April 1, 2012; Portland, OR, USA; Portland Trail Blazers power forward LaMarcus Aldridge (12) drives to the basket on Minnesota Timberwolves power forward Kevin Love (42) during the first quarter of the game at the Rose Garden. Mandatory Credit: Steve Dykes-US PRESSWIRE

Tonight at 7:00 PM ET, NBA TV will broadcast a one-hour show announcing the marquee games of the 2012-2013 NBA Regular Season. The games that will be played on holidays such as Opening Night, Christmas Day, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. There will also be games announced that are not going to be on holidays but are basketball games everyone wants to see.

In recent seasons I have rarely seen the Minnesota Timberwolves mentioned in these kind of announcements. Who’s to blame them? The Wolves were the worst team in the NBA in the two seasons before the Charlotte Bobcats took that position. The Timberwolves were rarely ever shown on big nation-wide sports networks such as ESPN, TNT, or ESPN on ABC.

I will be shocked not to see the Timberwolves on at least a couple of games that will be shown live on those networks. Last season, I vividly remember that the Timberwolves were only shown on ESPN twice in a games against the Los Angeles Clippers, where Kevin Love had that amazing buzzer-beating three point shot to win the game, and the Phoenix Suns, to which the Wolves lost the contest.

Kevin Love is one of the best players in the NBA today and Ricky Rubio and Derrick Williams are two youngsters the rest of the nation outside of the state of Minnesota need to witness more often. The Timberwolves have already made multiple off-season adjustments in adding guards Brandon Roy and Russian Alexey Shved, solid defenders in center Greg Stiemsma and recently-signed forward Andrei Kirilenko, and role players in Dante Cunningham and Chase Budinger.

The Timberwolves managed to keep some valuable players who were important last season in NBA champion guard J.J Barea, who valiantly carried the team in the final games of the season, Luke Ridnour who had one of the best seasons in his career, and most of all Nikola Pekovic who had a break out season under the shadows of Linsanity. With head coach Rick Adelman still in place and still positive about his team, the Timberwolves are looking great for the season. However, in my opinion they still lack scorers, but I’m not going to get into that in this post.

Here is a list of games that I would love to see the Timberwolves play during holidays and regular days as well that would be shown on national television: (VS means at Minnesta)

• Minnesota Timberwolves @ Portland Trail Blazers – probably a great game for opening night at the Rose Garden in Portland as Brandon Roy returns to the NBA for the first time against the only NBA team he has played for before signing with the Wolves.
• Minnesota Timberwolves vs/@ Los Angeles Clippers - remember last season when these two clubs squared off that one time at Staples Center. Kevin Love hits a buzzer-beating three pointer to win the game. Yeah, that would be awesome.
• Minnesota Timberwolves vs/@ Oklahoma City Thunder - last season, the Oklahoma City Thunder had two tight games with the Timberwolves, one in Minnesota, and one in OKC. The defending Western Conference Champions is certainly going to be a team the Timberwolves can gauge themselves on how far they really are in the Western Conference.
• Minnesota Timberwolves vs/@ Los Angeles Lakers - Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum vs Nikola Pekovic and Kevin Love. Kobe Bryant vs Brandon Roy (hopefully he plays the same way he did before). Ricky Rubio vs Steve Nash. There’s nothing much to say but to watch out for Metta World Peace.
• Minnesota Timberwolves vs/@ Boston Celtics – it’s always a great atmosphere around Target Center whenever former Timberwolves franchise player Kevin Garnett comes to town. With KG at the twilights of his career, Timberwolves fans would certainly would enjoy and cherish every single moment they can see KG playing basketball in the NBA. Furthermore, not only it’s Stiemsma playing against his former club, but also it’s a great point guard match-up with RR and RR. Ricky Rubio and Rajon Rondo
• Minnesota Timberwolves vs/@ Miami Heat – this is the last match-up I’m throwing out here. This is a team the Timberwolves must beat if they would ever want to win an NBA championship in the next couple of years. All their acquisitions, movements, and deals with other NBA teams will be pointless if they can’t win an NBA championship. The Heat is always the team on my mind whenever teams around the NBA make moves. I always wonder, “can this beat the Heat?” For the T-Wolves, no. But this game will certainly test the Wolves to the distance and show us what they lack.

For more NBA analysis and opinions, check out Theon’s general NBA blog, THEONBA!

April 18, 2012; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Celtics center Greg Stiemsma (54) blocks a shot by Orlando Magic forward Earl Clark (3) during the third quarter at TD Banknorth Garden. The Celtics won 102-98. Mandatory Credit: Greg M. Cooper-US PRESSWIRE

Greg Stiemsma was hours away from not becoming a Minnesota Timberwolf. Earlier today Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported, “Stiemsma’s agent suggests that preferred status & hometown discount will disappear if no offer made today.” Luckily Wolves Nation was not forced to witness another rumored player with ties to the team slip away. After seeing Courtney Lee and Jordan Hill both sign new deals in the past two days, Wolves fans can breathe easier knowing at least a backup center to replace Darko Milicic is all but assured.

Stiemsma is a restricted free agent so there will be some time before his contract is finalized and made public. However, it is widely known that the Celtics will not be able to match the Wolves offer, only able to offer him the bi-annual exception of $2 million. The Wolves’ reported deal is thought to be for $2.5-3 million annually according to Zgoda. Furthermore, it was recently announced that the Celtics have signed Jason Collins of the Atlanta Hawks to fill Stiemsma’s role, as reported by Steve Bulpett of the Boston Herald.

Yesterday an undeclared team was announced to be in competition with the Wolves for Stiemsma according to Zgoda. Many speculated this team may be the Portland Trailblazers due to the recent feuding between the two teams during Batum contract negotiations. We will never know which other team (if any) favored Stiemsma, but one thing is for sure–Stiemsma wanted to be a Wolf.  Stiemsma’s agent, Mike Naiditch did not shy away from exclaiming, “Minnesota is always where Greg wanted to be.”

Stiemsma actually signed his first NBA contract with the Timberwolves in April 2010, though he never actually played a game for the team.  His departure has been short lived and Stiemsma will now return to his original team and neighbor state (he is originally from Randolph, Wisconsin).  The official contract will reveal just how much of a hometown discount was offered to the Wolves by the Midwest native.

With Stiemsma’s fateful story now told, let us take a look at what he can offer the Wolves. Besides filling the large void as a backup for Center Nikola Pekovic, Stiemsma actually brings some key skills to the Wolves’ bench. According to basketball-reference.com, Stiemsma averaged 8.3 rebounds, 55 FG% and 4 blocks per 36 minutes. His reputation now revolves largely around his shot blocking skills as shown by his 6 blocks off the bench in his NBA debut with the Celtics.

One thing to look out for will be Stiemsma’s case of plantar fasciitis in his left foot; the condition kept him off of the USA Olympics select team. However, he is expected to be available for training camp and the injury will be closely watched by Wolves’ training staff. For now let us rejoice that Stiemsma did not fall into the hands of another team leaving the Wolves with Ronny Turiaf as the next best option. Stiemsma has room to grow and improve, an opportunity the Wolves will grant, and perhaps more importantly, one he seems excited to embrace.