Fan Enthusiasm (or lack of it)

[Note30]

Saw this article today.

https://dunkingwithwolves.com/2023/03/01/lack-fan-enthusiasm-slumping-timberwolves-sound-alarms/amp/

I couldn't express how true it was. It's reality. We're not a bad team exactly, but we aren't elite. We're just good.

I think maybe a big piece of it is that in the past we as fans have always been able to look to the future until we begin to be an elite team, and now all of that has been taken from us.

Draft and FA is where most fans are comfortable being in this franchise. Atleast that's how I've felt since 2008.

In any case just wanted to post this here to see what everyone else thinks.

[coolcono]

Saw this article today.

https://dunkingwithwolves.com/2023/03/01/lack-fan-enthusiasm-slumping-timberwolves-sound-alarms/amp/

I couldn't express how true it was. It's reality. We're not a bad team exactly, but we aren't elite. We're just good.

I think maybe a big piece of it is that in the past we as fans have always been able to look to the future until we begin to be an elite team, and now all of that has been taken from us.

Draft and FA is where most fans are comfortable being in this franchise. Atleast that's how I've felt since 2008.

In any case just wanted to post this here to see what everyone else thinks.

I think our expectations have always had to be a bit tempered as we reside in the ultra competitive western conference.
Even with those draft picks, we were never competitive. It was only when we traded those picks for veterans that we went anywhere.
And, as I noted in a previous thread, Connelly is the best front office man we have ever had. I trust him.

[Baseline81]

That article is a bit misleading as it never mentions the impact Towns has had on the season.

[Klomp]

I think maybe a big piece of it is that in the past we as fans have always been able to look to the future until we begin to be an elite team, and now all of that has been taken from us.

It hasn't been taken away at all though...we still have picks eery other year and we have a 21 and 22 year old who are pretty good players themselves.

I think people see the current situation and equate it to 2000, when the Joe Smith scandal came to light. That team had veterans around a 24-year old Kevin Garnett and a 23-year old Wally Szczerbiak, plus limited draft capital. It just dawned on me though...that offseason was also the tragic death of Malik Sealy. While he wasn't an incredible player by any means, he was still a starter under contract with the team. For that to happen plus the pick forfeitures in the same offseason, and to still go 47-35 is pretty impressive. Yet fans only remember the first round playoff loss decades later.

[Worm Guts]

We’re a .500 team after the Gobert trade, I don’t think there should be any dispute that’s a disappointment. If we start performing like a team with championship expectations, the enthusiasm will improve.

[wolves_89]

It's hard to build fan enthusiasm for a team that is pretty clearly playing below their talent level. It's even harder when the teams biggest issue has been extremely poor performances against really bad teams.

My hope for next season is the team shows up every night and plays hard. If they do that, they should win most of the games they are supposed to. That would go a long way towards building enthusiasm over the course of the season (rather than absolutely crushing the fan base on a regular basis).

[MN7725]

The amount of effort based losses hurts too
Team was getting booed off the floor every other home game early in the season in particular, and that first impression tends to linger

Rebounding and transition have been huge problems, and that seems to be more glaring than being a crap shooting team for example, since they tend to be energy/effort

[Devilzsidewalk]

And, as I noted in a previous thread, Connelly is the best front office man we have ever had. I trust him.

But I mean....apparently he's not - how can you justify that take at this point? It wasn't a minor screw up, most people now have this Gobert trade on the short list of worst trades of ALL-TIME. It's like hiring the most highly recommended of baby-sitters. Everybody says how great she is and, so you hire her and set out for the night feeling great. Then when you get back from the movies, you find out both your kids choked to death on the Cheerios the babysitter fed them while you were out.

With an F up of that magnitude, the previous narrative and theoretical skills and contributions don't really matter at that point.

[Klomp]

And, as I noted in a previous thread, Connelly is the best front office man we have ever had. I trust him.

But I mean....apparently he's not - how can you justify that take at this point? It wasn't a minor screw up, most people now have this Gobert trade on the short list of worst trades of ALL-TIME. It's like hiring the most highly recommended of baby-sitters. Everybody says how great she is and, so you hire her and set out for the night feeling great. Then when you get back from the movies, you find out both your kids choked to death on the Cheerios the babysitter fed them while you were out.

With an F up of that magnitude, the previous narrative and theoretical skills and contributions don't really matter at that point.

"Most people" also are likely grading on a heavy Minnesota curve without looking at any context to the situation. It's really not that bad.

[Devilzsidewalk]

That article is a bit misleading as it never mentions the impact Towns has had on the season.

My concern is that it might not be as much of an impact as we'd like to think. Kyle Anderson is extremely well-rated defensively this season - one of the absolute best in the league. I think the eye test has bared that out for the most part as well. That plus his play-making and open-court ball-handling are things that KAT just can't do.

And I feel the same way at times looking at Naz vs Gobert. There are moments when Gobert's rebounding and physicality are clearly needed, and moments where KAT's offense is sorely missed. But there can just as easily be moments when KAT is late on rotations or getting blown by, or moments when Rudy is bobbling passes, making a ridiculous offensive move, or looking like a new-born deer out on the perimeter.

So bringing it back, that's where my fan enthusiasm takes a hit. We're committed to a 100 million dollars a year to a frontcourt that just flat-out is not the best combination to be out on the floor in many situations. Ant and Jaden on the other hand, whether you need defense or offense or the other team is going big or small or whatever, they've both already proven they have the versatility in skill-set to be on the court under any circumstances. Those are true franchise cornerstones. I can't say that for the KAT/Gobert duo at this point.

And so we're backed into a corner - KAT should be traded. This frontcourt simply should not be out there 35 mpg for 82 games. Since the trade market for Gobert is almost certainly trash, the right move is to re-sign Naz and shop KAT this summer. I know that's not a fan-favorite take, but I really believe that.

[Calinks]

Enthusiasm is down because the team completely failed to come close to the expectations set by the front office and local media. We made a massive traded to bring in a talent that was supposed to make us contenders in the near future. We were not told we would win the title this year but we were supposed to be a very good team.

Right now we are ok. The energy and flash have taken a step back from what we saw last season and when you factor in everything we gave up to get here, that's a massive blow. We are once again a laughing stock, constantly hearing that we made a mistake, and we may have to do another major pivot because of this trade.

That will rightfully have fans feeling crestfallen after they were sold the idea of being a great team. To start the season there was excitement, fans were primed, the team blew all of that.

If they start winning and figure out this Towns/Gobert pairing, the enthusiasm will come back. Problem is, the Timberwolves have to deliver and they have failed to do so time and time again.

[wolves_89]

It's kind of unfortunate how thin the line between being happy with the team and being disappointed has really been this season. If the Wolves had gone 8-5 against the bottom 5 teams instead of 5-8, we would currently be in 4th in the West and would likely be fairly excited about the team.

[Neeva]

It's kind of unfortunate how thin the line between being happy with the team and being disappointed has really been this season. If the Wolves had gone 8-5 against the bottom 5 teams instead of 5-8, we would currently be in 4th in the West and would likely fairly excited about the team.

And some here still think coaching isn’t the problem. i don’t think Finch will ever get us past mediocre even with a healthy Kat.

[urinesane]

We’re a .500 team after the Gobert trade, I don’t think there should be any dispute that’s a disappointment. If we start performing like a team with championship expectations, the enthusiasm will improve.

We're a .500 team without KAT. You can't just leave that out, even though they struggled at the start of the season with him playing.

What would last year's team be this year with him losing this much time? It'd be a valid point if he'd played a decent number of games this year and it just didn't work. Obviously they should have a better record (those losses to bad teams hurts), but to leave that factor out kind of invalidates the statement.

Championship expectations this year, even with KAT were not anywhere near realistic. Getting the chemistry with Gobert, and ANT/Jaden development to lead to competing in the next few years is more realistic.

I gotta say it, Minnesota sports fans are some of the most bi-polar around. Constantly expecting to blow it, then expecting the moon when things are going well, only to play chicken little as soon as adversity strikes.

The fans of the Wolves are only an asset when things are going well, when they aren't going well they are pretty worthless to the team (i.e. no home court advantage at all).

You can talk about spending your money and blah blah blah, they should do this, and they should do that, but it's the truth. What happened to trying to uplift the team when the chips are down?

The replies will all be "they are millionaires, they need to prove, they don't deserve etc etc" but we don't control what they do. If you support them, do it through the ups and downs, if not, well that's fine, but I don't really care about fairweather fans.

[urinesane]

It's kind of unfortunate how thin the line between being happy with the team and being disappointed has really been this season. If the Wolves had gone 8-5 against the bottom 5 teams instead of 5-8, we would currently be in 4th in the West and would likely fairly excited about the team.

And some here still think coaching isn’t the problem. i don’t think Finch will ever get us past mediocre even with a healthy Kat.

What's that based on? I know that people act like Edwards is the best player on the team (and he may be), but KAT has been the best player for much longer and isn't exactly falling off production wise (health-wise not so great).

You take away a 3x All-Star and 2x All-NBA player from most rosters (especially while they are still in their prime and making max money) and obviously things aren't usually going to go well. They are fortunate to be .500 without him and still fighting for a decent playoff spot. Without KAT the margin for error with this team is much smaller and their lack of maturity/consistency at times has really hurt their chances.

Not sure how that's on Finch though. He's not perfect, but it's as if people don't remember how bad the coaching has been with this franchise for so long. Finch isn't out on the floor making careless turnovers and falling asleep on defense. The players need to be held accountable, and that is in part Finch's role, but there's only so much you can do as a coach.

[Klomp]

That article is a bit misleading as it never mentions the impact Towns has had on the season.

My concern is that it might not be as much of an impact as we'd like to think. Kyle Anderson is extremely well-rated defensively this season - one of the absolute best in the league. I think the eye test has bared that out for the most part as well. That plus his play-making and open-court ball-handling are things that KAT just can't do.

And I feel the same way at times looking at Naz vs Gobert. There are moments when Gobert's rebounding and physicality are clearly needed, and moments where KAT's offense is sorely missed. But there can just as easily be moments when KAT is late on rotations or getting blown by, or moments when Rudy is bobbling passes, making a ridiculous offensive move, or looking like a new-born deer out on the perimeter.

So bringing it back, that's where my fan enthusiasm takes a hit. We're committed to a 100 million dollars a year to a frontcourt that just flat-out is not the best combination to be out on the floor in many situations. Ant and Jaden on the other hand, whether you need defense or offense or the other team is going big or small or whatever, they've both already proven they have the versatility in skill-set to be on the court under any circumstances. Those are true franchise cornerstones. I can't say that for the KAT/Gobert duo at this point.

And so we're backed into a corner - KAT should be traded. This frontcourt simply should not be out there 35 mpg for 82 games. Since the trade market for Gobert is almost certainly trash, the right move is to re-sign Naz and shop KAT this summer. I know that's not a fan-favorite take, but I really believe that.

I don't think you're framing it correctly.

It's not about Towns vs. Anderson or Naz vs. Gobert, etc. It's about the starter vs. whoever the third-string guy is who gets bumped into the rotation due to the injury.

[urinesane]

Minnesota sports fans have been hurt too many times to have actual faith in a team (any pro MN team outside of the Lynx in the past).

I get it, but it starts to be a self-fulfilling prophecy at times. Seems like a chicken or the egg situation sometimes, but it's why I think PatBev is so badly missed on this team. He MADE the team and the fans believe. It isn't something you can quantify, but it was REAL.

This team needs that (and so does the fanbase).

[shrink]

And, as I noted in a previous thread, Connelly is the best front office man we have ever had. I trust him.

But I mean....apparently he's not - how can you justify that take at this point? It wasn't a minor screw up, most people now have this Gobert trade on the short list of worst trades of ALL-TIME. It's like hiring the most highly recommended of baby-sitters. Everybody says how great she is and, so you hire her and set out for the night feeling great. Then when you get back from the movies, you find out both your kids choked to death on the Cheerios the babysitter fed them while you were out.

With an F up of that magnitude, the previous narrative and theoretical skills and contributions don't really matter at that point.

"Most people" also are likely grading on a heavy Minnesota curve without looking at any context to the situation. It's really not that bad.

In your great analogy though, we won’t get back from the movies for 5 hours, and when we checked a half hour in, the babysitter had kept the kids safe and warm even though the furnace broke after we left. Fortunately, she seemed to foresee the issue, and used our credit card to buy an expensive, top of the line, space heater before it happened, plus a wonderful, affordable comforter she got in Memphis. We don’t know how valuable the space heater will work when the furnace is working again, they only were on together for the first twenty minutes. Nobody’s choked on Cheerios yet, in fact, she’s parenting better than we have for most of the last fifteen years, after grandma left for Boston.

[shrink]

As far as enthusiasm, I feel that myself.

It’s not the record either - it’s the horrible lack of consistent effort,particularly against bad teams. The wins, like the last one against the Clippers, are great, but the next game could be a heartbreaker.

[Neeva]

It's kind of unfortunate how thin the line between being happy with the team and being disappointed has really been this season. If the Wolves had gone 8-5 against the bottom 5 teams instead of 5-8, we would currently be in 4th in the West and would likely fairly excited about the team.

And some here still think coaching isn’t the problem. i don’t think Finch will ever get us past mediocre even with a healthy Kat.

What's that based on? I know that people act like Edwards is the best player on the team (and he may be), but KAT has been the best player for much longer and isn't exactly falling off production wise (health-wise not so great).

You take away a 3x All-Star and 2x All-NBA player from most rosters (especially while they are still in their prime and making max money) and obviously things aren't usually going to go well. They are fortunate to be .500 without him and still fighting for a decent playoff spot. Without KAT the margin for error with this team is much smaller and their lack of maturity/consistency at times has really hurt their chances.

Not sure how that's on Finch though. He's not perfect, but it's as if people don't remember how bad the coaching has been with this franchise for so long. Finch isn't out on the floor making careless turnovers and falling asleep on defense. The players need to be held accountable, and that is in part Finch's role, but there's only so much you can do as a coach.

Wolves have the same problems that they had last year with Kat and in the playoffs. Blowing big leads embarrassingly with stupid play and turnovers. Yes wolves have low basketball iq players but they are not well coached either. Finch fails to put in the better lineups does not know when to slow down opponents momentum. He’s just mediocre. A lot of posters are giving Finch credit for the wins and excusing him for the bad losses.