Minnesota Sports Forum

Q, I wonder if part of that great +/- has to do with Adelman's early substitution patterns. Playing the starters together, and then having a mass substitution, whereas other teams would substitute a few players at a time, which might give their bench guys a little boost. Adelman has changed that strategy now, but that was his MO last season, and early on this year as well.

I remember Phil Jackson talking about the importance of always having one of his stars on the floor whether it was Jordan/Pippen, or Shaq/Kobe.

SJM, I'm not looking at net On/Off numbers. I'm simply looking at gross +/- and these 5 guys outperform most other starting 5-man starting units in the NBA.

Now as far as the bench guys' efficiency numbers, you might be right that mixing and matching the starters with the bench players could eventually lead to better overall efficiency and less of a drop off. But so far that hasn't really happened.

Love plays for money. They will need to max him (sorry Ricky), but if they do he will stay.

papalrep wrote:Love plays for money. They will need to max him (sorry Ricky), but if they do he will stay.

Love is already maxed out salary wise. He just didn't get the five year rookie extension. They can give Love a max five year deal if he opts out two summers from now, but I am not sure we don't deal him before that. Even if Love stays, that doesn't mean Ricky can't get the five year max rookie deal, although I don't think he will be worth anywhere close to that.

Love is already maxed out salary wise. He just didn't get the five year rookie extension. They can give Love a max five year deal if he opts out two summers from now, but I am not sure we don't deal him before that. Even if Love stays, that doesn't mean Ricky can't get the five year max rookie deal, although I don't think he will be worth anywhere close to that

Good to know. Is it true they can only "max" one player?

Only involving the rookie extension. We can sign our own Bird FA's (not coming off a rookie scale contract) to five years and max dollars.

Wed, Dec 4, vs San Antonio

Thurs, Dec 5, REST

Friday, Dec 6, REST

Sat, Dec 7, vs Miami

Sunday, Dec 8, REST

Mon, Dec 9, REST

Tue, Dec 10, @ Detroit

Wed, Dec 11, vs Philadelphia

Thurs, Dec 12, REST

Fri, Dec 13, @ San Antonio

Sat, Dec 14, REST

Sun, Dec 15, @ Memphis

Only back-to-back we have is Philly in the next six games. Finally we get some rest days for our guys to study film and get re-energized. I do realize some of those "rest days" are also travel days, but boy are those way better than back-to-backs.

Cam, I don't think you are appreciating the brutality of the upcoming schedule!

Consider the next 10 games. Our only 2-day rests are now, leading into the Spurs game, and the following game hosting Miami. After 1 rest day, we play 5 games in 7 days, with the two "easy" teams coming as the 2nd game of back-to-backs, where we have struggled. And the 3 games after that all have 1 day of rest, but consist of Portland, the Lakers (with Kobe), and the Clippers.

There is NOTHING falling in our favor over the next 10 games! I'll be thrilled with ANY win we get during that stretch. 0-10 is not far-fetched at all. And this is coming from the board opTIMist!

It's so bad that I am abandoning ship and heading to the Galapagos for the next two weeks. So please hold the fort down until I return...

60WinTim wrote:Cam, I don't think you are appreciating the brutality of the upcoming schedule!

Consider the next 10 games. Our only 2-day rests are now, leading into the Spurs game, and the following game hosting Miami. After 1 rest day, we play 5 games in 7 days, with the two "easy" teams coming as the 2nd game of back-to-backs, where we have struggled. And the 3 games after that all have 1 day of rest, but consist of Portland, the Lakers (with Kobe), and the Clippers.

There is NOTHING falling in our favor over the next 10 games! I'll be thrilled with ANY win we get during that stretch. 0-10 is not far-fetched at all. And this is coming from the board opTIMist!

It's so bad that I am abandoning ship and heading to the Galapagos for the next two weeks. So please hold the fort down until I return...

I'm expecting 6-4 during the next 10 games. Even on a B2B we should beat Philly. The game we play against Portland we catch them on a B2B (yes, I realize they've won big B2Bs already). LA with or without Kobe doesn't scare me especially since Gasol and Farmar will miss that game. It's also not written in stone that Kobe's able to play, though it looks like he has a good chance to.

On LAL, a rusty Kobe scares me far less than a bunch of 3-point shooters like Golden State or a quick PG that can score like Chris Paul and Ty Lawson. It seems like we do OK when we can key in on one high-usage player that relies on a lot of mid-range jumpers.