Wolves offseason breakdown

[mjs34]

Saw this on another board, and thought it was a pretty accurate portrayal of the wolves offseason -

http://nba.si.com/2013/08/27/nba-minnesota-timberwolves-offseason-grade/

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

I put as much stock in these off-season grades as I put into Mel Kiper's Draft grades. They can't be properly evaluated for at least a year, but I know these writers have nothing else to do. These guys say we should compete for a playoff spot, I say we should be competing for a top 4 in the west spot. I know we have to crawl before we can walk, but I only see a few teams that are better than us.

[bleedspeed]

It is a fair review.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I thought it was a well written article, but I did find one aspect rather strange. The same writer gave OKC a B+ last year because they picked up Martin for Harden. You would think he would have the same amount of praise for the Wolves picking up Martin in free agency. I think he did a good job with this article, but it adds up to at least a B for me, not a C+.

[Coolbreeze44]

The article depressed me. Thinking back to all the assets we've held over the last several years, and realizing how little we have to show for those assets is troubling. I've said it many times, we've made our bed at this point and in my opinion have created a ceiling that does not have us contending for an NBA title. And eventually the thing is going to have to be torn down and rebuilt (again) before this loyal fan base has any hope of reaching a championship series.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

It's a well written article that can't delve deeper into things due to its concise formatting. For example, the writer cited our poor outside shooting and #25 ranked offensive efficiency rating last season, but only briefly alluded to Love's absence from the lineup for the majority of the season, which - duh! - of course was going to have a pretty profound impact on our offense.

He also didn't probe much into the potential remaining upside of guys like Rubio, Shved, and Williams. I'm not saying any of those guys are going to suddenly blow up to another level (I'm a well known skeptic of Williams; and Rubio is already a top 5 PG at nearly everything BUT shooting), but it's not completely out of the realm of possibility that at least one or two of them could take a nice step forward in their offensive efficiency this season. And defensively, guys typically learn and keep developing well into their 3rd and 4th seasons.

Ultimately our season will depend on the health of Love, Pekovic, Martin, and Rubio. If all four of those guys stay reasonably healthy, we absolutely have a chance to make a bit of noise in the playoffs. The Love-Pek-Martin trio is probably the most efficient set of volume scorers we've ever had in a Timberwolves lineup. If for some reason, a guy like Shved or Williams blows up as a big time 6th man threat (I'm skeptical of course, but it's not impossible), then look out, we could do more than just make a little noise. The rest of the rotation - Turiaf, Brewer, Budinger, Barea, and Cunningham - are veteran players that form a solid supporting cast and will help the cause so long as their roles are fairly limited. It's when core guys get hurt and these guys suddenly have to do more than they are capable that things start to fall apart. Unfortunately, we've seen that all too often in recent memory.

[Leado01]

I love these off-season grades. I know everyone does it because it's entertaining - but we really don't get our grades, our bonuses, our dismissals, until we've performed.

Yahoo FF grades their drafts now. It's speculative, it's entertaining, and it speaks to how much we desire feedback in life. Time will tell if any of these grades are accurate.

[mjs34]

A couple things that jumped out at me are first that the Kahn bashing continues by listing mistakes (some of which were unforeseeable like Flynn getting injured), but not mentioning any of the good things he did like making the move to get Rubio, or signing Pek to a very reasonable deal to bring him over. Flip took over a team with a solid nucleus, and a couple first round picks. I agree with Cool that we have pissed away a lot of assets getting to where we are, but things could also be a lot worse.

The second thing that jumps out is how the wolves are looked at from a playoff standpoint. While several on this board believe that they could be a top four team in the West, I think the writer is more realistic. It is highly unlikely that this team runs the course of the season staying healthy. History shows that we should expect more than our fair share of players on the shelf.

I agree with Q that it seems silly to quote 3 pt shooting, but not take into account how many 3pt shooters where out last season. Just having Love and Bud in the lineup should bump the wolves into middle of the league. Adding Martin could easily allow them to be one of the better teams in that aspect.

I think he does point out something that has been talked about, and that is the overpaying. I wouldn't have such a problem with it if we hadn't signed three guys to mid level deals, knowing that only one is likely to be a starter quality player. I feel like we are falling right back into the early KG era where we hamstrung ourselves with too many average level players. We really have no way of improving this team going forward other than as Q pointed out, hoping for development from the younger guys.

I realize the need to make the PO's, but does anyone think Love is likely to stay if this team stays healthy and only makes into the first round with no way of improving.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

As usual, this board has done an excellent job of analyzing the Wolves' current situation. I'm afraid that I have to reluctantly agree with the consensus...i.e. that although greatly improved, their ceiling appears to be below that of a championship contender.

I'm maintaining my optimism, though, for a couple reasons. One, there's no question that they are going to be much more entertaining to watch this year. I wish I were still back in Minneapolis...I think Target Center is going to be rocking this year with all the points this squad is going to be putting up. I'm happy for the long suffering season ticket holders. Secondly, this team is talented and young, and we really don't know the ceiling for some of the younger players. Guys like Rubio, Williams, Shved and even Muhammad may have an upside that we aren't factoring in, and could be the X factor that takes this team to the next level.

So, the club is definitely improved, but probably not a contender. But part of being a fan is leaving yourself open to possibilities...

[KiwiMatt]

You don't just go from cellar dweller to conternder just like that, especially after 5 years of botched draft picks. Let's face is, Kahn sent this franchise in the wrong direction for his 4 years in charge and Flip's been left to clean up the mess.

I would give this off season a B+. You have to look at additions vs subtractions. Essentially the only player of real importance we lost is an aging and oft injured Kirilenko. We replaced him with a legit scoring SG in Martin and an athletic defender in Brewer. We also drafted a couple of decent prospects in Muhammad and Dieng as well as signing hands down the best dancer and celebrater in the NBA in Ronny Turiaf. We got our scoring SG without losing Williams and we didn't trade away any future 1sts.

It will take a couple of years for Flip to clean up the mess Kahn created.