Wolves: Mike James brings the noise, and game to match http://www.startribune.com/511/story/719846.html MANKATO - If Kevin Garnett, the Timberwolves' big dawg, is the locker room's resident woofer, new point guard Mike James might qualify as its new tweeter. With the exception of Sam Cassell's two jabber-jaw seasons in Minnesota, the Wolves have been more mono than stereo when it comes to yakkety-yak and talking back in the practice gym or under the bright lights. A few of Garnett's teammates occasionally have tried to match him in volume and frequency, but it mostly has sounded a little forced, as if they were trying to impress the power forward. James, on the other hand, is a natural, on and off the court. "That's cool, we've already got one, so I'm used to it," said guard Trenton Hassell, so quiet he could play in a library if someone muted the dribble. "The first couple of days we were like, OK, he's like this. So you get adjusted. ... You can't make [James] be something he's not. That's how he got to this point. He ain't going to stop it." Said Garnett: "He reminds me of a smaller version of myself. Very enthused. Plays with a lot of emotion." James, 31, also plays with a chip Super-Glued to his shoulder, a permanent fixture thanks to his herky-jerky pro career. After a couple of stints overseas, followed by six NBA stops in his first five seasons, the undrafted James can spot underestimation a mile away. And he meets it head-on, always leading with his smack. "There's a lot of guys in this game who are going overpaid who don't do half of what I do and give half of what I give to this game," he said. "But money's not going to make me come into the gym early and leave late. It never has. Because the thing that inspires me is to be the best point guard that I can possibly be in this game." Done? Hah! The more James talks ... the more James talks. "Yes, I had a good year last year, but nobody cares about last year," he said. "Nobody cares about '05-06. This is '06-07. I don't ever, once, think about the games I had in Toronto. This year is a whole entirely different year. I expect bigger and better things for myself. Not what the media expect from me, because I really don't care what the media has to say about me. Whether they like me, whether they say I was the worst thing to happen and they never should have signed me, I don't care. My thing is, what I think about myself and when I look in my mirror, I believe that I'm going to be better than I was last year." Of Garnett, James said: "He just wants somebody who's going to match what he brings to the table. Instead of guys coming here and being intimidated by his intensity, and by him getting on them, I welcome that." Whew! And to think, all of above was James' response to something simple like: "How ya doin', Mike?" Wolves coach Dwane Casey said: "He's a guy the guys follow. Guys believe in him, because he walks the talk. He's earned it the hard way. He came up through the ranks. He's won a championship, he knows what it takes to win. And he's a tough hombre." James was a backup on the Pistons' title team in 2004, just as he was most everywhere else before the Toronto Raptors flipped him the keys to their threadbare offense last season. He put up the biggest numbers of his career (20.3 ppg, 44.2 three-point shooting percentage, 5.8 assists), signed a four-year deal with Minnesota that starts at $5.2 million this season and still heard gripes about the Raptors' record (27-55) and some alleged selfishness. Pushed, James pushes back. "It's funny now how the media portrays me as a scorer. And just last year I was a defensive stopper," he said. "So I'm not allowed to do both. It's either/or with me. Either I score too much, I shoot too much, or it's, he can't shoot and all he does is play defense. "My biggest thing is, I'm not great at nothing, but I'm good at everything. It basically balances me out all over the place." At the moment, as the newest, feistiest addition to the Wolves' backcourt --

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