Minnesota Timberwolves: New championship timeline
By Jaime Tyler
The Bay Area Backlash
Tick tock. Tick tock. Do you hear that sound? That’s the league collectively resetting their championship timelines.
As the Golden State Warriors cruised through the Western Conference and thoroughly trounced the second-best team in the NBA in the finals; most of the rest of the NBA decided to plan for five years down the road, rather than next season.
In fact, the Warriors so meticulously dismantled the league this post-season, even contending teams were forced to reexamine their places in the NBA’s hierarchy.
Cleveland and LeBron? Check. General Manager James knows the Eastern Conference champs aren’t close to the Warriors, so he has been working the phones hard this summer in hopes of landing the likes of Butler, Paul George, or old friends Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony.
The Boston Celtics and Danny Ainge? Uh-huh. Ainge had a chance to get Butler, may still get George, was rumored to be offered Kristaps Porzingis, and he still did not bite on any offers for, among other reasons, the notion that no matter what they do, they’re not beating the Warriors any time soon. The Celtics are hoarding assets for a post-James, post-Golden State world.
The Spurs and Gregg Popovich? Yup. They, too, have been linked to Paul George. There have also been rumors of them making space for the other Paul, Chris that is. The perennially dangerous Spurs need more ammo as well.
As you can see, contending teams are either putting on the brakes or stockpiling more talent.
On the other hand, up and coming teams have decided to go with a full-on youth movement. The Philadelphia 76ers, Los Angeles Lakers, and Sacramento Kings are where the Timberwolves were a year or two ago: giving as many young, talented players the opportunity to play lots and lots of NBA minutes.
The understanding being, Golden State is here to stay, so why rush our process or The Process?
Zig When They Zag
While the majority of the league is preparing for Golden State’s foursome to climb over the NBA hill, the Timberwolves made a win-now move in the face of the NBA’s juggernaut.
Or did they?
It was common logic around the league that the Wolves would hone their young core, modeling themselves after the Warriors or the what-could-have-been Oklahoma City Thunder. Youthful, cheap, homegrown talent waiting to come together in championship form.
LaVine, Wiggins and Towns were about to enter this season just old enough to buy a craft beer at your local brewhouse, and wouldn’t be fully ready to contend for a championship for another three or four seasons, at the earliest.
Lest we forget, this trio had amassed 29 and 31 wins over the past two seasons. They were nowhere near the playoffs, let alone championship contention.
Yet, the high-flying displays of LaVine, the 40-point Wiggins’ outbursts, and the Hall of Fame beginning to KAT’s career had media, NBA folks, and fans just waiting for the Timberpups to become the Timberchamps, soon.
Tom Thibodeau had other plans.
Thibs decided to zig when the rest of the league was zagging. Though, he did so, not to abandon their once bright future, rather to enhance what the Wolves will one day become.
Sure, we could get into other reasons why Thibs pulled off the trade: the fact that the Wolves have a 13-year playoff drought, the organization is undergoing a major logo and uniform overhaul and needs a shot in the arm or the fact that Target Center has been a dud of a building to watch a basketball game in over the past several seasons. All of those would be dandy reasons to bring in a three-time All-Star and All-NBA talent.
The Wolves, however, brought in Jimmy Butler to win themselves a championship.