Utah Jazz: 2017-18 Northwest Division Comparison – November

Minnesota Timberwolves

Current Record: 4-3

Standings: 1st in Division, 5th in Conference

If it weren’t for a head-scratching Rudy Gobert turnover late in the Utah Jazz’s loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in the two teams’ first meeting, it would be Utah that would be alone atop the standings in the Northwest Division. Nevertheless, instead via tiebreaker, it’s indeed the Wolves that find themselves at the top of the heap.

Oddly enough, the Wolves have been the opposite of the Oklahoma City Thunder as they’re undefeated against the Northwest Division and quite frankly have looked their best against divisional foes whereas they’ve been far from impressive in their other games. The Wolves eked out two wins over the Thunder and one against the Jazz, then lucked out in an overtime victory against the Miami Heat on Monday night.

Therefore, the Wolves have yet to log a dominating victory and, as crazy as it sounds to say it, had the ball bounced slightly differently in each of their four wins, the Timberwolves could very well be sitting at 0-7 right now. Now, that’s a bit dramatic as a sign of a good team is being able to close out tightly contested games, which was something Minnesota absolutely could not do last year, so they deserve credit for improving that this season. Nevertheless, the fact that each of their wins has been less than convincing is definitely concerning for them.

That is especially true when taking a look at their losses. The Timberwolves have lost some doozies as they were run out of their own building by the Indiana Pacers and handily defeated by the Detroit Pistons (who, once again, to their credit have looked pretty solid so far this season, too). Their other loss was a relatively close bout against the Kawhi Leonard-less San Antonio Spurs who started out the year hot, but haven’t looked all that great since.

In other words, as is the case about virtually every team at this point of the season, the Timberwolves have a lot to figure out. The biggest concern facing them is without a doubt their defense, which is currently at the bottom of the league in terms of defensive rating. A lot of that starts with effort and, quite frankly, as talented as both Andrew Wiggins and Karl-Anthony Towns are, they sure take a lot of possessions off on the less sexy end of the court.

Not only that, but even after some offseason improvements the Wolves’ bench isn’t much to write home about and I question how this team is truly going to come together.

Despite some early woes, I still struggle to pin them outside of the playoffs, but I do think that Minnesota has been vastly overhyped by many NBA analysts and with a dismal defense and what I consider an overall lack of discipline, I truly wouldn’t be all that surprised to see the T-Wolves finish outside of the postseason, despite what many have presumed. The next month should be very telling as to where they’ll ultimately end up in the West’s pecking order.