It’s beginning to look a lot like the NBA regular season is effectively over. Rather than sit around and wait for basketball to come back into our lives, let’s reflect on what the season has dished up to this point.
We’ll take a look at each and every NBA team over the coming weeks, assessing what went right, what didn’t go to plan, and where their journey took them as well as where the team hoped it would take them.
Today, we’ll start with the league’s cellar dwellers: After hitting the Golden State Warriors, we move to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Minnesota Timberwolves
Record: 19-45 (14th in Western Conference)
82 game pace: 24-58
Expectations
The Wolves were tipped to be in or around the 8th seed at the beginning of the season. Much of this was based around the brilliant Karl-Anthony Towns. The big man out of Kentucky has proven himself to be the singular best offensive centre in basketball. He can do it all: bully you down low, sling three’s from deep (39.6% career shooter), drive to the basket and set up his teammates. KAT was also extremely durable, only missing 5 games through his whole career heading into the season.
With a solid supporting cast in Wiggins, Robert Covington and Jeff Teague around him, as well as youngsters Jarrett Culver and Josh Okogie, this was seen as a team on the rise.
What went right
At the beginning of the season, things looked to be going to plan for Minnesota, with a 10-8 record. Andrew Wiggins showed signs of real growth in both his play making and shot selection. Josh Okogie proved to be a defensive menace. Gorgui Dieng revealed a seldom seen three point stroke. As a starter for the injured KAT, Dieng made 1.8 three pointers per outing at over 40%, before his trade to Memphis. Ahh, yes…the trades.
Minnesota made a few trades this season. Some were head scratching (Jeff Teague for the remains of Allen Crabbe), some were headline grabbers (Wiggins for Russell) and some were brilliant. The Wolves part in the big four team extravaganza cost them Covington but netted a 1st round pick as well as Malik Beasley and Juancho Hernangomez. With those two alongside Towns, D’Lo and Culver, the Wolves suddenly have a solid young nucleus to build around. Precisely none of them are capable defenders, but it’s still a whole lot better than what the Wolves had.
What went wrong
As mentioned, that start was solid, but then the wheels fell off. An eleven game losing streak (the first seven with Towns on the court) halted any momentum the team had generated. Towns missed fifteen straight matches in a run that scuppered Minnesota’s playoff hopes. Upon his return, the team lost ten straight, as part of a longer thirteen game losing run. The streak breaking win on February 8th was Towns first win in uniform since November 27th and that tells it’s own story.
The outcome
They’ve taken the most circuitous route, but things are looking up in Minnesota. They have a pair of young stars that actually want to play together. They have good young supporting pieces in Okogie and the Nuggets imports. In Culver, they have a player they hope can grow into their Swiss Army knife, capable of morphing into whatever they need him to be in the moment. Could the Wolves be a playoff chance next season? The West is incredibly tough, but you can certainly make the case.
