Minnesota Timberwolves: Contenders or Pretenders?

The Minnesota Timberwolves made one of the most controversial offseason moves, trading a haul of draft capital and rotational pieces for the perennial Defensive Player of the Year, Rudy Gobert. I’ll be going over some key factors for their success this season and giving my overall outlook on the Timberwolves.

How Does Rudy Gobert Impact the Team?

By himself, Gobert consistently elevated a poor defensive Jazz team to a top ten defense through his generational rim protecting. With a Gobert-anchored defense surrounded by defensive specialists like Jaden McDaniels and Kyle Anderson, the Timberwolves should finish with a top five defense. The presence of Gobert will also pay dividends for Minnesota’s original star, Karl-Anthony Towns. With Gobert’s rim protection covering many of Towns defensive mistakes, KAT can exert more of his energy on offense, where he excels. On offense, Gobert adds an elite rim-rolling threat that should pair nicely with the playmaking of D’Angelo Russell in the pick-and-roll. The Russell-Gobert pick-and-roll as a supplement to the offensive superstardom of KAT and Anthony Edwards leads me to believe that the Timberwolves should also be one of the best offensive teams in the league.

An Anthony Edwards Breakout?

Anthony Edwards has been a budding star since the second half of his rookie season, and he may be the x-factor in the Timberwolves championship hunt. In his first two years, Ant has already proven why analysts were enamored by his potential and why the Timberwolves took him number one. Edwards has an incredible combination of scoring skill, measurements, and athleticism that makes me confident he will be leading this teams offense, whether next year or the year after. Going into his third year, the time where many talented guards make the superstar leap, Ant is expected to fully unlock his potential, putting all his valuable traits together and shedding off some of his inefficiencies and inconsistencies. Ant may have given the world a preview of next year in the Timberwolves first round series against Memphis, as he led the Timberwolves with 25.2 PPG, 4.2 RPG, and 3.0 APG on 46/40/82 splits wihle also playing lockdown defense on Ja Morant. If Ant takes a third year leap similar to the likes of Ja, another young athletic guard, he will become the leader and best player on the Timberwolves, an impressive feat considering that two perennial All-Stars are on the roster. An improved Anthony Edwards combined with the offensive brilliance of Karl-Anthony Towns may just be too much for opposing defenses to handle.

The Rest of the Team

Not much more needs to be said about Karl-Anthony Towns that isn’t already known. KAT is one of the best offensive players in the league, a 7-foot sniper who can create for himself and hit step-back threes. While KAT does struggle on defense, the addition of Gobert will take so much defensive burden off an offensive specialist like him. D’Angelo Russell is another core player for this Timberwolves team who will be one of the best tertiary creators in the NBA and should reap the benefits of Rudy Gobert in the pick-in-roll, and possibly could be running some old-school Clippers style horns sets with KAT and Gobert. Jaden McDaniels will also be key to this team, as the teams best point-of-attack defender who can legitimately defend 1-4. As for the bench, Minnesota has one of the better second units in the league. Naz Reid is one of the best backup bigs in the league and will provide productive minutes when Gobert is off the court. Kyle Anderson was a great offseason addition, and adds much needed perimeter defense to the team. Newly added Austin Rivers will also fulfill this need off the bench when needed. I’m hoping that more minutes will come for Jaylen Nowell and Jordan McLaughlin as well; both players are solid rotational pieces. And even with the questionable decisions he made these playoffs, I still believe Chris Finch is a great coach who will maximize his roster this upcoming season.

Outlook and Predictions

I’m very bullish on this Timberwolves team, especially compared to the average NBA fan. I believe they will be on the high end of 50 wins this year, even possibly getting the top seed in the difficult Western Conference. In the playoffs, I’m expecting the Timberwolves to fall short in the later rounds due to the battle-tested teams like the Warriors and Clippers having more experience. All in all, I think that Minnesota will have no regrets trading for Gobert and can expect to enjoy loads of success the next four or so years, as they have favorable team control over their new big three.