Who gets the 8th playoff spot?

[m4gor [enjin:6667447]]

interesting so many people still think we will make it, we are going to go 4-11 or 5-10 in December against very easy schedule. We got some surprising road wins at start, but now we play as a 25-30 win team, that is who we are this year, also at some point we just have to throw a monkey wrench in there to keep 1st round pick
meanwhile Jazz has had one of the hardest schedules, however it is getting easier for them now, so they should be able to hang there around .500 before Rudy comes back, so i voted Jazz
next would be Pellies in my mind, they are healthy finally so they could for some big run pretty soon (or after allstar break)
third would be Kings, last time Karl had sub .500 season was back in 1987-1988 (i have just checked that :-) ) so he might find a way to get it work
Nuggets and Blazers have zero chance and Suns have lost Bledsoe recently so chance for playoffs is close to zero as well

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I'm surprised at 6 people picking the Wolves too, m4gor, even though I'm one of them. You make a good point about Utah's easy schedule, but their injury situation reminds me of the Wolves' injuries of recent years. Losing their second best 3-point shooter forces them to rely now on Joe Ingles...not good. Favors' back spasms could be recurring. And there's uncertainty in how Gobert will bounce back from his knee injury...big guys and leg injuries is often a problem. I think Utah has a nice team, but injuries will derail them this year.

You also make a good point about the Wolves' poor record against a relatively easy December schedule. I would argue that many of those losses were with Martin in the starting lineup, and that they look much better going back to the original starting lineup (although still not good enough to beat the Spurs). They need to be near .500 the rest of the way to make the playoffs, but I believe they are over .500 so far this year with the correct starting lineup. I also think Zach can eventually adjust to the backup SG role and Tyus will continue to get more comfortable, and that will really help our second team...not to mention the return of Pek. There are a lot of reasons to think this team can be at least .500 the rest of the way.

[m4gor [enjin:6667447]]

I'm surprised at 6 people picking the Wolves too, m4gor, even though I'm one of them. You make a good point about Utah's easy schedule, but their injury situation reminds me of the Wolves' injuries of recent years. Losing their second best 3-point shooter forces them to rely now on Joe Ingles...not good. Favors' back spasms could be recurring. And there's uncertainty in how Gobert will bounce back from his knee injury...big guys and leg injuries is often a problem. I think Utah has a nice team, but injuries will derail them this year.

You also make a good point about the Wolves' poor record against a relatively easy December schedule. I would argue that many of those losses were with Martin in the starting lineup, and that they look much better going back to the original starting lineup (although still not good enough to beat the Spurs). They need to be near .500 the rest of the way to make the playoffs, but I believe they are over .500 so far this year with the correct starting lineup. I also think Zach can eventually adjust to the backup SG role and Tyus will continue to get more comfortable, and that will really help our second team...not to mention the return of Pek. There are a lot of reasons to think this team can be at least .500 the rest of the way.

i agree, Jazz are not in good situation now, but if they can survive close to .500 till allstar break (which they could considering schedule), they will be 8th unless Pellies or Sactown do real run

To our ambitions the question is, do we want to keep pick or do we want to chase 8th spot and get there with like 38 wins or so? So that Wig and KAT and Ricky would get some playoffs experience. We might need to soft tank after allstar break. Because if we will chase playoffs and end up 13th-14th pick and lose it, because Kahn used it to unload Wes Johnson's contract to sign Brandon Roy, that might blow my head off.

[60WinTim]

My potion must be working!! ;-)

[Monster]

Eh none of those teams inspire confidence from me right now. It's wide open. NO is the team with the best player and other established talent if they can get healthy so it's easy to see why people are voting for them. It might be a little more clear 10 games from now but it may be just about as muddy.

Also the records say that the east is better top to bottom than the West but I don't totally buy that the power has shifted. Yeah maybe the east isn't a joke anymore (that started to be the case more last year) but the west still to me has the top teams at the top no doubt. Nobody is talking about OKC and the Clippers are winning without Griffin. I am interested to see how things shake out this season it's been interesting some younger teams are starting to make some steps (even if some are a year away like the Wolves) and other vet teams have retooled like Miami and Dallas. A new era is about to come for the NBA and it's gonna be fun. It's exciting the Wolves look like they will be relavent in that era.