The Minnesota Timberwolves entered the 2020-21 NBA season with mild expectations for success.
The building blocks were in place. Karl-Anthony Towns was healthy and motivated to play alongside his friend and fellow All-Star D’Angelo Russell.
Fan-favorite Ricky Rubio was back in a Timberwolves uniform after three years away, and Minnesota re-signed Malik Beasley, who enjoyed a 14-game breakout with the Wolves last season, scoring 20.1 points per game after being acquired from Denver.
To top it all off, the Wolves secured the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft and subsequently chose Georgia guard Anthony Edwards to help propel the franchise into its next iteration. Things were looking up for the Minnesota Timberwolves and their beleaguered fanbase.
Oh, how naive we all were. One month into the season, and the sky is falling all around the NBA’s most persecuted fanbase. At 3-10, everything that can go wrong has for the Timberwolves.
But, something has to be going right. Right?
3 things that the Minnesota Timberwolves do well
Towns, who already had the worst year imaginable in his personal life, has been put through hell this season.
After leading Minnesota to two wins in the first two games, Towns dislocated his wrist, the same one he broke last season, and missed six straight games. The Wolves lost all six by an average of 20 points per contest.
The two-time All-Star returned for two games. Both were losses that Minnesota should have won but gave away late. Then, the nightmare continued for the Towns family as KAT announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19, the same virus that took the lives of his mother Jacqueline and as many as six other family members in the past year.
Without their best player for the foreseeable future, the Wolves have begun to spiral. The icing on the cake came on Wednesday against the Orlando Magic; Minnesota led by as many as 20 points and had a five-point lead with 50 seconds to go.
Alas, Magic rookie Cole Anthony grabbed a rebound and drained a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer after a pair of missed free throws from Jarred Vanderbilt. Questions regarding substitution patterns and timeout management abound, but those aren’t the only issues.
The Wolves now sit at the bottom of the Western Conference standings with no clear path to reclaim their hope for relevance. Even if they tank and secure the best odds to land the top pick in the reportedly loaded 2021 NBA Draft, Minnesota only has about a 40 percent chance to keep their pick. If it doesn’t fall in the top three, it will be sent to Golden State to complete the Wiggins-Russell deal.
Tanking will be a dangerous game and the Wolves are more likely to give their pick away than keep it.
Without a top pick in the upcoming draft, Minnesota doesn’t have much hope for the future. The path forward hinges on KAT evolving into a top-five player, Russell regaining his All-Star form, and rookie Edwards blossoming into an All-Star-caliber player worthy of the first-overall selection.
Other young players, such as Jarrett Culver and Josh Okogie, must somehow find their mojo and become consistently positive, impact players moving forward.
It seems like a tall order for one of the most hapless franchises in professional sports. On top of all of that, fans are clamoring for the firing of head coach Ryan Saunders, and slightly more quietly, President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas.
The Wolves are bottom-five in the league in both offensive and defensive rating, they don’t shoot well, they hardly grab any defensive rebounds, and they seemingly blow lead after lead after lead.
Somewhat unbelievably, the Wolves aren’t the worst team in the league at absolutely everything, and that means that there are actually a few things that the Wolves do rather well.
Instead of continuing with the negativity, let’s look at a few things that the Wolves are fairly competent at.