Timberwolves dropped under .500 tonight and to 12th place in the West. They haven't had significant injuries, they have losses to bad teams like Cleveland and Washington. I knew either Portland or Minny would fall out of the playoff picture, but I was pretty sure it was going to be the Blazers, but man was I wrong. Blazers have been great, while Wolves just can't seem to be good. They have a terrible case of Trying-build-around-Kevin-Love-itis. Rubio is a seriously flawed player and their bench is god awful. Adelman seems to have abandoned his offensive system all together resulting in just a very mediocre basketball team. In my opinion it is only a matter of time before Kevin Love demands a trade. With luck, T-wolves will hold onto him and we can snag him in 2015 during free agency.
Portland can still lose to the Suns tonight...maybe the drop for them starts now. Minny has been dropping and I think a lot of the better teams are starting to get it in gear now.
So much for Minnesota. Started off hot and now they're back to mediocrity. Not hard to predict that Portland will be next.
Let's hope so. Was really hoping for the Wolves/Blazers to implode immediately so we'd have a better chance at snagging those guys, but they started out really hot.
Blazers had a soft schedule for the most part. They will fall off sooner rather than later. Their bench still sucks and the heavy minutes starters are logging will bite them hard
I know I'm going to get flamed for this but I think Kevin Love is the most overrated star in the league. Sure he puts up some superstar type numbers but I never see him actually make an impact in the game. Most of his points come from garbage baskets, offensive putbacks or spot up 3's. A real superstar can create his own shot when he wants to, Love cannot. Also, K-Love loves to pad his own rebound stats. He's just always been a empty stats type of player.
This is why Kevin Love is overrated. He puts up great stats, but he can't carry a team to the playoffs as the #1 Guy. And people said this Guy should be the MVP for what putting up stats on a lottery team?
You can't win games when you are playing 4 on 5 on offense, and your worst offensive player has the ball in his hands most of the time. Rubio will be worthless to winning unless he learns how to put the ball in the basket at a respectable clip. Is 40 percent shooting too much to ask?
I agree 100%, I've been saying this for the last 3 years. Dude can't even lead his team to the playoffs.
They have a fairly hard schedule of late. 5 games in 7 nights, I think, during one stretch. We'll see how it goes for them.
Love is not a superstar, a superstar can at least lead their team to the playoffs. Though he would be perfect on this team lol.
Nobody said he was the MVP. They were correctly saying that he started the year putting up MVP level stats.
I agree 100%! Love is a good player, but teams don't gameplan against him because his game is relatively one-dimensional. You don't want your bigman hanging out on the 3pt line on offense; you want him in the mid-post where he can be a triple threat.
I've not watched tonights Blazers game yet, but the Suns beating the Blazers is honestly not surprising at all to me. They've played the Blazers as well as anyone I've seen all season in their prior meetings and I've watched every single Blazers game so far. PHX is very well coached on defense. Nothing at all like last year. Denying at opportune times. Pressuring the post feeders well. Not getting screened off easily -- being rather aware of what going on/coming. Well time double teams. Solid in pick&roll coverage. Taking away the first few options of the Blazers offense a great deal. The Blazers are vulnerable on D, so if you can slow them down some as the Suns have been able to do, you're putting yourself in a pretty good position to win. So... while the Blazers obviously are unlikely to quite keep up their early success, I fully expect them to be good (6-8 seed-ish) going forward. The Suns just give them fits.
Wait.. what.. so offensive putbacks are useless now? And being able to hit spot up 3s is a bad thing? The guy is putting up 25ppg and you're judging him for how he scores? Maybe Love isn't a true #1, I don't know. I do know he's been on pretty crappy T'Wolves teams. I also know he'd be a great fit on this Rockets team.
If Kevin Love is your 2nd star, you're probably set for a championship run. Kevin Love as your main dude? It has been proven in Minnesota to not be a winning formula.
