Minnesota Sports Forum

I like Taj and wouldn't mind seeing him back next year as a backup, but I would ask him if he wants to be on a playoff team this year and if he does buy him out and give him the chance. We can always try to sign him again in the off season after doing him a solid this year. Start Dario and play KBD some minutes. Keep Covington out and bring him back healthy next year. Hopefully Tyus can come back I still want to see him consistently start before we extend him this Summer. Bring in Ben Mclemore off the waiver wire and give him some of Wiggins minutes to help the tank. If for some reason the lottery Gods smile on us, Zion completely changes everything, and either Morant or Barrett can help immensely as well.

Playing without 75% of our rotation players, aren't we already tanking?

crazy-canuck wrote:Playing without 75% of our rotation players, aren't we already tanking?

This is why I'm giving Saunders a little more leeway. I'll evaluate him with a relatively healthy squad.

crazy-canuck wrote:Playing without 75% of our rotation players, aren't we already tanking?

Ha, we'd be gigantic overachievers if we weren't!

While I'm enjoying the gallows humor on this board in the excuses and tanking threads, I'm pretty sure that everyone here understands the impact of the players who are out for us. Even if we didn't have our five best PGs injured (as we did at the end of the Memphis game), just having RoCo out might be enough to torpedo a lot of teams. We tend to forget that the game is played at both ends of the court, and defense has as much impact on a game as offense. RoCo was an all-NBA defensive player last year, and losing an all-NBA level player is an insurmountable hurdle in any reasonable opinion...even if he wasn't also our best 3-point shooter! Add to that the PG injury disaster, and it's a wonder how this team has won any games in the past 2 weeks!

So, are we tanking? Of course, but not intentionally. That said, I'm not on board with any intentional tanking if a couple PGs and Covington can come back healthy after the all-star game...4 games in the loss column just isn't that much to make up, especially when the teams in front of is aren't that good. But if they're not available in the first game after the break, I'll join the chorus and look for ways to improve out draft position. Play Josh Okogie 36 minutes a game both to help him develop and to ensure losses. Play KBD a lot of minutes at PF for the same reason. Sit our injured players dwon for the rest of the season and give Isaiah Canaan most of the PG minutes. Limit KAT to 20 minutes a game. Do all of these things, and we have a good chance of getting the 6th most ping pong balls, or even 5th if we dare to dream!

My only concern is KAT. Did you notice he left the court immediately after the game last night? No handshakes, no compliments, hugs, nothing.... How much longer before he or his agent makes a public plea to be traded? I just hope that KAT is included in how we are going about changing the direction of this team.

As for free agents, the wolves are in a bad place. Even if we had cap room you need to convince a talent to come to a place where:
o We don't know who will be the coach
o Who's going to make the finial shot
o And MN state income taxes (I could be wrong, but I don't think the CBA allows the team to compensate/pay for said state taxes)
o And lastly Wiggins and his contract

I pretty much done for this season. I'm gonna still watch some game and probably post here and there but man these last few games...why did I have any faith in this wobegone franchise? Waste of time.

This team has some worthwhile pieces other than Towns but SOMETHING/SOMEONE is gonna have to make a significant impact on this team or it is gonna be AD all over again. The Pels the last few months actually were headed the right direction. If we can get someone that makes the moves like they did more recently we have a chance. They sucked quite a bit before that and set themselves up for this fate. Even an awesome coach probably isn't enough. We need another star player. That guy likely isn't on the roster...duh. The draft? Again it's the hope but we also have to have someone that's not an idiot running things around here. It's basically just watching games to see what happens. There isn't likely to be any sort of real hope to be had based on the next 20+ games.

Meanwhile I've actually heard the first "Zion isn't going to be all that other players on his team are gonna be better" take from a local radio guy. He isn't one for just hot takes. I'm not saying he is the smartest dude or whatever but he is no idiot some I'm curious to look into it more. I'll have to do some more homework on college basketball prospects. Still can't really get up for it yet. This sucks.

So tank tastick it is. I kinda wanted someone like Stuaskus and still do. Sounds like Canaan will be back for another 10 days. Whatever. That's fine. He is what 2 years older than Stauskus? We probably can use a PG and it seems like Canaan now that he has a couple games looks moderately competent. If we want to sign some young players soon there will be time for that. We should do it though eventually.

longstrangetrip wrote:

crazy-canuck wrote:Playing without 75% of our rotation players, aren't we already tanking?

Ha, we'd be gigantic overachievers if we weren't!

While I'm enjoying the gallows humor on this board in the excuses and tanking threads, I'm pretty sure that everyone here understands the impact of the players who are out for us. Even if we didn't have our five best PGs injured (as we did at the end of the Memphis game), just having RoCo out might be enough to torpedo a lot of teams. We tend to forget that the game is played at both ends of the court, and defense has as much impact on a game as offense. RoCo was an all-NBA defensive player last year, and losing an all-NBA level player is an insurmountable hurdle in any reasonable opinion...even if he wasn't also our best 3-point shooter! Add to that the PG injury disaster, and it's a wonder how this team has won any games in the past 2 weeks!

So, are we tanking? Of course, but not intentionally. That said, I'm not on board with any intentional tanking if a couple PGs and Covington can come back healthy after the all-star game...4 games in the loss column just isn't that much to make up, especially when the teams in front of is aren't that good. But if they're not available in the first game after the break, I'll join the chorus and look for ways to improve out draft position. Play Josh Okogie 36 minutes a game both to help him develop and to ensure losses. Play KBD a lot of minutes at PF for the same reason. Sit our injured players dwon for the rest of the season and give Isaiah Canaan most of the PG minutes. Limit KAT to 20 minutes a game. Do all of these things, and we have a good chance of getting the 6th most ping pong balls, or even 5th if we dare to dream!

Im beating a drum over and over but look at the teams we lost to these last 3 games.

Memphis had Conley and a G League team, they only had 9 players available during that game and we lost.

Orlando we got embarresed and they are not good

Pelicans were missing 4 of their top 7 players including 3 starters from their normal starting lineup this year. They also didn't play Davis in the 4th, so they were missing 5 of their top 7 players.

Injuries are not an excuse especially when we have our top 5 highest paid players available last game. And our future two max players havent missed a game in this stretch. Its not like we are losing a game here and another game there. We have lost 5 of 6 and had 3 embarrassing loses in that stretch.

I ran the Klunk-O-Meter numbers. The Wolves would finish 37-45, 7 games out of the 8th seed. And that assumes the start playing average basketball again. They can only lose 6 or 7 games the rest of the way to get into the playoff mix.

So yeah, it's tank time.

TheSP wrote:

SP I completely disagree. I think our tank is running very well. :)