<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Timberwolves were the ones who lost the games and, eventually, the chance to salvage their stunning 2004-05 season in the playoffs. The Wolves were the ones who -- back in October, when maybe it seemed like the spicy, sophisticated thing championship-caliber teams do -- unleashed personal agendas on their preseason and removed, ever so subtly, the notion of one shared goal. They were the ones who floundered right into February and got their coach fired, unable to flip a switch, settling instead for flipping a Flip (Saunders). The Wolves did all of that and more in becoming only the eighth team in NBA history to reach the conference finals one year, then fall completely out of the playoffs the next. Yet they weren't alone. The Wolves had plenty of help or, at least, enablers, in all the fans and staff and media experts and even casual observers who figured that a team good enough to win 58 games and get within two victories of the NBA Finals, despite several key injuries, would be able to repeat that. Or even go further with a complete roster, a season's worth of experience and bonding, a future Hall of Famer in his prime and a full head of steam. Who among us -- it really is an us, you know -- stood up last summer to caution against bringing back essentially the same faces? Who raised his or her hand to vote against a matching offer for Trenton Hassell or the re-signings of Troy Hudson or Fred Hoiberg? Where are the folks now who issued their warnings then, about the trouble ahead in trusting Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell again after their dynamic, indispensable play last season? Besides, just acquiring them was enough to persuade Kevin Garnett to stick around for a five-year contract extension. Who spoke up in September or October about Saunders' inability to demand personal responsibility from the characters in his locker room, or fretted that perhaps the coach had stayed too long at the dance, playing the same tune? With continuity the brass ring every team and coach craves, who thought it was a bad idea for the Wolves to try again with the formula that had worked so well? No one was calling it a "failed experiment" -- the words last week of owner Glen Taylor -- seven months ago. "Last" and "year" only became dirty words after it was too late. </div> <div align="center">Full Article </div> This is just a bit of the article. It continues for one whole page, and continues on to a second page. It is only the first part of a series that veteran NBA writer Steve Aschburner will be giving through Friday. He gives his feelings and impressions of a season that went bad.
