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Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?"

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What Direction will the Wolves Take?

STILL WIN-NOW!
2
8%
probably win-now
8
32%
neutral
3
12%
probably win-later
8
32%
DEFINITELY WIN LATER!
4
16%
 
Total votes: 25

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Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?" 

Post#1 » by shrink » Sat Jan 19, 2013 7:29 pm

The afternoon before the LAC game, I posted that I felt - for good or bad - the Wolves were still desperate to win now.

shrink wrote: Right now, the Wolves should probably be building for next year. Their three big names (Love, Rubio .. and Adelman) have already missed substantial parts of the season. They missed out on Batum. They have had no less than FOUR sg's go down with major knee issues. They just dropped four straight games - two to teams behind them in the west.

But believe it or not, MIN is probably the most likely team out there to make a big "win now" move, and to do it very soon! Why?

1. Adelman wants it because of his age
2. Kahn wants it because it's the last year of his contract
3. The organization wants it because they started a new season ticket promo LAST WEEK that will return 10% if they don't make play-offs.
4. Team president promised play-offs, said this is the season.
5. Kevin Love wants it, and MIN wants to make him happy
6. Most importantly, Glen Taylor wants it so the franchise increases in value as he tries to sell some of his ownership interest. We believe he will go over the lux next year for the same reason, re-signing Pekovic and still willing to trade for a big deal now.

Kahn has been complaining for weeks that he can't get anything done on the trade front because in the NBA, everyone waits until the trade deadline to fully assess their team, and to wait for the very best offer to come in. Unfortunately, with all the injuries, MIN can't afford to wait a few more weeks, or they will lose all hope of climbing back into the play-off race. That makes them ripe for a deal, and WAS may be the perfect partner.


Then we lost Shved and Pekovic as well, with nobody left to back them up. Is this the final straw that forces MIN to wave the white flag on this season and rebuild? Kahn was ambiguous on Friday:

Kahn recognizes the need to balance the present and the future.

“Whatever we do to address the now, the one thing we have to keep in mind is ... it can't be at the detriment of beyond," Kahn said. "It has to be sensible for now and for the future."


So do you think the front office is going to try to acquire win-now pieces, business as usual because they commited already? Or will the new injuries change the direction for the season?

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Re: Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?" 

Post#2 » by The J Rocka » Sat Jan 19, 2013 7:45 pm

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We want to obviously win now. Kahn wants to win now as well but also wants to make a move that will put us in the playoffs this year and for many more years to come. He doesn't want to make a move that could make sense now but blow up in our face in a year or two (ie: taking on Rudy Gay) which is debatable. He's playing it both sides carefully.
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Re: Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?" 

Post#3 » by [RCG] » Sat Jan 19, 2013 8:32 pm

I don't envy Kahn. He's stuck in a really hard position. We are still only a couple games out of the playoffs but we have been riddled by injuries all year and would need to play a lot better than we have.

I think they playoffs are unlikely for us this year only because of the extensive injuries. If we had been healthy or even league-average in that department we would be in no doubt. So in my opinion we shouldn't blow everything up but making small moves with next year in mind.
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Re: Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?" 

Post#4 » by Klomp » Sat Jan 19, 2013 8:34 pm

We won't sacrifice the now for the later, and we won't sacrifice the later for the now.
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Re: Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?" 

Post#5 » by Mattya » Sat Jan 19, 2013 8:45 pm

The only way I would make a move right now is that it is either a no brainer trade talent wise and fit wise. We aren't making the playoffs. The next week or so with Pek out, and Shved being out will be extremely rough. I say get a good draft pick. Then this summer if you can find a player in the draft take him, if not package it with Williams and try to improve the roster.

I'm just worried that we will see a Williams trade that will just make me want to throw up.
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Re: Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?" 

Post#6 » by FinnTheHuman » Sat Jan 19, 2013 9:04 pm

Klomp wrote:We won't sacrifice the now for the later, and we won't sacrifice the later for the now.


True. And that will kill us now AND later.
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Re: Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?" 

Post#7 » by LordBaldric » Sat Jan 19, 2013 9:15 pm

We should 100% be in win later mode. This season is over.
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Re: Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?" 

Post#8 » by [RCG] » Sat Jan 19, 2013 9:29 pm

Quick Q: The poll is what direction we think the Wolves will take or should take?
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Re: Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?" 

Post#9 » by Foye » Sat Jan 19, 2013 9:59 pm

The J Rocka wrote:We want to obviously win now. Kahn wants to win now as well but also wants to make a move that will put us in the playoffs this year and for many more years to come. He doesn't want to make a move that could make sense now but blow up in our face in a year or two (ie: taking on Rudy Gay) which is debatable. He's playing it both sides carefully.


He has already ruined our future.

We are stuck with a roster that will never make it past the first round of the playoffs.

At this point, I think the best thing we can do now is tank this season, introduce a new gm and increase Love's value again next year and wait for a good trade.
Around Rubio, Derrick Williams, Alexy Shved, a decent lottery pick this year and whoever we get back for Kevin Love.

What are we building? We have no pieces in place that would get us a good enough player in return to contend.
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Re: Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?" 

Post#10 » by Klomp » Sat Jan 19, 2013 10:20 pm

[RCG] wrote:Quick Q: The poll is what direction we think the Wolves will take or should take?

Well considering the question says WILL take, I'd go with that :D
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Re: Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?" 

Post#11 » by C.lupus » Sat Jan 19, 2013 10:24 pm

Where's the lose now, lose later option?












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Re: Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?" 

Post#12 » by [RCG] » Sat Jan 19, 2013 10:32 pm

Klomp wrote:
[RCG] wrote:Quick Q: The poll is what direction we think the Wolves will take or should take?

Well considering the question says WILL take, I'd go with that :D


That's what I thought but:
LordBaldric wrote:We should 100% be in win later mode. This season is over.


Gave me other ideas.
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Re: Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?" 

Post#13 » by The J Rocka » Sat Jan 19, 2013 11:56 pm

Foye wrote:
The J Rocka wrote:We want to obviously win now. Kahn wants to win now as well but also wants to make a move that will put us in the playoffs this year and for many more years to come. He doesn't want to make a move that could make sense now but blow up in our face in a year or two (ie: taking on Rudy Gay) which is debatable. He's playing it both sides carefully.


He has already ruined our future.

We are stuck with a roster that will never make it past the first round of the playoffs.

At this point, I think the best thing we can do now is tank this season, introduce a new gm and increase Love's value again next year and wait for a good trade.
Around Rubio, Derrick Williams, Alexy Shved, a decent lottery pick this year and whoever we get back for Kevin Love.

What are we building? We have no pieces in place that would get us a good enough player in return to contend.

We're definitely in a interesting spot. I agree, we don't have enough firepower to make it past the first round.

I think Kahn hopes to use Williams + Pek + assets to get a piece he feels will help us get over the hump with a healthy Rubio & Love. I don't think we want to pay Pek the max either, at least that's the vibe I'm getting. If we match & keep Pek, we'll be stuck being mediocre with a tight budget.

All I know is if we can't capitalize this off-season, it's not going to end well. If Love leaves in 2014, then the dominoes will start to fall and we'll end up seeing the same show we've all seen many many times.

Tanking this season. I'm just afraid we're not going to suck enough to get a top 5 pick (you never know). Maybe Kahn holds onto Williams + draft pick to use to either move up in the draft or move for a "win now" piece?

Tbh, I don't think Kahn will wait that long to deal Williams. I feel that Kahn is on the hot seat and feels the need to make a desperate move by the deadline to save the season when it appears the light at the end of the tunnel is dwindling fast. It would be another failed season in Taylor's eyes. Kahn will play the "I can't help the injuries" card and Taylor may or may not go with it. I guess we'll find out.
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Re: Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?" 

Post#14 » by shrink » Sun Jan 20, 2013 3:22 pm

Did last night's game vs HOU change your mind?

I am shocked we won. We had a total of five legitimate NBA players, and if we agree Rubio is still trying to get up to speed, only one legitimate NBA starter( AK). Coming up, Cunningham won't be sick, and Shved and Pekovic should be back soon (a week), but they won't be 100% to start.

Our next games are:

1/21 at Atlanta (22-18)
1/23 vs Brooklyn (24-16)
1/25 at Washington (8-30)
1/26 at Charlotte (10-30)

With Pek and Shved on the team, I think we'd need to win 3 of 4 to start heading closer to .500. Without them? Is this the deciding stretch of games, or has a decision already been made for this season?
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Re: Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?" 

Post#15 » by FinnTheHuman » Sun Jan 20, 2013 3:36 pm

I think 2 out of next 4 is a bit optimistic, and 3 out of 4 is somehow possible. Lou is out for Atlanta, which is a big thing for us considering how much difficulties we have defending quality guards, and we have enough length to defend the paint, so it looks like a possible win. Brooklyn has too much talent for us to deal with, and Washington and Charlotte are winnable, those two teams just didn't establish winning culture yet.

I never gave up, so I didn't change my mind. We got 2 nice new pieces, and while we are suffering injuries now, the rest of the teams which fight for 7th and 8th seed with us are playing their stars big minutes, so some injuries are bound to happen to them too.
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Re: Do you believe our team direction is now "Win-Later?" 

Post#16 » by Murphs56 » Sun Jan 20, 2013 7:12 pm

shrink wrote:Did last night's game vs HOU change your mind?

I am shocked we won. We had a total of five legitimate NBA players, and if we agree Rubio is still trying to get up to speed, only one legitimate NBA starter( AK). Coming up, Cunningham won't be sick, and Shved and Pekovic should be back soon (a week), but they won't be 100% to start.

Our next games are:

1/21 at Atlanta (22-18)
1/23 vs Brooklyn (24-16)
1/25 at Washington (8-30)
1/26 at Charlotte (10-30)

With Pek and Shved on the team, I think we'd need to win 3 of 4 to start heading closer to .500. Without them? Is this the deciding stretch of games, or has a decision already been made for this season?


No, last night was a bad team playing a really bad team. I'm not being optimistic unless we can put together some sort of winning streak. With all the injuries, I just don't find it likely

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