Q-was-here wrote:Zach LaVine, who some here look back misty-eyed that we traded him away, got benched during crunch time in Chicago's loss last night and he was none too happy about it.
Zach is one of these players, for all his skills as a shooter and scorer, just doesn't make his team better. He's had a negative on/off rating (meaning his team plays better when he's on the bench) in 7 out of the 9 seasons he's played. His net rating while on the floor has been negative literally every single season. Plus/Minus is an imperfect stat, but when it tells you the same thing every....single....year....it's not just a product of the other starters, your backups, your coach, etc.
Unfortunately, DLO's track record is not too dissimilar from Zach's.
Wait... has Zach LaVine officially out Demar DeRozaned Demar DeRozan?
He has, although DeRozan isn't too far behind him. In 14 seasons, DeRozan has had two years where the team wasn't better with him when he was on the bench (net on/off rating). However, unlike LaVine, he was on those Toronto teams with other great players and managed to have a few seasons where his net rating was a positive. But he's negative in both stats this year once again, just like LaVine!
DLO, DeRozan, and LaVine. They are the holy trinity of highly skilled negative On/Off players!
Q-was-here wrote:Zach LaVine, who some here look back misty-eyed that we traded him away, got benched during crunch time in Chicago's loss last night and he was none too happy about it.
Zach is one of these players, for all his skills as a shooter and scorer, just doesn't make his team better. He's had a negative on/off rating (meaning his team plays better when he's on the bench) in 7 out of the 9 seasons he's played. His net rating while on the floor has been negative literally every single season. Plus/Minus is an imperfect stat, but when it tells you the same thing every....single....year....it's not just a product of the other starters, your backups, your coach, etc.
Unfortunately, DLO's track record is not too dissimilar from Zach's.
Wait... has Zach LaVine officially out Demar DeRozaned Demar DeRozan?
He has, although DeRozan isn't too far behind him. In 14 seasons, DeRozan has had two years where the team wasn't better with him when he was on the bench (net on/off rating). However, unlike LaVine, he was on those Toronto teams with other great players and managed to have a few seasons where his net rating was a positive. But he's negative in both stats this year once again, just like LaVine!
DLO, DeRozan, and LaVine. They are the holy trinity of highly skilled negative On/Off players!
Similar to last year, the NBA scheduling gods are doing everything they can to ensure the Wolves are successful. Tonight they get a Miami team that had only 7 available players in an overtime loss Friday, and got destroyed by a now healthy Cavs team last night. Butler and Oladipo are out for sure and probably Herro. A loss would be devastating and I'm predicting a double digit win (we're favored by 8 1/2). More importantly to me will be how we win, and how Finchie works his rotations...can he get us to do what he wants us to do at both ends of the court. I'm tired of hearing him say the same things in post-gamers night after night...fix it! It will be good to be over .500 again and hopefully we won't dip below for the rest of the season.
We get a good and currently healthy Pacers team on Wednesday. Hmmm...I wonder which key Pacers players will get hurt tonight against Orlando...
FNG wrote:Similar to last year, the NBA scheduling gods are doing everything they can to ensure the Wolves are successful. Tonight they get a Miami team that had only 7 available players in an overtime loss Friday, and got destroyed by a now healthy Cavs team last night. Butler and Oladipo are out for sure and probably Herro. A loss would be devastating and I'm predicting a double digit win (we're favored by 8 1/2). More importantly to me will be how we win, and how Finchie works his rotations...can he get us to do what he wants us to do at both ends of the court. I'm tired of hearing him say the same things in post-gamers night after night...fix it! It will be good to be over .500 again and hopefully we won't dip below for the rest of the season.
We get a good and currently healthy Pacers team on Wednesday. Hmmm...I wonder which key Pacers players will get hurt tonight against Orlando...
I have no problem with this. We've seen enough losing over the past 33 years.
FNG wrote:Similar to last year, the NBA scheduling gods are doing everything they can to ensure the Wolves are successful. Tonight they get a Miami team that had only 7 available players in an overtime loss Friday, and got destroyed by a now healthy Cavs team last night. Butler and Oladipo are out for sure and probably Herro. A loss would be devastating and I'm predicting a double digit win (we're favored by 8 1/2). More importantly to me will be how we win, and how Finchie works his rotations...can he get us to do what he wants us to do at both ends of the court. I'm tired of hearing him say the same things in post-gamers night after night...fix it! It will be good to be over .500 again and hopefully we won't dip below for the rest of the season.
We get a good and currently healthy Pacers team on Wednesday. Hmmm...I wonder which key Pacers players will get hurt tonight against Orlando...
I have no problem with this. We've seen enough losing over the past 33 years.
Just win.
I get that. I like winning and I always appreciate it when a key player or two on an opponent is out injured too, but I also love NBA basketball, and I feel a little cheated when we face an opponent that looks more like a G League team. Yeah, a win is a win, but I always feel a little better when the Gophers beat Penn State in November than I do when they beat Eastern-Western Tech State in October.
FNG wrote:Similar to last year, the NBA scheduling gods are doing everything they can to ensure the Wolves are successful. Tonight they get a Miami team that had only 7 available players in an overtime loss Friday, and got destroyed by a now healthy Cavs team last night. Butler and Oladipo are out for sure and probably Herro. A loss would be devastating and I'm predicting a double digit win (we're favored by 8 1/2). More importantly to me will be how we win, and how Finchie works his rotations...can he get us to do what he wants us to do at both ends of the court. I'm tired of hearing him say the same things in post-gamers night after night...fix it! It will be good to be over .500 again and hopefully we won't dip below for the rest of the season.
We get a good and currently healthy Pacers team on Wednesday. Hmmm...I wonder which key Pacers players will get hurt tonight against Orlando...
I have no problem with this. We've seen enough losing over the past 33 years.
Just win.
I get that. I like winning and I always appreciate it when a key player or two on an opponent is out injured too, but I also love NBA basketball, and I feel a little cheated when we face an opponent that looks more like a G League team. Yeah, a win is a win, but I always feel a little better when the Gophers beat Penn State in November than I do when they beat Eastern-Western Tech State in October.
Sure. But the Timberwolves won't get a chance to beat "Penn State" without some of this luck.
FNG wrote:Similar to last year, the NBA scheduling gods are doing everything they can to ensure the Wolves are successful. Tonight they get a Miami team that had only 7 available players in an overtime loss Friday, and got destroyed by a now healthy Cavs team last night. Butler and Oladipo are out for sure and probably Herro. A loss would be devastating and I'm predicting a double digit win (we're favored by 8 1/2). More importantly to me will be how we win, and how Finchie works his rotations...can he get us to do what he wants us to do at both ends of the court. I'm tired of hearing him say the same things in post-gamers night after night...fix it! It will be good to be over .500 again and hopefully we won't dip below for the rest of the season.
We get a good and currently healthy Pacers team on Wednesday. Hmmm...I wonder which key Pacers players will get hurt tonight against Orlando...
I have no problem with this. We've seen enough losing over the past 33 years.
Just win.
I get that. I like winning and I always appreciate it when a key player or two on an opponent is out injured too, but I also love NBA basketball, and I feel a little cheated when we face an opponent that looks more like a G League team. Yeah, a win is a win, but I always feel a little better when the Gophers beat Penn State in November than I do when they beat Eastern-Western Tech State in October.
Sure. But the Timberwolves won't get a chance to beat "Penn State" without some of this luck.
Could be...early season results certainly support your narrative. But the rube in me still has me bullish on this team, and I keep thinking the only team in pre-season with three top 25 players (which of course can be disputed) should be playing much better. I'm going to continue to accept if not totally enjoy wins over beaten-up teams and be delighted that we are staying so healthy again this season, but also hope to see some massive improvement so we can have a better chance of advancing in the playoffs against good healthy teams. And meanwhile, I'm expecting a flu bug to decimate the Pacers' locker room starting tonight.
The injury/availability situation of our opponents lately is almost comedic at this point and it reinforces the narrative from last year that our 46 wins was largely illusory as a measuring stick of our true talent level as a team.
But to Abe's point, I don't care!!! We just need to win games dammit and continue changing the culture of this franchise.
It also buys us time for Finch and the players to get their shit together on offense with Rudy in the lineup (and on defense for that matter). It seems like there are signs of improvement, but we need to see sustained improvement. Long ways to go still....
Q-was-here wrote:The injury/availability situation of our opponents lately is almost comedic at this point and it reinforces the narrative from last year that our 46 wins was largely illusory as a measuring stick of our true talent level as a team.
But to Abe's point, I don't care!!! We just need to win games dammit and continue changing the culture of this franchise.
It also buys us time for Finch and the players to get their shit together on offense with Rudy in the lineup (and on defense for that matter). It seems like there are signs of improvement, but we need to see sustained improvement. Long ways to go still....
Currently 24 of the 30 NBA teams is missing a starting player due to injury or Covid. So the Wolves only have an opportunity to play a legitimet team with no lucky win 17.2% of the time at this moment. I know some on this board feel like these wins are super lukcy but personally I think this is just the standard of todays NBA. Like currently today the wolves could only play 5 NBA teams who would be at full strength in their starting lineup. Wolves training staff and players deserve credit that Ant, Mcdaniels, Kat (besides 1 year) and Gobert are generally players who are avalible to play every night. Now obviously there is some luck into that. But when there is only a 17% chance of even getting the opportunity to play a team at full strength that is no longer luck that is the norm and everyone on this board should understand this is the new standard of the NBA. Hope that the Wolves keep generally healthy and continue racking up these "lucky" wins
As John Madden would say, you are what your record says you are. You want to play with a full lineup every night? Don't dot your roster with old players or those with a history of injury. We are right where we ought to be with a good chance to improve our record tonight.
