The Minnesota Timberwolves’ starting lineup of the future
By Zach Lung
Minnesota Timberwolves’ starting lineup of the future: Center
The center position offers the least controversy in terms of roster construction. Karl-Anthony Towns is the unquestioned centerpiece of the Minnesota Timberwolves’ franchise. Full stop.
While 2020 was the most difficult year of Town’s life, both professionally and personally, there are plenty of reasons for fans to be hopeful about his future with the organization.
Towns continues to be one of the most dynamic scoring big men that the league has ever seen. Meanwhile, Towns is showing noticeable improvements on the defensive end despite missing most of the season due to both a wrist injury and a positive COVID-9 test.
Primarily, he is learning how to effectively defend the pick-and-roll without fouling or taking himself out of position. His 3.1 fouls per game, albeit in a small sample size, would be his lowest foul rate since the 2016-17 season. Continual improvement by Towns on this side of the floor is the only way for Minnesota’s current roster construction to ever contend in the Western Conference.
Towns has three additional years beyond this season remaining on his contract and the team will be looking to capitalize on the prime years of his career. Sadly, 2020-21 is already looking like a lost season for Minnesota but there is still time to learn about the positional fit of each player and prepare the roster for next season when the light turns green.
The potential starting lineup of Russell, Beasley, Edwards, McDaniels, and Towns has yet to log a single minute together due to a multitude of injuries and unfortunate circumstances but that trend will conceivably end soon. Towns recently returned to the lineup and the team hopes to have D’Angelo Russell back from a lingering knee injury in the near future.
While the team awaits Russell’s return, the other four key components are beginning to accumulate their first meaningful minutes together.
The lineup of Beasley, Edwards, McDaniels, Towns, and Rubio in place of Russell is already the team’s most effective lineup, outscoring opponents by 24 points in 19 minutes together thanks to an astounding offensive rating of 175. The versatility of this group is unmatched by any other lineup with switchable defenders, multiple ball handlers, and an influx of 3-point shooting.
Inserting D’Angelo Russell into this mix will only add to the number of creative attacks Minnesota can throw at opposing defenses.
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Fortune will fall upon the franchise eventually and once it does, fans may finally get their first look at the Minnesota Timberwolves’ youthful and electrifying starting lineup of the future.