Timberwolves Roundup: Power rankings, unnecessary panic

The season is almost exactly one-third of the way over, and the Timberwolves sit fourth in the Western Conference. Times have changed, Wolves fans.

With 27 games down and 55 to play, the Minnesota Timberwolves sit comfortably in fourth place in the rough-and-tumble Western Conference.

A 16-11 record (and a 48-win pace) is nothing to sneeze at; the Wolves have only won 40 or more games twice since the 2003-03 Western Conference Finals season. But as has been well-documented around these parts, it’s a somber 16-11, if that makes any sense at all.

Sure, the Wolves’ point differential is a mediocre +0.8 after Sunday’s win over the hapless Dallas Mavericks. According to Basketball-Reference.com’s expected wins (or Pythagorean method), the Wolves record should be just 14-13. Again, probably a playoff team, but barely.

The question of whether or not a 16-11 record is slightly fluky (read: lucky) or still an underachievement remains open. There have certainly been some wins that have come with some fortunate bounces, but those are often offset by losses that come about the same way. As Brian Sampson and I bantered about on this week’s Dunking With Wolves podcast, each and every team — even the good ones — have bad losses. The Suns loss, perhaps both Detroit losses, and the John Wall-less Wizards loss certainly fall under that category.

But it isn’t the end of the world. Far from it, and while your DWW co-experts disagreed somewhat on whether or not the team (and specifically, it’s defense) should be farther ahead than it is as of early December, nearly 18 months after the hiring of front office and bench boss Tom Thibodeau, the fact that this arguement is taking place with the squad sitting at five games above the .500-mark with 32 percent of the games played is far better than many of the possible alternatives.

ESPN.com’s power rankings have seen the Wolves creep back up a spot each of the last two weeks with some mostly even, albeit up-and-down in the win-loss column, performances of late. The Wolves have finally won two in a row after see-sawing their way through the past three-plus weeks, and with a winnable game against a batter Philadelphia 76ers squad on Wednesday night and home games to follow against 8-18 Sacramento and 9-19 Phoenix, this team should eclipse 20 wins well before Christmas.

We’ve talked plenty of late about the issues surrounding inconsistency with the team, and Justin Pinotti gave us his thoughts on a few trades that the Timberwolves should consider as “trade season” begins on Dec. 15 (teams can now trade players with contracts signed over the summer).

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But let’s enjoy 16-11, and hope that the defense improves, Nemanja Bjelica gets healthy, and the players stay fresh enough to give fans a real shot at not only a playoff berth, but a first-round victory in the postseason.