Minnesota Sports Forum

Ahhhhhhh, do you feel that? Do you sense it? A bit of a chill in the air, bleary-eyed schoolkids trudging to the bus stop, missed last second field goals by a Vikings kicker.....It can only mean one thing. Fall is upon us and Timberwolves training camp is in session. Time for our annual wins prediction thread!

What you got?

I'll start.

29 Wins (No Simmons, roster is mostly the same)

43 Wins (Simmons is acquired pre/during season)

32 wins, finishing higher than the Spurs, OKC and Rockets.

38 wins is my number. I think it could be higher than this but I feel like this is sort of where I land in between optimism and what could go wrong. I think there will be at least 2 teams that have injury issues that lower their win output.

Edit: to clarify I meant 2 injury teams in the Western conference that could impact/be in the range of impacting whether the Wolves having enough wins to make the playoffs.

41 Wins

Minnesota won 23 games last year in a 72-game season, which equates to a measly 32-percent of their games -- or a 27-win pace over an 82-game season.

We know that Karl-Anthony Towns missed 22 games. We know that D'Angelo Russell missed 30 games. Malik Beasley also missed 35 games. The duo of Towns and Russell played a whopping 24 games together, but the Wolves were 13-11 in those games, which is something to build off of.

This is all to say that last season was lost primarily to injuries and that the team never had a chance to blossom. You can't expect to lose your top talent for large portions of the season and be in the playoff hunt. However, when the team's two best players were active together, they were clearly much more competitive and a positive force on the court.

None of this mentions the upgrade at head coach in Chris Finch, the improved play from Edwards and Jaden McDaniels as starters, and the additions of Patrick Beverley and Taurean Prince who are substantial improvements over Ricky Rubio, Juan Hernangomez, and Jarrett Culver.

The sum of all of these factors given reasonable health leads me to believe that the Wolves are a team that can and will win 40-44 games this season as currently constructed. It's a flawed roster, but it's a talented roster with some serious top end talent in Towns, Russell, and Edwards, which is what drives winning in the NBA. There's legitimate reason for optimism here.

37 wins

50

We are going to be relatively healthy this year, Ant, Jaden, and Naz all take a good step forward. Beasley will be in the running for 6th man of the year. Players continue to play well for Finch and gel together. I go them at 42 wins.

I'm going to go with Bleed here, 37 wins.