As a T-Wolves fan - i had to laugh and cry at this . But i guess, given how thin and snakebitten the Wolves frontcourt is now its an understandable and reasonable move.

Plus it continues the long line of Australian greatness in Minny: Longley, Heal, (and now) Jawai...

I'd (REALLY) love to see him make it - but as others have stated, he seems to lack the mental toughness and maturity required to make it in the NBA (carrying on like a Bolshie during the NZ series a prime example).

Before you talk about jawai make sure you know him before saying negative things about him. I know him and if you know the real story why he was Bolshie during the NZ series you would understand why.......

Fair enough U/D... hence i said "seems"... If there was something reasonable underlying it so be it - the fans on the Raps boards on Real GM seem to like him (having just had a read there...)...

What do you mean by Bolshie? His defence was horrible in NZ, but I reckon it falls far short of being a Bolshevik! What's the story Johnny?

Raptors fans thought Rafael Araujo was going to be the next franchise player from memory..

Anyhoo great news for Jawai, i'm sure he is bound to find some minutes behind the powerful combination of Pecherov and Hollins.

Some positives apart from PT for Nate however...

The coaching staff (apart from Rambis) features one Bill Laimbeer (remember him) - Nate could learn a great deal from the guy about playing in the paint and tricks of the trade.

And

Brian Cardinal (don't laugh) the guy is a true old school pro (good things happen with him on the court - poor man's Shane Battier) - put Nate's locker next to his and let the "Bishop" impart his knowledge...

Probably the best situation in the whole NBA for Nate to fall into - given it might be his last chance to prove himself... He will get PT - that's for sure and positive influence within the club...

"Friar" i mean...

From a source real close to Jawai said that if he gets cut its europe. And if he wants to come home its Gold Coast, Sixers, or Melb.

modest $736,420 salary....

Haha Johnny... Only a true T-Pups supporter would say

"Brian Cardinal (don't laugh) the guy is a true old school pro (good things happen with him on the court - poor man's Shane Battier)"

I do know what you mean, it's hard to explain, but he does have a positive influence on the Court without actually providing much. Things just seem to happen.

So, why did he act like a "Bolshie"? Inquiring minds want to know.

Johnny_Sack, re: Jawai learning from Laimbeer. Nate already knows how to majorly spit the dummy!

Surprised someone grabbed him, much better situation than disappearing with the Mavs.

Hopefully he can relish the opportunity and push to get some court time.

Well U/M (1) you answered your own Qn there (#263674) and (2) yes Laimbeer knew how to spit the dummy - whilst still being able to play his game unaffected... That's the tricky part... Not many guys can do that...

Good news for Jawai. Article further says this:

"Wolves president of basketball operations David Kahn says the team was considering the Jawai trade before Love broke his hand."

At least he goes to a team with an immediate (albeit temporrary) need, and one that seems to be interested in him.

Hope he can show something in the time he gets (as he will get it) until Love and co. return to action from injury. Could be his last NBA shot despite his young age.

The big thing for Nate is to just play. He got to play a full season for Cairns and had some very good games and some very bad games. He was drafted purely on potential and the assumption he would continue to develop and there would be more of the good and less of the bad.

But with his heart condition he hasn't played and has gone backwards in both touch and fitness. I am glad he is in a more favourable situation than with the Mavs, but I think he needs more time at a lower level to fine tune his game.

Johnny, re: your previous post, are you saying that Jawai was carrying on like a Bolshie because he spat the dummy in NZ? Come on mate whats the story?

J/S, your point about Laimbeer is a good one and I agree with it to an extent. I do, however, refuse to believe that all the flagrant and technical fouls he gave away in his career were all well reasoned and tactical attempts to put the opposition off their own game.

With regard to answering my own question, here's what I think I know, and I will be only too happy to be corrected by anyone, in particular, by UR Daddy, who claims to have some special insight to the situation.
Brett Brown had originally planned to start Mark Worthington at the PF for the Oceania qualifiers, with Jawai on the bench. That alone I can only assume pissed Big Nate off as he had been starting every game during the previous tours of China and South America and had, for the most part, been performing very well. When Wortho was injured in the final training session berfore the Sydney game, Brown still refused to start Jawai. Jawai proceeded to play both games with a massive chip on his shoulder and his resultant performances presumably did nothing to redeem himself in the eyes of Brown.
But how did this situation arise in the first place? This is the question that I, and many other Boomers fans would love to have answered.

I am a big fan of all the Boomers and want nothing more than to see Jawai succeed at the highest level. If someone out there knows something, please, give it up!

I also think Worthington was the intended starter at PF, but not sure if the plan was to start Jawai at C or Ogilvy/etc instead.

when you have a h/coach who doesn't live in oz and hasnt seen or doesnt know a lot about the developing players,he has to rely on his assistant coaches's.

usually if there is any undermining or things happening for no reason,look no further than mr.heal.

heal has some big scalps already in his back pocket,mr browns will probably be next!!

Minnesota's website: http://linky.com.au/jq0e2

"Nathan is a young project who likely will add depth to our roster at his position," said David Kahn, Timberwolves President of Basketball Operation. "We were contemplating this trade prior to Kevin Love's hand injury, so this move is not intended to replace Kevin in the short term by any means. That would not be fair to Nathan. Rather, this move provided us an opportunity to work with a young player with size, and later determine if he could be a fit for us."

I agree that Brown was thinking of Nate as a 5. The fact that he started Ogilvy at the 5 implies that he had planned on doing this all along. I could be wrong but I think many of us assumed that with Wortho unavailable, that Nate would start at 5 and Ogilvy or Baynes would play 4.
So did Brown make these decisions for matchup, team balance or other tactical reasons? Perhaps given that we would qualify anyway, Brown wanted to get a closer look at some players that he had seen less than Nate over the previous months and consequentially underestimated the opposition? Or, as Ur Daddy suggests, were there more insidious things occuring? It is all just speculation. But I would dearly like more information so that none of us have to speculate any further.

BA website: http://linky.com.au/af9yh

Jawai will get more opportunities for court time with the Timberwolves than he would have had at Dallas and is not worried about the frigid temperatures common in the "Land of 10,000 Lakes".

“I'm used to the cold weather after playing in Toronto,” Jawai told Basketball Australia.

“I’m finishing up a couple of games with Dallas and then heading to Minnesota at the end of the week.

“I’m looking forward to getting on court as the T’Wolves don’t have many big men and I’m excited about being in Minnesota.”

Ur Momma, I think that Brown probably wanted to start Wortho and Ogilvy because he correctly foresaw how badly we might get burned by having a slow centre like Jawai out there.

That happened anyway, partly because Ogilvy also did a bad job defensively in NZ and partly because, with Wortho out, we just didn't have enough depth in the frontcourt to defend the rim and rebound effectively.

It wasn't having a slow centre that was the issue, NZ had Pledger who makes Paul Rees look quick (just kidding, he’s not that bad). But Ogilvy, Forman and Ingles would have to be one of the worst rebounding frontcourts in international basketball. I am not sure what the coaches were thinking with that one.

As someone else said, Jawai was the starter throughout Sth America and, from reports, played quite well. If you were going to start Forman at the 4 Jawai had to be at the 5.

As it was Jawai was on the court with Baynes at the 4 for the first game, and without any sort of coherent offensive system they were just in each other’s way (not to mention it gave a huge speed mismatch with Anthony off the NZ bench). Then Brown went with Ingles at the 4 for large parts of game 2, leaving Jawai with the ball and 4 guys standing on the perimeter.

I could understand why Nathan would be disappointed with the experience, although I cant understand pouting during a game if that indeed was the case.

Don't discount "OPEC" (Oleksiy Pecherov) as another competitor in the front court... I watched the recent Min-Mil game and the guy is a chucker of the highest order - no conscience whatever (i thought Rambis was going to choke him after a late 4th q, early-in-the-possession three point airball)... He can hit the three granted and (undeniably) has talent and an interesting physical toolkit - but he looks to be one of those guys who will never quite "get it"... However if the coaching staff can get through to him he could be a starter (but at this stage looks likely to be playing across the pond this time next year)...

Paul, if you think back to the game, you will find that Jawai's (and Ogilvy's though that was more poor recognition of the play on his part) slow feet left us exposed repeatedly because they would try to disrupt the NZ offence by showing at the perimeter, but were then unable to recover to stop their man cutting to the basket for the easy two.

That problem, coupled with our horrible rebounding and inability to defend the rim (as I said earlier) with only Jawai or Ogilvy in there, meant that even the sheep were scoring inside that night!

Re OPEC, same happened in their narrow loss to the Bulls in the preseason. He was chucking them from everywhere - think of him as a poor man's Laimbeer or Manute Bol, throwing triples all over the place, several of them airballing - and Rambis did everything but throttle him on the spot.

Sorry Moses - i was referring to the Bulls T-Wolves game... and yes Rambis showed great restraint - even kept him on the court and seemed to draw up a play for him...

And OPEC teases Wolves fans with his game today 20-10 (8-12 fg 2-2 3pt)... And Hollins 14pts in 13 mins... To be honest throwing Jawai into the fire (given his lack of NBA PT) wouldn't be the best thing for his confidence anyway - so use as a practice player and a last guy off the bench would be a good thing for him i think...

Of course i can't see OPEC playing games like this often - but it shows he has some chops...

Jawai - was at the game against the Pistons today, but didn't suit up...