***OFFICIAL 2020-21 WINS PREDICTION THREAD***

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

Here are the last few winners for closest prediction, excluding last year's incomplete season:

18-19 - Logo
17-18 - Khans2k5
16-17 - Bleedspeed177
15-16 - Kiwi

Past winners can attest to the benefits of entering such an exclusive club: Recognition, fame, the ability to set their families up for life. But what they cherish the most, by far, is the Enjin-branded coffee mug.

Remember, this is a 72-game season!

What ya got? And if you so choose, what are the key factors driving your wins total prediction? Color commentary welcomed.

[AbeVigodaLive]

Have I officially gone with the Price is Right ($1) approach yet?

[Monster]

I'm going with 28 wins which is like 31 or 32 wins in a typical 82 game season.

Why? Idk I can't be optimistic enough to say things will break well enough for them to be closer to .500 and yet I do think assuming there isn't a disaster in terms of injury they won't be terrible either. A healthy Rubio combined with Russell should help the Wolves always have someone that is pretty good handling the ball for 48 minutes most of the games.

[Leado01]

Ever the optimist, I'm going with a fast start that propels us to 37 wins.

We will lose to a lot of teams in the 2nd half that we beat in the first.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

The Wolves going 20-17 (.541) over the first half of the season is not beyond the realms of possibility. I have Minnesota losing to all scheduled contenders such as both Los Angeles teams, Milwaukee, Toronto, Denver, Utah, Dallas, Philadelphia, and Indiana. I get to that optimistic 20 wins by favoring them over the bottom feeders of the Eastern Conference, the truly rebuilding teams in the Western Conference, and splitting series with teams that I expect to be competing for the final two playoff seeds (Memphis, Golden State, New Orleans, etc.).

With that said, I'm sure they'll blow a number of those games that I have them favored to win, and I expect the second half schedule to be more difficult, but it makes me comfortable in projecting a full season record that hovers around or just below the .500 mark. I'll go on record with a 34-38 (.472) record and a spot in the play-in tournament.

I'm banking on Karl-Anthony Towns and D'Angelo Russell being the All-Stars that they've been in the past. I'm expecting Malik Beasley to be an efficient complimentary scorer but in a much lesser capacity than he had in his 14-game stint last year. I'm positive that Ricky Rubio will provide a steadying two-way force to this team that hasn't been there since Jimmy Butler left. I think Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Jordan McLaughlin will quietly be very important players over the course of the season for one reason or another. I also expect Jarrett Culver and Josh Okogie to improve or continue to progress into valuable role players albeit with cautioned expectations.

Lastly, I think this Wolves team will be top-six in the NBA in most offensive metrics, but there's a real possibility that they're in the bottom five in almost every defensive category to include rebounding. That internal struggle of offense versus defense will provide Ryan Saunders an opportunity to show if he has any coaching savvy whatsoever.

In the end, I feel like the Wolves will come up just short of the playoffs, but close enough to feel like they can perhaps build on this season moving forward. That is, unless the most important player on the team is completely checked out mentally.

[Volans19]

32 wins

[thedoper]

33-39

Thrilled with anything higher than that.

[WildWolf2813]

30 wins. The big question is 30 wins out of how many games.

[Coolbreeze44]

23-49. Been looking forward to this Q. I'm usually in the middle of the pack for wins, but this year I'm sure to be toward the bottom. A lot of factors go into this:

1) KAT's state of mind
2) Injuries
3) DLO imploding at some point during the season
4) Possibility of making trades and starting over before the season ends
5) Ridiculous scheme
6) Lack of talent
7) Getting pounded inside.

We are going to suck. And then we are going to suck next year and the year after that. This is one of the worst roster constructions I have ever seen. Hard to believe this is the plan, but here we are.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

26. KAT is gonna be a shell and when things go bad this year there just aren't the veteran leaders on this team to recover.