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So we all knew that we had quite the draw to start off this season. At this point, a lot of people had us picked at 2-2 record (not that we are so drastically far away from that prediction) but obviously with the season started, injuries and a few telling traits about the team early on, what are people thinking we are going to go over the next 6 games? There are a few games in there that most may have been thinking when the schedules were originally released that we had strong odds, but now may be thinking completely otherwise.

ATL - A game preseason i would have still predicted as a loss, but by less than 7. This i think will be a fight for 3 quarters, then a blowout. Atlanta by 17+.
HOU - Preseason i would have chalked in as a loss by less than 20, but am waivering slightly on Houston's record so far (despite having a tough schedule and better team than us), that we may still have a loss, but giving hope to a loss by less than 9, and the slight chances for an upset.
LAL - Preseason, loss by less than 20. Now, loss by 30+.
SAC - Would have chalked it in for a definative 8+ win. Now, feel it could go either way but with the edge to SAC
NYK - Preseason - Win 10+. Now, still hate the Knicks enough to think we will edge out a 10+ point win at home for this.
ATL - Preseason - Loss by less than 14. Now loss of 22+

So, i guess i see possible wins at HOU: in the chance that Houston really aren't that great early on in the season, and we pull some fire out there and more than one guy turns it on. Very slim hopes on a W for this game. SAC should be a win, but i am doubtful being at their home court with SpeedRacer back and their team with a few games under their belts as well to gel. NYK. Please. Please. Please. Please.

Best case scenario: 4-6
Worst case scenario: (not typing it cos we ain't there just yet)

No disrespect to you topic, but right now I would consider "winning" to be the ability of this team to show relentless effort on a consistent basis.

^Which is something that literally doesn't happen outside of teams that win at least sometimes. Getting beaten night in and night out is terrible for the development of young players. You have to learn how to win just like you have to learn how to dribble with your left hand and ****, and i feel like this board downplays just how important that is. To the inverse of that, losing on a consistent basis can and will turn you into a career loser, which i fear may be happening to Corey Brewer. Not only does he look as out of control as ever, there's an air of inevitability around him now. I don't know just how to describe it but when he shoots i can tell he expects to miss. All that said, I would consider 'winning' to be getting an encouraging number of victories, and perhaps getting close to .500 in the last ten or so games of the year.

Iommi wrote:^Which is something that literally doesn't happen outside of teams that win at least sometimes. Getting beaten night in and night out is terrible for the development of young players. You have to learn how to win just like you have to learn how to dribble with your left hand and ****, and i feel like this board downplays just how important that is. To the inverse of that, losing on a consistent basis can and will turn you into a career loser, which i fear may be happening to Corey Brewer. Not only does he look as out of control as ever, there's an air of inevitability around him now. I don't know just how to describe it but when he shoots i can tell he expects to miss. All that said, I would consider 'winning' to be getting an encouraging number of victories, and perhaps getting close to .500 in the last ten or so games of the year.

I mostly agree ... lack of team success can force players out of their element. Brewer is a legit role player on a good team. Playing along-side a high caliber player, he'd learn to play within himself (shoot less, good passing, and excel on defense). In a nutshell, when you lose enough, players and coaches naturally begin to think about what "not to do" instead of applying what you're good at.

Still, the effort has to come first IMO. Trying to coach skills and strategy is one thing, but it's a mental drag for coaches having to preach effort.

To bad Flynn, Webster, and a healthy Beasley were not accounted for the past 2 full games ... it would have been a much better measuring stick.

Weren't we kind of in the Miami game while Beasley was in too? I remember it being close, at least until that brutal 3rd quarter.

Tonight vs Atl.

thats the spirit. Hawks don't have the juice to handle extended success. Letdown time.

Darko Miliminutes wrote:Tonight vs Atl.

Yeah. That's what I was thinking, too!

This team doesn't feel like it is clicking enough yet to win on the road, so I'm gonna guess the New York game.

we will beat ourselves.

basti wrote:

Darko Miliminutes wrote:Tonight vs Atl.

Yeah. That's what I was thinking, too!

So much to be said of our soothsaying ability, ehhh...

Next we'll be Houston's slump-buster. (But now that i've picked Houston, we're sure to win).

Dewey wrote:No disrespect to you topic, but right now I would consider "winning" to be the ability of this team to show relentless effort on a consistent basis.

That was sort of the idea of the thread. When the roster was announced we only had our presumptions based on the 'on-paper' talents we knew of, and what we thought we were capable based on that alone.

With the small amount of games we have played, we have obviously seen some things that we couldnt predict well before the season started. Effort being a big one. I for one, was under the presumption that a new young squad would have a decent caliber of effort and determination built in already, but that hasn't been the case so far. We don't have the effort i thought we would have had to get early scoring runs, to break scoring runs and to fight back from 14pt decifits. A lot of people were expecting a more balls out and mature game from Love, and people had much higher expectations of Darko. Then there have been the injuries we couldnt forsee (bar Flynn).

This is not a Woe-Is-The-Timberwolves thread (or a we need as many W's as possible thread), i was just interested in gauging how far off peoples pre-season view of the Wolves compares to how they are currently running vey early on in the season. The super hopefuls, i remember had us pegged at a 4-6 or 5-5 start based on what they knew at the time, and were expecting some nice passing to hot wings. Right now, after this Houston game performance (which i had more positivity towards winning as opposed to the ATL game), i am thinking we will be 1-9 moving into game 11, with no form of imposing front (or back) court even starting to develop.

Next win: 2013 when the game is such a formality that the Lakers actually forget to show up and we win by forfeit.

Our starting line-up will be Blake Stepp, Ndudi Ebi, Adam Morrison, Loukas Mavrokefalidis and Kenny Powers.

big3_8_19_21 wrote:Next win: 2013 when the game is such a formality that the Lakers actually forget to show up and we win by forfeit.

Our starting line-up will be Blake Stepp, Ndudi Ebi, Adam Morrison, Loukas Mavrokefalidis and Kenny Powers.

Isn't Blake good at poker now or something? Ebi shut down Lebron once, enough said. Louk Louk, so ugly you make me puke? Ammo certainly wouldn't bring down our teams shooting percent any. The only thing funnier than Kenny Powers is our teams effort level.

We've been outscored by a total of 130 points in our last 5 games. 26 point average.

Woe-is-the-Timberwolves

Krapinsky wrote:We've been outscored by a total of 130 points in our last 5 games. 26 point average.

156+ and 26 point average guaranteed for one more game atleast.