The Minnesota Timberwolves are the most improved team in the NBA. The Wolves went 31-51 last season; Minnesota is on pace to finish 49-33 in 2017-18. This is an incredible jump — no other team is on track to improve more than 13 games (the Rockets and Knicks), and the Wolves are pushing for an 18-game improvement.
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What’s more, this is coming off a 13-year playoff drought. Minnesota’s last postseason match was a Game 6 loss in the 2004 Western Conference Finals. You want to understand how long it’s been? Karl Malone played in that game. Oliver Miller played in that game. Ervin Johnson played in that game. Michael Olowokandi started that game!
The Wolves have been trying to get back ever since. A slew of coaches have been hired and fired. General managers have come and gone. The Kevin Garnett era ended without much to restock the cupboards. The Kevin Love era came and went with a whimper. The Ricky Rubio era came and went with a whimper. The Jonny Flynn and Wesley Johnson era never started. (Peace be to Kahn.)
The only team that’s had as rough a decade as the Wolves are the Kings; at least they had DeMarcus Cousins for a number of years. The Wolves had sadness, cold, and disappointment.
Until now.
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Trading Love, nearing free agency, for Andrew Wiggins was promising. Landing the No. 1 pick the year Karl-Anthony Towns entered the draft was innervating. Landing a coach with the record of success of Tom Thibodeau was huge, even if he also commanded control of the front office. Trading for Jimmy Butler in his prime was a stroke of genius.
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It all came together to work out this season: Towns, despite defensive shortfalls, is an All-Star caliber player. Butler has been as good as ever. Wiggins just might sneak onto the All-Star team himself. Thibs hasn’t been able to establish a defensive identity for the team, but the offense is cooking.
And the team is so, so much better than it’s been. The playoffs aren’t just in reach: Home court in the first round is on the table. Minnesota has arrived, in just Towns’ third year. A basketball rebuild in the Twin Cities finally worked out.
So why is everything about the Timberwolves so joyless?
Wolves fans on the internet seem tortured about this team, critical of Thibodeau’s rotations, Towns’ lack of defensive energy, and Wiggins’ playmaking. Towns has not given up the martyr syndrome that plagued his attitude last season: Based on what we see as outsiders, he seems to take every stumble way too seriously. Thibodeau has tried to temper expectations, but he also signed veterans to round out the team and is playing his core stars more than most other players in the NBA. He’s pressing.
Expectations did a number on the psyche of the Timberwolves, many of their fans, and (frankly) some of the reporters covering the team. Instead of acknowledging that a rise to the top will come with stumbling blocks, Minnesota believes it should be perfect right now.
That’s impossible! The attitude surrounding the team is a striking difference from that of, say, the 2009-10 Oklahoma City Thunder. That was Kevin Durant’s third season. He was clearly a superstar in the making. Russell Westbrook was in his second season, and he’d become just comprehensible enough to look like a real star, too.
James Harden wasn’t a very good rookie, but the rest of the squad — Uncle Jeff Green, Nick Collison, Thabo Sefolosha — had some panache. Following the Thunder was simply fun. You knew this wasn’t their peak (they won 50 games, up from 23) but you saw that they would be trouble for the Western Conference. And they were.
Why can’t Minnesota see that in these Wolves? Why can’t the Wolves see it in themselves? Towns is 22 years old. So is Wiggins. Butler is 28. The Timberwolves have other good pieces both young and veteran. This is not their peak. If you watch and you set aside the annoyances and flaws of a young team trying to figure it out, you can see that the Wolves will be trouble for the Western Conference.
Even if Minnesota never wins 60 games or makes the West finals, even if the Wolves don’t win a title in this iteration, consider the alternatives. Consider the lows the Wolves have experienced over the past 13 years. Consider the Rubio-Flynn one-two punch with Steph Curry on the board, consider Wes Johnson over Boogie, consider the Al Jefferson era and the disappointing Love era. Consider Randy Wittman. Consider Kurt Rambis. Consider Darko Milicic.
After that, if there can’t be joy in this, some real soul-searching is required. We all have our own reasons to be fans and to stick with a team through the dark times. It just can’t be healthy to remain devoted to a lost cause only to stay frustrated when there is real, measurable light at the end of the tunnel. The Wolves are pretty darn good. Act like it! Enjoy it!
As the last good Timberwolves team reminds us, success today is not success promised tomorrow. You never know when a good team will fall apart and miss 13 straight postseasons. Just as Oliver Miller and Michael Olowokandi.
