Today in our team previews we take a look at the Timberwolves, one of the few true championship contenders in the NBA
If you are a Minnesota Timberwolves fan, you are in somewhat unchartered territory. For the first time in twenty years and since the Kevin Garnett era, the team is coming off a season where it reached the Western Conference Finals. It did it with defense and the emergence of a budding supernova in Anthony Edwards. Edwards' rise in addition to the stellar play of Jaden McDaniels, Karl-Anthony Towns, Rudy Gobert, and Mike Conley led to a 14 win improvement over the previous season. The team then went on to sweep the Phoenix Suns and beat the defending NBA Champion Denver Nuggets in seven games. They ultimately lost to the Dallas Mavericks in five games, but the future is still very bright in Minneapolis.
When you are a team entering your championship window as the Wolves are, most of the moves you make are done around the margins, in the hopes that they complement your core pieces. For Minnesota, the biggest core piece is Anthony Edwards. He is coming off a stellar season where he was an All-Star, All-NBA second team member, and even received some MVP votes. Edwards will be 23 years old this season and just now entering his basketball prime. The improvement is rapid and he will likely be a top 5 player in the league before long.
Edwards is of course an incredibly athletic guard who can get to the basket and finish at will. He is currently a 35% three point shooter, ideally you would like him to get closer to 38%. But the real issue for Edwards this postseason was endurance. One of the often underscored aspects of becoming a championship team is that you have to play 100+ games to get there. For a young player that has not had to shoulder that load for that many games, fatigue can set in. In the entirety of the playoffs, Edwards was magnificent: averaging 27 points per game, shooting 40% from three, 7 rebounds per game, and 6.5 assists per game. Against Dallas, however, those numbers dipped and he only shot over 50% from the field in one of the games against the Mavericks. These improvements come with time for all players, and I have no doubt that Edwards will make them in short order.
The more pressing question for the Wolves comes with Edwards’ running mate: Karl-Anthony Towns. Once the team's franchise player, Towns has now settled into a role as the secondary option for Minnesota. This was fine during the regular season, where Towns was an All-Star who averaged 21 points per game, 8 rebounds per game, and shot 41% from three. Those numbers took a step back in the playoffs, and often he felt like a liability on the court alongside Edwards and Rudy Gobert. This off-season, like the last few, has seen many wonder if Towns was destined to be traded to allow Edwards to truly blossom into superstardom. This hasn’t happened yet, and it seems that the team is content to continue this Towns, Edwards, Gobert triumvirate. If Edwards truly elevates to mega superstardom none of these concerns may matter, but today they are a slight concern especially if Towns grows to be unhappy with his role on this team over time.
Speaking of Rudy Gobert, the perception of the deal that brought him to Minnesota from Utah went under a bit of a facelift last year. What was originally considered organizational malpractice, has now turned into a good fit for the Timberwolves. His roaming presence in the paint has freed up Towns to play on the perimeter where he is more comfortable and Gobert is a reliable lob threat as well. On defense, Gobert has won another Defensive Player of the Year award, and he is still an elite interior defender (even if he is woefully equipped to cover guards on the perimeter as we saw against Dallas). The defense of Gobert inside coupled with the rangy versatility of Jaden McDaniels on the perimeter to guard multiple positions helped make the Wolves the best defense in the NBA last year.
A question that remains for them is at the point guard position. The acquisition of Mike Conley a couple of seasons ago has shown to be a godsend for this franchise. He brought stability to a young team and has been the perfect mentor for Edwards. But at 37 years old, there are concerns over his longevity with this team. Enter Kentucky rookie Rob Dillingham. Dillingham was acquired in a Draft night trade with the Spurs. He is an explosive scorer who came off the bench for Kentucky this past season and averaged 15 points per game in 23 minutes while shooting 44% from three. He is someone that seems to suit what the Wolves like to do and is an heir apparent for Conley. If Dillingham can develop as a potent off the bench scorer for the Wolves this season they will be in excellent shape for the future, creating a potentially formidable backcourt with Anthony Edwards.
Elsewhere, the Wolves lost Kyle Anderson and Jordan McLaughlin in free agency but replaced them with Joe Ingles. The acquisition of Ingles is likely mostly for playoff purposes: a stretch big that can knock down threes in crucial playoff moments. The Timberwolves are one of the 5-6 teams that are truly in contention for a title this coming season, and their moves to address the future of the point guard position and bench shooting indicate where they are in the league today. The Timberwolves will only go as far as Anthony Edwards will carry them. And with that calculation in mind, I think Minnesota has to like their chances.
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