yeah pretty biased imo. they are way too young right now with a lot of question marks still. A drastic improvement like that isn't going to happen this year. Minnesota is going to have to be able to hit .500 in a season before they can actually talk about contending for a playoff spot. How well Towns develops is going to determine how good Minny can really be in the future, with the decline of dominant true big men in the league. On paper, can definitely be a fun team to watch though
For a Wolves fan, you don't know that Pekovic will step on court after new year? They say March. Plus who is your pf? Bjelica is a rookie now , KG is too old to play much and the others are not even good for back ups (Bennet Payne). And you have to hope that Rubio stays healthy so Lavine doesn't EVER get to play pg again. Noone. The Hawks are a sure bet for the playoffs hands down, barring catastrophic injuries. The certain to make the playoffs from the East are Cavs, Bulls and Hawks. Heat will have to stay healthy , Wizards will have to hope porter can play good pf and Indy ,Boston, Mil, Detroit, Charlotte will fight for the other spots.
I forgot Toronto. Toronto is certain to make the playoffs as well because they play in the Titanic. But their frontcourt is too weak and a mess.
Pekovic is supposed to back around mid-October, so he won't be 100% by season start but I don't think he should miss too much time. KG is supposed to start, and I think Bennet/Payne are solid enough backups.
It's after new year for Pekovic. Don't expect him sooner. The surgery he had was too serious and the Wolves can only hope he comes back even then. It was LAST RESORT to save his carreer. Check the Wolves board for more info on him. I think Payne is better than Bennett because he knows his role. Bennet probably wont' have his option picked up next year anyway. He's not a part of the Wolves core.
This is false. About Harden being ball dominant. Lawson will handle the ball plenty, Harden played with Westbrook and Durant and has experience playing on Team USA. People said the same thing about Lebron/Wade but people have to understand that some players are wired differently. Some players like Kobe/Iverson are ball dominant players that can't mold into what the team needs and other players like Harden does what the team needs. There were many instances where Harden would just pass the ball BEGGING for someone else to do something else. He has that now. I think the Rockets will be 1st in the west. Not a homer opinion at all, they were 2nd and started off in worse shape last year and Dwight didn't even have the best of seasons. They only got stronger and they should be right there battling for top 3... With that said, there will be no surprise teams in the west. Some team...likely Utah will take the 8th spot from Portland. Portland will be trash this upcoming season as Dame is not a #1 option. I think Utah or Sacremento will take that spot. In the East though I think the Knicks will have a good year for once. I don't think the Bucks would surprise any one unless they take that next step and look like some kind of contender.
I'd say the Hornets. Provided Lance contributed more to his dysfunction than the team, losing him improved things. Assuming Lamb brings what many think he could bring off the bench as a second/third SG. Adding Batum as starting SG while only losing Henderson from the active roster (who wasn't a real threat from deep and wasn't the defender he once was), the team improved defensively while improving offensively, that doesn't usually happen. The questions will be: Can Gilchrist/Batum do enough defensively to offset the loss of Biyombo in the paint? Does Kaminski give them real minutes and can he move the ball as well as shoot like he showed in SL? Will Lin provide an outside shooting version of Sessions (which did them well)? I think with health and good chemistry, that's possibly a top five team in the east (they could also find alot of other teams getting their collective stuff together in the easy and just be scraping for eighth).
So, Cousins is not playing PF? I thought I read here that Cousins wanted to play PF this year and that's why the Kings got Koufos. I just searched for anything on this, and I didn't find anything. Maybe I dreamed it....
you didn't dream it. He said he wanted to plaly pf. WCS and Koufos will be the centers. That was the main reason they got WCS in the draft, Cousins wanted him.
