to the door marked MEDIA ROOM and removes approximately 4000 cobwebs. He then opens the door and cringes at the loud creaking sound. Within a few minutes, tentative media members file into the old and dusty room that hasn't seen press conference action in three seasons.

The JNR is already at the podium. He's not wearing a shirt. No, I won't give an explanation why.

The JNR: Hello, friends. It's been a while.

The JNR smiles as he waits for the press to get settled.

The JNR: I want to talk about our upcoming season, but before I do, I feel it's necessary to address the elephant-sized timberwolf in the room. I have been...less than present over the past few years. The team has suffered for it, and obviously the league has suffered as well, if only in a small part. The league is better when GMs like me put effort into this league, and I have been very bad at that.

I won't tell you that my motivation issues are over, and I can't promise this won't be my last season managing this team. But I will tell you that I've spent the past week checking league mail every day, and I haven't done that in a few years. So I'm here, and I hope our offseason shows that I am at least partially committed.

So let's start there, with this offseason. We let Kristaps Porzingis and Ben Simmons off the books and did not attempt to re-sign them. I wanted to focus on younger players around the three mid 20s players we have: Sabonis, Doncic, and Morant. As they improve every year, we wanted to make sure we found players who could age with them, and I think we were able to do that. Our biggest signings, Chad Marsh and Truman Wrenn, look to be integral parts of our team going forward. We also focused on depth in the later part of free agency.

Training camp was mostly good. A few players had poor camps, but Luka Doncic had perhaps his best camp yet, and we feel excited that with additional training he could have his best season of his career. Chad Marsh also had a good camp, and he and Sabonis are ready to prove they're the best frontcourt in the league.

As of right now, I am thinking about a starting lineup of

C: Domantas Sabonis
PF: Chad Marsh
SF: Luka Doncic
SG: Shane Havard
PG: Ja Morant

With Truman Wrenn being a super sub at the wing positions and Frederic Hughes and Theo Krohn providing additional bench minutes. I think we're a good choice to win the division, and hopefully we perform better in the playoffs than we have lately.

Any questions?

[Wombataholic]

The wolves look like the class of Division 2. Do you think you have enough talent on the team to compete for a conference title?

[garbageman]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: The popular media outlet on TV, FBB News, has predicted that the Pelicans will win your division. What are they missing about your team?

[JNR]

The wolves look like the class of Division 2. Do you think you have enough talent on the team to compete for a conference title?

The JNR: I think it depends on depth, which is where we're a little thin. I think the division is attainable. The conference? I mean, we are in the same conference as the Magic.

[JNR]

Sham Smith, Bulls.com: The popular media outlet on TV, FBB News, has predicted that the Pelicans will win your division. What are they missing about your team?

The JNR: The Pelicans are a talented team. But I think coaching is what they're missing. If I'm dialed in, I can make this team a division winner.

[digiskunk]

Jerome "Pterodactyl" Jackson, NBC Sports: What was the thought process behind letting Porzingis and Simmons leave?

[JNR]

Jerome "Pterodactyl" Jackson, NBC Sports: What was the thought process behind letting Porzingis and Simmons leave?

The JNR: As I alluded to in my press conference, they were a little older than my young core, and I was looking for talented players who matched the timeline better. As you can see, both of those players regressed in training camp.

[greepleairport]

If this is your last season coaching the T-Wolves, looking back, what was your greatest achievement and how might you rival that this possible swan song of a season?

[JNR]

If this is your last season coaching the T-Wolves, looking back, what was your greatest achievement and how might you rival that this possible swan song of a season?

The JNR: This is a fantastic question, thanks for asking it. I think people would expect me to say winning a championship was my greatest achievement, and it certainly is at least number 2 if not number 1. But when I think about my team in this league, I think about drafting and having some of the best players in league history. Chris Webber, Chris Bosh, Andrew Wiggins --- some franchises are lucky to have one superstar in this amount of time, and I had three. I was able to build teams around all of them and have sustained success -- I've only had a losing record 13 times in 40 seasons. So I'd say either winning a championship or having a sustained culture of winning.

As far as how I might rival it, that is a tough question. Maybe a deep playoff run would help, but at this point my PBSL career feels so full that it's hard to say.

[false9]

Sabonis had a hell of a preseason- do you expect his form to keep up in the regular season?

[JNR]

Sabonis had a hell of a preseason- do you expect his form to keep up in the regular season?

The JNR: Probably not quite as good as he was in the preseason, but he's definitely our best scorer and we expect him to be in the All Star conversation.