Minnesota Sports Forum

thedoper wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:I like what Canuck said in a different thread. Butler is all about Butler. And because I believe that to be true, how could i possibly think the trade was a good one? To me it doesn't have much to do with who we gave up, it has to do with who we got. An overrated, egotistical, divisive presence that is going to miss 25 games every year and keep us in NBA purgatory. Good enough to be playoff contenders but not good enough to be title contenders. We are now the Memphis Grizzlies. Who is going to remember anything about the Memphis teams of the last 10 years? After 30 some seasons of Wolves basketball that just isn't good enough for me. And shame on you if it's good enough for you.

I think that is a fair position. It's a very Minnesota/character first position, but fair nonetheless.

Thanks Doper

If you're a Wolves fan, these are your only 2 choices:

1. continue to suck and dream about the future

2. try to make the playoffs and deal with reality.

the option of "go for that championship" isn't there, so always go with trying for a playoff berth and the Butler trade.

WildWolf2813 wrote:If you're a Wolves fan, these are your only 2 choices:

1. continue to suck and dream about the future

2. try to make the playoffs and deal with reality.

the option of "go for that championship" isn't there, so always go with trying for a playoff berth and the Butler trade.

If you really believe that, what motivates you to waste your time following the team? I mean if I have no chance of hooking up with Jennifer Aniston, I'm not going to spend years trying. I'll find a new endeavor.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

WildWolf2813 wrote:If you're a Wolves fan, these are your only 2 choices:

1. continue to suck and dream about the future

2. try to make the playoffs and deal with reality.

the option of "go for that championship" isn't there, so always go with trying for a playoff berth and the Butler trade.

If you really believe that, what motivates you to waste your time following the team? I mean if I have no chance of hooking up with Jennifer Aniston, I'm not going to spend years trying. I'll find a new endeavor.

I think he's saying if you can't hook up with Jennifer Anniston, you shouldn't give up on Courtney Cox. Not that hooking up with Jennifer Anniston is the championship.

thedoper wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

WildWolf2813 wrote:If you're a Wolves fan, these are your only 2 choices:

1. continue to suck and dream about the future

2. try to make the playoffs and deal with reality.

the option of "go for that championship" isn't there, so always go with trying for a playoff berth and the Butler trade.

If you really believe that, what motivates you to waste your time following the team? I mean if I have no chance of hooking up with Jennifer Aniston, I'm not going to spend years trying. I'll find a new endeavor.

I think he's saying if you can't hook up with Jennifer Anniston, you shouldn't give up on Courtney Cox. Not that hooking up with Jennifer Anniston is the championship.

For me, hooking up with Jennifer Anniston is barely making the playoffs and getting swept in the first round. Just slightly worse than the Wolves last season.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:I like what Canuck said in a different thread. Butler is all about Butler. And because I believe that to be true, how could i possibly think the trade was a good one? To me it doesn't have much to do with who we gave up, it has to do with who we got. An overrated, egotistical, divisive presence that is going to miss 25 games every year and keep us in NBA purgatory. Good enough to be playoff contenders but not good enough to be title contenders. We are now the Memphis Grizzlies. Who is going to remember anything about the Memphis teams of the last 10 years? After 30 some seasons of Wolves basketball that just isn't good enough for me. And shame on you if it's good enough for you.

Cool - I have the same take on Butler. And I agree that this franchise and its fan base need to strive for and expect title contention and not just playoff contention. That doesn't mean failing to win a championship is tantamount to failure. But we should expect the Wolves to be a top half finisher in the West that wins its first round playoff series and is taken seriously beyond that as a legitimate title contender.

Sadly, winning a championship as a Western Conference team is a huge longshot now and will remain so until the Warriors core stars get past their prime or at least one of them signs elsewhere. But we're at least several years away from the time any of those core guys start to decline. Butler's age not only fails to align well with our own young talent; it also fails to align well with the window of opportunity to eventually get past the Warriors in the West. Building a team of young talent in their early 20s now is the best formula for eventually winning a championship given the reality of the current Warriors' dynasty. That's why I think the Warriors will ultimately be dethroned by the Sixers or the Celtics, although the Lakers might do it if they end up signing Leonard next summer. Yet even if that happens, much of the Lakers' success will be attributable to young draftees like Ball, Ingram, Kuzma and Hart.

lipoli390 wrote:

thedoper wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

WildWolf2813 wrote:If you're a Wolves fan, these are your only 2 choices:

1. continue to suck and dream about the future

2. try to make the playoffs and deal with reality.

the option of "go for that championship" isn't there, so always go with trying for a playoff berth and the Butler trade.

If you really believe that, what motivates you to waste your time following the team? I mean if I have no chance of hooking up with Jennifer Aniston, I'm not going to spend years trying. I'll find a new endeavor.

I think he's saying if you can't hook up with Jennifer Anniston, you shouldn't give up on Courtney Cox. Not that hooking up with Jennifer Anniston is the championship.

For me, hooking up with Jennifer Anniston is barely making the playoffs and getting swept in the first round. Just slightly worse than the Wolves last season.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. :) There certainly isn't anything wrong with that and it's exactly what colors how posters here look at various pieces of this deal and makes up how they feel about it now.

As for the Championship or bust stuff...I'm not in on that. I think it's reasonable to want a legit high level playoff team. Memphis never could add another piece or they may have had a chance at taking another step. I guess Houston should have just given up a couple years ago. Nope they went for it. This isn't like the Bucks of years past that were always making win now moves adding moderately expensive decent vets (or adding them in trades) to win like 42 games (often less) or whatever to barely make the playoffs in the east and be first round fodder. I'm not interested in that type of stuff and I don't think anyone else here is either. I think this team is and will be much better than that going forward.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

WildWolf2813 wrote:If you're a Wolves fan, these are your only 2 choices:

1. continue to suck and dream about the future

2. try to make the playoffs and deal with reality.

the option of "go for that championship" isn't there, so always go with trying for a playoff berth and the Butler trade.

If you really believe that, what motivates you to waste your time following the team? I mean if I have no chance of hooking up with Jennifer Aniston, I'm not going to spend years trying. I'll find a new endeavor.

To answer your question, I lowered my expectations of this team a while ago and watch the games with more detachment than I'd like to. It sucks as a fan to do that, but I also don't enjoy being emotionally invested in something that I know is gonna cause me great aggravation without a big goal in mind. I'm not gonna hold this team to standards they're incapable of reaching, and nearly 30 years of this team they've shown their only elite quality is losing. I treat them like those mid majors in small conferences in college who finally get to go to the NCAA Tournament. The season's a success even if they get pummeled in the play-in game because that's the ceiling those teams have.


As for your example, just because you can't get with Jennifer Aniston doesn't mean you're gonna give up on women. It's just that the available options you have to choose from aren't great, to the point where the painfully average chick is your goal now, since you're not gonna do better than that minus a major transformation (in this case, a franchise overhaul of culture and philosophy that honestly starts with an owner who isn't Glen Taylor)

WildWolf2813 wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

WildWolf2813 wrote:If you're a Wolves fan, these are your only 2 choices:

1. continue to suck and dream about the future

2. try to make the playoffs and deal with reality.

the option of "go for that championship" isn't there, so always go with trying for a playoff berth and the Butler trade.

If you really believe that, what motivates you to waste your time following the team? I mean if I have no chance of hooking up with Jennifer Aniston, I'm not going to spend years trying. I'll find a new endeavor.

To answer your question, I lowered my expectations of this team a while ago and watch the games with more detachment than I'd like to. It sucks as a fan to do that, but I also don't enjoy being emotionally invested in something that I know is gonna cause me great aggravation without a big goal in mind. I'm not gonna hold this team to standards they're incapable of reaching, and nearly 30 years of this team they've shown their only elite quality is losing. I treat them like those mid majors in small conferences in college who finally get to go to the NCAA Tournament. The season's a success even if they get pummeled in the play-in game because that's the ceiling those teams have.


As for your example, just because you can't get with Jennifer Aniston doesn't mean you're gonna give up on women. It's just that the available options you have to choose from aren't great, to the point where the painfully average chick is your goal now, since you're not gonna do better than that minus a major transformation (in this case, a franchise overhaul of culture and philosophy that honestly starts with an owner who isn't Glen Taylor)

I get it and i don't disagree with you.

Allow me to clarify on something Monster said. For me it's really not a championship or bust mentality. But you better have a plan in place that is at least pointed toward the top. Trading for Jimmy Butler and signing as many of his ex teammates as you can isn't it.

To Wildwolf's point, this team lacks leadership from the top on down. And until that get's fixed you're probably right in that we can't aspire to be a true contender.

lipoli390 wrote:

thedoper wrote:

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

WildWolf2813 wrote:If you're a Wolves fan, these are your only 2 choices:

1. continue to suck and dream about the future

2. try to make the playoffs and deal with reality.

the option of "go for that championship" isn't there, so always go with trying for a playoff berth and the Butler trade.

If you really believe that, what motivates you to waste your time following the team? I mean if I have no chance of hooking up with Jennifer Aniston, I'm not going to spend years trying. I'll find a new endeavor.

I think he's saying if you can't hook up with Jennifer Anniston, you shouldn't give up on Courtney Cox. Not that hooking up with Jennifer Anniston is the championship.

For me, hooking up with Jennifer Anniston is barely making the playoffs and getting swept in the first round. Just slightly worse than the Wolves last season.

Haha. You must be a lot better looking than me.