Playoff seeding thread

[Zonarosa]

Whether that can happen…didn’t really look.

[Klomp]

Does everybody have their cork boards filled with a yarn spiderweb of connections? I know I do.

One game left in the season for everyone, and no one controls their own destiny for the No. 1 seed.

[Klomp]

To put things as simply as possible...

We need OKC and Denver to split tomorrow.
If we win and one or both of them lose, we're the 1.
If everyone wins, we're the 2.
If we lose and they both win, we're the 3.

In total
3 scenarios give us the 1.
4 scenarios give us the 2.
1 scenario gives us the 3.

[Note30]

To put things as simply as possible...

We need OKC and Denver to split tomorrow.
If we win and one or both of them lose, we're the 1.
If everyone wins, we're the 2.
If we lose and they both win, we're the 3.

In total
3 scenarios give us the 1.
4 scenarios give us the 2.
1 scenario gives us the 3.

It's super cool this is our problem for once

[winforlose]

Does everybody have their cork boards filled with a yarn spiderweb of connections? I know I do.

One game left in the season for everyone, and no one controls their own destiny for the No. 1 seed.

Denver doesn’t control their destiny for the 1 seed, but they do control their opponent should that team advance. If they win, they get us. If they lose they get OKC (more likely than not.) In light of that, Denver has more control than either of the other teams.

[shrink]

We’re favored by +2.5

But DEN is favored by +13.5, and OKC is favored by +19.5.

[TimberKat]

SAC is the only weak team in the playoffs. Every team is difficult. Our best path is to beat the Suns and hope they then get knock down in the play-in. Looking from the outside in, one can argue Twolves is the second easiest team because Towns is still not 100%, we have the worst offensive rating of all the play off teams, and lack deep run experiences.

[Nick K]

We’re favored by +2.5

But DEN is favored by +13.5, and OKC is favored by +19.5.

PHX always seems to play us tough. We have to win tomorrow.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

I agree that Sacramento was probably the best option. But NO, Suns, Lakers,.... will be tough. Regular season means not much right now. We have to go there as underdog and give it all. I'm sure lot of others teams seems we are not that good ( Very young star, KAT history in PO, old PG, Rudy limitation.....). Let's show them how they are wrong.

[winforlose]

SAC is the only weak team in the playoffs. Every team is difficult. Our best path is to beat the Suns and hope they then get knock down in the play-in. Looking from the outside in, one can argue Twolves is the second easiest team because Towns is still not 100%, we have the worst offensive rating of all the play off teams, and lack deep run experiences.

1. Karl gets another full week before the actual playoffs start. Also Naz has been picking up the slack for Karl and can easily play 20+ playoff minutes without a ton of drop off.

2. Our defense is scary good. Like historic good. No one actively says they want to play against that kind of defense in the playoffs. The refs swallow their whistle more than usual in the playoffs, and have already been swallowing their whistles more since the break, (at the instruction of the league.)

3. We have Rudy, Mike, Kyle, and Monte who have a crap load of playoff experience between them. Karl has played 3 series, and never had someone with the gravity of Ant or healthy Rudy to take the burden off him and give him open looks. Even our less experienced guys like Naz and Jaden (both missed last years series,) have been around it twice now and are more used to the feel of it.

4. Our offense is underrated, if we minimize the turnovers it is much better then the numbers reflect. Especially with Naz and NAW stepping up in Karl’s absence. That said, I agree with Dane Moore that Kyle should be out of the rotation for the playoffs. I want either Monte or JMAC getting the non Mike minutes, and NAW and Naz getting the rest. We need the spacing more than the defense.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

Defense may us win games, no doubt. Just worry about 2 things right now :

- TO : Too many leading to fast break point. Not sure ANT,KAT, Rudy are able to reduce it.
- Slomo : i love the guy but he loose totally his confidence in shooting this year to a level where it become a problem for the team.

[shrink]

4. Our offense is underrated, if we minimize the turnovers it is much better then the numbers reflect. Especially with Naz and NAW stepping up in Karl’s absence.

Defense may us win games, no doubt.

I was just thinking about that last night, when we won, 106-109. The NBA scoring average this year is 117.

I think most people tend to think that offense wins games, because we see balls go through baskets. But your wins are just as valid if your offense is middling, but your defense creates the margin of victory.

I like our chances in the playoffs against most teams, and it’s not because we’re fantastic on offense. But we might be good enough.

[winforlose]

Defense may us win games, no doubt. Just worry about 2 things right now :

- TO : Too many leading to fast break point. Not sure ANT,KAT, Rudy are able to reduce it.
- Slomo : i love the guy but he loose totally his confidence in shooting this year to a level where it become a problem for the team.

In the playoffs we can totally get away with an 8 man rotation. Most teams use 7 or 8. Naz and NAW are givens. Between Monte, Kyle, and JMAC, my inclination is Monte because he is a better defender than JMAC and a better shooter than Kyle. Kyle could be valuable situationally for defense, but his presence so negatively impacts spacing, that I would use him much more sparingly than in the regular season.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

I agree with you. The bench will be very important at PO time. I trust the coach to make the right move considering each game situation. Sometimes we may need Monte or Joachim shooting. Slomo can provide passing and défense if necessary but should not play with Rudy as it make job very for the other team defense.

[TimberKat]

4. Our offense is underrated, if we minimize the turnovers it is much better then the numbers reflect. Especially with Naz and NAW stepping up in Karl’s absence.

Defense may us win games, no doubt.

I was just thinking about that last night, when we won, 106-109. The NBA scoring average this year is 117.

I think most people tend to think that offense wins games, because we see balls go through baskets. But your wins are just as valid if your offense is middling, but your defense creates the margin of victory.

I like our chances in the playoffs against most teams, and it’s not because we’re fantastic on offense. But we might be good enough.

I think the argument is that most teams don't put in the defense effort during regular season. Now it's the playoffs, they all have an extra gear to step up the defensive efforts and more focus on offensive execution. Wolves already busting their buns during the regular season, so they gave an extra gear like the other teams? Towns and Gobert number drops in the post season. They don't have any scorers outside of Ant.

I think we should get past the first round but won't be easy. I think it's critical that either Naz or NAW or Morris provide the extra scoring spark off the bench. One of those guys need to avg 16+ pts.

[MyTake_1]

To me, there are only 2 teams in the West that can make finals, Wolves or Nuggets.
Wolves have to be careful in early rounds. Nuggets need to be healthy.
Nuggets need 2nd seed ahead of Wolves for HC. Ant needs to start making better decisions, he has star power like no other player today. Luka and Joker are overall better players but Ant has all the charisma.

[TimberKat]

DAL is resting everyone today. The only way Wolves gets #1 seed is if DEN helps out which I hope they will. It really sucks that the Wolves game is actually relevant with so much implications on who gets 6th and play-in positions. Lakers are fighting to not end up at 10th (staying at 8th). If they beat NOP, then if Suns beat Wolves. Suns get 6th which then play a team they sweep in the regular season.

[KGdaBom]

We’re favored by +2.5

But DEN is favored by +13.5, and OKC is favored by +19.5.

The Mavericks are benching everybody handing OKC the win and most likely the #1 seed.

[Klomp]

Winning is the ultimate goal today, because it ensures us of the 3 seed. There's only one scenario that drops us to 3rd and that's if we lose. Whatever happens in the other buildings is out of our control.

Heck, I wouldn't rule out any of Denver, Oklahoma City, Minnesota or Phoenix treating today like Atlanta treated the 4th quarter on Friday night. At some point, someone might just pull the plug.

[Klomp]

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