Picks of Towns, Jones energize both Wolves and city
MINNEAPOLIS -- It hit Flip Saunders and Milt Newton in the midst of their party hopping Thursday night. On a stroll down North First Avenue, throngs of Timberwolves fans stopped and greeted the president/coach and general manager as they sojourned from one jubilee, the team's Target Center draft party, to another, Tyus Jones' own family gathering at adjacent Bar 508.
All along the streets of downtown Minneapolis, on one of those pristine summer nights that almost make the brutal winters worth it, flowed a sense of something not in much abundance for a 16-win team that hasn't been to the playoffs since 2004 in a sports market accustomed to disappointment.
Belief.
"I've been here when the arena was bursting," said Saunders, the past-gloried coach who returned two years ago in attempt to save a crumbling franchise from ruin. "I've been here when Sam Cassell was running around with his hands down below his crotch (dancing in celebration) and everything else. I've seen the excitement that can come to this arena. This is a great sports town. They're unbelievable how they follow the Vikings. You look at how they've been following the Twins, how they follow the Wild. But I know one thing, that when it comes down to it, this is a basketball town, too. And when we win, they will follow us."
A town for Towns after the Wolves took Karl-Anthony first overall Thursday night. More than 8,000 fans filling half the Target Center's lower bowl roared when the two-way big man from Kentucky's name was announced first by Adam Silver.
Here, Saunders says, is a center-forward he can't help but compare to all-time organization legend Kevin Garnett, whether it was the pair's scintillating pre-draft workouts our their marked versatility.
"When you guys get in here and you see him warming up and you see him going through the layup drills, you're going to think we drafted a point guard rather than a center-forward type," Saunders said of the 6-foot-11, 250-pound New Jersey native. Garnett, who sat in on some workouts, "loved his overall presence," Saunders said.
"Some guys have a presence how they play, some guys how they communicate. Some guys have a presence how they talk to other players. In the time that I've been around Karl, he has a presence in all those areas. That's when you have a chance to be special."
Said Towns, who joins former Nike Hoops Summit teammate Andrew Wiggins at the helm of a young, promising core: "I'm just so excited to play with such an abundance of talent."
But after the club's inaugural No. 1 overall selection, Saunders, Newton and friends were just getting started. "We've still got some work we've got to do," Saunders told the Target Center crowd after introducing them to Towns using a landline phone, a mic and the arena's PA system.
That turned out to entail trading back into the first round for Apple Valley native Tyus Jones to back up Ricky Rubio. Two years after winning a state championship at the Target Center, the 2015 Final Four MVP won't have to travel far for Friday's introductory press conference featuring him and Towns.
After closing their latest deal with Cleveland -- the main partner in last summer's Kevin Love-Andrew Wiggins blockbuster -- Saunders and Newton shuffled next door to greet Jones' at his shindig. Embraces were exchanged. Tears of joy were shed.
The only thing missing, Saunders said, was Tyus' late grandfather, who played an instrumental role in his life while his mother Debbie Jones raised him and his brothers.
"It was ecstatic," said Jones, who turned down an invite to the Barclays Center green room for this very reason. "The energy was through the roof. This is exactly why I decided to come home for the party."
Jones is the latest in a series of Saunders moves he believes have Minnesota finally moving in the right direction again. He drafted Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng in 2013. Picked Zach LaVine last summer. Brought back Garnett at this past season's trade deadline. Waited out suitors to earn Wiggins when Love wanted out of town. Favored Towns' versatility over Jahlil Okafor's low-post dominance and D'Angelo Russell's fiendish guard play. Had Newton work the phones diligently to get Jones not because of the hometown angle, but because he can be at least a viable reserve point guard.
"We're going to be a very good team," Saunders said. "It's just a matter of how long it's going to take."
Said Newton: "We're very satisfied. We believe we hit a home run."
Wolves vice president of fan experience and Timberwolves and Lynx Basketball Academy director Jeff Munneke's been a team employee since Marv Wolfenson and Harvey Ratner brought pro hoops back to Minnesota in 1987. He remembers the 13,000 folks flocking into the Minneapolis Convention Center for the team's first-ever draft party, when Pooh Richardson was taken 10th overall. "They were free tickets for our season ticket members and our fans, but people were scalping tickets," Munneke said. And he can recall the buzz at the Mall of America when Stephon Marbury joined a much younger Garnett via the 1996 draft.
But Thursday was different. And hopes around here dictate the coming years will be, too.
"You feel something special here," Munneke said. "You can just feel it."
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