Minnesota Sports Forum

So as the playoff chase winds down, let's take a closer look at the teams in the race -- and what they've overcome this season:

New Orleans. Lost its All NBA C more than 2 months ago... and IMPROVED. Traded another starter (Cunningham) around that time for... nothing. Literally. They replaced Cousins with a 35-year-old (Emeka Okafor) who hadn't played for 4 full seasons. They also start Rajon Rondo and E'twuan Moore and sometimes Nikola Mirotic. Two of those guys had become punchlines by media and fans alike. Their top bench guy, Darius Miller, played 5 NBA games in the past 3 seasons... shooting 14.3%.

San Antonio. Mired in controversy as its best player (and NBA MVP candidate) refuses to play. Last season's punchline, Lamarcus Aldridge, is averaging 23/8/51% in a resurgent year. Kyle Anderson might be the slowest NBA player at any position. He's a starter. Pau Gasol is 37. Manu is 40. Rudy Gay was a "career loser" elsewhere, now he's returned from a terrible Achilles tear to be the team's 3rd leading scorer. The two main PGs have combined to hit 19 three pointers. Bryn Forbes and Brandon Paul are key rotation guys... neither was drafted. Other rotation guy, David Bertans was drafted... #42... 6 years before he finally made it to an NBA court.

LA Clippers. Injuries/trades everywhere. Only one starter with more than 56 games. Traded its All NBA PG, Paul. His replacement, Patrick Beverley, played 11 games. Prized free agent pickup, Danillo Gallinari, has played 21 games. Traded leading scorer and assist guy, Blake Griffin. Avery Bradley was in that trade. He's played only 6 games. Other FA pickup, Telodosic, played only 45 games and is done for the season. The last pick of the 2016 draft (#60) has started 16 games. The #48 pick of last year's draft has started 15 games. 27-year-old undrafted rookie, CJ Williams, has started 16 games. Another 27-year-old undrafted rookie, Jamal Wilson, has started 10 games. Smilin' Wes Johnson has started 37 games.

Utah. Its best player last season, Gordon Hayward, left in free agency. Its best player this season, Rudy Gobert, has missed 26 games. Dante Exum missed 68 games. Thabo Sefolosha has missed 40 games. Traded the team's 2nd leading scorer mid-season + last season's playoff savior, Joe Johnson, for a guy (Crowder) averaging 8.6 ppg in Cleveland... he's shooting 39% in Utah. Royce O'Neal is a rookie rotation guy. He graduated college in 2015. Went undrafted. David Stockton (yep, that family) is on this team. He's 26. Never averaged even 8 ppg, even in college. But he did have 5 points in 3 minutes last week vs. a division rival from the Midwest.

Denver. Mostly healthy. And stable. Although its prized ($30M) FA get, Paul Millsap, has missed 44 games. 2nd leading scorer, Gary Harris is out now and will probably miss the rest of the season and 17 games total. As expected, they've been a good offensive (6th) and bad defensive (26) team. The roster is filled with mostly young guys with decent to good to actually pretty solid promise. The only one who didn't improve, Mudiay, was shipped out.

OKC. Perennial playoff team. Added Paul George and Carmelo Anthony. Those 3 and starting center, Adams, have stayed healthy. Only key loss has been Andre Roberson (43 games). Corey Brewer is starting for this team.

Minnesota. 6 of the top 9 rotation guys have played at least 75 games. Best player, Jimmy Butler, has missed 22 games so far. #2 and #3 (KAT and Wiggins) haven't missed a game yet. In fact, the team has rolled out the same starting lineup for about 50 games this season... the most on this list. Key rotation player and now starter, Nemanja Bjelica, missed 15 games earlier in the season. That's about it for bad luck/adversity this season.

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I'm glad I'm a loyal provincial rube at heart. Because there's some pretty damn good story lines from some of those other teams that would make me root for them -- in any other year.

Great write-up, Abe! Those are some great story lines. The Jazz and Spurs strike me as the most impressive among them, although hard not to be impressed by what Doc Rivers has done with the Clippers. In any event, if the Wolves end up missing the playoffs or finishing a disappointing 8th, I don't want to hear about the Butler injury or Teague's sore knee.

We would be out of the playoff race by now if these other teams had stayed reasonably healthy. The lack of development, depth, and the ability to find guys that can step in and contribute has been a chronic issue for this franchise.

It's great that KAT and Wiggins are durable players, but the duo has yet to prove they can lead a squad to play .500 or better basketball. Our defense has totally collapsed since Butler went out.

Meanwhile in Philly, Embiid and Simmons seem to be doing just fine.

Q12543 wrote:We would be out of the playoff race by now if these other teams had stayed reasonably healthy. The lack of development, depth, and the ability to find guys that can step in and contribute has been a chronic issue for this franchise.

It's great that KAT and Wiggins are durable players, but the duo has yet to prove they can lead a squad to play .500 or better basketball. Our defense has totally collapsed since Butler went out.

Meanwhile in Philly, Embiid and Simmons seem to be doing just fine.

We all know that this season marked the first time in 14 years the Wolves had a 5-game winning streak.

Right now, Philly is on a 12-game winning streak... with the last 5 coming without Embiid. Granted, they've played NY, Charlotte, Atlanta, BKN and Detroit. BUT... they won the first 4 by double digits... and led by 17 entering the 4th quarter last night and sat its starters for most of it.

They're not squeaking out wins vs. bad teams... they're destroying bad teams. Without its best player. They're now the #3 seed in the East.

At the beginning of the year, I was higher on the Wolves. Not anymore. Philadelphia is legit. And that's with next-to-nothing from Fultz. Now that he's back and showing signs that he can be a legit NBA player...

oh. oh.

Abe has a good write up here and it brings forth some great points. It doesn't reflect well on the Wolves. However...look at some of these teams and even some of the better teams. A year ago (Ora few weeks or months ago) or 3 years ago...people were saying this team or that was going nowhere either not going to make the playoffs or just be a playoff team and nothing else. The Wolves have made a lengthy run out of being underchivers in some way shape or form. That doesn't mean they are for sure destined for meh-ness. Right now it looks like the Wolves aren't one of those Uber rising teams but a move here improvement from a couple young guys and it could be different. Some people think that's optimistic...I'm just saying that's a real possible path on reality.

The other realityis that despite everything the storyline for the Wolves I looking to end a REEEEAAAALLLLLYYY long playoff drought. It's a big deal even if it's an ugly looking limping finish if they actually make it.

monsterpile wrote:Abe has a good write up here and it brings forth some great points. It doesn't reflect well on the Wolves. However...look at some of these teams and even some of the better teams. A year ago (Ora few weeks or months ago) or 3 years ago...people were saying this team or that was going nowhere either not going to make the playoffs or just be a playoff team and nothing else. The Wolves have made a lengthy run out of being underchivers in some way shape or form. That doesn't mean they are for sure destined for meh-ness. Right now it looks like the Wolves aren't one of those Uber rising teams but a move here improvement from a couple young guys and it could be different. Some people think that's optimistic...I'm just saying that's a real possible path on reality.

The other realityis that despite everything the storyline for the Wolves I looking to end a REEEEAAAALLLLLYYY long playoff drought. It's a big deal even if it's an ugly looking limping finish if they actually make it.

One note... despite SAS and OKC and NOP all struggling recently, I still think the Wolves are going to have to win multiple games to make it. So we probably won't have the stigma of backing in to the playoffs. They'll earn it to some degree.

One note about OKC:

They are 2 - 4 recently. Paul George is shooting 33% during that stretch. He hasn't shot above 50% for 16 straight games in a Baron Davis-esque streak. Who's received more criticism publicly during that stretch... George or Westbrook?

In their last game, Anthony shot 4 - 16 fg. George was 5 - 19. Westbrook was 15 - 26 with 44 points and 16 rebounds.

And one headline read, "Durant outduels Westbrook as Warriors top Thunder"... despite Durant shooting 9 - 25 fg.



[Note: Westbrook is a very flawed player at times... but I sort of understand his "fuck y'all" approach when he takes the brunt of blame so often... whether with Durant or now George.]

AbeVigodaLive wrote:

monsterpile wrote:Abe has a good write up here and it brings forth some great points. It doesn't reflect well on the Wolves. However...look at some of these teams and even some of the better teams. A year ago (Ora few weeks or months ago) or 3 years ago...people were saying this team or that was going nowhere either not going to make the playoffs or just be a playoff team and nothing else. The Wolves have made a lengthy run out of being underchivers in some way shape or form. That doesn't mean they are for sure destined for meh-ness. Right now it looks like the Wolves aren't one of those Uber rising teams but a move here improvement from a couple young guys and it could be different. Some people think that's optimistic...I'm just saying that's a real possible path on reality.

The other realityis that despite everything the storyline for the Wolves I looking to end a REEEEAAAALLLLLYYY long playoff drought. It's a big deal even if it's an ugly looking limping finish if they actually make it.

One note... despite SAS and OKC and NOP all struggling recently, I still think the Wolves are going to have to win multiple games to make it. So we probably won't have the stigma of backing in to the playoffs. They'll earn it to some degree.

One note about OKC:

They are 2 - 4 recently. Paul George is shooting 33% during that stretch. He hasn't shot above 50% for 16 straight games in a Baron Davis-esque streak. Who's received more criticism publicly during that stretch... George or Westbrook?

In their last game, Anthony shot 4 - 16 fg. George was 5 - 19. Westbrook was 15 - 26 with 44 points and 16 rebounds.

And one headline read, "Durant outduels Westbrook as Warriors top Thunder"... despite Durant shooting 9 - 25 fg.



[Note: Westbrook is a very flawed player at times... but I sort of understand his "fuck y'all" approach when he takes the brunt of blame so often... whether with Durant or now George.]

Agreed

Melo is likely their biggest problem. He just has not been that effective offensively* and there are more and more talk about his defense being a real problem and it could be even worse when the playoffs happen.

*His shooting spilts on basketball reference for this season look... Rubio-esquire. The last month he shot 40% or better on FGs was January. March he did shot over 40% on 3's but...man that's bad especially considering he shot 38% overall what percentage is that from 2?! LST told us Melo wasn't going to be a positive player for them but I doubt he even saw this lack of shot making from Melo coming. The small bit of saving grace is he is taking a lot of 3's and making them at a decent level.