NBA Tank Rankings: Knicks hold draft lottery torch
By Brad Rowland
Congratulations to Flip Saunders and company, as the T-Wolves are the “highest” ranked team from the Western Conference.
As was the case all season, the Wolves are battered from a roster standpoint right now, with Nikola Pekovic, Ricky Rubio, Kevin Garnett, Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng (to name five) on the shelf with injury woes. In fact, there is an argument to be made that Minnesota has sustained the worst injury luck in the league during the 2014-2015 season.
With that out of the way, Minnesota still shouldn’t be the worst defensive team in the NBA. Number one overall pick Andrew Wiggins is an exquisite building block, but the Wolves have been maddening defensively all season, leaving some to wonder if Flip is either a) tanking or b) operating an outdated system.
The Wolves do have the benefit of monster lottery odds and a very nice young core including Wiggins, Rubio and Zach LaVine, but for a team that some had high hopes for in 2014-2015, it hasn’t been a lot of fun. Undoubtedly, pundits will predict playoff-level success for Minnesota in 2015-2016, but when they do, remember how this season played out despite significant talent on the roster.
Next: New York