Minnesota Timberwolves Roundup: Awards, trades, and home court advantage

Let’s take a spin around the interwebs and see what folks are saying about the Minnesota Timberwolves as we inch closer to playing basketball this fall.

Ladies and gentlemen: we’re only a couple weeks away from media day and the start of training camp for the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Let’s just say that we’re within range.

In the meantime, we’ve had a fairly busy week or so.

First, there was the Timberwolves’ release of their new/old Classic jerseys, followed by our definitive rankings of the best uniforms in franchise history.

Then, the news that a trio of familiar names, along with some other unnamed veterans, would be at Mayo Clinic Square during the week for tryouts with the Wolves. (Yours truly is firmly in the Corey Brewer Takes Target Center – Part III camp.) Additionally, those pesky Luol Deng rumors continue to persist.

Our last Timberwolves Roundup explored Taj Gibson‘s offseason workouts and Kevin Garnett‘s lawsuit of his former accountant.

And now, we end the week with a spin around the internet, including FanSided’s own Hoops Habit and our friend Kyle Ratke at Timberwolves.com.

First, James Greieco at Hoops Habit felt the need to list the three most likely Wolves players to be moved this year. You can probably guess who number one is, and we’ve already spent some time exploring possible Jimmy Butler trades to places such as Miami, the Knicks, and yes, of course, the Los Angeles Lakers.

Check out the piece because it’s a good read. And because he probably is right about the three most likely players to be traded if the Wolves were to trade someone, although I would order them differently. As we’ve said before here at Dunking With Wolves, it would be a mild shock to see Butler be traded away by Tom Thibodeau. Don’t count on it.

Also at Hoops Habit, Luke Askew listed the Wolves’ most likely award-winners. For instance, which Wolf is most likely to win awards such as league MVP, Most Improved Player, Sixth Man of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and so on.

Finally, Timberwolves.com posted some facts and figures related to the Wolves’ home court advantage from last season.

The Wolves had a fantastic 30-11 mark at Target Center in 2017-18, making them one of only six NBA teams to win 30 or more home games. (Of course, that only underscores just how badly they played on the road, but let’s set that aside for the time being.)

Along with that mark come a lot of other fairly obvious stats, including an increase in scoring, assists, and rebounds and a decrease in personal fouls committed and turnovers.

The Wolves open the 2018-19 season on the road and play their home opener on Friday, Oct. 19 against Kevin Love and the LeBron James-less Cleveland Cavaliers.