Camden wrote:Memphis didn't make any significant additions while losing Kyle Anderson and De'Anthony Melton from their rotation, and Jaren Jackson Jr. probably won't be back until January.
I do not see them being better than Minnesota this season and I think they will slide more in the standings than any other team outside of Utah.
I think you make a good point. I'll add that Dillion Brooks only played 32 games last year in the regular season so if he could stay healthy that probably helps.
My guess is that they are not only hoping to get some sort of worthwhile contributions from their rookie first rounders but they may also hope to get more out of guys on their roster that may be ready for larger roles like Ziaire Williams, Brandon Clarke and John Konchar. Santiago Aldama looked really good in preseason and looks like he did some pretty good things last year in the G-league. That's a lot of guys that have to step up though. Memphis has done pretty well in that regard developing players. Still back to Cam's point who is gonna play the minutes that JJJ (until he is back healthy) and Anderson played at PF though? Brandon Clarke and Jake LaRavia? Yeah...and JJJ was at least in the conversation for DPOY last year and was a first team defense selection. They are gonna miss that till he gets back and in the groove.
I think most good basketball analysts would say the Wolves have the best defensive big in Gobert and the 2nd or 3rd best offensive big in KAT. But that's not going to get the Wolves into the top 3 or 4 in the West - not in today's NBA. The three most important positions in today's NBA are the 1, 2 and 3. All three of those positions are question marks for the Wolves. We don't know what we can expect from DLO. Will he be more consistent? Will he keep the ball moving and facilitate others effectively? Will he defend decently like last season or revert to being a poor defender? We don't know what we'll get from McDaniels. So far he's been a one-way player. And while his calling card has been defense, but he hasn't shown he can defend consistently without fouling. Edwards was terrific last season and looked like he's on the road to becoming a superstar. But he's far from being a superstar yet and he's still barely 21 years old.
All of that is a long way of saying that whether the Wolves end up a top 3-4 team will depend largely on the development and play of Edwards and McDaniels. It's been said before and I'll say it again, this team will go as far as Edwards (and McDaniels in my view) can take them. If those two become the players I think they can be sooner rather than later, then combining them with Gobert and KAT should make this team a top three finisher and title contender.
Suns
Wolves
Warriors
Clippers (I think they are the west favorites)
Nuggets
Grizzlies
Mavs
Jazz (until they trade Mitchell)
Lakers
Kings
Pelicans
Blazers
Thunder
Spurs
Rockets
I think the top 5 are the the clear top 5. Thing about the wolves I think they could lose any of their top 3 players and still be super competitive what I like a lot.
I have the clippers 4 because they are going to rest kawhi and George a lot but they would be my pick to win the west.
If Mitchell is not traded I do think the Jazz are sneaky solid, they have a lot of players who do not suck
My boldest prediction is that the pelicans are not even play in team. That Ingram and Zion combo has never meshed well together. I think both a super talented but they have not been good defensively. Also McCollum and Valuncunis are not great defenders. I think they won't be able to get stops and live up to expectations
Camden wrote:Memphis didn't make any significant additions while losing Kyle Anderson and De'Anthony Melton from their rotation, and Jaren Jackson Jr. probably won't be back until January.
I do not see them being better than Minnesota this season and I think they will slide more in the standings than any other team outside of Utah.
I think they learned to win last year and that will give them 5 to 6 games. Well coached, maturity in all positions.
On Phoenix, I think Paul is done and I think that is enough to cost them 10 games if that is reality.
lipoli390 wrote:I think most good basketball analysts would say the Wolves have the best defensive big in Gobert and the 2nd or 3rd best offensive big in KAT. But that's not going to get the Wolves into the top 3 or 4 in the West - not in today's NBA. The three most important positions in today's NBA are the 1, 2 and 3. All three of those positions are question marks for the Wolves. We don't know what we can expect from DLO. Will he be more consistent? Will he keep the ball moving and facilitate others effectively? Will he defend decently like last season or revert to being a poor defender? We don't know what we'll get from McDaniels. So far he's been a one-way player. And while his calling card has been defense, but he hasn't shown he can defend consistently without fouling. Edwards was terrific last season and looked like he's on the road to becoming a superstar. But he's far from being a superstar yet and he's still barely 21 years old.
All of that is a long way of saying that whether the Wolves end up a top 3-4 team will depend largely on the development and play of Edwards and McDaniels. It's been said before and I'll say it again, this team will go as far as Edwards (and McDaniels in my view) can take them. If those two become the players I think they can be sooner rather than later, then combining them with Gobert and KAT should make this team a top three finisher and title contender.
The #1 thing that will likely impact the order will be injuries. Some team or teams will get decimated by them, as happens every year. We just don't know who yet. Could be us. The #2 factor for the Wolves after staying relatively healthy is how DLO, Ant, and Jaden perform (i.e. totally agree with Lip). I'd even go so far as saying it's mostly about Ant and Jaden. DLO is what he is - a solid positive on offense, a negative on defense. It's just a matter of degrees with him.
As for the bench, I rate it as "OK to solid". The good news is we aren't relying on rookies or 2nd year guys. It's now officially a veteran bench: Anderson, Prince, Naz, Nowell, JMac, Rivers, Forbes. I think they collectively help raise the floor of this team, but I don't necessarily see that group digging us out of big holes either. We need the starting 5 to be pretty damn elite to make the Top 4.
Given all of that, I'd say we will end up somewhere in the 4-6 range.
Camden wrote:Memphis didn't make any significant additions while losing Kyle Anderson and De'Anthony Melton from their rotation, and Jaren Jackson Jr. probably won't be back until January.
I do not see them being better than Minnesota this season and I think they will slide more in the standings than any other team outside of Utah.
I think they learned to win last year and that will give them 5 to 6 games. Well coached, maturity in all positions.
On Phoenix, I think Paul is done and I think that is enough to cost them 10 games if that is reality.
Memphis just executes - just amazing contrast between their poise and execution versus ours in the playoff series. We had more talent, but they executed better.
Having said that, in addition to JJJ, you have to wonder about Morant and how many games he misses again. He isn't the most durable player and is a bit frail for the way he plays the game. Of course that didn't deter them last year at all (back to out-executing teams!).
lipoli390 wrote:I think most good basketball analysts would say the Wolves have the best defensive big in Gobert and the 2nd or 3rd best offensive big in KAT. But that's not going to get the Wolves into the top 3 or 4 in the West - not in today's NBA. The three most important positions in today's NBA are the 1, 2 and 3. All three of those positions are question marks for the Wolves. We don't know what we can expect from DLO. Will he be more consistent? Will he keep the ball moving and facilitate others effectively? Will he defend decently like last season or revert to being a poor defender? We don't know what we'll get from McDaniels. So far he's been a one-way player. And while his calling card has been defense, but he hasn't shown he can defend consistently without fouling. Edwards was terrific last season and looked like he's on the road to becoming a superstar. But he's far from being a superstar yet and he's still barely 21 years old.
All of that is a long way of saying that whether the Wolves end up a top 3-4 team will depend largely on the development and play of Edwards and McDaniels. It's been said before and I'll say it again, this team will go as far as Edwards (and McDaniels in my view) can take them. If those two become the players I think they can be sooner rather than later, then combining them with Gobert and KAT should make this team a top three finisher and title contender.
This is a good post. If ant just improves a little, I'd say we're 6 or 7. If he improves a lot we'll be top 3. I think you're correct that 1,2 and 3 are the three most important positions in today's league. And yet we decided to pay super max contracts to two 5's (and yes, kat is a 5). As per usual, I think the experts are right and the homers are wrong. I hope gobert learned how to guard perimeter players this offseason because kat won't be able to. It's a perimeter league. Yeah, this trade gets us into the playoffs as a bottom 4 seed, congrats... what a stupid move by short sighted pobo.
lipoli390 wrote:I think most good basketball analysts would say the Wolves have the best defensive big in Gobert and the 2nd or 3rd best offensive big in KAT. But that's not going to get the Wolves into the top 3 or 4 in the West - not in today's NBA. The three most important positions in today's NBA are the 1, 2 and 3. All three of those positions are question marks for the Wolves. We don't know what we can expect from DLO. Will he be more consistent? Will he keep the ball moving and facilitate others effectively? Will he defend decently like last season or revert to being a poor defender? We don't know what we'll get from McDaniels. So far he's been a one-way player. And while his calling card has been defense, but he hasn't shown he can defend consistently without fouling. Edwards was terrific last season and looked like he's on the road to becoming a superstar. But he's far from being a superstar yet and he's still barely 21 years old.
All of that is a long way of saying that whether the Wolves end up a top 3-4 team will depend largely on the development and play of Edwards and McDaniels. It's been said before and I'll say it again, this team will go as far as Edwards (and McDaniels in my view) can take them. If those two become the players I think they can be sooner rather than later, then combining them with Gobert and KAT should make this team a top three finisher and title contender.
This is a good post. If ant just improves a little, I'd say we're 6 or 7. If he improves a lot we'll be top 3. I think you're correct that 1,2 and 3 are the three most important positions in today's league. And yet we decided to pay super max contracts to two 5's (and yes, kat is a 5). As per usual, I think the experts are right and the homers are wrong. I hope gobert learned how to guard perimeter players this offseason because kat won't be able to. It's a perimeter league. Yeah, this trade gets us into the playoffs as a bottom 4 seed, congrats... what a stupid move by short sighted pobo.
Who are the best players in the league? What position do they play?
lipoli390 wrote:I think most good basketball analysts would say the Wolves have the best defensive big in Gobert and the 2nd or 3rd best offensive big in KAT. But that's not going to get the Wolves into the top 3 or 4 in the West - not in today's NBA. The three most important positions in today's NBA are the 1, 2 and 3. All three of those positions are question marks for the Wolves. We don't know what we can expect from DLO. Will he be more consistent? Will he keep the ball moving and facilitate others effectively? Will he defend decently like last season or revert to being a poor defender? We don't know what we'll get from McDaniels. So far he's been a one-way player. And while his calling card has been defense, but he hasn't shown he can defend consistently without fouling. Edwards was terrific last season and looked like he's on the road to becoming a superstar. But he's far from being a superstar yet and he's still barely 21 years old.
All of that is a long way of saying that whether the Wolves end up a top 3-4 team will depend largely on the development and play of Edwards and McDaniels. It's been said before and I'll say it again, this team will go as far as Edwards (and McDaniels in my view) can take them. If those two become the players I think they can be sooner rather than later, then combining them with Gobert and KAT should make this team a top three finisher and title contender.
This is a good post. If ant just improves a little, I'd say we're 6 or 7. If he improves a lot we'll be top 3. I think you're correct that 1,2 and 3 are the three most important positions in today's league. And yet we decided to pay super max contracts to two 5's (and yes, kat is a 5). As per usual, I think the experts are right and the homers are wrong. I hope gobert learned how to guard perimeter players this offseason because kat won't be able to. It's a perimeter league. Yeah, this trade gets us into the playoffs as a bottom 4 seed, congrats... what a stupid move by short sighted pobo.
Who are the best players in the league? What position do they play?
Are said players that you're referring to winning championships? Are they (jokic/embiid) even coming close to winning championships? Sure they're great players, but the great perimeter players are the ones having the playoff success. The wolves will just be a treadmill team that makes the playoffs every year but doesn't threaten for titles... unless Ant breaks out. But we already had that upside with or without gobert. I'm glad you all think gobert is so great, but the problem is he doesn't really change our upside at all. We needed to either use our big move for a perimeter guy like Murray or save our big move for when the right perimeter guy came available. You didn't see Milwaukee go out an add a super max center next to Giannis... no they added the perimeter guy in holiday and it worked. We should have added a couple cheaper bigs in the mold of portis and saved our big move for a perimeter guy. Why? Because it's a perimeter league AND we already have a starting center lol.
