No doubt, the Minnesota Timberwolves are now one of the most talented young teams in the NBA. Karl-Anthony Towns is the best young center in the game and a true franchise cornerstone. They added Jimmy Butler, an All-NBA player who is a force on both ends. They have Andrew Wiggins, who averaged 23.6 points per game last season and knows how to get buckets. Around them are solid role players such as Jeff Teague, Taj Gibson, Jamal Crawford, and Gorgui Dieng. They’ve got Tom Thibodeau as the coach, so we should expect their poor defense of a year ago to improve.
But do all those pieces fit together well?
It’s a fair question. Kevin Durant is on the Bill Simmons podcast that drops Monday and he had this to say about the new and improved Timberwolves:
“So let’s go down the line with that. Now Teague. Can’t really shoot that well but he can play. He need the ball though. And Jimmy. He can shoot it, but he need a rhythm so he need the ball, too. Wiggins: He the same way. He need the ball. They can all score. They all good, but somebody gotta give up something….
“I’m just saying somebody will have to give up something in their games in order for it to work, and I believe that they will. But Towns needs to be the guy that they get the ball to, I think, because he’s so good. Jimmy needs to be facilitating. Wiggins is going to be the guy [when] you need a basket; he’s going to be the finisher. I think. If I was coaching the team on 2K that’s how I would play it.”
Some are going to read this as “Durant hates the Timberwolves” but that’s not what he’s saying. Durant has learned the lesson in Golden State that to take that big step forward toward a ring the best players have to sacrifice parts of their game for the team. How is that going to work in Minnesota?
I’ll add this question — where’s the shooting going to come from? Statistically Wiggins, Butler, and Teague all shoot better than 35 percent from three (as did Towns), but none of them are catch-and-shoot floor spacers out there, all three prefer to drive and create first. All three you have to respect at the arc, but you’d rather have them shoot from deep then start to get to the rim and create. Wiggins reportedly has been working on his shot this summer, and he’s the guy who may have to alter his game the most and become more of a floor spacer. Still, in the end, I think Minnesota needs more shooting.
This is still a team that breaks into the playoffs for the first time in 13 years, and this is a team that in a few years could start to challenge Durant and his Warriors. But the questions are still out there for them to answer first.
