Wolves Presser 2031/2032
Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2019 9:27 am
We're in the Wolves press room. The JNR once again stands at a podium. He's wearing a shirt this year, thankfully.
The JNR: Welcome to another year in Minnesota. Last year I returned after several years of limited activity, and the results were...largely the same. We even lost more games last year than we had in three years. All the same, we finished with our fifth straight winning season, and we actually won a playoff series before being swept in the second round. I felt compelled to stay the course at least one more year, which led to us matching Ja Morant's max offer from the Wizards. We went into free agency feeling confident that we could find a decent batch of players to fit around our core of Sabonis, Marsh, Doncic and Morant. We didn't realize how well it was going to go, however.
We were able to bring in Tibor Pleiss, Olen Sutherland, Long Anderson, Damion Willians, Donovan Mitchell, and James Gebhart in. All of them are players who can contribute at a high level. With these acquisitions in addition to the talent we already had in place, this has the potential to be the deepest Timberwolves team we've had since the 90s. The tax bill is also our highest ever, which we'll deal with in time.
Training camp went surprisingly well for us. Though Trumann Wrenn took a step backward and Shane Havard wilted in the face of incoming competition, Frederic Hughes had an incredible camp and proved that he is ready to compete with the glut of bigs we have. He's made our future at front court brighter than ever.
Preseason went well, though we don't expect to see the same lineups going forward. To that end, our projected starting line up will be:
C: Domantas Sabonis
PF: Chad Marsh
SF: Luka Doncic
SG: Donovan Mitchell
PG: Ja Morant
With Hughes, Wrenn, Gebhart, and Anderson getting a bulk of the bench minutes. Williams, Pleiss and Sutherland will see time as well.
We expect to be a contender for the division and if we stay healthy we see ourselves capable of a playoff run. We'll now open it up to questions.
The JNR: Welcome to another year in Minnesota. Last year I returned after several years of limited activity, and the results were...largely the same. We even lost more games last year than we had in three years. All the same, we finished with our fifth straight winning season, and we actually won a playoff series before being swept in the second round. I felt compelled to stay the course at least one more year, which led to us matching Ja Morant's max offer from the Wizards. We went into free agency feeling confident that we could find a decent batch of players to fit around our core of Sabonis, Marsh, Doncic and Morant. We didn't realize how well it was going to go, however.
We were able to bring in Tibor Pleiss, Olen Sutherland, Long Anderson, Damion Willians, Donovan Mitchell, and James Gebhart in. All of them are players who can contribute at a high level. With these acquisitions in addition to the talent we already had in place, this has the potential to be the deepest Timberwolves team we've had since the 90s. The tax bill is also our highest ever, which we'll deal with in time.
Training camp went surprisingly well for us. Though Trumann Wrenn took a step backward and Shane Havard wilted in the face of incoming competition, Frederic Hughes had an incredible camp and proved that he is ready to compete with the glut of bigs we have. He's made our future at front court brighter than ever.
Preseason went well, though we don't expect to see the same lineups going forward. To that end, our projected starting line up will be:
C: Domantas Sabonis
PF: Chad Marsh
SF: Luka Doncic
SG: Donovan Mitchell
PG: Ja Morant
With Hughes, Wrenn, Gebhart, and Anderson getting a bulk of the bench minutes. Williams, Pleiss and Sutherland will see time as well.
We expect to be a contender for the division and if we stay healthy we see ourselves capable of a playoff run. We'll now open it up to questions.