4 things to love about Minnesota Timberwolves new lineups

Reason II: This is a team built upon NBA All-Stars

The Minnesota Timberwolves have built this team upon a triad of NBA All-Stars. They are Rudy Gobert, Karl-Anthony Towns, and now Anthony Edwards. Although paying D’Angelo Russell to be that third leg of an NBA Championship team, he was neither productive nor versatile enough at that compensation level to make sense. Unfortunately, as the season wore on, his salary demands outpaced the willingness of the team to compensate him any higher.

But with the arrival of Mike Conley, the Timberwolves now have a boost to their defense, and that was spotlighted as the team shut down the Dallas Mavericks to preserve a desperately needed victory on the road. The performance was so spectacular, that former Timberwolves great Kevin Garnett even was prompted to talk about it:

That’s pretty special

Timberwolves toughen up on D

The Timberwolves have made a serious push to get stronger on defense, and the results continue to flash for the team. Both Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels are standouts on defense for the team. But there are more talented players on this team’s roster than all that. We have witnessed Naz Reid and even Luka Garza step up and play energetic defense for the Timberwolves this season.

The unfortunate circumstances of injuries this season have made stringing wins together a bit more difficult for the Timberwolves than originally hoped.  But if the Timberwolves can get Karl-Anthony Towns back after the NBA All-Star Break, then the team has a chance to get hot in time for the NBA Playoffs.