SimWorld Presents: Reaching for Greatness (A NBA2K Dynasty)

[ronyell]

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[ronyell]

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[bkeith1]

Quote: Originally Posted by ronyell

April 3rd, 2017

Huge signing for the Celtics!!!

Sent from my LGLS991 using Tapatalk

[ronyell]

April 6th, 2017

Mark Cuban: "I owe it to Dirk to go 'all out' this offseason"

John Wall calls the Knicks 'trash' leaving the court after win

Potential GS/OKC Round 1 In Playoffs: "Yall don't wanna see it more than we do" says Roberson

Greg Monroe could be back in the starting lineup once playoffs begin

Rajon Rondo: "We don't deserve to make the playoffs the way we're playing"

Dwayne Wade asked Hoiberg to take him out of the game after the Bulls went down by 30 in the 3rd quarter

League announces that refs should not have called foul on last shot of Indiana / Milwaukee game

Brooklyn: "We will wait until the end of the season to make any changes to our organization"

[captainesteban]

April, 6th, 2017

[AdamJones113]

Land of (What Seems Like) 10,000 Years Since the Playoffs

Can the Timberwolves recover from endangerment?

by AdamJones, April 7 2017


It's an interesting quirk of NBA nature that the Minnesota Timberwolves have not made the playoffs since they moved from the Midwest division to the Northwest division, way back in 2004. The Wolves had made the playoffs the preceding 8 straight seasons on the back of Kevin Garnett, the man who saved Minnesota basketball. Garnett departed a few seasons after the team made their lone Conference Finals appearance, having notched a .707 winning percentage in the regular season, with Garnett winning MVP. They've had all of zero winning seasons since 2005, and only two seasons with a winning percentage of over .400.

And then there's Tom Thibodeau, who was the fastest head coach in NBA history to hit 100 wins; NBA champion as the top assistant coach of the 2008 Boston Celtics (yes, with Kevin Garnett leading the D); 2011 Coach of the Year after a 62-win season with the Bulls, and, by all accounts, a tremendous defensive coach. He took the helm—head coach, president of basketball operations—in Minnesota beginning last summer, preparing for the 2016-17 season. A season that was supposed to provide fresh confidence for the future, and maybe even break the NBA's longest playoff drought.

Timberwolves players have won the Rookie of the Year for the past two seasons: Andrew Wiggins in 2015 and then KAT—Karl Anthony Towns—in 2016. The 2014-15 season was a complete wash, as everyone expected and embraced after swapping superstar Kevin Love to Cleveland for Wiggins (and Anthony Bennett, but no one remembers that). The 15-16 season was better—13 games better—as the young team began to mesh and KAT started dominating. This season, however, has not seen the same kind of progress. The Timberwolves are 30-48 with 4 games remaining, 12th in the West, looking poised to finish outside of the conference top 10 yet again. They're allowing around 107 points per game, well above the average for Thibodeau-coached teams. They're hovering around a .333 win percentage on the road, and a sub-.500 one at home. They're in one of the worst divisions in the league, perhaps the worst in the conference, yet they're still mired at the bottom.

Sure, they lost Zach Lavine for the year, but he wasn't taking them to the playoffs singlehandedly. KAT 2.0 has been a beast: 24 PPG, 12.5 RPG, and 2.3 BPG. That's a future top-5 player in a future that isn't far off at all. Wiggins has scored around 20 points per game, which is nice, of course, but the distribution numbers aren't really there. The young Kris Dunn has produced, scoring nearly 10 points and dishing out around 5 assists per game, very acceptable from a young point guard on a bad team especially considering that the turnover rate is low. The Timberwolves have a lot of young pieces who are growing well and growing quickly; they've made smart trades and are building from within. It's hardly a Brooklyn Nets-type situation in Minnesota.

But no team will make the playoffs based on potential alone. Thibodeau has to be a disciplinarian, a defensive fiend. It might help to hire a different president of basketball operations so as to allow Thibodeau to concentrate on coaching. The pieces are there, but they need to fit together. It's difficult, but it must be done. Talent wins games, but fundamentals and teamwork and planning are the heralds of playoff basketball. The team needs to add a mentor, someone to provide the grit and defensive fundamentals from the bench—maybe even sitting on the bench full time. I would love to see Minnesota hire Kevin Garnett as a coach and talisman (his one season with KAT didn't seem to have hurt the young big man in the slightest). Any grizzled veteran would help turn these young pups into wolves.

Next year—and you heard it hear first—will be the year that ends the drought.

[ronyell]

April 7th, 2017



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Jazz have beaten T'Wolves in their previous 3 meeting this season

[ronyell]

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