Dunking With Wolves
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Are the Timberwolves already in turmoil?

ByNolan Schmidt|

The Wolves have stumbled out of the gate in the 2015-16 preseason, to put it lightly.

With their blowout loss to the Bucks on Tuesday, the Wolves dropped to 1-5 in the preseason. There have been some bright spots, but most of the attention has been focused on the negatives; most notably, Sam Mitchell’s shuffling of the starting line-up, not to mention that the Wolves seem like they haven’t found their identity as a team quite yet.

In some cases, these issues can be taken with a grain of salt, being that it is just the preseason, but there already seems to be some issues that could spill over into the regular season for Minnesota.

As mentioned above Sam Mitchell’s changing of the starting lineup has been a little peculiar at times. I realize that the preseason is a time to fiddle with minutes and rotation spots. However, as most teams have their starting-fives cemented, the Wolves continue to tamper with it. It leaves a tremendously large question mark with the regular season just six days away.

Here is the latest reported shake-up for those who missed it:

It’s completely sensible to have Zach LaVine coming off the bench. No matter how well he finished last season, he has yet to prove he’s a “starter-caliber” player, in my opinion. His shot chart for this preseason looks, well, like this…

…and should only underline the fact that he is not ready to start.

I’m also just a little startled that Mitchell is rolling with Tayshaun Prince as a starter to begin the season. I realize he’s shooting 60 percent during the preseason, but having him and Kevin Garnett on the floor at the same time seems like overkill by Mitchell in terms of having “veteran leadership”.

I’d rather see Mitchell move Andrew Wiggins to the three-spot and bring in Kevin Martin to start at shooting guard. Sure, Martin is a liability defensively, but he has had experience in the Wolves starting lineup. The other option is putting Shabazz Muhammad in the lineup in place of Prince, which would add some muscle to the mix for the Wolves.

Unfortunately for Mitchell, both Martin and Muhammad have struggled during the preseason, and it’s understandable why Mitchell would not trust them as starters at this juncture, and Martin has already been told he’ll be coming off the bench this year.

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This issue of not having a solidified starting five is a major issue for the Timberwolves going into the regular season. Not only does that mess with the team’s on-court chemistry, but it fails to give the team an identity.

So what can we define as the Wolves’ identity at this point heading into the season?

Mitchell wanted to preach defense in the early-going, and that has not come to fruition as the Wolves are giving up 105.5 points per game through the preseason. So that is clearly not going to be their identity. Or at least not this fall, at any rate.

If they had the intention of being an offensive juggernaut of a team that has not worked either as their averaging a measily 92 points per game. So that can’t be there identity, either.

Gorgui Dieng, Nemanja Bjelica, and Karl Anthony-Towns are the only real things the Wolves can hang their hats on this preseason. With a team that lacks a true identity and an established starting line-up, the Wolves are not starting the season on the right foot. Let’s hope they can figure something out before they dig a hole they cannot get out of.

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