In his article/post about the Rubio situation, College Wolf laments the Wolves' prospects this season. We'll be bad, he says. Historically bad. Perhaps Chicago Bulls--they of 10 wins--bad.

I agree we'll be bad--bad enough to land within the top 10 picks for sure (which is good news when you owe another team a top-10-protected pick in a strong draft year). But, with one big "If" (more below), I see the potential for at least as many wins this year as last.

I'll break it down quickly.

Despite being best suited to playing the same position, I don't think there's any doubt that Al and Love both will start. That actually gives the Wolves a fairly formidable offensive duo at the 4 and 5. Yes, Al's defense leaves much to be desired and Love has deficiencies of his own, but hey, these are a couple of talented guys. There'll be decent depth with Thomas and Songaila (more about Smithe in a moment).

Not only are my hopes high for Flynn at the point, so are my expectations; I'll be surprised if he isn't one of the best, if the not the very best, rookies at PG this year. Gomes won't win many games on his own, but at worst he's an average NBA small forward. And if his knee is sound, Brewer is poised to take it up a notch.

The big "If" is shooting guard. To keep teams from packing in down low we absolutely MUST sign or trade for a scorer/shooter at the 2. I have high hopes for Ellington as well, but he's only a rookie and too much shouldn't be expected or demanded from him, at least for the first half.

Here's where Craig Smith comes in. More than merely an expiring contract, Rhino has value as a rotation player as well. If Kahn can trade him plus filler for a decent veteran at SG, I think we'll be okay.

Thoughts?

Yes, we will really be that bad.

But in all seriousness, good points.

And no, I don't truly think we will only have 10 wins. Especially not if we still improve the roster... and there is time for that to happen.

I was just throwing that out there as an example, being that the Bulls had the best record of all time. If I had to guess, I'd peg us at about 25 or so wins. Not epically horrible, but nothing exciting that's for sure.

I agree with Kurosawa. That's essentially the way I've been thinking about next year. The thing is, the biggest difference this season for me is that I expect us to be an exciting team to watch!

My man-crush on Flynn tells me that he's going to have a superb season, ala Wade in his rookie season at best, and Nate Robinson at worst. Either way it falls, he's going to be an energizer and throw all he's got in the minutes he's given.

I fully expect Love to up his game this season. No one who has watched him play last season can say he doesn't have a high ceiling for production. If he didn't miss half of his shots within 2-3 feet of the basket, he easily could have had 4-6+ points per game. Kevin's dealt with a good deal of responsibility as a rookie, especially once Al went down. He should be ready to contribute on a daily basis now, and that's what I expect out of him.

As for Al and Corey, if healthy, they should be solid for our team. Corey has his offensive deficiencies and Al has his defensive deficiencies, but both of them showed considerable improvement on both ends. I'm not saying they're the key to us being half-way decent next year, but I'm excited to see how they contribute. So... stay healthy!

I'm pegging us at around 28-30 wins next season (Granted we get a decent coach by then), but I'm expecting some high quality/exciting games from our behalf!

Ahh the backcourt.

The complete lack of a backcourt scorer is going to compound the deficiencies of each guy. Russel Westbrook was fantastic last year but even if Flynn is just as good as him (which is a very very hard thing to achieve) the defense against him will be way tougher because there isn't Kevin Durant in the Wings.

Gomes - he is an average NBA SF, but a WAY below average NBA starting SF.
Ellington - I agree with the statements on him... like him... but if he is the starter on day one... YIKES
Brewer - Doesn't seem to have the head for it.
Telfair - like him but it is a scary thing that he'll be the best offensive player in our backcourt in November. WHEW!

Every team is going to sag so hard on Al and Kevin. Ick. How much could this team use Jamal Crawford right now?

Lets resign Carney..

McCants is BAD wrote:
Lets resign Carney..

Not a bad idea, but I think we saw last season that more burn Carney was given the less he produced. He is really is a 10-15 mpg guy. You give him 20-25+ at the 2 and no one is going to be happy.

Surely they make a trade for a backcourt vet at 2/3 or even use the MLE to spring someone. And if Rubio comes over, then Brown gets bought out.

In our current config we are probably a sub 20 win squad. So the guys we add have to make a significant difference.

I actually wouldn't mind Carney back for the minimum. Someone else could possibly give him more though.

I know last year I said I didn't want him back, but we could actually use him now with Miller and Foye gone. Again, I definitely would NOT overpay for him at all.

i would luv ta have de boi Carney back mayn he wuz thowed.

we need ta go after a CHEAP, short term fill in fo de 2/3 spot mayn. im thankin somewun like Rasual Butler, matt barnes, Udoka, Athony Parker, hell maybe even de boi Wally mayn. deze all free agents mayn we could use someone like dem mayn.

even wit wun uv dem doe we gon be bad. i do thank we can win 2-5 mo games den lass year if Al git healthy an pick up where h eleff off an de boi K Love improve like i thank he will. less git it mayn

MAYNHOLUP wrote:
i would luv ta have de boi Carney back mayn he wuz thowed.

we need ta go after a CHEAP, short term fill in fo de 2/3 spot mayn. im thankin somewun like Rasual Butler, matt barnes, Udoka, Athony Parker, hell maybe even de boi Wally mayn. deze all free agents mayn we could use someone like dem mayn.

even wit wun uv dem doe we gon be bad. i do thank we can win 2-5 mo games den lass year if Al git healthy an pick up where h eleff off an de boi K Love improve like i thank he will. less git it mayn

I would LOVE Barnes. I like his game, but he wouldn't be cheap at all.

Butler might be alright, but we could git Carney cheaper than them all.

If we bring Wally back, at least it will put more female "fans" in the seats. Glen Taylor would love that hahahahahaha.

I don't think it's more bleak than last year, but they probably will finish with a similar record. It wouldn't surprise me if the only current guys who are still with the team when camp opens are Flynn and/or Rubio (not sure what will happen but it's pretty clear one of them will be here), Ellington, Brewer, Love, and Jefferson. Either way, there will probably be some roster balance because some guys will be available for one-year deals, especially if that includes PT.

From there, it depends on how well the rookies and 2nd-year guys play, how well Brewer and Jefferson come back from their injuries, and who the new coach decides to play (more minutes for vets usually means more wins but could slow development).

I think the way it looks now...YES it is that bleak. Look around the league at other teams' rosters. Who are we better than? Probably Sacto. Maybe Memphis. Possibly a few of the cellar-dwelling East teams, but not necessarily. To me we look like a bottom 5 team for sure. Our one stud player is coming back from a huge injury. K. Love should be good, but a legit 2nd option next year? not really. We have no real shooting guard. Our PG's, if they have stellar seasons, will be average at best. Gomes as a starting SF - below average. Our bench is basically non-exsistent. Who is going to score? Who can shoot? As our team currently looks, I have very very low expectations in terms of W's & L's next year...

Too bad the Bulls didn't overpay Ben Gordon. Now they have no reason to hand us Luol Deng. He would have been the fairly ideal veteran backcourt scorer who could also be part of the nucleus going forward.

I'm with MAYNHOLUP on Matt Barnes. He had run of big scoring in GS when they had some injuries a couple years ago and he's be consistantly solid off the bench since. He can't seem to get a decent contract from anyone. He'd probably take a one or two year deal if the Wolves offered more than anyone else.

Well, if you look at our current roster it looks bleak.
Lets just run some numbers on starters:

PG: Flynn- I predict 10 PPG.

SG: Brewer- Uh maybe 6.

SF: Gomes- 12 (goes down due to no scoring threat other than AJ)

PF- Love- 12

C- Jefferson- 20 ( goes down due to injury and compacting of defense on him.)

That is a whopping 62 PPG.

Bench scoring-



25 bench points per night.
That may get the Wolves to 90 PPG.


It is not looking good if we keep things as is we will have the lowest scoring team in Wolves history.

Rob

25 pts a game from that pathetic bench? Doubt it. Nobody is going to want to coach this team. Whoever we get is not going to be high profile. It will be someone who wants to make his mark ala Doc with the Magic. If a coach can turn this into a 30-35 win team he deserves coach of the year easily.