December and January- months of reckoning

[DNatagal]

Some of these new trade rumors are getting interesting. They count Ant and KAT as the core and leave DLO as tradeable. Those Dame trade ideas are interesting, even the one getting us Buddy Hield.

A Harden-esque deal from Minnesota
Portland gets:
D'Angelo Russell
Taurean Prince
2024 first-round pick (unprotected)
Rights to swap 2025 first-round picks (top-1 protected)
2026 first-round pick (top-3 protected, then becomes unprotected in 2027)
2028 first-round pick (two years after previous pick conveys, top-3 protected 2028, becomes unprotected 2029)

Minnesota gets:
Damian Lillard
Ben McLemore




Lillard goes to NorCal in a four-team deal
Portland gets:
Tyrese Haliburton
Davion Mitchell
Marvin Bagley III
Tristan Thompson
2023 first-round pick (from SAC)

Minnesota gets:
Buddy Hield
Cody Zeller

Sacramento gets:
Damian Lillard
Patrick Beverley
Tony Snell
Jaden McDaniels
2022 second-round pick (from MIN)

Oklahoma City gets:
Jake Layman
2022 second-round pick (from WSH, via MIN)

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

We're exactly halfway through this stretch of games -- 13 games out of 26 -- with a 6-7 record during that time. The Wolves have been decimated by COVID protocols over the last couple of weeks, but they've had some talented young players step up and help carry the load resulting in some competitive basketball. They should probably have more than six wins over that stretch, but it's hard to be upset with where this team is right now even at 17-20 for the season.

Minnesota should get Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell back this week as they enter a four-game slate of very winnable games with even more toss-ups left in the month. Hopefully, the time without them forced other players to be more aggressive/productive and that continues once they return -- specifically looking at Jaylen Nowell and Jaden McDaniels with that comment. Plenty of good basketball remaining for this team.

[Q-is-here]

We're exactly halfway through this stretch of games -- 13 games out of 26 -- with a 6-7 record during that time. The Wolves have been decimated by COVID protocols over the last couple of weeks, but they've had some talented young players step up and help carry the load resulting in some competitive basketball. They should probably have more than six wins over that stretch, but it's hard to be upset with where this team is right now even at 17-20 for the season.

Minnesota should get Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell back this week as they enter a four-game slate of very winnable games with even more toss-ups left in the month. Hopefully, the time without them forced other players to be more aggressive/productive and that continues once they return -- specifically looking at Jaylen Nowell and Jaden McDaniels with that comment. Plenty of good basketball remaining for this team.

They have got to win 3 or 4 out of their next 4 games because the schedule is absolutely BRUTAL through the rest of the month. May be we run into some injury/Covid luck (in terms of our opponents) along the way and we pick off a win or two during the tough part of the schedule.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

We're exactly halfway through this stretch of games -- 13 games out of 26 -- with a 6-7 record during that time. The Wolves have been decimated by COVID protocols over the last couple of weeks, but they've had some talented young players step up and help carry the load resulting in some competitive basketball. They should probably have more than six wins over that stretch, but it's hard to be upset with where this team is right now even at 17-20 for the season.

Minnesota should get Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell back this week as they enter a four-game slate of very winnable games with even more toss-ups left in the month. Hopefully, the time without them forced other players to be more aggressive/productive and that continues once they return -- specifically looking at Jaylen Nowell and Jaden McDaniels with that comment. Plenty of good basketball remaining for this team.

They have got to win 3 or 4 out of their next 4 games because the schedule is absolutely BRUTAL through the rest of the month. May be we run into some injury/Covid luck (in terms of our opponents) along the way and we pick off a win or two during the tough part of the schedule.

Sounds like FNG-was-here. I don't see the January schedule being BRUTAL or anything close to it. They get four straight games where they'll be favored followed by four of nine that they should be able to win.

And then you factor in that this team has the talent to steal one against Brooklyn, Golden State, Phoenix, or Utah -- though obviously you can't expect that to happen. All of this is to say that January should be a good month for Minnesota.

[thedoper]

Theyre on pace to be at the top end of everyone's predictions which is positive. I said it in last nights game thread, this team feels different. I like that they fight every night. If we can have a good stretch of health it is hard not to feel good about where we will be in the final stretch of the season.

[Q-is-here]

Theyre on pace to be at the top end of everyone's predictions which is positive. I said it in last nights game thread, this team feels different. I like that they fight every night. If we can have a good stretch of health it is hard not to feel good about where we will be in the final stretch of the season.

To your point, last night even when things were close at the end of Q1, it "felt" like we had the better squad on the floor. Obviously both teams were missing key guys, but our complimentary pieces felt better than their complimentary pieces. I haven't said that much this year, as I have viewed the performance of our 6-10 guys rather dimly up to this point.

[thedoper]

Theyre on pace to be at the top end of everyone's predictions which is positive. I said it in last nights game thread, this team feels different. I like that they fight every night. If we can have a good stretch of health it is hard not to feel good about where we will be in the final stretch of the season.

To your point, last night even when things were close at the end of Q1, it "felt" like we had the better squad on the floor. Obviously both teams were missing key guys, but our complimentary pieces felt better than their complimentary pieces. I haven't said that much this year, as I have viewed the performance of our 6-10 guys rather dimly up to this point.

This is easily my favorite Wolves team since KG. They are unified, have young home grown talent, and quite a few lunch bucket players that give a shit. The only eye roller for me this year has been KATs foul baiting and whining but quite honestly when you look at our team foul differential he has a point. I think skepticism with any Wolves team is the smartest bet, but Ive really enjoyed this season so far. I never would have thought we'd have a defensive identity with our roster.

[Q-is-here]

Theyre on pace to be at the top end of everyone's predictions which is positive. I said it in last nights game thread, this team feels different. I like that they fight every night. If we can have a good stretch of health it is hard not to feel good about where we will be in the final stretch of the season.

To your point, last night even when things were close at the end of Q1, it "felt" like we had the better squad on the floor. Obviously both teams were missing key guys, but our complimentary pieces felt better than their complimentary pieces. I haven't said that much this year, as I have viewed the performance of our 6-10 guys rather dimly up to this point.

This is easily my favorite Wolves team since KG. They are unified, have young home grown talent, and quite a few lunch bucket players that give a shit. The only eye roller for me this year has been KATs foul baiting and whining but quite honestly when you look at our team foul differential he has a point. I think skepticism with any Wolves team is the smartest bet, but Ive really enjoyed this season so far. I never would have thought we'd have a defensive identity with our roster.

At this point, I've just accepted that KAT is going to be KAT. He's still by far our best player. As a second tier star, he can't carry a team (either as a player or leader), so he needs others to help more. Specifically, guys need to start making more shots. We can't have these 1-11 type nights we've seen from the likes of DLO. But it's obviously not just him. Multiple guys are below their career avg. on 3pt %. Fix that and we're in the playoffs.

[Wolvesfan21]

Theyre on pace to be at the top end of everyone's predictions which is positive. I said it in last nights game thread, this team feels different. I like that they fight every night. If we can have a good stretch of health it is hard not to feel good about where we will be in the final stretch of the season.

To your point, last night even when things were close at the end of Q1, it "felt" like we had the better squad on the floor. Obviously both teams were missing key guys, but our complimentary pieces felt better than their complimentary pieces. I haven't said that much this year, as I have viewed the performance of our 6-10 guys rather dimly up to this point.

This is easily my favorite Wolves team since KG. They are unified, have young home grown talent, and quite a few lunch bucket players that give a shit. The only eye roller for me this year has been KATs foul baiting and whining but quite honestly when you look at our team foul differential he has a point. I think skepticism with any Wolves team is the smartest bet, but Ive really enjoyed this season so far. I never would have thought we'd have a defensive identity with our roster.

The Wolves do shoot the most 3P's in the NBA though too. I would like to see a stat for fouls based on 2P's attempted.

[Q-is-here]

We're 4.5 games ahead of the 11th seed in the West. That gives us a nice buffer as we head into a really tough stretch here. With a healthy roster, I'm really hoping we can pick off a couple of wins against what will be a rogue's gallery of NBA juggernauts - Memphis (!), Golden State (twice), Utah, Brooklyn, Phoenix....all on the docket before the month is out.