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.

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.)