Minnesota Sports Forum

I got us winning 45 games

The Wolves have 27 wins now with 27 games to go. Assuming Love and Ricky stay healthy, I see us going 16-11 the rest of the way, which would get us to 43 wins at the end of the season. That would be a decent finish and leave us with some hope for next season.

I should probably be banned from any predictions for the rest of the year after my wretched performance in the January prediction thread, but I see the Wolves finishing 42-40...disappointing based on my optimism a month and a half ago, but still good to finally have a winning season. Add a new coach, some minor tweaking of the roster including one more piece from the draft, and another year of seasoning for our young stars, and we are poised for 50 wins next year.

For the first time this year, I am starting to think the wolves may improve as a team. I think that improvement is coming with a move away from Adelman's standard offense, with Ricky creating a lot more. I have also noticed a change in Love and Ricky as of late. Both seem to have an increased confidence in their abilities. Their PnR defense has really improved as of late as well.

Funny that this is occurring with Pek on the shelf. The wolves don't seem to be missing a beat during Pek's injury, which only reinforces my belief that we would be better off using that money elsewhere.

I think this team could post around 45 wins, and actually expect them to win tonight. To me the most crucial aspect is to get the ball out of Lillard's hands if he starts to get into a rhythm.

sjm34 wrote:For the first time this year, I am starting to think the wolves may improve as a team. I think that improvement is coming with a move away from Adelman's standard offense, with Ricky creating a lot more. I have also noticed a change in Love and Ricky as of late. Both seem to have an increased confidence in their abilities. Their PnR defense has really improved as of late as well.

Funny that this is occurring with Pek on the shelf. The wolves don't seem to be missing a beat during Pek's injury, which only reinforces my belief that we would be better off using that money elsewhere.

I think this team could post around 45 wins, and actually expect them to win tonight. To me the most crucial aspect is to get the ball out of Lillard's hands if he starts to get into a rhythm.

That would be a huge win in Portland, but without Aldridge they are a different team...not much scoring in their frontcourt. I worry about Lillard, but even more about Bud trying to stop Matthews. It will be up to Adelman to make sure he finds the right way to keep Matthews from going off.

Great observation about the change in Love and Rubio, sjm...really fun to watch this club the past three games.

27 games left. We're gonna win all of them. LET'S GO!

On a more serious note, I'll say 45-48 wins. All bets are off if we stink up the March 1st through March 16th stretch, though. Eight winnable games that I expect to get at least seven wins from.

sjm34 wrote:For the first time this year, I am starting to think the wolves may improve as a team. I think that improvement is coming with a move away from Adelman's standard offense, with Ricky creating a lot more. I have also noticed a change in Love and Ricky as of late. Both seem to have an increased confidence in their abilities. Their PnR defense has really improved as of late as well.

Funny that this is occurring with Pek on the shelf. The wolves don't seem to be missing a beat during Pek's injury, which only reinforces my belief that we would be better off using that money elsewhere.

I think this team could post around 45 wins, and actually expect them to win tonight. To me the most crucial aspect is to get the ball out of Lillard's hands if he starts to get into a rhythm.

One thing that his ticked down a bit since Pek went out is Opponent FG%. More Turiaf and Dieng = better interior defense, but less interior offense. We need to keep a close eye on Dieng's development over the next year or so. If this guy develops any semblance of an offensive game, you may be right that trading Pekovic for a top notch wing may be a better use of our assets. But it's way too early to make a move of this magnitude.

I don't see the Wolves ending above .500.

Guys are seemingly already nursing injuries (Pekovic). I guess it depends where the Wolves are in the lottery race. If they're anywhere close to ending up challenging for 9th in the West... I think Love ends up out a few games with "back spasms" or something like that.

The playoffs are out. Now, it's about fighting for lottery positioning... and I think that's pretty well set, too. I guess they could strive to finish above .500 for the first time in 9 years... but it might be hard to convince a bunch of players disappointed in missing the playoffs that finishing above .500 means anything.

And considering the team is below .500 while trying everything to win already... why would it change now when the carrot of the playoffs is taken away?