Minnesota Sports Forum

30.

I think we will be competitive most nights, but the West is going to be brutal again, and at the end of the day Wiggins and Lavine are 19 years old.

I'll throw in 46.

A lot of the reasons that Long mentioned, but remember, we were in sooooo many games and couldn't close them out. Flip, if I recall, has a really good winning percentage when games are decided by 4 points or less----exactly what we need. Precision, control and the mentality to execute. We should grab another 4-5 just from this and we're right at 46.

Also, we didn't really lose much! Yes, Love is a big lost, but we have everyone else back. Pek, Brew, KMart, Rubio----4 of the 5 starters. We took away JJ and an uninterested coach sprinkle a lot of youth and athleticism and our bench is a whole lot better then before (Wiggins, LaVine, GR3). Bennett wants to shed his "bust" label. Shabazz just wants a chance, Bud is healthy again and Rubio is itching to do more to earn his "max" contract that he so desires. And that's not even mentioning the emergence of Dieng!!!!

Remember Portland and how they looked like they were going to explode a few years back? Add Damian Lliard for a year and a committed Aldridge and bam! They're right in the thick of things. They go from a 33 win team to a 54!!!

http://espn.go.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/por/year/2013/portland-trail-blazers

Honestly, there's teams that always seems to come out of nowhere every year. Why can't it be us this year!?! Damn, I'm pumped for Thursday's home opener!!!!!

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/2014-nba-preview-the-lakers-are-even-worse-than-they-were-last-year/

I'm sticking with my 40 wins, but here's 538.com predicting 39 wins and 10th in the West. As we get closer to the season start, I'm seeing more pundits disagreeing with the Vegas line.

Check out their description of individual players' strengths and weaknesses. They obviously don't like Bennett as much as I do, but are sky high on Rubio.

whatdtcom wrote:I'll throw in 46.

A lot of the reasons that Long mentioned, but remember, we were in sooooo many games and couldn't close them out. Flip, if I recall, has a really good winning percentage when games are decided by 4 points or less----exactly what we need. Precision, control and the mentality to execute. We should grab another 4-5 just from this and we're right at 46.

Also, we didn't really lose much! Yes, Love is a big lost, but we have everyone else back. Pek, Brew, KMart, Rubio----4 of the 5 starters. We took away JJ and an uninterested coach sprinkle a lot of youth and athleticism and our bench is a whole lot better then before (Wiggins, LaVine, GR3). Bennett wants to shed his "bust" label. Shabazz just wants a chance, Bud is healthy again and Rubio is itching to do more to earn his "max" contract that he so desires. And that's not even mentioning the emergence of Dieng!!!!

Remember Portland and how they looked like they were going to explode a few years back? Add Damian Lliard for a year and a committed Aldridge and bam! They're right in the thick of things. They go from a 33 win team to a 54!!!

http://espn.go.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/por/year/2013/portland-trail-blazers

Honestly, there's teams that always seems to come out of nowhere every year. Why can't it be us this year!?! Damn, I'm pumped for Thursday's home opener!!!!!

Yea we should more close games just because. Like that Clippers game where it was a Martin bonehead play from winning. Oh wait Love had 45-19-6 in that game so that's probably a blowout now that Love isn't on the team.

Or that game against the Thunder where Durant went crazy and hit a game winner. Oh wait Love had 30-14-5 in that game, another blowout.

Game against Dallas where Love is clearly fouled at the end but didn't get called. Oh yea you know the story, 36-11-4. another blowout.

Celtics game where Sullinger has a career night. Love with 27-14

Yea we might have a better record, but all those close games just become blowouts this year

30

alexftbl8181 wrote:Yea we should more close games just because. Like that Clippers game where it was a Martin bonehead play from winning. Oh wait Love had 45-19-6 in that game so that's probably a blowout now that Love isn't on the team.

Or that game against the Thunder where Durant went crazy and hit a game winner. Oh wait Love had 30-14-5 in that game, another blowout.

Game against Dallas where Love is clearly fouled at the end but didn't get called. Oh yea you know the story, 36-11-4. another blowout.

Celtics game where Sullinger has a career night. Love with 27-14

Yea we might have a better record, but all those close games just become blowouts this year

Everyone knows Love put up big numbers. The knock on him was that his big numbers wasn't translating into wins and that he didn't give full effort on defense. Looking at the +/- on the games you referenced:

Clippers Game - Love was minus 3 that game.
Thunder Game - Love was minus 4 that game.
Maverick Game - Love was minus 3 that game.
Celtics Game - Love was minus 11 that game.

I'm not saying we lost those games because of Love. But I am saying it's possible to win without him. Most expect a much more balanced scoring team this year and better effort on defense.

Carlos Danger wrote:

alexftbl8181 wrote:Yea we should more close games just because. Like that Clippers game where it was a Martin bonehead play from winning. Oh wait Love had 45-19-6 in that game so that's probably a blowout now that Love isn't on the team.

Or that game against the Thunder where Durant went crazy and hit a game winner. Oh wait Love had 30-14-5 in that game, another blowout.

Game against Dallas where Love is clearly fouled at the end but didn't get called. Oh yea you know the story, 36-11-4. another blowout.

Celtics game where Sullinger has a career night. Love with 27-14

Yea we might have a better record, but all those close games just become blowouts this year

Everyone knows Love put up big numbers. The knock on him was that his big numbers wasn't translating into wins and that he didn't give full effort on defense. Looking at the +/- on the games you referenced:

Clippers Game - Love was minus 3 that game.
Thunder Game - Love was minus 4 that game.
Maverick Game - Love was minus 3 that game.
Celtics Game - Love was minus 11 that game.

I'm not saying we lost those games because of Love. But I am saying it's possible to win without him. Most expect a much more balanced scoring team this year and better effort on defense.

Well when your playing around 43-44 out of 48 minutes in a game and you lose, ya you'll probably have a minus for that game by logic. It doesn't mean much, especially when you watched those games and actually saw how good Love was

Carlos Danger wrote:

alexftbl8181 wrote:Yea we should more close games just because. Like that Clippers game where it was a Martin bonehead play from winning. Oh wait Love had 45-19-6 in that game so that's probably a blowout now that Love isn't on the team.

Or that game against the Thunder where Durant went crazy and hit a game winner. Oh wait Love had 30-14-5 in that game, another blowout.

Game against Dallas where Love is clearly fouled at the end but didn't get called. Oh yea you know the story, 36-11-4. another blowout.

Celtics game where Sullinger has a career night. Love with 27-14

Yea we might have a better record, but all those close games just become blowouts this year

Everyone knows Love put up big numbers. The knock on him was that his big numbers wasn't translating into wins and that he didn't give full effort on defense. Looking at the +/- on the games you referenced:

Clippers Game - Love was minus 3 that game.
Thunder Game - Love was minus 4 that game.
Maverick Game - Love was minus 3 that game.
Celtics Game - Love was minus 11 that game.

I'm not saying we lost those games because of Love. But I am saying it's possible to win without him. Most expect a much more balanced scoring team this year and better effort on defense.

Great research, carlos...tells us a lot about Love. As for Sullinger having a career night, I'm reminded of the Tim McCarver quote when he said "Bob Gibson is the luckiest pitcher. He's always pitching on the nights the other team doesn't score any runs". Kevin Love is the unluckiest defender...he always has to guard the guy that's having a career night!".

Clippers game:

Kevin Love 15-23 45 points 19 rebounds 6 assists a minus 3

JJ Barea 4-11 12 points 4 rebounds 0 assists a plus 7

Yea I'm thinking that plus/minus thing was pretty big bullshit for that game

longstrangetrip wrote:Great research, carlos...tells us a lot about Love. As for Sullinger having a career night, I'm reminded of the Tim McCarver quote when he said "Bob Gibson is the luckiest pitcher. He's always pitching on the nights the other team doesn't score any runs". Kevin Love is the unluckiest defender...he always has to guard the guy that's having a career night!".

I just was curious so looked it up. Love put up great numbers. It just wasn't translating into wins for the team. It's not all on Love obviously. But, I'm excited to see a different approach this year. It was only one, meaningless, preseason game. But it was fun to see them win that last one against the Bulls. A close game and they pulled it out without Love.

Love was a great player, but this team will be more balanced and I think more fun to watch. We'll find out soon I guess - ha!