Minnesota Sports Forum

The roster is pretty much set with the exception of one fringe spot. Please predict how many games you think the Wolves will win and why.

For reference, here is the one for last year (we had a few prediction threads, but this is the closest I could find to one purely on win total):

http://minnesotasports.enjin.com/forum/page/1/m/15059925/viewthread/16636424-win-total

44 - 10th in west. Improvement on both sides of the floor from wing players. KG stays healthy. Still in playoff hunt in the last month of season pushing us up past 40 wins.

Too early to say...I'm going to wait a few days to weigh in here, because there are too many things I need to see:

1) Is Rubio 100%
2) Do our second year guys look vastly improved over last year, and our third year guys for that matter
3) With all the talk about defense, will there be a tangible difference on the floor
4) Is Mitchell really all about development as he stated, or is he actually going to put the players on the court that give him the best chance to win
5) Is Towns going to contribute as much this year as Wiggins did last year
6) Will Bjelica look like he did in FIBA against NBA competition
7) Do we stay healthy throughout pre-season
8) Does Miller fit well with this club as a backup PG, and will he be the best backup we have had in several years.
9) Will KG be as mobile and motivated as he was in the 5 games he played for us last year
10) Will Sam loosen the reins on shooting 3-pointers, or will our offense look more like last year

I can guess the answer to these 10 questions, but I'll have a much better idea in 2-3 weeks. Until I have a better handle on these significant open issues, my prediction could be anywhere from 25-45.

Here is mine: 26 wins, one more than I predicted last year. Here are the reasons:

- Injuries: My 26 wins takes into account our history. So while I certainly won't predict the rash of injuries that wrecked us last year, I think it would be pretty foolish not to assume we will get hit with some injuries that will impact our season.

- Western Conference: Damn this place doesn't get any easier. I would probably predict at least 30 wins if we played in the East.

- Youth Movement: Mitchell has straight-up said that the priority is long-term development. That means a guy like Towns will probably get more minutes than he deserves based purely on merit. And that's OK.

- Defense: We have two players on the team that can defend at a high level (KG and Rubio) and one player that is close to being a Plus defender (Wiggins). Everyone else is a liability. Mitchell has his work cutout for him.

longstrangetrip wrote:Too early to say...I'm going to wait a few days to weigh in here, because there are too many things I need to see:

1) Is Rubio 100%
2) Do our second year guys look vastly improved over last year, and our third year guys for that matter
3) With all the talk about defense, will there be a tangible difference on the floor
4) Is Mitchell really all about development as he stated, or is he actually going to put the players on the court that give him the best chance to win
5) Is Towns going to contribute as much this year as Wiggins did last year
6) Will Bjelica look like he did in FIBA against NBA competition
7) Do we stay healthy throughout pre-season
8) Does Miller fit well with this club as a backup PG, and will he be the best backup we have had in several years.
9) Will KG be as mobile and motivated as he was in the 5 games he played for us last year
10) Will Sam loosen the reins on shooting 3-pointers, or will our offense look more like last year

I can guess the answer to these 10 questions, but I'll have a much better idea in 2-3 weeks. Until I have a better handle on these significant open issues, my prediction could be anywhere from 25-45.

Well gee, I think I'll wait until January to make my prediction!

Part of the fun of making a prediction is having to factor in these very questions into your analysis. Perhaps make a prediction now based on what you think, then feel free to revise after the pre-season. Of course, we'll all be better informed by then.

Q12543 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:Too early to say...I'm going to wait a few days to weigh in here, because there are too many things I need to see:

1) Is Rubio 100%
2) Do our second year guys look vastly improved over last year, and our third year guys for that matter
3) With all the talk about defense, will there be a tangible difference on the floor
4) Is Mitchell really all about development as he stated, or is he actually going to put the players on the court that give him the best chance to win
5) Is Towns going to contribute as much this year as Wiggins did last year
6) Will Bjelica look like he did in FIBA against NBA competition
7) Do we stay healthy throughout pre-season
8) Does Miller fit well with this club as a backup PG, and will he be the best backup we have had in several years.
9) Will KG be as mobile and motivated as he was in the 5 games he played for us last year
10) Will Sam loosen the reins on shooting 3-pointers, or will our offense look more like last year

I can guess the answer to these 10 questions, but I'll have a much better idea in 2-3 weeks. Until I have a better handle on these significant open issues, my prediction could be anywhere from 25-45.

Well gee, I think I'll wait until January to make my prediction!

Part of the fun of making a prediction is having to factor in these very questions into your analysis. Perhaps make a prediction now based on what you think, then feel free to revise after the pre-season. Of course, we'll all be better informed by then.

Ha, fair enough...in fact, I kind of thought that would be the reaction to my wimpy post! I'll take a look at the practice game tonight and have my wins prediction tomorrow morning. I'm going to suggest we then have another wins thread later in October after we have had more of a chance to see what we have here. Although that can be dangerous too. I think one of the reasons that our collective predictions were so rosy last year was because of the good play during October. We looked awfully good going into Memphis last year with a squad that was 100% healthy.

32 wins. We still have a ton of defensive holes and a big question mark in the frontcourt regarding scoring output. Right now our 4 wings are the only legitimate scorers on the team and we can only play 2 of them at a time. Without Pek I don't see us having anyone in the frontcourt who can go off for 20 in a game. Combine that with limited scoring from the PG spot and we could see a struggle to put points on the board this year if teams have the defenders to take our wings out of the equation which the good ones do. I don't think we can count on consistent scoring games from our frontcourt where their collective output is respectable which is why I think we need that guy who can give us 20. KG won't play enough, Towns isn't good enough, Dieng probably won't get the volume to do it and NB hasn't been a consistent big time scorer and with our PG's probably only giving us 15 PPG maybe, that frontcourt needs to give the team 40-50 for us to be in the game.

With good health: 40 wins
With Wolves health: 20 wins

I agree with that 32 number that Kahns forecasts. But since he said it first, I will say 31. I think we will struggle mightily in the first half of the season. Too many new faces, too much youth, too much focus on development (which I like), and a new coach who really isn't a good coach. But I can see us gaining momentum the 2nd half of the season and becoming pretty tough to deal with. I'll say 12-29 the first half of the year, and 19-22 the second.

I learned my lesson last year. I'm going to predict zero wins. Yep. Goose Egg. This way, the worst they can do is to meet my expectations. Genius!