The 11 biggest reasons to watch the Timberwolves this season

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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 playing 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 a couple of years ago) 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.

Next: No Frills Wolves Podcast: Season Preview - Part Two

In any case, enjoy the season and thank God the NBA is back!