Timberwolves Roundup: Thibs’ minutes problem, and KAT as the future

This week’s edition of the Timberwolves Roundup mines articles from around the NBA blogosphere that call out Tom Thibodeau’s minutes distribution and laud Karl-Anthony Towns as the future of the NBA.

Coming off of Monday night’s loss to the Memphis Grizzlies (which we chronicled in a more traditional format here and lamented with weeping and gnashing of teeth here), the week set up to be a complete and utter disaster with the Timberwolves already teetering on the edge of the playoff picture in the Western Conference.

But wins, albeit ugly ones, against Atlanta on Wednesday and Dallas on Friday, combined with a series of losses from West contenders, have allowed the Timberwolves to inch up to the No. 5 spot in the playoff race.

Before those wins, however, things looked fairly bleak in Wolves land. Monday’s loss to the Grizzlies was atrocious, and the starters played ungodly amounts of minutes while the likes of Tyus Jones saw a season-low six minutes of run.

Paolo Uggetti of The Ringer wrote about the Thibodeau angst following that loss. The angst certainly isn’t entirely misplaced, of course, but there wasn’t anything groundbreaking in his column. Wolves fans (and everyone other casual observer of the NBA) know that Thibs simply can’t help but overplay his starters, and he is what he is as a coach at this moment in time, for better or for worse.

From Uggetti’s piece:

"“This is the worst loss by far,” Jeff Teague said postgame. Tom Thibodeau called it“hard to explain,” and Taj Gibson said the team was “playing with fire” from the beginning.Both Thibs and some team members attributed the loss to poor shooting or effort, but there was another factor at play: fatigue. On Monday morning, before the upset took place, Teague more or less subtweeted Thibodeau on his usage of the team’s bench.“Like I said from Day 1, guys get tired,” Teague said. “I think [the bench] need opportunities. … Hopefully Thibs sees that they can really play and help and gives them an opportunity.”"

One of the more interesting developments over the past couple of weeks has been Wolves players speaking openly in the media about the minutes distribution. Not since Jamal Crawford‘s December lament about a lack of minutes have we heard players speak out about Thibodeau’s rotation.

Since Monday, we’ve seen Gorgui Dieng have a solid game in the win over the Hawks and Tyus Jones play a key role when Jeff Teague was in foul trouble early and reportedly had a minor injury late in Friday’s win in Dallas. And don’t forget Crawford’s season-high in scoring and game-sealing bucket against the Mavs, too.

Perhaps improved bench play will encourage Thibodeau to get them more playing time down the stretch of the season and build up some confidence and rhythm for the playoffs.

Elsewhere, ESPN’s Kevin Pelton wrote about “The next 11 players who could change the future of basketball”. Karl-Anthony Towns, was included, of course, but there were also some surprises on the list — including a player who isn’t even in the league yet.

Here’s Pelton on Towns:

"While Porzingis got tabbed the Unicorn, Towns’ skill set might be harder to find because of how well he scores both inside and out.So far this season, Towns leads all NBA players who have finished at least 125 post-up plays with a shot, trip to the free throw line or a turnover by averaging 1.04 points per play, according to Synergy Sports tracking on NBA Advanced Stats. Overplay Towns in the post and he’ll simply step out to the perimeter, where he’s shooting 42.8 percent on 3-pointers this season — the best accuracy ever for a 7-footer with at least 150 attempts, per Basketball-Reference.com."

While it’s true that KAT is often included in the group of “unicorns”, the Knicks’ Kristaps Porzingis is often referred to as The Unicorn. Other than being a legitimate seven feet tall, it’s hard to understand why that stuck with Porzingis rather than Towns, who has truly been astonishing on offense from a variety of spots on the floor.

Next: Timberwolves Power Rankings: A career night for KAT

At any rate, the Wolves will need the outstanding play from Towns to continue in the near future as Minnesota looks to not only continue their ascent in the Western Conference standings, but simply to clinch a playoff spot.