Minnesota Sports Forum

Pssst... The Wolves' goal this season, realistically, was never to win a championship. We have two All-NBA caliber players -- one is Jimmy Butler and the other is far from a finished product defensively -- and one high ceiling player who's still disappointing and disappearing on both ends of the floor. We have to take steps to become a contender. Unless your team acquired LeBron James over the summer, it doesn't happen overnight. The first step is making the playoffs after 13 seasons of being in the lottery. One could argue we're actually ahead of the curve in our development in that if the season ended today, we'd have home court advantage in the first round. That's a lot better than scratching and clawing for the 7th or 8th seed. We may disagree about the style in which Thibodeau does his job, but the results so far are there undoubtedly.

Camden0916 wrote:

thedoper wrote:I follow the Wolves closely and am happy. Those that have played highly competitive sports know how hard it is to win when every team is full of amazing athletes. Any win is a good win in the NBA.

Co-signed. Winning, especially at the professional level, is no easy task and the ugliest win counts just as much as the most dominant performance. It's really that simple.

I know this forum is great because we microanalyze the on-court product and break it down for what we think it is, but at 17-12 and on pace to win 48 games while being the fourth-seed in the West... That, my friends, is called success any way you slice it.

Agreed. Honestly...they are ahead of where I thought they would be because they started off the first 10-15 games with a winning record. I didn't expect these guys to figure it out right away. I thought somewhere in the middle of the season they would go on a nice run and get where they needed to be. I wasn't sure they would be able to defend this year and that's why I picked 45 wins. They haven't been killed by injuries but Teague and Butler missed some games and Belly being out is fairly significant. We assume Payton wasn't gonna be a factor but that injury should be considered. You never know when a young guy shows more than you thought he would or maybe would have figured it out enough to help the last 20 games or something. I get the angst it doesn't always look pretty but I'm keeping my expectations in check. This is a year to win some games hopefully develop some chemistry, get in the playoffs so the young guys know what that is about. Along the way some young players may develop and we may know what moves to make in the offseason via FA or even a relatively minor trade.

I think anyone that has played at any level of sports knows that any season of any sport in an evolution along the way. You have to get better and what you do has to change somewhat. What you were doing early in the year may not work as well later on. Some guys play well at one part of the season and them drop off. Some guys blow chunks then find their way. It's a long season in the NBA.

Camden wrote:Pssst... The Wolves' goal this season, realistically, was never to win a championship. We have two All-NBA caliber players -- one is Jimmy Butler and the other is far from a finished product defensively -- and one high ceiling player who's still disappointing and disappearing on both ends of the floor. We have to take steps to become a contender. Unless your team acquired LeBron James over the summer, it doesn't happen overnight. The first step is making the playoffs after 13 seasons of being in the lottery. One could argue we're actually ahead of the curve in our development in that if the season ended today, we'd have home court advantage in the first round. That's a lot better than scratching and clawing for the 7th or 8th seed. We may disagree about the style in which Thibodeau does his job, but the results so far are there undoubtedly.

Of course the Wolves were not winning it this year, I never said they were, their odds are probably less then 1/1000. What I am saying is that because they haven't progressed at all I don't see them ever having a chance. With Wiggins playing worse then he has all his career and KAT still playing poor defense, it just isn't looking good. Great players get better year after year, they're not Rooks anymore.

Can't use the potential card forever. Have to actually get it done.

I guess my argument is that -- no matter how ugly or difficult it is to watch at times -- this team is getting it done more often than not. That's evident by their record to this point. And at the end of the day, the W/L categories matter more than anything.

Camden wrote:I guess my argument is that -- no matter how ugly or difficult it is to watch at times -- this team is getting it done more often than not. That's evident by their record to this point. And at the end of the day, the W/L categories matter more than anything.

Sure, but still a thousand miles away from beating GSW, was hoping just maybe next year or the year after.

Yeah it's nice to win a few games, I want to see progress from the young guys. We all knew that Butler Teague a Taj would win more games then what we had last year. That's expected.

To go through 13 years of suck just to become mediocre doesn't do much for me. I want to see a contender, I'm not seeing the potential yet.

WolvesFan21 wrote:

Camden wrote:I guess my argument is that -- no matter how ugly or difficult it is to watch at times -- this team is getting it done more often than not. That's evident by their record to this point. And at the end of the day, the W/L categories matter more than anything.

Sure, but still a thousand miles away from beating GSW, was hoping just maybe next year or the year after.

Yeah it's nice to win a few games, I want to see progress from the young guys. We all knew that Butler Teague a Taj would win more games then what we had last year. That's expected.

To go through 13 years of suck just to become mediocre doesn't do much for me. I want to see a contender, I'm not seeing the potential yet.

You're missing the point my fellow Wolves fanatic. You don't go from bottom dweller to title contender overnight without the addition of a mega superstar. We have to become mediocre, or even slightly better than that, before we can expect to contend for a championship. It's a process and whether we want to admit it or not, we're still in the early stages.

Anybody want to defend them tonight? I asked if I'm doing it wrong, yet this team keeps proving the optimists wrong.

TheSP wrote:Anybody want to defend them tonight? I asked if I'm doing it wrong, yet this team keeps proving the optimists wrong.

It was the jerseys

TheSP wrote:Anybody want to defend them tonight? I asked if I'm doing it wrong, yet this team keeps proving the optimists wrong.

And folks wonder how some of us could possibly be dissatisfied with things.....Exhibit A is tonight. Or barely beating highly inferior teams. The Sacramento game was an exception, not the rule.

Camden wrote:

WolvesFan21 wrote:

Camden wrote:I guess my argument is that -- no matter how ugly or difficult it is to watch at times -- this team is getting it done more often than not. That's evident by their record to this point. And at the end of the day, the W/L categories matter more than anything.

Sure, but still a thousand miles away from beating GSW, was hoping just maybe next year or the year after.

Yeah it's nice to win a few games, I want to see progress from the young guys. We all knew that Butler Teague a Taj would win more games then what we had last year. That's expected.

To go through 13 years of suck just to become mediocre doesn't do much for me. I want to see a contender, I'm not seeing the potential yet.

You're missing the point my fellow Wolves fanatic. You don't go from bottom dweller to title contender overnight without the addition of a mega superstar. We have to become mediocre, or even slightly better than that, before we can expect to contend for a championship. It's a process and whether we want to admit it or not, we're still in the early stages.

I think you missed the point. The point is that Wiggins and KAT are not living up to the hype and Wiggins is regressing. In reality the last season is meaningless when comparing it to this team in Win's/Losses.

The team has been overhauled. 3/5 new starters. The only losers left areThibs, KAT and Wiggins and I blame mostly Wiggins for horrific scoring for what he does best or now worst.