The Timberwolves have poor expectations

The owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Glen Taylor, was extremely direct about his feelings toward this 2017-18 NBA season for the Wolves.

The 2017-18 Minnesota Timberwolves finished the regular season as the 8th seed sitting at a record of 47-35. Unfortunately, the Wolves were forced to play one of the best offenses in NBA history in the first round of the playoffs, losing 4-1. Minnesota as a whole seemed to be at odds with their emotions toward this Wolves team with their first playoff berth since 2004, yet the season seemed like a disappointment to the masses.

How should Glen Taylor or Tom Thibodeau feel about this season? Should they just be satisfied with the fact that they finally made the playoffs again, or is this just more fire for them in the future? Wolves media and fans seem to be somewhere in the middle, which isn’t always a consistency for most franchises in the NBA.

Here’s a take from owner, Glen Taylor, about his feelings after the devastating loss to the Houston Rockets in the playoffs.

"VIA, StarTribune“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.”"

What Taylor alludes to is the trade of Kris Dunn, Zach LaVine, and presumptuously Lauri Markkanen. This move was made to acquire All-Star Guard, Jimmy Butler. This turned out to be an amazing trade for the Timberwolves, and possibly for the Bulls as well. Both acquired great assets, but some analysts believe that the ceilings of Dunn, LaVine, and Markkanen are in total, greater than Butler.

I believe most fans and media would agree with that opinion, therefore the move for Butler was made to get into the playoffs. This was obviously done for that playoff run, but the Wolves were one loss away from not making the playoffs once again. Ultimately, the Timberwolves lost three key assets for the future, and they got a player who played a little over half the season due to injury. Taylor had high expectations, but perhaps not high enough.

Taylor goes on in his press conference to talk about the reality of the team the Timberwolves currently have, and how they reached his expectations. The question still remains: Should Taylor and the rest of Minnesota have such low expectations? Even though the Wolves hadn’t been in the playoffs in 13 seasons, it seems that with two of the top 20 players in the league (Towns and Butler) there would’ve been a much higher ceiling for this team.

Next: Reviewing Derrick Rose's season with the Wolves

On to next year, I guess.