***OFFICIAL 2023-24 WINS PREDICTION THREAD***

[Q-is-here]

46, which should be enough to avoid the play-in. I was way too optimistic last year. But we won 42 without KAT for much of the season and with a big switch from DLO to Conley. I think we'll miss Prince, but NAW should help fill that loss. I'm hoping I look back and think I overreacted and was too pessimistic this year. Normally, I'd say KAT's worth more than 4 wins, but I can't assume everything breaks for us this year. Crossing fingers to avoid another key injury. If Conley goes down, I'm really worried about the PG position. The West will be tough, but I'm hoping we outperform skeptical expectations after last year's disappointment and start building some positivity around this team. Nobody punch anyone (or anything) this year, please.

Good stuff Drew....I think one of the keys to hitting 46+ wins is just freaking win the games we are favored to win. Start there versus the roller coaster ride last season of back-breaking losses to inferior opponents alternating with some great wins against really good teams.

[Q-is-here]

53 wins and the 2 seed.

I might be bias but I think wolves are going to be really good. Like others I’m worried about the bench but I think the wolves can be really good in Rudy year 2. Wolves are going to be good on defense with Rudy and after the Dlo Conley swap wolves became solid on offense.

We will see but I’m optimistic

Wow, that is definitely an optimistic take on your part (albeit not as much as Tim's!). I do think swapping out DLO, Nowell, Prince, and Little Mac (still on the team but down a notch on the depth chart) in exchange for Conley, NAW, Milton, and Brown Jr. is an upgrade defensively. NAW is the only real plus defender of that group in my opinion, but on a relative basis, it's still an upgrade. And we're starting from a base of the #10 defense in the NBA despite guys like DLO and Nowell playing a ton of minutes for us last year. I can see someone making a case that we could be a top 5 defense along with an improved offense with KAT back healthy.

[Q-is-here]

Here is the run down of predictions as of today. I like that you folks had the guts to make your predictions BEFORE pre-season games started.

Tim - 60
Kekgeek - 53
Doper - 48
Sundog - 47
Drew - 46
Wildwolf - 45





[placeholder for Abe] - 32

[KG4Ever]

51 Wins.

[FNG]

Q, put me down for whatever Lip picks.

[LongGame]

52 wins

[Q-is-here]

Q, put me down for whatever Lip picks.

Ha, I'm not letting you off the hook FNG! Notice how Lip lays back and waits for everyone else to pick and then he'll even watch a pre-season game or two, so may be I'll put an asterisk next to his name on the plaque of winners I have being made.

[Coolbreeze44]

I'm feeling opDougistic this year. Put me down for 50, and if they don't win that many it's KAT's fault and maybe he will finally be moved.

[KiwiMatt]

As the honorable winner of the inaugural wins prediction thread I am going to predict:

49 wins

[Lipoli390]

Q, put me down for whatever Lip picks.

Hilarious posts, Q!

I was thrilled when Michael Jordan retired after hitting the big shot to win game 6 against Utah to secure his sixth championship. I was sad to see him return several years later as an overweight 38 year old shell of his former self. Just like MJ back in 1998, this is probably the right time for me to retire from the Wolves season wins prediction thread. If I retire now, I go out on top as the first back-to-back winner in Wolves message board history. It’s a record that will probably never be matched, much less broken. Nevertheless, it’s hard to resist the lure of a possible three-peat. You mentioned the dopamine rush that comes from a winning the annual wins thread projection. It’s a powerful force.

So against my better judgment, and to avoid an asterisk, I will stay in the game for one more season - one more chance to secure my place among the immortal greats of Timberwolves message board lore. My projection for 2023-24? 44 wins. I agree for the most part with Wild Wolf’s analysis, and I also agree with him that he’s being overly generous in projecting 45 wins. So I’m coming in one less at 44.

On paper, this team should be better than 44 wins. But there’s something missing, which is what WildWolf was getting at. It’s the intangibles. It’s coach Finch saying, “we have to find an identify.” This team had an identity two years ago as a young, high-energy, offensive scoring machine with a scrappy defense that was good enough to win 46 games even though KAT was the only all-star caliber player on the team at the time. The Gobert deal obliterated that identity. When you enter a season wondering who you are as a team, that doesn’t bode well. It’s coach Finch and TC expressing uncertainty about whether the KAT/Rudy tandem will work and coach Finch saying they have to provide more structure and figure out how to make it work. Again, that doesn’t bode well in my view. Then there’s Finch saying they have to rediscover the chemistry between KAT and Ant that existed two years ago. It’s relying on a 35 year old PG with a history of missing lots of games due to injury and no clear starting caliber PG behind him. It’s losing Prince and relying on largely untested young players for bench support. Overall, this team seems to be missing a spark and lacking toughness.

In spite of all those uncertainties and intangibles, the Wolves should still win 44 games on sheer talent if their key players (KAT, Edwards and Jaden) remain healthy. But that will mean the play-in tournament for the Wolves and it will be a profound disappointment for a franchise that went all in last summer on a win-now deal that mortgaged the team’s future and robbed it of essential transactional and financial flexibility. If the intangibles turn positive, this is a team that can win 50+ games. But if not, this is a team that could end up with a win total in the 30s with some key injuries and Abe will be in a position to capture his first win projection title.

Although I’m projecting 44 wins, I’ll be rooting for Cool and others predicting 50+ wins. If they end up on top (or even better Tim gets his first title) then I’ll retire next summer as a bloated, resentful old has-been who should have gone out on top.