A Season on the Brink

Will a healthy Wolves roster take the team forward or backward?

A A A Comments By Britt Robson Wednesday, Nov 3 2004

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David Kern

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One little thing that is not at all uncertain, however, is that Kevin Garnett is the most complete basketball player on the planet. Perhaps if I lived in San Antonio I'd feel differently, but it seems to me that KG is more fundamentally sound than Tim Duncan. Duncan is less durable, less athletic, and less versatile than Garnett; he misses more free throws and whines about more calls. Garnett, conversely, has a joyous personality and a charismatic style of play to boot. After a decade of extolling his virtues, I still find it difficult to do justice to his value. But consider that in addition to scoring more points than anyone in the NBA and again earning a spot on the league's All Defensive First Team, Garnett last year managed to register more than five assists per game for the fifth consecutive year and to snare 1,139 rebounds. That's better than 10 percent more than the 1,006 boards corralled by the league's second-place finisher, Ben Wallace. It is exactly 829 more rebounds than Minnesota's second-leading rebounder, Latrell Sprewell, collected.

Of the numerous reasons Flip Saunders cited to demonstrate why the Wolves should contend for a championship this year, this last one remains the most compelling.

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