15-4

[Coolbreeze44]

#1 in the West

[60WinTim]

I should have never been so conservative on my win prediction!!

[Coolbreeze44]

I should have never been so conservative on my win prediction!!

We're on pace for 64.7 wins, so yes, naturally we're a little disappointed in your lack of faith.

[FNG]

I'm lovin' 15-4! But I'm getting a little tired of Tim's pessimism .

What a start to the season! Our Wolves are on top of the Association, and most analysts I listen to say they're for real. And then we have OkC at 13-6 and Orlando at 14-6, and Indiana is putting up points like we haven't seen in a long time. If we can stay healthy, this has the makings of a really fun year.

[TAFKASP]

Finally we can legitimately feel let down when this Minnesota team loses in the playoffs!

[ItsJustSoSab]

15 and 4, and wanting some more!!! Everytime I think it's going come crashing down, they pull out another W

[FNG]

https://theathletic.com/5106970/2023/12 ... ign=601983

Great article by Jon K that explains the identity of this Wolves team...they eschew load management and play if they are healthy. Specifically he mentions Rudy being put on the injury list the day of a game. Typically that signals that player needs a day off and isn't going to play that night, and that's what I assumed it meant here. But no, Rudy played, and we won the game because he played.

I still think Finchie leaves his players out on the court far too long when we have a double digit lead with not much time left, and I hope it doesn't end up hurting us at some point. But he may be using this technique to instill a toughness in the team that doesn't exist with other teams in this "load management era".

At 15-4, I'm going to conclude Finchie is right.

[Q-is-here]

https://theathletic.com/5106970/2023/12 ... ign=601983

Great article by Jon K that explains the identity of this Wolves team...they eschew load management and play if they are healthy. Specifically he mentions Rudy being put on the injury list the day of a game. Typically that signals that player needs a day off and isn't going to play that night, and that's what I assumed it meant here. But no, Rudy played, and we won the game because he played.

I still think Finchie leaves his players out on the court far too long when we have a double digit lead with not much time left, and I hope it doesn't end up hurting us at some point. But he may be using this technique to instill a toughness in the team that doesn't exist with other teams in this "load management era".

At 15-4, I'm going to conclude Finchie is right.

This franchise had a losing culture for the better part of it's 30+ years of existence. It takes time to rid itself of that culture. We are well on our way to a 3rd consecutive season of having a winning record, which hasn't happened since the 2003-2005 timeframe - almost 20 years!

Because of our past, I am mostly in agreement that we need to keep our foot on the pedal and maximize our regular season success. We can't consider ourselves contenders until we can prove we can win enough games in the regular season to at least get a top 4 playoff seeding.

However, assuming we keep up our winning ways, Finchie & Co. are going to need to turn their eyes toward the playoffs at some point. Mike Conley is by far the guy I'm worried about the most. If we are still on a path to a top 4 seed come January, they need to seriously consider sitting him selectively from that point forward. If not, he's bound to get hurt or simply have tired legs by the time the playoffs come around. And he's far too valuable to us for that to happen.

[Carlos Danger]

We were 10-9 last year after 19 games. Pretty much same team except following swaps:

* Conley for DLO as starting PG
* NAW for Nowell
* Shake for Rivers

[FNG]

We were 10-9 last year after 19 games. Pretty much same team except following swaps:

* Conley for DLO as starting PG
* NAW for Nowell
* Shake for Rivers

I'm thinking Meatloaf might have an opinion on those three swaps...