Hollinger/Ford Future Power Rankings (Insider): Wolves are No. 20
They basically say that Minnesota is cold, bad contracts like Darko and Ridnour have screwed up their cap situation, and Love will leave at the end of his contract. The Wolves lack the "organizational know-how" to compete. A surprisingly lazy analysis by Ford and Hollinger...I would have expected more out of them.
4 months ago
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Well, he is an attorney
The shoe fits.
I can predict the future using Norm Van Lier's crystal balls.
"Sam has a tendency to denigrate reports coming from any reporter who didn’t also cover the day Naismith first put up the peach baskets." - snley
Seems odd
Darko only has 1 guranteed year left after this season. Ridnour is often mentioned as a guy a contender might want to acquire. Tough to argue with the Love thing, he will (probably) leave after 3. Hollinger’s playoff odds give MIN a slightly better than 50 percent chance of getting in this season and they should only improve over the next few years. Ford loved Derek Williams. I’m done getting too worked up over these things, I’m just confused at this point.
I have a hard time disagreeing with their bottom-line conclusion:
[T]here are pieces in place for a renaissance. We just don’t know if they have the organizational know-how to pull it off.
by Madison Dan on Feb 8, 2012 1:27 PM CST reply actions 1 recs
I don't have insider
But do they knock or bump any other franchises because of its front office? Also don’t the pieces in place reflect on organizational know-how?
Every team gets a management score.
The Wolves were 26th. The Suns, for example, were 30th. Here’s what they said:
Sarver’s bumbling over the past few years has caused us to rank the Suns’ management 30th in the league. Yes, we think even Minnesota’s David Kahn and Glen Taylor could do this better. That’s saying something.
I don’t agree with your second question/statement. Given what they’ve had to work with, we should have at least one more very good player. Lots of blown picks, lots of mid-sized contracts for mediocre players, two years of Rambis, botching Love’s contract, etc. The next off-season will be very telling. I’ll be a lot more optimistic about the long term if they make good decisions then.
progress on the criticism
they’ve added Taylor.
http://loisaidabbclub.tumblr.com/
Twitter: @loisaidabbclub
by beatsandpeasnyc on Feb 8, 2012 2:27 PM CST up reply actions
Shorter Ford/Hollinger
“I will now dismiss the Wolves so they trade their players to the Knicks or Lakers. Dear god the Knicks and Lakers need help right now. Wahhhhhhhhhhh!”
I can predict the future using Norm Van Lier's crystal balls.
"Sam has a tendency to denigrate reports coming from any reporter who didn’t also cover the day Naismith first put up the peach baskets." - snley
“I don’t want to reward the Wolves for competence too quickly because then the future rankings Chad and John made less than a year ago make them look incompetent”
Michael Beasley is a sixth man. Derrick Williams is trade bait.
by Ebomb on Feb 8, 2012 2:33 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
How'd the Wolves fare in last year's future power rankings?
They were published on March 16th, 2011… but I don’t have Insider or a good memory.
I could have sworn Minny had a positive spin during the last review, and it seems odd that they would now be worse off given (1) Ricky has proven that he will come here and he belongs in the NBA, (2) KLove has signed for 3+ rather than opting out ASAP, (3) the organization did recruit a top-tier coach, which had been considered impossible, and (4) the new CBA allows the opportunity to opt out of these supposedly killer contracts (both of which are only 4-Mil/yr if I recall).
I can remember when not last would be a positive
Rambis and Kahn really set the bar low.
apparently my memory isn't as good as I remember it to be
which due to it’s recursive nature is especially bad
The thing is,
they most likely bungled the Love situation, and Minnesota is cold. Other than that, the analysis is awful.
They don’t consider that players will want to play with Rubio (and Love, for that matter). They severely misjudge the cap situation. If Ridnour and Darko are our worst contracts, then we’re actually sitting pretty well. If they’re a playoff team this year with a glorified pile of crap surrounding Love/Rubio, how could they possibly make it worse? They can only get better….
This isn't to say
that we shouldn’t be better, and management has definitely screwed some things up thus far. But with the Adelmans here, can’t we at least assume it can’t get worse? Add 2 solid players and give it 1-2 years and the team is a contender. Then you worry about the Love situation.
this was written 3 days ago, I got ahold of the edit.
bad contracts like Darko [and] Ridnour and Pekovic have screwed up their cap situation
fast forward 3 weeks from now when we’ll see things like this popping up >>>> “Signing Pekovic to only a 3 year contract is one of the many reasons the Timberwolves will forever be a doormat.”
http://loisaidabbclub.tumblr.com/
Twitter: @loisaidabbclub
These rankings are absurd
A Love-Rubio tandem with a little help has the 17th best record in the league today. These two players, barring injury, are guaranteed to play for the Wolves for the next three years. But, the Wolves have the 20th brightest future? Yes Wolves management is not to be trusted, and yes the Wolves won’t have a ton of money to spend in free agency, but free agents have never signed here in the past with 50 win KG.
That’s the strange dichotomy in the analysis to me. First they say the Wolves aren’t under the cap and aren’t likely to be any time soon, but that free agents won’t sign in the 29th best market anyways. If that’s the case, and it has been true in the past, then collecting cap space is useless to begin with. Signing mid level players like Ridnour (not Darko) who are worth the money they are paid is the only way to use the cap space, beyond a lop sided trade. With everybody under the cap these days, it doesn’t appear the ability to use cap space to make a lop sided trade is a competitive advantage anymore like the Thunder and Wolves have used in the past.
Wolves basketball is now fun to watch on a nighlty basis. Ultimately, that’s good enough for me. It just boggles my mind that these intelligent writers miss such a major gap in logic.
Michael Beasley is a sixth man. Derrick Williams is trade bait.
if they have the 17th best record
and the 20th best future, they are obviously a team on the decline….well, it was fun while it lasted.
http://loisaidabbclub.tumblr.com/
Twitter: @loisaidabbclub
by beatsandpeasnyc on Feb 8, 2012 2:36 PM CST up reply actions
Absolutely
(sigh) It’s all downhill from here.
Michael Beasley is a sixth man. Derrick Williams is trade bait.
On players only (the most important category)
the Wolves rank 12th. They get hurt the most in the management and market categories. If they were just average in those categories, they’d be ranked 15th overall, just behind the Nets. (The Nets get a huge boost in the “money” category.)
It’s odd that they got their own math wrong. They must have made some late edits to some component scores, because the totals aren’t right for five teams (DAL, BOS, NJN, ATL, and MIL).
It's pretty stupid, but
the ranking itself is much worse than the write-up. It is bizarre to me that players somehow find, say, Indianapolis desirable but Minny is so bad because it’s cold (I understand the warm coastal/huge market bias, but I feel like the Twin Cities still ought to have an advantage over or at least equal footing with like ~10+ teams).
I find that northerners vastly underestimate how much southernerns hate cold weather.
by fanslaststand on Feb 8, 2012 3:17 PM CST up reply actions
Agreed
I also find that Minnesotan’s don’t realize how terrible the Weather is in Minnesota as well. The constant refrain I heard growing up was that suffering through the Winter was worth it due to the amazing summers, but the Mosquito issue in the summer is just as terrible as the cold sometimes. My first summer in the pacific northwest I was just stunned that I could sit outside in the summer from 8:00-10:00 pm and not suffer a single bug bite or any bug annoyance. The heat and humidity in the summer are also the worst part about warm weather. Many places get extreme summers, many places get extreme winters, many places have insect problems, very few places have all three. I’m convinced the only city location with worse weather than Minneapolis in the lower 48 is Fargo.
Michael Beasley is a sixth man. Derrick Williams is trade bait.
As an example I just got an advert email from the Biltmore in Asheville NC that reads...
“Explore the Great Indoors at Biltmore.
This winter, I invite you to come in from the cold at Biltmore House, where—in addition to warmth—you’ll find a wealth of fascinating treasures.”
by fanslaststand on Feb 8, 2012 3:27 PM CST up reply actions
I have lived here for less than 6 years,
so I am not sure that qualifies me as a Minnesotan. But I am happy to give you a forum to work out your issues with MN :).
(My point wasn’t necessarily about the weather—just that the weather isn’t that much worse than a bunch of other cities and that I’d think that winter + the fact that those areas are generally less desirable might level the playing field a bit. I see some people strongly disagree).
I spent eight months stationed in Great Lakes, IL.
It wasn’t as snowy or as cold as a Minnesota winter, but the wind made it much more miserable. I only weighed about 215 then, but there were days I’d be walking at a 45 degree angle to the ground. I imagine Chicago, being about 30 miles south, would be similar.
I'm going to brag. I drive the Nikola Pekovic fanwagon.
by Cynical Jason on Feb 8, 2012 4:39 PM CST up reply actions
There's wind, plus the fact that
being a little colder has its advantages. 35 degrees isn’t nice enough to bring out the summer gear, and you can’t do winter things either. 25 degrees plus some snow and I can do some fun stuff. No one likes the 5 below crap, but that’s not that common. Places like Kansas or southern Indiana are the worst to me. No real winter, not very nice, either.
We get that YOU like it :)
I’m just telling you, everyone in the South HATES it. It’s the one thing everyone here has in common.
Jan in Chicago
High Avg 29
Low Avg 13
Wind Avg 11
Jan in Mpls
High Avg 21
Low Avg 3
Wind Avg 14!!!
by fanslaststand on Feb 8, 2012 4:50 PM CST up reply actions
Skyways, parking garages, seat heaters.
Really, 5 or 10 degrees here or there is going to matter to someone?
Tell it to the free agents.
There’s a reason those Fort 500 companies do their interviewing in the warm months.
by fanslaststand on Feb 8, 2012 4:54 PM CST up reply actions
Plus this is Chicago! It's like the next coldest city in the whole league.
Dallas is 4o degrees warmer.
by fanslaststand on Feb 8, 2012 4:58 PM CST up reply actions
Exactly
Chicago is 8-10 degrees colder in the winter, as well as being colder in the summer. Minneapolis is worse year round.
Michael Beasley is a sixth man. Derrick Williams is trade bait.
I don't think any players are picking Chicago over Minneapolis because of the weather.
It’s a bigger market with a more prestigious franchise. It ain’t the French Riviera.
For the most part Oklahoma winters are fine,
but they have these wicked ice storms that turn travelling anywhere into a deadly adventure, and power lines don’t like that much ice, either.
I'm going to brag. I drive the Nikola Pekovic fanwagon.
by Cynical Jason on Feb 8, 2012 4:50 PM CST up reply actions
(also, it's Oklahoma)
(I’m sorry and I don’t mean to be nasty, but…)
Nick Collison had a hilarious tweet a couple weeks ago (too lazy to try to find it) with the hashtag #ifkanyelivedinokc about how the Thunder guys were having yet another party closing down The Cheesecake Factory. (I know, I know, NBA players love the Cheesecake Factory, but the clear point was that’s all there is, folks).
Nothing nasty about it.
Oklahoma is a pit. I met some great people there, people I’ll count as friends for as long as they’ll let me, but the place itself is terrible. And I couldn’t have fit in worse. An atheist in the Bible Belt, a radical leftist in a red state, and a vegetarian in beef country. A friend told me, “Oklahoma’s fifty years behind the rest of the country, and we like it that way.”
And the drivers are the worst I’ve ever experienced.
I'm going to brag. I drive the Nikola Pekovic fanwagon.
by Cynical Jason on Feb 8, 2012 5:15 PM CST up reply actions
I am a Minnesotan living in OKC for about a year now,
and I concur with the driving bit…just awful. Driving 5 under in the left lane, guys in pickup trucks that think their cowboys flying by at 20 over in the right lane….random stopping on the interstate…I could go on and on. I nearly die daily on the road. And no idea whatsoever about how to drive in any kind of weather….
Seeing as I am conservative, a Christian, and love eating all kinds of meat, I fit in otherwise. :) But I do miss Minnesota, and believe it or not, Minnesota weather.
I kept track for the first year
(I was there for three), and every day (no exaggeration) I either saw an accident happen or drove past the immediate aftermath of one. Just ridiculous.
I'm going to brag. I drive the Nikola Pekovic fanwagon.
by Cynical Jason on Feb 8, 2012 5:57 PM CST up reply actions
Yep.
I’ve told all my friends and family in MN that I fully expect to be severely maimed or killed in a car accident in Oklahoma if I live here more than a couple of years. Its impossible.
Also, when we had the blizzard last year (a legit blizzard, with a foot of snow and 50+ mph winds), people literally abandoned their cars on the side of the interstate. Not only that, there were a couple cars that were literally there for over a month. Believe me, I kept track and drove by them every day. In MN, they tow cars after less than 24 hours on the interstate.
Hah, you wanna live over here.
We get people abandoning cars witha couple of inches of snow.
"If you’ve got some balls, you can do some stuff"
by JonesTheCat on Feb 10, 2012 7:53 AM CST via mobile up reply actions
My wife and I moved to Oregon
Specifically to get away from Minnesota winters. Couldn’t take it anymore. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Essentially doesn’t snow here in the Willamette, but does in the mountains- all the better to make them prettier. And you don’t have to shovel rain.
As for the cold and the Woofies- right temperament for a player will do fine here- guys like KG and Love who use the cold as a reason to remain focused on basketball during the season.
Plus, I sincerely believe Rubio’s passing will get players to ’Sota.
I too am a lone wolfpack.
Perspective
The average may be 35 degrees, but you still get lower temperatus and snow at times to do the fun snow stuff. Also, every place in the United States besides the Midwest has quick access to mountains that at higher elevations get snow. For instance, I enjoy 40 degree weather all winter while still being 45 minutes to mountains with snow that provide more winter outdoor activities (minus the ice fishing) than Minnesota. Comfortable winters without sacrificing winter activities is nice.
Michael Beasley is a sixth man. Derrick Williams is trade bait.
I'd say you are sacrificing winter activities.
Last weekend, I went sledding three times and skating once with my kids, with a total drive time of about 10 minutes across all trips. I would like the real mountain skiing though (not within driving distance of the South or Southeast, by the way). The Northwest is nice, but I know people who’ve lived there and bitched about the constant clouds and rain in the winter.
Maybe we can agree that we have different preferences. I enjoy a variety of weather and you’re a giant pussy about being cold. :-)
by Madison Dan on Feb 8, 2012 5:04 PM CST up reply actions 1 recs
Haha!
I'm going to brag. I drive the Nikola Pekovic fanwagon.
by Cynical Jason on Feb 8, 2012 5:17 PM CST up reply actions
Ha!
Nice. That actually may be an accurately reflection in that I have turned into a giant pussy about extreme cold. I don’t want to continue to belabor the point because much more goes into choices about where we live than the weather. There are things about the Pacific Northwest I don’t care for either, but fatally I fell in love with a local with family nearby so I now have the golden handcuffs.
Michael Beasley is a sixth man. Derrick Williams is trade bait.
Lewis Black breaks it down.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvx9w16r2Ak&feature=related
If you get a chance.
by fanslaststand on Feb 8, 2012 5:19 PM CST up reply actions
That's hysterical.
Love Lewis Black.
I'm going to brag. I drive the Nikola Pekovic fanwagon.
by Cynical Jason on Feb 8, 2012 6:02 PM CST up reply actions
Minnesota is the coldest NBA city. While some other cities may only be marginally better, they are still better. When you look at places like Indianapolis, it may be less desirable (non weather factors) to live in Indianaoplis than Minneapolis, but do the reasons it is less desirable matter at all to a 25 year old multi-millinoaire? Do they care how many shows come through the Guthrie or how many public parks and bike trails there are? Doubtful.
Michael Beasley is a sixth man. Derrick Williams is trade bait.
We get it, Ebomb.
I am glad you are happy with your decision to leave the state :).
And I agree that, sadly, I do not have that much in common with 25 y-o multi-millionaires. (FWIW, I think Indiana is also considered an undesirable destination, that’s why I keep bringing it up).
You are not the demographic I was trying to make a point to
Because you clearly have lived elsewhere. This was more a reflection I made after moving away and telling everybody I met in the Northwest about how great Minnesota is and after 8 years, actually much earlier, but I digress, my perspective has changed so that I can now demonize the weather in Minnesota for what it is.
Michael Beasley is a sixth man. Derrick Williams is trade bait.
All moot anyhow
I moved here to get away from Des Moines’ slushy winters and the warm followed me north. I worry that before I die I’ll have to go to Canada to see snow.
Yo ho ho and a FirstRow stream!
Yeah, nothing placates negative twenty degree weather like a trip to Buck Hill.
Michael Beasley is a sixth man. Derrick Williams is trade bait.
And nothing is quite as fun as closing the blinds at 9 am
and staying inside all day because it’s too damn hot.
Nope,
like San Antonio from May through September.
If you want to argue that someplace like San Diego is nicer, fine, the weather is awesome there. Most everywhere else has its downsides, and I think Midwestern winters get too bad of a rap.
You are missing my point
Minnesota sucks from January – December weather wise. San Antonio has October through April where they can be outside comfortably. In Minnesota, the Winter is cold and unbearable, the summer is hot and humid and full of Mosquitos. Fall and Spring are unpredictable. Nearly every other location in the United States as a string of months where the weather is comfortable. No such string of months exist in Minneapolis.
Michael Beasley is a sixth man. Derrick Williams is trade bait.
Fair Enough
But I hope you can recognize you are in a small national minority on that front sir.
Michael Beasley is a sixth man. Derrick Williams is trade bait.
True,
most people like being hot a lot more than I do. My ancestors came from the Arctic Circle — I’m not built for it.
It's true
Madison Dan is both a pre-teen Japanese grrrl AND of inuit ancestry.
Strangest thing you’ve ever encountered. What’s really bizarre is that he actually looks like a blond haired Scandinavian, and does statistical analysis without using his Hello Kitty calculator. That he stole from his daughters.
And I was assured he doesn’t suffer from MPD.
I've changed my sig. The Wolves are now like a reasonably decent meal.
by Eric in Madison on Feb 8, 2012 5:09 PM CST up reply actions
Most people don't believe MN has crappy summers
I actually haven’t had lots of mosquito problems living and hanging around the city. Obviously it is worse in the burbs and rural areas.
This was my final weather realization about Minnesota
but I will agree that it’s subjective.
Michael Beasley is a sixth man. Derrick Williams is trade bait.
From January-December?
So you’re saying the weather always sucks. How dare you, sir!%
Gary, you didn't kill your brother. Those gorillas did.
Rankings
First you decide where to put your favorite teams, then you put in the obvious choices, and then you find a ranking for all the leftover teams. I’m sure we’re a leftover.
Yo ho ho and a FirstRow stream!
Another Spin On Minneapolis.....from a Former Twolve
I was in Arizona last week visiting family. Read a copy of this past Sunday’s AZ Republic. The sports section did a little Q & A with Sebastien Telfair. Included was this blurb:
Q: Where have you enjoyed living the most out of your six NBA stops?
A: I would have to say it’s a mixture of Minneapolis and Phoenix. In Minneapolis, it was quiet but it had nice restaurants and it had a little nightlife if you wanted to get out. But nothing is topping Phoenix with all the restaurants, and the weather we have is amazing.
So, Seb has played in six NBA cities, and MN makes the cut of top 2 with PHX…..not bad.
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