Minnesota Sports Forum

Q12543 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:Can someone tell me how Lebron can barely scrape out 50 wins last year in the East only to see a game and a half drop moving to the West? I would pound the under on the Lakers if I had the extra cash.

Cleveland didn't play defense, the Lakers do. Walton is a way better coach than Lue. Also, don't be surprised to see a guy like Kuzma or Hart suddenly become a big factor for them.

A very young Lakers team went 35 - 47 last season, including 21 - 21 in the 2nd half of the season. Offensively, it was a mixed bag at best... defensively, they were borderline solid... finishing 12th in Def Rating.

Lonzo Ball missed 30 games.
Ingram missed 23 games.
Josh Hart missed 19 games.

And now the team added LeBron James. I wouldn't put too much stock in Cleveland's record last season. That team, in that conference... playoff seeding didn't matter. Every team, and every player in the L knew that. They sleepwalked through the season.

A younger team that hasn't tasted 3 straight cakewalks to the Finals could be a hungrier team. I have no idea how Rondo and Stephenson fit in other than that both are serviceable vets when put in favorable situations. The one thing I do know for certain is that LeBron James is a freak of nature.

I STILL don't care for him. But I wouldn't bet against him in any way at this point. He's pretty damn remarkable.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:Can someone tell me how Lebron can barely scrape out 50 wins last year in the East only to see a game and a half drop moving to the West? I would pound the under on the Lakers if I had the extra cash.

Cleveland didn't play defense, the Lakers do. Walton is a way better coach than Lue. Also, don't be surprised to see a guy like Kuzma or Hart suddenly become a big factor for them.

A very young Lakers team went 35 - 47 last season, including 21 - 21 in the 2nd half of the season. Offensively, it was a mixed bag at best... defensively, they were borderline solid... finishing 12th in Def Rating.

Lonzo Ball missed 30 games.
Ingram missed 23 games.
Josh Hart missed 19 games.

And now the team added LeBron James. I wouldn't put too much stock in Cleveland's record last season. That team, in that conference... playoff seeding didn't matter. Every team, and every player in the L knew that. They sleepwalked through the season.

A younger team that hasn't tasted 3 straight cakewalks to the Finals could be a hungrier team. I have no idea how Rondo and Stephenson fit in other than that both are serviceable vets when put in favorable situations. The one thing I do know for certain is that LeBron James is a freak of nature.

I STILL don't care for him. But I wouldn't bet against him in any way at this point. He's pretty damn remarkable.

And Lebron played the full 82 last year which he had never done and tells you how much every game mattered to that team. That was the best that Cleveland team could have done and it got them 50. I get that he's a great player. He's now in a conference where most teams have at least 2 great players to his one and as great as he is, he alone isn't worth CP3 and Harden or Steph and KD or even Butler and Towns.

khans2k5 wrote:

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

Q12543 wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:Can someone tell me how Lebron can barely scrape out 50 wins last year in the East only to see a game and a half drop moving to the West? I would pound the under on the Lakers if I had the extra cash.

Cleveland didn't play defense, the Lakers do. Walton is a way better coach than Lue. Also, don't be surprised to see a guy like Kuzma or Hart suddenly become a big factor for them.

A very young Lakers team went 35 - 47 last season, including 21 - 21 in the 2nd half of the season. Offensively, it was a mixed bag at best... defensively, they were borderline solid... finishing 12th in Def Rating.

Lonzo Ball missed 30 games.
Ingram missed 23 games.
Josh Hart missed 19 games.

And now the team added LeBron James. I wouldn't put too much stock in Cleveland's record last season. That team, in that conference... playoff seeding didn't matter. Every team, and every player in the L knew that. They sleepwalked through the season.

A younger team that hasn't tasted 3 straight cakewalks to the Finals could be a hungrier team. I have no idea how Rondo and Stephenson fit in other than that both are serviceable vets when put in favorable situations. The one thing I do know for certain is that LeBron James is a freak of nature.

I STILL don't care for him. But I wouldn't bet against him in any way at this point. He's pretty damn remarkable.

And Lebron played the full 82 last year which he had never done and tells you how much every game mattered to that team. That was the best that Cleveland team could have done and it got them 50. I get that he's a great player. He's now in a conference where most teams have at least 2 great players to his one and as great as he is, he alone isn't worth CP3 and Harden or Steph and KD or even Butler and Towns.

There are some good thoughts back and forth here. The Cavs horrific defense is a good point plus they flipped like over half their roster around the trade deadline. I don't bet but I don't think I would go against Lebron I'd look at some other options first.

Yeah, I don't think the Lakers are a shoe-in to win 50+ games, but I wouldn't want to bet against them either. Good young coach, good young talent, a solid defense, and now LeBron.

So, Vegas sees us winning 2 1/2 fewer games next year. Must be due to losing Crawford?


Anybody else (other than Jimmy Butler) going to be very disappointed if this team can't go over that total?

longstrangetrip wrote:So, Vegas sees us winning 2 1/2 fewer games next year. Must be due to losing Crawford?


Anybody else (other than Jimmy Butler) going to be very disappointed if this team can't go over that total?

A lot of it has to be because the West is so much better this year. Lakers better, Mavericks better, Grizzlies better, Suns better. Only the Kings didn't so solid improvement.

longstrangetrip wrote:So, Vegas sees us winning 2 1/2 fewer games next year. Must be due to losing Crawford?


Anybody else (other than Jimmy Butler) going to be very disappointed if this team can't go over that total?

It's clean house time if we can't go over that. We have 3 seed talent and that's where we should be pending injuries.

khans2k5 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:So, Vegas sees us winning 2 1/2 fewer games next year. Must be due to losing Crawford?


Anybody else (other than Jimmy Butler) going to be very disappointed if this team can't go over that total?

It's clean house time if we can't go over that. We have 3 seed talent and that's where we should be pending injuries.

Injuries are always the wild card...if butler and towns miss a significant number of games, this team doesn't finish .500. But absent that, I agree this rister has top 3 talent.

There is one scenario where I would be ecstatic if this team wins 43 games. We start out 10-20, and thibs is shown the door. A new coach comes in with a lot of positve energy, and the team responds by finishing 33-21 and sneaks into the 8th seed. Butler likes the new energy and accepts a max contract from Taylor who agrees to pay the lux tax because he likes the direction of the team.

Well, a guy can dream...

kekgeek1 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:So, Vegas sees us winning 2 1/2 fewer games next year. Must be due to losing Crawford?


Anybody else (other than Jimmy Butler) going to be very disappointed if this team can't go over that total?

A lot of it has to be because the West is so much better this year. Lakers better, Mavericks better, Grizzlies better, Suns better. Only the Kings didn't so solid improvement.

Agreed. It's less to do with us getting worse per se and more about the West getting even better. Obviously Vegas isn't betting on KAT becoming a defensive monster or Wiggins becoming a consistent two-way threat. If either of those two or both happened, we'd be a top 4 team.

I'm cautiously pessimistic, which only applies to Minnesota fans. Our default is to think the worst, but reserve the right to be all out bandwagoneers in the event things go unexpectedly well!

Taking that Wolves under to the bank. 45 wins is basically them saying nobody on this team is going to make the marked improvement that needs to be made (mainly Wiggins)