Minnesota Timberwolves: Two players ranked in Bleacher Report’s top 100

The Minnesota Timberwolves had two players rank in a recent top-100 list.

Perhaps it’s no surprise that the Minnesota Timberwolves only have two players that appear on Bleacher Report’s Top 100 Player Rankings.

But then again, it was just last year when four Wolves appeared on Sports Illustrated’s Top 100, although only two were on ESPN’s list. In 2018, five Wolves players were on SI.com’s list.

It’s clear that the current version of the Timberwolves is rather top-heavy; there are exactly two guys on the roster who have been All-Stars, and they happen to be the two guys who are also on maximum contracts. Beyond them?

Role players in various stages of their individual development, such as Josh Okogie, Jake Layman, Juancho Hernangomez, and James Johnson. There are also young players who have plenty of runway to improve but aren’t top-100 players as we stand today, including Jarrett Culver, Jordan McLaughlin, and Naz Reid.

But there aren’t any proven veteran role players this side of Johnson. No Taj Gibson or Jeff Teague, who each appeared on lists such as this in recent years. No third wheel who is at least a perceived “star”, like Andrew Wiggins.

Instead, the Wolves have exactly two players who the rest of the league takes note of, and the rest of the roster, while considerably improved from 12 months ago, remains in constant flux.

We’ve recently taken a look at D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns‘ individual rankings in Bleacher Report’s top 15 players at their respective positions. Now, we take a look at where they each landed in the composite list of the top 100 over at Bleacher Report.

Before we do that, keep this in mind: yes, president of basketball operations Gersson Rosas and the front office believe that they have their two building blocks, their cornerstones to carry the franchise to the next level. Are they where they need to be for the Wolves to be championship contenders? Obviously not. And this list demonstrates that, albeit on a crude level and from something resembling a 10,000-foot view.

Rosas believes that this duo has plenty of growth remaining. They’re each only 24 years old, after all, and if they both show even moderate growth as Rosas and Co. upgrade the roster around them, this is a playoff team. But if one or both of them makes exponential growth? Look out.

Let’s look at the rankings for both Russell and Towns.