After 14 years, ladies and gentlemen...the playoffs

[Porckchop]

Not a single person wants to acknowledge the fact that had butler stayed healthy the Wolves are a 52 plus win team and a three seed ? What other team loses their best player and wins fifty plus games other than GS?

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

Not a single person wants to acknowledge the fact that had butler stayed healthy the Wolves are a 52 plus win team and a three seed ? What other team loses their best player and wins fifty plus games other than GS?

He misses time every year. That's exactly why I ended at 47 wins in my prediction and not more. You can't really acknowledge something that just wasn't going to happen.

[Lipoli390]

Not a single person wants to acknowledge the fact that had butler stayed healthy the Wolves are a 52 plus win team and a three seed ? What other team loses their best player and wins fifty plus games other than GS?

The Rockets lost Chris Paul for 24 games and Harden missed 10 games, but they won 65 games.

The Celtics lost Hayward for 82 games, Kyrie Irving for 22 games and Jaylen Brown for 12 games, but won 55 games.

The Sixers lost Embiid for 19 games and won 52 games.

That's three teams in addition to the Warriors. It's worth noting that the Warriors won 50+ games in spite of losing Curry for almost 30 games and Durant for 15 games. The Spurs didn't win 50+ games. But they won 47 like the Wolves even though their best player by far missed 80 games while Rudy Gay missed 25 games.

As for the Wolves. We lost Butler for 23 games and Teague for 12 games. KAT didn't miss any. Then look at the list of Wolves bad losses before Butler went down with his knee injury:

@Atlanta
@New Jersey
@Orlando
@Bulls
@Memphis
@Suns
Home v. Suns without Booker
Home v. Wizards without Wall

Butler's injury certainly hurt the Wolves. But the Wolves were barely over .500 in the 15 games leading up to his injury and this team lost a lot of games they should have won when Butler was playing. I wouldn't even say the Wolves should have won 55 games like the Celtics, who suffered far more injury issues than the Wolves. But I think the Wolves should have won at least 50, in spite of Butler's injury.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Correct me if I'm wrong... but you're not a big Thibs fan?




[Note: 16.5 more per game isn't even that bad. It might be worse in the next 4 games. Overall... Houston averages 20 more three pointers than MN on the season. I get the criticism in the antiquated offense... but it's slightly disingenuous to use the league's outlier team to rip a specific thing. For example, Houston takes nearly 14 more three pointers than GSW... "Steve Kerr is just giving them 14 more! Popovich is giving them 18 more!"]

Lol. I would never correct you, Abe, even if you were wrong. :). I'm not sure who was using Houston's 3-point volume for comparison. I was just comparing the Wolves to the entire League and noted that the Wolves are dead last in 3-pointers made. That's not a laudable distinction in today's NBA.

I was referencing LST... not you... although because I didn't "quote" him and it posted after your response, I can see the confusion.

LST wrote:

"Allowing the other team to take 16 1/2 more threes than you take is essentially spotting the other team 16 1/2 points to start the game, and we aren't good enough to overcome that kind of deficit...nobody is."

[Monster]

While I agree we will probably go inside a bunch against Houston, I honestly think they could care less. They will gladly play a game where we're shooting a bunch of 2's against their blitzkrieg of 3's any day. The math significantly favors them with the opportunity to get 50% more points per shot attempted.

Realistically, only Golden State can hang with these guys. We simply don't have the firepower, but hey, may be we steal a game.

Ya rockets could care less. They have had harden guard Taj this season.

I like your suggestion on defense.

I also think it huge to very capela in foul trouble. Big difference in capela rolling then nene

PJ Tucker is one of the guys that's actually given Taj problems in the post this year.

[Monster]

How long until we can start the "Harden is flopping" posts?

How long after that until we can start the "Chris Paul is a real asshole" threads?

If Thibs were to make a list of objectives as it relates to this series (besides the obvious one of winning games), one of the first ones should be "Get ejected in Game 1". He needs to go absolutely ape shit the second the refs start allowing any Paul/Harden shenanigans.

Over the last year or so, I have noticed a bit more balance in how the refs call Harden. I have seen him get called a number of times for offensive fouls when he shoves his arms into people's bodies looking to draw a foul. Granted, he still gets away with it a lot.....

I agree Q the officiating on him has been better which has made watching him somewhat more palatable. In games I have seen he SEEMS like while he stil hunts fouls he is more looking to attack and score more. Regardless the guy is a terrific offensive talent.

Chris Paul bugs me more at this point. The guy never fouls anyone gets fouled every single play and plays like nobody should touch him. Great all around player but annoying.