Believe it or not, the Minnesota Timberwolves have a comparable future outlook to the 51-win Philadelphia 76ers. Seriously.
Sure, the headline at the top of the page might sound downright homer-ific. But it’s far from crazy.
It was only in November that the Minnesota Timberwolves shipped their best player to Philadelphia. Shortly thereafter, the 76ers acquired Tobias Harris to round out one of the best starting lineups in the entire NBA.
On its face it may seem ridiculous to compare the 36-win Timberwolves to the 51-win Sixers, who finished as the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference and just defeated the Brooklyn Nets in five games in the first round of the playoffs.
But consider what the Sixers gave up in depth and future assets to polish off that formidable starting quartet, and the picture becomes just a bit less clear.
The Superstars
The Sixers have Joel Embiid. The Timberwolves have Karl-Anthony Towns.
The debate over which player you’d rather have could rage on forever; each player has characteristics that should give them a clear edge.
Embiid, for instance, has a slight edge on the glass and as a shot-blocker. He also has a level of dominance and athleticism in the paint and in the post that is hard to match.
Towns, on the other hand, is a far superior shooter and is a bit more versatile on offense. While his defense is improving it still leaves something to be desired, but the his vast edge in terms of availability gives him a big advantage.
Embiid famously sat out his first two years as a pro, meaning that he just wrapped up his third season at 25 years of age. Even removing the 164 regular season games he missed in his first two years, Embiid has only played in 158 of 246 possible games (64.2 percent) over the last three campaigns.
Contrast that to Towns, who has played in 323 of 328 possible games (98.4 percent) over four seasons and didn’t miss a game in his first three years. He’s also still just 23 years old.
At worst, this is a wash for the Wolves, but they likely have the slight edge moving forward.