Minnesota Timberwolves: The Wolves aren’t exactly irrelevant

The Minnesota Timberwolves are probably going to be a mediocre team this year. But that doesn’t mean they’re irrelevant in the grand scheme of the league.

NBA purgatory is a terrible place to be.

The no man’s land of more than 30 but less than 43 or 44 wins is the practical definition of this dreaded locale, and the Minnesota Timberwolves will almost certainly land in that range for the second consecutive season.

SB Nation’s Tom Ziller penned a piece calling out owner Glen Taylor for the Wolves’ mediocrity, referencing long periods of irrelevance for the franchise, followed by a two-year bump from Jimmy Butler, and now presumably back to not mattering.

The problem with this analysis, however, is many-fold.

First of all, the Wolves have Karl-Anthony Towns, a consensus top-15 player as a 24-year-old with two All-Star appearances and an All-NBA berth on his resume. He’s far from irrelevant, and while he will be the primary reason the Wolves will stay afloat and likely win more than 35 games this year, his presence matters. A lot.

Besides, Ziller himself mentions the Kevin Garnett years as a “successful era” — a point that could be argued surrounding the seven consecutive first-round ousters from 1997 to 2003. But that era was only successful because of Garnett’s superstardom and the Wolves’ consistent presence as a team winning between 40 and 50 games.

On an individual level, Towns is not far off the pace of an early-career Garnett and is almost unequivocally better on the offensive end of the floor. While Garnett was supported early in his career with Tom Gugliotta, Stephon Marbury, and others, Towns has played with no such stars, save for Butler. And the Wolves made the playoffs that season.

Were the 2015-16 Milwaukee Bucks irrelevant while winning 33 games in Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s third season? What about in 2016-17, when they won just 42 games in Giannis’ first All-Star campaign?

Apparently, irrelevancy can flip to relevancy at the drop of a hat.

No, the Wolves aren’t yet a perennial 40-plus win team as Garnett’s teams were for the entirety of his first stint in Minnesota. But they won 36 games as a team in turmoil last year, and Towns’ star-power will keep them on the proper path.

Towns’ presence as a top-15 player and rising superstar is enough to make the Wolves relevant. And all it will take to be in the playoff conversation will be healthy seasons from veterans Robert Covington and Jeff Teague, plus a bit of progression from the likes of Andrew Wiggins, Josh Okogie, and rookie Jarrett Culver.

But the bigger argument against Ziller’s claim of irrelevance is the presence of Gersson Rosas, the new president of basketball operations who isn’t mentioned in the piece until the second-to-last paragraph. Rosas will not allow this team to float around in ambiguity, but instead has already instilled an effective and pervasive culture.

Twelve months from now, it’s fair to assume that Rosas will have acquired at least one star to pair with Towns, if not two. He was busy trying this summer, but encountered challenges related to cap space that he will no doubt overcome given more time. Rosas was only hired in May, after all.

The combination of a young superstar in Towns, a forward-thinking and well-regarded front office, and a positive culture is enough to elevate the Wolves from irrelevance to the playoffs.