Official BKN-DAL-MIN pick watch Thread 2015-16 season

[humblebum]

How much worse is that Wolves team than the Utah team than drafted, what 12th last year? I don't see the big difference in overall talent, and Flip is a pretty good coach. Crazier things have happened.

Prolong what? The suffering of the angst ridden pessimists? These people's thirst cannot be satiated. I'm just literally hoping not to have to have the tank debate in perpetuity. The only glimmer of hope for this board to be readable is for the Nets to really suck.

[celticfan42487]

How much worse is that Wolves team than the Utah team than drafted, what 12th last year? I don't see the big difference in overall talent, and Flip is a pretty good coach. Crazier things have happened.

Prolong what? The suffering of the angst ridden pessimists? These people's thirst cannot be satiated. I'm just literally hoping not to have to have the tank debate in perpetuity. The only glimmer of hope for this board to be readable is for the Nets to really suck.

Well I looked it up on Wiki. Looks like if you miss the playoffs you can still pick 13 or 14th.

So that means theoretically is MIN makes one of the greater jumps ever (they won 16 games last year) and get to the 10th seed in the West (assuming that's better then the 9th seed in the East's record) we'll get their pick. Last year that was the Suns spot with 39 wins so... a +23 win increase.

Yeah not likely. I guess we'll be able to rule that out really soon. But at least it's not make the playoffs bad.

[humblebum]

How much worse is that Wolves team than the Utah team than drafted, what 12th last year? I don't see the big difference in overall talent, and Flip is a pretty good coach. Crazier things have happened.

Prolong what? The suffering of the angst ridden pessimists? These people's thirst cannot be satiated. I'm just literally hoping not to have to have the tank debate in perpetuity. The only glimmer of hope for this board to be readable is for the Nets to really suck.

Well I looked it up on Wiki. Looks like if you miss the playoffs you can still pick 13 or 14th.

So that means theoretically is MIN makes one of the greater jumps ever (they won 16 games last year) and get to the 10th seed in the West (assuming that's better then the 9th seed in the East's record) we'll get their pick. Last year that was the Suns spot with 39 wins so... a +23 win increase.

Yeah not likely. I guess we'll be able to rule that out really soon. But at least it's not make the playoffs bad.

Definitely a long shot, but we just can't tell at this point. They have the "bones" of a solid defensive team if Rubio and KG are out there along with Towns/Wiggins/Dieng

Also interested to see if Tyus Jones can translate his game to the NBA level, Rubio is a nice pairing for him.

Wiggins and Towns playing with vets is at least plausible if they get some chemistry going.

[165bows]

How much worse is that Wolves team than the Utah team than drafted, what 12th last year? I don't see the big difference in overall talent, and Flip is a pretty good coach. Crazier things have happened.

Prolong what? The suffering of the angst ridden pessimists? These people's thirst cannot be satiated. I'm just literally hoping not to have to have the tank debate in perpetuity. The only glimmer of hope for this board to be readable is for the Nets to really suck.

Well I looked it up on Wiki. Looks like if you miss the playoffs you can still pick 13 or 14th.

So that means theoretically is MIN makes one of the greater jumps ever (they won 16 games last year) and get to the 10th seed in the West (assuming that's better then the 9th seed in the East's record) we'll get their pick. Last year that was the Suns spot with 39 wins so... a +23 win increase.

Yeah not likely. I guess we'll be able to rule that out really soon. But at least it's not make the playoffs bad.

It's kind of like when we fantasized that Philly would make the playoffs this past year, handing over the 15th pick. Sounds good in the summer then the games start lol.

[HeartBreakKid]

How much worse is that Wolves team than the Utah team than drafted, what 12th last year? I don't see the big difference in overall talent, and Flip is a pretty good coach. Crazier things have happened.

Prolong what? The suffering of the angst ridden pessimists? These people's thirst cannot be satiated. I'm just literally hoping not to have to have the tank debate in perpetuity. The only glimmer of hope for this board to be readable is for the Nets to really suck.

No....just no. The Timberwolves have no chance at making the playoffs which is what you need if you expect them to be in the 12th or 13th range (where OKC Thunder was last year).

Utah was playing winning basketball and using splits had the best defense in the league, the T-Wolves were awful in every which way.

Flip Saunders is a terrible coach, I have no idea how anyone can say he is pretty good.



There's nothing pessimistic about saying we will not get the Timberwolves draft pick. You are being naive if you think the Timberwolves will get the 8th seed in the West.

The Nets bottoming out yes, the Mavericks giving us like the 9th pick in the draft, yes, the Timberwolves giving us a first rounder. Come on now.

[humblebum]

How much worse is that Wolves team than the Utah team than drafted, what 12th last year? I don't see the big difference in overall talent, and Flip is a pretty good coach. Crazier things have happened.

Prolong what? The suffering of the angst ridden pessimists? These people's thirst cannot be satiated. I'm just literally hoping not to have to have the tank debate in perpetuity. The only glimmer of hope for this board to be readable is for the Nets to really suck.

No....just no. The Timberwolves have no chance at making the playoffs which is what you need if you expect them to be in the 12th or 13th range (where OKC Thunder was last year).

Utah was playing winning basketball and using splits had the best defense in the league, the T-Wolves were awful in every which way.

Flip Saunders is a terrible coach, I have no idea how anyone can say he is pretty good.



There's nothing pessimistic about saying we will not get the Timberwolves draft pick. You are being naive if you think the Timberwolves will get the 8th seed in the West.

The Nets bottoming out yes, the Mavericks giving us like the 9th pick in the draft, yes, the Timberwolves giving us a first rounder. Come on now.

Well, I think there is a chance the West is a bit down. The Clippers and Blazers suffered massive losses... The Nuggets, Lakers, and Kings are all still big question marks. Utah could improve or plateau a bit and Dallas is a remake.

With how bad the East teams are, all they need to do is finish above a few teams out West for things to get interesting with that pick.



And the Wolves just have to finish 13th for the Celtics to get a first rounder, that means they could miss the playoffs and end up in the sweetspot where the Celtics get their pick.

[HeartBreakKid]

Well, I think there is a chance the West is a bit down. The Clippers and Blazers suffered massive losses... The Nuggets, Lakers, and Kings are all still big question marks. Utah could improve or plateau a bit and Dallas is a remake.

With how bad the East teams are, all they need to do is finish above a few teams out West for things to get interesting with that pick.

Teams suffering losses doesn't mean that they are worse than the Timberwolves. The Timberwolves may finish above the Kings, and even then they would be underdogs there.

Finishing above the Clippers, come on now. The Clippers roster didn't get hit by a meteorite, they lost DeAndre Jordan. They will not go from a championship caliber team to a lotto team by losing their 3rd best player, who was nowhere near as good as their first two players. Chris Paul and Blake Griffin will carry their team to the playoffs, even if they missed it due to injury them bottoming out past Minny seems far fetched. I have a hard time seeing a team where Pierce is like the 4th best player not placing above the Timberwolves.

Nuggets have a better core than Minny. They have Lawson/Chandler/Galanari/Faried with Nurkic and Nikola as their young centers. How Denver will be will depend on how badly they blow their core up in terms of trades, but as of now Denver should be better.

The Lakers, Blazers and possibly Sac placing below Minnesota seems reasonable. Minnesota placing above Utah and Phoenix is unlikely, there's probably a higher chance that a team like the Blazers finish above the Wolves than the Wolves beating the Suns and Jazz this year. Then you have OKC Thunder who will almost certainly place higher, especially if Durant is back.


I just don't see it. The Timberwolves are super young, have a bad coach, have had injury problems. Look at their roster, that doesn't look like a 41 win team.

And the Wolves just have to finish 13th for the Celtics to get a first rounder, that means they could miss the playoffs and end up in the sweetspot where the Celtics get their pick.

That generally means they're a playoff caliber team though.

[humblebum]

The Clippers lost their only plus defensive presence and have now committed themselves to Lance and a fading Paul Pierce. Blake Griffin and Paul aren't exactly iron men. There is a ton that could go wrong for them.

Dallas is relying heavily on Dirk and Matthews who are questionable in terms of their health.

And Portland is in full on rebuild mode.

Denver, LA, these teams are in shambles.

Look, it's a long shot, but they have solid defensive bones and Flip isn't a bad coach whatsoever. They're getting a full year of Rubio and they've surrrounded him with a lot of young athletes who under KG's influence could up their level of defensive performance.

There's a slim chance but there's a chance they could get to 13th and still be sub .500.

[12buckets]

Minnesota really threw some games this last season. Remember the game against us where Flip had that 10-day contract guy on the first day of his deal close out a game, while Lavine and Wiggins (who were red hot that game and built up a good lead) sat on the bench and watched the game crumble?

For them to improve to as many wins as will take to get into this range won't be as real of a "23 game improvement" as it sounds. Just a little honest effort all season should be good for more than a couple wins improvement, then start adding Towns production, further development from Wiggins, etc... Still not likely, but not impossible. I wonder how hard Flip Will really push them this season, or if he'd try a "semi-tank" and at least ensure the pick stays.

[12buckets]

It might be fun to see how Minny handles overacheivement from their young guys if they come out hot and are hovering alongside Phoenix and new Orleans around the trade deadline. A nice parallel to our own "pick vs playoff" debate last season here. It sure would be interesting to get another actual GMs take, especially with the Celtics potentially impacted too.

[djFan71]

Prolong what? The suffering of the angst ridden pessimists? These people's thirst cannot be satiated. I'm just literally hoping not to have to have the tank debate in perpetuity. The only glimmer of hope for this board to be readable is for the Nets to really suck.

My point was that when you keep mentioning the anti-tank stuff in an unrelated post, you're causing yourself to have the tank debate in perpetuity. If you truly don't want to have the debate, stop bringing it up uninitiated. Sure, respond to tank comments when they happen, that's fair game. But you can't claim to not want the debate, then bring it up out of nowhere as a jab. This thread was completely void of tank talk until your post.

[Slartibartfast]

Minnesota really threw some games this last season. Remember the game against us where Flip had that 10-day contract guy on the first day of his deal close out a game, while Lavine and Wiggins (who were red hot that game and built up a good lead) sat on the bench and watched the game crumble?

For them to improve to as many wins as will take to get into this range won't be as real of a "23 game improvement" as it sounds. Just a little honest effort all season should be good for more than a couple wins improvement, then start adding Towns production, further development from Wiggins, etc... Still not likely, but not impossible. I wonder how hard Flip Will really push them this season, or if he'd try a "semi-tank" and at least ensure the pick stays.

I hear you but sitting Lavine is not a tanking measure. Dude was the closest guy to rookie Gerald Green I've seen.

[humblebum]

Prolong what? The suffering of the angst ridden pessimists? These people's thirst cannot be satiated. I'm just literally hoping not to have to have the tank debate in perpetuity. The only glimmer of hope for this board to be readable is for the Nets to really suck.

My point was that when you keep mentioning the anti-tank stuff in an unrelated post, you're causing yourself to have the tank debate in perpetuity. If you truly don't want to have the debate, stop bringing it up uninitiated. Sure, respond to tank comments when they happen, that's fair game. But you can't claim to not want the debate, then bring it up out of nowhere as a jab. This thread was completely void of tank talk until your post.

Are you a mod?

I don't see what's wrong with saying in the outsourced tank thread that it would be awesome to not have to continue to hear about how the Celtics will never draft in the lotto again and how the team is now a treadmill team.

Only hope of the board's soul being saved is a dip into the lottery for the Nets or Mavs. Anything else and it will be another season of tears while the Celtics push for the playoffs and reasonable fans try to remain optimistic.

[12buckets]

Minnesota really threw some games this last season. Remember the game against us where Flip had that 10-day contract guy on the first day of his deal close out a game, while Lavine and Wiggins (who were red hot that game and built up a good lead) sat on the bench and watched the game crumble?

For them to improve to as many wins as will take to get into this range won't be as real of a "23 game improvement" as it sounds. Just a little honest effort all season should be good for more than a couple wins improvement, then start adding Towns production, further development from Wiggins, etc... Still not likely, but not impossible. I wonder how hard Flip Will really push them this season, or if he'd try a "semi-tank" and at least ensure the pick stays.

I hear you but sitting Lavine is not a tanking measure. Dude was the closest guy to rookie Gerald Green I've seen.

That game it was.

That was a very specific game, against a very specific opponent using only that game as a sample. Close to 20 points in three quarters and a big lead for his team, and sat for the whole fourth quarter in favor of a guy who wasn't even on the team at breakfast.

Flip chose to lose that game. And he did it by sitting Lavine and Wiggins. Just because Lavine didn't have a lot of great games doesn't invalidate that one.

This is just one example of many tanking maneuvers pulled the Wolves last season. And yes, some of those were specific to the game being played that night and some were season long tactics. They both counted in the loss column.

[djFan71]

Prolong what? The suffering of the angst ridden pessimists? These people's thirst cannot be satiated. I'm just literally hoping not to have to have the tank debate in perpetuity. The only glimmer of hope for this board to be readable is for the Nets to really suck.

My point was that when you keep mentioning the anti-tank stuff in an unrelated post, you're causing yourself to have the tank debate in perpetuity. If you truly don't want to have the debate, stop bringing it up uninitiated. Sure, respond to tank comments when they happen, that's fair game. But you can't claim to not want the debate, then bring it up out of nowhere as a jab. This thread was completely void of tank talk until your post.

Are you a mod?

I don't see what's wrong with saying in the outsourced tank thread that it would be awesome to not have to continue to hear about how the Celtics will never draft in the lotto again and how the team is now a treadmill team.

Only hope of the board's soul being saved is a dip into the lottery for the Nets or Mavs. Anything else and it will be another season of tears while the Celtics push for the playoffs and reasonable fans try to remain optimistic.

Nope, I'm obviously not a mod (and, yes, I know that was rhetorical...). I didn't say you can't say whatever you want, nor am I trying to. I enjoy 90+% of your posts. Just offering a hopeful suggestion. If you truly don't wanna talk about it, you have a good deal of control of that. If you don't bring it up, that will help it die.

[165bows]

Minnesota really threw some games this last season. Remember the game against us where Flip had that 10-day contract guy on the first day of his deal close out a game, while Lavine and Wiggins (who were red hot that game and built up a good lead) sat on the bench and watched the game crumble?

For them to improve to as many wins as will take to get into this range won't be as real of a "23 game improvement" as it sounds. Just a little honest effort all season should be good for more than a couple wins improvement, then start adding Towns production, further development from Wiggins, etc... Still not likely, but not impossible. I wonder how hard Flip Will really push them this season, or if he'd try a "semi-tank" and at least ensure the pick stays.

I hear you but sitting Lavine is not a tanking measure. Dude was the closest guy to rookie Gerald Green I've seen.

I saw one statistical assessment say he was the most, can I say un-conducive, to winning player in the league last year.

The thing is the Wolves will stink next year, and in the event they are close to being 13th lotto pick, they aren't going to be close to the playoffs. So if it looks like they are going to give up a lotto pick, they just tank for a month like GS for Barnes, or Miami the last game or two last year.

It would be nice but they would be crazy to let it happen even in the unlikely event it comes close.

While other teams could fade or have injuries, a team with Rubio-Pek (and Flip who plays guys heavy minutes) is right there with anyone on that.

[djFan71]

Minnesota really threw some games this last season. Remember the game against us where Flip had that 10-day contract guy on the first day of his deal close out a game, while Lavine and Wiggins (who were red hot that game and built up a good lead) sat on the bench and watched the game crumble?

For them to improve to as many wins as will take to get into this range won't be as real of a "23 game improvement" as it sounds. Just a little honest effort all season should be good for more than a couple wins improvement, then start adding Towns production, further development from Wiggins, etc... Still not likely, but not impossible. I wonder how hard Flip Will really push them this season, or if he'd try a "semi-tank" and at least ensure the pick stays.

I hear you but sitting Lavine is not a tanking measure. Dude was the closest guy to rookie Gerald Green I've seen.

I saw one statistical assessment say he was the most, can I say un-conducive, to winning player in the league last year.

The thing is the Wolves will stink next year, and in the event they are close to being 13th lotto pick, they aren't going to be close to the playoffs. So if it looks like they are going to give up a lotto pick, they just tank for a month like GS for Barnes, or Miami the last game or two last year.

It would be nice but they would be crazy to let it happen even in the unlikely event it comes close.

While other teams could fade or have injuries, a team with Rubio-Pek (and Flip who plays guys heavy minutes) is right there with anyone on that.

Yeah, I tried to talk myself into the MIN pick being 1st rounder this year, but I think you're spot on. If they're bad enough that we might get it, they'll just mini-tank. Only hope is they realize too late or someone else outdoes them.... but, yeah, doubtful.

[rickrolled]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/status/618433997937381377[/tweet]

[165bows]

KG likes to make the money, man. Wonder what he gets paid.

Adrian Wojnarowski ‏@WojYahooNBA 24m24 minutes ago

Free agent Alan Anderson has agreed to a one-year, $4M deal with Washington, league source tells Yahoo Sports.

That's a good one IMO. Always thought he brought a little something to the Nets. Teletovic is the real outstanding FA there, and then if they can make any trades.

[Ben-N1ce]

So how long do we wait on that Dallas pick now? Will Cuban go full tank commander?