Minnesota Timberwolves: Where the franchise stands heading into the 2018 offseason
Analyzing the state of the Minnesota Timberwolves franchise heading into the 2018 NBA offseason
The Minnesota Timberwolves ended the longest active playoff drought in the NBA this season as they qualified as the 8 seed. The Timberwolves had missed the playoffs the previous 13 seasons and entered the final night of the season facing the Denver Nuggets.
The winner of that game would make playoffs while the loser would go home. Minnesota was able to defeat Denver in a tightly contested battle that went to overtime. With the win the Timberwolves finished 47-35 which was their best record since 2003-04 when they won 58 games.
The Timberwolves were led by a solid core of Jimmy Butler, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Andrew Wiggins. When healthy the Timberwolves featured one of the league’s most dominant lineups as the lineup of Butler-Gibson-Jones-Towns-Wiggins had a net rating of 23.4 (Off-118.3 Def-94.9).
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That lineup was the best in the NBA for lineups that played over 200 minutes during the regular season. A big reason why Minnesota wasn’t better than the 8 seed in the west was the injury to Jimmy Butler. Butler missed 17 games with torn meniscus and during those 17 games the Timberwolves went 8-9. Before the injury Minnesota was 36-26 and competing for a top 5 seed.
In the playoffs the Timberwolves were beaten by the top seed Houston Rockets 4-1. Houston offense was too much as the Rockets had a offensive rating of 116.9 and James Harden averaged 29.0 points while no Timberwolve averaged over 15.8.
Numbers:
Record: 47-35
Off Rtg: 113.4
Def Rtg: 111.1
Pace: 96.0
EFG%: .523
Net Rtg: 2.3
Starting 5:
Jimmy Butler: 22.2 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 4.9 APG
Karl-Anthony Towns: 21.3 PPG, 12.3 RPG, 2.4 APG
Jeff Teague: 14.2 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 7.0 APG
Andrew Wiggins: 17.7 PPG, 4.4 RPG, 2.0 APG
Taj Gibson: 12.2 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 1.2 APG
Record: 31-17 (Record when this lineup started)
Draft picks and free agency outlook:
The Timberwolves have the 20 and 48 picks in the upcoming NBA draft. The Timberwolves shouldn’t have any money to bring in major free agents but they could look to add a shooter or two that are on the cheap end. The Timberwolves could go guard in the draft and some names that have been mentioned are Anfernee Simons, Khyri Thomas, or Aaron Holiday.
Burning question: Can the Timberwolves become contenders?
Minnesota went from slowly building a contender to one that needs to become a contender immediately before their time runs out. Signing Butler, Gibson, and Teague to pair with Wiggins and Towns gives the Timberwolves hope but the team has little to no room to sign quality free agents which means they need to rely on their draft selection as well as potential cheap free agent options.
Should Wiggins finally take a significant step in improving then maybe the Timberwolves become a serious threat to Golden State but as it stands now it’s tough to see this team becoming a true contender before their core’s time runs out.
Must Read: NBA Rumors: Los Angeles Lakers open to moving young core for right offer
Outlook:
Minnesota finally ended its playoff drought and if they can keep their team healthy next season then maybe we see the Timberwolves become part of the Western Conference’s upper echelon. The Timberwolves have one of the league’s best offensive units but need to greatly improve on defense in the offseason.