We're much better than you think. Denver with Milsap would be good, OKC obviously have more star power, but I agree with bones jones that we can also finish 2nd behind Golden State. We have a more coherent roster with most players used to each other and we have a lot of talent
Better players than OKCs. They literally have... Abrines? And...Raymond Felton? And... Roberson? That's trash.
If we keep both Goodwin and Briscoe and somehow also Pat and Napier (who could be the odd man out) and with our big men rotation looking much better and with a healthy Nurkic and we already have one of the best starting backcourts in the league and Crabbe leaving I think can do us good at SF with more playing time and opportunity for ET and Harkless and even Leyman, what's not to like?
A reason why it is better to be optimistic than pessimistic about the teams future potential... How often do you see a team or person or entity think they are only mediocre and yet win it all or be the best? How often do you see a team or player or entity believe they are the best and then win or become the best? You hardly ever win if you don't first believe you CAN win. Belief goes a long ways in being successful when in a pool of similar talents like the nba. What separates Michael Jordan from John Stockton? Mike believed he was the best more than Stockton did. If kd had mikes belief in himself he would have several rings now instead of having to join one of the best teams in history. Me? I'd rather have a dame who truly believes, even if it is an optimistic view, than players who don't believe in themselves and question themselves. I believe the same holds true in fandom. The team can see the belief In the fans or read the skepticism; and this can influence thier mindset. If we are constantly berating this team and kicking them in the nuts with skeptical and pescimistic thoughts of the team, then they may follow suit and start questioning themselves. I dunno. I just believe when you have the elites of the world, the nba, Talent is not that large of a spectrum and how good you are largely rides on your confidence. Not just skills. I for one Am super happy we have a super confident leader. Half the teams in the league do not. This give us an edge over them right off the bat. I Will be disappointed if/when we lose but will never say we suck or can't win. I think it's a backwards way of thinking in an environment where belief means so much to success.
I apologize in advance for trying to steer this thread back on topic. It seems this is no longer a forum about basketball, but about the "personalities" of the forum members. But, what the hell, here goes... No way do we finish 5th in our division. UTA got worse. They lost their best player and highest scorer. Hayward was the ONE all star that moved from West to East and his defection weakened a division rival, but no one around here seems to talk about that. In fact UTA lost their two highest scorers in Hayward and Hill and replaced them with two guys who can't shoot (Rubio and Sefolosha). UTA struggled to score last season and now they enter this season without a single player who who averaged more than 14.0 ppg last season. They didn't need to upgrade their defense, and I'm not sure they did. Hill was a great 2-way player for them last year. Out: Hayward: 21.9 ppg, .398 3FG% Hill: 16.9 ppg, .403 3FG% In: Sefolosha: 7.2 ppg, .342 3FG% Rubio: 11.1 ppg, .306 3FG% Summary: The team that was 28th in the league in scoring last year lost their two leading scorers (combined 38.8 ppg) and replaced them with two guys who struggle to score (combined 18.3 ppg). How will UTA replace the 20.5 ppg they lost? Man, there is going to be some ugly ass basketball being played in SLC this year. Summary: How the hell will this team score enough to win? 28th in scoring last year and lost their two best scorers, creating a net scoring deficit of 20.5 ppg that will be all but impossible to replace. DEN finished behind us last season and I'm just not seeing any improvement here. Sure, they added an Eastern Conference all star, but it's not like the PF position was a position of weakness for them. In fact, it was already their deepest position, with Faried, Chandler, Plumlee and Darrell Arthur all getting minutes there. They now have a log jam at PF and a lack of depth at SF. I'm sure they will move Chandler to SF full time, but who backs him up? More importantly, they did nothing to address their biggest weakness, and it's a HUGE weakness in today's NBA. They easily have the worst PG rotation in the NW division, possibly the entire Western Conference, perhaps even the worst in the NBA. With so many great PGs in the West, you simply can't win with a combination of Jameer Nelson (old, slow and undersized) and Emmanuel Mudiay (can't shoot) as your point guards. Summary: A big huge meh from me. They replaced Galinari and his 18.2 ppg with Millsap's 18.1 ppg. That looks like a lateral move, perhaps a slight downgrade due to Millsap's superior defense, but in actuality they created a surplus at PF and a deficit at SF. More importantly, their PG rotation still sucks ass. Minnesota added Butler and Teague. On paper those are big upgrades, but this is still a team that needs to prove they can win on the court. Most experts last year loved their youth, and with the addition of Thibs as their coach, predicted they would finish ahead of us. They didn't. They finished 31-51, came in 13th in the West and were right back in the lottery for the 14th year in a row. Their highly touted youth was highly overrated. Townes is good, that's for sure, but Wiggins is a highly inefficient volume scorer who does NOTHING else well. He is Rudy Gay with a Max contract. So forget relying on all that youth to develop (Lavine and Dunn out) and bring in the vets (Butler and Teague). The potential for improvement is there, but how is this going to play out? Butler clashed with the young players in CHI last season. He's not exactly a leader or great locker room guy, which is what the Wolves have been lacking for years. Teague is an upgrade offensively over Rubio at the point, but a downgrade defensively. He won't even be an average PG in the West. Summary: Youth movement be damned, we need some vets. Yay, we got some vets, but are there the right vets? They need to improve by 10 games just to get to .500 in the highly competitive West. It all comes down to fit and chemistry. Executive Summary: No way do all three of these teams finish ahead of us. In fact, I'd be shocked if two of them do and think it's more likely with a full season of Nurk we finish ahead of all three. Last in the division my ass! Fucking pessimists! BNM
Good analysis. I do think Minnesota will be solid but I agree about Utah and Denver. So many games are determined in crunch time. This is where I hope we will have the edge with Dame CJ and Nurk.
Yeah, the Thunder is the only one who may finish ahead. Minbesota will take a step up this season but, we will finish ahead of them.
Great post, explained my thoughts pretty well. Anyone who disagrees won't dive into it the way you do. It'll be something like "But... Uh... Everyone added someone so we'll lose!..."
