Minnesota Sports Forum

So, the cycle has been consistent. W - L - W - L - W - L - W - L...

That's fine, for 10th or below in the West. But, that's where the Wolves are almost 1/2 through the season. Usually, by this time, we get a really good idea of what teams are. And the Wolves are an average team via Win and Losses any way you want to slice it.

If the Wolves want us to think they are more than that... or a legit playoff contender... the cycle ends now.

Sacramento (Home, 2 full days off)
@Toronto (A decent, but average team.)
Utah x 2.

That's only 4 games out of 82. But we will know a lot more about the Wolves after it's over. Anything less than 3 - 1 and the team is NOT making the playoffs. (that would put them at 21 - 20 at the halfway mark.) I'm calling it. I'm putting it in permanent marker. Call me an alarmist or cynic or reactionary or myopic. But there comes a time when a team has to actually produce on the court. And time is running out...

With a loaded West where the Wolves are battling Dallas, Phoenix, Denver, Memphis or even NO for the #8 seed, teams aren't going to just sit around and wait until the Wolves start putting together an actual winning streak.

Case in point: Denver has won 5 in a row. Memphis is only 1/2 game back with its most important player (arguably) being out the majority of the season and poised to return soon. With even the worst teams improving, the Wolves are almost as close to last (#15) in the conference (6.5 games) as they are to #6 (5.5 games).

Bingo, Abe...it's put up or shut up time for our squad. Unfortunately, I think the answer after these four games will be "shut up", because I see another W-L-W-L coming. While Sac-town at home is a walkover, I don't see us having much chance in Toronto. Toronto hasn't lost at home since December 18, and is 7-3 last ten with the only losses on the road to Miami, Indiana and San Antonio. Similarly, Utah had won 4 in a row at home before losing last Friday, and I don't see us beating them BTB. The pattern continues.

I want to get excited about this team, and the dominance of Pek and emergence of the bench gives me some hope. But there are some issues with this team that can't be over looked, and the two I'm most concerned with are:

1) Corey Brewer. I'm ready to admit I was completely wrong about this FA signing. I love Corey's energy and heart, and thought he had become a good NBA player at Denver. His hot start this year had me thinking very positively about him. But in recent weeks, his game has fallen to a level far below even how he played in his first two years with us. Last night he was completely invisible on offense, and ineffective on defense. If things don't dramatically change with him, I'm ready to hand the SF minutes over to Bud, Shabazz and LMaM.

2) Kevin Martin's lack of heart. Martin is the anti-Brewer. Enormous offensive talent, but very little fire of heart. He teased us against Charlotte with a performance that resembled his early season success, but fell back against San Antonio. Martin's role at this stage of his career is a scorer off the bench, but the Wolves lack suitable options at the 2 and need to start him.

Clearly there are other issues, such as Ricky's shooting, the inconsistency of our bench, and the fragility of the locker room, but ultimately you are not going to win with 2 starters playing like Corey and Martin are right now.

1. Brewer can help a team. But at $4.5M... the warts are a bit more obvious. Teams should be able to replace an expensive energy guy with a young energy guy pretty easily.

2. Sacramento has won 3 straight. But, they play Indiana the night before. So, if the Wolves can't beat them on the back-end of a back-to-back at home... with 2 days rest... yeah, maybe I'm willing to write them off after their NEXT game.

3. Anybody know how we can find out what Martin's shooting percentage and scoring average is in the first 5 minutes of a game vs. the final 43? It seems to be off the charts lately. And, should that be surprising? The intensity isn't usually very high early in games compared to late. Seems perfect for Martin.

4. Toronto is a different team without Gay. It seems like everybody else gets to spread their wings a bit without him dominating the ball.

5. Yeah, even the West bottom feeders are playing better. Sans the Lakers, (who have beaten the Wolves), is there an easy opponent in the West right now? Sacramento, because of the variables with that game, might be the easiest on Wednesday.

Gay's departure reminds me of how Denver didn't seem to skip a beat after 'Melo left. Heck, Memphis didn't skip a beat last season when he left there either. That doesn't mean Gay is a poor basketball player. It just means that a semi-efficient volume scorer isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

As for the next few games, it's unfortunate that we're running into Sacramento, Utah, and Toronto now versus earlier in the season when all three were struggling more.

Our chance to really make hay started with the game at home against Dallas which we lost. Then it was a Westbrook-less OKC. Then it was the Phoenix disaster. All three were winnable home games against Western Conference foes. And we lost all three. To me that was probably the beginning of the end for us as far as this year's playoff hopes. We'd have to reel off a few unexpected wins now to make up for lost ground, and it's really tough seeing us doing that at this point. The San Antonio game was another opportunity to potentially steal a win, with them missing two key guys. But nope, didn't happen. San Antonio cruised to an easy victory. Not good.

It's funny...

The team that actually needs a Rudy Gay... is us. We need a guy like him. Hell, we need him. If only it wasn't for his high contract. We could have had him.

Sacramento will be coming off the second night of a back to back which should help us. Williams has been playing great off the bench in their last 3 wins for them. It will be interesting to see if their coach gives him some extra burn, especially since it is the second of a back to back.

I'm sure Trey Burke will look like Steph Curry when he plays us.

Agree totally Abe. Anything short of 3-1 will be a very bad indicator. If the Wolves don't put together a decent winning streak very soon, we'll be excluding ourselves from the POs.

BTW....I think that we will go 4-0 over the next four games. Not much has clicked for us this year, and I think that, with the bench playing pretty decent and Love's and Martin's bad games out of the way, it i about time for things to work well for us over the next 4 games.

Pretty much have to go 4-0, followed by a split with Golden State and Portland. That'd be ideal. Then two Western playoff contenders in NO and MEM. Yeesh.