The Minnesota Timberwolves have arrived
As we pass the halfway point of the NBA season there have been a number of teams that have start to separate themselves. A lot of digital ink has been spilled talking about the Warriors and Celtics, who are both right now clearly the best teams in their respective conferences. The team that has grabbed my attention as of late has been the Minnesota Timberwolves, who after a slow start are beginning to set the league on fire.
The Wolves are currently on a five game winning streak, and have won 12 of their last 15. They are currently fourth in the Western Conference and are only a game back of the Spurs for the three seed.
Minnesota has been getting crazy numbers out of their young center, Karl-Anthony Towns to start 2018. In the month of January Towns is averaging 20 points, 14 rebounds and three assists per game, while shooting a scorching 58% from the field, and 48% from beyond the 3pt-line. Towns lends so much versatility to the Timberwolves offense, his presence in the high post is just as dangerous as it is on the block. Here he is chewing up the Knicks a couple nights ago:
For those who have been waiting for Jimmy Butler to start playing to his MVP caliber form from his Chicago years, just look at his last couple of months: in December Jimmy Buckets averaged 26.5 points, 5.5 rebounds and 5.3 assists a game. This month he’s taken his game to an even higher level, his splits for the month of January are .488/.500/.863 and he is +20.6 in plus/minus. You could make the argument that Butler is playing the best basketball of his career right now at the same time as Towns.
The defense is also starting to come together. While Minny is still in the lower half of the league in defensive rating they are now third in the league in total steals. They are taking advantage of their length and getting into passing lanes. The best version of this Minnesota team is when they are on the run fully utilizing their athletic wings, and getting Towns easy opportunities for trailing three’s or mismatches in the post in the transition game.
There’s a lot to like about having Tom Thibodeau coach a team of young, talented players. At the risk of sounding cliche, the foundation of a championship caliber team is having a healthy understanding of defensive concepts like help-and-recover and pick-and-roll coverages. These ideas are vital when it comes to keeping up with teams like the Warriors and Spurs. The Timberwolves still have a long way to go before they are putting up a stark challenge to the league’s elite offenses, but there are signs that they are starting to figure things out. They’ve held both Cleveland and Oklahoma City under 100 points during this winning streak, and have double-digit steal in four of their last five games.
It hasn’t all been glowing reviews when it comes to Coach Thibodeau this season.When the Timberwolves were beating the Trail Blazers by 20 points late in the fourth quarter last night, Thibs did the thing that has made him the scourge of smart hoops fans around the world: he continued to play his starters when the game was well in hand. This has been a problem, perhaps the problem with the overeager coach over the years. As good as he is at getting players to play hard, and learn good fundamentals, he is equally as bad at burning out his best players by playing them way too many minutes. Case-in-point would be the coaches use of Jimmy Butler, who Coach Thibodeau seems to think is a robot. Every year Butler has played for Thibs he has been among the top players in minutes played, and this year has been no exception.
When the Thibodeau was let go by Chicago the coach took some time off to reflect. During this time off he visited a number of different teams to get a feel for how they ran their organizations, and it appeared that when he got a job with the Wolves that he was a reformed man. Of course the he would still be a hardass when it came to the way his players practiced and played in games, but we would no longer see the guy grind his players into the ground. That’s why it drives me so crazy when he leaves his entire starting lineup out on the floor at the end of blowouts like last night.
It’s hard to say where the Timberwolves would be right now if they did not have Thibs on the sidelines, but still had Jimmy Butler in the lineup. There’s a good chance Butler does not end up in Minnesota without his old coach. It’s hard to argue against the success that the team is having of late, but they are still one major injury away from going back to the lottery. Finding the balance between being a consistent winner in the regular season, while keeping your best players fresh for the playoffs is a fine art. Right now the Wolves are still learning how to win, and it’s understandable that Coach Thibodeau is hesitant to take his foot off the gas when his team has a lead, but championships are not won in January. Let’s hope this team doesn’t run out of gas before the playoffs start, because right now they are a beauty to behold.
