Minnesota Sports Forum

This is bold perdictions so I have two

1) Ricky Rubio will be an all star this year

2) Anthony Bennett will finish in the top five in MIP this year

"...start Wiggins or Bennet at the SF spot."

This would be a nightmare. :dizzy:

kekgeek1 wrote:This is bold perdictions so I have two

1) Ricky Rubio will be an all star this year

2) Thaddeus Young/Gorgui Dieng/Ricky Rubio will finish in the top five in MIP this year

This is more likely.

Camden wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:This is bold perdictions so I have two

1) Ricky Rubio will be an all star this year

2) Thaddeus Young/Gorgui Dieng/Ricky Rubio will finish in the top five in MIP this year

This is more likely.

Probably right, but just for example don't know if he will or not, I know you won't but if he averaged, 15 and 9 that is a huge jump and would be put in the discussion of MIP

kekgeek1 wrote:

Camden wrote:

kekgeek1 wrote:This is bold perdictions so I have two

1) Ricky Rubio will be an all star this year

2) Thaddeus Young/Gorgui Dieng/Ricky Rubio will finish in the top five in MIP this year

This is more likely.

Probably right, but just for example don't know if he will or not, I know you won't but if he averaged, 15 and 9 that is a huge jump and would be put in the discussion of MIP

Quick question: Where is Bennett getting the minutes to put up this 15/9 season?

Here we go

First I predict we have three guys in the rising stars game. I think Dieng and Wiggins are basically locks and LaVine will be the third.

Second we will win more games than last year. I think a team with Rubio, Martin, Brewer, Pek, and Dieng is good enough to win 30 games. Replacing Love with Young isn't as big a drop off as people make it seem when they simply say we lost Love. Add in a hopefully healthy Bud, two first overall picks, and LaVine and this team just feels like it will be better.

Honestly I think we could see him as the sixth man, also he is the back up power forward, so one injury to Thad and he will get tons of minutes. Also longer of a shot but if the bench struggles again, I could see Flip moving Young to the bench and play that sixth man role while Bennett is the starting PF.

Once again this is a Bold Perdiction. Nothing I have seen from Bennett from in the NBA would suggest that he will be a good starting player. But my gut tells me he is going to be good. With that said my gut has been inconsistent with me thinking Wes was going to be good, and me thinking Paul George was going to be good.

We will see less than a month away.

I know it looks like I'm raining down on the Bennett parade, but here are some things to consider:

- In Thad's entire NBA career, he's played 516 games out of a possible 558. That's an average of 93% of the games each season. In the last four years, he's played 300 out of a possible 312 games (an average 96% of each season). He has an impeccable record of durability. I wouldn't make any predictions based on Thad missing a significant amount of games due to injury.

- Flip will not move Young out of the starting lineup for several reasons. The first reason: he won't need to. Young's exactly the type of player Flip has been looking for since he took over last year. Plays the game hard on both ends of the floor. He's not a ballhog in any sense of the word (actually is a very underrated passer). Thad makes hustle plays and he's one of the handful of veterans on this team as he's played seven years in the NBA. Keep in mind Thad also just had a career year in a lot of statistical categories, though it was on a bad team. I could see Thad improving on his numbers from last year, however, while playing for a more competitive team whose primary goal isn't to tank for a draft pick. Also, playing with Rubio will help that goal. Those are the on-court reasons. Now think about it from a contract standpoint. If Flip bumped Thad to a bench role in favor of a sophomore player who likely didn't beat him out for the job, why would Thad stay in Minnesota? He'd become a free agent at the end of the year and leave, plain and simple. At some point, most of you will realize Young's more than a sixth man type player. He's a QUALITY two-way starter in the NBA, and likely a top-10 player at his position in most people's rankings.

- Bennett has yet to show anything positive in the NBA. Yes, he's only played one season, but I'd ask Bennett believers to name a successful No. 1 overall pick who was as awful as he was last year, excuses be damned. He'll have to make a complete 180 and then some to start taking away minutes from Thad, or Gorgui for that matter.

Camden wrote:"...start Wiggins or Bennet at the SF spot."

This would be a nightmare. :dizzy:

Just to clarify as long as Flip is running this franchise Bennett is a PF cause thats what he said Bennett is a PF.

Blake Griffin. He was terrible his first year - didn't even hit a shot all year!

The Wolves will crack the 50 win barrier and likely make the playoffs.

Yeah, we lose a lot with Love gone, but the additions will will more than make up for the lost production. Just about everyone will pick up the slack in rebounding. Pek will have a few more, Wiggins is a WAY BETTER rebounder than Brewer, and Dieng's rebounding will be a factor all season long. And our defense ought be better with a PF willing to exert effort on that end (not just rebounding), the addition of Wiggins, Dieng playing all season, Barea being demoted, and Flip's self-proclaimed focus on defense and defensive schemes.

On offense, I think people have forgotten just how effective Pek can be. Young is no slouch on offense, and the makeover of our bench should keep it from being in the bottom of the league like it was last year.

It's going to be fun year!