Minnesota Sports Forum

Disclaimer: I am not trying to offend those people that dislike the concept of looking at facts to determine current levels of success in relation to comparable historical time periods. Should you be one of those people, YOU WILL NOT LIKE THIS POST. Please move on.

Our record right now is 23-23.

Never, since the 2004-2005 season have the Wolves been at the .500 mark, at this point in the season. 3 of the past 8 years, the Wolves did not even win 23 games throughout the course of the entire season.

Much credit goes to those that have been responsible for this improvement.

Developing a winning organization is a tough and time consuming process, especially considering where the Wolves have been for the past 10 years.

Flip, Adelman, and the Wolves organization is starting to turn this organization around and we should all be appreciative that we get to watch a much improved team over the past 10 years.

I am very glad that it is happening. It is about damn time,

Good job Flip, Adelman, and Wolves Team!




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Interesting thing about facts is that the truth can be distorted as much by leaving some facts out as it can by ignoring facts entirely. So before we go on merrily congratulating Flip and Adelman for this team's first .500 record at this point since the 2004-05 season, let's look at a more complete set of facts:

1. Just two years ago on March 9, 2012, the Wolves were two games over .500 at 21-19. This was the day before Ricky went down. In short, we're not seeing the Wolves' first .500 plus mid-season record since 2004-05. And of course the 2011-12 season was well before Flip arrived although Adelman was certainly here. Most observers had the Wolves headed for the playoffs that season, but we ended up in the lottery after losing our starting PG and later losing our starting PF and best player, Kevin Love.

2. Last season's record reflected an entire season without our one star player, Love, a half season without our starting PG and arguably second best player rehabbing from his surgery, and lots of games without our third core player, Pekovic due to injuries.

3. This season we've had Love, Rubio and Pek healthy nearly every game for the entire season up to this point with Pek's injury. So I think we know what accounts for the vast majority of this team's improvement over last season. With Love, Ricky and Pek back, we're essentially back to the same winning percentage we were at on March 9, 2012 when we had all three of those guys.

4. All three of our core players were brought here by Flip's predecessors - two by McHale.

So while I think Flip needs more time here before we can blame him for our team's mediocrity, the facts don't support congratulating him either.

Lip ....you sound a bit confused.....so to clarify. We have the best record that the Wolves have had after 46 games since the 04-05 season. I am merely stating a fact.

I am merely congratulation the Wolves on that.

Your opinions and excuses, for past poor performances, are always interesting.....i hope that you continue to provide them is this forum.

Mark, I'll try and simplify Lip's post for you.

He doesn't dispute the fact of the wolves record. Only that Flip really hasn't done anything to improve the team. The team had actually posted a better record around the halfway point two years ago. That is before Flip joined the team and before Adelman put his imprint on the roster.

I hope you can now understand what he was trying to convey.

sjm34 wrote:Mark, I'll try and simplify Lip's post for you.

He doesn't dispute the fact of the wolves record. Only that Flip really hasn't done anything to improve the team. The team had actually posted a better record around the halfway point two years ago. That is before Flip joined the team and before Adelman put his imprint on the roster.

I hope you can now understand what he was trying to convey.

I guess that I didn't realize how many Kahn fans still existed on this board........

It all looks like we can agree that, after 46 games, the Wolves have the best record that we have had since the 04-05 season.

Good job Flip, Adelman, and team.

Lies
Damned Lies
Statistics

Mark --

Kahn fans should be first in line to congratulate Adelman since it was Kahn who hired him. :). As we sit here today on Feb. 1, 2014, Love and Rubio are playing and healthy and the Wolves are one game under .500. Last time Love and Ricky were healthy and playing together on March 9, 2012, the Wolves were 2 games over .500 after 40 games. If only your original post had mentioned 46 games as the benchmark I would have realized what a compelling point you were making. Congratulations to Flip for bringing us almost all the way back after 46 games to where we were two years ago after 40 games.

We'll see where we're at when the season ends in April. If we finish 8 games over .500 and make the playoffs, I'll congratulate Flip, Adelman and anyone else you want. But mainly I'll just thank the basketball gods for keeping Love and Ricky healthy this season.

lipoli390 wrote:Mark --

Kahn fans should be first in line to congratulate Adelman since it was Kahn who hired him. :). As we sit here today on Feb. 1, 2014, Love and Rubio are playing and healthy and the Wolves are one game under .500. Last time Love and Ricky were healthy and playing together on March 9, 2012, the Wolves were 2 games over .500 after 40 games. If only your original post had mentioned 46 games as the benchmark I would have realized what a compelling point you were making. Congratulations to Flip for bringing us almost all the way back after 46 games to where we were two years ago after 40 games.

We'll see where we're at when the season ends in April. If we finish 8 games over .500 and make the playoffs, I'll congratulate Flip, Adelman and anyone else you want. But mainly I'll just thank the basketball gods for keeping Love and Ricky healthy this season.

You are selecting a partial stretch of games from 2 years ago (not 3 years ago, not last year, not 4 years ago, but 2 years ago) and choosing to compare Flip's comprehensive performance (as GM) to that stretch of games?.........wow..........

I wish that I could live in (or even understand) a selective reality like that.

Do you think that other people on this board are using the same base of comparison as you?.........


I've heard of "holding on to good times".......but, you do realize how bad this team has been for most of the past 10 years outside of that one stretch ( and a couple other stretches)......right?

If you can live in those selected times, I can easily see how you are unhappy as you are with the current reality (23-24).

For your sake, I'm glad that you didn't chose a time period where the Wolves had even a better record, like the start of last season (with the 5-2 record with neither Ricky or Love) as your base of comparison.

Were that the case, you would need the Wolves to end up about 50 games over .500 before you could acknowledge that Flip did a good job.

Too funny! The king of the 5 game breakdown is calling someone else out for a partial stretch of games.

Keep the entertainment coming Markbu!

Mark, Its great that you're able to see the positive in the current teams record! However, the longer a team exists as a league laughing stock people's expectation tend to diverge. In your case you see the best record at this point in the season in a decade, others of us have seen enough and demand more.

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. Overpaying for middling bench talent has become a Timberwolves tradition, and it has produced the same results every single time, yet we continue as though this time it might be different. As a TWolves fan from day one we've had exactly two superstar players, and in both cases we've built an embarrassment of a team around them to the point of having zero cap flexibility to improve further. Same team, same story, different cast of characters.... same ending.