Minnesota Sports Forum

Q - I see this as an incredibly unpredictable season for the Wolves. Maybe injuries and inexperience will limit the wins to 25. But we have enough "X" factors that the other end of the spectrum is flirting with the playoffs (in my opTIMistic eyes).

The first "X" factor is Flip. Considering how disengaged Adelman was, Flip could provide a big boost, especially on the defensive end. Flip was pretty blunt about some of his defensive philosophies compared to Adelman. And we assume Flip will let some of the rookies develop at a faster pace than Adelman did...

Despite losing Love, we do have some talent. Rubio, Martin, Brewer and Pek were four of the five starters that helped the team get off to some awesome starts last year. Young (or whoever) will never fill Love's shoes, but a competent replacement will lessen the loss. The addition of Mo Williams, along with Luc (if he's still here), Bud and Turiaf, is not a completely inept bench, which was one of our bigger downfalls last year.

And then the next set of X factors are all the 1st and 2nd year players we have. LaVine, Wiggins, Shabazz, Bennett, Dieng and Hummel. There's some talent there. As you suggested, Wiggins might even break the starting lineup. If one or more of those guys gives us something in addition to the veteran guys we have, it will take us that much closer to flirting with the playoffs.

I think Rubio will play the biggest role in how our team will fare next season. This is his team now and he is the leader on the court. That is what makes me optimistic in our record next year. Im not predicting playoffs but 30+ wins is likely.

I was curious about what was the deal with the minimum floor for the Sixers and I found the article linked below about their tanking ways last year. The penalty for not reaching the minimum? You pay up to the minimum and then the players on your team get the money split up.

Here is the interesting thing though that minimum can be met on the last day of the season. So the Sixers can roll into the season right now being able to accept what over 20 million in salary and not have to pay any extra money and therefor they are open for business when teams are trading and needing somewhere to dump contracts and get paid for doing so all the way up to the trading deadline. It looks like at this point they are the place to go for significant salary dump in the league. Maybe they don't want to accept anymore salary back than they have to if we trade for Young and Flip would like them to take all 3 of JJ, Luc and Shved.

Anyway I thought that was interesting I didn't know how the minimum worked.

http://www.businessinsider.com/nba-salary-cap-floor-is-meaningless-2013-9

monsterpile wrote:I was curious about what was the deal with the minimum floor for the Sixers and I found the article linked below about their tanking ways last year. The penalty for not reaching the minimum? You pay up to the minimum and then the players on your team get the money split up.

Here is the interesting thing though that minimum can be met on the last day of the season. So the Sixers can roll into the season right now being able to accept what over 20 million in salary and not have to pay any extra money and therefor they are open for business when teams are trading and needing somewhere to dump contracts and get paid for doing so all the way up to the trading deadline. It looks like at this point they are the place to go for significant salary dump in the league. Maybe they don't want to accept anymore salary back than they have to if we trade for Young and Flip would like them to take all 3 of JJ, Luc and Shved.

Anyway I thought that was interesting I didn't know how the minimum worked.

http://www.businessinsider.com/nba-salary-cap-floor-is-meaningless-2013-9

Thanks for posting. I always thought the minimum had to be met by the start of the regular season.

worldK wrote:I think Rubio will play the biggest role in how our team will fare next season. This is his team now and he is the leader on the court. That is what makes me optimistic in our record next year. Im not predicting playoffs but 30+ wins is likely.

I am actually looking forward to seeing how Ricky responds, not only to the uptempo open floor that his new wings could provide, but more importantly, his bigger role in the offense. He has looked like a different player when he was forced to not defer all the time. I prefer the offense be in his control most of the time. When he is focused and involved in the flow of the game and the defense ratchets up on him, he seems to play even better. I want that Ricky all the time.

Love what everyone is posting on Rubio. I agree that this is a big year for Rubio, and I think it puts the Wolves in a perfect win-win situation. He has more complimentary players around him now (not to say that Love didn't compliment him), but now he has young track stars to play defense and run with him, so we can finally see where he ranks amongst the NBA's PG's.

If he dominates, we happily pay him what he's worth and move into the future with our franchise player. If he continues to lack development, we save ourselves significant cap space by having more negotiating power next summer.

zigzag22 wrote:Love what everyone is posting on Rubio. I agree that this is a big year for Rubio, and I think it puts the Wolves in a perfect win-win situation. He has more complimentary players around him now (not to say that Love didn't compliment him), but now he has young track stars to play defense and run with him, so we can finally see where he ranks amongst the NBA's PG's.

If he dominates, we happily pay him what he's worth and move into the future with our franchise player. If he continues to lack development, we save ourselves significant cap space by having more negotiating power next summer.

Right, he's losing 1 in Love, but potentially gaining 4 more in Wiggins/Lavine/Bennett/Young

Tim - I'm being a pessimist by picking the low end of the consensus win total, which seems to be in the 25-35 range. Why? Just look at our history: Injuries, lack of development, disappointment. I don't think in the past 5-6 years of being around the ESPN board and now this one that the Wolves have EVER been at the top end or even middle of the range most posters predicted. Only the die-hard pessimists were ever right and even they sometimes couldn't predict the degree to which we would suck.

Zigzag - We already know where Ricky Rubio ranks among NBA PGs. He had excellent pieces around him in last season's starting lineup and the result was a career year for him in assists. He also had arguably the fastest end-to-end player in the game in Corey Brewer. It's never a good thing for a pass-first PG to lose a scorer of Kevin Love's caliber. Adding Wiggins and LaVine does nothing to fundamentally change Rubio's stature as a PG. What will change it is something only he can control: His own shooting accuracy.

I like the trade. I still don't trust the front office, but this is a good deal.

I hope that this doesn't screw over Bazz long term (as he should absolutely get PT over Brewer and Budinger) but given Flip's indifference to him, he'll probably be gone soon.

WildWolf2813 wrote:I like the trade. I still don't trust the front office, but this is a good deal.

I hope that this doesn't screw over Bazz long term (as he should absolutely get PT over Brewer and Budinger) but given Flip's indifference to him, he'll probably be gone soon.

Flip he has mentioned Bazz in various Funkadelic appearances which makes me believe what Lip says that Flip doesn't want to move him.