The Minnesota Timberwolves may have had a (very) rough season, going 16-66, good for the worst record in the NBA. However, the future is incredibly bright for this young team.
Despite their lack of success this season, T-Wolves fans have much more reason to celebrate than to despair. Now that they have the top pick in this year’s draft, they are poised to have the no. 1 drafted players from each of the past 3 years on their roster.
The Timberwolves already have some of the best young talent in the league, highlighted by “the bounce brothers:” Rookie of the Year Andrew Wiggins, who looks like he’s going to be an All-Star for years to come, and Dunk Contest champion Zach LaVine, who has drawn comparisons to Russell Westbrook. Other bright young talent in Minnesota includes Gorgui Dieng, Adreian Payne, Anthony Bennett, and Shabazz Muhammad.
This talented roster will be added to on draft day, when the Wolves select a top player in a draft that’s loaded with talent. The consensus is that Jahlil Okafor or Karl Anthony-Towns will be drafted first overall, and that isn’t likely to change. Other candidates include D’Angelo Russell and Emmanuel Mudiay.
Assuming that the Timberwolves draft either of the aforementioned big men, they will likely have found their center of the future. While Gorgui Dieng is an excellent young player at the center position, it would be hard to pass up Towns or Okafor, who both have extremely high ceilings.
The best part about this team is that they’re going to keep getting better at a rapid rate. You think Wiggins was impressive this season? He’s likely to be a superstar in 3 or 4 years. Zach LaVine? Right now he’s a walking highlight reel with the occasional hot shooting night, but he’s got unlimited potential. As the two continue to adjust to the NBA and become more consistent shooters, they’ll improve in a flash, and so will the team. This has already been seen in some of the Timberwolves’ other players. For example, Shabazz Muhammad looked subpar in his rookie year, not playing many minutes, and shooting just 27.3% from beyond the arc. However, this season he showed coach Flip Saunders that he deserved more minutes, and shot a scorching 39.2% from deep. Gorgui Dieng improved substantially as well, averaging almost a double-double this season with 9.7 points and 8.3 rebounds per game. Don’t be surprised if Wiggins, LaVine, and Payne undergo similar transformations(especially if KG stays to mentor them). The same will happen with whichever skillful rookie they acquire in the draft.
Minnesota fans have had to endure some hard times since the franchise was founded in 1989. The team has never won a championship, and outside of the Kevin Garnett era the fans have never had much reason be hopeful about the team’s future. That’s beginning to change. The Timberwolves’ nucleus of young and exciting players is giving fans a reason to watch games and believe in the future.
The West is a tough conference to find success in, but if Minnesota can convince their budding talent to buy in and stay with the team, they could find themselves in the playoffs sooner rather than later, and could even have a shot at the title.
