To put it in perspective, the rare poor prior year team that strings together some wins in the preseason has seen an average gain of 17 wins in the next year!
Now if you extend it to look at any team <50 wins the prior year with a say .700 or better preseason it’s a average gain of 7.5 wins.
All right, so which ’07-08 teams have shown signs of life in ’08-09 “meaningless” games? 6-2 Minnesota (22-60 last yr)
Are we destined to see some revival for the Timberwolves this coming season? Trying to project performance from the preseason alone is likely a foolish endeavor, but on the other hand if you’re a fan of a team that’s anything less than a rock solid 50+ win type, you might want to root for some exhibition wins after all.
For the first time since he cleaned out his office in the middle of the 2006-07 season, Mavericks assistant coach Dwane Casey walked into the Target Center this morning for the Mavericks’ shootaround…
Casey, to his credit, doesn’t hold any grudges. Nobody likes being told they are no longer needed, but Casey does a terrific job of taking the high road.
“I have no hard feelings against Minnesota,” he said. “They made their decision and that’s part of the business. They’re going in the right direction right now. Randy (Wittman) is doing a good job of coaching them. So there’s no hard feelings…
Tonight’s other Wolves connection belongs to Mavs guard Gerald Green, who played in 29 games for Minnesota last season before being traded to Houston.
“I think Gerald can play,” Wittman said. “I think we always said at the time that he’s got talent. It’s just a matter of the time and continuing to let him grow. Throughout the league, Chauncey Billups is a pretty good player, but he bounced around for three-four years. I think (Gerald’s) got another opportunity. He’s got to learn to take advantage of those opportunities and seize the moment.”
To further prove that he has taken his role as the franchise player seriously , Big Al stayed in town all summer, watching film on him and others in the league, as well as regularly working out with his teammates at the team’s practice facility.
Call it, if you will, summer school for franchise players.
“This was the first time I was able to spend a lot of time with my teammates and everybody was ready to get started,” Jefferson said.
This thoroughly impressed Bickerstaff. “I think those are the things that you look for from a guy who’s really interested in taking himself and this organization to the next level,” he surmised.
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