Minnesota Sports Forum

Here are the Wolves remaining nine games:

1. Hawks
2. @Warriors
3. @Kings
4. @Suns
5. Lakers
6. Blazers
7. @Nets
8. @Spurs
9. Pelicans

Those three road games in a row against the Warriors, Kings and Suns will be tough. I have a hard time seeing the Wolves win any of those without Ant. If the Wolves run the table on the other 6 games, they'll finish 2 games over .500 with a play-in opportunity. But the Wolves could easily lose to the Nets on the road and the Lakers at home. If that happens, the Wolves will finish 2 games under .500 and possibly out of the play-in tournament. We don't know when or even if Ant will be back or what how effective he'll be if no when he returns. We still don't know exactly when KAT will be back, but even if he's back this week it will probably take him half of the remaining 9 games at least to get his conditioning and timing back.

The Wolves had to win tonight against the Knicks to have a chance and they took care of business in an impressive win. Maybe Taurean Durant will stay with us for the remaining nine games. That would certainly help. :)

Lip, take a look at the tough schedules for some of the other teams. If we were somehow able to finish 2 games over .500 (I think that's a difficult task) I think they would finish 5th. The bad news is they would then most likely face the 4th place Suns (Denver, Sac-town and the Griz are looking like shoe-ins for 1 through 3).

We looked great tonight, but the reality is we just don't know how we're going to play when KAT and Ant come back. Finchie said we would try to survive with ball movement with both guys out, and we sure did that tonight. But KAT and Ant are iso players. We should be much better when they come back, but who knows.

FNG wrote:Lip, take a look at the tough schedules for some of the other teams. If we were somehow able to finish 2 games over .500 (I think that's a difficult task) I think they would finish 5th. The bad news is they would then most likely face the 4th place Suns (Denver, Sac-town and the Griz are looking like shoe-ins for 1 through 3).

We looked great tonight, but the reality is we just don't know how we're going to play when KAT and Ant come back. Finchie said we would try to survive with ball movement with both guys out, and we sure did that tonight. But KAT and Ant are iso players. We should be much better when they come back, but who knows.

You're right to surmise I didn't look at the other teams' schedules. Your assessment is encouraging.

You raise a really interesting point about the team's ball-movement declining when KAT and Ant, two largely iso players, are in the game. For the last two seasons it's looked pretty obvious to me that the team plays better when the ball moves a lot on offense. No surprise I guess. At some point, this team will have to find a way to maintain something close to the ball movement we saw tonight with both Ant and KAT on the floor if this team is going to reach its full potential over the next few seasons. There will always be times when this team will just need to get the ball to KAT or Ant and get out of the way. But the team would be wise to keep those times to a minimum.

Got to be team from here on out, good win but we one isn't the finish line.

lipoli390 wrote:

FNG wrote:Lip, take a look at the tough schedules for some of the other teams. If we were somehow able to finish 2 games over .500 (I think that's a difficult task) I think they would finish 5th. The bad news is they would then most likely face the 4th place Suns (Denver, Sac-town and the Griz are looking like shoe-ins for 1 through 3).

We looked great tonight, but the reality is we just don't know how we're going to play when KAT and Ant come back. Finchie said we would try to survive with ball movement with both guys out, and we sure did that tonight. But KAT and Ant are iso players. We should be much better when they come back, but who knows.

You're right to surmise I didn't look at the other teams' schedules. Your assessment is encouraging.

You raise a really interesting point about the team's ball-movement declining when KAT and Ant, two largely iso players, are in the game. For the last two seasons it's looked pretty obvious to me that the team plays better when the ball moves a lot on offense. No surprise I guess. At some point, this team will have to find a way to maintain something close to the ball movement we saw tonight with both Ant and KAT on the floor if this team is going to reach its full potential over the next few seasons. There will always be times when this team will just need to get the ball to KAT or Ant and get out of the way. But the team would be wise to keep those times to a minimum.

I think the last few games even with Edwards the Ball was moving pretty well. Ideally Towns comes in and gives them some shooting potentially in high volume. The reality is like we have said before if he is a better version of Naz Reid as a shooter and defender that's an upgrade. I'm not sure Towns will be a better driver because Naz has been pretty good. Towns is a better passer than Reid too. He can also throw stupid passes too.

monsterpile wrote:

lipoli390 wrote:

FNG wrote:Lip, take a look at the tough schedules for some of the other teams. If we were somehow able to finish 2 games over .500 (I think that's a difficult task) I think they would finish 5th. The bad news is they would then most likely face the 4th place Suns (Denver, Sac-town and the Griz are looking like shoe-ins for 1 through 3).

We looked great tonight, but the reality is we just don't know how we're going to play when KAT and Ant come back. Finchie said we would try to survive with ball movement with both guys out, and we sure did that tonight. But KAT and Ant are iso players. We should be much better when they come back, but who knows.

You're right to surmise I didn't look at the other teams' schedules. Your assessment is encouraging.

You raise a really interesting point about the team's ball-movement declining when KAT and Ant, two largely iso players, are in the game. For the last two seasons it's looked pretty obvious to me that the team plays better when the ball moves a lot on offense. No surprise I guess. At some point, this team will have to find a way to maintain something close to the ball movement we saw tonight with both Ant and KAT on the floor if this team is going to reach its full potential over the next few seasons. There will always be times when this team will just need to get the ball to KAT or Ant and get out of the way. But the team would be wise to keep those times to a minimum.

I think the last few games even with Edwards the Ball was moving pretty well. Ideally Towns comes in and gives them some shooting potentially in high volume. The reality is like we have said before if he is a better version of Naz Reid as a shooter and defender that's an upgrade. I'm not sure Towns will be a better driver because Naz has been pretty good. Towns is a better passer than Reid too. He can also throw stupid passes too.

All true, Monster. What weighs on me is that we can't expect to get all-star KAT this season after he's been out so long. That would be true under any circumstances, but it's even more problematic now given how KAT struggled to mesh with Rudy early in the season before his injury. On the other hand, you're right that KAT should still be an upgrade over Naz and that's a net positive.