Wolves vs Nuggets
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Wolvesfan21
- Posts: 4633
- Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2017 12:00 am
Wolves vs Nuggets
Who you got and in how many?
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Wolvesfan21
- Posts: 4633
- Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2017 12:00 am
Re: Wolves vs Nuggets
I say Denver in 7. The Wolves have limped their way into the playoffs with several injuries and simply poor play while the Nuggets have also been injured but clearly have played better BB.
I say the switch to flip is too large. Denver has gotten better then the last time we snuck by them in 7.
I say the switch to flip is too large. Denver has gotten better then the last time we snuck by them in 7.
Re: Wolves vs Nuggets
Haha, I was afraid this poll was coming! I'm going to channel Lip and wait until Saturday morning to vote, because I'm hoping my optimism will increase as we get closer to game time. But if I had to vote right now, I would probably have the Nuggets in 5 with the Wolves only winning game 3. That's why I'm waiting a while before I vote...I want my homer rose-colored glasses to kick in!
Silver lining? I don't know if we had this poll last year, but if we did, I suspect most of us picked the Lakers.
Silver lining? I don't know if we had this poll last year, but if we did, I suspect most of us picked the Lakers.
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rapsuperstar31
- Posts: 988
- Joined: Sun Mar 02, 2014 12:00 am
Re: Wolves vs Nuggets
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/719361 ... e-share-ta
MINNEAPOLIS — In an empty arena during the long, cold, COVID-strangled 2020-21 NBA season, the Minnesota Timberwolves hurtled toward rock bottom.
They were coming off a 19-win season and expected to take a big step forward. Less than a month into the season, things already looked bleak. Karl-Anthony Towns was out with COVID. D’Angelo Russell wasn’t becoming the star they initially envisioned. They were getting nothing from Jarrett Culver, the No. 6 pick in the 2019 draft.
Then came Jan. 21, when they let a 20-point lead against the Orlando Magic slip away, falling to 3-10 on the season. Desperation was high. With the league’s strict policy on social distancing, building connections between teammates and coaches was proving to be incredibly difficult. Organizational leaders threw a pizza-and-ice cream party at the practice facility to try to reset their minds and lighten the mood, a self-aware nod to the youngest roster in the league.
As low as they were coming out of that loss, something just kept jumping off the screen when front-office staffers and coaches reviewed the film.
While so many of the more established players were melting down, Anthony Edwards, Naz Reid and Jaden McDaniels kept showing. A 19-year-old and two 20-year-olds looked more mature and composed than anyone on the floor. Starting for Towns, Reid, who was still shedding the extra pounds he put on after a foot injury before his rookie season, scored 14 points and hit a pair of 3-pointers. Edwards, his cheeks still plump with baby fat, shot just 3 for 14 from the field, but his defense and decision-making off the bench led to him being a plus-13 in 23 minutes. After getting DNPs in six of the team’s first 11 games, McDaniels, a spindly 6-foot-9 with a pseudo-mohawk, had 12 points, eight rebounds and three blocks and was plus-19 in 26 minutes.
More than the production, what struck those in charge was the unfazed looks in their eyes. They were not downtrodden as the losses mounted. They did not carry that “here we go again” energy that has defined so many Timberwolves seasons. They marched forward, together, with an unshakeable belief that the suffering felt by everyone in this organization, and this basketball-loving community, was only temporary.
“Despite Ant shooting poorly, you saw that all of these guys were difference-makers,” one former front-office executive said. “Even with a horrific loss, you saw that there was something. The gym was empty, no one in the world probably saw that game. … In the end, we knew there was something positive.”
Six seasons later, Edwards, the No. 1 pick who faced so many doubters before he was drafted, McDaniels, a 28th pick in 2020 known for getting technical fouls at Washington, and Reid, an undrafted free agent, are still together, lifting the Timberwolves out of the squalor. They are playing on contracts that are worth a total of $500 million guaranteed and are leading the team to its fifth straight playoff appearance, the third-longest active streak in the league.
Most impressively, the trio has been together for six seasons, an eternity in the turnstile NBA. They have played 382 regular-season games together since uniting in 2020, 113 more than the next closest active trio: Boston’s Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard and Derrick White (269 games), according to Elias Sports Bureau. They’ve reached two straight Western Conference finals, unprecedented success for a franchise that has spent most of its existence toiling in dysfunction and self-pity.
“It’s pretty cool. It’s like going to high school freshman year with your friends and just sticking together the whole way, building each year,” McDaniels said. “Each year we’ve been together, we’ve gotten better and went further (as players) than we have the previous season.”
Over these last six years, they have endured coaching and front-office changes, blockbuster trades, injuries and deep, personal loss. When they take the floor Saturday in Denver for Game 1 of the conference quarterfinals against the Nuggets, they do so knowing that they are largely responsible for a new era in Minnesota.
“There are obstacles we all have had to go against in our careers,” Reid said. “It worked out in a better way. We were able to help each other through that and prove we are who we are and that we’ve been that way all along. I think all the questions and stuff are pretty much out the window now.”
None of it was preordained. Edwards and McDaniels came off the bench to start their NBA careers while Reid began his in Iowa. Now Edwards is considered a top-10 player in the league, McDaniels is one of the most versatile defenders and Reid won Sixth Man of the Year two years ago.
“All of these dudes have been underdogs,” said Wolves assistant coach Chris Hines, who has been with the trio every step of the way. “All of ’em.”
The shared connection that has been forged through struggle and success is the secret sauce that powers Minnesota.
Reid was the first to arrive in Minnesota, signing as an undrafted rookie free agent out of LSU in 2019. He was a highly regarded recruit when he landed in Baton Rouge, a big man with a slick handle and a nice outside shot. But scouts had no idea what to do with a 6-9 center who weighed over 275 pounds. When Hines, who was coaching at the Wolves’ G League affiliate in Iowa at that time, first met Reid, he saw a “chubby kid with a good handle who had a lot of talent but had to learn how to play basketball.”
Reid stewed over his misfortune in the draft but did not let it derail him. He hated making the drive from Minneapolis to Iowa in his rookie season but knew that was the only option to one day cracking the NBA club’s rotation.
“He wasn’t the best athlete. He couldn’t defend. But he was just like, ‘I’m not going to quit,'” Hines remembered. “He showed up every day. He showed up on time. He showed up with a smile on his face. He showed up with a good heart and just tried to be a good player and good person. Did I know he was going to make that much money? Yes, because he’s super talented. It clicked.”
McDaniels was a McDonald’s All-American when he got to the University of Washington and had some mock drafts projecting him as a top-five pick. But an underwhelming freshman season saw him plummet down draft boards due to concerns about his temperament and offensive ceiling.
The Timberwolves took him at the bottom of the first round and, in his rookie season, experimented with him in the frontcourt and the post before he settled in at small forward. He did not crack the starting lineup until late March.
Edwards was the first overall pick, but it came in a year in which there was no overwhelming choice for that spot. The Timberwolves labored over the decision between him, James Wiseman and LaMelo Ball, with pundits expressing concern that Edwards wasn’t in love with the game.
When Hines confronted Edwards with that critique, he got his answer.
“That kid looked me in my eyes and said, ‘You got me f—-d up,” Hines said. “I want to be the best to ever do it.”
The Wolves went 23-49 that first season together. As it dragged on, those embedded with the team started to notice a shift. While some of the older players like Russell, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt spent more time together, Edwards, McDaniels and Reid stayed close to one another. Observers jokingly called it the “kids’ table,” but the newness of everything made the losing less disheartening.
They knew they had time and that they were already establishing themselves as important parts of the team’s future. There was no concern about the next contract and little frustration with their roles on the court. They focused on daily improvement, on making sure they’d never feel embarrassed wearing a Wolves uniform again.
“It didn’t feel like they were taking the losses home with them,” said coach Chris Finch, who replaced the fired Ryan Saunders as coach midway through the season. “Learning how to be competitive and what that really means and how to compete on a possession-by-possession basis was something that they all had to do together, in different ways.”
As that bond strengthened, so did the Wolves’ rise in the West.
“All of these dudes have been underdogs,” Wolves assistant coach Chris Hines said of Naz Reid, Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards.
The more time they spent around one another, the more the Wolves benefited. It is not just that their games fit together. Their personalities complement one another in a way that makes it hard to envision the partnership fracturing under the normal stressors of fame and fortune.
“Jaden is super quiet. Naz is quiet, but he is outgoing around the right people,” Edwards said. “Me, I just don’t care who I’m around. I’m going to be myself no matter what. And I think we all just click.”
Edwards is the loud one, filling the locker room with his Atlanta slang and vibrant personality. He is usually heard before he is seen, cracking jokes and talking trash to keep the smiles coming after wins and losses. Reid and McDaniels, by far the tightest pair of teammates on the Wolves, are more introverted, serving as perfect wing men for Edwards’ super-sized attitude. They are more liable to sit back and laugh at Ant’s jokes, content to let him command the room while they lob subtle jabs from the peanut gallery.
“We’re just a three-headed goat. That’s what I like to say,” Reid said.
“I look at them almost like X-Men figures,” Hines added. “These dudes have superpowers that really light up when they try to win together.”
While Edwards commands a lot of attention on the court, Reid and McDaniels are the tone-setters in the summer. For years, the Wolves would scatter once the season was over to more exotic locations like Miami, Houston and Los Angeles to do their offseason work. Reid and McDaniels started staying in Minnesota, working out at the team’s practice facility. That compelled Edwards to follow, doing more work here last summer in addition to the time he spent at home in Atlanta.
“We talk to each other all the time, every day,” Edwards said. “And we get on each other when we’re not doing something right. I think that’s the main thing. We’re able to talk to each other no matter how it is, if it’s in the midst of a game, no matter how it comes out. If I’m cussin’ them out or if they’re cussin’ me out, they know how to respond. That’s what I love about them.”
The three Wolfketeers enter their fifth postseason with a lot to prove, even after the success of the last two seasons. Minnesota was beaten soundly in five games in each of its conference finals appearances, ugly ends to thrilling seasons.
The Wolves are decided underdogs against a Nuggets team that closed the regular season on a 12-game winning streak.
“We’re all still kind of hungry and got chips on our shoulder,” McDaniels said. “We haven’t won nothing yet.”
The most exciting part for them is that there is no sign of this ending anytime soon. Edwards has three years left on his five-year, $244 million contract. McDaniels has three more on his five-year, $131 million deal. Reid’s five-year, $125 million deal runs through 2029-30. Wolves fans proudly wave Naz Reid beach towels at WrestleMania and tattoo his name on their bodies. They giddily share memes of McDaniels’ never-changing expressions. Kids beam when Edwards calls them over for autographs. They understand how uncommon their endurance is in this day and age.
“It’s been amazing. It’s a brotherhood,” Reid said. “We’ve grown to love each other outside of basketball. It’s rare to be in this situation.”
This group has played together more than any trio in the league. Now they may be embarking on their biggest challenge yet. Knee injuries hampered Edwards and McDaniels down the stretch. Reid’s shooting shoulder has been throbbing for more than a month. The doubters are legion.
It all sounds so familiar.
“All these dudes have gone through the turmoil of, ‘Are you really that good?’ And if you’re that good, can you show it and prove it?” Hines said.
Ant, Jaden and Naz. They have been through so much together. They have taken a once-hapless franchise to heights never seen.
They are a long way from that frigid January night five years ago. And yet, they still have so much further to go.
MINNEAPOLIS — In an empty arena during the long, cold, COVID-strangled 2020-21 NBA season, the Minnesota Timberwolves hurtled toward rock bottom.
They were coming off a 19-win season and expected to take a big step forward. Less than a month into the season, things already looked bleak. Karl-Anthony Towns was out with COVID. D’Angelo Russell wasn’t becoming the star they initially envisioned. They were getting nothing from Jarrett Culver, the No. 6 pick in the 2019 draft.
Then came Jan. 21, when they let a 20-point lead against the Orlando Magic slip away, falling to 3-10 on the season. Desperation was high. With the league’s strict policy on social distancing, building connections between teammates and coaches was proving to be incredibly difficult. Organizational leaders threw a pizza-and-ice cream party at the practice facility to try to reset their minds and lighten the mood, a self-aware nod to the youngest roster in the league.
As low as they were coming out of that loss, something just kept jumping off the screen when front-office staffers and coaches reviewed the film.
While so many of the more established players were melting down, Anthony Edwards, Naz Reid and Jaden McDaniels kept showing. A 19-year-old and two 20-year-olds looked more mature and composed than anyone on the floor. Starting for Towns, Reid, who was still shedding the extra pounds he put on after a foot injury before his rookie season, scored 14 points and hit a pair of 3-pointers. Edwards, his cheeks still plump with baby fat, shot just 3 for 14 from the field, but his defense and decision-making off the bench led to him being a plus-13 in 23 minutes. After getting DNPs in six of the team’s first 11 games, McDaniels, a spindly 6-foot-9 with a pseudo-mohawk, had 12 points, eight rebounds and three blocks and was plus-19 in 26 minutes.
More than the production, what struck those in charge was the unfazed looks in their eyes. They were not downtrodden as the losses mounted. They did not carry that “here we go again” energy that has defined so many Timberwolves seasons. They marched forward, together, with an unshakeable belief that the suffering felt by everyone in this organization, and this basketball-loving community, was only temporary.
“Despite Ant shooting poorly, you saw that all of these guys were difference-makers,” one former front-office executive said. “Even with a horrific loss, you saw that there was something. The gym was empty, no one in the world probably saw that game. … In the end, we knew there was something positive.”
Six seasons later, Edwards, the No. 1 pick who faced so many doubters before he was drafted, McDaniels, a 28th pick in 2020 known for getting technical fouls at Washington, and Reid, an undrafted free agent, are still together, lifting the Timberwolves out of the squalor. They are playing on contracts that are worth a total of $500 million guaranteed and are leading the team to its fifth straight playoff appearance, the third-longest active streak in the league.
Most impressively, the trio has been together for six seasons, an eternity in the turnstile NBA. They have played 382 regular-season games together since uniting in 2020, 113 more than the next closest active trio: Boston’s Sam Hauser, Payton Pritchard and Derrick White (269 games), according to Elias Sports Bureau. They’ve reached two straight Western Conference finals, unprecedented success for a franchise that has spent most of its existence toiling in dysfunction and self-pity.
“It’s pretty cool. It’s like going to high school freshman year with your friends and just sticking together the whole way, building each year,” McDaniels said. “Each year we’ve been together, we’ve gotten better and went further (as players) than we have the previous season.”
Over these last six years, they have endured coaching and front-office changes, blockbuster trades, injuries and deep, personal loss. When they take the floor Saturday in Denver for Game 1 of the conference quarterfinals against the Nuggets, they do so knowing that they are largely responsible for a new era in Minnesota.
“There are obstacles we all have had to go against in our careers,” Reid said. “It worked out in a better way. We were able to help each other through that and prove we are who we are and that we’ve been that way all along. I think all the questions and stuff are pretty much out the window now.”
None of it was preordained. Edwards and McDaniels came off the bench to start their NBA careers while Reid began his in Iowa. Now Edwards is considered a top-10 player in the league, McDaniels is one of the most versatile defenders and Reid won Sixth Man of the Year two years ago.
“All of these dudes have been underdogs,” said Wolves assistant coach Chris Hines, who has been with the trio every step of the way. “All of ’em.”
The shared connection that has been forged through struggle and success is the secret sauce that powers Minnesota.
Reid was the first to arrive in Minnesota, signing as an undrafted rookie free agent out of LSU in 2019. He was a highly regarded recruit when he landed in Baton Rouge, a big man with a slick handle and a nice outside shot. But scouts had no idea what to do with a 6-9 center who weighed over 275 pounds. When Hines, who was coaching at the Wolves’ G League affiliate in Iowa at that time, first met Reid, he saw a “chubby kid with a good handle who had a lot of talent but had to learn how to play basketball.”
Reid stewed over his misfortune in the draft but did not let it derail him. He hated making the drive from Minneapolis to Iowa in his rookie season but knew that was the only option to one day cracking the NBA club’s rotation.
“He wasn’t the best athlete. He couldn’t defend. But he was just like, ‘I’m not going to quit,'” Hines remembered. “He showed up every day. He showed up on time. He showed up with a smile on his face. He showed up with a good heart and just tried to be a good player and good person. Did I know he was going to make that much money? Yes, because he’s super talented. It clicked.”
McDaniels was a McDonald’s All-American when he got to the University of Washington and had some mock drafts projecting him as a top-five pick. But an underwhelming freshman season saw him plummet down draft boards due to concerns about his temperament and offensive ceiling.
The Timberwolves took him at the bottom of the first round and, in his rookie season, experimented with him in the frontcourt and the post before he settled in at small forward. He did not crack the starting lineup until late March.
Edwards was the first overall pick, but it came in a year in which there was no overwhelming choice for that spot. The Timberwolves labored over the decision between him, James Wiseman and LaMelo Ball, with pundits expressing concern that Edwards wasn’t in love with the game.
When Hines confronted Edwards with that critique, he got his answer.
“That kid looked me in my eyes and said, ‘You got me f—-d up,” Hines said. “I want to be the best to ever do it.”
The Wolves went 23-49 that first season together. As it dragged on, those embedded with the team started to notice a shift. While some of the older players like Russell, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt spent more time together, Edwards, McDaniels and Reid stayed close to one another. Observers jokingly called it the “kids’ table,” but the newness of everything made the losing less disheartening.
They knew they had time and that they were already establishing themselves as important parts of the team’s future. There was no concern about the next contract and little frustration with their roles on the court. They focused on daily improvement, on making sure they’d never feel embarrassed wearing a Wolves uniform again.
“It didn’t feel like they were taking the losses home with them,” said coach Chris Finch, who replaced the fired Ryan Saunders as coach midway through the season. “Learning how to be competitive and what that really means and how to compete on a possession-by-possession basis was something that they all had to do together, in different ways.”
As that bond strengthened, so did the Wolves’ rise in the West.
“All of these dudes have been underdogs,” Wolves assistant coach Chris Hines said of Naz Reid, Jaden McDaniels and Anthony Edwards.
The more time they spent around one another, the more the Wolves benefited. It is not just that their games fit together. Their personalities complement one another in a way that makes it hard to envision the partnership fracturing under the normal stressors of fame and fortune.
“Jaden is super quiet. Naz is quiet, but he is outgoing around the right people,” Edwards said. “Me, I just don’t care who I’m around. I’m going to be myself no matter what. And I think we all just click.”
Edwards is the loud one, filling the locker room with his Atlanta slang and vibrant personality. He is usually heard before he is seen, cracking jokes and talking trash to keep the smiles coming after wins and losses. Reid and McDaniels, by far the tightest pair of teammates on the Wolves, are more introverted, serving as perfect wing men for Edwards’ super-sized attitude. They are more liable to sit back and laugh at Ant’s jokes, content to let him command the room while they lob subtle jabs from the peanut gallery.
“We’re just a three-headed goat. That’s what I like to say,” Reid said.
“I look at them almost like X-Men figures,” Hines added. “These dudes have superpowers that really light up when they try to win together.”
While Edwards commands a lot of attention on the court, Reid and McDaniels are the tone-setters in the summer. For years, the Wolves would scatter once the season was over to more exotic locations like Miami, Houston and Los Angeles to do their offseason work. Reid and McDaniels started staying in Minnesota, working out at the team’s practice facility. That compelled Edwards to follow, doing more work here last summer in addition to the time he spent at home in Atlanta.
“We talk to each other all the time, every day,” Edwards said. “And we get on each other when we’re not doing something right. I think that’s the main thing. We’re able to talk to each other no matter how it is, if it’s in the midst of a game, no matter how it comes out. If I’m cussin’ them out or if they’re cussin’ me out, they know how to respond. That’s what I love about them.”
The three Wolfketeers enter their fifth postseason with a lot to prove, even after the success of the last two seasons. Minnesota was beaten soundly in five games in each of its conference finals appearances, ugly ends to thrilling seasons.
The Wolves are decided underdogs against a Nuggets team that closed the regular season on a 12-game winning streak.
“We’re all still kind of hungry and got chips on our shoulder,” McDaniels said. “We haven’t won nothing yet.”
The most exciting part for them is that there is no sign of this ending anytime soon. Edwards has three years left on his five-year, $244 million contract. McDaniels has three more on his five-year, $131 million deal. Reid’s five-year, $125 million deal runs through 2029-30. Wolves fans proudly wave Naz Reid beach towels at WrestleMania and tattoo his name on their bodies. They giddily share memes of McDaniels’ never-changing expressions. Kids beam when Edwards calls them over for autographs. They understand how uncommon their endurance is in this day and age.
“It’s been amazing. It’s a brotherhood,” Reid said. “We’ve grown to love each other outside of basketball. It’s rare to be in this situation.”
This group has played together more than any trio in the league. Now they may be embarking on their biggest challenge yet. Knee injuries hampered Edwards and McDaniels down the stretch. Reid’s shooting shoulder has been throbbing for more than a month. The doubters are legion.
It all sounds so familiar.
“All these dudes have gone through the turmoil of, ‘Are you really that good?’ And if you’re that good, can you show it and prove it?” Hines said.
Ant, Jaden and Naz. They have been through so much together. They have taken a once-hapless franchise to heights never seen.
They are a long way from that frigid January night five years ago. And yet, they still have so much further to go.
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Wolvesfan21
- Posts: 4633
- Joined: Fri Oct 27, 2017 12:00 am
Re: Wolves vs Nuggets
My initial thought was Denver in 6, but I'm a homer so Denver in 7.FNG wrote: ↑Thu Apr 16, 2026 12:00 pm Haha, I was afraid this poll was coming! I'm going to channel Lip and wait until Saturday morning to vote, because I'm hoping my optimism will increase as we get closer to game time. But if I had to vote right now, I would probably have the Nuggets in 5 with the Wolves only winning game 3. That's why I'm waiting a while before I vote...I want my homer rose-colored glasses to kick in!
Silver lining? I don't know if we had this poll last year, but if we did, I suspect most of us picked the Lakers.
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AbeVigodaLive
- Posts: 10559
- Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 12:00 am
Re: Wolves vs Nuggets
My initial thought was Denver in 5, but I'm a homer so Denver in 6.Wolvesfan21 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 16, 2026 1:35 pmMy initial thought was Denver in 6, but I'm a homer so Denver in 7.
Re: Wolves vs Nuggets
Denver in 3 should be an option, because if they go up 3-0 I'll be out
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AussieWolf3
- Posts: 872
- Joined: Thu May 29, 2025 5:11 pm
Re: Wolves vs Nuggets
I voted Wolves in 6 cause I don't think they'll win game 7 again in Denver it goes to that.
I one thing I'm confident of is that this will be a highly competitive series. Maybe a bad break ends it in 5 but I'm really certain this goes at least 6.
I think folks are too high on Denver and too low on Minnesota. They're much more closely match that credit is being given, especially with Denver missing guys as it and the consistent concern about Gordon.
Obviously we don't really know where Ant is at health wise but outside of him the team is really healthy. I just very much expect this to be a competitive series
I one thing I'm confident of is that this will be a highly competitive series. Maybe a bad break ends it in 5 but I'm really certain this goes at least 6.
I think folks are too high on Denver and too low on Minnesota. They're much more closely match that credit is being given, especially with Denver missing guys as it and the consistent concern about Gordon.
Obviously we don't really know where Ant is at health wise but outside of him the team is really healthy. I just very much expect this to be a competitive series
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Coolbreeze44
- Posts: 14003
- Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 12:00 am
Re: Wolves vs Nuggets
Definitely much more closely matched than what we are hearing said. I took Denver in 7.AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 16, 2026 5:21 pm I voted Wolves in 6 cause I don't think they'll win game 7 again in Denver it goes to that.
I one thing I'm confident of is that this will be a highly competitive series. Maybe a bad break ends it in 5 but I'm really certain this goes at least 6.
I think folks are too high on Denver and too low on Minnesota. They're much more closely match that credit is being given, especially with Denver missing guys as it and the consistent concern about Gordon.
Obviously we don't really know where Ant is at health wise but outside of him the team is really healthy. I just very much expect this to be a competitive series
Re: Wolves vs Nuggets
Denver in 6, followed by a reset offseason with significant changes