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We are now getting down to the "nitty-gritty".

This Thunder team, while complete on all levels, is extremely young and inexperienced. But, they are hungry and can match our depth.

Both teams play defense at an ELITE level. Both squads display versatility on this end of the court, and surprisingly OKC may have a slight edge on us.

The wolves have a slight edge in OFFENSIVE versatility. Okc can go cold if SGA isn't firing on all cylinders. JWilliams isn’t playoff clutch. While our wolves are inconsistent, we have a plethora of guys that can carry the weight offensively even if ANT and Julius are a bit off. OKC doesn't quite have that.

Jaden may be able to terrorize sga. Jaylen can as well.. But, is focusing on SGA a priority? MAYBE, maybe not. Switch, play clean, limit defensive fouls, and please.. REBOUND.

IT will take a level of focus that we have yet to display to beat this team in a best of 7. The old men (Mike, Rudy, Julius) may just tip the needle in our favor against this young team.

Regardless, while I'm certainly biased, this could go either way. Min +300 on the series is good value.

I'll leave the rest of the breakdown up to you guys.

Edit: Wolves in 7. What's your prediction?

OKC in 6 and I will be happy to be wrong in the Wolves favor.

This series will expose Wolves roster flaws in a major way, hope I am wrong but Thunder in 5....unless refs completely surprise me.

Norseman79 wrote:This series will expose Wolves roster flaws in a major way, hope I am wrong but Thunder in 5....unless refs completely surprise me.

What flaws do you feel those are?

I look at OKC’s roster and I think they’re thin upfront. I don’t know who they have as an answer for Julius if he plays anywhere near how he did last round (or even for Rudy.)

We already have a Wolves WCF thread. Do we need a separate one now that it's been determined to be the Thunder? Anyway I'm going to pick the Thunder to win using my head over my heart. It will be 5 or 7 games as I don't see us losing the clincher at home in game 6. I hope I'm wrong and we win. Go Wolves!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAARRRROOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are underdogs by a margin.
Nothing unstills me with confidence based off regular season form.

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KGdaBom wrote:We already have a Wolves WCF thread. Do we need a separate one now that it's been determined to be the Thunder? Anyway I'm going to pick the Thunder to win using my head over my heart. It will be 5 or 7 games as I don't see us losing the clincher at home in game 6. I hope I'm wrong and we win. Go Wolves!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAARRRROOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KGdaBom, my man, trust the process of the thread starter.. we got this..

Looking into the rosters more, it could be argued the talent is close to a wash. Each team has 3 all-star level talents, mixed with defense, shooting, experience and rebounding.

SGA has a slight edge over Ant, but they have been very close in the postseason numbers. Julius vs Jdub and Chet vs Rudy offer similar impact. It comes down to who's role players are playing better, hitting their open shots, defending, rebounding. Jaden, DDV, Naw, Naz, Mike vs Wallace, Dort, Caruso, Hartenstein, and Wiggins. Dort has been bad in the post-season, and Jdub has struggled a bit as well. DDV and Caruso are both nba champs. Excited to see our guys compete with a rest advantage, and how the series is called as both teams really like to play physical defense.

Wolves in 6.

Loaf_of_bread wrote:

KGdaBom wrote:We already have a Wolves WCF thread. Do we need a separate one now that it's been determined to be the Thunder? Anyway I'm going to pick the Thunder to win using my head over my heart. It will be 5 or 7 games as I don't see us losing the clincher at home in game 6. I hope I'm wrong and we win. Go Wolves!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAARRRROOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KGdaBom, my man, trust the process of the thread starter.. we got this..

No, no, no.. you picked the Thunder?!? You are no longer considered "my man". Sorry

Loaf_of_bread wrote:

Loaf_of_bread wrote:

KGdaBom wrote:We already have a Wolves WCF thread. Do we need a separate one now that it's been determined to be the Thunder? Anyway I'm going to pick the Thunder to win using my head over my heart. It will be 5 or 7 games as I don't see us losing the clincher at home in game 6. I hope I'm wrong and we win. Go Wolves!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAARRRROOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

KGdaBom, my man, trust the process of the thread starter.. we got this..

No, no, no.. you picked the Thunder?!? You are no longer considered "my man". Sorry

Picking the Thunder is inaccurate. I think they will win the series, but I pick the Wolves.

KGdaBom wrote:

Loaf_of_bread wrote:

Loaf_of_bread wrote:KGdaBom, my man, trust the process of the thread starter.. we got this..

No, no, no.. you picked the Thunder?!? You are no longer considered "my man". Sorry

Picking the Thunder is inaccurate. I think they will win the series, but I pick the Wolves.

My man, that's profound.

On paper, our matchup with OKC looks pretty evenly matched:

Starters:

Gobert = Hartenstein (EVEN)

Randle > Holmgren (EDGE MIN)

McDaniels < Williams (EDGE OKC)

Edwards > Dort (EDGE MIN)

Conley < Shai (EDGE OKC)


Bench:

Reid/NAW/DDV = Caruso/Wallace/Wiggins (EVEN)

If the Wolves turn the ball over at the same horrible rate as they did against LA and GS, this series won't get past five (5) games.

There's no margin for error for MIN if they want to advance and winning 68 games is the result of consistency on both ends of the court by OKC.

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Loaf_of_bread wrote:

KGdaBom wrote:

Loaf_of_bread wrote:No, no, no.. you picked the Thunder?!? You are no longer considered "my man". Sorry

Picking the Thunder is inaccurate. I think they will win the series, but I pick the Wolves.

My man, that's profound.

I like to think that KGdaBom is an oldtime, vintage bot. Before AI, before all this madness only KGdaBom existed

I think rest vs rust is gonna be tested in game 1. If the Wolves steal game 1 then OKC will have a ton of pressure on them in game 2. The question is do the Wolves pull a Lakers series and just concede the game? Also does OKC pull a Nuggets series and just blow us out. If we can do here what we did to Denver last year (win games 1 and 2 on the road,) I think we win the series in 6. If we can split them I think the series goes 7 and barring injuries to either side we are slightly favored (more experience and we didn’t have the physical beat down series they did.) If we lose both, we lose in 5 or 6. For a long time my gut said OKC in 7, but I saw most of the Denver series (I turned off the blowouts when they stopped being competitive,) and I can say the Thunder are beatable. If Rudy guards IHart and JWill he can make things more difficult for OKC. Control the paint, control the turnovers, and make our 3s, and the Wolves get their first ever conference banner.

jscott wrote:

Norseman79 wrote:This series will expose Wolves roster flaws in a major way, hope I am wrong but Thunder in 5....unless refs completely surprise me.

What flaws do you feel those are?

I look at OKC’s roster and I think they’re thin upfront. I don’t know who they have as an answer for Julius if he plays anywhere near how he did last round (or even for Rudy.)

PG depth and size to deal with OKC up front. Holmgren and Hartenstein could be problems

Mike Conley proved me wrong again the Lakers, but I’m pretty nervous about starting him in this series.

Another big issue is going to be OKC’s insane ball pressure on defense. Minnesota is really turnover prone, so that could be problematic.

minimus wrote:

Loaf_of_bread wrote:

KGdaBom wrote:Picking the Thunder is inaccurate. I think they will win the series, but I pick the Wolves.

My man, that's profound.

I like to think that KGdaBom is an oldtime, vintage bot. Before AI, before all this madness only KGdaBom existed

Eggzactly.

Slim Tubby wrote:On paper, our matchup with OKC looks pretty evenly matched:

Starters:

Gobert = Hartenstein (EVEN)

Randle > Holmgren (EDGE MIN)

McDaniels < Williams (EDGE OKC)

Edwards > Dort (EDGE MIN)

Conley < Shai (EDGE OKC)


Bench:

Reid/NAW/DDV = Caruso/Wallace/Wiggins (EVEN)

If the Wolves turn the ball over at the same horrible rate as they did against LA and GS, this series won't get past five (5) games.

There's no margin for error for MIN if they want to advance and winning 68 games is the result of consistency on both ends of the court by OKC.

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If Gobert only = to Hartenstein that's depressing.

Wolves in six.

I think the Julius matchup will be extremely important. I don't see Chet on him all series just due to the size/physicality difference. How will it affect other matchups? Will it pull Caruso or Dort away from Ant a bit more? Can Ant take advantage of that?

We saw Caruso guard Jokic last series and it seemed to be slightly effective at times. Can't wait for Tue.