Season Record: 17-33

I have to assume we will not have Big Al for this game. No Rhino either. So that means... Booth and Collins? God I hope Maddog gets the big man minutes. Not that it matters, we will get crushed without Al. Who guards Bosh and/or JON? Man, this will be brutal.


PREDICTION:

Wolves 81 - Raptors 107

This will require big games from both Foye and Love for us to stay competetive.

Hopefully McCants gets pissed at Khloe, goes out there and torches Toronto. Then suddenly some idiot GM calls and wants him on the team. YES PLEASE.

It is obvious we are going to struggle here for the rest of the year. For die hards, it is going to be entertaining watching the guards develop more ways to score, and to not have such a one-man offense. Suddenly there are 20 points that get distributed elsewhere. Who will step it up for the rest of the year?

Mike Miller will have to become a primiary option. I think Love gets some plays ran for him. Foye is likely to score a small amount more. This is a true test of what these guys can actually do for the rest of the season.

Wolves - 98
Raptors - 101


Also, predictions on the new starting 5?? Collins or Maddog, or do you shift Mike Miller and run with Gomes at the 4 again? None are ideal.

Also, we cant even bring in Richard, who also had a season ending injury.

Noooo... Love at C, Gomes at PF and Mike Miller at SF would put us next to GSW and their 4 guard offense. Lol, just plain no.

I'd love to see Mad Dog start at C despite him not being the tallest. I think Love could benefit quite a lot out of it. If it was Wittman I'd be 100% positive that Jason Collins is the new starting C, but McHale has been reluctant to play him at all, so it only makes the Mad Dog starting idea more reasonable.

Gomes HAS to start at SF, because we'll try to somehow compensate our size loss at PF and C with our size gain at SF. Obviously, if Miller ever wanted to score in the teens again, NOW is the time.

Do you think that Love has still a shot to make ROY a three-man race if he becomes our top option down low? I know this is wishful thinking but both Mayo and Rose have dropped a tad in their production and K-Love has only been improving. He will not average 20/10 but I see him also reaching teens with his scoring now that Big Al is out.

I think that the starting lineup will definitely be:
Love
Cardinal
Gomes
Foye
Telfair

czaras wrote:


If he ups his production and leads the Wolves on another little run in March, then Id say he has as good of a chance as anyone. This team WILL adjust and you will see a more dynamic offense. It could lead to some big nights for some of the role players.

I would anticipate Mike Miller gets the biggest scoring boost, followed by Love. I dont see Foye scoring a whole lost more

WallyWorld wrote:



To be honest I wouldn't be surprised if Love's numbers stay the same or even go down. You'd be surprised how much playing alongside Al opened up things for him. Who is going to take the pressure off him now? You realize he'll be going up against the other teams best post defender every game, right?

College Wolf wrote:


I see your point, but consider how much he played with Al not on the floor (quite a bit), and how much of his production came off of put backs and rebounds. If he has him number called a but more then he is likely to score some more buckets.

Scoring wise I can see how it wont be significant, but rebounding wise its going to be a landslide increase as far as I see it.

If not Love then who? Miller seems logical.

The rest of my predictions will be as followed:

Owned.


C-Dub can you please cut and past them for me for the rest of the season.

jbird wrote:



Will do. And I definitely think you are going to be correct.

Oh man... I am not sure if I even want to watch this, it's no fun if Al isn't playing anymore this season!

We will get crushed.

mwithers wrote:

Damn, you beat me to it. Logically, it would make sense to have a Love/Gomes/Miller/Foye/Telfair starting 5, but considering how much McHale loves Cardinal, he won't hesitate to start him. I think there's some kind of sick mind-game between Mike Miller and McHale, explaining why he isn't/hasn't started and refuses to shoot like he can... from both beyond the arc and the FT line.

Vegas has the Wolves by 2.5. Is Chris Bosh out? I can't get clarification either way. In the STrib & on ESPN it says he's day to day. I think this could be an ugly game. I hope I'm wrong, as my dad is in town, and going to maybe his only Wolves game of the year tonight.

Starting 5:
Telfair
Foye
Gomes
Love
Madsen

Score:
Little Dinosaurs - 94
Big Dogs - 90

I put up a game thread on the front page of TWB. It also has a link to a Q&A I did with a Raptors blog for the game tonight:


www.twolvesblog.com/200902101900/minneso...s-raptors-21009.html

Who knows, maybe McHale is as good as Sloan and we use the ol' "plug and play" routine with Smith, Cardinal, and Love. Maybe we become more team oriented and play some hard defense, leading to roughly the same record, 2 or 3 wins per 6-7 games.

Probably not, but it's possible...just not probable.