Timberwolves Roundup: Wolves as top turnaround team, Muhammad
By Ben Beecken
As ESPN rolls through their Summer Forecast series, the Timberwolves have been prominent in the categories released thus far. Plus, Shabazz Muhammad is back on the Wolves’ radar…
In what has become an annual off-season series, ESPN’s Summer Forecast series began in earnest last week. And while the Timberwolves have been mentioned frequently, they led the way in Sunday’s topic.
ESPN’s panel of 44 experts voted on their respective top-three choices for team’s to make the biggest turnaround from last season to 2017-16. In a perhaps not-so-surprising vote, the Wolves finished in first place with 134 points, outpacing the second-place Philadelphia 76ers (78 points) and division rival Denver Nuggets (58).
Outside of the Houston Rockets adding Chris Paul and the Oklahoma City Thunder trading for Paul George, Jimmy Butler was the highest profile player to change teams (so far) this off-season. Of course, the Rockets and Thunder were already playoff teams, so that makes the Timberwolves the favorite in the “Team Turnaround” category.
Other ESPN categories that have featured the Wolves thus far include “Best Newcomer” (Jimmy Butler finished third with 72 points behind Paul’s 109 and George’s 101), and, rather surprisingly, “Worst Newcomer”.
Now, a disclaimer on the list of Worst Newcomers: there were a whopping 33 players named, and some of them are complete head-scratchers. The Wolves players named are Jeff Teague (nine points) and Jamal Crawford (eight points), and they are in the depths of the “honorable mention” section. The likes of Paul George and Ricky Rubio both managed to get five points each, so this list certainly…covered a lot, let’s just say.
The other category that surprisingly mentioned the Timberwolves was the “Team Turmoil” list; the Wolves finished eighth in the voting after garnering 11 points, finishing behind a list that included plenty of usual suspects for a category like this: Cavaliers, Knicks, Pelicans, Clippers, Bulls, Rockets, and Clippers. In fact, one voter even gave the Wolves a first place vote as the team most likely to “sabotage its own chances through off-court stumbles”.
The only possible explanation is that this voter was projecting out a potential trade for Kyrie Iriving. Otherwise, it’s hard to see how this Tom Thibodeau and Jimmy Butler driven lovefest will could be dragged down.
Also, something we missed mentioning here at DWW last week: Karl-Anthony Towns was voted as the Most Likely First-Time All-Star in the league, edging out Kristaps Porzingis by a 108-104 margin. Joel Embiid, Rudy Gobert, and Nikola Jokic finished in a tie for third place with 96 votes apiece. One interesting note: Towns was only the second player in NBA history to average north of 25 points and 12 rebounds for a season and not be named to the All-Star team. The other? One Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Moving on, be sure to check out Andrew Neururer’s look at the possibility of the Wolves bringing back Shabazz Muhammad on a minimum contract. Clearly, Bazz was expecting more in free agency and now finds himself in a tough spot. Between familiarity and the improved nature of the roster, Minnesota could be the best option if it comes down to it for Muhammad.
Next: Timberwolves Are Sleeping Giants In Transition...
Also, stay tuned for another Dunking With Wolves podcast in the next 24 hours…