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Don't get too excited or bummed out by anything I'm about to say. Like the rest of you, I'm itchy for the beginning of the NBA season and took great joy is sussing the action Saturday night in Mankato as the Wolves had a 35-minute intrasquad scrimmage in front of the general public. But the team has had exactly one week of practice. Their star, Al Jefferson, is recovering from a knee injury, and their most valuable off-season pickup, Mike Miller, was gimpy with a hamstring or thigh problem. I'll be more confident in my judgments when the sample size isn't so infintesimal. Meanwhile, I'm just unholstering the tommy-gun and spraying a bunch of bullet points. I have no idea how relevant or irrelevant these observations will be at the close of camp in three weeks, let alone from November to April when the games matter.

* The weirdest thing was how little seems to have changed during the off-season. Most of the young players seemed to have returned with their strengths and weaknesses intact. For example(s):

* Bassy Telfair still commands the full-court pace and half-court sets with aplomb--and you can tell, armed with a new contract, that his confidence is up--but still can't nail a jump shot to save his reputation.

* Corey Brewer likewise has no offensive rhythm unless he's in transition with no time to think. But he bedeviled anyone he guarded--Gomes, Miller, Carney--and also reprised his tendency to boomlet from last year. There was a two-minute stretch where he made a steal or two, a layup or two, crashed the boards out of nowhere and in general was a glorious dervish--a boomlet creator. But other times he still seemed woefull light for paint-ball, and could be safely discounted in the half court offense.

* Craig Smith looked great, in very good shape and up to old mismatches. Then again, the folks supposedly guarding him were Jefferson, clearly dragging either due to injury or conditioning, and the rook Kevin Love, who was somewhat overwhelmed by everything he's had to absorb physically and mentally. The Rhino continues to click on pick and rolls and other communication with Rashad McCants.

* This is significant because McCants remains McCants with most everyone else. The guy has the sweetest square-up jumper on the team--no mean feat with Miller now on the roster--and both the strength and the confidence to penetrate effectively. He also, aside from Smith, is very tunnel-visioned, bitches at the refs more than anyone on the court (yeah, even in intrasquad scrimmages), dribbles a tad too much, and had diffculty on D. Shaddy isn't toxically unpredictible, like Ricky Davis, he's just consistently a guy you have to accomodate with a love-hate relationship.

* Randy Foye continues to have by far the widest space between his potential floor and potential ceiling of anyone on the ballclub. For the first two-thirds of the scrimmage he was pitiful, not watching the shot clock on one occasion and twice getting lunched (by Mad Dog and Rhino) using his right hand while driving the left lane, the kind of thing scouts feast on (remember how right-centric he was last year?). Then, with his team down a bunch at crunch time, and with McCants the primary person guarding him, Foye just went off for a series of catch-and-shoot jumpers, dribble-pull-ups, and even a runner or two. He was mostly playing off-guard at the time (at the point was vet Kevin Ollie, who missed all six shots he attempted, including the game-winner on a platter from Foye at the buzzer in what turned out to be a 62-62 tie) but could have easily done the same as a go-for-his point guard.

* I wasn't impressed with two newcomers. Assistant GM Rob Babcock took all kinds of grief (and hastened the loss of his job) as the general manager for Toronto when he took center Rafael Araujo in the first round. Now he's brought Araujo to the Wolves camp. The guy is stiff, no oil in his joints whatsoever. For all you old Wolves fans, he reminds me of Stoyko Vrankovic. Jason Collins can't come back too soon. The other new guy, uber-athlete Rodney Carney, is a slam dunk waiting to happen, and when the opportunity for a slam dunk presents itself, he is the absolute best guy, and is eminently prepared, because that's where his mind is at. To damn him with faint praise, his court awareness is much better than Gerald Green's but for someone with his athleticism, his reaction time is horrible, especially on defense, and his shooting range is suspect.

* Blake Ahearn and Chris Richard are headed for the D League. There is something about Richard's game that I like, and I know that other folks enamored of detail, like color commentator Jim Petersen, feel the same way. But when your style points please the purists and the results remain so desultory, your career is in a heap of trouble. As for Ahearn, I know he's got this mental David-vs-Goliath thing going on, and the Lilliput lovers certainly should reserve a soft spot in their hearts for the guy. But a dude perhaps best described as a poor man's Bracey Wright likewise should either freshen up his high school coaching resume or learn some foreign languages if he wants to keep playing ball for a living.

* I haven't mentioned Kevin Love yet, eh? Flashes of good stuff. He can hit a turnaround jumper in the block. He fights hard for rebounds. He's got good court vision and passing instincts, especially for a big man, but that's been praised so much already it might have redlined into overhype by now. After Saturday's scrimmage, coach Randy Wittman happily proclaimed him to be mentally and physically overwhelmed with everything thrown at him his first week of NBA camp--it was the right sentiment, and shows that Witt really wants to push the rook's development. I still don't see how this team copes defensively if Love and Jefferson are the front court combo, but I'm getting ahead of myself so that's all I'll say for now. Speaking strictly of Saturday's play, you could see that Love's legs were going by how often his shot was either front-iron or artificially long in an attempt to compensate. But that's okay, he'll get in shape. Less excusable was his frequent inability to box out on the boards. BTW, of all the things I gleaned during the Media Day interviews last Monday, the one that hasn't really been quoted in the dailies and on other blogs is how much Shaddy gushed over Love. He's really excited and genuinely impressed by Love's play during the summer.

* It is easy to forget Ryan Gomes, but he too hasn't changed. Suffice to say that he'll do the right thing more regularly than anyone on the team, and will be more and more valuable the better the talent around him.

* Mike Miller was obviously gimpy but is going to be one of those calming vets who come in so handy during the dogsled days of February. Two or three times he put a big smile on Jefferson's face as they were walking off the court. Both of them are dinged and a tad slow, but Miller's shot selection was righteous and his shooting form makes it a legitimate surprise whenever the ball doesn't go in.

* Just for the hell of it, and strictly to stimulate conversation, it wouldn't bother me to see a starting lineup of Collins and Jefferson and Gomes up front, with Miller and Foye in the backcourt. That is a large and relatively slow quintet who could get the better of even good defenses in the half court while having the potential to play decent D themselves. Obviously this requires a relatively speedy return to health from Collins too. But it also sets up a nice pace-changing second unit with Bassy and Shaddy in the backcourt and Brewer, Love and Rhino in the forecourt. Unlike the first unit, this is a running, transition-oriented squad, with Bassy and Brewer both lousy shooters in the half court, but that allows you a longer leash on McCants' microwave offense and ego. Brewer and Bassy both thrive in transition and Brewer, especially coming off the bench, has the ability to crash the defensive boards and get out on the wing (which will be necessary because you can't run unless you rebound). But if they can get enough boards from that smallish front court, McCants likes to run, Love is a monster outlet passer and the Rhino is a great trailer on the break. Naturally it wouldn't usually be a five-person changeover anyway--guys would be sifted in. But I like the two separate personalities you could synergistically create with those two units.