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Back to Earth

I hope you took a chance to bask in 5-straight wins yesterday, because this week we play the Heat and the Suns. Sure, neither are setting the world on fire lately (Miami is 5-5 in their last 10, Phoenix 7-3), but both are still upper-echelon franchises in this league.

I know there are much more advanced stats to answer the "how did we do it" question that naturally follows a 5-game win streak from a bottom 10 team, but here's the simple look at what teams we've beaten look like, and what teams we've lost to look like:

  • DayBW: Days between games
  • Home: A home game
  • OW%: Opponent's winning percentage as of 1-12-09

Again, I know there are better stastistics to draw conclusions from, but I think there are a couple worthwhile points here:

  • 5 of our 11 wins have come on the road. I think this is a combination of a young team learning to rely on each other in hostile environments and veteran leadership from guys like Kevin Ollie, Brian Cardinal and Jason Collins proving to be valuable.
  • While our wins have come with more rest than our losses, it's not a huge disparity. Having a solid 9-man rotation (10-man when Ollie was healthy) works when you can count on the 8th, 9th and 10th guys to provide quality minutes.
  • The biggest warning sign in these numbers is that our wins are coming mostly against bad teams. But I think the silver lining is more telling: beating teams that we "should" beat was not a given in the beginning of the year. A month ago, this team would give up mid-game at the drop of a hat. We're still a lottery team, but we're learning to walk; the running will come later.

I'd also recommend checking out Hoop Springs Eternal this morning for a couple more thoughts on how the Wolves still need to improve.

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Hopefully, Still a Lottery Team

If the draft were tomorrow and assuming everything goes to form, we’d have the seventh pick. There are a couple of teams within striking range. The last thing we want to have happen is for this team to fall to the eleventh spot — and then have the Clippers get our pick. That’s putting the old cart before the horse, but I’d be happy with getting a lottery pick next year.

by SBG on Jan 12, 2009 10:30 AM CST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

I don't think there's a chance that . . .

this team lets that pick get away in ‘09. If the team is close to getting pushed out of the top ten picks, and Mad Dog is still on the team at the end of the season, I predict he’ll be getting 40 minutes a game (as a chance to showcase him and his expiring contract for the 09-10 season).

With no clear Super Duper Rookie in this draft, this is a good year to worry more about the team’s improvement on the court, rather than in the lottery.

by PoorDick on Jan 12, 2009 10:36 AM CST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Actually, it'd be better to lose the pick this year

Without our own pick, we still would have at least two, maybe three, first round draft picks. The pick isn’t going to be top ten protected forever, so if we don’t lose it outside of the top ten soon, we could lose a top ten pick to the clippers in 2012. And, as dubious as these sort of sentiments can be, experts seem to feel this year’s draft class isn’t particularly strong. If that’s true, it’d be better to trade this year’s picks for future ones, and falling out of the top ten so the clippers get this year’s pick instead of another year’s pick is one way of making such a trade.

by oblivionspocket on Jan 12, 2009 11:28 AM CST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

There's still a long way to go...

….the team with the 11th worst record has 16 wins right now. The schedule is about to take a turn for the worse. Of course, the teams within striking range are all arguably as bad as the Wolves: Chicago, Toronto, Indy, NY, and Charlotte. They could come close but they’ll need help from the other crappy teams.

The World's Leading Exporter of Small Area Quickness
www.canishoopus.com

by Stop-n-Pop on Jan 12, 2009 12:29 PM CST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Or, we could finish 9th

Then have two teams with better records get spots in the top three through luck to give the clippers pick number 11

by oblivionspocket on Jan 12, 2009 2:21 PM CST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

I would trade all of our 1st rounders mayn...

to git RICKY RUBIO mayn all i know is dat dis dude righ here is de truth mayn. dat way FOye moves to de 2 spot permanently and Bassy and Rubio do de damn thang mayn!

maybe we get lucky in de lottery after all de ridiculous bad karma we’ve had fo….20 years now. either way, got me saying mayn hol up…

MAYN HOL UP!

by MAYNHOLUP on Jan 12, 2009 12:34 PM CST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

No kidding.

Is there some kind of Babelfish translator available?

by PoorDick on Jan 12, 2009 1:41 PM CST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

fo shizzle, HA, love that one. It just has to be a joke.

Beater of the early Thabeet drum

by Wim (Belgium) on Jan 12, 2009 2:51 PM CST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

mayn...

mayn de way i talk be a culture mayn it’s kinda messed up to call it babelfish and stuff mayn.

i like yall mayn why yall have ta hurt ma feelings mayn.

MAYN HOL UP!

by MAYNHOLUP on Jan 12, 2009 5:08 PM CST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

I think he just meant he’s not used to that kind of spelling. Anyways I agree, I think you should talk/type however you want…as long as you don’t mind me using the expression “mayn hol up” every once in a while, seriously, I never heard that before, it’s a great expression. ;)

by plinytheelder on Jan 12, 2009 5:54 PM CST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

I thought it was more like reading Trainspotting...

…which is a far more interesting read than the movie is a watch.

The World's Leading Exporter of Small Area Quickness
www.canishoopus.com

by Stop-n-Pop on Jan 12, 2009 6:01 PM CST to parent up reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Mayn I back Macalester bros evry day

Two times on Sunday

’03 mayn!

www.canishoopus.com

by wyn on Jan 12, 2009 6:58 PM CST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

yea mayn

yea mayn i rep dat Macalester but i wuz like “MAYN, REALLY HOL UP” when you wrote macalester cuz i wuz like mayn how duz did dude righ here know dat but now im like mayn hol up u run dis site aight mayn i mess wit you den

and yea mayn all all needa use MAYN HOL UP as much as yall want dats de unoffical T WOLVES MANTRA MAYN!

MAYN HOL UP!

by MAYNHOLUP on Jan 12, 2009 7:37 PM CST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

Can we give the pick up?

If we are sitting at say #9 and don’t like what we would have coming our way could we send that pick to LA so we are free and clear? Wait out the lottery and if we don’t land Rubio then ship the pick along.

Also, I was playing with the trade machine today and per four letters machine we could move Shaddy/Miller for Wallce/Ajinca.

Not sure if that’s anything Larry Brown would be interested in but I think Wallace has burned through his welcome there. Then again maybe there is something better out there that we could pick up for Miller.

organic through and through

by DrakeSax82 on Jan 12, 2009 9:43 PM CST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

don't trade miller yet.

Not yet mayn. i know it seems like we should…but nah mayn. only fo a player equal or better which wont happen, so nah not for salary we already sittin on Darius Miles type paper nah mean mayn

MAYN HOL UP!

by MAYNHOLUP on Jan 12, 2009 11:54 PM CST reply reply actions actions   0 recs

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