Hicks123 wrote:Wait, so one of Phoenix, Sac or Atlanta were going to trade for Butler? All three teams are in 100% rebuild mode. Yet we think they were going to trade their top picks last year for Butler? Silly....hindsight is fun, but there was NOT a deal to be made with Butler to get us Doncic. No way, no how.
Yeah but also include swapping of 1sts, so they still got a 1st and probably add another 1st next year. That might have sounded extreme to give up an AllStar player in Butler swap 1sts plus another 1st but Phoenix may have done that. Not to mention ATL did trade out of that slot, what did Dallas give up? Sure ATL didn't drop as far, but DAL didn't give up a top tier player plus another 1st too.
The thing is Butler was always going to leave anyways, so getting a young possible superstar player was the right move. I would have done anything minus trading KAT.
But once again no team is trading that much when you have a star player in Kat for the hope Donicic is good. There was no guarantee he was going to be good I mean 2 teams passed on him.
No team gives up a 3rd team All NBA, 21st pick a swap of picks and a future 1st for the 3rd pick.
Now doncic is great but there was no promise at the time
Hicks123 said they wouldn't take it. So what is it? You can say hindsight is 20/20 but I proposed doing this exact thing before the draft. So yes, it was the right move then. You have to remember that Butler told Thibs he wanted out after the end of the season, Butler was leaving either way! There was already division in the ranks. So Butler to the Wolves was damaged goods. It would have been smart to do the trade.
To me it seemed obvious I guess and I didn't even know the extent of the Butler situation as Thibs had to have known.
Those teams don't do butler for their pick because they are in rebuild mode and Wolves don't trade Butler and 3 1sts for an unknown commodity. I mean how many high picks have the wolves had in our history that have busts. Way to much risk at the time to bank on Doncic.
Just because the trade would of worked out doesn't mean it was a good trade at the time
Just because the Wolves have whiffed before do you stop swinging. You also completely ignored the fact that Butler was leaving either way. Thibs knew or should have known, I knew, Lip knew. So would you rather take a shot at a young guy or wait and try and make it work. Well Thibs tried to make it work or get a Veteran/s and it was obviously a boneheaded decision. I also said it would be two 1sts plus Butler. Sac might have done it, so may have ATL. Pheonix maybe too, who knows. The owner is cheap maybe they could have dumped another contract and saved money instead of more picks.
Anyways, we will never know. I very highly doubt that Thibs tried to get Luca and that was his downfall, being a moron like he is.
Yay Pop is a Moron he didn't trade angry star Leonard and 2 1st for fultz (the consensus best prospect)
Flip is a dummy he didn't trade, Love, lavine (12th pick) and another 1st for Wiggins or Parker the best 2 prospects in that draft.
It's the same logic that you are using for not trading for Luka
You are using such results oriented thinking and hindsight bias to make your point and call thibs a moron.
Thibs made mistakes but saying he is a moron for not trading an all NBA player and 2 picks for an unknown is just dumb
Who liked Fultz? Only the Sixers did. lol
I'm just saying what I would have went up to, it's all hypothetical. It could have been just a swap of 1st and Butler. You don't know and we won't ever know.
You fail to realize that many of us knew Butler was leaving and was not the answer. We wanted Thibs gone after the 1st round playoff exit.
Trying to defend the moron Thibs at this point is baffling. You are the only one.
Problem is we have an owner who doesn't know what he is doing and is on the cheap side to boot.
You are also comparing Luca to Fultz and Wiggins, that laughable. I said Luca would be by far the best player in the draft. I said the Wolves better offer up Butler for him. He had and has skills like LeBron minus the athletic ability and size by a bit. It's not hard to see if you watched him for a few minutes.
So yes, anyone who didn't know is a moron.
So would you do in general Anthony Davis, and 2 1st for the #1 overall pick this year (Zion). Its the exact same logic.
Once again Im not comparing Fultz and Wiggins to Luka as a player, of course Luka is the best of the 3 but it is the same concept of a trade. Giving up an All NBA player and 2 1st for the top prospect. You are just saying it is a trade because you have seen what Luka is becoming, if we did a trade for Wiggins and Fultz those trades with the same logic are the same, its just those would have been terrible in hindsight.
You can blame for Thibs for a lot of things. Dieng contract, drafting Dunn, Drafting Patton. Signing Teague and or Wiggins (I would argue with you on those 2 though). He made mistakes, but he is not a moron and is the 2nd winningest coach % wise in Wolves history. Calling him a moron for not doing hypothetical trades that other teams wouldn't do or Wolves wouldn't do is just stupid. If you blame him for other moves fine go for it he deserves some blame. But in the end he gave us a team that was super competitive and one of the best teams in the NBA when healthy, that went into the final day of the NBA season with a chance still to have home court advantage in the first round with our best player missing 20ish games.
Hicks123 wrote:Wait, so one of Phoenix, Sac or Atlanta were going to trade for Butler? All three teams are in 100% rebuild mode. Yet we think they were going to trade their top picks last year for Butler? Silly....hindsight is fun, but there was NOT a deal to be made with Butler to get us Doncic. No way, no how.
Yeah but also include swapping of 1sts, so they still got a 1st and probably add another 1st next year. That might have sounded extreme to give up an AllStar player in Butler swap 1sts plus another 1st but Phoenix may have done that. Not to mention ATL did trade out of that slot, what did Dallas give up? Sure ATL didn't drop as far, but DAL didn't give up a top tier player plus another 1st too.
The thing is Butler was always going to leave anyways, so getting a young possible superstar player was the right move. I would have done anything minus trading KAT.
But once again no team is trading that much when you have a star player in Kat for the hope Donicic is good. There was no guarantee he was going to be good I mean 2 teams passed on him.
No team gives up a 3rd team All NBA, 21st pick a swap of picks and a future 1st for the 3rd pick.
Now doncic is great but there was no promise at the time
Hicks123 said they wouldn't take it. So what is it? You can say hindsight is 20/20 but I proposed doing this exact thing before the draft. So yes, it was the right move then. You have to remember that Butler told Thibs he wanted out after the end of the season, Butler was leaving either way! There was already division in the ranks. So Butler to the Wolves was damaged goods. It would have been smart to do the trade.
To me it seemed obvious I guess and I didn't even know the extent of the Butler situation as Thibs had to have known.
Those teams don't do butler for their pick because they are in rebuild mode and Wolves don't trade Butler and 3 1sts for an unknown commodity. I mean how many high picks have the wolves had in our history that have busts. Way to much risk at the time to bank on Doncic.
Just because the trade would of worked out doesn't mean it was a good trade at the time
Just because the Wolves have whiffed before do you stop swinging. You also completely ignored the fact that Butler was leaving either way. Thibs knew or should have known, I knew, Lip knew. So would you rather take a shot at a young guy or wait and try and make it work. Well Thibs tried to make it work or get a Veteran/s and it was obviously a boneheaded decision. I also said it would be two 1sts plus Butler. Sac might have done it, so may have ATL. Pheonix maybe too, who knows. The owner is cheap maybe they could have dumped another contract and saved money instead of more picks.
Anyways, we will never know. I very highly doubt that Thibs tried to get Luca and that was his downfall, being a moron like he is.
Yay Pop is a Moron he didn't trade angry star Leonard and 2 1st for fultz (the consensus best prospect)
Flip is a dummy he didn't trade, Love, lavine (12th pick) and another 1st for Wiggins or Parker the best 2 prospects in that draft.
It's the same logic that you are using for not trading for Luka
You are using such results oriented thinking and hindsight bias to make your point and call thibs a moron.
Thibs made mistakes but saying he is a moron for not trading an all NBA player and 2 picks for an unknown is just dumb
Who liked Fultz? Only the Sixers did. lol
I'm just saying what I would have went up to, it's all hypothetical. It could have been just a swap of 1st and Butler. You don't know and we won't ever know.
You fail to realize that many of us knew Butler was leaving and was not the answer. We wanted Thibs gone after the 1st round playoff exit.
Trying to defend the moron Thibs at this point is baffling. You are the only one.
Problem is we have an owner who doesn't know what he is doing and is on the cheap side to boot.
You are also comparing Luca to Fultz and Wiggins, that laughable. I said Luca would be by far the best player in the draft. I said the Wolves better offer up Butler for him. He had and has skills like LeBron minus the athletic ability and size by a bit. It's not hard to see if you watched him for a few minutes.
So yes, anyone who didn't know is a moron.
So would you do in general Anthony Davis, and 2 1st for the #1 overall pick this year (Zion). Its the exact same logic.
Once again Im not comparing Fultz and Wiggins to Luka as a player, of course Luka is the best of the 3 but it is the same concept of a trade. Giving up an All NBA player and 2 1st for the top prospect. You are just saying it is a trade because you have seen what Luka is becoming, if we did a trade for Wiggins and Fultz those trades with the same logic are the same, its just those would have been terrible in hindsight.
You can blame for Thibs for a lot of things. Dieng contract, drafting Dunn, Drafting Patton. Signing Teague and or Wiggins (I would argue with you on those 2 though). He made mistakes, but he is not a moron and is the 2nd winningest coach % wise in Wolves history. Calling him a moron for not doing hypothetical trades that other teams wouldn't do or Wolves wouldn't do is just stupid. If you blame him for other moves fine go for it he deserves some blame. But in the end he gave us a team that was super competitive and one of the best teams in the NBA when healthy, that went into the final day of the NBA season with a chance still to have home court advantage in the first round with our best player missing 20ish games.
If I'm the Pelicans and drafting 20th I would (like the Wolves were). Davis is gone, so yeah. swap picks plus add in next years 1st. Good deal for them. Better deal then the mediocre Lakers players. You need superstars to win in the NBA and if you are losing one you better try and get one back.
Zion might even be more highly thought of by most then Luca though, it might take more then Davis unless he wants to go and resign with that team to get Zion.
I love Zions potential but he isn't as well rounded as Luca coming out though. His handle, passing and shot are not on the same level. However his insane athleticism, rebounding and ability to finish in the paint could be second to none. He's like a Charles Barkley on steroids.
Hicks123 wrote:Wait, so one of Phoenix, Sac or Atlanta were going to trade for Butler? All three teams are in 100% rebuild mode. Yet we think they were going to trade their top picks last year for Butler? Silly....hindsight is fun, but there was NOT a deal to be made with Butler to get us Doncic. No way, no how.
Yeah but also include swapping of 1sts, so they still got a 1st and probably add another 1st next year. That might have sounded extreme to give up an AllStar player in Butler swap 1sts plus another 1st but Phoenix may have done that. Not to mention ATL did trade out of that slot, what did Dallas give up? Sure ATL didn't drop as far, but DAL didn't give up a top tier player plus another 1st too.
The thing is Butler was always going to leave anyways, so getting a young possible superstar player was the right move. I would have done anything minus trading KAT.
But once again no team is trading that much when you have a star player in Kat for the hope Donicic is good. There was no guarantee he was going to be good I mean 2 teams passed on him.
No team gives up a 3rd team All NBA, 21st pick a swap of picks and a future 1st for the 3rd pick.
Now doncic is great but there was no promise at the time
Hicks123 said they wouldn't take it. So what is it? You can say hindsight is 20/20 but I proposed doing this exact thing before the draft. So yes, it was the right move then. You have to remember that Butler told Thibs he wanted out after the end of the season, Butler was leaving either way! There was already division in the ranks. So Butler to the Wolves was damaged goods. It would have been smart to do the trade.
To me it seemed obvious I guess and I didn't even know the extent of the Butler situation as Thibs had to have known.
Those teams don't do butler for their pick because they are in rebuild mode and Wolves don't trade Butler and 3 1sts for an unknown commodity. I mean how many high picks have the wolves had in our history that have busts. Way to much risk at the time to bank on Doncic.
Just because the trade would of worked out doesn't mean it was a good trade at the time
Just because the Wolves have whiffed before do you stop swinging. You also completely ignored the fact that Butler was leaving either way. Thibs knew or should have known, I knew, Lip knew. So would you rather take a shot at a young guy or wait and try and make it work. Well Thibs tried to make it work or get a Veteran/s and it was obviously a boneheaded decision. I also said it would be two 1sts plus Butler. Sac might have done it, so may have ATL. Pheonix maybe too, who knows. The owner is cheap maybe they could have dumped another contract and saved money instead of more picks.
Anyways, we will never know. I very highly doubt that Thibs tried to get Luca and that was his downfall, being a moron like he is.
Yay Pop is a Moron he didn't trade angry star Leonard and 2 1st for fultz (the consensus best prospect)
Flip is a dummy he didn't trade, Love, lavine (12th pick) and another 1st for Wiggins or Parker the best 2 prospects in that draft.
It's the same logic that you are using for not trading for Luka
You are using such results oriented thinking and hindsight bias to make your point and call thibs a moron.
Thibs made mistakes but saying he is a moron for not trading an all NBA player and 2 picks for an unknown is just dumb
Who liked Fultz? Only the Sixers did. lol
I'm just saying what I would have went up to, it's all hypothetical. It could have been just a swap of 1st and Butler. You don't know and we won't ever know.
You fail to realize that many of us knew Butler was leaving and was not the answer. We wanted Thibs gone after the 1st round playoff exit.
Trying to defend the moron Thibs at this point is baffling. You are the only one.
Problem is we have an owner who doesn't know what he is doing and is on the cheap side to boot.
You are also comparing Luca to Fultz and Wiggins, that laughable. I said Luca would be by far the best player in the draft. I said the Wolves better offer up Butler for him. He had and has skills like LeBron minus the athletic ability and size by a bit. It's not hard to see if you watched him for a few minutes.
So yes, anyone who didn't know is a moron.
So would you do in general Anthony Davis, and 2 1st for the #1 overall pick this year (Zion). Its the exact same logic.
Once again Im not comparing Fultz and Wiggins to Luka as a player, of course Luka is the best of the 3 but it is the same concept of a trade. Giving up an All NBA player and 2 1st for the top prospect. You are just saying it is a trade because you have seen what Luka is becoming, if we did a trade for Wiggins and Fultz those trades with the same logic are the same, its just those would have been terrible in hindsight.
You can blame for Thibs for a lot of things. Dieng contract, drafting Dunn, Drafting Patton. Signing Teague and or Wiggins (I would argue with you on those 2 though). He made mistakes, but he is not a moron and is the 2nd winningest coach % wise in Wolves history. Calling him a moron for not doing hypothetical trades that other teams wouldn't do or Wolves wouldn't do is just stupid. If you blame him for other moves fine go for it he deserves some blame. But in the end he gave us a team that was super competitive and one of the best teams in the NBA when healthy, that went into the final day of the NBA season with a chance still to have home court advantage in the first round with our best player missing 20ish games.
If I'm the Pelicans and drafting 20th I would (like the Wolves were). Davis is gone, so yeah. swap picks plus add in next years 1st. Good deal for them. Better deal then the mediocre Lakers players. You need superstars to win in the NBA and if you are losing one you better try and get one back.
Zion might even be more highly thought of by most then Luca though, it might take more then Davis unless he wants to go and resign with that team to get Zion.
I love Zions potential but he isn't as well rounded as Luca coming out though. His handle, passing and shot are not on the same level. However his insane athleticism, rebounding and ability to finish in the paint could be second to none. He's like a Charles Barkley on steroids.
Fair enough. We'll never agree on this. So I'll let it go. Still think it's crazy you would trade Davis and 2 1st for Zion and the hope he is good. But whatever
Going into the trade deadline, If we are trying to still win and make the playoffs why stand pat and do nothing? Make a move that actually makes fans take note and think hmmmm.....maybe MN gets hot and is that team with a full head of steam down the stretch. I f we are confident we don't have enough then it's time to pick up a few 2nds if not just for future capital to use come next year or a few years after. Doing nothing was the worst possible outcome!
Think of what Jimmy Butler would have landed us at the deadline, we should've dealt with his antics and got more than Dario & RoCo and thats no knock against them as players but the market would have been higher if we held Jimmy.
Tactical unit wrote:Going into the trade deadline, If we are trying to still win and make the playoffs why stand pat and do nothing? Make a move that actually makes fans take note and think hmmmm.....maybe MN gets hot and is that team with a full head of steam down the stretch. I f we are confident we don't have enough then it's time to pick up a few 2nds if not just for future capital to use come next year or a few years after. Doing nothing was the worst possible outcome!
Think of what Jimmy Butler would have landed us at the deadline, we should've dealt with his antics and got more than Dario & RoCo and thats no knock against them as players but the market would have been higher if we held Jimmy.
The team has a dead-man-walking GM and bad contracts given to mediocre players.
I understand the frustration... but I also understand why no other teams were willing trade partners.
I thought it was important to bring back the tank thread. Right now we are in 11th place in the West, 1 game behind the 10th place Lakers, 2 games behind the 9th place Kings, 4.5 games behind the 8th place Spurs and 5 games behind the 7th place Clippers. Even if Covington returns to the lineup soon, there is no realistic chance the Wolves will make the playoffs given how many teams are ahead of us, how few games we have left and how tough the remaining Wolves schedule is.
I started this thread over a week ago believing it was time to look at moving down the standings rather than up because our chances of making the playoffs were so remote. Well, the case for moving down is even stronger now. If the season ended today, the Wolves would have the #12 lottery position. The Mavs are only 1.5 games behind us. So moving up the the 11th position is definitely realistic. There's also a chance the Pelicans would overtake us in the standings, moving us up to #10. I doubt we can do better than that. The difference between #10 and #12 in the lottery might not be much, but it's something. And at this point, we need every edge we can get. Winning a few more games this season would offer nothing positive for the long-term success of this franchise.
So what should the Wolves do now?
1. Shut down Covington for the rest of the season just to be totally sure he's healthy next season.
2. Give major minutes to Okogie, KBD, Saric, Tyus Jones and our 2-way G-League players -- giving them every chance to develop and giving the organization every chance to fully evaluate these young guys.
3. Limit KAT's minutes to around 30 and allocate far more minutes to Gorgui in the hope that he gets hot and develop some minimal positive trade value.
4. Focus on running fast breaks with Wiggins running the floor and post him up more in the half court, in the hope that it will showcase his strengths and enhance his trade value.
Then let the chips fall. I think this would result in more losses. But if it resulted in more wins, that's fine too because it would be a good sign going forward.
Hicks123 wrote:Wait, so one of Phoenix, Sac or Atlanta were going to trade for Butler? All three teams are in 100% rebuild mode. Yet we think they were going to trade their top picks last year for Butler? Silly....hindsight is fun, but there was NOT a deal to be made with Butler to get us Doncic. No way, no how.
Yeah but also include swapping of 1sts, so they still got a 1st and probably add another 1st next year. That might have sounded extreme to give up an AllStar player in Butler swap 1sts plus another 1st but Phoenix may have done that. Not to mention ATL did trade out of that slot, what did Dallas give up? Sure ATL didn't drop as far, but DAL didn't give up a top tier player plus another 1st too.
The thing is Butler was always going to leave anyways, so getting a young possible superstar player was the right move. I would have done anything minus trading KAT.
But once again no team is trading that much when you have a star player in Kat for the hope Donicic is good. There was no guarantee he was going to be good I mean 2 teams passed on him.
No team gives up a 3rd team All NBA, 21st pick a swap of picks and a future 1st for the 3rd pick.
Now doncic is great but there was no promise at the time
Hicks123 said they wouldn't take it. So what is it? You can say hindsight is 20/20 but I proposed doing this exact thing before the draft. So yes, it was the right move then. You have to remember that Butler told Thibs he wanted out after the end of the season, Butler was leaving either way! There was already division in the ranks. So Butler to the Wolves was damaged goods. It would have been smart to do the trade.
To me it seemed obvious I guess and I didn't even know the extent of the Butler situation as Thibs had to have known.
Those teams don't do butler for their pick because they are in rebuild mode and Wolves don't trade Butler and 3 1sts for an unknown commodity. I mean how many high picks have the wolves had in our history that have busts. Way to much risk at the time to bank on Doncic.
Just because the trade would of worked out doesn't mean it was a good trade at the time
Just because the Wolves have whiffed before do you stop swinging. You also completely ignored the fact that Butler was leaving either way. Thibs knew or should have known, I knew, Lip knew. So would you rather take a shot at a young guy or wait and try and make it work. Well Thibs tried to make it work or get a Veteran/s and it was obviously a boneheaded decision. I also said it would be two 1sts plus Butler. Sac might have done it, so may have ATL. Pheonix maybe too, who knows. The owner is cheap maybe they could have dumped another contract and saved money instead of more picks.
Anyways, we will never know. I very highly doubt that Thibs tried to get Luca and that was his downfall, being a moron like he is.
Yay Pop is a Moron he didn't trade angry star Leonard and 2 1st for fultz (the consensus best prospect)
Flip is a dummy he didn't trade, Love, lavine (12th pick) and another 1st for Wiggins or Parker the best 2 prospects in that draft.
It's the same logic that you are using for not trading for Luka
You are using such results oriented thinking and hindsight bias to make your point and call thibs a moron.
Thibs made mistakes but saying he is a moron for not trading an all NBA player and 2 picks for an unknown is just dumb
Who liked Fultz? Only the Sixers did. lol
I'm just saying what I would have went up to, it's all hypothetical. It could have been just a swap of 1st and Butler. You don't know and we won't ever know.
You fail to realize that many of us knew Butler was leaving and was not the answer. We wanted Thibs gone after the 1st round playoff exit.
Trying to defend the moron Thibs at this point is baffling. You are the only one.
Problem is we have an owner who doesn't know what he is doing and is on the cheap side to boot.
You are also comparing Luca to Fultz and Wiggins, that laughable. I said Luca would be by far the best player in the draft. I said the Wolves better offer up Butler for him. He had and has skills like LeBron minus the athletic ability and size by a bit. It's not hard to see if you watched him for a few minutes.
So yes, anyone who didn't know is a moron.
So would you do in general Anthony Davis, and 2 1st for the #1 overall pick this year (Zion). Its the exact same logic.
Once again Im not comparing Fultz and Wiggins to Luka as a player, of course Luka is the best of the 3 but it is the same concept of a trade. Giving up an All NBA player and 2 1st for the top prospect. You are just saying it is a trade because you have seen what Luka is becoming, if we did a trade for Wiggins and Fultz those trades with the same logic are the same, its just those would have been terrible in hindsight.
You can blame for Thibs for a lot of things. Dieng contract, drafting Dunn, Drafting Patton. Signing Teague and or Wiggins (I would argue with you on those 2 though). He made mistakes, but he is not a moron and is the 2nd winningest coach % wise in Wolves history. Calling him a moron for not doing hypothetical trades that other teams wouldn't do or Wolves wouldn't do is just stupid. If you blame him for other moves fine go for it he deserves some blame. But in the end he gave us a team that was super competitive and one of the best teams in the NBA when healthy, that went into the final day of the NBA season with a chance still to have home court advantage in the first round with our best player missing 20ish games.
If I'm the Pelicans and drafting 20th I would (like the Wolves were). Davis is gone, so yeah. swap picks plus add in next years 1st. Good deal for them. Better deal then the mediocre Lakers players. You need superstars to win in the NBA and if you are losing one you better try and get one back.
Zion might even be more highly thought of by most then Luca though, it might take more then Davis unless he wants to go and resign with that team to get Zion.
I love Zions potential but he isn't as well rounded as Luca coming out though. His handle, passing and shot are not on the same level. However his insane athleticism, rebounding and ability to finish in the paint could be second to none. He's like a Charles Barkley on steroids.
Fair enough. We'll never agree on this. So I'll let it go. Still think it's crazy you would trade Davis and 2 1st for Zion and the hope he is good. But whatever
So if you are the Pelicans you just let Davis play out his last year and then start to rebuild? That makes no sense. Zion could be a top 5 player in the league in a few seasons, pack the arena and sell tons of jerseys. You without question do that trade. He could elevate the entire franchise, maybe even be better than AD (not right away, duh).
That or you can take the Lakers garbage who with LeBron can't even make the playoffs. Wait and see if the Celtics would offer up something better like Tatum? IDK. That isn't going to lead them to a title. Zion might though. Roll the fin dice man. Go big or go home.
So back to the Butler thing.
We knew he was leaving. So what do you do to make the Wolves a future title contender? Hold onto him and see how big a mess he makes then trade him for pennies on the dollar? (I like RoCo and Saric but still)
-OR-
Trade him for a potential star in Doncic who could possibly help lead the team to an NBA title?
Tonight's win over OKC, couple with the Lakers' loss last night, dealt a big blow to my tank strategy. The next three games are very winnable for the Wolves. We go to Detroit for a road game we could win. Then we're home against the Wizards and Knicks. I see a potential 4-game winning streak (counting tonight's win) on the horizon. Yet, at 5.5 games beyond the 8th place Spurs, chances of the Wolves making the playoffs remain remote.
Again, I don't want our guys to play poorly for sake of losing. But I don't see the point of playing Teague and it would make sense to play KBD even more minutes. Maybe we would have won anyway, but at least we'd be winning with young players who might actually be a part of the Wolves future as a contender.
Now that the Wolves are a full 6.5 games behind the 8th place team in the West, I would expect every to agree that the Wolves have no realistic chance of making the playoffs. So let's speculate a little on where the Wolves will end up in the lottery.
If the season ended today, the Wolves would be tied with the Lakers in 12th place with a coin flip determining whether the Wolves end up at #12 or #13 in the lottery. The Wolves could overtake the Kings who are now 2 games ahead of the Wolves, in which case the Wolves would end up #14 in the lottery. However, I continue to hope that the Wolves do what it takes to move in the other direction. I'd like to see the Lakers break the tie by moving up in the standings. Meanwhile, the Pelicans could also overtake the Wolves since they are only 1 game behind the Wolves in the standings. If both the Lakers and Pelicans pull ahead of the Wolves, then we'll be sitting no worse than #11. The only other teams that could realistically pass us in the lottery standings would be Orlando and Charlotte as both are now only a half game behind us.
So I'd say the Wolves will end up somewhere in the 9-14 range.
