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!

Apr 22, 2012; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves forward Derrick Williams (7) warms up before facing the Golden State Warriors at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Greg Smith-US PRESSWIRE

Alongside 17 other players on the Timberwolves roster for the 2012 NBA Summer League,  last year’s 2nd overall pick forward Derrick Williams and guard Wes Johnson led the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 73-64 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.  Only ten of Timberwolves 19 players were able to play last night.

Former-Syracuse Orangemen star, Wes Johnson, led the Wolves with 16 points and Derrick William, a former Arizona Wildcat, chipped in with 15 points and pulled down 9 rebounds.

The Wolves were playing in somewhat the same style they have been having last season. Up-tempo. Pushing the ball and attacking the basket with force.

With Brazilian big man Paulo Prestes on their Summer League roster,  the Timberwolves had a better opportunity to run the ball with his presence in the paint. Prestes was drafted by the Wolves in 2010 but has only played a total of 19 minutes. The big man is known for his intense defense and his rebounding.

The Wolves certainly had the opportunity to push the ball thanks in part to their presence in the paint, led by Brazilian center Paulo Prestes. Prestes, drafted by the Wolves in 2010, played only 19 minutes but impacted the game immensely with his defense and his rebounding.  Prestes finished the game with 9 points and 8 rebounds, to which half of those were on the offensive end giving the Wolves multiple second chance opportunities.

Defensively, Prestes was able to clog the lane for Clipper guards and force them to make turnovers which allowed the Timberwolves to get out an run.

The way the big man played is a good sign for the Timberwolves as they could have possibly found a big man that could help them inside alongside Nikola Pekovic and of course, All-Star Kevin Love. We all know Love will get his double-digit rebounds, but when he sits, Prestes could be that guy that comes off the bench and gets 5 to 7 rebounds a night. Offensively he’s not that bad as well as he shot 4-7 from the field.

#58 pick Robbie Hummel, who was selected by the Timberwolves finished with 6 points and also grabbed 6 rebounds.

For the Clippers, Terrico White, who played for the Detroit Pistons in the 2010-2011 NBA season, led the team with 16 points. Eric Bledoe, Adam Morrison, and Hilton Armstrong each had 11 points as the Clippers fell to the Timberwolves.

The Timberwolves Summer League continues tonight as they will be taking on the Charlotte Bobcats tonight at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas 9:30 PM CT. You can watch the game on NBA TV.

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