Minnesota Sports Forum

Utah wins last night @ Clippers and now have the 4th best record in the NBA. Has anyone ever seen a team that does a fire sale like they did, only to end up with a random collection of solid/above average vets that ultimately work really well together? I mean, they are literally better (so far) than last year's team!

BTW, they are also an example of a team that has no superstars, yet is able to churn out wins. Not sure that will hold up in the playoffs, but an 8-3 start looks pretty legit right now.

Q-was-here wrote:Utah wins last night @ Clippers and now have the 4th best record in the NBA. Has anyone ever seen a team that does a fire sale like they did, only to end up with a random collection of solid/above average vets that ultimately work really well together? I mean, they are literally better (so far) than last year's team!

BTW, they are also an example of a team that has no superstars, yet is able to churn out wins. Not sure that will hold up in the playoffs, but an 8-3 start looks pretty legit right now.

The only one I could think of is when the Nuggets traded Carmelo in 2011 mid season. The 2012 nuggets went 57-25.

Starting line up was

Ty Lawson
Andre iguloida
Danilo Gallinari
Kenneth Feried
Kosta Kufos

Jester1534 wrote:

Q-was-here wrote:Utah wins last night @ Clippers and now have the 4th best record in the NBA. Has anyone ever seen a team that does a fire sale like they did, only to end up with a random collection of solid/above average vets that ultimately work really well together? I mean, they are literally better (so far) than last year's team!

BTW, they are also an example of a team that has no superstars, yet is able to churn out wins. Not sure that will hold up in the playoffs, but an 8-3 start looks pretty legit right now.

The only one I could think of is when the Nuggets traded Carmelo in 2011 mid season. The 2012 nuggets went 57-25.

Starting line up was

Ty Lawson
Andre iguloida
Danilo Gallinari
Kenneth Feried
Kosta Kufos

That's incredible actually. I mean, there are a few good players there but absolutely no one you would consider a "star". Also, 'Melo always seemed to be a borderline addition-by-subtraction guy. He used up a lot of possessions and scored a lot of points, but it wasn't always clear how much that benefited the team.

Q-was-here wrote:

Jester1534 wrote:

Q-was-here wrote:Utah wins last night @ Clippers and now have the 4th best record in the NBA. Has anyone ever seen a team that does a fire sale like they did, only to end up with a random collection of solid/above average vets that ultimately work really well together? I mean, they are literally better (so far) than last year's team!

BTW, they are also an example of a team that has no superstars, yet is able to churn out wins. Not sure that will hold up in the playoffs, but an 8-3 start looks pretty legit right now.

The only one I could think of is when the Nuggets traded Carmelo in 2011 mid season. The 2012 nuggets went 57-25.

Starting line up was

Ty Lawson
Andre iguloida
Danilo Gallinari
Kenneth Feried
Kosta Kufos

That's incredible actually. I mean, there are a few good players there but absolutely no one you would consider a "star". Also, 'Melo always seemed to be a borderline addition-by-subtraction guy. He used up a lot of possessions and scored a lot of points, but it wasn't always clear how much that benefited the team.

Just a couple of notes... it was actually the 2013 Nuggets that went 57 - 25. They went 36 - 46 in 2014.

Masai Ujiri was the GM until 2013.



Tim Connelly arrived in 2014.

It's fun to see what's happening in Sacramento, even though they are West competitors. Last night they scored 153 points and beat the Nets. Sabonis didn't miss a shot and was a +44, and the Kings shot 60%!

FNG wrote:It's fun to see what's happening in Sacramento, even though they are West competitors. Last night they scored 153 points and beat the Nets. Sabonis didn't miss a shot and was a +44, and the Kings shot 60%!

Sabonis is so damn solid. He's become a slightly lesser version of Jokic.

Q-was-here wrote:

FNG wrote:It's fun to see what's happening in Sacramento, even though they are West competitors. Last night they scored 153 points and beat the Nets. Sabonis didn't miss a shot and was a +44, and the Kings shot 60%!

Sabonis is so damn solid. He's become a slightly lesser version of Jokic.

Yes, Sabonis is terrific. I watched last night's game against the Nets and I think the Kings are for real. Add them to the list of teams in the West the Wolves have to overcome just to make the playoffs. Same for Portland.

I!

Q-was-here wrote:

FNG wrote:It's fun to see what's happening in Sacramento, even though they are West competitors. Last night they scored 153 points and beat the Nets. Sabonis didn't miss a shot and was a +44, and the Kings shot 60%!

Sabonis is so damn solid. He's become a slightly lesser version of Jokic.

Yeah, Fox is the "star" of that team and is having his best season, but anyone watching them (or looking at the advanced stats) can see who is most responsible for their success. A mini Jokic indeed.

The emergence of the Kings and Blazers this season means the Wolves are one of 10 teams vying for a playoff spot in the West (assuming you exclude Utah). The Blazers are 10-4 even though Lillard has missed some games. Looks like the Wolves will be fighting it out for a place in the 7-10 range.

lipoli390 wrote:The emergence of the Kings and Blazers this season means the Wolves are one of 10 teams vying for a playoff spot in the West (assuming you exclude Utah). The Blazers are 10-4 even though Lillard has missed some games. Looks like the Wolves will be fighting it out for a place in the 7-10 range.

Yeah, could be a tough season. The bottom line is that our starting backcourt is simply not up to par and it's really hard to win in the NBA with mediocre backcourt play. While DLO catches a ton of the heat (and deservedly so), Ant has regressed. That by far is the biggest story line of this young season so far.