Tomas’ Timberwolves Takeaways – Part Four

With only a fifth of the season remaining, it’s pretty safe to say that the Timberwolves organization should be looking forward to the draft.

That said, there’s a lot to say about the positive strides this young team has taken.

As of late, Karl Anthony-Towns has run away with the Rookie of the Year award, posting ridiculous splits and currently holding the best PER for a 20 year-old ever. He’s been averaging 20+ points in the last two months and 10+ rebounds in the same stretch.

Initially thought to be the second option after Wiggins, it’s impressive to see him absolutely dominate. He’s just gotten better the later the season has progressed and his teamwork with Dieng has proved to be quite devastating.

While it’s way too early to make any remarks about his future career, he’s already making a case to be considered a generational talent. A front court player who can take a shot outside, protect the rim, and facilitate, Towns embodies the modern NBA center.

It’s an absolute blast watching him play, and I’ve noticed his body control has gotten exceptionally better, slithering his way around defenses in the paint for easy buckets.

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The past couple of months have been good to Wiggins as well, despite being somewhat in the shadow of KAT due to his impressive performances. Wiggins continues to output consistent offensive production, and while rebounds and assist numbers are still somewhat of an issue, he’s done well to up these figures as of late.

He often takes time to get going, often starting the game woefully in terms of shooting percentages, but seems to generally end up towards a nice middle ground at the end of the game. As early as it is in the month of March, he’s shooting the three-ball a lot better, so hopefully he can continue to add that to his game, having made vast strides in his jump shot as well.

The month of February marked a renaissance period in Zach Lavine’s young career, which looks to keep up in March.

He enjoyed increased minutes and repaid this in improved production, nabbing a place in the starting lineup as the team is weaned off Tayshaun Prince. While still carrying the ball a little too much, it’s still refreshing to see Lavine play at the two-spot. It’s also given more minutes to Tyus Jones, who I really want to do well.

Ricky Rubio‘s shooting woes continue despite what seemed to be a good start at the beginning of the season, but his production in other areas have gone up and have somewhat covered parts of this hole in his game. He’s making a lot of money and a couple of points more per game could readily justify his contract.

An important thing to note is that the veteran presence is slowly dissolving. Prince is getting less minutes, Kevin Garnett is likely out for the season, and Andre Miller and Kevin Martin were bought out. This shows the organizations willingness to commit to its young core as well as show the massive improvements the team has shown.

Next: Should the Timberwolves Trade Ricky Rubio This Summer?

It’s not a complete loss of a season, of course. In fact, despite being both enraged and overjoyed multiple times whilst watching games, I’m still a firm believer that it’ll all be worth it. The improvement the young Timberwolves core has shown is incredible, and I hope they’re able to carry that into the future.