Minnesota Timberwolves
Current Record: 13-10
Standings: 2nd in Division, 5th in Conference
The Timberwolves have been a pretty confusing team this season, although I suppose as I mentioned when I kicked off this piece that the same could be said for pretty much all of these teams. They’ve had games where they’ve come away with impressive wins, but others where they have looked far from a force at all.
Last year some of their big problems included their lack of depth, struggles on defense and inability to close. They’ve added more talented players so naturally they’ve patched a lot of that up, but I think all three are still significant underlying issues. Minnesota’s scoring is pretty evenly distributed among its starters, but it takes a big drop when you go to the bench.
Not coincidentally, the same could be said about their minutes. Now, of course the starters are going to clock more minutes and get more playing time naturally – they’re the best players on the team. But the way Coach Thibodeau manages his minutes can be absolutely mind-boggling to me.
All of his starters are playing more than 30 minutes per game easily with Andrew Wiggins leading the way at 36.9. Meanwhile, the leading man off the bench, Tyus Jones, is only playing for 17.9. For comparison, the Jazz only have one player over 30 minutes in Rudy Gobert, and Rodney Hood who has largely come off the bench plays 28.3, Thabo Sefolosha plays 21 and Alec Burks plays 18.6.
The fact that Minnesota’s starters are getting so much run could very well explain all three of their issues. They’re too worn down to close out games or play defense throughout and their bench players don’t get enough time to assimilate thus explaining their lackluster depth.
Regardless of whether the Timberwolves resolve these issues or not, I’m pretty confident that they’re going to be a playoff team. However, if they hope to truly reach their full potential and be as good as they can be, they’ll need to improve in those areas that are costing them valuable wins. If they don’t they’ll only be a good, but not great team.