Where do the Wolves end the season?

[Sugarless]

By the way, since you keep going over the finished product idea, I'll put it in a more colorful way:

If this Wolves team was a car it'd have a 1980's Atari joystick for a steering wheel, a lawn mower engine and a nice set of square-shaped wheels. It would also have two wings that really serve no purpose and are a detriment to the thing actually moving, but who cares. It goes without saying that it wouldn't have brakes.

Sure, the car also has leather seats that look great, but they don't really help things get going. It also has a cool stereo system, but you don't want to sit in your car and listen to music if it's not taking you anywhere.

Now, you have enough money to change the paint color and maybe get a new bobblehead for the dashboard that will keep you entertained for all of 10 seconds, but that's about it. And maybe (just maybe), if you had the tools, the time and the skill you could mend the wheels and give them a nice, round shape. But the car is still not getting you anywhere with that engine, no proper stearing wheel and no brakes. Certainly not where you want to go, a few hundred miles from where you are. Even if you're able to get it moving, it'll be slow as hell and you'll still crash before you make the first turn.

You can call the car a finished product... or not, because you still can give it a new coat of paint and such. At the end of the day the truth is you don't have the money, the skill or the pieces to buy and replace everything you need to make it work, cause a lawn mower engine doesn't magically turn into a V16 (hey, at least you have a V8...just not the type you need), the Atari joystick can't turn into a steering wheel, and giving those square wheels a round shape without the proper tools and skill is freaking hard.

[ChiefKeith91]

The thing that pisses a lot of us off about the Wolves is the company we are in at the bottom of standings

Rockets- Obvious tank
Pistons- Obvious tank
OKC- obvious tank
Magic- Obvious tank

Then there’s us who have had injuries, suspensions and Saunders coaching. WE DON’T BELONG DOWN HERE!!! I know Injuries are apart of the game and that’s why we need to see this roster at full strength and a real PF before blowing it up. That’s just my opinion


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

[Tjstangeland]

The thing that pisses a lot of us off about the Wolves is the company we are in at the bottom of standings

Rockets- Obvious tank
Pistons- Obvious tank
OKC- obvious tank
Magic- Obvious tank

Then there’s us who have had injuries, suspensions and Saunders coaching. WE DON’T BELONG DOWN HERE!!! I know Injuries are apart of the game and that’s why we need to see this roster at full strength and a real PF before blowing it up. That’s just my opinion


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM mobile app

Unfortunately we are in the best position of tanking teams, won't be surprised that when Dlo comes back, Kat will be shut down. Rosas needs a top 3 pick, maybe to save his job. We will finish in the top 3 and let the Lottery Gods do their work. I feel like we will get a top 3 pick because we have been so unlucky in the past. Just a gut feeling.

[Baseline81]

Since the all-star break, Finch has the Wolves playing .391 (9 wins out of 23 games). Should the trend continue, that would add another 5 wins for a final record of 21-51.

OKC, currently sitting with a 20-38 record, has lost 11 straight games. There's a chance Minnesota could end up surpassing the Thunder and finishing 5th worst.

[shrink]

Since the all-star break, Finch has the Wolves playing .391 (9 wins out of 23 games).

I just wanted to mention, that’d be 32-50 over an 82 game season. It doesn’t sound like much, but I think it’s incredible, given:

1. Last place team
2. Super young
3. Poorly constructed roster
4. No pre-season
5. No time for practices to really institute his system
6. Covid
7. Injuries and missed games (not just no Beasley)

I definitely like what I’ve seen from Finch so far, and his impact on the team. I look forward to a brighter future after this summer, when he really gets to install his system.

[Klomp]

Since the all-star break, Finch has the Wolves playing .391 (9 wins out of 23 games).

I just wanted to mention, that’d be 32-50 over an 82 game season. It doesn’t sound like much, but I think it’s incredible, given:

1. Last place team
2. Super young
3. Poorly constructed roster
4. No pre-season
5. No time for practices to really institute his system
6. Covid
7. Injuries and missed games (not just no Beasley)

I definitely like what I’ve seen from Finch so far, and his impact on the team. I look forward to a brighter future after this summer, when he really gets to install his system.

If RealGM were around 25 years ago, I wonder what people might say about the fact Flip Saunders only improved the team from .300 under Blair to .322 in his 62 games of 1995-96.

I think we'll hopefully have a comparable jump as they did next year, depending on the changes made.

[floppymoose]

When the Wolves WANT to lose games at the end of seasons for more lottery balls... nobody does it better. This is only the last decade so it doesn't even include the Mark Madsen Atrocity.

oh god, i remember that! I couldn't stop watching it....

[AbeVigodaLive]

Since the all-star break, Finch has the Wolves playing .391 (9 wins out of 23 games).

I just wanted to mention, that’d be 32-50 over an 82 game season. It doesn’t sound like much, but I think it’s incredible, given:

1. Last place team
2. Super young
3. Poorly constructed roster
4. No pre-season
5. No time for practices to really institute his system
6. Covid
7. Injuries and missed games (not just no Beasley)

I definitely like what I’ve seen from Finch so far, and his impact on the team. I look forward to a brighter future after this summer, when he really gets to install his system.

To be fair... 6 of those can be said about many other teams.

The Wolves have had veterans, Towns, Russell and Rubio out there for more than 120 games combined. They're making $75M combined.

That should be enough to keep them from worst team in the league status.

[shrink]

Since the all-star break, Finch has the Wolves playing .391 (9 wins out of 23 games).

I just wanted to mention, that’d be 32-50 over an 82 game season. It doesn’t sound like much, but I think it’s incredible, given:

1. Last place team
2. Super young
3. Poorly constructed roster
4. No pre-season
5. No time for practices to really institute his system
6. Covid
7. Injuries and missed games (not just no Beasley)

I definitely like what I’ve seen from Finch so far, and his impact on the team. I look forward to a brighter future after this summer, when he really gets to install his system.

To be fair... 6 of those can be said about many other teams.

The Wolves have had veterans, Towns, Russell and Rubio out there for more than 120 games combined. They're making $75M combined.

That should be enough to keep them from worst team in the league status.

I know there is overlap, but I think 1, 3, and 5 are particularly difficult for Finch, particularly #5. He also took over a team he did not have even the months of prep to begin with that any new coach gets, to understand the players and form relationships. He had to start on the fly, coaching games that counted, two days after he was hired. I am not surprised at all that he lost his initial games, and I am surprised he has won so much, having only been given a slight pause at the All Star Break and very few practices with the Covid schedule. New coaches that began at the start of the season probably had 20x the prep time, on and off the court.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I just wanted to mention, that’d be 32-50 over an 82 game season. It doesn’t sound like much, but I think it’s incredible, given:

1. Last place team
2. Super young
3. Poorly constructed roster
4. No pre-season
5. No time for practices to really institute his system
6. Covid
7. Injuries and missed games (not just no Beasley)

I definitely like what I’ve seen from Finch so far, and his impact on the team. I look forward to a brighter future after this summer, when he really gets to install his system.

To be fair... 6 of those can be said about many other teams.

The Wolves have had veterans, Towns, Russell and Rubio out there for more than 120 games combined. They're making $75M combined.

That should be enough to keep them from worst team in the league status.

I know there is overlap, but I think 1, 3, and 5 are particularly difficult for Finch, particularly #5. He also took over a team he did not have even the months of prep to begin with that any new coach gets, to understand the players and form relationships. He had to start on the fly, coaching games that counted, two days after he was hired. I am not surprised at all that he lost his initial games, and I am surprised he has won so much, having only been given a slight pause at the All Star Break and very few practices with the Covid schedule. New coaches that began at the start of the season probably had 20x the prep time, on and off the court.

A new coach in the middle of a season is tough, indeed. But consider this...

Beal.
Westbrook.
Raul Neto.
Deni Avdija.
Alex Len.
Davis Bertans.
Daniel Gafford.
Ish Smith.
Isaac Bonga.
Robin Lopez.
Garrison Mathews.

That team has won 6 straight games and 8 out of 9. And then you have the Knicks winning 8 straight...

And yet, here we are, resigned to finding excuses why the Timberwolves haven't figured out how to win TWO games in a row in months. (The team hasn't won more than 6 games in a row since 2004).


[Note: Atlanta also fired its coach midseason after they started 14 - 20. The team is 18 - 7 since... literally EVERY other NBA team keeps doing things that the Wolves have proven incapable of doing for many many years now.]

[Worm Guts]

Barring some tragic accident, I don't think I'd ever call a .391 winning percentage incredible, but I wouldn't be overly caught up on judging Finch by his record until at least next year, after he's had a chance to run his own training camp and implement his own system.

[MPLS_Wolves]

Barring some tragic accident, I don't think I'd ever call a .391 winning percentage incredible, but I wouldn't be overly caught up on judging Finch by his record until at least next year, after he's had a chance to run his own training camp and implement his own system.

Unless Finch is a top 10 coach in the league, his system isn't going to drastically change the teams fortunes. It is ironic how many fans are quick to blame a coach and simply state "If we could just have a bit better coaching we would be in the playoff hunt". It happened towards the end of Thibs run and it happened with Saunders. Unfortunately the team with its current core hasn't shown it can win, which hurts, because Karl-Anthony Towns is an all-time great offensive player who has had some of the worst #2 options in the history of Centers in this league.

Just look at the past 25 years--Shaq had Kobe, Wade and Nash; Embiid has Simmons and now a decent (top 12) coach; Jokic has/had Murray and MPJ; Dwight had a ton of shooters and veterans like Lewis, Turkoglu, Jameer--and here we are as fans attempting to be happy we have DeAngelo Russell and Malik Beasley as 2nd options? Let's not kid ourselves, its a disgrace.

The organization needs to grow some balls, put out an all-time great offer for a relevant player to put next to Towns and see what the duo can when they still have Towns.

[Klomp]

To be fair... 6 of those can be said about many other teams.

The Wolves have had veterans, Towns, Russell and Rubio out there for more than 120 games combined. They're making $75M combined.

That should be enough to keep them from worst team in the league status.

I know there is overlap, but I think 1, 3, and 5 are particularly difficult for Finch, particularly #5. He also took over a team he did not have even the months of prep to begin with that any new coach gets, to understand the players and form relationships. He had to start on the fly, coaching games that counted, two days after he was hired. I am not surprised at all that he lost his initial games, and I am surprised he has won so much, having only been given a slight pause at the All Star Break and very few practices with the Covid schedule. New coaches that began at the start of the season probably had 20x the prep time, on and off the court.

A new coach in the middle of a season is tough, indeed. But consider this...

Beal.
Westbrook.
Raul Neto.
Deni Avdija.
Alex Len.
Davis Bertans.
Daniel Gafford.
Ish Smith.
Isaac Bonga.
Robin Lopez.
Garrison Mathews.

That team has won 6 straight games and 8 out of 9. And then you have the Knicks winning 8 straight...

And yet, here we are, resigned to finding excuses why the Timberwolves haven't figured out how to win TWO games in a row in months. (The team hasn't won more than 6 games in a row since 2004).


[Note: Atlanta also fired its coach midseason after they started 14 - 20. The team is 18 - 7 since... literally EVERY other NBA team keeps doing things that the Wolves have proven incapable of doing for many many years now.]

Do you disagree that Minnesota has improved since the coaching change?

Atlanta has a 175% growth in win percentage since the coaching change. Minnesota has a 137% growth since they made their coaching change. Moreover, Minnesota's uptick under Finch if you remove the five games before the all-star break is 166%. Not that far off from Atlanta's. It just doesn't seem as impressive because we had a deeper hole to climb out of.

As for your Washington point, while we haven't won two in a row since the first two games, I think it's also noteworthy that we haven't lost more than 3 in a row since the streak we were in the midst of when the change happened. Only the one three-loss streak since the change too. That's growth. But keep moping and believing that things are no different than they were at the beginning of the season.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I know there is overlap, but I think 1, 3, and 5 are particularly difficult for Finch, particularly #5. He also took over a team he did not have even the months of prep to begin with that any new coach gets, to understand the players and form relationships. He had to start on the fly, coaching games that counted, two days after he was hired. I am not surprised at all that he lost his initial games, and I am surprised he has won so much, having only been given a slight pause at the All Star Break and very few practices with the Covid schedule. New coaches that began at the start of the season probably had 20x the prep time, on and off the court.

A new coach in the middle of a season is tough, indeed. But consider this...

Beal.
Westbrook.
Raul Neto.
Deni Avdija.
Alex Len.
Davis Bertans.
Daniel Gafford.
Ish Smith.
Isaac Bonga.
Robin Lopez.
Garrison Mathews.

That team has won 6 straight games and 8 out of 9. And then you have the Knicks winning 8 straight...

And yet, here we are, resigned to finding excuses why the Timberwolves haven't figured out how to win TWO games in a row in months. (The team hasn't won more than 6 games in a row since 2004).


[Note: Atlanta also fired its coach midseason after they started 14 - 20. The team is 18 - 7 since... literally EVERY other NBA team keeps doing things that the Wolves have proven incapable of doing for many many years now.]

Do you disagree that Minnesota has improved since the coaching change?

Atlanta has a 175% growth in win percentage since the coaching change. Minnesota has a 137% growth since they made their coaching change. Moreover, Minnesota's uptick under Finch if you remove the five games before the all-star break is 166%. Not that far off from Atlanta's. It just doesn't seem as impressive because we had a deeper hole to climb out of.

As for your Washington point, while we haven't won two in a row since the first two games, I think it's also noteworthy that we haven't lost more than 3 in a row since the streak we were in the midst of when the change happened. Only the one three-loss streak since the change too. That's growth. But keep moping and believing that things are no different than they were at the beginning of the season.

Ummm... but I never wrote that things are the same as at the beginning of the season.

I'm just saying that I expect more than a 9 - 14 record (or 9 - 20) or whatever record we want to choose from this group... I'm just saying that I don't think it's too much to ask for the Wolves to win two games vs. a team like Sacramento that had previously lost 10 of 11. I'm saying that I expect more than the league's all-time worst three point defense. I'm saying that if other teams with glaring holes are winning at better clips than the Wolves that I'd like to see the Wolves win more, too.

In the end, we need to see sustained (and much more) improvement for the Wolves to be relevant again. Only time will tell.

[Klomp]

I would also say that some teams are built to be able to absorb an individual loss to injury or suspension, but our franchise isn't there at the moment. Call it excuses or whatever, but we still have not really seen this group at full strength since the very beginning of the season. It's not only about player talent either, but about roles.

Missing Towns is a talent issue. That shouldn't need to be explained.
Missing Beasley is a role issue. We just don't have the roster construction to absorb a loss like that. We don't have a wealth of efficient volume 3-point shooters, so losing one the caliber of Beasley is magnified (especially when Russell was also out).

The team was 4-8 during the Beasley suspension. The team is 4-7 without him in this current stretch. That's still a pretty remarkable coaching job by Finch, who still has not coached a game yet with all three of Towns, Russell and Beasley.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I would also say that some teams are built to be able to absorb an individual loss to injury or suspension, but our franchise isn't there at the moment. Call it excuses or whatever, but we still have not really seen this group at full strength since the very beginning of the season. It's not only about player talent either, but about roles.

Missing Towns is a talent issue. That shouldn't need to be explained.
Missing Beasley is a role issue. We just don't have the roster construction to absorb a loss like that. We don't have a wealth of efficient volume 3-point shooters, so losing one the caliber of Beasley is magnified (especially when Russell was also out).

The team was 4-8 during the Beasley suspension. The team is 4-7 without him in this current stretch. That's still a pretty remarkable coaching job by Finch, who still has not coached a game yet with all three of Towns, Russell and Beasley.

Maybe. But it's important to note that a lot of teams win without key players...

Paul George
Kawhi Leonard
Serge Ibaka
Reggie Jackson
Patrick Beverly
Rajon Rondo
Reggie Jackson

All were out last night vs. Memphis. And the Clippers still won. They won the previous game without 4 of those guys, including Leonard. The Lakers are 7 - 6 in their past 13 games without James or Davis.

Granted, those are teams trying to win. But that's sort of my point. Those organizations are at a place where wins are expected... regardless of who's on the court. The Wolves are at a place where a 9 - 14 record over 23 games is a legit sign of improvement. Yet again.

And that's just sad for the fans who follow the organization.

[karch34]

Yes we've had a lot of excuses, misfortune, changes, etc. More than others or less than other teams who knows and who cares? I will agree there's been a lot of things we can point to as reasons, but I agree with Abe in a lot of other teams have won without top players. We've been without Beasley recently but lost to teams with lesser top tier talent playing and sometimes embarrassingly so (Pacers as one example).

I've seen good things and dont think we're hopeless by any means but there's still cause for concern.

[Baseline81]

If the Wolves continue to win, I hope they end up with the 6th worst record, meaning the Warriors would only have a 10% chance at the 4th pick (zero chance at the 5th).

[Klomp]

If the Wolves continue to win, I hope they end up with the 6th worst record, meaning the Warriors would only have a 10% chance at the 4th pick (zero chance at the 5th).

Still a 3.5-game margin for that, might be a little ambitious....

[Sugarless]

Forget the pick, the Wolves are losing it anyway, whether it's this year or next (with another fantastic draft). Keep the wins coming.