Minnesota Sports Forum

Can't compare our situation to Philly, NYK, or even the Lakers. Look at all 3 of those rosters and you'll see probably 80% of those guys are playing for their NBA lives because they are on expiring deals or 2nd round picks trying to improve their tape for their next potential team.

Our issue is that 80% of OUR roster is locked in for the future. Pek doesn't NEED to play because his money and roster security are locked. Same with Martin or Rubio. Young guys like Shabazz, Dieng, Lavine, and even Payne know they are "part of the future" and aren't as locked in during this final stretch as you want.

It's an unfortunate situation and you wish we could light a fire under our guys like Denver did overnight, but that's just not how the league works. Bottom line this entire season: we landed Andrew Wiggins. I wish we could have seen more growth, but injuries (again) derailed our team, and maybe this is fate setting us up for one more successful lottery ticket before we finally turn the corner and don't have to ever mention/discuss/debate the "t" word again.

That's a great take, zigzag, and a better way of explaining why our three competitors for the bottom are playing harder than we are...and why a guy like Hamilton, who is fighting for his NBA life, has a big game like he did last night. Because the Wolves overall contract situation is more set than the other teams, they aren't going to play as hard at the end of a losing season as the other three teams. This is why the second seed (or even, gasp, the first) is in the picture.

Very good thread. I've enjoyed reading your responses. We are better off picking top three than we would be winning some games that in the grand scheme of things doesn't benefit us in the long run. We need another young superstar in the making to pair with Wiggins. Russell is my guy. I think his game will benefit Wiggins more than a big. We have a bigger need at C than any other position however. If we hit and get another superstar type to pair with Wiggins we will be contenders for a very long time.