Brooklyn_Wolves wrote:We beat up the Warriors that were gunning for the all time record !!! Come on.
And we beat a Portland team competing for playoff position on their home court.
Lol, you guys are going off 2 wins? That doesn't seem like much of a sample size to think that's we would be moving forward this quickly. Did you account for maybe neither of them taking us seriously because of our youth and record? 2 games are an outlier, not the norm.
Huh? Warriors were in almost a must win situation. They had to go and beat Spurs in SA after our win to set 73-9 record. We also beat Thunder on the road, Grizzlies and Clippers all on the road.
Kahns -- You should probably let this one go. I understand you initial premise, but it just doesn't square with the facts as applied to the Wolves late last season. The Wolves were playing well against good teams completing for playoff position or, in the Warriors case, competing to make history.
That one road trip is what got folks pretty excited, where we won three straight against Golden State, Sacramento, and Portland. Prior to that we lost three games and then we laid an egg at home just after the road trip, losing to Houston by 24 points. We ended the season with a huge win over a Pelicans team that didn't give a crap.
I don't know....We were incredibly inconsistent in the stretch run last year, but had enough "signature" wins to justify some of the positive vibes heading into the offseason. Unfortunately, it appears that you just can't trust this team yet to win games you expect them to win. Hopefully, they surprise us too by winning some games we don't expect them to win.
I'm sorry to pile on Khans, but I also don't agree with the take that our .500 record the last 20 games of the season was hollow. I remember several signature wins against teams battling for playoff position, and can remember only one game (the Pelicans) where our opponent mailed in the result...and I think we were better than them at the end of the season anyway.
That's why the slow start to this season is an appropriate talker. None of us knows why we have been so unsuccessful in the first five games, but the theories are interesting to hear. Are our youngsters complacent and individualistic because of all the off-season positive press? Is Thibs not the right coach? Or is it simply a function of getting used to a new coaching staff? I don't know...could be a combination of all 3. All I know is this is not a 1-4 roster, and something needs to change quickly.
Double digit losses in the same window to SA, Hou, Utah, LAC, Dallas, Milwaukee with 3 of those being 20+ point losses and a loss to a bad PHX team in there as well. You guys are just picking out the good without acknowledging the bad.
10-11 from March on and they were very clearly playing like a rollercoaster with no consistency. That's why I think that's a bad sample window to use for this year's team performance to date.
longstrangetrip wrote:I'm sorry to pile on Khans, but I also don't agree with the take that our .500 record the last 20 games of the season was hollow. I remember several signature wins against teams battling for playoff position, and can remember only one game (the Pelicans) where our opponent mailed in the result...and I think we were better than them at the end of the season anyway.
That's why the slow start to this season is an appropriate talker. None of us knows why we have been so unsuccessful in the first five games, but the theories are interesting to hear. Are our youngsters complacent and individualistic because of all the off-season positive press? Is Thibs not the right coach? Or is it simply a function of getting used to a new coaching staff? I don't know...could be a combination of all 3. All I know is this is not a 1-4 roster, and something needs to change quickly.
I've said the same thing as khans2k5 since the offseason. Out of our last 10 wins we had 3 great wins in Warriors, Portland, OKC. But the rest we beat the kings twice without cousins. Pelicans twice without anthony Davis. Grizzlies without Conley, gasol and Randolph. Then wizards, nets and suns non playoffs teams.
They gave us all hope but as I have been saying we won 29 games with no key injuries. Getting to 50 would be a huge jump. Just remember Anthony Randolph is a Hall of Famer if only the last month matters
khans2k5 wrote:Wins against GS, Portland, Memphis, OKC
Double digit losses in the same window to SA, Hou, Utah, LAC, Dallas, Milwaukee with 3 of those being 20+ point losses and a loss to a bad PHX team in there as well. You guys are just picking out the good without acknowledging the bad.
10-11 from March on and they were very clearly playing like a rollercoaster with no consistency. That's why I think that's a bad sample window to use for this year's team performance to date.
Memphis also didn't have gasol, Randolph or Conley in that game
Khansy and Kek make some good points here fellas. When I looked back I noticed some of the same things - a few signature wins sprinkled in with a bunch of terrible losses and some other wins against seriously wounded teams.
I was never on the 50-win train, but now I'm starting to question my 43 win prediction!
That doesn't mean all is lost for this season, but I think this team has an uphill battle to make the playoffs.
(I reserve the right to flip-flop my opinion and be irrationally exuberant if we win by 20 tonight).
For all of us that expected Thibs to have a big effect immediately for Wolves defense, it should be relief that two other coaches that also have reputation as being good in defensive end Vogel and Joerger won't seem to been any better than Thibs so far. Sacramento has had defensive rating 106.7 (106.3 last year) and Orlando 109 (104.2). Both coaches have had their previous team several times among top defenses but won't seem to be able to do right away same for their current teams.
Mikkeman wrote:For all of us that expected Thibs to have a big effect immediately for Wolves defense, it should be relief that two other coaches that also have reputation as being good in defensive end Vogel and Joerger won't seem to been any better than Thibs so far. Sacramento has had defensive rating 106.7 (106.3 last year) and Orlando 109 (104.2). Both coaches have had their previous team several times among top defenses but won't seem to be able to do right away same for their current teams.
May be it's a "time on task" thing where it just takes time and reps to get rid of the bad habits of yesterday and consistently engage in the good habits going forward.
