2022-2023 Timberwolves Predictions (standings/stats/roles)

[BlacJacMac]

Prediction: During at least one of the regular season games this year the Timberwolves will set the all time record for most blocks in a single game. I say at least one because I think it is possible they will break their own record.

24 is a TON of blocks.

It would have to start with Gobert destroying his previous high of 9

[winforlose]

Prediction: During at least one of the regular season games this year the Timberwolves will set the all time record for most blocks in a single game. I say at least one because I think it is possible they will break their own record.

24 is a TON of blocks.

It would have to start with Gobert destroying his previous high of 9

You have the best shot blocking wing in MCD, the best shot blocking C in Rudy, KAT can and does have multi block games. Ant and Dlo can both get blocks. Naz and KA can both shot block. All it takes is one game where everything goes right and we set the record.

[Zonarosa]

Prediction: During at least one of the regular season games this year the Timberwolves will set the all time record for most blocks in a single game. I say at least one because I think it is possible they will break their own record.

24 is a TON of blocks.

It would have to start with Gobert destroying his previous high of 9

the entire thing is absurd. there's been such a shift in the way the game is played now that those kinds of records are likely going to be pretty rare. the lakers hit 23 two years ago, but they also had three prolific shot blockers in davis, howard and mcgee.

i'm more interested in 1) just making things generally tougher at the rim, and 2) improving our defensive rebound %, where we were 28th in the league and 25th in second chance points allowed.

and if you look at the top 10 teams in terms of defensive rating last year, six of them were in the bottom half in blocks. miami was 4th, and last in blocks. phoenix was 3rd, 22nd in blocks. cleveland was 5th, 24th in blocks. dallas was 7th, 28th in blocks.

it's a weird stat to focus on.

[winforlose]

Prediction: During at least one of the regular season games this year the Timberwolves will set the all time record for most blocks in a single game. I say at least one because I think it is possible they will break their own record.

24 is a TON of blocks.

It would have to start with Gobert destroying his previous high of 9

the entire thing is absurd. there's been such a shift in the way the game is played now that those kinds of records are likely going to be pretty rare. the lakers hit 23 two years ago, but they also had three prolific shot blockers in davis, howard and mcgee.

i'm more interested in 1) just making things generally tougher at the rim, and 2) improving our defensive rebound %, where we were 28th in the league and 25th in second chance points allowed.

and if you look at the top 10 teams in terms of defensive rating last year, six of them were in the bottom half in blocks. miami was 4th, and last in blocks. phoenix was 3rd, 22nd in blocks. cleveland was 5th, 24th in blocks. dallas was 7th, 28th in blocks.

it's a weird stat to focus on.

McDaniels, KAT, Rudy are all prolific. Rudy will help with the things your interested in. I am not focusing on it, I just predicted we are going to have a game where we just go nuts with blocks and claim the record.

[Zonarosa]

24 is a TON of blocks.

It would have to start with Gobert destroying his previous high of 9

the entire thing is absurd. there's been such a shift in the way the game is played now that those kinds of records are likely going to be pretty rare. the lakers hit 23 two years ago, but they also had three prolific shot blockers in davis, howard and mcgee.

i'm more interested in 1) just making things generally tougher at the rim, and 2) improving our defensive rebound %, where we were 28th in the league and 25th in second chance points allowed.

and if you look at the top 10 teams in terms of defensive rating last year, six of them were in the bottom half in blocks. miami was 4th, and last in blocks. phoenix was 3rd, 22nd in blocks. cleveland was 5th, 24th in blocks. dallas was 7th, 28th in blocks.

it's a weird stat to focus on.

McDaniels, KAT, Rudy are all prolific. Rudy will help with the things your interested in. I am not focusing on it, I just predicted we are going to have a game where we just go nuts with blocks and claim the record.

i don't think you understand the definition of "prolific". davis, howard and mcgee have all had multiple seasons averaging over 2 blocks per. davis and howard have multiple seasons over 2.5 per, and led the league in 5 seasons combined.

towns hasn't cracked 2 per in 7 seasons. you're focused on the wrong things.

[BlacJacMac]

24 is a TON of blocks.

It would have to start with Gobert destroying his previous high of 9

the entire thing is absurd. there's been such a shift in the way the game is played now that those kinds of records are likely going to be pretty rare. the lakers hit 23 two years ago, but they also had three prolific shot blockers in davis, howard and mcgee.

i'm more interested in 1) just making things generally tougher at the rim, and 2) improving our defensive rebound %, where we were 28th in the league and 25th in second chance points allowed.

and if you look at the top 10 teams in terms of defensive rating last year, six of them were in the bottom half in blocks. miami was 4th, and last in blocks. phoenix was 3rd, 22nd in blocks. cleveland was 5th, 24th in blocks. dallas was 7th, 28th in blocks.

it's a weird stat to focus on.

McDaniels, KAT, Rudy are all prolific. Rudy will help with the things your interested in. I am not focusing on it, I just predicted we are going to have a game where we just go nuts with blocks and claim the record.

You have a different definition of prolific than I do.

Gobert is a very good shot blocker. For his career, he blocks 2.7 PER 36 with a Block% of 6.1.

KAT, much less so. For his career, he blocks 1.4 PER 36 with a Block% of 3.5.

McDaniels is a very good shotblocker for a wing. For his career, he blocks 1.2 PER 36 with a Block% of 3.1.

And Zona is right. The game is very different now. In the past 10 years there have been 14 instances of a player getting at least 10 blocks (and no more than 12).

It happened much more regularly in the 70s-90s:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_National_Basketball_Association_single-game_blocks_leaders

[Minnesota Power]

I predict the MN Timberwolves will finally out-draw the MN Wild.

I remember hearing the TV Ratings the TWolves had during their WCF run in 2003/2004 was higher then any ratings the Wild have ever had in their history.

No idea if that's true or not, especially since local tv ratings aren't exactly ever really published or made available publicly.

No doubt basketball is a much more popular sport then hockey is though overall so it wouldn't surprise me.

[minimus]

One underrated aspect of next season will be players pairs who might help each other to elevate their game. I can see of following pairings (except for obvious things like DLo-Gobert, Towns-Gobert etc):

Reid-Anderson. Against some bench units this front-court might work very well. Last season Reid played with TP/MCD/V8 at PF and as result our bench unit was painfully small, however this year we can use Reid-Anderson-TP front-court. Same with Towns-Anderson

Gobert-Moore. Moore will benefit from Gobert screens and rim runner gravity, Gobert will benefit from Moore defense

Gobert-Nowell. Nowell has already an elite mid range game, Gobert might make him even better

Gobert-MCD. I expect MCD to play a lot as weakside rotation big and low man, he will provide Gobert with help in defense. In offense I expect MCD to get a lot of alleyoop passes, just because an opponent big will be attached to Gobert

[winforlose]

One underrated aspect of next season will be players pairs who might help each other to elevate their game. I can see of following pairings (except for obvious things like DLo-Gobert, Towns-Gobert etc):

Reid-Anderson. Against some bench units this front-court might work very well. Last season Reid played with TP/MCD/V8 at PF and as result our bench unit was painfully small, however this year we can use Reid-Anderson-TP front-court. Same with Towns-Anderson

Gobert-Moore. Moore will benefit from Gobert screens and rim runner gravity, Gobert will benefit from Moore defense

Gobert-Nowell. Nowell has already an elite mid range game, Gobert might make him even better

Gobert-MCD. I expect MCD to play a lot as weakside rotation big and low man, he will provide Gobert with help in defense. In offense I expect MCD to get a lot of alleyoop passes, just because an opponent big will be attached to Gobert

I doubt Moore gets much run with Rudy. I don’t know if Naz gets any run at all (assuming KAT plays most or all C minutes not taken by Rudy.)

Your other pairings are interesting. Rudy should have a very good effect on JMAC as JMAC has proven he can hit Naz on the roll. JMAC pin point passing or lobbing to Rudy will allow Rudy to feast. Moreover, Rudy will cover for JMAC when he lets defenders get by him. But the little ninja defense will also take some pressure off Rudy on a few possessions.

[life_saver]

I predict the MN Timberwolves will finally out-draw the MN Wild.

I remember hearing the TV Ratings the TWolves had during their WCF run in 2003/2004 was higher then any ratings the Wild have ever had in their history.

No idea if that's true or not, especially since local tv ratings aren't exactly ever really published or made available publicly.

No doubt basketball is a much more popular sport then hockey is though overall so it wouldn't surprise me.

Wolves also had better ratings than Wild during 2017-18 season. I don't have ratings data afterwards. I think it was Jon Krawczynski who wrote about Wolves drawing very good ratings in that season and that final game against Nuggets was the highest rated Wolves match since 2004. I think if Wolves aren't garbage, they will definitely draw in higher ratings than Wild as more casuals are into Wolves/NBA than Wild/NHL

[minimus]

One underrated aspect of next season will be players pairs who might help each other to elevate their game. I can see of following pairings (except for obvious things like DLo-Gobert, Towns-Gobert etc):

Reid-Anderson. Against some bench units this front-court might work very well. Last season Reid played with TP/MCD/V8 at PF and as result our bench unit was painfully small, however this year we can use Reid-Anderson-TP front-court. Same with Towns-Anderson

Gobert-Moore. Moore will benefit from Gobert screens and rim runner gravity, Gobert will benefit from Moore defense

Gobert-Nowell. Nowell has already an elite mid range game, Gobert might make him even better

Gobert-MCD. I expect MCD to play a lot as weakside rotation big and low man, he will provide Gobert with help in defense. In offense I expect MCD to get a lot of alleyoop passes, just because an opponent big will be attached to Gobert

I doubt Moore gets much run with Rudy. I don’t know if Naz gets any run at all (assuming KAT plays most or all C minutes not taken by Rudy.)

Your other pairings are interesting. Rudy should have a very good effect on JMAC as JMAC has proven he can hit Naz on the roll. JMAC pin point passing or lobbing to Rudy will allow Rudy to feast. Moreover, Rudy will cover for JMAC when he lets defenders get by him. But the little ninja defense will also take some pressure off Rudy on a few possessions.

Yeah, Moore needs time. But I just see him as successful role player next to Gobert, because of multiple connecting points. With regard to Reid, I still think with load management and current roster construction 3rd unit might get some minutes during regular season. I really dont know how McLaughlin as backup PG will work, he is an incredible kick-out passer, now he will have multiple targets, he also gives effort in defense.

[winforlose]

One underrated aspect of next season will be players pairs who might help each other to elevate their game. I can see of following pairings (except for obvious things like DLo-Gobert, Towns-Gobert etc):

Reid-Anderson. Against some bench units this front-court might work very well. Last season Reid played with TP/MCD/V8 at PF and as result our bench unit was painfully small, however this year we can use Reid-Anderson-TP front-court. Same with Towns-Anderson

Gobert-Moore. Moore will benefit from Gobert screens and rim runner gravity, Gobert will benefit from Moore defense

Gobert-Nowell. Nowell has already an elite mid range game, Gobert might make him even better

Gobert-MCD. I expect MCD to play a lot as weakside rotation big and low man, he will provide Gobert with help in defense. In offense I expect MCD to get a lot of alleyoop passes, just because an opponent big will be attached to Gobert

I doubt Moore gets much run with Rudy. I don’t know if Naz gets any run at all (assuming KAT plays most or all C minutes not taken by Rudy.)

Your other pairings are interesting. Rudy should have a very good effect on JMAC as JMAC has proven he can hit Naz on the roll. JMAC pin point passing or lobbing to Rudy will allow Rudy to feast. Moreover, Rudy will cover for JMAC when he lets defenders get by him. But the little ninja defense will also take some pressure off Rudy on a few possessions.

Yeah, Moore needs time. But I just see him as successful role player next to Gobert, because of multiple connecting points. With regard to Reid, I still think with load management and current roster construction 3rd unit might get some minutes during regular season. I really dont know how McLaughlin as backup PG will work, he is an incredible kick-out passer, now he will have multiple targets, he also gives effort in defense.

JMAC isn’t so much Jekyll and Hyde as is he the basketball equivalent of bi polar. His baseline is somewhere between bad 2nd string and good 3rd string PG. Then he has these swings, sometimes his shot is falling, he gets an insane number of assists to turnovers, makes everyone better, and plays “Little Ninja defense.” Other times he is so bad he cannot guard G league players, cannot shoot to save his life, does not facilitate the offense and is borderline unplayable. JMAC is the part of the rotation that scares the hell out of me.

[minimus]

I doubt Moore gets much run with Rudy. I don’t know if Naz gets any run at all (assuming KAT plays most or all C minutes not taken by Rudy.)

Your other pairings are interesting. Rudy should have a very good effect on JMAC as JMAC has proven he can hit Naz on the roll. JMAC pin point passing or lobbing to Rudy will allow Rudy to feast. Moreover, Rudy will cover for JMAC when he lets defenders get by him. But the little ninja defense will also take some pressure off Rudy on a few possessions.

Yeah, Moore needs time. But I just see him as successful role player next to Gobert, because of multiple connecting points. With regard to Reid, I still think with load management and current roster construction 3rd unit might get some minutes during regular season. I really dont know how McLaughlin as backup PG will work, he is an incredible kick-out passer, now he will have multiple targets, he also gives effort in defense.

JMAC isn’t so much Jekyll and Hyde as is he the basketball equivalent of bi polar. His baseline is somewhere between bad 2nd string and good 3rd string PG. Then he has these swings, sometimes his shot is falling, he gets an insane number of assists to turnovers, makes everyone better, and plays “Little Ninja defense.” Other times he is so bad he cannot guard G league players, cannot shoot to save his life, does not facilitate the offense and is borderline unplayable. JMAC is the part of the rotation that scares the hell out of me.

I am 100% believer that between Nowell-JMac-Rivers-Moore we will find a working solution for backup PG. I also hope that we will be able to implement opposite of heliocentric offense, with multiple opportunities for different creators.

[KGdaBom]

Yeah, Moore needs time. But I just see him as successful role player next to Gobert, because of multiple connecting points. With regard to Reid, I still think with load management and current roster construction 3rd unit might get some minutes during regular season. I really dont know how McLaughlin as backup PG will work, he is an incredible kick-out passer, now he will have multiple targets, he also gives effort in defense.

JMAC isn’t so much Jekyll and Hyde as is he the basketball equivalent of bi polar. His baseline is somewhere between bad 2nd string and good 3rd string PG. Then he has these swings, sometimes his shot is falling, he gets an insane number of assists to turnovers, makes everyone better, and plays “Little Ninja defense.” Other times he is so bad he cannot guard G league players, cannot shoot to save his life, does not facilitate the offense and is borderline unplayable. JMAC is the part of the rotation that scares the hell out of me.

I am 100% believer that between Nowell-JMac-Rivers-Moore we will find a working solution for backup PG. I also hope that we will be able to implement opposite of heliocentric offense, with multiple opportunities for different creators.

I'm in total agreement that we will be fine at backup PG. However I'm in total confusion about heliocentric. Big word Minimus. Now I have to go look it up.

Here's the definition: having or representing the sun as the center, as in the accepted astronomical model of the solar system.
I don't believe that. The Earth is obviously the center and the Sun circles it once a year.
So did you mean that metaphorically as in Gobert is the Center of the Timberwolves?

[minimus]

JMAC isn’t so much Jekyll and Hyde as is he the basketball equivalent of bi polar. His baseline is somewhere between bad 2nd string and good 3rd string PG. Then he has these swings, sometimes his shot is falling, he gets an insane number of assists to turnovers, makes everyone better, and plays “Little Ninja defense.” Other times he is so bad he cannot guard G league players, cannot shoot to save his life, does not facilitate the offense and is borderline unplayable. JMAC is the part of the rotation that scares the hell out of me.

I am 100% believer that between Nowell-JMac-Rivers-Moore we will find a working solution for backup PG. I also hope that we will be able to implement opposite of heliocentric offense, with multiple opportunities for different creators.

I'm in total agreement that we will be fine at backup PG. However I'm in total confusion about heliocentric. Big word Minimus. Now I have to go look it up.

Here's the definition: having or representing the sun as the center, as in the accepted astronomical model of the solar system.
I don't believe that. The Earth is obviously the center and the Sun circles it once a year.
So did you mean that metaphorically as in Gobert is the Center of the Timberwolves?

No, what I am trying to say, that I prefer an offensive system where we don't rely only on PG to create and execute. I want system which gives opportunities to Towns, Edwards, Nowell as well. At some degree I want to see Anderson and Moore to succeed as secondary facilitators.

[Klomp]

Maybe not a prediction per se, but what are some lineup combinations you are excited to see?

I'm excited to see how Finch mixes and matches our length. I would see one package where Anderson, McDaniels and Prince are all out there with a guard and a center, for example. Tons of defensive switchability and probably lets McDaniels do a little more with the ball.

[TimberKat]

Another prediction: KAT will be the starting PF on all star team. KAT’s career number is ahead of Dirk Nowitzki’s at age 26 including 3pt pct. Dirk is 7’0” and 245lb (playing weight?) and KAT is 6’11” and 248lb. If Dirk is a PF, why can’t KAT be a PF. They both have similar playing style. The same defense ability? Dirk plays with Tyson Chandler/Haywood at center. Sure, the NBA is now smaller, faster, and more 3s but Gobert is Tyson Chandler+++

[Clav]

I want to see MIN earn and retain a top-10 defense all season long.

[winforlose]

I want to see MIN earn and retain a top-10 defense all season long.

Top 7 for me. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is top 5 if Rudy and MCD avoid major injuries.

[Clav]

I want to see MIN earn and retain a top-10 defense all season long.

Top 7 for me. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is top 5 if Rudy and MCD avoid major injuries.

So many good defensive pieces on the team now, there's really no reason to slack off. Here's to hoping for a nice healthy season. Also, the top defensive teams perform better in playoffs by and large. That's not taking a shot at the MN offense, which on paper to me, looks ready to put the pressure on other teams.