Many may disagree, but I feel our conference is getting much tougher and will be a great challenge to our Timberwolves team this upcoming season. The Nuggets and Jazz are our main threats, and as a T-Wolves' fan, I'm a little worried. Their off-season moves thus far have been very nice. The Nuggets bring in K-Mart and now have, not only one of the best frontlines, but I feel one of the best starting line-ups in the league. Great passer with Andre, great shooter with Voshon, and then you have K-Mart, Melo, and Camby on the frontline. Then they have some good backups with Boykins, NENE, and others coming off of the bench. The Jazz, as we know, bring in 2 more great players to their team. Boozer is brought in, and of course this man will be nothing short of spectacular for them, mainly on the boards. The way he boxes out for rebounds is outstanding and he's only getting better and shouldn't let up in the West. And they also signed Okur. Okur didn't get much minutes behind Rasheed and Ben, but I feel when given the opportunity, he can be a very effective player. This team fell short of the playoffs last year without Boozer, without Okur, and without a healthy Harpring/ this team can be deadly. But many people have looked past what we've done this off-season. If you really look at it, it's been a very pleasing off-season. We resigned Hassell, resigned Hudson, resigned Hoiberg, and have our entire team intact again. The possibility of a trade is always out there, but we have our entire team back which means we can be just as deadly, if not more deadly, this upcoming season. In our division, I see us coming out as the winner. With Denver in 2nd, Utah in 3rd, Portland in 4th, and Seattle in 5th.
I think we win our division our only competition I believe will be the jazz as they will have a great front line also denver will be good with kmart and others. Our weak spot may lead to our down fall if we can not get reef our front line will be one of the weakest in our division out side of KG. Hassel is good, but reef would offer us a instant upgrade because of his size and the depth it would add to our team. I dont think that we would match up well with a front line of hassel,KG, Kandi against melo, nene, kmart or boozer, okur, and there center forget who he is lol. Mabye the jazz wont be so hard, but the nuggets will have a incredable font line. Our back court though is our strength as both spree and cassel are all stars in my mind. Put them against lenard and miller or arroyo and who ever and we win without question. So we need to upgrade our front line if we do we are a lock in my mind. If we face a team like the rockets in the playoffs were in trouble because of kandi's less then spectacular defense then add a seven six guy to the equatiton and you are in trouble.
i agree with u alot this will be a tought match for the timberwolves now. theres tracy mcrady now on the houston rockets. and by the time the playoffs start t-mac and yao ming will be comfterable with each others playing types. and yeah jazz will be a tough team to beat. all though your forgetting minnesota all-star kris humphries he is good so they should be even tougher. with andre kirelenko,boozer,okur,and kris humphries they should be a tough team also now look at the lakers. wow they had a so-so off-season with loosing shaq payton and fisher. but they have grant,odom,kobe,malone, and another guy. so dont think these guys will be tough (hehe im using tought alot) ohh and do forgot the spurs. wow they also have a nice line-up with. ginobli,duncan,rasho,parker and now brent barry this should be a pretty hard team to beat
I think Minny will win their division too...I see Denver as the only legit threat...Utah doesnt have enough depth or experience, IMO...but Minny should really have no trouble winning their division...
Utah will have a great season but I still think they are a little off, when it comes to fighting for the division crown next year. I love the moves they have made this offseason, but last year Utah lost alot off close games in the 4th quarter due to the fact the didnt have that player needed to put the ball in the basket during pressure moments. And while Okur and Boozer are great frontcourt players and will add some size and rebounding and their fare share of points, Utah still needed to add that one guy who could take over a game from an offensive standpoint when the time called for it. The return of Matt Harping who is capable of putting points on the board will help but it still isnt enuff to put them on that elite western conference level.But Utah being the scrappy team they are really got under the skin of the wolves last year. Denver is definately the best match for the wolves in the Northwest division.And will pose the biggest threat to the Wolves getting that Northwest crown. The Nuggets frontline is their strenght and outside of KG the wolves frontline, is the timberwolves weakness, that doesnt pose well for the wolves. Also I dont think Denver's backcourt get enuff credit, Andre Miller did an excellent job of running the Nuggets system last season. And he is a solid defender. He probably wont out play Sammy(if the Wolves & Nuggets meet again come playoff time) but Dre can definately hole his own. And Earl Boykins gives that team a spark off the bench, a little offense. And some speed in the backcourt which the Wolves cant match, as when seen Boykins giving the Wolves all type of trouble in their regular season and playoff matchups. Lenard provides them with the shooter need alongside Carmelo and Miller when they are creating shots for other people.And Martin is a solid passer out of the post, So lenard should get some good looks this year with someone down low who can swing the ball out of the post. And if Barry returns then he will be there to provide that young team with some veteran experience in the backcourt(along with Lenard) which will be crucial. Also lets not forget Melo according to Kiki with be spending a decent amount of minutes at the 2-guard spot, so they can go with the big frontline, so that changes the assestment of the fire power in Denver's backourt. I think that Denver definately would cause the wolves problems in the playoffs, probably more than in the regular season fight for the division crown. Denver definately seems to have a clear homecourt advantage when they play the Wolves in Denver due to the mile high effect. Cassell & Sprewell definately struggled with the high altitude in their regular season & playoff matchups last year, I think how Cassell & Sprewell's stamina holds up in Denver could be an X-facter if the Wolves and Nuggets met up again in the playoffs. But all in all I think(like I said in another Denver vs Wolves post) experience will be what lifts the Wolves past the Nuggets. The wolves' experience allows then to know what it takes to gut it out. And raise their game exactly when its needed to dig a little deeper. The nuggets just dont have that type of expeirence right now in any of their core players with the exception of Martin, who expeirenced what it takes in NJ. Lastly dont sleep on a team like Portland, every year theres always a team that surprise a few people.And a team like Portland could definately fit that role this season. I like their frontline with Theo and Zach playing alongside each other. Its a nice mix of offense and defense with dencent work on the backboards. After the trade last year Rasheed for Theo and Reef, that Blazers frontline gave the wolves alot of problems in their last two regular season matchups. Also I think the Blazers will become a better road team next season(which was a major problem for them last year). I think to be a good road team you have to have that guy who relishes sticking dagger after dagger in an opponents heart on the opposing teams home floor, we really seen that last year with the Wolves, when it seem like Spree and Cassell played better on the road most nights then at home, well Portland has a guy who loves to throw those type of road dagger now in Van Exel. I think Van Exel ablity to step up will most have an effect on Portland as a road team. Also I think they have a solid mix of experience and youth, with guys like Van Exel, Ratliff,Anderson even Damon who have been thru alot in the NBA and experienced alot to go along with youthful guys like Zach, Telfair,Woods, and Miles if he comes back. The blazers still have a few decisions to make like what to do about an angry Shareef and the hole in their backup Center spot. they have a solid make up of their team outside the fact that they have some injury prone guys, DA, Van Exel, and even Theo. But they will be solid if everyone stays healthy.
People, the main competition, in the end, will be Portland if they can get something good for SAR. They're a strong defensive team & score points. Forget about Denver as our main competition. Melo is still immature, though he is talented. KMart's a great leaper but he isn't effective night after night going against KG, Duncan, Elton Brand, Malone, Dirk, AK47 & CWebb. He was an East All Star but this is the bigs. Also, KMart doesn't have the jumper that he'll need in the West. Utah's starting center last year was Jarron Collins, IIRC. AK47's a stud defensively & he's a solid shooter, too. Utah's got a frontcourt of Okur at C, AK47 at PF & Boozer at SF (which might not be a good fit). They'll likely have Harpring coming off the bench, too, which is nice depth.
The Wolves should win the division but then again they havn't really added anything to their roster, Spree and Cassell are both getting older, their play could decrease and therefore not be anywhere near as effective. Denver and Utah will be very tough teams to beat. Both teams have great frontlines which is where they have the advantage over Minny. Out of the 3 teams thw Jazz have by far the most depth in the division, they are basically set at every spot on the floor. I agree that Utah didn't seem to have a clutch player last season but after watching Carlos Arroyo in the olympics making big time shots I think they may have found an answer. Boozer will be a huge help to them, a guy who can score inside and pull down 11 rebounds a game is going to improve your team. Memo Okur If given minutes will produce, he often got double fiqures in points and averaged around 8-9 rebounds a game last year. AK47 is quite frankly a stat machine. The guy can actually put up a stat line of 10, 10, 10, 10 which is points, rebounds, steals and blocks. He is that all-rounded I would expect the Wolves to win the division but I certainly don't think It will be easy at all.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting TWolfFanatic:</div><div class="quote_post">People, the main competition, in the end, will be Portland if they can get something good for SAR. They're a strong defensive team & score points. Forget about Denver as our main competition. Melo is still immature, though he is talented. KMart's a great leaper but he isn't effective night after night going against KG, Duncan, Elton Brand, Malone, Dirk, AK47 & CWebb. He was an East All Star but this is the bigs. Also, KMart doesn't have the jumper that he'll need in the West. Utah's starting center last year was Jarron Collins, IIRC. AK47's a stud defensively & he's a solid shooter, too. Utah's got a frontcourt of Okur at C, AK47 at PF & Boozer at SF (which might not be a good fit). They'll likely have Harpring coming off the bench, too, which is nice depth.</div> How can you say forget Denver as our main competition. Yes, I understand they were only an 8 seed in the playoffs last year, but they gave us somebig problems in the playoffs last season. Yes, at the time, we didn't have Hudson, and Wally did get injured in that series, but still, look at that team. They might not have the depth, but they have a great starting 5. The addition on K-Mart will help them a whole lot. Basically what I'm saying is, is that Denver has their entire team intact and they added K-Mart. They gave us troubles in the playoffs last year, now we find them in our division. Also, in Utah, can't they just move Harpring to SG? That may be an option, but for them, I think it would be better to bring him off of the bench so give them more depth and to have a spark and energy coming off of the bench. And you have AK at PF and Boozer at SF. They can do the opposite and keep Boozer at PF and move AK to SF because AK is SF eligible.
I'd look out for the Jazz, they still won 41 games last season with not that much talent, not to mention Matt Harpring was out fifty games. Now this offseason they got their two big men in Boozer and Okur. These two will help out a ton, excpecially in the Western Conference going up against Garnett and Duncan. They also resigned Giricek and Arroyo who alot of people are forgetting about. Gordon averaged 13.5 points per game with the Jazz last season and is a great roleplayer who can come off the bench. Carlos Arroyo is going into his fourth season and is only getting better. He showed in the Olympics last week that he can compete with the best of them by taking Marbury and AI to school. They have some soild roleplayers in with Raja Bell, Raul Lopez, and Jarron Collins. Also their rookies Kris Humphries and Kirk Snyder might beable to make an impact. I think their going to make a run towards the playoffs and the divison title but the Timberwolves will still win the divison. We have a year of chemistry under our belts, and if everyones healthy we will not only win our divison title but the NBA Championship.
I think we can win our division but not by more that 5 games, Utah has Boozer and Okur coming in on monster contracts so there expected to perform well and Denver brought in Kenyon Martin without losing anyone off there current roster. If the Kandi Man improves and Wally is back to playing well like he did that one season it will be easier for us. With those two coming off the bench or possibly starting we'd have a good lineup. Sam, Spree, Wally, KG, Kandi or just stick with the lineup we had last season Sam, Hoiberg, Spree, KG, and Ervin. As long as no one gets injured we have a pretty darn good chance at winning the division and going far in the playoffs.
Actually the lineup we had last season was Cassell, Spree, Hassell, KG, and Kandi. Hoiberg came off of the bench for Spree. It's not just the fact that we need Kandi and Wally to perform well, but it's Hudson too. I was very excited about resigning him and he might have a big role this year. Sam is getting older, coming off of surgery. Last season when we lost Sam in the playoffs, we had no true PG to back him up. Now, that isn't a problem. Although, I might be a little worried if Hudson is coming into this season not 100%. But he has had a long time to heal to I think he may be alright.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Pure Skillz:</div><div class="quote_post">I think we win our division our only competition I believe will be the jazz as they will have a great front line also denver will be good with kmart and others. Our weak spot may lead to our down fall if we can not get reef our front line will be one of the weakest in our division out side of KG. Hassel is good, but reef would offer us a instant upgrade because of his size and the depth it would add to our team. I dont think that we would match up well with a front line of hassel,KG, Kandi against melo, nene, kmart or boozer, okur, and there center forget who he is lol. Mabye the jazz wont be so hard, but the nuggets will have a incredable font line. Our back court though is our strength as both spree and cassel are all stars in my mind. Put them against lenard and miller or arroyo and who ever and we win without question. So we need to upgrade our front line if we do we are a lock in my mind. If we face a team like the rockets in the playoffs were in trouble because of kandi's less then spectacular defense then add a seven six guy to the equatiton and you are in trouble.</div> First off, I'm pretty sure the front line will be, for the Jazz, AK at SF, Boozer at PF, and Okur at the center spot, so Okur is their center to awnser your question. And I wouldn't say we would win without question against Leonard and Miller. I feel this backcourt is very underrated in the NBA. Miller is one of the most underrated players, and one of the most underrated PG's, if not the most underrated. He's an incredible passer, still putting up good stats from the year he lead the league in assists. It was a very nice turnaround season for him last year from coming over from the Clippers. And Leonard went on a few streaks in the games with us last season, sometimes scoring 8 to 12 points in a row. That can really hurt us. He's a great outside shooter. It's going to be tougher this season with Spree getting older and getting slower. It's not going to be easy guarding Leonard.
