Minnesota Sports Forum

Since rosters are more or less solidified now, how does the West look. Here's my early predictions (though I hope I am overly conservative on the Wolves chances):

1. Golden State
2. San Antonio
3. LA Clippers
4. Utah
5. Memphis
6. Portland
7 WOLVES
8. Dallas
9. OKC
10. Houston
11. Sacramento
12. Denver
13. New Orleans
14. LA Lakers
15. Phoenix

I had the Wolves as a top 4 team if they could have landed a top free agent like Deng or Horford, but while I approve of the patience of their off-season moves, they are not a top 4 team next year with two promising 20 year olds starting at the wings. I still have us in the playoffs though, and I'm going to go out on a limb and pick the Warriors to finish first.

1. Golden State
2. San Antonio
3. LA Clippers
4. Memphis
5. Houston
6. Utah
7. Dallas
8. Wolves
9. Portland
10. Oklahoma City
11. New Orleans
12. Denver
13. LA Lakers
14. Sacramento
15.Phoenix

Looks like our biggest difference is Houston, Ricky. I liked their off-season. Getting rid of guys like Howard and Jones is a positive, I think, and adding Anderson and Gordon (and even Wiltger) will make them a very good 3-point team.

longstrangetrip wrote:I had the Wolves as a top 4 team if they could have landed a top free agent like Deng or Horford, but while I approve of the patience of their off-season moves, they are not a top 4 team next year with two promising 20 year olds starting at the wings. I still have us in the playoffs though, and I'm going to go out on a limb and pick the Warriors to finish first.

1. Golden State
2. San Antonio
3. LA Clippers
4. Memphis
5. Houston
6. Utah
7. Dallas
8. Wolves
9. Portland
10. Oklahoma City
11. New Orleans
12. Denver
13. LA Lakers
14. Sacramento
15.Phoenix

Looks like our biggest difference is Houston, Ricky. I liked their off-season. Getting rid of guys like Howard and Jones is a positive, I think, and adding Anderson and Gordon (and even Wiltger) will make them a very good 3-point team.

How is it that you have Portland missing the playoffs? I'd have a hard time betting against them.

monsterpile wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:I had the Wolves as a top 4 team if they could have landed a top free agent like Deng or Horford, but while I approve of the patience of their off-season moves, they are not a top 4 team next year with two promising 20 year olds starting at the wings. I still have us in the playoffs though, and I'm going to go out on a limb and pick the Warriors to finish first.

1. Golden State
2. San Antonio
3. LA Clippers
4. Memphis
5. Houston
6. Utah
7. Dallas
8. Wolves
9. Portland
10. Oklahoma City
11. New Orleans
12. Denver
13. LA Lakers
14. Sacramento
15.Phoenix

Looks like our biggest difference is Houston, Ricky. I liked their off-season. Getting rid of guys like Howard and Jones is a positive, I think, and adding Anderson and Gordon (and even Wiltger) will make them a very good 3-point team.

How is it that you have Portland missing the playoffs? I'd have a hard time betting against them.

I think they overachieved last year, and I didn't like the Turner move. I can't see a Plumlee, Aminu, Turner frontcourt making the playoffs this year. My question with them was not whether they were a playoff team, but whether they will finish ahead of OkC...coin toss for me for 9th and 10th.

longstrangetrip wrote:I had the Wolves as a top 4 team if they could have landed a top free agent like Deng or Horford, but while I approve of the patience of their off-season moves, they are not a top 4 team next year with two promising 20 year olds starting at the wings. I still have us in the playoffs though, and I'm going to go out on a limb and pick the Warriors to finish first.

1. Golden State
2. San Antonio
3. LA Clippers
4. Memphis
5. Houston
6. Utah
7. Dallas
8. Wolves
9. Portland
10. Oklahoma City
11. New Orleans
12. Denver
13. LA Lakers
14. Sacramento
15.Phoenix

Looks like our biggest difference is Houston, Ricky. I liked their off-season. Getting rid of guys like Howard and Jones is a positive, I think, and adding Anderson and Gordon (and even Wiltger) will make them a very good 3-point team.

You are right that they added a lot of 3 point shooting, even though they lose Jason Terry and Marcus Thornton. The thing is that they were already very good beyond the arc, so I just don't see the incremental improvement in 3-point shooting outweighing the hit they will take on the defensive side. They added a very poor defender in Ryan Anderson to the starting lineup to play with another bad defender in Harden and have offensive minded D'Antoni coaching, and lose Dwight Howard, so I think their defense will likely take a huge hit. I also didn't like the way Houston fizzled at the end of last year (and cost us a second rounder) and so I'm predicting them to drop from 8th to 10th place. Maybe I'm being too negative but we'll see.

longstrangetrip wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:I had the Wolves as a top 4 team if they could have landed a top free agent like Deng or Horford, but while I approve of the patience of their off-season moves, they are not a top 4 team next year with two promising 20 year olds starting at the wings. I still have us in the playoffs though, and I'm going to go out on a limb and pick the Warriors to finish first.

1. Golden State
2. San Antonio
3. LA Clippers
4. Memphis
5. Houston
6. Utah
7. Dallas
8. Wolves
9. Portland
10. Oklahoma City
11. New Orleans
12. Denver
13. LA Lakers
14. Sacramento
15.Phoenix

Looks like our biggest difference is Houston, Ricky. I liked their off-season. Getting rid of guys like Howard and Jones is a positive, I think, and adding Anderson and Gordon (and even Wiltger) will make them a very good 3-point team.

How is it that you have Portland missing the playoffs? I'd have a hard time betting against them.

I think they overachieved last year, and I didn't like the Turner move. I can't see a Plumlee, Aminu, Turner frontcourt making the playoffs this year. My question with them was not whether they were a playoff team, but whether they will finish ahead of OkC...coin toss for me for 9th and 10th.

That's a very deep team (added Ezeli) with one of the best backcourts in the entire league. They basically swapped out Turner for Henderson which seems about equal to me in terms of talent. I do think it's going to be tough to pick the last few teams but man I gotta give the Blazers credit for what they did last year and Lilliard is a hell of a player.

1. Golden State
2. San Antonio
3. LA Clippers
4. Portland
5. Utah
6. Oklahoma City
7. New Orleans
8. Dallas
9. Houston
10. Minnesota
11. Memphis
12. Denver
13. Sacramento
14. LA Lakers
15. Phoenix

#1 is set. But from #4 - #12... you can make a good/bad case for any of those teams. At least one of those teams will have a key injury and punt on the season. It's really tough to omit Memphis or Dallas. On paper, they might not look super great... but both have discovered ways to "win" season after season after season.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:1. Golden State
2. San Antonio
3. LA Clippers
4. Portland
5. Utah
6. Oklahoma City
7. New Orleans
8. Dallas
9. Houston
10. Minnesota
11. Memphis
12. Denver
13. Sacramento
14. LA Lakers
15. Phoenix

#1 is set. But from #4 - #12... you can make a good/bad case for any of those teams. At least one of those teams will have a key injury and punt on the season. It's really tough to omit Memphis or Dallas. On paper, they might not look super great... but both have discovered ways to "win" season after season after season.

I agree Abe.

I will comment a bit on Memphis though. They now have a rookie head coach and their top players are either guys that have had a hard time staying healthy or are on the wrong side of 30 (or both) except Mike Conley. They don't really have the depth to lose one of those top guys and be able to be contenders.

What I like about they did this offseason was they got younger with a couple draft picks and a smaller move was they added a guy In Daniels that can hit 3's which is something have needed for what seems like an entire era. It will be interesting to see how it plays out but they are certainly pretty vulnerable to that injury bug.

AbeVigodaLive wrote:1. Golden State
2. San Antonio
3. LA Clippers
4. Portland
5. Utah
6. Oklahoma City
7. New Orleans
8. Dallas
9. Houston
10. Minnesota
11. Memphis
12. Denver
13. Sacramento
14. LA Lakers
15. Phoenix

#1 is set. But from #4 - #12... you can make a good/bad case for any of those teams. At least one of those teams will have a key injury and punt on the season. It's really tough to omit Memphis or Dallas. On paper, they might not look super great... but both have discovered ways to "win" season after season after season.

If we DO finish 10th and out of the playoffs, where do we go from there? This team played close to .500 ball after the all star break with Sam Mitchell as our head coach. I've long thought that Thibs biggest impact will be in his first year here. We are going to have a sense of urgency next season like we haven't seen in a long time.

You kind of stole my narrative about 4-12 (I said 4-11) from another thread. I can tell you this much - if Portland can finish as high as 4th so can we. With decent health next season finishing 10th would be a terrible disappointment. Time for us as a fan base to put some pressure on this organization to make a jump.

1. Golden State
2. Spurs
3. Clippers
4. OKC
5. Wolves
6. Portland
7. Dallas
8. Memphis
9. Utah
10. Houston
11. New Orleans
12. Phoenix
13. Kings
14. Lakers
15. Nuggets