NBA draft: Looking at a few players who could fill Timberwolves’ needs

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Fresh off a trip to the NBA Western Conference Finals, the Timberwolves don’t feature many weaknesses. But they also aren’t a perfect product, as that playoff series loss to the Dallas Mavericks proved.

And, given the team’s salary cap crunch, unless it makes a roster-rattling trade, the NBA Draft — a two-day event this season that features the first round on Wednesday and the second round on Thursday — serves as one of very few chances for Minnesota to improve its rotation.

Here’s a look at a few options for the Timberwolves, which currently hold the No. 27 and No. 37 selections, to seek out in the draft, based on needs, fit and ability.

Trade up

Tyler Kolek, point guard, Marquette

A clear sign of the point guard renaissance the NBA may potentially be entering is Kolek’s rising draft stock.

He’s a pure point guard in every sense, averaging nearly seven assists per game. He also is an excellent shooter, hitting 39 percent of his 3-point attempts on high volume as a senior at Marquette.

Wolves forward Kyle Anderson has said certain players naturally see the floor in the way a point guard must. Anderson and Mike Conley both possess that ability for Minnesota.

But Conley will be 37 years old at the start of next season, and his calf injury during the playoffs — and the ways the team struggled when he was unavailable or limited — was a reminder of how overly-dependent the Wolves were on the savvy veteran.

Can Kolek be Conley’s heir apparent? There are legitimate questions about his combination of size; he’s 6-foot-1.25 with a 6.275-foot wing span. Combine that with average athleticism, and even with Kolek’s craft and basketball IQ, it’s tough to envision the floor general not being picked on defensively in the playoffs.

But, offensively, the 23-year-old’s ability to dissect a defense off the bounce, play make and dictate an up-tempo pace would immediately fit well into Wolves coach Chris Finch’s preferred brand of basketball.

Kolek would add an instant creator to the second unit for the time being, and likely could handle a bigger regular-season workload to reduce the mileage put on Conley’s legs pre-playoffs.

Kolek is consistently projected to be off the board in the early 20s — with point-guard-less Phoenix lurking at No. 22 — so it’s entirely possible the Wolves would need to put together a package — potential No. 27 and No. 37 would be enough — to move up to snag him.

If the Wolves were to make such a move, they would have to deem Kolek to be a significant upgrade over someone like Jordan McLaughlin, and likely at least a viable candidate to be the team’s starting point guard of the future.

Draft at No. 27

Baylor Scheierman, wing, Creighton

The Timberwolves need more reliable shooting to achieve proper floor spacing and, thus, generate consistent offensive success in the playoffs. It was too easy for an opponent like Dallas and even Denver to clog the lane and dare the likes of Kyle Anderson, Jaden McDaniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker to hit outside shots on a consistent basis.

The Wolves don’t possess many offensive levers for coach Chris Finch to currently pull in a playoff series or specific matchup throughout the regular season if their primary wings outside of Anthony Edwards aren’t hitting from the perimeter.

Scheierman was an elite college shooter who knocked down 39 percent of his 3-point attempts over his five-year collegiate career. He’s a lethal spot-up shooter who also is excellent shooting off movement and showed the capability to hit jumpers off the bounce.

Knocks on Scheierman are his age (he’ll be 24 years old at the start of next season) and his lack of vertical athleticism. But at 6-foot-6 and with a 6-foot-8 wingspan, he has enough size to mix with decent quickness to be usable on the defensive end. He also showed a want-to on defense, often having to guard the opponent’s best scorer at Creighton, and demonstrating a high level of competitiveness while doing so.

Scheierman looks like the type of player who could contribute in a playoff rotation right now if needed.

Draft at No. 37 (two options)

Ajay Mitchell, guard, UC Santa Barbara

Mitchell fits a point guard mold. He was a lead guard in college, and has good size at 6-foot-3.25 and a 6.625-foot wing span to fit that athletic mold.

He’s not an electric athlete, but he can be a good passer who can generate shots from anywhere on the floor.

Mitchell was an excellent free-throw shooter in college and had easily his best 3-point shooting performance this past season, hitting 39 percent of his 3-point shots. Still, the shot is a question mark. But if the Belgian guard can consistently hit attempts from the outside, Mitchell could be the type of off-the-bench scorer that consistently intrigues Finch and basketball boss Tim Connelly, with the potential to develop into more of an NBA floor general the Wolves could lean on in time.

Pelle Larson, guard, Arizona

Larson is another older player; he turned 23 years old in February.

But the Wolves’ need right now seems apparent, adding someone who’s ready to contribute now at least as a situational option and can add shooting to any lineup combination.

Larson can do that. He made 43 percent of his 3-point attempts as a senior, albeit not on high volume.

That was somewhat the story of Larson’s time at Arizona. He played next to ball-dominant players who didn’t really play into his off-ball strengths, both as a shooter and cutter.

A motion-based offense like Minnesota’s, where there are more chances to play off the catch, both as a shooter and creator — in straight-line drives and random actions — figures to best suit Larson’s strengths.

He also is 6-foot-5 with a solid wingspan and athleticism that should aid his efforts on the defensive end.

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Teamsters president will speak at the Republican National Convention

posted in: Politics | 0

By MEG KINNARD (Associated Press)

CHAPIN, S.C. (AP) — The president of the Teamsters Union is set to speak at next month’s Republican National Convention, as Donald Trump angles to chip away at President Joe Biden’s support among the blue-collar workers who are expected to play a major role in the general election, particularly in crucial Midwestern swing states like Wisconsin and Michigan.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said that O’Brien had “accepted my invitation to speak at the RNC Convention in Milwaukee.”

Teamsters spokesperson Kara Deniz said Friday that O’Brien had requested a speaking slot at both major party conventions and accepted Trump’s invitation for the RNC, marking the first time a Teamsters president would speak at the GOP event. DNC officials did not immediately respond to whether O’Brien would speak at their event.

Trump has been trying to make inroads among Biden’s support among organized labor heading into the general election, as he works to win over the blue-collar workers who helped fuel his 2016 victory. Union members tend to vote Democratic, with 56% of members and households backing Biden in 2020, according to AP VoteCast.

In September, while his GOP rivals met for a debate, Trump traveled to Michigan and tried to win over autoworkers by lambasting Biden’s electric vehicles push in the midst of a strike. During his speech, Trump urged the United Auto Workers to endorse him, directly appealing to union president Shawn Fain — though he spoke from the floor of a nonunionized auto-parts plant.

Fain instead called Trump a “scab,” a derogatory term for workers who cross union picket lines and work during a strike, as he endorsed Biden. In January, Trump called on UAW members to oust Fain after the group endorsed Biden.

O’Brien meanwhile has met privately with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club, where the two discussed issues including right-to-work laws that allow those in unionized workplaces to opt out of paying dues and fees. After a roundtable with Teamster leaders in January, Trump called the event “a very productive meeting,” acknowledging that the union typically backs Democrats, but, referencing the possibility of an endorsement, “Stranger things have happened.”

O’Brien later described the roundtable conversation with Trump as “pleasant” and “direct” but said the union was a long way from making a decision. After meeting with Biden in March, O’Brien said the president has been “great” for workers but stressed that “there’s still a lot of work to be done” to bolster unions.

Biden — who has long billed himself as the most labor-friendly president in history, going so far as to turn up on a picket line in the Detroit area during the autoworkers strike last fall — has already received significant organized labor backing with early endorsements from the AFL-CIO and others. But Trump is hoping to cut into that support as he casts himself as pro-worker and tries to exacerbate divisions between union leaders and some rank-and-file members.

The Teamsters union represents 1.3 million workers, including UPS drivers, film and television workers, freight operators, members of law enforcement and other government workers.

It backed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, although O’Brien has stressed that the union is keeping an open mind on endorsements this cycle. The group generally waits until after both parties’ summer nominating conventions to make a formal endorsement, and it will “most likely” do so again this year, once it polls its members, solicits rank-and-file input and reconvenes its leadership team, O’Brien has said.

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Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.

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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP

Solo travel is only getting more popular

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Lacey Pfalz | (TNS) TravelPulse

More travelers are discovering the joys of traveling solo this year, with new data from Squaremouth reporting that 42% of travelers are planning on taking a trip all on their own this year.

The travel insurance comparison site asked more than 2,600 customers their thoughts on solo travel and found that 87% of solo trippers are going internationally. Only 13% of solo travelers want to travel domestically.

When many people think of solo travel, they often think of lone backpackers staying in hostels to save money on their European tours, but that isn’t the case for everyone. In fact, 53% of solo travelers expect to spend over $3,000 on their vacation.

We’ve been writing about a growth in solo travel for the past few years, but 2024 has seen a boom in interest for travelers heading out to discover the world on their own: It’s leading many travel companies to consider more solo options, such as cruise lines building new ships with more solo cabin categories.

Additionally, the Adventure Travel Trade Association’s 2024 Industry Outlook report found that women over 50 are leading the solo travel trend. Younger women are also a large part of the trend, with Contiki travel company reporting in 2023 that 62% of its solo trips were booked by women ages 18-35.

Solo travel isn’t without its concerns, though: 46% of solo travelers are mostly concerned with experiencing a medical emergency while traveling alone, with another 22% concerned about crime rates and staying safe on their own.

“Now more than ever, travelers are deciding to embark on solo trips,” says Jenna Hummer, public relations director at Squaremouth. “With the busy summer travel season approaching, it’s important that solo travelers know how to protect themselves and their expenses while on vacation.”

Squaremouth suggests purchasing a travel insurance plan that provides cancellation coverage, a travel medical insurance plan for international travel and a plan with identity theft protection to help you should you lose important ID, credit or debit cards.

Additionally, a travel insurance plan with 24-hour assistance is also recommended for travelers heading anywhere on their own.

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©2024 Northstar Travel Media, LLC. Visit at travelpulse.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Travel: I climbed the ‘stairway to heaven’ next to a Star Wars film set in Ireland

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No blarney, the Force was with me. Or at least with Watson, a black Lab mix and crack dolphin spotter who, upon detecting dorsal fins, relentlessly barked while racing throughout our small fishing boat jouncing in the Atlantic off Ireland’s rugged coast. Almost magically, pods of playful cetaceans suddenly swam alongside and under the vessel, as our ancient destination — isolated Skellig Michael island —  vaulted up like a jagged, supernatural pyramid on the sea’s distant horizon.

The 1,400-year-old monastic settlement atop Skellig Michael island is considered a sacred Christian site. It’s also where Luke Skywalker lived in two Star Wars’ movies. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

A magnificent otherworld awaited. Fantastically flanked by oodles of adorable, clownish puffins lining my path, I’d soon climb Skellig Michael’s perilous 618-step “stairway to heaven” to explore 1,400-year-old stone beehive huts of long-departed hermit monks. Those austere, solitude-obsessed Celtic Christians must’ve spun in their nearby graves when Luke Skywalker squatted in their divine refuge and a sizable Star Wars’ film crew clambered up the sacred UNESCO site. Skellig Michael became planet Ahch-To in “Episode VII: The Force Awakens” and “Episode VIII: The Last Jedi.”

Skellig Michael, named for the archangel saint, soars up in the remote Atlantic Ocean off Ireland’s coast. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Just getting to this wind-flogged, storm-lashed outpost is extremely difficult. Each year, for only a seasonal few months, a limited number of 12-seat boats can sail the eight miles to Skellig Michael, but excursions are often canceled because of nasty gusts and choppy swells that make landings too dangerous. Call it luck of the Irish: On an unusually clear May day, after passengers received explicit instructions about how to puke overboard (thankfully not needed), skipper John O’ Shea shuttled us across on a one-hour journey, his sharp-eyed Watson and border collie Luna hilariously going dolphin bonkers almost the whole way.

Jagged rock pinnacles and seaside cliffs loom for guests walking down Skellig Michael’s 618 steps. It’s not for those with vertigo. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

When I laid foot on Skellig Michael, a safety officer scarily warned visitors that tourists have plunged to their deaths and been injured on the steep, cliffside, monk-hewn rough steps that have no handrailing; she suggested if you freak out, turn back and slide down on your rear. I very, very carefully trudged 600 feet up to the goosebump-eliciting monastery, its six conical dwellings, church, two oratories, cemetery and rainwater cisterns all spectacularly trapped in the medieval past. About 12 monks and an abbot lived in the religious sanctuary at any given period over six centuries; atop this precipice they felt closer to God. However, despite their chanting psalms, praying and singing hymns, demons lurked. Axe-wielding Vikings occasionally pillaged the settlement, once kidnapping an abbot for ransom; he died of starvation.

The lakes of Killarney are seen from Ladies View on the scenic Ring of Kerry route. Queen Victoria’s ladies-in-waiting visited the spot in 1861. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

I got here thanks to being on an exceptional weeklong trip, “Hiking & Island Hopping: Cork & Kerry,” with adventure operator Wilderness Ireland (wildernessireland.com). Five years ago, I did a colorful trekking tour with sister company Wilderness Scotland, and fancied a similar one frolicking among Ireland’s four-leaf clovers. We hiked through staggeringly gorgeous Emerald Isle landscapes several hours a day but there was much more — a visit with a beloved blind goat farmer, a haunted abbey, toe-tapping pubs, a “Sleeping Giant,” and an evacuated island of storytellers, to name a few highlights.

The Blasket island of Inishtooskert has been dubbed the “Sleeping Giant.” It’s also been called, “The Dead Man.” (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Let me give a major shout-out to our great-humored, knowledgable Irish guide (and Elvis fan), 52-year-old Declan Faulkner. He drove us eight Americans a total of 550 miles in a mini-van on the twisting, iconic Wild Atlantic Way and enthusiastically led us into the glistening green, wildflower-sprouting, sheep-replete, wave-crashing coastal yonder. The camaraderie among fellow travelers, all initially strangers to me, was “craic” (good fun) even before we lifted pints of Guinness in Crayola-bright, Irish-speaking villages.

Hotels on a Wilderness Ireland trip include one in the vibrant, historical town of Kenmare. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

History ran rampant. On day one, Declan made an impromptu stop at a cemetery in Skibbereen where 9,000 local victims of the mid-1800s Irish potato famine are buried in a mass grave. All week, we’d see countless dry-stone “famine walls” that were work projects created to give the unemployed income during the hunger catastrophe that killed one million souls.

The sun sets over Skibbereen, one of the worst affected areas in Ireland during the mid-1800s potato famine. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Another morning, we walked around the charming, harbor hamlet of Baltimore, a still-standing 13th-century castle witness to the horrific “Sack of Baltimore.” A sign memorialized the night In June 1631 when 230 armed North African Barbary pirates attacked the sleeping town, torching homes and snatching terrified residents from their beds. An estimated 154 men, women and children were captured, chained, and loaded onto ships to become Algerian slaves.

The quaint Irish town of Baltimore was once raided by pirates who took residents captive and shipped them out to become Algerian slaves. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

From Baltimore, our smooth-cruising ferry —  briefly surrounded by giant open-mouthed basking sharks —  delivered us to tiny Cape Clear, Ireland’s most southerly inhabited island (pop.110). Inside a cement shed, cheery 75-year-old Ed Harper held a blue pail and milked black-and-white goat Morag, who wanted to eat my iPhone. Ed, a former sociology teacher in England, has been blind since early childhood. He founded his Cleire Goat Farm 45 years ago and currently has 26 cud-chewers roaming 27 verdant acres. His favorite, big-bodied Captain Nibbles, appears to be the boss.

Ed Harper, seen milking one of his herd, has been a goat farmer on Cape Clear island for 45 years. He’s been blind since early childhood. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

“Goats want everything that people want: food, sex and status,” Ed told me with a hearty laugh and a tug on his snowy beard.

The farm sells six flavors of goat ice cream, including lavender (“I think it tastes like soap,” Ed chuckled), along with actual goat soap, burgers and sausages. I met personable Nibbles and curious herd members perched atop a rocky outcrop in the grassy fields; a young goat gnawed the red laces of my hiking boots.

A Napoleonic War-era signal tower and an abandoned lighthouse greet hikers on Ireland’s Cape Clear island. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Done milking, Ed sat outside on a bench and rambunctiously sang folk tunes (“there was Brown, upside down, mopping up the whisky on the floor…”). He was pure joy. And then off we hiked into Cape Clear’s fairytale hinterlands, pausing to devour our backpack-carried sandwiches atop a breathtaking, sheer bluff teetering over the expansive Atlantic. Behind us rose a crumbling Napoleonic War-era signal tower along with a lighthouse abandoned in 1854 after it was obscured in the fog, causing a ship disaster that killed 92 passengers.

Muckross Abbey, founded in 1448 and inside Killarney National Park, is said to be haunted. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

On other jaunts, we’d trek on tranquil, aptly-named Sheep’s Head peninsula, stroll the enormous, palatial Killarney National Park estate of Muckross House that Queen Victoria stayed in, and amble to the eerie, 15th-century Muckross Abbey, where a man’s ghost has supposedly been seen chewing a corpse’s flesh in the tangled graveyard. Real-life “Dracula” author Bram Stoker used to hang around the grounds too.

Like a Disney cartoon, hundreds of puffins are incredibly close and unafraid of visitors on Skellig Michael island. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

This entire trip was also a bird bonanza. Some 8,000 puffins each spring inundate Skellig Michael to breed and nest, and scads of them stared at us unfazed with silly orange-beaked faces. In 2015, when  “The Last Jedi” filmed on the island, there were so many puffins in the background that CGI artists had to turn them into intergalactic “porgs.” The monks would navigate the treacherous staircase every day to fish, but they also ate the eggs and meat of seabirds, including those cute puffins. Before we arrived at Skelling Michael, our boat floated around smaller, human-uninhabitable Little Skellig island, a colony of 70,000 gannets crowding every ledge.

Skellig Michael’s church window frames Little Skellig island, inaccessible to humans but a seabird preserve for 70,000 breeding gannets. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Another hike brought us to a second “Last Jedi” location, the stunning Dunmore Head promontory on the Dingle Peninsula. This is where Luke Skywalker kept his X-Wing fighter, milked a gigantic  sea cow and drank its green milk. Across from Dunmore Head, you can see the deserted, mythical Blasket Islands; one is dubbed the “Sleeping Giant” and appears to be an immense body in repose. We had planned to trek about Great Blasket island, but bad weather scrapped our boat ride.

The stunning promontory of Dunmore Head — another filming location for “The Last Jedi” — looks across at once-populated Great Blasket island. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

Instead, we visited the intriguing Blasket Centre museum, which recounts how Great Blasket had to be permanently evacuated in 1953 because violent seas often thwarted medical care and other services for the 22 remaining and mostly aging residents. At one time, up to 175 people lived in the enclave that had no store, no doctor, no priest, no running water or electricity and a Morse code radio so unreliable that islanders set bonfires to alert the mainland they were in distress. Displayed artifacts, such as girls’ smocks, pipes, a domino set, and letters told of a tight, hardscrabble community that loved to fiddle and dance the four-hand reel. Great Blasket was also home to several Irish authors, including superb storyteller Peig Sayers who wrote her stirring memoirs about surviving on the island for 40 years.

A portrait of premier Irish storyteller Peig Sayers hangs in the Blasket Centre museum. Sayers wrote about her hard life on Great Blasket island. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

From the Centre, I hiked along the tip of Dingle Peninsula until I ran into a dilapidated stone schoolhouse affixed with a plaque stating it was the 19th-century Kirrary National School. Hollywood again. The faux school was part of a set built for the 1970 Oscar-winning romantic epic, “Ryan’s Daughter.”

A schoolhouse, solely built for the 1970 epic movie, “Ryan’s Daughter,” still stands on Dingle Peninsula. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

For sure, I hit a pot of gold on this adventure in counties Cork and Kerry. “It’s the people, the friendliness, the scenery, the ruggedness of the coastline and the mountains — and the peacefulness of it all,” Declan said. (That peace was temporarily interrupted when Declan played Elvis’ “Suspicious Minds” in the van and we all loudly crooned along.)  And even though I didn’t glimpse sought-after leprechauns, I did see a yellow road sign designating their “crossing” at the panoramic Ladies View lookout.

Ireland’s bearded sprites apparently like to go back and forth to a lookout at Ladies View. (Photo by Norma Meyer)

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We spent our final two nights in the lively town of Dingle, known for quirky and music-permeating pubs. Our group toasted in legendary Dick Mack’s, an 1899-founded pub-haberdashery where a craftsman now fashions leather belts at the booze-serving bar counter. (The motto is “Step Up and Get Waisted.”) Along Main Street, inside vintage pub-hardware shop Foxy John’s, patrons can sip a smooth whisky and buy DIY items, such as tools, vehicle anti-freeze and rat bait. (I guess their slogan could be “Step Up and Get Hammered.”)

Our trip ended way too soon when Declan dropped us off at the Limerick train station. On my locomotive-powered voyage back to Dublin, I sat next to Kevin Clancy, an elderly gent from Limerick who enjoyed how awed I was by his country. “You know what’s so special about Ireland?” he asked in his thick brogue. “You don’t have to go anywhere to see the beautiful scenery. In fact, you can always reach out and touch it.”

I knowingly smiled  — and touched the shamrock in my pocket.