Timberwolves Roundup: Season wrap-ups galore

The season is over for the Timberwolves, which means that all of your favorite beat writers and bloggers are submitting their season recaps. Let’s take a look.

It’s all over the Timberwolves. They played more games than they have in 14 years, of course, so there’s a bit more to talk about than the typical offseason.

And at least this summer’s conversation will be surrounding how the Wovles can get from 47 wins to 55 instead of how they can simply have a winning season.

I’ve submitted a glass half-full/glass half-empty piece already, with plenty more to come in the days and weeks that follow. From individual player reviews to suggested offseason moves to draft coverage, we’ll have you covered here at Dunking With Wolves.

But let’s take a quick spin around some of the other fantastic sites that cover the squad.

First, Star Tribune beat writer Jerry Zgoda spoke with Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor about the season, and whether or not his team met his preseason expectations. In short: it appears to be a tepid ‘yes’.

"“I thought with the changes we made, the people we brought in, the sacrifices we made in moving some young, potential people, that we needed to be in the playoffs,” Taylor said Friday, two days after his team lost a first-round playoff series to Houston in five games. “Those were my expectations.”…After his team beat Denver in the season finale, Taylor said “thank goodness” his team won."

Taylor went on to admit that he “hoped” the Wolves would have landed home-court advantage, which, of course, they were on pace to clinch prior to Jimmy Butler’s knee injury suffered on February 23, that forced the All-Star to miss 17 games.

Taylor also acknowledged that the team needs to improve defensively and use it’s bench more — both common refrains from the Timberwolves’ faithful.

Elsewhere, Eric in Madison at Canis Hoopus wrote a lengthy piece asking the ever-important question, ‘Did we have fun?’. It’s a fair question to pose, of course, especially with the odd yet palpable sense of “meh-ness”, if you will, hanging over the season past and it’s conclusion.

After acknowledging obvious comparisons between the Wolves and recent up-and-comers, such as the 2009-10 Oklahoma City Thunder and the 2012-13 Golden State Warriors, Eric delves into the question of Tom Thibodeau and whether or not he turns off a segment of the fanbase with his … gruffness, as well as the frustrations of some of the players related to minutes distribution.

Make sure to head on over to Canis Hoopus and check out the article in its entirety.

Lastly, A Wolf Among Wolves hosted a roundtable with their writers specifically related to a “Postseason Postmortem”. It included this astute summary of the positives when it comes to  Thibodeau and the job he’s done thus far.

The issue of 3-point shooting — more accurately, the lack thereof when it comes to the Wolves — is touched on, as well as the matchup against the Rockets and what can be taken away from the 4-1 series loss.

There’s plenty to be talked about, and we have the better part of the next five months to cover it, prior to training camp kicking off. There’s the draft and free agency upcoming, of course, but we’ll take the next few weeks to focus almost solely on our own collective postmortem of both the regular season and the playoffs.

Next: Let's put this Timberwolves season in perspective

Keep it tuned to DWW.