Headline “No picks, No cap space, how does this team get better?”

[winforlose]

This headline got my attention and was so stupid I felt compelled to respond somewhere. Between our young players getting older, our competent head coach finally having an offseason to make changes away from Ryan’s Broken system, and the hope that we are actually healthy this season, I don’t see how we could not be a lot better by default. Am I crazy, or is this a stupid question?

[Merc_Porto]

We could be a lot better but no better to make the playoffs. People really think that we were the only team that had a lot "big" players injured. We also like to forget that after the all-star break a lot teams started to tank hard on purpose.

And i get the headline. Is actually pretty accurate. You don't make the moves we made to have such a mediocre roster at this point. A boderline playoff contendor at best.

[Krapinsky]

I think with a healthy D-Lo, a healthy Towns, a second year of Ant, no suspension for Beasley, a full training camp with our coaches, and further development of some of our younger rotation guys, we have all the reason to be hopeful and optimistic going into next year. We just need our enforcer on D.

[shangrila]

What headline? Where from?

[winforlose]

What headline? Where from?

It’s from ESPN plus, I am not a member but since I do a lot of Timberwolves Google searches they included it in my articles of interest. The title of the article is literally in the topic title.

[shangrila]

What headline? Where from?

It’s from ESPN plus, I am not a member but since I do a lot of Timberwolves Google searches they included it in my articles of interest. The title of the article is literally in the topic title.

You don't mean this, do you? Because it's not in ESPN+, it's free.

And it's not an outrageous question to ask.

[winforlose]

What headline? Where from?

It’s from ESPN plus, I am not a member but since I do a lot of Timberwolves Google searches they included it in my articles of interest. The title of the article is literally in the topic title.

You don't mean this, do you? Because it's not in ESPN+, it's free.

And it's not an outrageous question to ask.

That is the article, it does say sign up and pay 5.99 to keep reading, and on its face I find it outrageous. Ask that of an older team like the Lakers, not the youngest team in the league. Of course we will be looking to make a trade or two and bringing in Bolomaro (hopefully,) but to ignore the fact that our starters played together in only 3 or 4 games all season and that our max players missed a combined 45-50 (I believe it was 22 for KAT and 27 for Dlo, but I am going off of memory,) not even mentioning the Beasley suspension, subsequent injury, or the coaching change, I mean come on. We get better by simply getting older, letting our new coaching staff teach and scheme better, and by hopefully keeping our guys on the court. A better headline might read “suggested offseason moves for the Timberwolves” or “Timberwolves should do X for instant improvement to Y.” I found the headline silly and I still do.

[shangrila]

It’s from ESPN plus, I am not a member but since I do a lot of Timberwolves Google searches they included it in my articles of interest. The title of the article is literally in the topic title.

You don't mean this, do you? Because it's not in ESPN+, it's free.

And it's not an outrageous question to ask.

That is the article, it does say sign up and pay 5.99 to keep reading, and on its face I find it outrageous. Ask that of an older team like the Lakers, not the youngest team in the league. Of course we will be looking to make a trade or two and bringing in Bolomaro (hopefully,) but to ignore the fact that our starters played together in only 3 or 4 games all season and that our max players missed a combined 45-50 (I believe it was 22 for KAT and 27 for Dlo, but I am going off of memory,) not even mentioning the Beasley suspension, subsequent injury, or the coaching change, I mean come on. We get better by simply getting older, letting our new coaching staff teach and scheme better, and by hopefully keeping our guys on the court. A better headline might read “suggested offseason moves for the Timberwolves” or “Timberwolves should do X for instant improvement to Y.” I found the headline silly and I still do.

1. It's free. I don't know why you're disputing this but the whole article is there, to be read.

2. It talks about health, it talks about internal development, but on the whole it's more informational than opinionated. It spends most of the time listing out facts; our cap situation, when guys can sign extensions, what resources we have, what injuries we had, etc.

3. If you haven't read it, because you think it's behind a paywall, how can you possibly whine about it's contents? You don't even know what it says, clearly, since it mentions everything you're complaining it doesn't.

4. Get over it. It's a somewhat provocative headline designed to get clicks. It's not even that bad. It's a legitimate question; how does the team improve? Read to find out! It wasn't like they were making a statement there. It's just a weird thing to get bent out of shape over.

[karch34]

It’s ESPN+ for me and a subscription required.

Regardless I think the path is a lot of things. I do think that we aren’t going to see the same amount of roster churn we have the last few seasons and that continuity will help. Health is big for any team. Another year of development with some of the positives we’ve seen at the end being developed is the main organic piece. The other piece with that is it seems like Finch is flexible in making his pieces play to their strength rather than forcing into a rigid system.

Last piece in my opinion is just getting that defensive front court player. I feel like that comes from an MLE like Theis after a Rubio, Culver, etc move to create some cap. We shall see. It would be great to get a been there vet that can contribute in a meaningful way on the court as well as in the locker room but that Chris Paul type is few and far between…and likely not at our price point.

[winforlose]

You don't mean this, do you? Because it's not in ESPN+, it's free.

And it's not an outrageous question to ask.

That is the article, it does say sign up and pay 5.99 to keep reading, and on its face I find it outrageous. Ask that of an older team like the Lakers, not the youngest team in the league. Of course we will be looking to make a trade or two and bringing in Bolomaro (hopefully,) but to ignore the fact that our starters played together in only 3 or 4 games all season and that our max players missed a combined 45-50 (I believe it was 22 for KAT and 27 for Dlo, but I am going off of memory,) not even mentioning the Beasley suspension, subsequent injury, or the coaching change, I mean come on. We get better by simply getting older, letting our new coaching staff teach and scheme better, and by hopefully keeping our guys on the court. A better headline might read “suggested offseason moves for the Timberwolves” or “Timberwolves should do X for instant improvement to Y.” I found the headline silly and I still do.

1. It's free. I don't know why you're disputing this but the whole article is there, to be read.

2. It talks about health, it talks about internal development, but on the whole it's more informational than opinionated. It spends most of the time listing out facts; our cap situation, when guys can sign extensions, what resources we have, what injuries we had, etc.

3. If you haven't read it, because you think it's behind a paywall, how can you possibly whine about it's contents? You don't even know what it says, clearly, since it mentions everything you're complaining it doesn't.

4. Get over it. It's a somewhat provocative headline designed to get clicks. It's not even that bad. It's a legitimate question; how does the team improve? Read to find out! It wasn't like they were making a statement there. It's just a weird thing to get bent out of shape over.

My objection is to the headline, see the topic. Please re read the original post, read my follow up post, and please consider better wording than whining.

[Domejandro]

I also think the headline is entirely fair, for what it is worth.

[Calinks]

It's not a crazy question, we are fairly resource strapped and the West is a huge churn. I think us just standing pat means we have a small chance to make the playoffs. You got to keep in mind all of the team currently competing and how some of the biggest teams had a down year. Warriors will be much better, Lakers will probably be better with some moves. Other teams that missed the playoffs like the Kings, Thunder, Rockets, may take a jump. The competition is extremely high. We will need health, probably a significant trade, and Ant to make a leap.

[packforfreedom]

We've been bad forever and never went anywhere with internal growth. So it's a fair question, yes.

[shrink]

Internal growth isn’t just real - it’s already happening. We were the youngest team in the NBA last year. If anyone didn’t see Towns growth defensively, or Ant’s growth in the second half, they aren’t being honest.

I am actually more worried that the rapid successes of PHX and ATL will get Rosas to make a big move where we push in all our chips to win right now, and fail miserably. The recipe for the successes of young PHX and ATL aren’t likely repeatable - this was just a weird season with injuries and illnesses that sidelined nearly all the top ten players.

I know, nobody wants to be patient, but I liked our improvement in the second half, and I’d like to see us keep growing before we make an All-In type of deal.

[Nick K]

Internal growth isn’t just real - it’s already happening. We were the youngest team in the NBA last year. If anyone didn’t see Towns growth defensively, or Ant’s growth in the second half, they aren’t being honest.

I am actually more worried that the rapid successes of PHX and ATL will get Rosas to make a big move where we push in all our chips to win right now, and fail miserably. The recipe for the successes of young PHX and ATL aren’t likely repeatable - this was just a weird season with injuries and illnesses that sidelined nearly all the top ten players.

I know, nobody wants to be patient, but I liked our improvement in the second half, and I’d like to see us keep growing before we make an All-In type of deal.

I couldn't agree more with this. Look at the improvement with Reid, Vando and McD too. McD alone could blow up offensively at SF and I expect him to.

Nobody talks about our bench. If we trade Rubio and Beasley it will really hurt there but guys have to step up. I like Nowell and am confident he'll play well with minutes. Bolmaro should be a nice piece too. That leaves Reid and Vando plus a new PG. I think J Mac got exposed a bit last year so I'd look elsewhere.

Lastly, it's put up or shut up for Culver this season. I think he can be a much better player than he's shown. I'd hate to give up on him so quickly after paying so much for him. Sometimes these guys take 3-5 years to sprout. Culver has had only parts of 2 seasons so let's give him one more year to see what Finch can do with him. I know this isn't a popular POV.

We're close to being a really good team. I have real hope these days. I have never felt so good about our front office and coaching staff as I do today. It's been a long time since Flip and McHale's 1st year.

[Klomp]

It's funny this piece was written by a former GM.....or maybe that's the point, that he's former for a reason. Does Bobby Marks not realize that over-the-cap teams can still make moves? Can still sign players? Can still develop their young talent?