The Timberwolves are hungry for anything resembling success. The franchise had gone 12 years without a playoff appearance entering this season and the fans are understandably hungry for any kind of success. Watching Karl-Anthony Towns and his historic rookie season along with the continued growth of Andrew Wiggins were signs of eventual progress towards ending the team’s dark sojourn through the forest of mediocrity, mismanagement and bad luck. Towns and Wiggins are potential future All-Stars, and Zach LaVine could be right behind them.
They needed that one binding agent to provide stability in the form of new coach and president of basketball operations Tom Thibodeau. The Timberwolves, for all these reasons, had some pretty big expectations this season. There were more than a few prognosticators who were ready to say the Timberwolves would make the playoffs. Many at the very least thought they would compete for a playoff spot, even if they would end up falling short. Thibodeau would come in and teach these young Timberwolves defense and allow the team to get to its next level, the next step for a young team destined for greatness.
That was not the case. The Wolves were a tough out, but they were still one of the league’s doormats record-wise.
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Even the surest of sure things with young rosters is rarely a straight line. There are lessons to learn and knowledge to gain. Failures will occur and the team will slip up on their way to greatness. Or not. Who really knows what the future holds?
The Timberwolves were not ready to live up to those playoff expectations. Not yet, anyway. And while the future still seems inevitable, this year was not that year. It was a difficult season, one for growing and learning for this young team that has never experienced playoff success. In the end, the Timberwolves finished with just 31 wins — a two game improvement from last season but far out of the playoff race.
Towns was brilliant once again, averaging 25.1 points and 12.3 rebounds per game. After the All-Star Break, he averaged 28.4 points and 13.4 rebounds per game. Towns’ versatility as a center still makes his rise to the top of the NBA seemingly inevitable. Wiggins was solid, too, averaging 23.6 points per game. And LaVine was the breakout star for the team, averaging 18.9 points per game and shooting 38.7 percent from beyond the arc before tearing his ACL, ending his season in early February.
Thibodeau came in with his usual bluster and demanding personality, but the defense did not respond. The Wolves gave up 109.1 points per 100 possessions, ranking 26th in the league. He did not deliver the defensive devastation he had in Chicago. Young players did what young players do — they made mistakes and staggered some. The Timberwolves were devastating offensively, 108.1 offensive rating (10th in the league), but their defense betrayed them.
From the beginning of the season, the Timberwolves fell into the habit of building big leads in the first half, only to lose them in the third quarter and the second half. The Timberwolves had a -6.3 net rating in the second half, 27th in the league. In clutch situations — any game played within five points in the final five minutes — they finished 15-30 with a net rating of -14.3, according to NBA.com. Only the Suns finished with more losses in these situations. The Timberwolves’ offense in particular went in the tank late in games (97.3 offensive rating) and that made the team’s defense even worse. There were moments where they looked good, but largely this was a team that did not know how to win.
According to Basketball-Reference’s Simple Rating System, the Timberwolves had the statistical profile of a 38-win team, seven more wins than the team won this year. The inability to win games at the end proved to be crucial to their success or failure this season.
Going from promising young team to winning playoff-bound team is a tough road. All those who put big expectations on this young Timberwolves team to make the playoffs this year probably discounted just how hard it is to take that big step. This is a franchise that changed its coach and overall philosophy, after all, while relying on players who have little NBA experience. It was shocking to see the Timberwolves continually lose double-digit leads throughout the season. Then again, it was understandable. Winning in the NBA is not easy. These are the pains the franchise has to go through as they grow.
The question for the Timberwolves is how does the team bounce back next year? Does coaching continuity help settle things down? They’ve had four coaches the last four years (including dealing with the death of Flip Saunders before last season). With Thibodeau in place for the long term, returning players will know what to expect of themselves as they work through the offseason and prepare for next year.
Maybe another year of growth and development for Wiggins, Towns and LaVine is the answer. Or it could be that the remaining holes on this roster — a shaky bench and a lack of shooting — need to be plugged before the young core can really rise to its full potential.
This year was valuable for Minnesota for continuing to put those ducks in a row. The Timberwolves have a young roster of offensive talent that seems to fit well together in Towns, Wiggins and LaVine. That should help them forge an identity and keep their future even though they still have a decision to make with Ricky Rubio and desperately need to address their depth issue through free agency or the draft.
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None of that will matter if Minnesota does not grow internally and individually. And even that may not be enough. The team has to learn to finish games in those final five minutes. They cannot even whisper about the playoffs until they accomplish this goal regularly. It’s why they are going to face big expectations again in 2018. Unlike this past season, though, they have to prove that they can win.