Somebody had to start this thread...Playoffs?

[Coolbreeze44]

So if sammich does better than your wins prediction this year, is he still a bad coach?

If the Wolves do better than my wins prediction, it means the players stayed healthier and played better than I projected them to, but the talent on paper is there.

Sam Mitchell as our head coach is a disadvantage every single night. We have the worst staff in basketball, guys.

This is true. Sam's a decent guy, but him and his staff are without.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

So if sammich does better than your wins prediction this year, is he still a bad coach?

Is Randy Whitman a good coach or did his players carrying him just at the right time for him to keep his job? Was Mike Brown a good coach or was Lebron so good you could have put a scarecrow on the bench and get carried to the playoffs? Sometimes players make bad coaches look better than they are. Sam was gifted a #1 pick big playing at a level almost no rookies have ever attained. A #1 pick wing scoring 20 a night and defending the opposing teams best player effectively. A PG who both defends at a high level and runs the offense at such a high level. And finally a HOF big who has totally bought in to the mentorship role and who is probably the most active player in the league when he's on the bench chatting in guy's ears. Sam took over an even better situation than anyone on here could have predicted. He hasn't messed up yet, but he's been pretty damn close with some of his rotations in the 4th quarter.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

So if sammich does better than your wins prediction this year, is he still a bad coach?

Is Randy Whitman a good coach or did his players carrying him just at the right time for him to keep his job? Was Mike Brown a good coach or was Lebron so good you could have put a scarecrow on the bench and get carried to the playoffs? Sometimes players make bad coaches look better than they are. Sam was gifted a #1 pick big playing at a level almost no rookies have ever attained. A #1 pick wing scoring 20 a night and defending the opposing teams best player effectively. A PG who both defends at a high level and runs the offense at such a high level. And finally a HOF big who has totally bought in to the mentorship role and who is probably the most active player in the league when he's on the bench chatting in guy's ears. Sam took over an even better situation than anyone on here could have predicted. He hasn't messed up yet, but he's been pretty damn close with some of his rotations in the 4th quarter.

You ask some good questions, khans, and I don't have the answers. The only instances where I can call a coach a great coach or a terrible coach is if they significantly overachieve or underachieve expectations. Wittman won 46 games in a bad conference with a pretty good roster, so I would say the jury is still out on whether he is a good coach or not. Same thing with any coach LeBron James has ever played for. And same thing for Pat Riley and Phil Jackson, by the way...they won championships, but were also blessed with superior players, and in no way could be considered overachievers.

But i don't think anyone can argue that Sam Mitchell hasn't overachieved in his short coaching career. I've posted this before, but these are the five players who played the most minutes in 2006-7 when he coached the Raptors to 47 wins:

Chris Bosh (at age 22, before hitting the sweet spot of his career)
Anthony Parker
TJ Ford
Jorge Garbajosa
Rasho Neterovic

47 wins with that collection of future HOFers? Not possible! How many wins would Greg Popovich have led that roster to? By any measurement standard, Sam overachieved guiding that team to 47 wins, and fully deserved his COY honors.

Now, has Sam forgotten how to coach since his COY year? It's way too early to evaluate Sam's performance this year after only 9 games, although I think early indications are good...4-5 feels pretty good to us long-suffering Wolves' fans. But if the Wolves are blessed with reasonably good health this year, I think he needs to at least double Flip's win total from last year for me to say he had a good year coaching. If the Wolves win 35 games, he will have exceeded the expectations of this board, and I think needs to be credited with having done a good job. If they make the playoffs, I think he has to be in the conversation for COY. If Rubio can get healthy, I don't see either of those out of the question.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

So if sammich does better than your wins prediction this year, is he still a bad coach?

If the Wolves do better than my wins prediction, it means the players stayed healthier and played better than I projected them to, but the talent on paper is there.

Sam Mitchell as our head coach is a disadvantage every single night. We have the worst staff in basketball, guys.

Byron Scott?

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

So if sammich does better than your wins prediction this year, is he still a bad coach?

If the Wolves do better than my wins prediction, it means the players stayed healthier and played better than I projected them to, but the talent on paper is there.

Sam Mitchell as our head coach is a disadvantage every single night. We have the worst staff in basketball, guys.

Byron Scott?

Almost beat Sam Mitchell... Only reason he didn't was because Ricky Rubio played out of his mind.

[Tactical unit]

KG can't take advantage of anyone in the post anymore. He knows it, the coaches know it, the opposing team knows it.

If that's true then why is he on the floor?

He was gassed last night rather quick too, so the real question is how many productive mins can he play? Can he only go for 2 mins at a time at this age if so fine, give me two mins a quarter but I can't stand using him when he is spent just cause.

[BizarroJerry [enjin:6592520]]

KG can't take advantage of anyone in the post anymore. He knows it, the coaches know it, the opposing team knows it.

If that's true then why is he on the floor?

He was gassed last night rather quick too, so the real question is how many productive mins can he play? Can he only go for 2 mins at a time at this age if so fine, give me two mins a quarter but I can't stand using him when he is spent just cause.

So if KG is giving us 10-15 minutes a game and we continue to go without Rubio and Pek, that's about, what, 35 million dollars a year for 10 minutes a game. That's a lot of money per minute. Even Amare Stoudamire is impressed by that.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

So if sammich does better than your wins prediction this year, is he still a bad coach?

If the Wolves do better than my wins prediction, it means the players stayed healthier and played better than I projected them to, but the talent on paper is there.

Sam Mitchell as our head coach is a disadvantage every single night. We have the worst staff in basketball, guys.

Byron Scott?

Luke Walton?

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

The first 10% of the season is over, and the Wolves are still clinging to that 8th spot. The playoffs are just not in the cards if Rubio keeps missing games...he's proven over the last few years what he means to this club. But if he can play 70 games, watch out for this club.

Strange things are happening with our competition. The Pelicans continue to be awful, the Rockets have lost three in a row even though Howard is back (and Harden is shooting 37%, 24% on threes), Memphis is terrible at shooting the basketball, and even OkC can be passed in the standings if Durant can't play much this year.

We have pieces we haven't had in the past with the addition of Towns, Belly and the 3 vets...but we still need Ricky.

[longstrangetrip [enjin:6600564]]

I tend to bump this thread after good wins, and it seems appropriate with the Wolves in a 3-way tie with the Clippers and the Suns for the 7th spot. and just 1 1/2 games out of home court advantage. There are two simple reasons the Wolves are in the playoff conversation:

1) We're better than we thought we were

2) The West is much worse than we thought it was.

Surprisingly, the East is winning the inter-conference battle so far this year, and I think it's because several West teams don't seem to be as good as they were last year...specifically New Orleans, Houston, Portland, Memphis, the Clippers and Utah. Injuries, weird team dynamics, aging stars. Whatever the reason, there are several teams most of us thought of as certain playoff teams before the season started that aren't playing very well.

The Wolves, in contrast, are exceeding expectations so far. They are winning the close games they used to lose, and tonight they showed they can even beat a good team with Ricky, Wig, KAT and Martin all having sub-par games.

Almost 1/5 of the way through the season, the dream is still alive!