The NBA regular season tips off on Tuesday night.

It’s hard to believe, I know. It seems like just yesterday that the Wolves hired Tom Thibodeau. It feels like just yesterday training camp started. And it feels like just yesterday when I ate 35 pizza rolls by accident while watching the TV show "Timeless."

(Fine, that was actually yesterday.)

The Wolves won’t open the season on Tuesday night, but they do play on Wednesday night in Memphis against the Grizzlies.

Expectations for the Wolves are as high as they’ve been in a decade. And there’s no secret why. Thibodeau is one of the best coaches in the NBA and the Wolves have the best young core in the league with Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine, Kris Dunn, Ricky Rubio (still only 26), Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng.

But expectations and potential are both scary words. The players can’t get tricked into thinking they’ve already arrived. I wouldn’t worry about that, though, as Thibodeau has pushed his players to be the best they can every day and to not look too far ahead.

Normally, we take a look back on the week with the column being posted on Friday. But since the Wolves had a game on Friday, I decided to scratch that idea because it’s my column and goodness gracious, I’ll do what I want with it.

(As long as it’s in the best interest of the team because I’m a company man.)

First, on Wednesday night, the Wolves have the Grizzlies in Memphis, The Sunshine City. The game will air on Fox Sports North (Dave Benz and Jim Petersen) and 830-WCCO AM Radio (Alan Horton).

I wrote a little about the Grizzlies already, but this is kind of a weird team. Dave Joerger, a very likeable dude who is from Minnesota, is no longer there. He’s coaching in Sacramento. But Memphis replaced him with an up-and-coming coach in David Fizdale. Fizdale chatted with us before last week’s preseason game against the Wolves and the dude has put in his dues. He started in the film room and now he’s a head coach in the NBA. That sounds like a Drake song I know.

We’re not sure what to expect from this roster. Both Mike Conley and Marc Gasol are All-Star caliber players and then you add in Chandler Parsons, who the team signed this offseason. The question here is health. Parsons sounds unlikely to start the season because of a knee injury.

Fizdale will be bringing big man Zach Randolph off the bench while JaMycahel Green will start. I think that’s a good move from Fizdale. Having Green out there will help pick up the pace of play and can stretch the floor a little bit.

And don’t think of this as a demotion for Randolph. Think about what Al Jefferson was able to do off the bench for the Hornets last season. Instant offense. That’s what Fizdale and the Grizzlies will look for from Randolph. He might be getting older, but the dude is still as strong as they come. It’ll be interesting to see what Thibodeau does as far as matchups go with Randolph.

And then we have the Kings. The Wolves and Kings play a late one on Saturday night in Sac-Town, The Windy City.

Tipoff is set for 9:30 p.m. on Fox Sports North, NBA TV and 830-WCCO AM Radio.

Chug a Red Bull before the game or get in an afternoon nap. Staying up later than 11 p.m. is harder than you think. My nights used to start at 11 p.m. Now I’m 26 and if I make it to 10:30, I do a mental victory dance.

(Too tired to do a real victory dance.)

Joerger is now the head coach in Sacramento and there is plenty of talent on the roster. Obviously DeMarcus Cousins is an absolute stud, but hasn’t exactly meshed in Sacramento so far. Joerger is considered a players’ coach, so we’ll see how that goes.

I don’t know about you, but I’m excited about the Cousins vs. KAT battle. While John Calipari doesn’t know who to cheer for, we hope you do (hint: meow).

And then there’s Rudy Gay, Ty Lawson and Willie Cauley-Stein.

The concern with Sacramento going into the season is the point guard position. Darren Collison is suspended to start the season and the only other point guards on the roster are Lawson and Garrett Temple.

I would expect the Wolves’ one-two punch of Ricky Rubio and Kris Dunn (both defensive mad men) to win this battle on Saturday.

You guys. THE NBA SEASON IS ALMOST HERE. We hope you’re as pumped as we are.

Other Stuff Prediction Segment

The World Series starts on Tuesday.

It’s between the Cleveland Indians and the Chicago Cubs.

From what I’ve read, the Indians haven’t won the championship since 1878 while the Cubs haven’t won since Zeus was born.

It feels like picking against the Cubs is a sin unless you’re Steve Bartman. If you're Steve Bartman and you're reading this, you can do whatever you want for how the people of Chicago treated you.

I’ll take the Cubs in six. Their pitching punch of Jake Arrieta, Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks is just too good. And I’m afraid our public relations associate, Aaron, will harm me at work if I go against his beloved Cubbies. He’s already very emotional because I wrote Chicago’s pizza isn’t very good, something I still stand by.

Cubs in 6

We support local sports around here on Timberwolves.com, so we’ll take a look at next Monday’s game between the Vikings and the Bears. Jay Cutler is starting again for the Bears and I’m not quite sure that’s a good thing for Chicago. The Vikings were bad on Sunday against the Eagles, but they won’t be that bad again and the Bears are also a really bad football team (sorry, Aaron).

Vikings 24, Bears 10

As always, thanks for reading. Have a fantastic week.