The 11 biggest reasons to watch the Timberwolves this season
As if the anticipation for the season couldn’t be any higher, I’ve compiled the top-11 reasons to be excited for the 2016-2017 Timberwolves.
Oct 19, 2016; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) dribbles in the third quarter against the Memphis Grizzlies at Target Center. The Timberwolves beat the Grizzlies 101-94. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
Everything starts on Wednesday night. We’ve waited this long — long enough to compile this hefty list of 11 reasons to get pumped for 2016-17. Settle in, and let’s get to it.
1. KAT’s Reign: Very rarely do Minnesotans get a close-up look of a superstar blossoming before their eyes in Karl-Anthony Towns. I can only think of a few homegrown talents that reached superstar status in the past 25 years in the Minnesota sports landscape: Randy Moss, Joe Mauer, Kevin Garnett, and Adrian Peterson.
While all four of them saw their careers end in Minnesota with a deflating trade or depressing injuries/production, we’re still in the puppy dog stage with Karl-Anthony Towns. KAT is only 20 years old and it’s not crazy to predict something like the following statistics for him this season: 24 points, 12 rebounds, three assists, one steal, and two blocks per game with a shooting line of 50/38/83 (field goal, three-point, and free throw percentage) and a PER of 25+.
If he were to accomplish this, he’d have one of the best seasons ever by a player starting the season at age 20. Seriously, he could be entering Shaq/Duncan/LeBron territory before he’s legally allowed to order a drink.
On top of all this, he seems to be an even better person off the court than he is on it. Humble, hard-working, disciplined, easy going, and accessible. He is literally the perfect human to be a superstar basketball player in the state of Minnesota. He even is from a cold weather state and described the Minnesota winters as (and I’m paraphrasing here) ‘not that bad’!
If you haven’t gotten on the KAT bandwagon quite yet you better strap on because it’s gonna be overflowing by the All-Star break.
2. What is Andrew Wiggins, exactly? Superstar, something slightly less, or Rudy Gay?
Regardless, all of the stars have aligned for Andrew to have a break out season this year. He’s in his third season, which is traditionally when young stars break out (think Kobe, Dirk, & Paul George). He played a tremendous amount of minutes (5,814, which only trails LeBron James for most in first two seasons in the hot clock era) those first two seasons.
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With those minutes came a lot of responsibilities & difficult match-ups that have seasoned him beyond his years. He skipped playing for Team Canada over the summer to work individually with his trainer on improving his weaknesses: jump shooting, ball-handling, and strength. If you’ve been following his off-season, you know he’s putting in serious work and has sky high expectations for himself.
The final star in alignment for Andrew this season is the new coaching staff, namely new head coach Tom Thibodeau. You couldn’t pluck a coach from the sky that is more tailor made to maximize Andrew’s gifts. Wiggins has struggled with consistent energy and focus (4.6 rebounds per-game to just 3.6 in his second season, plus negative defensive BPM both seasons), which are two things that Thibs will absolutely not tolerate from someone as talented as Wiggins.
Thibs might quite literally scream Wiggins into reaching his defensive-stopper potential. Just look at the productivity of the last two wing players that blossomed under Thibs in Chicago, Luol Deng and Jimmy Butler, and fantasize what he’ll do with Wiggins.
Will all of these factors result in an All-Star selection for Andrew Wiggins, or the at the very least will he show signs that he’ll be a multiple All-Star once he hits his prime? I’m not sure. But it’s going to be fascinating to watch.
3. New Scoreboard! This one is only for fans who make it to Target Center, but it is an amazing scoreboard — and they even took down the full moon in the upper deck and replaced it with a video board! (Now if they just fix the horrible congestion in the concourses for getting in and out of Target Center I’ll be happy with the $110 million renovations. Seriously, if I could just get to my seat in under 30 minutes after entering Target Center, which was not possible for well attended games last year, they can go ahead and charge me $20 a beer and I’d be ecstatic. Actually, forget that last part.)
Oct 19, 2016; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Zach LaVine (8) dribbles in the third quarter against the Memphis Grizzlies at Target Center. The Timberwolves beat the Grizzlies 101-94. Mandatory Credit: Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports
4. Zach LaVine: time to sink or swim.
Many people think Zach is going to take a huge step forward this year. It’s certainly possible given he’s entering his third year and he’s finally established at his intended position (shooting guard) and should have a clear role (run and dunk, make threes, be an occasional creator in the half court).
But when you look at his weaknesses, such as inconsistent effort and energy (ala Wiggins), blown defensive assignments, reckless drives to the rim with inability to finish in traffic (still surprising, given his athleticism), and shot selection you can see a pattern of traits that is bound to make Thibodeau lose even more hairs from his once mighty mullet.
In fact, I’ve already traveled to the future to see a video of his reaction when LaVine drives into a triple-team and promptly lays the ball over the entire backboard with 19 seconds left on the shot clock:
Or maybe he’ll go with something more subtle:
Either way, Zach’s reaction to Thibs’s reaction will be something like this:
Zach Lavine’s first year relationship with Thibs will be like that cocky, smart-ass kid in high school who thought he knew everything but then had a class with the disciplinarian, no-nonsense teacher who took absolutely no crap from anyone. They’ll test each other and come out stronger for it or it’ll completely blow up in their faces. I predict we’ll see a little bit of both this season.
There will be stretches where Zach is an offensive fireball and completely locked in on defense and Thibs will be first to offer him glowing praises. There will also be first quarters where Zach will take and miss terrible shots and be a complete sieve defensively before Thibs throws him in the doghouse for the rest of the game.
Both situations will be fun as hell to watch, of course. Remember, the next time you’re about to get mad at Zach for making some boneheaded play, just think of the amazing growl/despondent stare/temper-tantrum Thibs will throw at him. Pure entertainment.
5. The time of Thibs. Holy crap, is this going to be amazing. Why am I so excited that the Wolves are now coached by Tom Thibodeau?
Well, let’s go through a few of the recent coaches in Wolves history: Kevin McHale, Randy Whitman, Kurt Rambis (?!?!), a somewhat disinterested and past-his-prime (all due respect) Rick Adelman, and Sam ‘7-button-suit’ Mitchell. Somehow, through some Karl-Anthony Towns-inspired divine intervention the frozen tundra has gone from a dumpster fire coaching collection to one of the very best coaches in the league.
A series of mostly fortunate events (a championship-starved Cleveland team willing to part with Wiggins for an about-to-leave-anyway Kevin Love, finally not getting screwed by the lottery and winning the rights to draft KAT, and making a few other good draft choices) allowed the best available coach to hit the open market in over five years to fall into the Wolves’ lap. Now, Wolves fans get to sit back and enjoy some professional level coaching. And oh boy, it’s going to be glorious.
What’s that, you want slick out of bounds plays that create a great look? Spray some #Thibsdust* and this happens:
Looks a little different than your Sam Mitchell out-of-bounds plays where four screens are set that all lead to a lofted pass to Andrew Wiggins on the wing for a contested, fade-away jump shot, isn’t it?
Oh, you’d also like to see a cohesive defensive unit that gives consistently good effort and contests every shot like it’s a playoff game? Well, Thibs basically invented the current NBA defensive schemes that most teams run and his defenses in Chicago finished in the top-10 in defensive efficiency in four out of his five years there (and were 11th the other year).
Hmm, you want to see the Wolves’ promising young players reach their full potential as soon as possible? Well, a 22 year-old Derrick Rose won the league MVP in Thibs’ first season in Chicago and more than doubled his Win Shares from the previous season, going from 6 to 13.1. Jimmy Butler went from the last pick in the first round as a guy who couldn’t shoot but could defend pretty well to an All-Star and max contract player only four years later.
Those players certainly deserve credit as well, but Thibs knows how to get the most out of his guys. Need more proof? Look back to when a decimated Bulls team won on the road in a playoff Game 7 in 2013 with Nate Robinson playing 33 minutes at point guard.
On top of all his, he’s just a gem of a personality. Think of the most sarcastic version of a gem and you have Tom Thibodeau. He’s cranky, ornery, yells so much during games that his voice is completely hoarse afterwards, and his sense of humor is on the Sahara Desert side of dry. In other words, he’s got the potential to be a great Minnesotan. His salty exchanges with local media who ask dumb, antagonizing questions after a loss will soon be the stuff of legend.
How would I sum up my excitement level for watching Thibs coach this team? Let’s let Bart Scott answer that question:
Next: Get Excited For Timberwolves Basketball, Reasons #6-8
Oct 21, 2016; Minneapolis, MN, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves guard Ricky Rubio (9) dribbles the ball as Charlotte Hornets guard Jeremy Lamb (3) defends during the third quarter at Target Center. The Timberwolves won 109-74. Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
6. Ricky Rubio — as polarizing a player as Ricky can be, the dude makes a lot of highlight-level plays. I’m ready to get back to seeing those types of plays on a nightly basis once the season starts.
Many loyal fans think once Thibs spends more and more time with him he’ll realize how uniquely special he really is. It’s been harped on over and over again, but Ricky is a true defensive wizard and Thibs will fall in love with his effort and heart on that end. Will that be enough to overcome his mind-numbing lack of a jump-shot and, even more importantly, his putrid FG percentage at the rim?
Who knows. And for the first time ever, the Wolves have a full-time shooting coach on staff. Perhaps that will help, along with the encouraging fact that Ricky shot better around the rim during the second half last year. In any case, he’s still a very entertaining player and could provide an interesting sub-plot as possible trade bait all season. Which leads me to my next reason to follow the team this year…
7. Trade Speculation. Even if you sleep on a Ricky Rubio pillow every night because you’re just dedicated like that, you’ll still be enamored with all the speculation surrounding this team throughout the season.
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Why? Because for the first time in a long time (possibly ever) the team has real assets and may be a legitimate buyer at the trade deadline. Think about the theme of most Wolves transactions over the last decade: ‘star player wants out’, ‘aging veteran wants to be traded to playoff team’, ‘team needs to move on from failed draft pick’. Not this year baby! The Wolves have the assets to bring in a good, possibly great player.
And not only that, hopefully as the team fulfills some of it’s promise and gains respect league wide it will start gaining interest from role fulfilling veterans looking to find a winning organization. This is the benefit of a good rep in the NBA: instead of buying out or trading players for a bag of skittles (a la Kevin Martin & Mo Williams over the past couple of years) you get to be the team that gets those types of players on the cheap. As the roster thins with injury and Thibs’s notoriously tight rotations it might be a great boon to the team if they’re fighting for playoff positioning. In any case, it’ll be fun to follow all the trade speculation all year because it’s finally time for the Wolves to be on the buyer side of a mid-season trade.
8. Jim Peterson (aka Jimmy Pete!) & Dave Benz. Simply put, the Timberwolves have one of the best TV crews in the league. As Zach Lowe stated in his 2015 League Pass Rankings (a ranking of all the NBA teams in watchability from 1-30):
If you crave smart commentary, you can’t do any better than Dave Benz and Jim Petersen. Whenever I hear Petersen toss out a SportVU stat or discuss some nugget he learned watching film the night before, I feel sad that they are not broadcasting for a larger audience.
Those are very kind words from someone who probably spends more time watching local broadcasts of games than any other journalist. As someone who takes full advantage of the free League Pass in the first week of the season, I can tell you than most crews don’t even come close to the Wolves’. The blatant homerism of most crews is pretty hilarious, and there is very little of that with Jimmy Pete and Dave Benz.
Dave provides a smooth broadcast with little bias, and definitely hasn’t sugar coated the poor performances over the years. Jim is constantly looking for new statistical nuggets to drop during games and I, for one, appreciate his dedication to his craft. The dude even assistant coaches the Lynx in the offseason!
Oct 16, 2016; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Minnesota Timberwolves forward Nemanja Bjelica (88) drives to the basket in front of Oklahoma City Thunder center Steven Adams (12) and forward Ersan Ilyasova (7) during the second quarter at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
9. The bench mob: for the first time in forever, the Wolves bench looks NBA caliber.
The likely first five off the bench looks to be Kris Dunn, Brandon Rush, Shabazz Muhammad, Nemanja Bjelica, and Cole Aldrich. Tyus Jones, Jon Lucas III, and Jordan Hill should be able to fill in some minutes as well.
Considering how poorly Kris Dunn played in the preseason, you could argue he’s not even ready to lead the second unit, much less the starting five. But I think he flashed enough ability to merit the first crack at it. And if Thibs gives him a short leash due to shot selection and/or turnovers, Jones & Lucas III will fill in.
Rush is the perfect veteran bench player: knows his role, can hit open shots, and won’t be clamoring for player time over more inexperienced players. Plus, he can play and guard multiple positions which is a required skill for bench wing players in the current NBA.
Shabazz is Shabazz; the dude chases buckets like Tiger Woods chases cocktail waitresses. It’ll be interesting to see the improvements he makes on defense, because we all know Thibs will not tolerate the lack of consistent effort and constant blown assignments that have plagued ‘Bazz throughout his career.
The big man bench trifecta of Bjelica, Aldrich, and Hill is the best the Wolves have ever had. Bjelica looked great in the preseason and Thibs is excited for his versatility and outside shooting ability. The regular season is a different animal, though, and we unfortunately saw Belly’s ineffectiveness at times last season.
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There should be confidence in the fact that Aldrich is a solid backup center who is actually paid like one (he signed a three-year, $21 million contract this summer). When Jordan Hill is your starter (like with the Lakers last year) you’re in trouble, but if he’s your fifth big man you’re in great shape. If Gorgui or KAT went down for a short period, I’d have full confidence in any of the above-mentioned bigs filling in. It would’ve been ludicrous to state the previous sentence about last year’s bench bigs.
The only thing left for this bench mob is a decent nickname. Bench pups? Kris’s ARMY? The Timberbench?…I gotta work on my nickname skills.
10. Professionalism — this one goes for on the court and off.
If you look at the chronological list of the Wolves’ last few coaches (Kurt Rambis, Rick Adelman, Flip Saunders, Sam Mitchell) you could say the Wolves’ offensive schemes have been stuck in the 90’s since, well, the freaking 90’s.
Thibs has emphasized the three-point line this preseason and it’s already shown. The Timberwolves averaged 22 three pointers per game during the preseason, which would have been league-average last year. It’s also six more per game than they averaged last year.
Every successful modern NBA offense utilizes the three point line and hopefully this trend continues to the regular season. On defense, they’ve got one of the best defensive minds in the league and you know he’s going to drill schemes, technique, and effort into this team until they get it right. The Wolves were second in defensive efficiency in the preseason after finishing 27th last year.
While the team is unlikely to hold that up during the regular season, consider the length and athleticism of this team and tell me that they can’t finish between 10-15, or possibly crack the top-10.
Tapping into both on and off court professionalism, I believe this team will perform markedly better on the second night of back-to-backs and similar schedule challenges (four games in five nights, etc.). So many times in the last decade the Wolves would fold in games considered ‘schedule losses’ and would use the built in excuse of fatigue.
This will not fly under Thibs. He demands 100 percent effort at all times and he will drill into this team that every game deserves their full attention. He’s also made some efforts behind the scenes to improve this area. From the Pioneer Press:
It’s an all-business culture cultivated by Thibodeau and GM Scott Layden. The demands made of players here in the past — meeting with corporate sponsors or season ticket holders to try to spur interest in the team — have been significantly reduced to allow them to focus on basketball.
Hotels on the road have been upgraded and trips home in between spaced-out road games have been eliminated to give the team more bonding time.
I love everything about all of the above. The team is finally acting like a professional basketball team and taking the extra steps necessary to create a winning culture.
Due to all of this, I think you’ll see more consistent effort and play this season, and you’ll be seeing them win a lot more games that would be considered justifiable ‘schedule losses’ in previous years.
11. Playoffs or bust! This team has the talent, coaching, and organizational support to achieve their first playoff birth since 2004. If you’d like to read about their playoff chances, there’s about 287 articles on the interwebs going over the playoff landscape in the West and the Wolves’ place in it. Just the fact the Wolves have such realistic high expectations for the season gives them another reason to watch this season.
And that’s it. If my eleven biggest reasons to watch the Wolves season didn’t get you jacked to take in their season, well, you either don’t have a pulse, don’t like the NBA and weren’t going to watch the Wolves regardless of what I wrote, or you were already jacked about the season and didn’t need me to write anything anyway.
In any case, enjoy the season and thank God the NBA is back!
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