NBA: Five Teams That Are Falling Short Of Expectations

Minnesota Timberwolves

Goal: Playoffs

In an interview over the summer with Spanish radio station Catalunya, Ricky Rubio talked about the teams up incoming goals for this season.

"[via 1500 ESPN.com] “When I arrived to Minnesota, my hope was to break the seven years’ streak without [a] presence in [the] playoffs,” Rubio said via a story that was posted on ESPN.com. “I still have that hope, but it’s very tough mentally when year after year that goal is not met. “Next season will be crucial for me. I’ve been in the NBA for five years, and six years without playoffs would be a long time. At 26, I’d have to start thinking about teams that can get to the playoffs and win in the Finals.”"

That seems like it might be playoffs or bust for the young Minnesota Timberwolves. They have a ton of talent on the team, but youth and inexperience has continued to hold them back.

Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns and Zach LaVine are all doing their parts in holding this team together. But besides them, the team doesn’t have anyone else they can consistently rely on.

Starting point guard Ricky Rubio is scoring just 6.1 points per game, while shooting a putrid 33.3 percent from the field and only 25 percent from deep. That’s not going to get this team many wins. And even with him sidelined, rookie point guard Kris Dunn hasn’t done any better, averaging only 4.0 points a game himself – shooting just 32.7 percent from the field.

That has continued to hurt the team, because Minnesota just isn’t getting enough production for its point guard position. I mean, between all three guards (Rubio, Dunn and Tyus Jones) they’re only scoring a combined 15.1 points per game. That’s unacceptable, especially when considering the talent all three of them possess.

If the team hopes to get this season back on track, they’re going to be counting on their point guards to produce. Now it just comes down to seeing if they’re up to the task.