Have ur expectations for this team changed?

[Porckchop]

Im not necessarily just talking about this seasons record or hopes of a playoff run. But feel free to comment on that too.
Im curious if after watching the first 26 (?) games u think the Wolves are still on the right path longterm.

Having been a long suffering Wolves fan like most of u, I find myself appreciating a team that is atleast competitive and on most nights fun to watch. And honestly I hate myself for it. Ok not hate but it does speak to the point that Ive made about the Twins in the past.
Have we seen so many bad teams come n go over the years that fan expectation has lowered to the point that just being competitive is good enough? I used to have debates with other Twins fans when the team was winning 90 games by playing good defense and pitching and hitting just enough to eek out some games. Sure they'd make the playoffs but they were never gonna be good enough to make noise when they got there. Some fans were okay with that as long as they were relevant every year. I always thought that was a losers mentality. These days Im not so sure.
Do losing organizations pay close attention to their fanbase to get a read on where expectations are?

[AbeVigodaLive]

Do losing organizations pay close attention to their fanbase to get a read on where expectations are?

Don't they have to as part of marketing the team?

I think there's a growing apathy with the fanbase. Attendance is down. In fact, the Wolves rank 24th, even behind a team in a lousy market like the Pelicans.

And that's while watching the best Wolves team in a decade. If the worst-case scenario happens... and Love is on his way out the team is back to yet another rebuild... what happens to Target Center, other than Lipoli sitting on the bench every game?

[60WinTim]

I absolutely have changed my expectations. I thought we were top-4 material to start the season, although that was tempered by the Bud injury.

Now, I am confident we will make the playoffs, but most likely as a bottom-4 seed. I have a number of disappointments thus far (in addition to Bud's injury):

- Pek's slow start to the season
- Rubio's inability to improve his shooting
- Barea and Cunningham are having subpar seasons compared to recent years
- Martin's 2-point efficiency is not where it needs to be
- D-Will's and Shved's inability to figure out how to play in this league
- Brewer had a strong start, but has reverted to his old self - he should be coming off the bench

On the bright side:
- Turiaf should be returning soon. He and/or Dieng should be the primary big off the bench, not Cunningham
- I like what I've seen from Luc. Add Bud into the mix and the wing position should be good
- We aren't getting blown out. If coaches/players can figure out how to close games, we could be very good

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

My expectations all along were something in the 41-49 win range. The only way I saw us as a 50+ win team was if someone like D-Will or Shved had a major breakout season and became an X-factor off the bench. As we've seen, the exact opposite happened. Williams has been traded and Shved is having a historically terrible season for a regular rotation player. The rest of the bench has been poor as well.

Right now, it feels like we will be in the 44-48 win range based on our current record and the schedule ahead of us. The bottom of that range won't be good enough to make the playoffs and the top of that range may barely squeak us in as an 8th seed. So I'd give us a 50/50 chance of making the playoffs at this point.

[Q12543 [enjin:6621299]]

As far as our long-term path is concerned, we have something that most franchises don't have: A true franchise player that is among the 5 or 6 top players in the NBA. That is by far the hardest part of re-building.

It's far less difficult to find and develop the complimentary pieces to surround a superstar. Unfortunately, multiple regimes over the years have failed miserably to do this - first with KG and now with Kevin Love.

On the one hand, I'm glad we at least have a competitive squad this year. We've watched some beautiful basketball on a semi-regular basis. Not bad. On the other hand, it's hard for me to believe that Flip Saunders is the right guy to lead this franchise going forward. The Shabazz Muhammed pick and the overpaying of Corey Brewer were two major hits to his credibility in my opinion.

[Loose Goose [enjin:8265301]]

I'm not a fan of the coach or Flip, they both are good enough to make sure your not the worst. Not what I'm looking for, I do think when healthy we can become a better team and push for the playoffs but boy do we ever need to hit in the draft to have any hope for the future maybe Flip can surprise me it's only one year and I do like one of the players he selected.

[khans2k5 [enjin:6608728]]

My short-term expectations haven't changed. It's make the playoffs or this season is a failure in my mind. A lot of the weaknesses this roster had on paper coming into the season are playing out on the court so the team performance isn't that surprising from a good or bad standpoint. The long-term outlook doesn't look particularly good with the only real room for growth able to come from Ricky at this point because everybody else is either at their potential or too young and not getting enough minutes to make a difference. You can hope Dieng becomes the rim protector we need, but he is still a backup so long as Pek is on the team and Pek and Love just don't work defensively as proven by how easy it is to score at the rim on us. Bazz isn't playing anywhere, so it is hard to expect him to come into next year and take a spot away from Martin, Bud, Brewer and LRMAM. We probably won't have a first round pick this year unless we are the 10th or 11th best team in the West. The worst we could do is not make the playoffs and then also not get our pick because we placed 1 spot over the protection. The future of the franchise at this point hinges on Ricky's development as a scorer unless Flip makes a deal for a better player. Other than that, there just isn't anywhere else the improvement is likely to come from. We're capped out and pretty much just have to wait and hope at this point.