The Timberwolves’ Season Wasn’t A Failure
Even though the season ended without the Minnesota Timberwolves in the playoffs, this season was far from a failure.
The Minnesota Timberwolves 2016-17 season has ended the same way as many previous have. For the 13th straight year, they will not be making a playoff appearance.
Minnesota’s 13 straight seasons without a playoff appearance increases the franchise record for most consecutive years without a playoff appearance. It also moves the Timberwolves into the second spot on the all-time list for longest NBA playoff droughts, only behind the Los Angeles Clippers who suffered a 15-year drought between 1977-1991.
While many long-serving Timberwolves fans are again mourning what might have been, they, unfortunately, will not be seeing their beloved Wolves in the NBA playoffs this season.
However, the 2016-17 NBA season was not a loss or a failure for the Minnesota Timberwolves, who instead made great leaps and bounds. Their unfortunate playoff drought has continued this year for two key reasons.
It’s no surprise one of the key reasons the Timberwolves have struggled to gain consistent wins in the second half of their season is because they were without Zach LaVine after he tore his ACL.
The third-year shooting guard was averaging career highs in points, rebounds, steals and field goal percentage per game, also tying his career high in blocks per game.
In the 48 games the Timberwolves played before his injury, LaVine made 47 starts and only missed a single game due to a sore knee.
LaVine brought reliability, dependability and a steady scorer that the Timberwolves so desperately needed. He contributed 20+ points to the Wolves 22 times in his appearances, scored in the 30’s on three occasions and poured in a career-high 40 points at the Target Center against the Sacramento Kings on December 23.
Post LaVine, the Timberwolves have opted to start Brandon Rush at shooting guard, the oldest man on the roster at 31. Rush is averaging 4.4 points per game for the season in 41 appearances.
At a position where the Minnesota Timberwolves desperately need scoring, he has been held scoreless in four starts. However, Rush has contributed ten plus points to the Wolves six times this season and the Timberwolves have won four of those games.
Rush however has never committed more than two turnovers for the Wolves and is dependable on defense.
With LaVine’s input, the Timberwolves were a serious playoff option. If he returns to his prior form, look for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the top eight of the Western Conference next season.
With Zach LaVine out, another player stepped up amicably for the Wolves.
A lot of people have a stigma around describing Ricky Rubio as a good player, but that is exactly what he is.
Sure, he doesn’t score big every night as many modern point guards do, but he is reliable in his contributions to the Wolves. Rubio is a desperately needed veteran at only 26 years old and is having one of the best seasons of his career.
Rubio had a slow start to the season, scoring four points and five points in the first two games, before being sidelined with an injury. This thrust the inexperienced Kris Dunn into the starting lineup.
The Timberwolves managed to win their first game with Dunn at the helm. The rookie point guard added ten points and six assists in 29 minutes. Backup second-year guard Tyus Jones also added two points and six assists in 19 minutes.
However, all was not well as the Timberwolves then lost three games in a row, with Dunn adding three, seven and then zero points throughout the stretch, despite one nine-assist effort. The Wolves did rally to a win on their last Rubio-less game of the stretch to start the season 2-5.
The Timberwolves struggled early in the season, as they took time to adjust to their new coach, Tom Thibodeau, and his new defensive strategy.
The Wolves are a young team and needing time to gel is understandable. Ricky Rubio is the glue that holds this team, particularly the starters, together when he is on the floor. He himself admits his early season injury affected his game throughout the beginning of the year.
Rubio only scored ten plus points nine times in the 23 games he started in during the 2016 calendar-year portion, the highest of which being an 18-point effort on December 28.
Since the New Year rolled in, Rubio has scored ten plus points 31 times, including seven games in the 20’s, and a career high 33 points against the Lakers on March 30. This comes with new career highs of 40.7 percent from the field and 88.3 percent from the free-throw line.
Rubio is also averaging a career-high 9.1 assists per game this season, including setting a new franchise-high 19 assists against the Washington Wizards on March 13. He also has one more ten assist game this season than last years’ 30. Rubio sits fifth in assists per game throughout all the NBA, only .1 assist per game behind fourth place Chris Paul.
Behind Rubio’s 9.1 assists per game, second place was Zach Lavine with three. The loss of these two players throughout the season obviously contributed to less scoring opportunities for the Minnesota Timberwolves and more of a reason for fans to ponder what might have been.
It’s not hard to see the potential and bright future of the Minnesota Timberwolves. The young team is growing as a unit and with growth and development, this team will truly become a real threat in the Western conference.
The second-year big man Karl-Anthony Towns is leading the Timberwolves in points per game with 24.8, as well as rebounds and blocks.
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The still-young veteran Rubio leads in assists and steals. The addition of second and third place scorers, Andrew Wiggins with 23.3 points and Zach Lavine with 18.9 points, create a deadly pack of Wolves. This pack of wolves will be ready for playoff contention in the 2017-18 NBA season.