Free falling! Minnesota Timberwolves injuries at critical mass now

When the Minnesota Timberwolves (13-14) sent out their starting five to face the LA Clippers (16-13), the Timberwolves would show their hand. Who would take over in the absence of PG D’Angelo Russell?  The answer was as suspected when we first alerted folks to the likelihood of Russell playing with a knee contusion.

But while it was an expected Austin Rivers step onto the basketball court for the Timberwolves, he was not the only absence on this once robust Timberwolves roster.  In fact, D’Angelo Russell was only the latest injury to the Timberwolves, and his injury may have set the entire Timberwolves roster to critical mass.

Let’s run down the injuries one more time:

PF/C Karl-Anthony Towns – Calf strain (2-4 weeks remaining)

SF/PF Taurean Prince – Shoulder injury (about a week away)

PG Jordan McLaughlin – Calf injury (day to day)

PG D’Angelo Russell – Bruised knee (day to day)

If you want additional details about the Timberwolves’ injuries and a roughly estimated date for the return of each player, you can check out our recently published Minnesota Timberwolves roster injury updates.

The absence of four of the team’s best perimeter shooters, and overall offensive contributors, is as disastrous as feared. The Timberwolves’ latest effort, a 98-88 shellacking at the hands of the Clippers, was the worst offense shown by this team all season. No Timberwolves player broke the 20+ point barrier, and the team’s best perimeter shooter, shooting guard Anthony Edwards, would make only two of seven from beyond the arc.

The Minnesota Timberwolves, now at 1-3 in their five-game road trip, have fallen to an unimpressive 13-15, and must now face the Oklahoma City Thunder (11-17) before returning home to Target Center, and hopefully welcoming back some healthy players.

The Timberwolves are playing at a .300 clip in their last ten contests, (3-7), a downturn that began before the loss of Karl-Anthony Towns to injury, but with each additional injury, the Timberwolves have become less competitive. Now, the Timberwolves have become tragically unable to score points, a critical mass of injuries that has stripped the team of offense, and forced the rotation to a tight eight players until the game got out of hand, which triggered the chance to send in young players in need of playing time.

4 of 22 from the perimeter. 88 points. The Minnesota Timberwolves are free-falling now. And we can only hope that some players return to health in time to turn this thing around. The Timberwolves front office, led by President of Basketball Operations, Tim Connelly, cannot afford for this thing to go off the rails so quickly.

Look for the team to make a move soon, even if just to shore up the back end of this roster.

Hopefully, it won’t be too late to turn this around, while the season is worth salvaging.