The Minnesota Timberwolves can’t get out of their own way

Despite talent, the Minnesota Timberwolves simply can’t turn the franchise around. 

The Minnesota Timberwolves are not who we thought they would be when they gave the basketball world hope of a youthful team ready to take the next step.

Through the first quarter of the 2020-21 NBA season, the Timberwolves are tied with the Detroit Pistons at 5-16 for the worst record in the league. This is the same Pistons organization who passed on Christian Wood to guarantee Mason Plumlee $24 million (they seriously had Wood in-house and said “yeah, no thanks”) and who pay Blake Griffin $36 million per season to score 12.4 points per game on 37 percent shooting from the field and to turn the ball over as many times as he does successfully make a free throw.

That was mean, but the point to be made is the fact that the Timberwolves, with all the first overall draft picks and talent they’ve had in recent years, are on the same level as an organization that is purposely and blatantly trying to lose games.

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What is wrong with the Minnesota Timberwolves?

What makes this Timberwolves team on the same competitive level as the Pistons? Most obviously has been the missing of perennial all-star big man Karl-Anthony Towns. Towns has only appeared in four games this season, where he averaged 22 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 2.8 blocks per game while shooting 46 percent from the field and 37 percent from 3. That is what Towns has consistently brought to the table his entire career.

After playing the first two games, Towns missed six games with a wrist injury, came back for two strong 25-point performances, and has missed every game since Jan. 13 because of health and safety protocols. Towns also revealed on social media that he was hospitalized after his vehicle was struck by a drunk driver before the start of the season.

And even with all of those struggles, Towns is still the franchise cornerstone when available.

Last season, the Timberwolves traded for guard and known close friend of Towns, D’Angelo Russell, who is averaging 19.9 points and 5.3 assists per game. At base value, that sounds great, but Russell is one of the main architects for the worst offense in the league at only a rating of 105.44.

Russell shoots 41 percent from the field and 37 percent from 3, but only attempts 3.4 free throws a game at an average of 74 percent. To put that into context, that means he turns the ball over more times a game than he does make a successful free throw. That isn’t what you want from the main creator of your offense.

Offensively, the Timberwolves are inefficient, which shows just in the play of Towns and Russell (I only mention Towns because you can’t be a big man and shoot below 50 percent), and even with guard Malik Beasley being one of the most improved players of the past two seasons by upping his scoring average by more than 13 points per game, he still only shoots 45 percent from the field and only attempts 2.6 free throws per game.

One of the biggest inefficiencies of this offense has been that of Anthony Edwards. Edwards was the first overall pick for the Timberwolves in the 2020 NBA draft and is one of the leading players for Rookie of the Year because of him averaging 13.6 points per game. He has moments where he is the most athletic player on the court, but that athleticism can only take him so far, as he only shoots 36 percent from the field, lacks the ability to consistently hit the outside shot, and get to the free throw line.

Sound familiar? (cue the Andrew Wiggins montage).

Now defensively is where the not-so-fun continues. The Timberwolves rank as the fifth-worst defense in the league with a rating of 114.21. This is where Russell, Beasley, and Edwards are officially hurting this team.

Defensive box plus/minus is a great advanced statistic that shows the true value a player has on the defensive end of the court. For qualified players, Edwards has the worst DBPM in the league at a -3.0, while Beasley is the ninth worst (-2.1) and Russell is the 12th worst (-1.9). This means they are significantly negative on that side of the court.

This has somewhat been a theme for the Timberwolves the past half-decade, as Jimmy Butler was the only lead player in that organization who put forth the effort to be a defensive stopper and try to develop that identity for the team. And once he did that, the entire team folded.

To be fair, Towns has improved his defensive game over the years and is now a reliable shot blocker. The problem isn’t with Towns on either end, but at what point does years of losing affect the player past the point of no return?

The Timberwolves started this decade drafting Wesley Johnson with the fourth overall pick instead of other wings like Gordan Hayward and Paul George. They then had the second overall pick and took Derrick Williams instead of future all-stars Kemba Walker, Klay Thompson, and Kawhi Leonard. In 2014 they traded Kevin Love for that draft’s number one overall pick, Andrew Wiggins, and drafted Zach Lavine with the 13th pick (who they then traded in a package for Jimmy Butler).

They then hit on Towns with the first pick in 2015, and from there had a promising young core with back-to-back Rookie of the Year awards. Since that time, the Timberwolves are 167-246 and have only made the playoffs once when they lost 4-1 to the Houston Rockets in 2018.

As the Timberwolves have taught us, it doesn’t matter how many draft lotteries you win, but what matters is the culture you surround those players with.