Minnesota Sports Forum

We are projected to be 4th in West and have 50.1 wins. WOW!

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/20225286/projected-records-win-totals-standings-every-nba-team-2017-18-season

I'll believe it when it happens. Towns and Wigz were part of 30 win team. Butler 40 win team last two seasons. Teague with similar results.

Keep in mind that this has us at 50.1 wins and it has Utah at 44.7 wins and the #8 seed.....we're barely ahead of OKC, barely ahead of the Clippers, etc. Very little room for error.

I think the real number to think about is 45 wins. I believe we probably need to equal or top that number to guarantee a slot in the playoffs. That is a huge leap and one I certainly don't think will be easy to achieve.

Until their are injuries or teams go into some sort of tank mode the west doesn't really have a joke team. The Suns are young and who knows what vet players they will play but they have some talent. If you don't come to play pretty much any team in the West can beat you on any given night. IF Teague is like the 4th or 5th best player on the team we are gonna be really good though. Most teams have some questions to answer except basically GS who maybe got even better.

As I've mentioned in other threads, the Thunder jumped from 23 wins to 50 wins the season they added two rookies - Harden and Ibaka. The Warriors jumped from 20-something wins to 47 wins after adding a rookie Harrison Barnes and an Andrew Bogut who only played around 30 games that season. So there's reason to believe that the Wolves can make a similar jump after adding an allstar in his prime named Jimmy Butler, combined with the continued development of KAT and Wiggins. Even more reason to believe we can make the leap if Thibs is right about the upgrade we get from replacing Ricky with Teague and if Thibs knew what he was doing giving Taj Gibson a 2-year $28 million deal.

But I'm apprehensive about our chances for a couple reasons. First and foremost, we are so lacking in quality depth that we have no margin for error when it comes to injuries. If Butler misses 15 games as he typically has throughout his career, I don't see how we can win 50 games. Second, the West is so strong top to bottom. It's just plain hard to win in the Western Conference when, even the "weaker" teams like the Suns, have rosters that would be favored to make the playoffs and maybe finish top 5 in the East.

So I can see it happening, but I'm not counting on it.

lipoli390 wrote:If Butler misses 15 games as he typically has throughout his career, I don't see how we can win 50 games.

C'mon now Lip, this is simple math. If Butler misses 15 games then they can only lose 17 of the games he plays. D'uh.

Brooklyn_Wolves wrote:I'll believe it when it happens. Towns and Wigz were part of 30 win team. Butler 40 win team last two seasons. Teague with similar results.

How many wins did Irving and Love have before the current Cavs team was constructed. Adding a top 15 talent like Butler with 2 rising stars will help the win total. Butler didn't have a support cast near this last year.

I have quite a lot of trust in those analytics, since those people really have to rely on it for a living. If we look at last season, the estimate is more or less spot-on, considering the late season run of losses was quite uncharacteristic of the 44-game span in which we were at 50%. What happened then? Some intentional tanking? Injuries to certain key players on the team? Or just the loss of hope of reaching playoffs? (We all know how Wiggins plays when he's unmotivated) Maybe a mix of all these factors.

As for the Butler injury factor, I am quite sure it has been taken consideration into already.