Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor cautiously expects his team to reach the playoffs this season, as relayed by Chris Hine of The Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Minnesota sports a young core of Karl-Anthony Towns, D’Angelo Russell, Anthony Edwards, Malik Beasley and others, and enters the season with higher expectations than it had last year.
“I think I expect playoffs,” Taylor said. “We’re in a really tough division, but I think we really have a good team. By that I mean, what we have done is we aren’t relying on four or five players. I just think the way that we have put this team together that the first unit or second unit should go in and be very competitive with the groups that they need to compete against.”
Taylor understands how difficult it will be to achieve that goal, especially in the Western Conference, but he hopes the acquisitions of point guard Ricky Rubio and No. 1 draft pick Edwards help propel the team to success this season.
There’s more from the Northwest Division tonight:
- Mike Singer of the Denver Post examines why Facundo Campazzo decided to leave Spain for the NBA, signing a deal to join the Nuggets in free agency last month. “Truth be told, Facu was not really a hidden gem,” said Rafal Juc, the team’s international scout. “He was arguably a top-five European player for half a decade or so. So basically, he’s been on our radar for a while.” Campazzo, an entertaining 5’11” guard, is known for giving maximum effort on both ends of the floor. He’s expected to provide depth off the bench for a team focused on making a deep playoff run this season.
- The Thunder‘s 2020/21 starting lineup remains fluid right now, coach Mark Daigneault said, as relayed by Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman (Twitter link). Oklahoma City has a revamped roster this season, with players such as Chris Paul, Danilo Gallinari, Steven Adams and Dennis Schroder no longer with the franchise. Daigneault is also in his first season and is the second-youngest head coach in the league. He said the team’s starting group would likely include George Hill, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luguentz Dort, Darius Bazley and Al Horford, but that nothing was set in stone.
- By waiving Rondae Hollis-Jefferson on Saturday, the Timberwolves lost a much-needed defensive spark from their rotation, Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic writes. Hollis-Jefferson is known for being a versatile defender, though he’s limited offensively. As Krawczynski notes, Minnesota will enter the season with 14 players on standard contracts, leaving roster flexibility to aid in any potential trade. The team could upgrade its power forward position and acquire a proven veteran alongside Karl-Anthony Towns if it chooses, with P.J. Tucker among the targets to watch if he and the Rockets don’t agree to a contract extension.
Cautiously lol
This article was changing as I write, but HC Daigneault “cautioned” the starting lineup included George Hill. That’s were Shai GA should be starting. It’s his team now, and he’s been around a while. Dort, Horford & Bazley sounfs like the best, but see if they can keep up.
It doesn’t really matter who is listed at PG or SG, both players can play both spots, and it’s likely that it might change just based upon nightly matchups..
Either way, I’d expect SGA, to typically be the one who the offense is ran through the most. Whether he is technically listed as the PG or the SG..
It doesn’t matter since OKC will be lucky just to win 15 games.
OKC still better than HOU!
There’s other options. They have a numerous assemblage of large guards— indeed nearly all of the rest… HDiallo, LDort, JustinJ, KenrichW, DariusM, rookie Maledon, more… might as well get used to it. (These are their 3s too)
houston(, get another hobby.
Rondae Hollis-Jefferson was one of 7 three-word-named players to be waived from the regular roster. There was 14 total by my count. That could vary with accuracy (my stat), but that is a very high rate of dismissal, 7 of 14.
Drop one of the names for success! SGA and NAW gives plenty of credit to whoever Alexander is. How about just Shai Gilgeous.
*That’s 7 waived from 14 on ALL NBA rosters. I put a list on a post about 2_days earlier.
Wolves team salary at the moment $132 million
Almost reach luxury tax line
Las Vegas projected the 23th best team in the nba
Both Wolves GM and Coach are not good enough
Owner playoffs expectation is too high
GM is GONE !!
Owner clearly has no clue !!
Las Vegas December 20
Wins odds
Suns 39.5 wins
Rockets 35.5
Pelicans 35.5
Grizzlies 31.5
Kings 28.5
Wolves 28.5
Bet the farm on Houston winning at least 36 games.
Of course whenever they get around to doing the over/unders here for the Southwest Division I’m betting that 80-90% of people will vote under for the Rockets even if it’s ridiculously as low as 35, purely out of spite.
The truth is until this Harden thing is over it’s hard to get excited about the team being successful. Not to mention Silas lying through his teeth to the media. You can think they will be good all you want, but investors prefer stability, certainty. Right now that just isnt the case in H Town, and so yeah. People will be shorting them, so to speak. Sorry if that rankles you but its the truth…take it or leave it
Sorry if that rankles you??
English please..lol I mean using context clues, O can take a good guess what it means, but I’ve just never heard it before..lol
…good lord I’m dealing with children. Rankles is an English word. Take the computer you’re using to view this website and use the search functionality to locate the definition. I honestly should get paid for my time on this website. Is this the future of mankind? I weep…
Some phrases I was raised on look odd in print, but I hear “rankle” on national news broadcasts. Pretty normal.
The spite is yours, houston(, it’s all you have. You can’t wait to exercise it, writing it out like a prediction, the bias which you’ll never acknowledge.
Harden suxxxs . never a ring never HOF
link to fadeawayworld.net
GM is GONE !!
Owner clearly has no clue !!
Taylor should start a hair color biz….JFC dude…look in the mirror. KAT is lazy…not winning with him. Bet under in vegas.
TWolves should’ve not paid Beasley and instead gone out and got Jerami Grant.
Leaving Edwards, Okogie and Culver at SG, and needing depth at SF, they should’ve signed Glen Robinson who had a good season with GSW. Shouldn’t have waived RHJ who did a good job in preseason and looked to be settling well with the players.
Then lastly just to add some depth take a flyer on Hassan Whiteside on the vets min.
1. Russell. Rubio
2. Edwards. Okogie. Culver
3. Layman. Robinson
4. Grant.
5.
1. Russell. Rubio
2. Edwards. Okogie. Culver
3. Layman. Robinson
4. Grant. RHJ. McDaniels
5. KAT. Whiteside. Reid
That’s a playoff side or very very close to it, whereas what they have now is definitely not a playoff team
Predict Naz Reid will wind up being their 4.
They waived RHJ. Did not sign Grant or Robinson.
If you can read correctly it says shouldve*
I think RHJ must have said some wrong thing to the person he didn’t expect could get him fired. Perhaps he tried to go JimmyButler on KAT, calling him out for needing more hustle.
However it went down, I see RHJ has had a hard lesson in learning how low in the pecking order his talent places him, in a way he didn’t understand before this happened.
Seems everyone who sees him play recognizes the talent is there but watching him play you see a player who wants to break through his limitations and is probably advised to avoid exposing his limitations. Wanting too much to be a star may be the one thing that flames his NBA career out too early.
I really like Minnesota’s young core… I think they could definitely surprise people and be a playoff team this season. Towns is one of the best players in the NBA — in fact I think he’s underrated, maybe because he’s been playing for MIN and not on ‘center stage’ but I think he’s a legitimate top 10, if not top 5 player in the NBA — or will be if/when he’s in the right situation — which I think could possibly be this season. I mean he already averages 25 PPG, shot 40+ % from 3 and averaged more than 10 RPG last year. Statistically… he’s comparable to Anthony Davis — maybe he’s not quite the player Davis is BUT he’s still very young and I think has room to improve even further. Then considering how much Russell has improved the past couple seasons and adding Top pick Anthony Edwards to the group and I really think they’ve got quite the young core that could really do some damage this year. I by no means am saying they’re a championship caliber team… but they could be a legitimate playoff team should a few things fall their way. I mean any time you’ve got a team with two stars who can score 25PPG a night and even put up 40 on any given night — you’ve got a solid start to making the playoffs — and I think without question that’s what the Wolves have with Russell and Towns… even if neither of them are considered to be in the top tier of ‘superstars’ right now… I think they will be soon (or at least Towns will be)
KAT seems like a nice fella, plays with some heart and with AD-like skills …….. however, making the playoffs just ain’t in the TWOLVES cards.
Not with this young, trigger-happy roster, not with a young coach who got his gig due to his name and not with the West loaded as ever.
KAT is missing a MAJOR facet of ADs game, it’s called defense. KAT is not even close to the player AD was at this point in their careers. AD was legit MVP candidate and has consistently been all nba and all defensive team. KAT is a great offensive player when playing against lesser bigs. However, when playing against premier bigs, he wilts.
@Jeff Zanghi… couldn’t agree more with you about KAT!
KAT is by far one of the most underrated players in the league!
Sadly most “so called” fans in here think a player is only good if his team wins, like if the 2 things had anything to do with each other!
The last 4 years KAT has played at an MVP level, even if guys here don’t like it, that is a fact!
KAT is more a true center. He could use a defensive PF next him like Okongwu would have been perfect. Still he’s an all star now. Minny has a good shot at playoffs. Edwards plays well they are in. Minny does have a good young core. They will get better with time.
West is tough but they can be top 10 this yr.
2021 is a deep draft ———->>>>
OKC has their pick, Heats pick, Nuggets pick, Warriors pick top 20 protected, Rockets swap top 4 protected. So if Harden leaves means a lottery pick. That’s potentially 2 lottery picks and (4) 1st rd picks all together. In a deep deep draft. Plus they have Hill, Horford, Ariza who all could bring in more picks. They should just play their young guys. Develop them and get ready for the draft next yr. They could get two future stars. OKC should be in rebuild mode for next two yrs. They will have plenty of young talent. Pokusevski in 4 yrs will be a serious player. Future star at the 4. Playing with CP3 Shai showed he is better at the 2. This team has a big future.
I believe Houston will have a fun team to watch after they trade Harden. They will not win more than 36 games. It’s not out of spite, it just seems that way because you don’t like the truth MVP